My comic strips class

  My comic strips can follow my last photo class. After they have known the new vocabulary and what is the healthy food, they can make their own dialogue according to the example in the comic strips.

  My students are still the beginners and according to Michigan English Language Proficiency Standards, they should be:

S.2.2.a Participate in social conversations with peers and adults on familiar topics by asking and answering questions and requesting information

R.3.3.d Recognize simple idioms and figures of speech

  In the class, after the students watch the comic strips, I can ask work in pairs to make their own dialogue to talk about what they have for breakfast , whether the food are healthy or unhealthy, if not, what they should do, meanwhile, I can expand some new words and sentence structure. For example, chocolate contains a lot of energy and you will put on weight if you eat too much.

  To check whether they can achieve the goal, I will ask them to perform their dialogue in pairs. Also, I can ask them to bring their own comic strips about the healthy eating to school next time.

My photo class

    When I was a teacher, I found that many students developed unhealthy eating habits for different reasons. So I think maybe it is a good chance for me to teach my students to keep a healthy diet as well as learning some new words about food.

    In my video, I introduced some reasons why students think little of their breakfast and tell them to choose food that are good for their health. This class can teach my students some words about food and also we can talk about health.

 I choose many pictures and short phrases, so the class is suitable for beginners. Based on MichiganEnglish Language Proficiency Standards, my language learning objective is:

S.1.3.a Participate in conversations on social topics by asking and requesting information

R.3.2.b Use meaning clues and language structure to expand vocabulary (pictures, background knowledge, context clues).

    After showing them the video, I can ask them what they usually have for breakfast and talk with them why they choose them and whether they are healthy or not.

To assess whether they learned the goal we wanted them to achieve, I can utilize the following method:

1.    Give them a sheet and ask them to fill in the blanks ( they are required to write down the words about food)

2.    Show them more pictures and ask them whether they are healthy or not and what they will choose for breakfast in order to keep health.

My TED Class

    My topic in TED class is about the hidden power of smiling and I think it is an interested topic that students are familiar with and have a lot to say. My language learning objective is based on MichiganEnglish Language Proficiency Standards and they should be:

1.       L.3.2.e Listen attentively to stories/information and identify key details and concepts using both verbal and non-verbal responses

2.       S.2.2.a Participate in social conversations with peers and adults on familiar topics by asking and answering questions and requesting information

3.       R.4.4.a Apply knowledge of complex syntax (sentence structure) and advanced grammatical features to derive meaning from content area texts

4.       W.4.3.a Independently create cohesive paragraphs that develop a central idea with consistent use of standard English grammatical forms, including a variety of sentence types

To test whether each individual student really learned the goal we wanted them to achieve, my assessment can be  

1.       Since the topic can be seen from the title, the two multiple-choices focus on details of the video and they can check whether get key details.

2.       Ask students to read two related articles in the Dig Dipper part. In the class, I will ask some students to retell the key points of the reading part to make sure they understand the meaning of the articles.

3.       In the discussion part, I can walk through the groups to check whether their discussion are around the topic or based on the questions I come up with in the discussion part. At last, I will ask some students to share their opinions, representing their own group.

4.       Ask students write a composition about the functions of the smile with personal experience independently according to what they discussed previously.

The flipped classroom

    In our traditional classroom, teachers teach and interact with students and students do their homework after class. Here comes the problem: sometimes, we thought we understood the concept being thought; however, when doing our homework alone, we felt frustrated since what we had learned did not work at that time. Flipped classroom changes the model of traditional classroom and make it possible for students to do their homework in classroom.

    Even though there is no single model for the flipped classroom, it leaves us an impression that Flipped classroom means that teacher asks the students to watch some short video lectures at home before the class session, so they can focus on exercises, projects, or discussion in the class. In the article three reasons to flip your class, Marshall mentioned that the flipped classroom can increases comprehension of the material since students can learn at their own pace with the help of video. Secondly, it can increases interaction with teacher and peers when they discuss in groups or teacher offers help in the class. Thirdly, it can increases critical thinking in the process of learning because it gives the students more opportunity to participate at their cognitive level rather than comprehending the content of the class. It seems that it is necessary for teachers to flip their class to improve the class efficiency.

    In my opinion, the first problem is what if students don’t watch the videos at home? I think it is the biggest problem that every teacher may face in their classroom. Fortunately, I got some useful ideas on the internet. Such as Gimbar thought that ask students to take notes, copy down the definitions, and copy down the examples when they are watching the videos. I think another way to encourage our students to watch videos at home is to teach them the importance of interaction in the class and to help them establish the sense of group honor. 

    Another problem for me is that since students are required to watch videos at home, it means that every students have access to computer. As a matter of fact, most students live in the dormitory where computers are not provided. In addition, parents and head teachers forbid students to use computer after school for fear that they are addicted to computer games. In my class, I think I may rarely use this teaching method unless they have a two-day or longer break to ensure all of them can watch the video after class.