EPC 2403 Teaching Practicum 2a

Reflection 1
Overall aim and context of the lesson – (Brief description)

I prepared for my English lesson; telling a story, I read for them “Where’s My Teddy?” story, while
most of the students doesn’t understand the English language, I read it in English language first then I
translated it to them in Arabic language, page by page. My aim is to teach the students English
language. I’ll read for the students a story in English language to develop the language for them,
although most of the students do not understand English, I’ll keep translating it for them in Arabic so
they could understand the words in English and learn new words. The students will learn to understand
the story by listening and watching the pictures, and then they’ll be able to tell what they saw and
learned. I read the story for the students with sound effects first and I gave the students several
activities on it at the end. The students sat around me on the mat quietly. I printed the bear’s footprints
and stuck them on the floor, I asked the students to guess what animal is this then I played for them the
sound of the bear and asked them what animal do you think it is now? “It’s a bear!” they yelled. Then I
started reading for them the story; everyone was integrated and focused with me. While I was reading
the story, I had a “Once Upon a Time” box and I took out from inside it real objects of the characters,
and each time a new character will appear in the story, before the characters appears I give them time to
think, and I ask them what do you think will come now? Then I asked them to guess what you think I’ll
bring out from the bag. I believe it was more interesting for them this way and I attracted their
attention.
After reading the story, I had a memory card game for the students to play on the board. Then I
distributed a green smiley and a red sad face for them, then I started explaining the activities for them
one by one. I asked them to raise the smiley green face up if they do understand and the red sad face if
they don’t understand. The students were honest and whoever didn’t understand raised the red face for
me to re explain for them. For the activity time, I called each student according to their group color and
divided them into different activities. The activities I used during my lesson:
1- While reading the story I’ll bring “Once Upon a Time” bag, inside it I’ll have the characters, to
make my story more interesting I’ll bring out a character out of the bag each time a new
character appears in the story.
2- Memory cards game, the students will play the memory cards game on the board.
3- There will be a “maze” worksheet and the students will look for the right way to take the boy to
its teddy bear.
4- There will be 4 pieces that makes a picture of a boy holding his teddy bear and the students will
fix the right pieces together to make the right picture and glue it on a white paper.
5- The worksheet has three parts which are characters, setting, and the weather in the story. Each
section will have several pictures in it and the students will be able to distinguish the things
which were in the story and circle them.

Choose two aspects from the competency areas to evaluate and discuss (one paragraph each) according
to following:
 EPC 2403 Teaching Practicum 2a

Discuss one aspect that YOU feel you did very well. Try to analyze why you think it worked well about the
successful strategy/ resource/activity/management style etc.

When I was reading the story, everyone was sitting in a circle on the mat around me, they were all
integrated and focused with me. Especially when I introduced the story by asking them which animal
has those footprints and by playing for them the sound of the bear. Also, while I was reading for them
the story, I used the “Once Upon a Time” box to show them the characters.

I knew all the students by their names, well-modulated voice / appropriate and suitable tone and
intonation, I had an engaging starter, I have presented the LO and I have provided several activities.
Very good story telling technique; students had so much fun. I have demonstrated the ability to
animate, also I asked HOTS and meaningful questions to students during activity time.

I believe it was successful because everyone was sitting quietly and listening to me till I finished
reading the story, I was able to engage them and attract their attention till I finished reading the story.

Resources:
- “Where’s My Teddy?” book story
- The bear footprints and sound
- “Once Upon a Time” box with real objects of the characters in the story
- Flashcards (memory cards game)
- Worksheets activities (maze, puzzle, circling)
Discuss an aspect identified by YOU that requires attention. Discuss what the problem was, why it occurred
and what action you intend to take to be more successful in the next lesson.

When I started giving them instructions about the activities they’ll be doing, they started to lose
interest, focus and attention, because of the mistake I did which was that I spent a long time for the
discussion.

Before I proceed to the next page of the book, I’ll ask questions focusing on asking them of the next
possible scenes.
I’ll ask them questions such as:
 What do you think is the size of the bear?
 How will you react if you are the big bear?
 How big do you think is this bear? (Show/describe on the air)
 How do we sleep?
As these questions will keep the students engaged during the storytelling.

I would like to change the fact of having a group to finish the activities and the others playing in the
corners. I’ll try to make them all finish their activities on the mat at the same time.

Consider your classroom management?

Commendable classroom management strategy. I believe that I was able to manage it while I was
reading the story while I was able to attract everyone’s attention. I was able to manage them till I
 EPC 2403 Teaching Practicum 2a

finished reading, but since I started giving them instructions about the worksheets activities they started
to misbehave.

I’ll use the bell whenever they misbehave or get loud. I’ll use it to make them sit down on the mat
quietly. I also made a poster of the traffic lights with the students names in the green light and whoever
misbehaves will be moved to yellow, if they behaved well later I’ll return them back to the green, but if
they kept misbehaving I’ll move them to red were I’ll take them to the principal and whoever stays in
the green for a whole day will get rewarded.

Did you achieve your objectives? Did the children learn? How do you know this?

I believe that I accomplished my goal by achieving all the objectives which are:
• Understand the story
• List the things which were in the story
• Develop their listening skills
• Solve the worksheets
• Recognize the characters
The students learned because they were able to solve their worksheets by their own and they were all
interacting with me while I was reading the story for them. They all sat still and quietly listening. They
recognized the characters and listed the things which were in the story. Moreover, I distributed the
smiley and sad face for each student so they can raise the red sad face when they struggle in
understanding something, and they were honest, some raised the red sad face, so I repeated for them till
I made sure they all understood me.

Personal Focus for next Lesson:

Control the class

Share less objectives
Spend less time on the discussion part
Manage the way I give them activities
Keep them quiet
Manage the student’s behavior
Train them on the bell ringing and the traffic lights poster