Lesson Reflections
Friday the 1st of September.
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment and my afterthought of today's teaching
Preparation
My preparation for today has been perfect. I have read chapter four in ‘Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning’ two weeks ago and therefore had a lot of time to reflect on the text.
The day before the class I read the last text ‘Definition of representation’ by Stuart Hall, who is the grand old father, who invented ‘Culture Studies’ back in the seventies.
Learning Outcome
The day started by going through the paper by Stuart Hall and what he says about representation when it comes to language and culture and how a ‘Constructivists approach’ is the only way to understand language because in any type of language there are a sender and a receiver and they can have a different field of understanding the language.
TED video - “The danger of a single story”
Ngozi Adichie takes about how important it is, not to take a standpoint with only information from one source. If you only see the world through a certain point of view, without asking quotations like doing WWII, you will get a stereotyped point of view created by those in power.
This video started a lot of brain activity and thoughts about who privileged we are in the western world, by being so enlightened by an opened democracy with medias who questions any and everything, that happens around us.
Engagement
I found today's teaching a subject very interesting, and therefore had, even more, to say doing plenum and group work discussions, than I normally have.
Friday the 8th of September.
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Preparation
I have read all the texts and even written a reflection on the text "International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction" by Fred Delvin because I find this field of study extremely interesting. You can see the reflection under the third semester.
Learning Outcome and Reflections
When reading the text and afterwards I have been thinking a lot about the term 'other and others' which Fred Dervin is describing in his text.
When talking about others in a school context, we as teachers have a huge responsibility to teach students about other cultures, so that others are not something scary, but something familiar that you can relate to and be having an educated opinion about. If not, we as teachers, educate children with the opportunity to be bigots, and if this happens, we as teachers have failed greatly.
I would have like to be more focus on engaged in the lesson because I found today's subject extremely interesting. But, as I wrote, there were some personal issues that took my focus, and when you have to go away for two months, then it's not always a choice if you are able to be focused or not.
Engagement
I wasn't focused today, so for the first time, my engagement in an English lesson was at a minimum due to personal affairs. But I have done my preparations and got a lot of new information from the texts.
Friday the 15th of September.
- Cultural Studies & Critical Media Literacy
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Preparation
As preparation, I have read the four text for today and made a reflection on Fred Buckingham's text 'What Do Young People Need to Know about Digital Media?' from 2008.
Learning Outcome and Reflections
When talking about media literacy, we were talking about one of the most important education aspects of the 21st century of the young generation.
So why is this? First of all this generation is the first who are living two lives, the 'normal' life and the virtual life. Second, the impact of the virtual life is not something we should take lightly and third, young people are finding and getting information online.
So when taking Fred Buckingham's text into consideration these challenges get more clear and you as a teacher gets a clear idea on how to approach these challenges. But still, this education aspect is too big for one teacher to handle so either you need a strong teachers-team or it needs to be a subject in it selves.
I think it defiantly needs to be a subject in it selves, that students need to have from they are beginning in school to the end of high school, to make them as competent, as possible because the impact of the virtual life will only get bigger in the future.
Engagement
This subject is so important that my engagement has been naturally big. I have done a lesson on cyberbullying and a reflection on Fred Buckingham's text about media literacy. I would very much like to work more with this aspect of teaching and education.
Read more about the subject
NOGLE GANGE HAR VI BRUG FOR EN SAMTALE – DENNE GANG HAR VI BRUG FOR EN SKIDEBALLE
Friday the 24th of November.
- Intercultural Citizenship & International Collaboration: Green Kidz
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Preparation
As preparation, I have read Porto's 'Green Kidz', which was about a collaboration between a Danish and an Argentina school. They are havening conversations about the environment and how the two different countries are working with recycling waste. One of the learning objectives was to get intercultural awareness and not just 'landeskunde'. Another was to deconstruct stereotypes after learning about them.
Learning Outcome and Reflections
Writing and talking about how to implement and the thoughts behind a collaboration like this one. In the end, after my internship in France, I was asked, if it was possible to engage in a relationship with one of the classes I'm a substitute teacher in. So, after this offer and this text, I have learned a lot about what lies behind such a collaboration and what to gain from this kind of relationship.
During the lesson, I had a talk with some of my classmates about intercultural learning and the lack of religious teaching in France. This discussion ended out with us talking about how it is possible to teach about intercultural citizenship without teaching about religion and if you do not, how can you then go into depth with this kind of topic.
Engagement
My engagement today has been pretty good. I have given my opinion in group conversations and tried to argue my point of view. One aspect I could have been better at is that I sometimes dove into my own world, do to a presentation I have to do next week which is taking a lot of my concentration.
Thursday the 30th of November.
- Transnationality, Globalisation & Postcoloniality: Analysis of views of culture in platform material
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Preparation
As preparation for today's lesson, I read the chapters in 'Cultural Studies - A practical introduction' by Michael Ryan with big interest. When looking back at my internship in France this semester, I saw a country that tried as hard as it could not be globalized by translating all new words for example 'online' which becomes 'en ligne'.
Learning Outcome and Reflections
When working in class with the texts, the group is was apart of had a lot of good discussion about the points mentions about in the slides for today. I learned some terms to put on my already gained knowledge about globalization, neo-liberalism and more.
Talking about how our visual point of view on the world creates an image of how the world is or was. This dominating narrative, that can set the discussion in a whole country like in Germany in WW2 if we as the receiver of our visual image doesn't look with critical eyes.
We also analyzed online teaching portals. Sophie and I chose to work with Gyldendal's online portal on the lower secondary school level. We chose the topic 'South Africa' because it related perfectly to the teaching we had today were one of the topics were the colonisation.
Engagement
My engagement today has been very focused when working in groups, but I holed a little back in plenum do to some talks I had with Samuel down in Nice, that it would be good for me sometimes just to listen to other peoples opinions and reflect on them because I have a tendency to talk a lot in plenum and argue for my opinion.
Friday the 1st of December.
- Developing Intercultural, Cross-curricular and Innovative Media Projects
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Preparation
Read the texts for today beefily because I didn't have that much time to prepare for this lesson.
Learning Outcome and Reflections
Working with online portals; I worked together with Samuel, Emil and Sophie. Like I wrote in last lesson reflection, we chose to work with South Africa at Gyldendal online portal.
I have worked on a topic on Gyldendal's online portal before during my first intern period where I worked with the American Civil War.
We made an analysis of these questions;
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Views of culture
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Essentialism vs. non-essentialism
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Large culture vs. small culture
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National vs. transnational/postcolonial.
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Identity & processes of othering
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Representations (intersectionality/subtextuality)
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Cultural narratives and discourses - language use in texts and media.
It was very giving and interesting to work this way with a portal because I will definitely take parts and find inspiration on these portals when I'm going to teach in the future. I don't think that the portals are an easy fix for at teacher, but you as a teacher need to have a critical view of the different topics due to the authors are different from each topic and not all of them are teachers and due therefor not necessarily have a didactic view on how to build a lesson and how the students learn the best.
Yoy can find the work right here.
We also talked about innovation due to we have to make a project about innovative media. This discussion was 'all over the place', and sometimes hard to follow. I would like to have a more clear directions to work from.
Engagement
My engagement today has been very good during group work. I had some problems keeping focus all the time due to some problems with my medicine which gives a banging heading.
Friday the 8th of December.
- Developing Intercultural, Cross-curricular and Innovative Media Projects
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Preparation
For today's lesson, I had worked further with my innovative media project, so that it is almost finished to the point where the group and I can present it.
Learning Outcome and Reflections
We had a visitor today from PCM, who also works as an English teacher in the secondary school. She showed use her year plan for a 9th grade and some of the unities she had planned and some she already had executed. Her style of teaching was very interesting and interacting but also a little bit 'away' from what we have learned that we have to do when planning a lesson. For example talking about differentiation, which was something she didn't think was a good thing, because, when making a distinction between students, one will find themselves in a position where they will feel like they do not belong with the others students. She also had another view of some aspects of visible learning, like not making the lesson transparent from the beginning of the lesson and making visible assessment criteria, so that the students know how to get from point A to point B.
On the one hand, I do understand her position; it is time-consuming to make for example three different kind of tasks to reach all your student's levels and the situation you are putting one student in when saying, you have to do a less difficult assignment than your classmate. But on the other hand, you may do your students a disservice, when not reaching them on their own level.
I think it is something you as a teacher has to make a decision on after you have had a chance to get to know your students.
Engagement
My engagement today, was as normal. I asked the questions I feel was necessary to get the answers I needed during the presentation. My group and I also got a good response to our innovative media project.
I also got started my annual plan which is a semester criterion.
Friday the 19th of January
- Teacher Competencies: Planning & Evaluating
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Preparation
For today's lesson, I read all the text's with big interest. I think all of it was very relevant, and I don't mind that one of the books is in Danish, because when I will walk into a classroom teaching English, I will be using the Danish language as a tool to scaffold the students L2-languages and also to make their L1-language as an important tool to gain knowledge.
Learning Outcome and Reflections
The lesson today was mostly about how our exam this summers are going to be and how we shall make our synopsis. I think all the discussions and information gave all of us some kind of a feeling of safety.
We also talked about other requirements this semester. Do to I'm going to have a baby this May, I'm forced to have a more structured plan to how I'm going to succeed. These thoughts took a lot of energy, but by having these thoughts at this point in the semester, I have the opportunity to get more structure from the start of this school year.
Engagement
All in all, my engagement today were well. I was prepared, focus and invested in all discussions. Even though my upcoming baby took a lot of energy I felted like I had the surplus to be an active part of all that happened inside the classroom.
Friday the 26th of January
- Foreign Language Didactics with Focus on Student Qualifications
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Preparation
My preparation for today's lessons was much focused on the presentation I had to do with my study group, about chapter two in Pauline Gibbons book 'scaffolding language, scaffolding learning'. On Thursday, the day before the presentation, the group and I sat down after class and discussed which kind of approach we would like to take, and which kind of activity would fit the best with the main points of the chapter. Then we divided the different ats of the chapters between us and where ready to present.
Learning Outcome and Reflections
Every time I stand in front of somebody and teach, I'm learning something and each time I develop in some aspects. I can also feel that I get more and more confident in my oral English and that I have no problem jumping in at any time if I have something to add.
After the presentation, we worked with some online teaching sequences in regards to plurilingual language and how these fit with the theory behind plurilingual language pedagogies.
Engagement
My engagement today was a bit of a roller coaster due to an enormous head egg. After a good presentation and working with plurilingual language, I went home in the lunch break.
Friday the 2nd of February
- Foreign Language Didactics with Focus on Student Qualifications
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment
and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Preparation
My preparation for today's lesson has unfortunately been at a minimum due to illness. I have read the short story 'The Drover's Wife' by Henry Lawson.
Learning Outcome and Reflections
First of all, we started up with the 'student presentation', where they thought chapter three in 'scaffolding language, scaffolding learning' by Pauline Gibbons. Here they gave an overview of why and how to conduct and intergrade group work in your English teaching. This presentation was very hands-on and interesting and gave some stuff to reflect upon.
Secondly, we started working on how to work with fiction text, both novels and short stories.
Engagement
My engagement in the 'student presentation' was pretty decent. I took part in the group work they had planned and in the discussions afterwards. But after that, I fell off the wagon so to speak. I had a problem to focus on what was going on inside the classroom due to the illness (my head was nearly exploding).
Friday the 2nd of March
- Students' Written Competencies: Functional Grammar & Interlanguage Analysis
My own reflection on my preparation, learning outcome, commitment
and my afterthought of today's lesson.
Today we worked with quite a few things. I have chosen to reflect on the interlanguage analysis that I did with Samuel and Sophie. We chose a text from a boy in 8th grade. Beneath you will find our interlanguage analysis of the text.
Friday the 6th of April
- A Cultural Studies Approach to Intercultural Encounters and Interculturality
Today's teaching had a focus on how to approach interculturality in one's teaching and teaching material. We looked at 'Clio Online - Humans of New York'. Our focus was of cause how Clio Online incorporated interculturality in the material and goals.
When reading the headline 'Humans of New York', I'm thinking about how all these different people with different backgrounds are living together inside a city with a population of approximately 8,5 million people, but when going into depth with the material and goals, interculturality was not part of it.
One example of this is:
In this part of 'Humans of New York', Clio Online tells the kids what the blog 'Humans of New York' is about, but thereafter put up goals that only focus on reading and understanding which is fine if they have made it clear what the students had to understand from these texts. Another problem is the last goal 'I can give and receive feedback', in itself, like the other one, it is fine, but again what are the students suppose to give feedback on and how.
The last think on the page is different links with images taken by the author of the blog Bradon Stanton. It is a very good idea to bring in visual aspects to give the students an idea of what you are speaking and working with. But again, Clio Online doesn't seem to think about how people are going to interpret the outcome. Clio Online chose only to show only one picture to represent each group which can be problematic due to that this one picture can be the students only referent point when talking about a specific group which then creates a stereotype.
So can one use this as a teacher?
'Yes, we can', as a former president said during his campaign to become president of The United States. But how can that be possible, you may ask. Well, as a teacher one always have to look critically at teaching material when choosing this. One has to do that because one is not planning one's teaching based on material but on the base of goals one want the students to learn. So when setting up goals, we will find material that has the opportunity to help the students to reach the target goals.
So, when looking at 'Humans of New York' with a plan to teach students about interculturality, one have to ask oneself; "What shall the students gain from this theme?". After this, the teacher can create questions that reflect the goal much better and by that, the material becomes meaningful in this context. Another easy fix to the Clio Online material is to use more than the one photo they are presenting when speaking about a specific group of people. By doing this, the teacher gives the students a more balanced view of how different people can be in the same 'category', and just because they are named in a specific group they do necessarily not look the same. By doing this, the teacher also helps the students to break down stereotypes and help them to ask and look critical when presented for example a picture.
Summary
So, as a teacher one needs to make use of the platforms that are out there to make one's daily work. Teachers are under pressure and do not have time to invent the deep plate every day. But when using these different opportunities that are out there, as a teacher you need to look critically on this as you would on a book. When looking critically at these platforms it is important that you as a teacher have given your goals thoughts so that the material one finds will fit to reach these goals and not the other way around. When looking from your stand of point, you will 'automatical' come to the conclusion that one needs to shape this material so that is becomes one own's.
Friday the 20th of April
- Foreign Language Pedagogies & Intercultural Language Learning
Today, we started our with group work, talking about our teaching material analyses. People around the table come with a lot of good suggestions to what you as a teacher should be aware of. For example, when using an online portal, as you need to as a teacher due to the time pressure that you are under, one needs to make clear for oneself 'What do I want the students to learn?'. Because if one does not ask this question, we are letting the material take control of the learning and us as teachers.
When coming to school today, I had a goal for the teaching which was 'I need to be a better listener and let people speak freely without me interrupting. I was transcribing an interview that Samuel and I made with a teacher at Højdevangens Skole. During this interview, I heard myself comment or making statements without hearing the person out. So this is something that I need to be more aware of.
We were shown a map produced by Clio Online showing the world (see the picture below)
The picture shows the world in a disturbing stereotypical way. If this poster just hanged inside a classroom, without a critical introduction, students could easily get the belief that around the world looks like this, for example when looking at Africa, one can get the opinions that only 'Zulu-warriors' and Nelson Mandela type of guy and the fact that they are all men. So if you as a teacher took this poster into your classroom, you need to talk about stereotypes and how to work with stereotypes and how to break them down.
