Lylia Schoepp

Video Reflection 1
WLED 405
Video Reflection 1

I promoted a positive learning environment by challenging students to engage in the

learning by asking them a lot of questions about the content of the lesson as we went along.

They also had to watch a video in Spanish (spoken by a native) and try to pick out specific

content in the video (there was also English subtitles). I respected the needs of the students by

monitoring when they were ready for me to switch slides. At one point in the video, I was

about to switch the slides to the next slide but heard several students say they werent ready

for me to switch slides, so I acknowledged that they needed more time and I waited to switch

the slides. I also knew that the students dont have high levels of Spanish, so I had to adjust my

search of videos so that they were either in English with some Spanish or had English subtitles,

which I was able to find. I could improve ways to create a more engaged lesson for students,

and make it more student-centered. I made it as student-centered as I could given the

guidelines my cooperating teacher set for me, but in the future I would like to discuss more

ways to make it more student-centered. I do not like having lecture style lessons, which is what

this lesson was. I also need to explore better ways to show classroom management, as the only

classroom management technique I used was a teacher look in order to draw a few students

back in. I like being able to move around the classroom, but as not all of my students turned in

the video permission form, I was not able to do this.

Engaging students in communication in the target language is what I struggled with the

most in my lesson. The students did not communicate in the target language at all. But my

lesson linked the students prior learning on Barcelona by having a review of what they

previously learned, and then building on this throughout the lesson. I even referenced the
Lylia Schoepp
Video Reflection 1
WLED 405
things they learned throughout the lesson. I was also able to link the students personal,

cultural, and community assets in my lesson by having an informal assessment at the end of the

lesson that asked students to make a comparison and difference between Barcelona and

Winona (the town where the students live). With this, the students were able to think about

their own lives, and tie it into or look into how it is different than the culture they learned about

in Barcelona throughout the presentation.

My instruction in this lesson promoted comparisons between students personal,

cultural, or community assets and the cultural practices, perspectives and products of the

target language by including a section at the end of the lesson where students had to look at

everything they had learned in the lesson and compare and contrast the cultural practices and

products of Barcelona with their own cultural practices, products and perspectives. I could

have taken this a step further though by comparing certain aspects of the lesson with the

knowledge of the students (for example: asking students if they can think of any old buildings in

Winona that would be like the old buildings in Barcelona). I did make one good comparison at

the end of the lesson. When discussing the current political situation of Catalonia, I put the

situation into terms they would understand by giving them an equal example in the U.S. with

what the region of Catalonia wants to do. This helped students understand the situation

better.

While delivering the content of the lesson, I missed out on an opportunity to teach in

the target language. I had the target language on my slides when I first turned my lesson into

my cooperating teacher, but she asked that I change them to English so that the students would

understand. I had planned on using the cognates and their knowledge of the language to help
Lylia Schoepp
Video Reflection 1
WLED 405
them figure out what was said in Spanish, but this is something I will save when I have my own

classroom. I found a video to use in my lesson that had native Spanish being spoken (with

English subtitles to support the language levels of the students), so that they would get to

interact with the language some, and I said some of the titles of the slides in Spanish (as these

were written in Spanish). If I could have, I would have had more Spanish in my slides and had

the students discussing some of the topics in Spanish, or investigating some of the topics in

Spanish and reporting back to the class. These changes would have helped improve the

students development of communicative proficiency in the target language because they

would have been using the language in multiple ways by communicating amongst one another

in the target language, and presenting back out in the target language, as well as investigating

the content in the target language. This then would have created a lesson that used the three

modes of communication that are so important in learning a second language.

In general, I need to not mess with my clothing and teacher badge during my teaching. I

noticed when watching the video that I tend to move back and forth, and play with the buttons

on my cardigan and my fingers while teaching. This could be distracting to students, and

definitely takes away from my teaching by closing up my body language. Despite this, I was

good at using my hands while explaining certain topics. This will be good when I am able to use

the target language, because using non-manual markers like body language and physical space

while talking about a topic can help students understand what is being discussed even if they

dont know every word. These changes will also help open my body language to students and

help students feel more comfortable to negotiate meaning and content with me.
Lylia Schoepp
Video Reflection 1
WLED 405
In the future, I plan to have more interactive lessons, where possible. The lesson was

too teacher-centered, and there was not as much student interaction with the content or

language as I would have liked. I would like to be able to move around the classroom while I

teach so that I know my students are engaged in the lesson, and this way I can also handle

classroom management problems without disrupting the other students (I can use strategies

such as tapping the students desk and redirecting their attention and using physical proximity,

instead of having to stop and ask them to refocus). Having more student-centered lessons also

can make the class more interesting for the students, and lead to them enjoying the language

and continuing on with learning it and using the language in real life.