Video Journal

Lesson

1. Class: 38 students of 2-6 in HSHS
2. Date: May 2nd, 2006
3. Textbook: Unicorn English II p/b BUNEIDO
4. Allotment: Part 2 and 3 of Lesson 6
5. Lesson Objectives

  • To get used to the participial construction without being.
  • To understand the nonrestrictive use of relative pronouns.

6. Teaching Objectives

  • The teacher will avoid unnecessary gestures.
  • The teacher will face up during the lesson.

7. Outline of the procedure

0:00-0:15 Sentence memorization test and marking
0:15-0:30 explanation on the entrance exam practice from the workbook
0:30-0:35 parallel readig with the teacher
0:35-0:40 Parallel reading of part 1, overlapping with the model reading
0:40-0:45 QA of part 1
0:45-0:50 Checking the new words of part 2 and 3
0:50-0:55 Answering questions from students
0:55-0:65 Understanding the content of part 2 and 3
0:65-0:70 Pair reading of part 2 and 3
0:70-0:85 Explanation on the sentence structures of part 2 and 3
0:85-0:90 Pair reading of part 2 and 3 with read and lookup

8. Post-class reflections

  • Actual time table

09:25-09:40 Sentence memorization test and marking
09:40-09:55 explanation on the entrance exam practice from the workbook
09:55-10:00 Pair reading
10:00-10:05 Parallel reading with the teacher
10:05-10:08 Speed buzz reading
10:08-10:10 Chorus reading of the vocabulary of part 1
10:10-10:12 Pair parallel reading of part 1
10:12-10:18 QA session about part 1
10:18-10:23 Answering the questions from students
10:23-10:35 Checking the meaning of the sentences in part 2 and 3 by recasting
10:35-10:40 Pair reading, parallel to the model reading of CD
10:40-10:55 Explanation on the sentence structures of part 2 and 3

  • Through the video ビデオを見て感じたこと
    • Too much fillers; あ〜、え〜
    • Quick delivery, some unnecessary comments are unintelligile. もごもごと、わけわからんこというな
    • Too much gesture: nodding to make myself feel confident, touching the head recklessly. DO NOT TOUCH MY HEAD.
    • Eyecontact: I tend to talk with the textbook. My eyecontact is largely downward.
    • Students seem bored during my explanation. All they have to do during my explanation is just to take some memos. There is no communicative activity.
    • Activities which make students move thier body do activate them. Just standing up in the class can make students wake up sharply.
    • Students were able to finish buzz reading much faster than I had expected, probably because they practiced reading twice; pair reading and parallel reading.
    • In QA session, I should have avoided explanation in Japanese.
    • In QA session, I should not have said, "Question NO..." because it sounds redundant. 説明するせいで流れがとまっている
    • In QA session, I still talked with the video.
    • In QA session, my pronunciation is unnatural, sounding like Japanese.
    • In QA session and the question time, students seems to be working actively. I feel that these are student-centered activities.
    • Pair reading with CD seemed challenging and exciting to students, because they can listen to the native sound and compare their English with that of native speakers, and because they are quite new to this method. It seemed they enjoyed this activity.
    • In the explanation session at the end of the class, students seemed relaxed, just taking notes that the teacher writes on the board. Still they seemd to be concentrating on listening to the teacher and taking notes.
    • The usage of blackboard is not good. 字が雑・汚い。字がななめ。板書計画があまい。
  • 全体的な感想：いろいろ活動を入れて生徒に飽きさせないようにしているつもりなのだが、９０分全体を見ると、英文の説明、音読、質問という３つをちょっと形を変えて繰り返しているだけのように見える。やはりマンネリ感が払拭できない。パターン化されたタスクをただやるのではなく、予測不可能なドキドキ感や意外性が欲しい。どうすればよいのか、考え中。