In this hour of my classroom observation, I observed an online ESL class taught by Janis Goad at Thompson Rivers University at a mixed level (level 1-3). The class consisted of 10 international students from different cultural backgrounds. The main goal of this class was to practice students reading skills by students completing reading tasks.
Since this class was at a mixed level, the instructor divided the students into different groups and assigned them different online study rooms by their levels. She gave different reading tasks to each group and asked them to complete the tasks and help each other within their groups. Meanwhile, the instructor spent 20 minutes with each group in their study rooms to discuss the reading materials, ask students questions, and give some instructions about improving reading skills. Also, the students had chances to talk with the teacher and ask questions this way. I found that this is an effective approach to teach a big class, as in big classes, most of the students usually do not have opportunities to get involved in one-on-one communications with teachers. Another good thing about this approach is that students can be divided into different groups by the different skills they need to work on so that teachers can improve students’ language skills according to students’ individual learning needs.
The instructor talked slowly in the class because the students were at low levels (beginner and low intermediate), however, it is still necessary that she typed what she said in the chatbox for students to understand. This inspired me that, if ESL teachers are teaching in a real classroom, they should be aware of their blackboard handwriting. Instead of writing in an artistically beautiful way, teachers should write neatly and clearly so that students can understand well and easily. This is especially important when teaching students at low levels. If teachers teach online students, they should pay attention to their typing and not make spelling mistakes. Also, if teachers want to use some common abbreviations in class, they should clarify it to students so that students will not get confused.
I observed some challenges in this hour of the online class. As the students were at low language levels, it took quite a while for them to get the online materials that the teacher put. Also, there’s a student who did not have a computer or laptop, it might be very difficult for him to follow the teacher in class as it would be even harder for him to reach the online materials or use the audio sometimes. For the solution, teachers need to work more on getting familiar with each student’s learning situation so that they could provide students with other online assistance, such as emailing students the materials.
I learned a couple of helpful teaching approaches from this observation. First, setting students in different groups by certain criteria could be an effective method to provide students with opportunities to have one-on-one communication with their teacher as well as to enhance teachers’ familiarity with students’ individual learning situations. Second, teachers should be careful with their writing or typing so that students can understand easily. Third, teachers should have constant conversations with the students and get familiar with their learning situations and difficulties in order to provide the necessary assistance.