Finally, my last lesson for my practicum teaching. The second hour was on reading and summarizing a journal.The students were to skim through, annotate and summarize an article on “the Zoo Inside You.”

Since it was my last day, I took some time to give acknowledgement and showed my gratitude to the students for their acceptance and hard work and I also gave them some words of encouragement and motivation in their continuous journey in learning English as their Second.

I introduced the journal by talking about the human body and how the journal describes it. I put students in pairs and gave out the journal to the students to skim through and annotate. After 15 minutes, I put students into groups to discuss new words, and what surprised them most about the journal.

Individually, I asked students to write a summary of the journal with their words with which we discussed and then we play a vocabulary activity with the new words in the journal and that was the highlight of the lesson. The students were participative and they had fun trying to find meanings and forming sentences with the new words in the journal.

To end the lesson I gave out cards to students to write what they liked or what they wanted me to improve on in my future classes. I was surprised the students really liked my class environment, my accent and also how comfortable I make them during lessons, which i never thought was the case.

The practicum teaching has been an experience, from deconstructing from the Ghanaian way of teaching, the nervousness through to the end. I have really learnt a lot from my sponsor and practicum teachers and I feel more confident now to use all my experiences to be a great ESL teacher in future.

On the 17th of July, I taught my final lessons, that is lesson 9 and lesson 10. The first hour, lesson 9 was on Colors, students were to read an article on the nature of colors and be able to analyze the article and answer comprehension questions on the article.

I introduced the article by showing a short video presentation on the power of colors. I later asked students about their favorite colors and the meaning in their culture or culture. The class also discussed the content of the video that was surprising and it was surprising how colors have different meaning in different countries.

After discussion, I put students in pairs to read the article and annotated the paragraph. The students later discussed the article in groups on what surprised them in the article and what new facts they learnt from the article.

Individually, I asked students to answer the comprehension questions on the article and afterwards, we discussed the answers to the questions. And as an exit ticket, we played a ‘would you rather game with colors. The students were excited and participated fully in the activity.

My practicum teacher advised I teach a particular reading skill during the reading time and not just make students read and also during video presentations the students should be tasked on a particular exercise so that they can pay attention to the few videos. I look forward to working on that in my next lesson.

On the 12^th of July, I had my 8^th practicum lesson which was on the continuation of WH questions words. The students were to use the various WH questions words to form questions on recipes and provide answers on WH question words worksheet.

I briefly debriefed on the previous lesson as a reminder to the students. Since the reading material was on recipes, I used WH questions words to ask the students about their favorite foods and how’s it made. Since food is a universal language, all the students participated fully and were excited.

I gave students the recipe magazine to read and underline all WH questions words and form 3 questions each with them. I also gave the students WH questions words worksheets to discuss in pairs and answer them. 

The lessons had no activities, but the discussion on student’s favorite meal and they are prepared was the highlight of the class. Shy students who usually don’t contribute in class all contributed fully and they were excited.

For my 7^th practicum lesson which happened on the 5^th of July, 2023, I was to introduce WH question words, teach the students how to use them and guide them to form questions on each WH question word and later scan through a Canadian newspaper for  WH questions.

The lesson started on time with two students absent. Since the weekend before was Canada day, I asked students what they did for the holiday and how they  celebrated the holiday as a form of warm up for the class. Then, I introduced the WH question words to the students, wrote the words and how the various WH questions words are used on board for clarity and I explained them with vivid examples to the students. Afterwards, to check if students got the understanding, I put the students in pairs to play an activity. I noticed the students liked answering questions in a form of activities and that inspired me to always let them answer questions with an activity. 

I had cut out papers with the WH questions words on them and how they are used and each card was numbered . Each pair of students was to pick out a card and form 3 questions on the WH question word they got and afterwards ask the question to any other group in the class for answers and all with a timer.

This was the highlight of the lesson, not only did students enjoy doing the activity but the questions the students formed showed how well they understood WH question words and when or how they are used.

I gave out the Canadian newspaper to the students, put them in groups and asked them to scan through the newspaper for WH questions and also annotate as reading and answer the questions on the newspaper. I took up the answers and there was discussions on the answers as an exit ticket for the lesson.

The lesson ended on time and my sponsor teacher congratulated me on my pacing, classroom management and my voice clarity. This made me feel good because these were the advice she gave me during my previous lessons that I was working on and I am glad she saw the improvement.

Honkers of Canada, lesson 6 of my practicum and  the students were to scan read a journal on the Honkers of Canada and answer comprehension questions on the journal which will be based on how they understood the content of the reading.

The class started at exactly 2:30pm on the 19^th of June with all ten students present. I introduced the journal with a video documentary on the Honkers of Canada (Canadian Goose). I showed the students the video documentary because, I knew as international students some students might not know what the honkers of Canada were. The documentary really helped because I was surprised to noticed almost half of students give out a sign of relief after the video.

The video took about 6 minutes and I discussed with students the part of the video they remembered and what part surprised or got them fascinated. The suggestions the students brought up really made me realize the students really liked the documentary and they paid attention to every single details when they watched the video presentation.

After the discussion, I gave out the journal for students and I put them in groups to read. This time with  a specific time frame in order not to make the reading slow. And as students read the journal, they were supposed to annotate, look out 10 new words in the journal and after have a discussion on the new facts or ideas they learnt from the journal.

Individually, I asked the students to answer the comprehension questions on the journal and each answer was discussed after the exercise.

At 4:15, the class came to an end with a game activity. I had some multiple choices questions on the journal and the students were to answer them using spin the wheel game.
The students at the end of the lesson could scan quickly through a two-page journal, write out the main ideas of the journal, learnt ten new words and their meaning and also the students were able to answer correctly the comprehension questions on the journal, which was the lesson objectives for the class.

The lesson ended on time and the reading pacing I think was better than my last class .

My fifth practicum lesson took place on the 14th of June, it was story reading time as we continued reading from the story, “The Lost City of Z”. To warm up we had an activity as a form of debrief of the last lesson on the Halifax explosion journal. I put the students in pairs to play the fly swatter game. 

I had questions on the Halifax explosion and the answers to the questions were written on the board and the pair to point  the answer out first wins a mark. The students were excited and had the competitive spirit and it was a great way to start the class.

I later grouped students to read the story, discuss their thoughts on the story and underline new vocabulary they come across. After the student’s discussion, I read out the story to the students so that students could check the pronunciation of some words and the intonations and I asked the students to answer the questions on the story.

The answer to the questions were discussed afterwards and as an exit ticket, students answered open ended questions on the story using spin the wheel.

Involving both activities in the lesson made the lesson more enjoyable. The students had fun and they were more participative and engaging than the previous lessons.

My practicum teacher advised me to mix cultures when grouping, improve the reading and not make the reading go too slow. I look forward to working on them for my next lesson.

On the 12^th  of June, my practicum continued. I took over from my co-student teacher after student had returned from their 10 minutes break. The reading journal was on the Halifax explosion that occurred in Canada years ago. The students were to skim through a journal on the Halifax explosions and be able to write down the main ideas and summarize the journal in their own words.

In order to help students visualize the content of the journal when reading, I introduced the journal by showing a short video presentation on the Halifax explosion that happened years ago in Canada. The video was to prep the students before the reading and also help the students to understand the content of the journal. After the video presentation, I asked students about a disaster that had occurred in their country and the impact of the disaster on the people of the country.

The students shared many disasters that had occurred in their countries and I also shared a disaster that had occurred in Ghana and the impact of the disasters on Ghanaians.

After the discussion, I put students in pairs and gave them the journal to skim through, annotate and write down the main ideas of the journal. I then put students in groups after 15 minutes to discuss what surprised them when they read the journal and also any new words they came across.

Individually, I asked the students to summarize the journal in their own words and also write down the main ideas of the journal.

As an exit ticket, I asked the students questions on the journal and discussed the summaries of each student.The class ended on time and I think the video presentation really helped the students to understand the journal well and students at the end of lesson provided a great summary of the journal.

This lesson was on Canadian myths and monsters and it was on the 5th of June, 2023. I started the class by asking students what their thought on myths were and the popular myths in their country. Students shared about their thoughts on myths and also shared some common myths from their country. Later, I gave out cutout cards with various myth definitions and thoughts about myths and made each student pick out a card, read what the card said and share their thoughts about it, if they agree to it or not. That was the highlight of the class, there were many discussions and suggestions on the thoughts of myths and the students were very participative. 

I introduced the journal on Canadian myth and monsters by showing students pictures of some known Canadian monsters and I talked a little about them especially the popular Canadian monsters, the Bigfoot. I gave out the various journals to students to skim through the journal, annotate and also underline new words they come across. After 15 minutes of skimming, I read through with the students and asked them to summarize the journal in their own words.

Few minutes to the end of the class, each student read out their summaries and new vocabulary were discussed as the class came to a close exactly on time.

I worked so hard to manage the time and pacing well this time and I also tried to speak in a louder and clearer voice as my sponsor teacher advised after my last lesson. I think the students liked the class though there were no activities. My sponsor teacher commended my timing and also the pacing of my lesson.

On the 31^st of May 2023, my practicum continued. I taught the first hour of the class on some indigenous fables and the lesson objective was students to be able to skim through an indigenous story on Ojibwa and answer the comprehension questions on the story.

I started the lesson right on time and I began by showing a PowerPoint presentation on indigenous stories in Canada. I presumed students didn’t know much about the indigenous fables so I made a simple and clear presentation with lots of explanations and images so that students could visualize the content of the story as they read. I believe reading is more interesting and understanding if the content can be well visualized while reading.

After the PowerPoint presentation, I gave out printed copies to students. I read the story first as the students scanned through the story and afterwards, I asked them to read, underlined new vocabulary and annotate as they read the indigenous story. I read the story because, I wanted my student to take note of some pronunciations and new words. After 15 minutes, I put the students in groups to discuss the story and answer the questions.

After the comprehension questions were answered, I discussed the answers with the students. I played a spin the wheel activity with multiple choice questions on the indigenous story and all the students were excited and participated fully. This was my first activity in a lesson and that was also the highlight of the lesson. I felt so good, the activity went well more than I anticipated, and it encouraged me to look for more activities for my lessons.

At the end of the class, my sponsor teacher gave me some advice on my time management and the volume of my voice which I look forward to improving before my next class.

Teaching Lesson 1

I had my first teaching experience as my course practicum on the 24^th of May, 2023 in a reading class. I arrived early to class with my co-student teacher and before the class began our sponsor teacher asked us to draw the map of Canada on the board with the major provinces and their capital for an activity later during the lesson. I wonder to myself which kind of activity could this be. I didn’t really see myself to involve activities in my lesson because it was something I wasn’t used to and had not seen before during the times I taught in Ghana or the times I was a student.

After the students settled in, myself and my co-student teacher, Rajneet was introduced by our sponsor teacher and we shared a little about ourselves, where we from and why we were there teaching and how long the students will be seeing us. The students were receptive, but they seemed a little confused, and that made me nervous. I kept thinking to myself, were the students going to like me, what about my accent? Will the students really understand me? and many more.

The lesson began immediately after the introduction, homework from the previous lesson was taken and the warmup activity with the map began. Rajneet and I asked the students questions about Canada and the student group with the right answers gets to travel from Kamloops through the provinces across Canada.

Students participated fully and they were really excited about the activity. This changed my perception about involving activities in a lesson. Since I wasn’t used to activities in a lesson I thought activities during lessons would be a distraction but actually I was wrong. 

The 2^nd half continued after a short break and our sponsor teacher chose a different environment for the story reading. The students were calmer and comfortable and participated fully during our discussions with them. I also realized students enjoy a change of classroom set up and feel more comfortable when that happens.The class ended on time and lesson pacing was right on track.

I learnt so much on my first day as a practicum teacher and I realized students didn’t have name tags, so it was difficult to identify the students or call them out, so Rajneet and I decided to make name tags for the students on our next visit. I’m really looking forward to my next teaching lesson.