Task:

You are required to record a 30-minute teaching session and then write a reflection of approximately 1,000 words. Finally, you self-evaluate your teaching

performance and get your work evaluated by your peers based on the given criteria. Specific feedback on your own teaching and peer feedback are also

necessarily provided. This final project will be submitted together with the recording file.

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A- Description of the teaching session

● Course: Intensive English – IELTS course

● Content: IELTS body structure of advantages and disadvantages essay - topic: health

● Skill: writing skill

● No. of students: 8

● Level of proficiency: Intermediate

★ Link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1irFbr9KwPwYKq-ZrJsuezdABAl-qhBdp/view?
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B – The teaching procedure

Stage Teacher’s activities Students' activities Aim(s)

Lead-in - Present lead-in question and ask - Brainstorm, discuss the question and - To engage students with the topic

students to come up with ideas give answers of the lesson

- Engage students’ speaking ability

Pre-writing - Present question and ask students to - Brainstorm, discuss ideas in groups - To familiarize and recall students’

discuss ideas in groups of 4

and share to the whole class previous knowledge on the topic

of health

- To equip students with suggested

ideas to do the writing task

- Engage students’ speaking ability

- Present some useful vocabulary on - Clarify new word’s meaning and take - To equip students with enough

topic of health note vocabulary and some suggested

ideas to do the writing task

While-writing

Drafting - Assign the writing topic and provide - Discuss, plan and produce first writing - To allow students an opportunity

writing requirements draft in pairs, following the writing to practice their writing skills,

- Assign pair work requirements following the writing requirements

 - Monitor the pairs closely, support and - Self- evaluate writing errors

give them new vocabulary or

suggestions when needed

Peer- evaluation - Require students to do peer-review in - Evaluate other pair’s writing - To equip students with skills to

pairs, following required structure paragraph for errors, following self-reflect

and other criteria required structure and other criteria - To allow students an opportunity

- Monitor the pairs closely, and give and give suggestion if needed to give constructive feedback and

support when needed to learn from other

Teacher evaluation - Ask students to review their own - Review other pair’s feedback - To equip students with skills to

- writing paragraph using their friends’ - Revise their own writing to make any evaluate other’s feedback

Reviewing and feedback correction if needed

editing
- Evaluate student’s writing paragraph - Review teacher’s feedback - To equip students with skills to

- Produce the final writing evaluate other’s feedback

Post-writing - Present the writing sample, following - Analyze the writing sample - To implicitly introduce the main

the required structure and ask lesson

students to analyze

- Present the main lesson - Take note and ask questions related to - To reinforce the structure used in

the lesson their writing

Follow-up activity - Summarize the lesson and assign - Take note and ask questions related to - To consolidate students’

students homework homework knowledge on the lesson

C – Reflection on the teaching session

Introduction

My Bachelor’s degree was not in English Teaching, but in Business English. I have been teaching English since I was a freshman, mostly working with students

on English grammar. On my personal judgement, although some of my students scored well in standardized testing, my teaching was mainly based on my

personal experience as an English learner, rather than any teaching methodology, approaches and techniques. When I have worked for a university where the

course objective is put on the use of four English skills, the arbitrary teaching style I had used before does not bring high efficiency, especially in writing skills.

Given the opportunity to make writing class, I have a valuable chance to put the theory I have learnt in the course of Advanced methodology for language teaching
in practice to gain many hands-on experiences and to self-assess my teaching. Furthermore, some ineluctable limitations will also be discussed in this reflection

for further direction in the future.

The Design of Teaching Session

Setting and Participants

This writing class is at unit 2 among 8 units in an 8-week course designed for students who are non-English major first-year students at the Saigon International

School of Business (SaigonIsb) – Ho Chi Minh University of Banking (HUB). The coursebook used is Mindset for IELTS-level 3 by Archer and Wijayatilake

(2018) targeted the IELTS band score of 7.5. Class size is eight in total and the student’s language proficiency is estimated at B2 according to Common European

Framework for Reference (CEFL). Additionally, these students had completed a prerequisite course using the coursebook Mindset for IELTS- level 2 (Archer &

Passmore, 2017) for 10 weeks and passed a final test. Therefore, not only have they had much exposure with English, but they have also acquired general

understanding about the IELTS writing format and requirements.

Framework for Teaching

This class is designed to follow the process-oriented approach, namely pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing divided into six stages including : (1)

brainstorming and discussing, (2) drafting, (3) peer reviewing, (4) revising and reviewing, (5) editing, and (6) final draft (Brown & Lee, 2015; Nunan, 2015 ; Thao,

2022). It also aims to apply six categories in Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956) (i.e., Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation) to

help students implicitly understand an IELTS task 2 body structure to apply and develop paragraph discussing advantages and disadvantages, and to help them

build certain useful vocabulary on topic health. The lesson’s objective is aligned with the overall course objectives, which is to equip students with adequate

knowledge and skills to sit for an actual IELTS exam. Therefore, more emphasis was put on both content knowledge and the focused skill, namely writing

integrated with a sub-skill, namely speaking while simultaneously, building the student’s confidence through collaboration, and their positive attitude toward their

English learning.

Reflection

Strong Points

Previously, I often let students work individually, due to personal belief that writing is solitary learning, and group or pair work is not an effective technique for

teaching writing. However, my pre-conceived notion of this productive skill paled when the bulk of my lesson was devoted to collaborative learning. From my

observation, during the discussion activity, not only was the information gap promoted (i.e., they excitedly in the pursuit of exchanging interesting opinions with

their groupmates), but they also gained more confidence in using their language to express their viewpoints. The pre-writing stage, therefore, is absolutely

essential for them to recall their prior knowledge, or among underachievers, to build enough vocabulary for their upcoming writing task.
Although some of them reported that they initially suffered discomfiture when they started writing, they still produced a more creative writing work with a better

use of language in terms of requirement satisfaction, high precision of grammar use, and a wide range of vocabulary with an appropriate word choice, despite

some occasional errors in coherence and cohesion. In this stage, I applied the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978) into the task where they received

support from their more knowledgeable peers and scaffold from me when needed. It can be concluded that collaboration eased the heavy demand of language

vocabulary, which is in line with seven characteristics of writing process by Brown and Lee (2015); as a result, alleviating their pressure from strong mental work

as in personalized learning. My aim for the group and pair works is also to build their feeling of belonging. In other words, they are not merely individuals, but a

part of my class where their learning experiences are valued by teachers and classmates.

It is worth mentioning another good point in my demonstration that the lesson content was clearly articulated from the beginning, so students knew the purpose of

the lesson. Peer-reviewing, an effective writing-focused technique to help them self-reflect, was implemented with the assistance of technology (i.e., Google

Docs) where all writing products were shown online, allowing students an opportunity to view all writing productions. Many reactions with emoji or detailed

evaluation were added directly on the writing paragraph before they did their own revising.

Limitations and Future Direction

However, despite careful lesson planning, I still encountered some impediments, which were also pointed out during a short conversation with my students when

the class finished. They reported that they were in a hurry to assess their friend’s writing, and to self-evaluate using peer and teacher’s feedback, suggesting that

more time should be provided for these stages in the next writing class.

The following limitations are from my personal evaluation. Firstly, the core lesson objective would be clarified, and their understanding would be strengthened if

the student’s writing had been utilized in the analysis stage, rather than my own writing sample. Secondly, it would also be better if multi-media lead-in had been

applied to elicit their interest at the beginning of the lesson (e.g., presented pictures and had them guess the topic of the lesson), instead of question lead-in.

Thirdly, technological problems did unpredictably occur when the alarm set in the power point file did not work, while the teaching file was on display despite my

careful check before class, suggesting that this tool should be displayed separately. Finally, in terms of seating arrangements, I could not monitor group 2’s writing

in the while-writing stage due to lack of space; group pods or semicircle, therefore, would be more suitable.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the in-depth pedagogical knowledge that I have acquired is extremely beneficial for me to stimulate my student’s confidence, engagement, and

overall writing performance. Most importantly, the more I work as a facilitator, the more learner autonomy is encouraged, reaching the desirable educational goal.
D – Evaluation

Criteria Self-evaluation Peer evaluation

Class preparation 4 5

Class introduction and goals for the session 5 5

Clarity of contents and structure 5 5

Class contents linked to professional world and future opportunities for students 5 5

Class contents linked to other courses of the program 5 5

Clarity of explanations and communication skills of instructor 4 5

Incorporation of active learning approaches: case studies, experiential learning, etc. 3 4

Ability to create an inspiring learning atmosphere for students 5 5

Ability to engage students and facilitate their participation 5 5

Ability to make students interact between themselves and work in teams 5 5

Ability to create a positive attitude and response of students 5 5

Feedback to students during class 4 4

Variety of learning resources utilized 4 4

Use of technology tools to enhance student engagement 5 5

Overall 4.6/5 4.8/5

Note: 1-very poor 2-poor 3-fair 4-good 5-Excellent

E – Feedback

My feedback Peer feedback

Ms. Tran Thi Minh Anh

Student’s code: 2291401112003

Major strengths

After self-assess my own teaching demonstrate, I have identified five major The way she conducted the class with a smile created a relaxing atmosphere

strengths, listed as following: for the students so that they could engage themselves in the lesson. Writing

Firstly, a lesson plan had been carefully well-designed to satisfy three lessons are mostly considered tedious by many students; thus, teaching it can

domains, including: knowledge, skills and attitude. Hence, many predictable be a daunting task, but with well-prepared activities, I believe Ms. Le did a

classroom problems could be prevented. great job in making the lesson more interesting, helping students actively

Secondly, creativity was utilized when I designed the lesson with the help from participate, and most importantly, obtaining the lesson’s objectives. Another

technology tool to facilitate their writing process. good point is that she did manage the class well so that the class could finish

Thirdly, attentive listening to students while they were sharing promotes their
feeling of being valued and respected, resulting in a close rapport between me in a timely manner. Her instructions were clear and easily understandable.

and them.

Fourthly, understanding the current language proficiency of each student, I

grouped students with different levels in different groups and pairs with two

main purposes: (1) to promote peer-to-peer teaching, (2) to encourage

interactive learning atmosphere.

Finally, I displayed many body languages (i.e., gesture, facial expression, head

nods, and eye contact, etc.) while teaching to create a strong communication

synergy.

Suggestions for improvement

I believe that for a better teaching class, I should deliver the lesson confidently However, I do have some suggestions as follows.

in a clearer and strong voice with more intonation. More approaches such as First, when listening to the students presenting some ideas for the prompt, I

experiential learning should be utilized in order to make class more engaging. guess it would be better if she could take notes of some important keywords

Flipped classroom where students are asked to prepare their writing at home on the board so that the students can make use of those ideas along with her

can be conducted to bring better learning outcome. Their work then can be given keywords for their writing. By doing this, I think they would make

used to analyze at the beginning of the class so they can comprehend the the activities more meaningful, and the other team would have a chance to

IELTS body structure before another writing applying the lesson learned is view their peers’ ideas.

produced. Also, due to the time pressure, in some writing stages - peer editing and re-

vising - students were given quite little time to do and at the final stage,

which is the final draft, she could probably choose a piece of writing to give

some feedback directly in the class or explicitly point out some common

mistakes that students made.

Finally, the sample analysis should have taken place before the writing

section.
F – References

Archer, G., & Wijayatilake, C. (2018). Mindset for IELTS: An Official Cambridge IELTS Course. Student's Book. Level 3. Cambridge University Press.

Archer, G., & Passmore, L. (2017). Mindset for IELTS: An Official Cambridge IELTS Course. Student's Book. Level 2. Cambridge University Press.

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Cognitive domain. Taxonomy of educational objectives. In Handbook (Vol. 1). David McKay New York NY.

Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching principles. P. Ed Australia.

Nunan, D. (2015). Teaching English to speakers of other languages: An introduction. Routledge.

Thao, T. Q. (2022). Kỹ Thuật Giảng Dạy Tiếng Anh. Nhà xuất bản Đại học Quốc Gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: Development of higher psychological processes. Harvard university press.