The reflective and reflexive journal - Term Paper Example

This is essential in helping the students to understand what is being learnt. The teacher asked us to comment on his teaching on the above areas at the end of the session. I noted that he had fulfilled all the requirements except one; avoiding stacking. This involved reading three times; the first time we read headlines then scanned the text then read it in details. This made me to question Hading’s assertion that teachers should avoid stacking. I believe stacking is good as it made me understand the reading.

This corresponded with my own experience of learning. I learn well when the teacher is moving around the class since I am able to hear what he/she is saying. We also learnt about using of varied interaction patterns. According to Ur (1996), this involves group work, individual work, pairing, and questioning. In the class we worked in pairs to match items. This gave the teacher time to monitor and for us to interact. We also learnt how to build rapport in classroom and the importance of doing so.

Senior (2008) emphasizes the use of rapport for effective class management. This involves developing a respectful and trusting relationship with students so that they can be engaged and motivated. This entails knowing the names of students, reaching out to all students, noticing all that goes on in the class, and acknowledging students contributions. This changed my way of thinking as I always thought that making students to fear the teacher is the best way to make them work hard and respect you.

I also thought interacting with students would make the teacher lose respect. However, previous experience has proved to me that engaging with the teacher and building trust is essential since the teacher is able to understand me and am able to connect well with the teacher hence improved understanding. I can ask questions without fear and the teacher is very supportive in helping me to get answers. This session is closely related to the previous lesson on how to motivate and engage students to learn effectively.

References Harding da Rosa, J-M. (2012) ‘Managing your classes’ in English Teaching Professional, issue 82, pp 22-24 Senior, R. (2008) 'Developing Rapport' in English Teaching Professional, issue 54, pp 4-6. Ur, P. (1996) A Course in Language Teaching.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Motivation for me is the inner drive to achieve a desired goal. People are motivated by different things. For some, the desire to get a reward either financial or non financial drives them. For others, having a good environment is motivating while others are motivated by perceived equity and fairness in the classroom (Miner, 2007).

I remember when I was in high school we used to be given rewards for exemplary performance, this made me to put a lot of effort in my class work so as to get as may rewards as possible. Motivation leads to engagement which refers to commitment to an objective. This is supported by Thomas (2009, p.42) assertion that “engaged workers can self-manage, commit to a meaningful purpose, choose how best to accomplish the purpose, monitor their activities and make adjustments as needed.” Motivation and engagement have always been related to the work context but Williams (1999) and Harmer (2006) incorporate these terms into the learning environment.

For Williams, motivation determines the rate and