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In this unit, I viewed two videos that depict an inappropriate and an appropriate way of teaching a lesson. In the first video, the students are very confused and do not understand the language point because the teacher is teaching in a very inappropriate way. His attitude is very intimidating - he acts superior to the students, makes no effort to learn their names or engage them in anyway, and makes rude comments when they produce incorrect answers. His teaching style is very disorganized - most of the time he seems lost, pressed for time, and shuffling through papers looking for materials. He is ineffective at teaching the language point because his explanations are confusing and he gives no further explanations even though it is clear the students do not understand. He does not check comprehension or ask questions. He does not encourage conversation between students, rather he asks them to work alone and rushes them during the activity. He barely reviews the worksheet and offers no clear explanations to the answers. When it comes to the activate phase, the students clearly do not understand the activity and it seems as if the teacher does not understand it himself - clearly he is not prepared. He also centers the activity very much on himself rather than the students and not much learning, if any, is accomplished. At the end, he abruptly leaves and does not check to see if the students have understood the lesson or even thank them for their participation.
The second video depicts a much more appropriate lesson compared to the disaster of the first lesson. The teacher says hello to all the student,s introduces himself, and asks the name of each student in turn, making them feel welcome and comfortable. The teacher is very prepared and organized - he already has notes for the Engage phase written on the board before the lesson starts and all of his materials are handy. During the Study phase, he is extremely thorough and goes through multiple examples and engages the whole entire class in order to make sure they all understand the language point. When handing out the Study worksheet, he asks the students to work in pairs in order to encourage student interaction and gives them adequate time to complete the activity. He goes over the worksheet with the whole class and explains each and every answer. For the Activate phase, he is prepared with a really fun activity and completely explains it before beginning. The activity encourages class interaction and is a fair and equal game - the teacher does not call anyone "losers" like he does in the first lesson. Once the lesson is finished, the teacher makes sure the students have understood the lesson and thanks them for participating before saying goodbye.
These two examples are a good depiction of a good teacher and a bad teacher. It is obvious that when the teacher is more interested in the lesson, prepared, engages the students, and has a positive attitude, that the students will respond likewise and it is highly likely that the learning objective will be understood. In order to ensure comprehension, a teacher must be positive and engaging with his or her students.
