OSU Foreign Language Center

MicroteachingDownload syllabus as PDF

General Information

1. You will be asked to teach two short lessons (first day of class, vocabulary focus, and grammar focus) and one 20-minute extended teaching segment. The specific details of these assignments will be presented during the morning lecture and discussed in your afternoon classes. General guidelines for peer teaching are given below. The teaching assignments and sample lesson plans will also be available on the 801 website: http://flc.osu.edu/resources/gta/default.cfm.
2. Attached to your syllabus is a copy of a lesson planning sheet for you to use for each assignment. Make a copy for yourself and a copy to give to the session evaluator. Also attached to your syllabus is a copy of the form that will be used to evaluate your teaching and to give you feedback on your areas of strength and those areas that need improvement. You may discuss your evaluation with your afternoon coordinator. Lesson plans must be written in English.
3. Each of your teaching assignments will be recorded. This video will provide you with a permanent record of your teaching that you can review yourself or with your program director.
4. Visuals (clip art, drawings, transparencies) will make your presentation more effective.

General Guidelines for Peer Teaching

1. In your lessons, you will present a progression of activities for developing the ability to communicate in a culturally appropriate manner in the language that you will be teaching. Although each lesson has a specific focus (e.g., first-day expressions, vocabulary, grammar), all should be based on an overarching Communicative Goal.
   1. Consider Your Audience: Some of them know little of your language; teach them, and try to ignore the fact that some others know as much as you do.
   2. Select Your Topic and Objectives: Assuming no prior knowledge on the part of your audience, design a series of activities to reach a communicative language goal in a culturally appropriate manner. Be sure to formulate your objective(s) in student terms before planning your lesson. What should students be able to DO by the end of the lesson?
   3. Plan Your Lesson: It should consist of four elements:
      1. Presentation - First, present the new material (function(s), grammar, or vocabulary).
      2. Practice - In this phase, students have a chance to work with what you've presented. Meaningful structured practice is suggested here. Rules of thumb: a) It is often good to build in a reception phase (comprehension check) before a production phase (asking students to use the words, phrases or structures); b) recognition activities should precede cued or free recall activities.
      3. Application - Students show you and themselves what they can do with what you're teaching them. Communicative (or at least meaningful) activity is expected here.
      4. Assessment - Evaluate whether your students learned what you wanted them to. You can do this for example through an additional communicative activity or mini-quiz.
      (These four phases do not have to occur in this strict sequence; but they should all be present.)
   4. Use Your Visual Materials, if suitable to your presentation. (photos, drawings, transparencies)
2. 20-Minute Lesson: Base your 20-minute lesson on a topic different from the one you presented in your 10-minute session earlier in the week. Assume no prior knowledge of the language; you must teach it all!
   
   On Wednesday of the second week when the 20-minute sessions begin, those who have had prior teaching experience should be prepared to go first. Each pair of groups will remain together WE-TH-FR; so each pair should select one "captain" to be timekeeper and ensure that each person in the group will have a chance to make a presentation.