Chapter Three

Reflection on Mini Lesson

Before the class I talked about taking a video for my mini-lesson and asked my students whether they would like to be in the video, but almost half of the students gave me a negative answer. I respected their choice. However I think it is a pity that you can’t see my students and my conferring to students while they are doing the group work. Anyway, you can hear my students’ echoing to my questions and our interactions in the video.

In the mini lesson, I think I am clear-minded. I know the purpose of what I am doing. I introduced the steps for the revision of the writing: the title; the correct writing of family members; the correct writing of profession; the concluding sentence; the punctuation; the peer conference; revision of writing. I made smooth transitions from one topic to another. I paused sufficiently after the questions to allow students to respond. I also provided cues or rephrasing to encourage students to answer difficult questions. I walked around as a facilitator while students were doing pair work. I wrote legibly and clearly on the chalkboard.

As to my strengths, I think I defined the new term in a descriptive way, such as the Chinese word for “wife”. I mentioned punctuation, which sometimes can be ignored by some teachers.

As to my growth areas, I think I may use handouts and audiovisual aids in the future. I will encourage students more by praising them for the work that is done well. Praise is a vital component in a student’s motivation and progress. The choice of words could be better when I was giving the lesson.

If I do this session again, first I will ask one of the students to read aloud his draft and then others students give their comments. Secondly, I will give students more encouragement and help them to be confident. Thirdly, I will do the model writing, which is helpful to students in getting a better understanding of structure and meaning of the characters. I will try to put the students in the video as well next time so that I can see students’ reactions on video and reflect on them.

I believe the students get a better idea of what they are going to do after the mini lesson and I am learning a lot from the lesson as well.