April 1st, 2018

Mentoring Journal

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Entry # 6: Notes Feedback Second Evaluated Lesson

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We have reached a comfortable place in our relationship. It is like talking to a friend. We both appreciate the discussion.

 

Gabriel sent me the activities and lesson plan in advanced. I look at lesson plan and gave feedback. See the lesson plan in the folder. Gabriel addressed the feedback before we spoke, and then we talked about what needed to be clarified or discussed further.

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• The sentences I asked if he could write in a more technical way – e.g. “getting them to understand” – how to say this more technically? He wasn’t sure, so I suggested maybe using explain or clarify the grammar point. He addressed the other sentences where I had a similar comment and made them more technical on his end. The prompt clarify or explain as verbs was helpful and he took it from there.

• We talked about how we could make the lesson activities less controlled. I asked if he had any ideas and he wasn’t sure.  I said take a step back and look at the target language. What is the grammar formula? So we made it together: Can + you + base form/verb phrase + ? and then I said that the part that changes is the verb/verb phrase. So he could have the students work on filling in that part of the main chunk “can you” that is the same for all the questions. He was a bit unsure at first and talked about his classmate whose lessons always flop because he asks the ss to do things that are too hard. So he was afraid it would be too hard. His fear of loss of control came up again. I mentioned that it shouldn’t be all that much harder because the students area still being given all they need – he would still give the handout with the images of the verbs and verb phrases, just not with the full question already formulated. And he would give the students the instructions sheet where they already have this:

 

In pairs, ask each other all the questions.

Question: Can you _________?

Answer: Yes, I can.

Answer: No, I cannot.

Example: Q: Can you cross your eyes?

A: Yes, I can.

A: No, I cannot.

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See the PDF document for the full journal entry. 

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