Questions To Learn Teaching

Starting a lesson

• Do you get your class's attention before getting started? How?
• How do you tune your students into the lesson (i.e. do you plan a warm-up moment)? Do you check they're "with you" before you get started?
• Do you somehow make your class aware of the aims of the lesson?

Integration

• Do you begin by establishing a relationship with previous lessons, or knowledge you expect the class to have from other sources?
• If you have assigned a task, you know not everybody is bound to have carried it out in advance. How can you plan to capitalise from those who have done it, and yet keep everyone involved?

Rapport with your audience

• Who do you look at while teaching? What do you look like? (tense? smiling?)
• What are the class doing while you talk?
• What role do the class play during your presentation?
• Does your voice carry well? Do you tend to talk too low? Too loudly? Too fast? Too slowly? Do you sound enthusiastic or monotonous?
• What evidence is there that the class is following you?
• Do you sound confident? This will help your class feel confident too... If you're feelingnervous, just remember your audience are there to see you succeed, not fail... They'll be glad to support you so that everyone profits from the experience.... trust them!
• Does your feedback encourage the class to get involved and take risks?

Task assignment

• The rationale for assigning comprehension tasks is to support the class in their following you... When do you assign tasks? Is that moment the most useful moment?
• GROUP TASKS: How many people are working in each group? Does grouping suit the task and mazimize interaction? For discussions, triads are often the best option(two learners may feel easily tempted to chat about other topics; four learners or more make it difficult for everyone to contribute, and this discourages commitment to the task).
• When assigning tasks, how clear are your instructions? Remember you don't need to go over everything with the class as a whole before they carry out tasks.
• When checking tasks, you realise whether the class have got your main ideas, and this enables you to correct your message if there were any misunderstandings... When do you check tasks? Is that the most useful moment? Do you have a key at hand, to make correction as "smooth" as possible?
• When checking tasks, do you do it in the most effective way? If you ask someone to read the whole text / answers aloud, is there a purpose for the rest of the class to follow? How do you deal with pronunciation problems in such a case?
• When right answers are provided, do you tend to echo them? If so, what is your purpose? What message might you be sending the class by doing so?
• When wrong answers are provided, who decides they're wrong? How do you make sure the class understands why they're wrong? Does your checking technique enable you to see whether the class has actually got your message? Or are you simply "spoon-feeding" them?

• Pacing: are the class following you? Perhaps you're going too fast? Or are you assigning too long for group work? Keep an eye on your learners!

Class management

• Is participation evenly distributed? Or are some of your learners "monopolizing" talking-time?
• Do you allow enough time for people to come up with answers to your questions before you rephrase them? Don't be afraid of silence!
• Do you invite volunteers to contribute? Do you appoint different people to answer at times? Effective class management often involves striking a balance between these options!
• How effective was your timing?
• I fyou need to "cut down on" your original plan, what do you choose to "leave out"? How wise is that option? Can your learners somehow make up for what's missing later?

Handouts and other aids

• Are your handouts attractive? Do they contribute to getting students interested in your lesson?
• Are fonts large enough for everyone to read? Clearly legible? So large that they make comprehension of texts difficult?
• Do your handouts help students contextualize the information provided?
• Are they useful as a synopsis of your lesson?
• Have you clearly stated your name, and how you can be contacted (if appropriate)?
• Have you included a list of references for quotes included? And a bibliography, or list of recommended reading materials for extension? Are books and other sources properly cited (see APA conventions for standards)
• If you have visual aids, can everybody easily see them? If posters are displayed, is the font on them large enough for everybody to read them? Too large?
• Have you made pictures available to support your words? Are they clear and attractive enough?
• Are you making a use of a variety of aids (visual / auditory).?
• Are your aids ready in advance (tapes ready to be played; posters hanged up)?
• If you hand out materials for the class to work with, do you hand them out just when they need to focus on them? Do you remove them as soon as they stop being useful for your teaching purposes?

Learning styles

• Does your presentation include a variety of stimuli, appealing to visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners?

Finishing a lesson

• How do you round of your lesson?
• Do you finish high?
• What are students left with after the lesson? (do they have anything that helps them reconstruct their experience?) What will those who missed see as evidence of work?

Evaluating your effectivity

• What did you expect to achieve through your teaching? What evidence is there that most of the class have achieved it by the end of your lesson?
• Did you make any changes to your original plan? If so, how satisfactory did you find them? If no, would you like to make them if you were to teach the lesson again?
• What do you think the class will remember from your lesson after, say , 2 months?

I wish I had seen Freire´s lesson but I couldn´t stay! About Dewey´s class I think the girls were great: they were very clear while explaining, they had a nice attitude towards us and they even gave us a short but nice play to summarise Dewey´s ideas! I enjoyed it a lot! Francisca