Lesson Analysis: Language Learner Investigation - Report Example

Lesson Analysis (Student’s Name) (Institution) (Course) (Instructor) (Date) Lesson Analysis Description of Content and Students Students from various backgrounds require specialised approaches to teaching, imparting skills and acquisition of knowledge depending on the subject being taught(Tomlinson, 2009). I selected to teach a lesson in Grammar, Punctuation and Vocabulary, having considered that learning and teaching of grammar has potential difficulties for both the students and instructor in equal measure. However, with the right instructional strategies, the learning outcomes can be achieved with ease. Grammar, punctuation and vocabulary were the content chosen for the lesson. Consequently, the students were required to be familiar with a number of concepts;first, they need to appreciate that the content in writing can be used to developmeaningful sentences and paragraphs. Additionally, the students need to know that the appropriate use of vocabulary adds purpose to thewriting, paragraphs are used to condense ideas and basic links can be made between ideas by using a compound sentence with two or more clauses co-ordinating conjunctions. Finally, the learners need to be familiar with the differences in nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs(Doughty & Williams, 1998). Learning is a process that is directly influenced by the learners’ attitude towards the selected teaching content. A negative attitude subsequently yields a lower rate of learning and is thus discouraged. For the learners to have successful learning experiences, it is imperative that they have a positive outlook towards the lesson. In this case, the students believe that grammar, punctuation and vocabulary play an important role in the development of cohesive, creative and informative texts. Moreover, they recognise the use of proper vocabulary to express and describe emotions and experiences when writing(Doughty & Williams, 1998). Aside from the learners’ attitudes, other factors that determine their success should be considered. I identified the various skills that are a prerequisite to the learning of the selected content. Key among them is the ability to use subject-verb and noun-pronoun agreement when writing(Ivanic, 2004). The students should also be in a position to construct sentences appropriately using grammatical rules and proper punctuation. Learning requires that the students set achievable goals for themselves regarding the content being taught. The lesson material dictates that the learners be driven by the desire to formulate sentences which abide by the grammatical rules, appropriate and distinctive vocabulary plus proper punctuation. In order to achieve these goals, the learners are required to participate in extensive practice sessions, and develop an understanding of the various rules of grammar(Tomlinson, 2009). Apart from practice, the learners should also constantly review material covered during the lessons and seek assistance if the need arises. The purpose of this is to ensure that they can identify mistakes in their writing and be better placed to make the appropriate corrections in future. My students consisted of a group of eight learners, generally sharing the same backgrounds and learning prospects. However, two of them particularly stood out from the group. One of them learnt English as a second language, and his proficiency was not at par with the other students. Students who spoke English as their native language demonstrated quick acquisition of skills related to grammar, punctuation and vocabulary compared to the single L2 speaker(Oxford, 1989). Learning the content elicited keen interest from them and it was apparent that due to their background, most of the material to be covered was already familiar to them. The second student that I considered an exceptional participant in my lessons was of African descent and even though she had commendable command of the English language, her specific learning needs were bound to be different compared to the rest of the learners’. Pre-Assessing and Lesson Planning Discovery of the students’ prior knowledge related to grammar, vocabulary and punctuation is critical to the progression of the lessons so as to provide the learners with a means to incrementally build on what they already know. Conducting a pre-assessment provides an efficient way to acquire this information(Gannon, 2007). Part of the pre-assessment included instructing the students to write a brief description about global warming, with emphasis on the appropriateness of the material and its presentation appeal. This specific type of pre-assessment allows the instructor to gauge the level of awareness among the students pertaining to matters of international concern. Being a descriptive writing exercise, their use of correct sentence structuring, relevant terms and proper punctuation would reveal their understanding of the topic, rules of grammar and extent of their critical thinking capabilities(Dana, 2009). Most of the students demonstrated considerable grasp of global warming related issues. More so, it was done clearly and accurately presented in ways that provided a vivid description of the topic. Even though the L2 English speaking student managed to convey relevant information about the topic, the presentation was lacking in correctness of grammar and plagued by limited vocabulary use. From my analysis, it was evident that the students were in a position to identify with global concerns carrying social, political and scientific implications(Doughty & Williams, 1998). The grasp of grammar and punctuation concepts was however an issue that affected a handful of the students, conspicuously hindering the writing of the student speaking English as a secondary language. The data collected from the pre-assessment was instrumental in the formulation of the instructional planning. Different needs of individual students were identified and catering for them in the most practical of ways was of importance. Learning outcomes of the instructional plan relied heavily on the students’ current level of understanding grammar, punctuation and vocabulary use. Building upon the varied and unique requirements from each student, I adopted several strategies for use in differentiating instruction. It was apparent that having a limited vocabulary, the L2 student would stand to gain traction in the progress of the lesson by being primarily grouped with the students demonstrating excellent vocabulary use. Additionally, I set aside different homework assignments for the district groups of learners. Students displaying critical knowledge in grammatical rules were best suited for activities that encourage the development of their creativity while at the same time improving on their vocabulary(Dana, 2009). Differentiating the activities each student was designated to participate in serves to develop their individual areas of weakness without necessarily overloading them with content that may not be beneficial to their learning. Scaffolding instruction is effective in boosting the learners’ ability to develop on prior knowledge and understand new concepts brought forward. Initially the instructor’s role is to introduce ideas and learning objectives to the students, progressively leading them to a point where they work on their own to understand the content provided. I specified material that I would explicitly demonstrate to the learners as a way of providing a foundation for them to work on related content on their own(Tomlinson, 2009). Determination of cross-disciplinary skills was primarily done through pre-assessments done, focussing extensively on material related to global awareness as well as literacy. The students were required to write material on a range of topics demonstrating their skills in grammar use aside from their familiarity with the topic provided. The lesson planning was designed in such a way as to engage all the students in equal measure through individual evaluation and instruction, use of relevant material and provision of content that all students could relate to(Doughty & Williams, 1998). Implementing Lesson, Analysing Student Work/Formative Data, and Adjusting Instruction One of the most dominant formative-assessment tests is the white board. From the results of the assessment, students generally displayed satisfactory grasp of content even though a few incidences of negative responses were present(Howard). A large number of the student fared relatively well with the use of instructional differentiation as opposed to scaffolding. For instance while demonstrating the appropriate use of modal verbs, a number of the students admitted to being unable to understand the content.This response was anticipated based on the students’ progress in the particular lesson. Learning being a continuous process, the failure by the students to build on and review what was covered in previous sessions may be attributed to the results of the formative-assessment. The formative-assessment’s results serve to enhance the benefits to the learning students as they become aware of their areas of weakness and the possible reasons behind them(Gannon, 2007). Even though a number of students did not meet the desired expectations in the formative-assessment, I emphasized on the need to review content previously covered in order to be in a better position to understand new material being taught. Keeping the interest of the students exhibiting dismal performance proved to be quite a challenge, however encouraging them to maintain their learning progress regardless of their results proved to be beneficial(Howard). Being a non-native English speaker, one of the students had a particularly had time catching up with the other students and I advised him to participate in groups and interact with the native speakers to gain more knowledge on the course content. Formative assessment provides the teachers with a convenient and effective way to gauge the progress of learning and adjust the students’ learning if the need arises. This occurs in diverse situations and generally over a considerable amount of time. Instructors use the outcome of formative assessments to determine the individual needs of the students and make decisions on the specific content that need to be taught to them. In light of this, it is apparent that formative assessments’ point out to instructors the methods that work and what is likely to fail when applied in particular learning contexts(Dana, 2009). As a result the instructors are able to design meaningful learning experiences and efficiently monitor the progress of the learning. Post-Assessment, Data Analysis, and Reflection on FE2 Project The post-assessment was designed to resemble the pre-assessment so as to bring out the various areas that students successfully learnt while at the same time highlighting areas that were not properly understood. Compared to the pre-assessment results, the post-assessment results revealed considerable gains in terms of students understanding of grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. For the whole class in general, use of descriptive words to create vivid illustrations from a wide array of topics demonstrated their grasp on the concepts covered throughout the learning. However, the special exceptional groups in the class still had difficulties in some of the areas covered during the lessons. Notably, the L2 learner displayed a lack of the ability to use a variety of different words while composing texts. He was hindered by his minimal exposure to extensive vocabulary as well as the limited amount of practice time(Oxford, 1989).Overall, the other relevant areas of the lessons covering content related to grammar and punctuation were satisfactorily learnt by the students as demonstrated by their presentations in the post-assessment. Moreover, the post-assessment revealed the emergence of new misconceptions that the students did not have prior to learning. They seemed to overwhelmingly support the idea that successful learning of grammar, punctuation and vocabulary would be increasingly difficult if not impossible for students speaking English as a foreign language. As an instructor, the ability to identify specific needs of learners is a valuable asset, acquired through continuously conducting formative assessments learners and being in a position to decide on the best approaches that would yield positive results for the learners. Involving the families of the students in discussing the various formative assessments served to further provide the most appropriate conditions for learning suitable to the specific learners. This provided an opportunity to interact with concerned parties outside the classroom, leading to better relationships and professionalism. Additionally, engaging students equally regardless of background or status served to promote fairness and equal learning opportunities for all. Special interest groups were afforded the necessary resources to enhance their learning and boost their performance(Doughty &Williams, 1998). In a nutshell, the experience was worthwhile and I would adopt the same teaching strategies if I were to engage in this type of teaching again. References Dana, N. F.-H. (2009). The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research: Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner inquiry (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Doughty, C., & Williams, J. (1998). Focus on Form in Classroom Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gannon, S. a. (2007). Whole language and Moral Panic in Australia. International Journal of Progressive Education, 30-51. Howard, K. (n.d.). Universal design for learning: meeting the needs of all students. Learning and leading with Technology, 26-28. Ivanic, R. (2004). Discourses of Writing and Learning to Write. Literacy Research Centre, Department of Linguistics and Modern English. Oxford, R. &. (1989). Research on Language Learning Strategies: Methods, Findings and Instructional Issues. The Modern Language Journal, 73/4, 27-45. Tomlinson, C. (2009). Learning profiles and achievement. School Administrator. 66(2). Walden University Library, 28-33. Read More