Online English lesson

Before we adjusted our cameras and position.

My playfull exeriment

My playful experiment was doing an online English lesson with a girl in year five in a Danish primary school.

Preparation

I prepared her by sending her, and her parents an email about date and time and an instruction in how to download the app and how to use the online conferencing tool Zoom.

 Im using Zoom, first of all because I know zoom beforehand and know how it works. Secondly because it is easy to use, you don’t need to sign up or have a special account. And last because you can record the session and save it in case you need some of the information from the lesson, later on.

In the email for the student and her parents I also wrote a check list on thing to have in mind before having the online lesson: Make sure the speaker and microphone is on and working, having a quiet place for the student to sit without interruptions, good lightning from the front and not from the back. I Also asked for permission to record the session for later use and for using photos taken during the lesson on this blog.

And I also send her the homework for her to do before the meeting. (read first chapter of Narnia The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe)

Since it was our first online meeting we agreed on meeting 10 minutes earlier to make sure everything works and we planned it on a time where her parents were home for them to help if she had any issues with wifi, microphone or something like that.

I send the zoom link for the meeting on messenger.

The startup

Everything worked fine, only some small adjustments, such as it was only my head that was showing on the screen. I adjusted the camera so more of my body was showing. The student was on an iPad that she held in her hands so the picture was moving a lot, which was quite disturbing for me, so we talked about that it might be better for her to place the iPad on a table, then the picture would be still and also she had her hands free if she wanted to take note during the lesson.  When we have done that, and I concluded everything worked just fine. I started by introducing myself and asked her to do the same. I asked the student if she was comfortable with her farther leaving the room, she said yes and I asked her father politely to leave the Room.

I presented the program for the day, and since Zoom is only free for 40 minutes. I told her If we ran over time. I would send her a new link on messenger.

The lesson was planned to be 30 min.

The student put the IPad on a table, so the picture was still.

The online Dialogue

 I wanted the lesson to be a conversation, rather than me teaching. So I started out by giving the student time to tell me about the chapter she had read for the lesson. I asked questions when she was In doubt or didn’t know what to say. After the summary we talked about the persons in the chapter and the places.

The time went quite fast I rounded up by talking about what to do for next time and when to meet again and told her thanks for the lesson,and I let her know it went well.

How did it go?

Overall it went well.

Personally I need more training in good conversation. After watching the recording I can tell, because I do have a small anxiety for awkward silence, that I need to work on. I found myself thinking about what to ask her next, instead of simply listen to what she was saying. And when she got stuck in her saying, instead of giving her time to figure out what to say I asked her a question to help her on.

I also found out that teaching one student like this can be very vulnerable. The student wasn’t fully comfortable with the situation and didn’t say much in the beginning. Maybe it was just because she was a bit nervous about the situation. But one could think about how to do it differently for her to feel more comfortable, Maybe by meeting once before the first lesson to get to know each other or add more student to the lesson.  

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