Planning cycle 2 – Speaking skills lessons

Day 28-29, 7-8 May

Plan

For today and tomorrow, I will be working on my lesson plan for the next cycle. This time round we are focusing on giving interviews as this is the graduating batch and they will soon be going through their real life interviews. Practice in giving interviews is part of students oral communication course outline. This time I am very much dependent on the material I design so that not only my feedback is communicated, but also the up-take of feedback is ensured.

The lesson on mock interviews will be carried out over the final 3 lessons starting from 9-11 May. The interviews will be in groups of 4 because it will be easy for me to monitor at least 4 students at a time. Each group will be sub divided in pairs so that the task is manageable by the students. Each pair will conduct a mock interview of their partner based on a scenario/case given to them. I will also give them a list of interview questions that one member of the pair will ask the other member. Students will also be given liberty to ask any other relevant question. Each question will be marked by the interviewer on a three point Likert scale. I am using 3 point Likert for the interviewer’s convenience and also because the interviewee can later go through the evaluation and can get some feedback. To enhance the effectiveness of feedback in a class of 80+ students, a short report will be filled by the interviewer after completion of the task, and will calculate the total points from the Likert scale and also total the positive and negative aspects of the interviewee. The likert scale and the short report will act as my feedback to the students because the questions in the likert scale are the actual areas where I want the peers to evaluate the interviewees and act as feedback agents.

In the next class on 10 May, the second member of the pair will do the same with his/partner. Once the pair completes the round of interviewing each other, they would share their judgment reports with each other and would fill out the summary report to select the one that has more positive points. Finally, for up take from the evaluation report, the SS will fill out an up-take of feedback form so that they can discuss it in the class the next day.

On the third day i.e. 11 May, SS will review their reports in the class on voluntary basis in order to gain further feedback from the teacher. Each pair will first share one positive point each from the review form and will then ask questions. My focus will be to probe each pair to ask at least one question regarding whatever they think they need to improve.

Since the lesson is designed in a way that peer-peer learning will be focused, I will get more time to observe students’ on-task behavior. The interview questionnaire, short report, summary and form for the up-take of feedback are the main tools that will engage students in order for them to get feedback on learning to participate in interviews. My primary focus will be to move around in the class monitor how students carry out the task.