In hindsight, this may well have been our, my student-teacher partner and myself, most successful lesson. After this class, I really began thinking about simplifying everything in my lesson plan—one goal, one objective—rather than trying to do as much as possible within the little bit of time allotted for teaching. Rather, it was more that I really began to understand what that actually means.

The lesson itself was a game of /l/ and /r/ sounds. First, the students listened to determine what sound was said by us student-teachers.  They would then repeat the sound that was correct. A simple lesson: nothing fancy about it, but its effect was very pronounced. This was also the first week we had an opportunity to “gamify” our lessons having learnt about this technique in one of our TESL courses, so it was something we wanted to do.

We also centered the lesson on food to carry on the theme from the week previous. This was a big help that allowed to put into practice something new. The lesson became both something new and familiar. This is definitely something I will take moving forward. Doing something new in a familiar way; and doing something I am familiar with, but in a new way.