An Example

​In one of my past placements, I sat-in on English classes and saw how they were run. In this specific placement, although the different classes focused on different topics and studied literacy at different levels, they had the same core activities: a focusing activity, the bulk lesson focused on literacy, and an assessment, followed by silent, sustained reading. All of the classes began with a bell ringer activity. These ranged from discussion board posts, which encouraged students to make connections, to reading profiles on Google Forms, which allowed students to share their experiences with reading. I liked that this teacher began her classes with a bell ringer because it allowed her students to get in the correct literacy mentality needed for studying English. The teacher provided the students with a summary of what had been read thus far before beginning the next section to ensure that everyone was on the same page once she began. She also utilized the practice of reading aloud to her students. I think this is very beneficial for students because it helps them stay focused on the reading. She also took pauses during the reading to ask questions and make clarifications to better support her students’ understanding of the text. She encouraged the engagement of students through these pauses. She wanted to hear everyone’s thoughts and ideas. She made this clear through her enthusiasm and genuine appreciation of everyone’s comments. Once she finished reading the passage, she always had an activity for her students to complete to reinforce their understanding of the text. The assessments were varied day-to-day so the students were not always doing the same type of activity. Additionally, the teacher changed activities every 15 to 20 minutes in order to keep her students engaged in learning. I liked her layout of classes. I found it simple but well-organized. I also think it allowed for a lot of flexibility and freedom when planning activities. I hope to do something similar in my future classroom because I think it works quite well. Overall, I liked this lesson structure a lot because it encourages student engagement and provides the students with extended support.