February 8th, 2018

Mentoring Journal

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Entry #2: Discuss lesson plan for first evaluated filmed lesson

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Gabriel had asked me to take a look at his lesson plan and sent it to me the night before. I looked over it in the morning and gave him substantial feedback (see feedback: Lesson Plan 1st Evaluated Filmed Lesson). I then found out that for APLI 647 Teacher Supervision we were asked not to give feedback on lesson plans or any evaluated materials in TESL 326 to avoid misunderstandings or contradictions when materials are graded by the instructor and/or T.A. of TESL 326. This also reinforces my roles as MENTOR, not supervisor or evaluator. The goal is for me to discuss ideas and approaches as we did in the first meeting.

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In the second meeting, we spent very little time looking at the lesson plan and my feedback. Gabriel showed me the handout (H/O) he had prepared for the students in the lesson he will be teaching and evaluated on February 14th. His H/O looked really good, and he had included the question form with “Does she have (insert Noun Phrase)” and the statement with the DO verb for emphasis, as well as negative statements with DO NOT. He also listed a bunch of possible NPs. So overall that was great and it was nice to see how our discussion in the previous meeting resulted in such a concrete application.

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We then look at anticipated problems and I had asked in my feedback to the lesson plan whether he could think of TL anticipated problems. He asked what I meant. So I said what he thought students might have trouble with in a sentence like “Does she have blonde hair?” He didn’t know. I suggested maybe they would try to say “Does she has blonde hair?” Then he asked why we conjugate do and not have. I said because we conjugate the auxiliary when we have both an auxiliary and action verb.  And then he wanted to know what auxiliaries were, how to define them, how they were different to modals. So I explained that on paper to him, and then he asked me how I learned all that grammar – I said experience. He wanted a book or reference – I suggested Azar’s grammar book. We then got into a discussion about CLT and how grammar fits within it. We both agreed on the fact that CLT had little grammar focus, not enough. He talked about grammar translation, and how it helps him learn Japanese, and that he feels it’s a valid approach. He wanted my opinion on it, and whether I though it valid to learn a language with the goal of knowing the L1 of one’s learners and therefore able to do grammar translation while teaching. I told him how I approach using L1 in the classroom – I use it when I have common L1 with students and when needed, e.g. we are not understanding one another in L2 English  and/or much faster to quickly use L1.

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We talked about he CLT and how important or not it is to focus on it. I talked about how I use it in activities by following the PPP technique, but that I still focus on explicit instruction for grammar rules and syntactic construction. I recommended he watch the Harmer and Thornbury video on the CLT.

Gabriel seemed impressed with my grammar knowledge. Wanted to learn from me. Wanted to discuss parsing in depth and review his knowledge with me. I suggested we go over our notes from grammar class together in our next meeting because I couldn’t remember all the rules off the top of my head. He seemed to enjoy hearing about my teaching approach and how I use the CLT in my teaching practice.

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My goal for next meeting will be to focus more on Gabriel and what he has to say, his thoughts and opinions. His teaching practice – discussing how things went for him while teaching. I feel this meeting was very focused on me. However, it was largely mentee led. He wanted to know about my approach, knowledge and opinions. And his body language indicated that he was interested in what I was saying and wanted to hear more.

In addition, important! I almost forgot. He mentioned that the sexual misconduct allegations in the English literature department at Concordia have made him really aware of his position as a teacher and afraid of doing something inappropriate unknowingly. He said he has been steering away from the female students in his class in order to avoid any problems. He wanted to know if I had any pointers that would help. I was not sure exactly what to say. But I recommended the following general guidelines to avoid any type of offense (e.g. due to overuse of power as teacher and/or cultural differences):

- avoid touching students

- keep a reasonable physical distance / respect for personal space

- get to the same level as students: sit at the table or kneel by the table

- never point with middle finder

- never point at ss

- don’t write with red ink

 

April 18th, 2018

Additional Notes 

I was not sure whether my response to the issue of sexual misconduct was adequate. I felt that I had somehow failed to address his concerns. I also felt uncomfortable with the discussion. Afraid of overstepping boundaries or saying the wrong thing. I afraid that my approach to addressing and responding the mentee's concerns regarding the sexual misconduct allegations, if misinterpreted or misunderstand, could even result in allegations towards me.

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I decided to discuss it in class with my peers and professor in Teacher Supervision. Some interesting things that came up were:

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• A peer noted that it is possible that for the mentee the issue was not necessarily a great one. Given the accusations on sexual misconduct were being widely discussed it may be that he simply felt it important to bring it up. My peer noted it was possible I was making a bigger deal out of it than my mentee was.

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I felt this was a fair point, and very likely. In fact, Gabriel didn’t raise the subject for discussion a second time.  

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• My professor helped me reflect. She asked me whether I would have felt the same in this situation had my mentee been of the same gender as me or unattractive.

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This question was interesting. I reflected that I would not have felt the same had it been a female mentee asking me this question. I would have felt on “the same side” and it would have been easier to have this discussion. I don’t think I would have felt differently had the mentee been unattractive, whether male or female.