As an ESL teacher, my main subject-specific goal is for students to be able to successfully communicate in the target language. Although grammar is an important aspect of speech, and I will incorporate lessons on forms and grammatical features into my lessons, I prefer to take the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach in most of my lessons. I believe that the way students learn best is when they have authentic, relevant materials that they can relate to; thus, I want to draw upon the human need to share one's thoughts and opinions and use this to get my students to participate in my ESL classes. In doing so, I also see great importance in giving students the ability to choose their own materials when appropriate. This self-differentiation will allow students to engage and communicate on the level they think is appropriate, and gives students the opportunity to choose options that they are more intrinsically motivated to work on.

 

As a mentor with Homework Zone, I got a good piece of advice from one of the cooperating teachers. He said, "it's all about the content. If you have solid content teaching ready, everything else— even your classroom management— will fall into place." I took this to heart, and in my observational field experience, as well as in watching my own professors, I came to recognize it was true. Students who are bored or sitting through a poorly-structured lesson tend to be fidgety and oftentimes unruly. However, in classes that were interesting to them, and, through design, ensured that there was always something that students had to pay attention to in order to succeed in class, students were generally more on-task. This inspired my tendency to jam-pack lesson plans with multiple short activities, rather than a few longer ones, and ensuring that each activity involves some sort of follow-up. In keeping students on their toes with content they are interested in, students will be able to regulate their attention spans, prove that they have been focusing on the work, and between all that likely won't have much time to goof off in between! 

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In my teaching practice, my main goals for lessons is to get students thinking critically in English, as well as giving students transferrable skills that will assist them in other classes. Ideally, this will boost the motivations of students who are not inclined toward learning English, as most people like to share their ideas and opinions in class. Debates, conversations, and criticisms will be welcomed in my classroom, and I will ensure there is time to sometimes go off-topic.  

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