Module 5 Unit 4 Activity 3
Mentor Meeting
The two teachers that I chose to interview have been working with elementary and middle school students for over 10 years in South Korea mostly but one of the teachers has taught in Kuwait for a little while. They both see their students for 1 hour twice a week and the students are ELLs. After I interviewed them, I have realized that both teachers have very similar answers as they both have been mostly teaching abroad and in Korea. I chose to ask them the questions below:
1. Who do you have to submit your lesson plans to?
2. How often do you have to submit these lesson plans?
3. Does the school have a special format for you to follow or do you make your own?
4. How long before an actual class do you plan the lesson?
5. Do you prefer to plan lessons by whole chapters/units or by sections? Why?
6. Do you adhere strictly to your lesson plans?
7. Do you think having a formal written lesson plan helps for it to be a better class?
8. How do you differentiate in your class once the lesson plan is made?
9. How flexible are you with your lessons?
10. Do you reflect and make changes to your lesson plans after you teach a class?
Melodi Crowson was the first teacher I interviewed. She has been a teacher for over ten years and she has also taught abroad in Kuwait. Most of her teaching experience has been in South Korea in an ESL environment.
Overall she does not have to submit formal lesson plans to her superiors because in Korea often times, the superiors cannot really speak perfect English so even if she were to write a lesson plan, they wouldn’t understand everything that she was writing or explaining in it. She does make lesson plans for herself to keep for the coming year or even when the books change she realized that many of the books have similar topics and she has been able to re-use many of her previous lesson plans. She keeps them all labeled in a binder herself where she can refer back to them as she needs them.
She likes to make her lesson weekly as she finds that when she plans for a whole unit she has to go back and revise her work more as if she is in the middle of a unit and a lesson doesn’t work, she has to scrap that and start it from a different angle. This can then cause the rest of the plans she had for her future lessons to change so it is much easier to deal with lessons by the week.
She seems to write activities in details but her lesson plans are very loose because in an EFL environment, often times the levels vary enormously and even if the same book is taught one year to the same level the next year, the students might be very different from the previous year. She likes to keep her overall lesson plans very flexible and general but she makes her activity specific to a time frame. Because of the various levels, she doesn’t think that having a lesson plan changes how the class will be as it also very much depends on the students she might get for the year. This is another reason why she does not like to have a strict lesson plan made. This also helps her be prepared for a more differentiated instruction as she has different worksheets, activities for the same chapters as she has always had varying levels of students in one class.
At the end of each lesson she usually sees if the lesson worked and takes note of it. This helps her to re-evaluate what to do in the next class to see if she needs to scratch the lesson and come up with a brand new one or just change little things for the lesson to go smoother.
The second teacher I interviewed was Tristan Lange. He has been also teaching in South Korea for 10 years and she has taught various levels of students. He is currently teaching elementary school students and owns a private school here in South Korea. Similar to Melodi, he does not have to submit a lesson plan but he makes one anyways to help his lessons go smoother. Because he owns his own private school, he selects the topics that will be taught at the school and for this reason he has prefers to plan the whole unit ahead, and then before the week starts, plan the lesson more in detail having an idea already how his lesson will be taught.
He follows the same format that he devised for himself, which is very similar to the lesson plans we have been doing for this unit. It contains the time, materials, activity details and the objectives he has for the students. He definitely believes that having a lesson plan helps his classes run smoother and it is also a necessity as the owner of the school because often times the parents of the students who are about to enter his class want to see what the students are learning in class. This way he can show the parents the units and lessons that will be taught.
He differentiates in his class right from the beginning. When the students first enter, he will give each student a level test and then the student will be put in a class according to the level. As he is running a school and also teaching, he has to be very organized and lesson planning is a must for him.
When he is done teaching he will sit and review the lesson and also add notes to things he could have done differently, improved, or even things that went well in his class for future knowledge. As the owner of his school, he also makes sure that the other teachers that work for him have a lesson plan and they have a meeting every two weeks to discuss what will be taught. They also get together to collaborate and make new lesson plans together.
Overall, lesson planning is truly important in the role of a teacher as it promotes the class to be organized and the teacher can be familiar with what has been taught and what needs to be improved. Lesson plans are also very important to have in case one needs a substitute teacher. The lesson will be written down step by step for the substitute to follow. They are also a great way to make sure that the students have learned a considerable amount and that their learning adheres to standards from the school, city, state, and country. From interviewing both Melodi and Tristan I have learned that being flexible and always reviewing the lessons is key to improve as a teacher and have smoother and more flexible lessons.
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