Richard and Lockharts, guide to happiness

Part 3, Reflection questions to guide journal entries. The first lesson, third grade Elementary school

(1) I and my KET set out to teach the task, within the function of asking about the weather, in particular weather patterns (cloudy, rainy, snowy, sunny, hot, cold) (2) In teaching the lesson, I feel that the students were able to identify different weather patterns and, with my prompting, use the target language. (3, 4) When I initially elicit weather patterns I don't use and realia but myself. I was able to elicit all of the weather patterns. In the second part of the presentation stage (re: PPP methodology), I used flash cards. To which I stuck them onto the board. These were then used to elicit the TL as a freer practise stage. Throughout the elicitation/ introduction stage a certain amount of repetition/ modelling was used. I've only used repetition when necessary. The students were able to say the TL in the correct pronunciation. (5) The students were sat in their seat, in a typical aisle configuration. (6) In my opinion, the lesson was extensively teacher lead but with the provisos that it was to get feedback, and to model for the students correctly. An example of this is asking comprehension check questions about the video. These are to target their listening, and to get feedback on whether they understood what happened. (7) To this, the interactions were very student centered. (8) Though not in this class, the students wondered (in Korean) why  big sister didn't look before she stepped off the veranda. For them it was a question of logic rather than mirth. (9, 10) Teaching the third grade is exceedingly simple, with no variations from the plan in this lesson. (11) The kinds of on-the-spot decision making I use are that of error correction (finger modelling) and re-modelling for pronunciation. (12) I simply stuck to the lesson plan, with a successful lesson taught. (13) The main accoplishments from this lesson was the revision of weather patterns and the practising the task of function of asking and answering the question about the weather. (15) The parts of the lesson that I think were the least successful were perhaps the instruction giving. Their English comprehension is low, and trying to get an ICQ answer from them is difficult and potentially confuses things for them. (16) I will teach this lesson plan at least 3 time in a week. The more I've taught it, the more it had changed, though not in any major way. I note that the third class taught had more repetitive coralling in it to make it more enjoyable for the students. (17) I feel that my individual style of teaching was partially reflected today, in that getting the target language from the students was done, but in modelling and drilling the students, I don't particularly enjoy but see as a necessary evil. It's Elementary school after all, in a Korean school system that urges repetition and little individual thought. (18) I find it difficult to reflect on minor nuances of my teaching. Video is great to see what I can't. Mannerisms, loose bits of speech. (19) What I might change about my teaching style would be to give better and precise instructions.