Task 4 – Reflective essay - Simulated teaching

The lesson plan we had chosen for simulated teaching was one of the Year 4 topics – Our
heroes. The focussed skill was writing skill. The lesson plan was about writing a complete
interview script of a sport personality. My group members were Ang Jia Heng, Kong Ming
Yien and I. Before the simulated teaching, I had no experience in teaching students, not to
say to prepare a whole lesson plan and deliver the lesson in the classroom. The process of
preparing the lesson plan, teaching and learning materials were very challenging to me.
However, it also opened my eyes and I felt like moving a step closer towards a life of a
teacher.

Looking back at our simulated teaching, one of the strengths that we identified was that the
activities were interesting and challenging enough for students to achieve the learning
objectives. The activities were also done in an interactive way in which I involved students in
the learning activities. They had fun and were fully responsive. Moreover, teaching and
learning materials were also fully utilized in the lesson. As for my personal strength, I
realised that I could deliver my instructions clearly and accurately to the students despite the
anxiety and fear of facing a group of students. I was satisfied with my performance when I
confidently delivered the input to the students which was introducing the simple steps of
interview session. They demonstrated their understanding by answering my questions
correctly.

From the experience of simulated teaching, I also found out that I was especially weak at
dealing with unexpected situations or problems in the classroom. For instance, during the
questioning session at the pre-writing stage, I stuttered several times and even paused for a
short period before I could response to my students. This was the result of me becoming
aware that l was confused with the sequence of the instructions. It took me a few beats to
regain my balance. Luckily, I could still manage the situation well and wrapped up the part
successfully before moving on to the next stage. This was probably due to the limited
teaching experience and skills. Thus, it would be better if I sequenced the instructions and
be more familiar to it to prevent any pauses that might affect the flow of the lesson. For
example, I should spend some time to rehearse the instructions before I entered the
classroom. Another challenge was the influence of mother tongue in our language when we
delivered the lesson. I found out that we were so used to Mandarin and it greatly affected the
fluency and accuracy of our English during the delivery of the lesson. In fact, we should
practise speaking English in our daily conversation and expose ourselves to English reading
materials to improve the language proficiency.
Overall, the simulated teaching was beyond my expectation. The lesson was very well-
paced and systematically presented. I even felt the enjoyment and triumphs of first starting
out in the classroom and I was enthusiastic about it. It was a very beneficial and growing
experience as I learnt more about how I currently teach, how I want to teach and how to
bridge the gap between the two.