Reflection on the observation of Jyoti Grewal from SAIT in the English Language Foundations class
Teacher: Jyoti Grewal
Date: June 08 1000 – 1200 MDT
Course: English Language Foundations
Lesson Type: Speaking Lesson Topic: Functions – Making Suggestions and Giving Reasons
Having the opportunity to watch Jyoti in her class gave me the opportunity to see how a class in CLB 5 is conducted at SAIT.
When we have international students in our class they come in with a CLB 8 level of English. The students I observed today in Jyoti’s class were Level 5. They started three weeks ago at level 4 when they came in to SAIT.
They currently have classes for 3 hours per day. Today I sat in on a 2-hour Speech Class.
I had a chance to talk to Jyoti after the class and asked her where she got her material from. She used sound bites, role play cards and worksheets. Apparently in 2014 SAIT restructured their whole program and now go to a task-based model of teaching English.
This model was evident throughout where students need to communicate with each other on a one on one or in a whole class scenario. The role play topic was very appropriate in that it related to co-workers and a specific situation of being invited to a social gathering. This could happen to many ESL students and understanding how to accept invitations and why they should consider going to the events even if they feel uncomfortable was explained.
What I found to be distracting (and this was because it was an online environment) was that Jyoti interjected during student’s speaking with quips such as uh huh, right, yes, etc. This stopped the students for just a moment and they needed to start up their conversation again. Avoiding sounds while students speak would be something I plan to pay attention to.
I appreciated having the opportunity to watch Jyoti and to see what SAIT instruction is like.
| Time | Activity | Comment |
| Jun 08 1000 MST | Warm Up Said good morning to each student as they came in to Started with an idiom and thought of the day “You can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first” “Let someone off the hook” | I found the idioms were a little more than the students understood, they could not explain it. Jyoti had to give examples to help students understand the idioms |
| Jun 08 1010 | Objective Functions: Making suggestions and giving reasons The topic was Weddings Showed pictures that students had to describe what was going on. For any new word she put the word is the chat box She would ask the question of “what is going on in the picture “ | Jyoti spoke a lot, very fast. It makes me think about the timeframe where students need to take more time to process the question and formulate the answer. The discussion of ‘giving reason’ was described more than ‘making suggestion. |
| Jun 08 1020 | Pre-task (in small groups) Wedding Rituals Three questions were asked What is a ritual What are some rituals in your home country? What are some Canadian rituals that you know? | After the groups came back the students shared with the whole group what they discussed in the smaller groups. With only six minutes I may have only focused on one of the questions. The conversation is slower as students were working hard to come up with the right words. |
| Jun 08 1040 MST | Activity Role play in pairs – the task is to convince to come to an event where one person does not want to. Role Cards were given to the students (12 min) Make a suggestion and give a reason After the role paly in pairs they students came back to the class and two shared in front of the whole group A good debrief of the activity with combined notes that were shared on screen so students were able to record the notes | I liked this activity. Jyoti keeps a list of students who shared in front of the class and each week she changes which students present Lots of good conversation. |
| June 08 1130 MST | Activity -Audio Listen for subordinating conjunctions – complex sentence Dependent clause +independent clause Because, even though, although, if, since, once, so that, as long as, unless…. Unless you take part, it will be really hard for you to fit in | |
| June 08 1140 MST | Homework Practice worksheet on subordinating conjunctions | 10 questions. She showed HW questions so that students can ask any vocabulary issues they may have. |
| 1150 | Class ends |