Video-Mediated Reflective Microteaching Workshop
Self-feedback and
Reflections
Lesson : Subject-Verb agreement
Level : Intermediate
Class
size : 08 (my own colleagues in the
department)
Supervisor
: Dr P Ramanujam, Director, ELTC
Mentor
: Mr. Ch.Nagarjuna
Observer
: Dr B. Nagaraju
The objectives of my micro teaching
v Students will be able to
understand the concept of subject – verb agreement:
v Learners will get ability
to identify the singular and plural subjects and common
errors in the sentences.
v Finally, Students will
use correct verb forms depending on the subject - singular or plural.
Introduction
Micro teaching is a
technique of teaching. It is used to enhance teaching skills among the
teachers. It was my second micro lesson. Initially, I am thankful to Dr
Ramanujam Sir for his suggestions and guidance. As part of micro
teaching I had chosen “Subject-Verb agreement” one of the
topics from grammar. Initially, I started my session by showing pictures
on the slide and asked my students to guess the pictures and try to make a
sentence. Once they revealed the topic, I explained to them what the subject
and verb was and then I moved on formula and structure. Finally, I gave them
handout with two exercises.
My Reflections on my
micro lesson:
Merits
§ This was my second microlesson. Compared to the earlier one, it was slightly better in terms of teaching effectiveness.
§ I was able to make the students guess the topic even before I announced it.
§ I believe that I maintained good rapport with the students and elicited responses from them.
§ I was able to help the students understand the topic clearly.
§ I maintained good body language throughout the lesson.
§ My voice was audible to all students for the entire duration of the class.
Mentor’s and Observer’s Feedback: Ch. Nagarjuna & Dr B NagaRaju
§ It was a good start. The teaching was natural and energetic.
§ Involved the students in the class effectively.
§
Showing pictures and asking students to guess
and speak in simple sentences was effective.
§
The PPT was systematically organized and clearly
legible.
§ Elicited answers from the students
effectively.
§
Helped the students identify what the topic
was about.
§
When students asked questions, I handled them
confidently without hesitation.
§ I was advised to reduce lengthy explanations and focus less on grammar rules.
My action plan
After thoroughly watching my recorded micro lesson and the feedback videos provided by the observer, mentor, and supervisor, I have decided to take the following steps to improve my teaching skills:
Ø I decided that I should be more meticulous in selecting topics, especially the students’ grade levels (elementary, secondary, undergraduate, etc.).
Ø I need to practice my lessons more frequently in order to avoid confusion and hesitation during teaching.
Ø While teaching, I should be more conscious in responding to the students.
Ø To make the class more effective, I need to increase student interaction
Ø I must improve my language accuracy and should speak without grammatical errors.
Ø I should avoid in using lengthy teaching on grammar rules and I need to redesign classroom activities.
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ReplyDeleteI have grown used to giving feedback. I provide feedback in a variety of academic contexts, and it also takes the form of conducting academic audits and evaluating faculty competence in universities. My feedback experiences have often made me reflect on how feedback should be provided, and how it should be varied depending on teaching contexts.
ReplyDeleteIn Indian academia, the cultural understanding of feedback often clashes with the Western "constructive criticism" model. In many Indian professional contexts, particularly in education, feedback is frequently conflated with either praise (to maintain harmony) or criticism (seen as a personal attack). This makes "nuanced" feedback difficult to navigate because the receiver may only be listening for either validation or "fault-finding". That reminds me of something else: in many academic situations, nuanced feedback doesn’t help because the points are often missed; this has to do with the intellectual ability of the teachers working in those situations. This forces the expert providing feedback to be explicit and even blunt. I believe in impactful feedback – feedback that is usable and that leads to improvement in performance. How to make this a practical proposition is always a question with no clear answer.
Well, the feedback you have listed in your blog post belongs to the “feedback as praise” category. Your colleagues said complimentary things about your microlesson, and you were pleased to record them. But, is it usable feedback? Will it be impactful? What is the pedagogical reasoning behind each piece of the feedback? How will you use it for improving your teaching?
These are questions you need to answer yourself. My own feedback is not listed in your blog post perhaps because it was not so complimentary. (When I visited your blog to read your SR, I happened to read your earlier SR also, shared in 2023. The feedback attributed to me is not typical of how I provide feedback; perhaps it was your version or misunderstanding of my feedback.)
But your Action Plan reflects some of the aspects of my unrecorded feedback–the last three points in particular. You sound humble and earnest in this section. I hope you are sincere about improving your teaching practice in all three areas.
A word about interaction. “I need to increase student interaction,” says your Action Plan. Merely increasing interaction of a mechanical kind (e.g. responding with pre-determined answers, repeating accurately, reading from PPT slides) that generates pseudo communication will not help. For genuine communication to take place, the following strategies are necessary: scaffolding, elicitation, activation of prior knowledge, concept checking, reformulation, and summarising. To use these strategies effectively, the teacher needs not only common sense and questioning strategies but also a good command of English.
Dr Ramanujam Parthasarathy
Director ǀ ELT Centre ǀ SRGEC
Dear Sir
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost, I would like to thank you for spending your valuable time to read my blog and providing detailed and insightful feedback.
So far, I believed that I was doing rightly with my classroom practice. But this workshop and your feedback has helped me realize and understand the areas where I need to improve.
I am sorry sir for I was unduly praising myself of my microlesson. But with your feedback now I understand that self-feedback must be meaningful, constructive, and useful for professional growth. Thank you so much sir for differentiating between praised feedback and meaningful feedback.
Your suggestions have shown me clear directions for improving my teaching skills. I will take your advice seriously and implement it in my classroom. I will focus on creating meaningful interaction and avoid pseudo communication. I will consciously apply strategies such as scaffolding, elicitation, reformulation, and summarising in my teaching.
I sincerely assure you that I would improve in the areas you have suggested me and develop both my teaching skills and command on English.
I also sincerely apologize for not including all your feedback in my blog. This was not intentional, and I will be more careful and responsible while documenting feedback in the future.
Thank you once again Sir for your valuable guidance and thorough encouragement for my professional growth.
Thank you, Sir.