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Katie Harding
Dr. Manuela Gonzlez-Bueno
C&T 491
13 June 2016
Third Reflective Journal Over the TESOL Practicum in South Korea
Now that we are halfway through the program, it is almost time
to begin implementing our own lesson plans in the classroom. This
week offered more chances to observe the English classes and develop
our ideas for our lesson plans. Even though we only had two days to
observe, this week provided teaching experience and the seminars
gave helpful information on how to develop our lesson plans.
For this week in Gregs class, the students participated in a three
round game all about solving riddles in English. This was an effective
activity because it not only required the students to understand the
riddles in English, but they also had to figure out and explain the
answers. The riddles activity allowed the students to practice reading,
writing, and speaking. Each student gets to read the riddles and
discuss them in English. In the running dictation round, the students
have to write down a riddle line by line after memorizing each one.
This game is excellent for engaging the students and for utilizing
reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension skills.
As an observer of this lesson, I learned about engaging the
students well. I also enjoyed this activity because it utilized many

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different skills in language acquisition. In addition, Greg had each coteacher pair teach the lesson after observing a couple classes.
Mandeep and I taught two classes for the riddle lesson. I appreciated
this opportunity to practice teaching before we implemented our own
lesson plans. This gave me the chance to experience teaching and get
to practice interacting with the students as a teacher. Teaching the
riddle game relieved my nerves a little about teaching. My central
concern has been that I do not have much teaching experience. The
past three weeks eased my mind because I started out introducing
myself, then observing, and then finally teaching. Approaching
teaching in increments prepared me for teaching my own lesson.
Speaking will be the main component of our lesson plans
because Gregs classes are conversation based, but it is crucial to
incorporate other elements of language acquisition as well. The riddle
activity utilized multiple areas of language learning, which is
something I want to incorporate in my own lesson. Mandeep and I will
incorporate an activity that practices listening, writing, reading, and
speaking. Another important element for our lesson plan is we want to
develop an activity for students to interact with each other and not just
interact with the teacher. In my own personal language learning
experience, some of my favorite and most valuable learning
experience was from activities among my fellow classmates. Practicing
together helped make conversation more natural and we had to be

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creative in order to express ourselves. We also learned from each
other. Some of the most meaningful language lessons were those that
pertained to our lives and our interests. Mandeep and I chose
Superheroes as our theme for our two lesson plans. We developed this
theme after having many conversations with the students and some of
the topics of conversation that came up often were the new superhero
movies. As we begin to teach in the upcoming days, I will rely upon the
material we read in class, the observations of Gregs class, the
knowledge of the teachers around me, and the experience from
teaching the lesson to guide me in addition to the feedback I will
receive.