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Tylar G Smith
EDUC 359
Introduction to English Language Learning
Mini Lesson Reflection

Please answer the each of the following questions with a few sentences. Be sure to support your
answers with details about your experience. You can either answer each question individually, or
write in a paragraph form. Your choice. Use Word… I want you to have access to it next class,
so either have it in the cloud or email it to yourself. You do not have to submit it to me…not yet.

1.) What was the biggest challenge you faced while planning the lesson?

I think the biggest challenge I faced while planning this lesson was picking out what
language my group and I were going to do. I think the thought of having to stand up in
front of a classroom of our classmates and teach a lesson in a different language
frightened us to a great extent. Myself, along with the rest of my group members were not
fluent in any language besides English so that’s when we knew this was going to be a
difficult task for us to complete. After collaborating with each other prior to class, we
brainstormed the idea of doing our lesson in sign language. Although, sign language was
not as easy as I thought it would be at least we would not actually have to speak in front
of a class and we could teach our lesson using visual symbols. Now, after having the
difficulty of choosing what language we would be doing the next difficult challenge we
faced was actually learning how to sign what we wanted to say when planning our lesson.
Most foreign languages one may use google translate in order to find out how to say a
certain word, sentence, or phrase in the language they do not speak. However, with sign
language we were unable to use google translate so we had to look elsewhere in order to
acquire the knowledge and information we needed.

2.) What was the biggest challenge you faced while teaching the lesson?

There was quite a few challenges I faced while teaching the lesson. However, If I had to
pick the biggest challenge I faced it would have to be actually signing correctly. Believe
it or not, the use of sign language symbols with your hands are not always easy to do. It
was hard for me to sign the symbols correctly and at a relatively reasonable pace. With
this being said, I did not know if I was signing to fast or to slow. It was hard for me to
find a happy medium in order for my students to follow. I found myself having a hard
time signing exactly the way I was supposed to as well, I messed up a few times. In
addition, it was also hard for me not to laugh. Since there was no talking during our
lesson there were times when it felt almost awkward and uncomfortable and it made me
have the desire to laugh in order to ease this awkwardness. This is a challenge I feel like
many of the students would face to if they were able to hear, and in this case they were.
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3.) What did rely on the most during your instruction to overcome these challenges?

I would have to say the motions of how to sign on the sheets we had really helped me.
We found this excellent sign language website as a group and were able to translate what
we wanted to say in English through the use of sign language. The sheets provided us
with the signs we needed in order to get across what we wanted to say to the class. We
had the signs up on the smartboard the whole time we were presenting so it was easy to
quickly look up at them and sign to the class. Also, with the signs being on the board
along with the English translation underneath it was easy for the students to follow along
either in English or sign language, which ever one they were most comfortable with
following along to. As far as the no talking, in order to try and void the awkwardness we
had music playing in the background while we taught our lesson. This way it was not so
quiet teaching our lesson and we could fill the quietness through music.

4.) Was the communication with your students easier or more difficult than you originally
thought?

I honestly thought the communication with my students was easier than I originally
thought. At first, I thought my students would have a hard time understanding what we
were trying to say as we were signing to them but they quickly caught on. I thought this
because, I knew a lot of the students did not speak sign language and if we were not
talking at all and just signing they would probably not have a clue as to what we were
trying to say. With other foreign language it is easy to point out clues and hints but with
sign language, there is no talking so it can be difficult to point these little hints out as to
what we were trying to say. However, through the use of the translations in English
underneath the sign I think the students were following along with our lesson just fine.
Since we had the English translation under each sign we did I think it was easy for them
to understand what we were trying to say and what we wanted them to accomplish.

5.) Do you feel you used co-teaching as effectively as you could have?

I thought my group used co-teaching was effectively. We all had our certain jobs and
were prepared for what we were assigned to do. I thought we all worked very well
together, we shared the planning, organization, and delivery of our lesson very
effectively. Although, some members in our group did do more work than others I think
overall we all participated very equally. We could not have accomplished our lesson the
way we did without the help of everyone in our group. Using co-teaching effectively is
very important when trying to teach students with disabilities so everything can go as
planned.
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6.) Do you feel you achieved your objective? How can you be sure you did or didn’t?

I feel that we did achieve our objective. We had a very active and engaging lesson, we
did this in order to assess the students throughout the lesson. As they participated and
engaged we as the teachers could assess if they knew the information or not. We also had
a worksheet at the end of our lesson that we had the students complete this way we could
see if they knew the information and if we achieved our objective and I believe that we
did.

7.) As a student of other group’s lessons, what was the biggest challenge you faced?

I think the biggest challenged I faced as a student of other group’s lesson was knowing
how to answer each question. Some of the groups went very fast and it was hard for me
to remember everything they were teaching. So, when it came down to them asking us
questions I did not always know how to answer. Most of the time I knew how to answer
the question in English, and even though we were allowed to answer in English as the
student I did not always feel comfortable answering since most of the other students were
answering in the language that was being taught.

8.) As a student, what did you rely on most to comprehend what was being taught?

I think I relied on the other students the most to comprehend what was being taught.
When I did not know what was being asked of me, I would observe how the other
students would respond and base my answers off of how they responded to the question
that was being asked of us. I think most ELL students use this technique. They process
what they are observing around them very carefully in order to gain information. That is
why it is so important to constantly expose them to new information so they can
gradually pick up on it.