Class Time Reflections (Writing/Week12-3/30/2009)

My Presentation
Firstly, the presentation was really helpful to see my strengths and weakness. Secondly, it is almost impossible perform your ideal plan. As a warm-up activity I chose a short video clip and I thought it could be helpful engage students into topic. But I could explain why I want the class to watch video and how it was related to the topic. Since, I had very limited time I could not explain that. I am a visual learner I like to see the picture of issue. So I think providing agenda is always useful. Another issue that I should bear in mind is my sound level. I have a soft voice. Since I am aware of this I was planning to ask the classmates to move one part of the classroom so that they could hear me easily. But I changed my mind when I started to presentation. To grasp audience interest it is helpful to ask something interesting. So I think the question about whether writing is more like art or like swimming was helpful because I felt that the class was engaged. I preferred to start with writing in general and then bring the students to teaching writing specifically. In term of voice and identity firstly I reminded the class that I have a very limited time this caused them to not share their opinion I think time management is a big deal when you are presenting something. Another issue for me I tried to present the issue in an interactive way so that the class could get involved in actively. To manage this I asked a number of questions. And I like how you got your classmates to answer the questions of other classmates. I could have not mentioned about the tips already mentioned so that I could save some time. Last but not least, for the groupings giving a rationale was helpful. I divided the class into group of three and in each of the group there was a TA. This was helpful to activate the groups.