first mini lesson

Today we taught our first mini-lesson using a "how-to" format. I taught "how to dance salsa". You must start out with engagement to get the learners interested in the topic and have it be relevant to them. Mine was -what do you do on the weekend into, what do you need to dance salsa. This also elicits vocabulary for the lesson, mine was- high heels, dress, partner, step forward, step back and spin. You have to have Concept Check Questions (CCQ) for each new word which is a yes/no question, a 50/50, this or that question, an open ended question and then use it in a sentence. Next you give a model for them to learn from, mine was a set of directions, and then you do 2-3 practices which can be fill in the blanks, role plays, any number of activities. After the practice is activation which is when the learners produce the language themselves. Mine was getting the girls up and telling each other how to dance salsa. Then there is cool down where you review the vocabulary. It was good in the sense that it got the girls up and moving and giggling, but teaching is very hard! It is just about automatic that as soon as you get up there all the rules and tips and tricks go out of your mind. I talked too much because it is hard for me to allow enough wait time. The girls are quiet and shy so you have to give them a lot of time to respond. The main goal is to get the students to talk a lot so the teacher is supposed to cut out any words which are not needed. This goes as specific as -dont be too poilte when giving directions-. instead of saying "can you read number one" you are supposed to say "read number one". Running commentary is any words you add such as "now we are going to do this" or anything about yourself "yea i like that movie too", cut it out! this is very hard to do. The teacher and the students then evaluate you on your mini lesson. While i was praised for having high energy, i need to work on wait time and eliciting vocabulary. It is a challenge that we dont regularly teach these girls because we don't know what words they already know. You are never supposed to Give them a word or Explain anything. Everything is supposed to be pulled from th students, even if you have to write it down, you don't read it out loud until each learner has, Then you can correct errors by pronouncing it correctly, but this is called echoing, another no-no, unless you then drill each learner to repeat the correct way again. It is a challenging process. Watching others and doing it yourself are so completely different because once you are The teacher the pressure sets in and it is hard to remember all the Dos and Don'ts.