TAI #15 Reflection on my Teaching

Write a reflection in which you summarise your main learning about your teaching and next steps. This will prepare you to design an intervention next time.

After doing a self-observation and analysis of my teaching in relation to what my learners perceive to be their difficulties in writing, from their drafts, as well as in the light of my hypotheses, I have identified some strengths as well some areas for development in my teaching.

I find the following to be areas of strengths in my teaching.

At the psychological and emotional level, my learners like it and are very comfortable sharing their writing with me. Although it is a requirement that they share their work with me and other teachers for feedback and marking, it is also indicative of a good positive teacher-students relationship. More importantly, it indicates that my learners perceive it that when they share their work with the teacher, they are expecting to learn and improve their learning on how to write.

At the same psychological and emotional level, I find it a strength when my learners perceive and indicate that they learn to write better from the corrective feedback given by their teacher on their writing drafts. I use this corrective feedback as a one-on-one teaching strategy with a great focus on addressing the individual specific needs and difficulties as they arise from their writings. I find this strategy very effective at the cognitive linguistic level because it addresses difficulties in terms of developing critical thinking skills, acquiring and generating ideas for writing, developing and structuring ideas, research and quotations, language and grammar. This consists of indifying errors as part of their interlanguage and then they are shown the correct language forms of those errors. That way the learners are beginning to learn that having language errors in their writing is a sign of their language develoment and in a positive way. When they are shown the correct language forms, the improvement in their writing begins to happen.

The learners liking the use of computer technology for sharing their work and receiving feedback is a strength itself in my learners learning to write. This is another positive psychological and emotional aspect in their learning of writing. As the main media used by students in their writing and for feedback, it is convenient for time spent on sharing and receiving feedback, communication, rewindable learning, research for content, continuity of learning, and correction or errors, to mention some few. Students are comfortable and having skills to use this technology, so it will continue to be used as the main media for their learning of English.

When I looked at my use of scaffolding in my teaching, I am comforrtable that I use it as a pedagogical strategy, but I feel I need to be more specific in content and aspects I use, the intensity of the coverage, and order of presentation in my scaffolding. I consider this as alredy a strength as I am convinced that it's important for me to use it in teaching English Language learners how to write. As a strategy I use it to generally teach what my learners need to know about writing and writing standards offered before getting the learners to begin to write. Submitting their drafts, I then began to use the corrective feedback at a individual basis.

From the same self-observation and analysis of my teaching, I identified some areas that need development in my teaching. 

I found that in my teaching I hardly take any time to seek the perceptions of the learners on what they find difficult in any area of language learning or acquisition. before I begin to teach. I just begin to teach what I know or need to teach in my programme, get the learners to learn, and do the work. Yet I continue to find that my learners continue to show errors on basic areas of language use which they have not been taught or not being addressed in my teaching. From literature I learned that pre-assessing and identifying writing difficulties from my learners' preceptions and address them in my teaching might be helpful in improving my learners' writing. I decided to do that in this inquiry.

From the qualitative formative assessment, survey of perceptions and writing drafts,  I found that most areas in my teaching which need development are cognitive and linguistic difficulties. These are perceived and identified by the learners themselves and also refecled in their writing drafts. These will be areas of focus in my teaching. 

One main area identified is my learners not having adequate and relevant content for their writing. On top of that they are not able to generate ideas. English Language learners simply lack ideas and knowledge, and they identify that as an area of difficulty intheir writing. So there is a need to focus on this in my teaching and for the learning of my students. In order to do that, I need to begin to read with them on topics of their writing, teach research skills and how to acknowledge ideas, and help in providing them with ideas through research. Some of those aspects I haven't taught or focused on or before.

Another major area that needs development in my teaching and learning of my learners relates to the development and structure of ideas in text types with specific purposes and audience. I found that I need to be specific in the genres I need to teach and scaffolding students on how to organise or structure their ideas between paragraphs and within paragraphs. In the past I was aware of this and simply and generally trying to explain to my learners how to do these and they got on with writing. I think I need not just simply to explain but showing with exemplars before getting learners to write.

The final area I found needed to be developed is teaching my learners how to use language features and vocabulary appropriate to different text purposes and audiences. It is understandable and expected that English Language learners have limited knowledge and ability in the use of English language, but how to effectively teach them is enormous and challenging. I tend to struggle with teaching grammatically and at the same time what features to focus the teaching on. At any rate, what's clear to me is that there's still a need to teach language grammar in order to improve English Language learners use of English. 

From this reflection, I have identified areas of strengths in teaching writing to my English Language learners. This gives me confidence that I should continue to use those strategies in my teaching. At the same time, some areas in my teaching are identified as ones which need to be developed or changed in order to improve my learners' ability to write. These areas would be helpful in the design and delivery of my teaching in this inquiry.   

TAI # 14 Findings about my Teaching Con't

Present findings from this inquiry about your teaching. Ensure qualitative data includes rich descriptions of your teaching and quantitative data is clearly presented.

This post is a continuation of my previous post. Table 3 shows the last few items on writing difficulties again from the perceptions of the learners. They were lower in rating by the learners.

Table 3: The last Items from Learners’ Perceptions
Cognitive and Linguistic
Ideas	Grammar	Vocabulary
- I have difficulty writing closing sentences for my paragraph. - Sometimes I start writing something, then in the end I write something else.  - I have difficulty summarizing my larger argument into a conclusion. - I find it difficult to go from one paragraph to another with smooth, well- connected transitions.	- I have difficulty using articles. - I have difficulty with word order in English sentences . - I have difficulty with punctuation.
My Teaching	My Teaching	My Teaching
Items 1 & 3 are part of the teaching structure which I have done in class, but probably need to do it more often and consistently. It should be an ongoing part of teaching.  Items 2 & 4 are part of critical thinking and structure too. Again I have done some in class, but should be done more consistently.	This shows the importance of teaching grammar - articles as parts of speech, parts of a sentence, and punctuation. I have done some work on these but maybe not enough. I should do more work on these areas.
Psychological and Emotional
Difficulties from learners’ perceptions	My Teaching
- I like to write English essays - I feel my writing assignments are interesting and meaningful.  - I feel comfortable revising my writing in English.	A good degree of positive attitude is reflected from these comments . I need to build on that positive attitude and continue to encourage them to learn writing more effectively.

Table 4 shows a self-observation of my current teaching against the hypotheses that I found helpful from the literature. 

Hypothesis 1  

If I know my learners’ difficulties in writing from their own perspectives and design my instruction to address them as needs, then they will learn more about writing and increase their proficiency.

My Teaching

I perceive this as a form of formative assessment which I do not normally do in my teaching. Normally I start my teaching by giving them all the expectations and tasks of a standard, but I do not seek to know what they find difficult in writing. I only find out their problems or difficulties when they start to write their essays. I then try to help them in a jigsaw way.

In this inquiry I find this formative assessment very helpful to do right at the beginning because it helps the planning and designing of my writing. This is a good change for me to implement in this inquiry.

Hypothesis 2

If I know my learners’ cognitive/linguistic, psychological/emotional, or social/cultural difficulties in writing and address them in my teaching, then they will learn more about writing and increase their proficiency.

My Teaching

I am always aware that my learners have difficulties and learning needs in writing and other language skills, but not in these categories - cognitive/linguistic, psychological/emotional, and social/cultural. I find these categories very helpful because they make me see the importance of incorporating the whole person and their experiences into language learning - thinking, feelings, language, and their L1.

I feel that this a real good change for my teaching, starting in this inquiry. It’s a formative assessment that could be done with my learners right at the beginning of the course, and use that as baseline data to measure up the improvement of the learners later. 

Hypothesis 3

If I target my teaching of writing on particular genre-types required and desired by the academic department at school and use explicit genre-based pedagogy in instruction, then my learners will acquire the related writing skills in those genres and increase their writing proficiency.

My Teaching

The programme for English Language learning that I offer, be it for juniors or seniors, in an unavoidable way, expects us to offer different types of texts or genres for students to write. I am therefore expected to teach some of these genres, which I try and do. What needs to happen to deepen and be more specific in teaching these genres in their different aspects - eg purpose and audience, structure, language features, and vocabulary.

I feel that I do that, as I am expected, but I really need to develop more strategies in teaching these genres for the students’ better understanding.

Hypothesis 4

If I use an explicit scaffolding approach in teaching writing to my learners, then they will have a chance to better understand and acquire specific skills of writing proficiency.

My Teaching

Scaffolding is a teaching strategy that I already knew about and tried to use in my teaching. But I realise I need to adopt a clear model of executing this instructional strategy. 

Explicit modelling - Shared Demonstration - Guided Practice - Independent Practice.

‘I do - We do - You do’ Framework

Hypothesis 5

If I use the Toulmin Model as base for teaching the purpose and structure of argumentative essay, then learners will be able to increase their proficiency in this writing genre.

My Teaching

I knew that teaching an argumentative text type essay will be one genre that I needed to teach my learners as part of the writing standard that I offered my learners. I felt I was not clear on a particular model I needed to focus on in teaching this argumentative type essay.

Toulmin Model:

Claim (assertion to be proved) - grounds (evidence & facts to help support the claim - warrant (assumption that links the grounds to the claim, implied or stated explicitly)

Hypothesis 6

If I use corrective feedback to help learners identify how to improve their writing, then learners will know how to improve and increase their writing proficiency.

My Teaching

I do this a lot in my teaching as I always use it as a strategy to teach students individually using their errors to teach them the right way to write and to use the language features. 

I find this to be an effective strategy which helps the students progress in their writing. This strategy helps the development of critical & clear thinking in my learners.

I should try to navigate around these hypotheses and find models and strategies which can make my teaching more effective for the learning of my learners.  

TAI # 13 Findings about my Teaching Inquiry

Present findings from this inquiry about your teaching. Ensure qualitative data includes rich descriptions of your teaching and quantitative data is clearly presented.

In this post I will present the findings from my inquiry about my teaching. First, my learner's writing difficulties from their perceptions and compared to what I do or not do in my current teaching of writing.

Table 1 shows the six top items which are writing difficulties from the learners' perceptions. The strengths and areas for development in my teaching are also shown.

Table 1: Top Items from Learners’ Perceptions
Psychological/Emotional
Difficulties from learners’ perceptions		What I do in my teaching regarding this difficulty
I like to share my English writing with my English teachers..		A strength - This is a requirement that students share their work with me & other teachers for comments and marking. This indicates that my learners are comfortable in letting me read & give feedback on their work. Should continue to use this.
I like to use computer technology (such e-mail, online discussion or internet) in my writing class		A strength - This is the main media used by students in their writing & for feedback from teachers on their writing. Students are comfortable and have skills to use this technology. Should continue to use this.
I learn to write better from the corrective feedback given by my teacher on my writing		A strength - Students write their essay drafts, submit and  I use corrective feedback consistently to identify errors, areas for improvement and by doing that students learn. It shows here that they learn better from this strategy. Should continue to use this.
Psychological/Emotional
Difficulties from learners’ perceptions		What I do in my teaching regarding this difficulty
I have anxiety about learning in English		I constantly give words of encouragement to students. I need to develop more strategies to help my learners not to be anxious about their learning of English. They need success.
Cognitive/Linguistic
Difficulties from learners’ perceptions		What I do in my teaching regarding this difficulty
When I write in English, I stop many times to think about what to write.		This could be a lack of general knowledge and ideas on topics, could be lack of vocabulary to use in writing, lack of knowing language skills for writing. Develop strategies to help in those areas.
I have trouble focusing ideas (arguments) that are related to the points that I am trying to make.		This could be to do with critical thinking and reasoning; lack of structure in writing; again lack of vocabulary for expression. Important to develop strategies to help this lack.

Table 2 below shows some more cognitive and linguistic writing difficulties from the learners' perceptions and the way I use them to self-observe my own teaching.

Table 2: Next to the Top Items from Learner’s Perceptions
Cognitive and Linguistic Items
Ideas	Grammar	Vocabulary
- I have difficulty generating ideas for my writing - I have difficulty writing a thesis statement. - I feel that I have trouble writing logically and systematically in English  - I have difficulty organizing ideas.  - When writing an English essay,  I have trouble writing an introduction, some paragraphs to make my points, and a conclusion.	- I write short and simple sentences. - I am aware of what sentence fragments are, but I still use them. - I know what run-on sentences are, but I still use them. - I have difficulty using prepositions(such as on, in, at) - I have difficulties using verb tenses within a paragraph.	I- I have difficulty with word choice - I have difficulty spelling correctly. - I don’t have enough time to finish my English writing exams or assignments in a limited time period.
My Teaching	My Teaching	My Teaching
The 5 items above are to do with ideas and structuring ideas in a paragraph as well as in an essay.  In my teaching I have done work on developing and structuring ideas, but I feel I need to do more work and deepen those skills. Again there should be more work on reading about the key topic or them to help the generating of their ideas. Thesis statement should be a focus.	In my teaching I have briefly done some work on sentence writing and types of sentences - simple, compound, complex.  I feel, however, that this should be a continuing practice. There should be a focus on run-on and fragmented sentences. There should be activities of use of verb tenses (a continuing problem for students) and  prepositions.	I don’t think that I have spent enough time on vocabulary acquisition. There should be strategies to provide subject-related vocabulary to be used in writing. There should be linking and connecting words.
Psychological and Emotional
Difficulties from learners’ perceptions	My Teaching
- I have low confidence in English writing - I am motivated to learn English in the future	To me, it is expected that ELL students are bound to have low confidence in English writing because it’s an area lacking for them. But the motivation and their forward-looking is positive. There should be a focus on motivation in my teaching.
Social and Cultural
Difficulties from learners’ perceptions	My Teaching
I feel comfortable with sharing my English writing with other ELL students	I do not do a lot of peer review in my class, especially allowing students to assess and comment on each others’ work - I have my doubts. But may be to use the strategy for pair-share and discussion.

TAI #12 Inquiry to my Teaching

Plan and conduct detailed inquiry into specific aspects of your current teaching that are relevant to the hypotheses you identified in the literature.

I decided to start off this inquiry into my current teaching by doing a self-observation on whether what I do in my current teaching relate to the writing difficulties my learners perceived and identified. To do that I need to use the qualitative information - a form of student voice - which I have collected from the 'Perception Toward English Writing Survey'. In this survey, my inquiry learners identified the difficulties they have when learning to write in English. Hopefully, I would be able to identify some formative information about strengths in my current teaching or areas for development. The areas I need to develop should be used as baseline information at the end of the year to provide evidence of shifts in my teaching.

With this self-observation, I am hopeful as well that I would be able to identify aspects of my teaching which are relevant to hypotheses that I identified in literature. These hypotheses are:

• If I know my learners’ difficulties in writing from their own perspectives and address them in my teaching, they will learn more about writing and increase their proficiency. 

• If I know my learners’ cognitive/linguistic, psychological/emotional, or social/cultural difficulties in writing and address them in my teaching, they will learn more about writing and increase their proficiency.

Another tool I would use in this inquiry is to do another self-observation on whether some aspects of my current teaching are relevant to the other hypotheses which I identified in the literature. Again these formative information should be able to identify strengths or areas to develop in my teaching. These hypotheses are:

• If I target my teaching of writing on particular genre-types required and desired by the academic department and use explicit genre-based pedagogy, my learners will acquire the related skills and increase their proficiency.

• If I use explicit scaffolding approach in teaching writing to my learners, they will acquire writing skills better when learning related specific skills through scaffolded steps.

• If I use the the Toulmin Model in teaching argumentative essay, learners will be able to increase their proficiency in this writing genre.

• If I use corrective feedback to help learners identify how to improve their writing, then learners will know areas for improvement thus increasing their proficiency.

With this plan to inquire into my current teaching, I am hoping that I would identify strengths to be reinforced for effective learning of my learners. More importantly, I look forward to identify areas for development which should help me shift my teaching in directions that would improve in my learners' learning of writing.

TAI #11 Formation of Hypotheses

Explain how literature helped the formation of hypotheses 

After my literature search, my feelings about teaching writing to English learners were verified - that teaching writing to English language learners is difficult and will take time. However, I found the following evidence-based ideas very helpful for the effectiveness of teaching writing to English Language learners. They helped me in the formation of hypotheses for my inquiry.

• The importance of understanding the difficulties the learners face from their perspectives when teaching them writing.  

• To meet the ELL students' writing needs, the composition teaching activities should include not only cognitive/linguistic aspects of writing, but also psychological/emotional and socio/cultural aspects of writing. 

• One of the main goals of teaching writing to ESL students is to have a focused target on skills required and desired of the students and to produce a well-structured piece of writing which is recognized and accepted in their academic department.    

• The use of genre-based instructions framework may support ELL students' development of advanced literacy practices, therefore explicit instruction and teaching of certain writing genres required of them can be beneficial.

• The use of corrective feedback for ELL students does have a positive impact on improving writing skills and helps to motivate students as well.

• The positive and favourable effects of scaffolding of the teaching and learning of writing among weak ESL learners.

• The teaching of argumentative essay to English Language learners based on Toulmin Model for Arqument - Data, Claim, Wallant and other approaches to argument pedagogy.

Based on these findings from literature search, I feel that my hypotheses will be multi-faceted. This will be appropriate and necessary for teaching writing as a complex multifaceted skill. The following table shows hypotheses for my inquiry.

My Hypotheses
1)	If I know my learners’ difficulties in writing from their own perspectives and design my instruction to address them as needs, then they will learn more about writing and increase their proficiency.
2)	If I know my learners’ cognitive/linguistic, psychological/emotional, or social/cultural difficulties in writing and address them in my teaching, then they will learn more about writing and increase their proficiency.
3)	If I target my teaching of writing on particular genre-types required and desired by the academic department at school and use explicit genre-based pedagogy in instruction, then my learners will acquire the related writing skills in those genres and increase their writing proficiency.
4)	If I use an explicit scaffolding approach in teaching writing to my learners, then they will have a chance to better understand and acquire specific skills of writing proficiency.
5)	If I use the Toulmin Model as base for teaching the purpose and structure of argumentative essay, then learners will be able to increase their proficiency in this writing genre.
6)	If I use corrective feedback to help learners identify how to improve their writing, then learners will know how to improve and increase their writing proficiency.