Salama observed English language classes at a school for blind girls. In the first class, the teacher focused mainly on homework, grammar lessons, and reading. Salama felt the teacher could have handled correcting homework errors more tactfully. Students participated actively but the teacher talked most of the time. The second class lacked preparation and wasted time trying to get technology working. Neither class incorporated group work or activities to fully engage students. Overall, Salama observed a lack of student-centered techniques and opportunities for collaborative learning.

1. Salama’s Report of Class Observations plus remaining parts of this interesting experience:
Report of Class Observations
Trainee or teacher observation is an excellent way of professional development because it
provides opportunities for more experience and it improves the quality of teaching through
criticizing and being critiqued. In this paper, I will describe three classes, 40 minutes each, that I
attended at Al-Nor Wa-Al-Amal School for blind girls on March 14th 2010. Two of these classes
were taught by Mr Ibrahim Mazen in the first secondary class and the last one by Mr Abdel-Aziz
in the second secondary class; both classes used a course book called “Hello” by Simon Haines
and Don Dallas. Before attending the classes, I arranged to meet both teachers and agreed to
observe their classes focusing on student teacher interaction and use of available materials. I did
observe these two things but I also took notes of several other aspects.
In the first two successive classes given by Mr Ibrahim, the teacher mainly did three things:
dealing with previous homework, explaining a grammar lesson highlighting the difference
between “hard” and “hardly”, and doing a reading task.
Regarding the first part of lesson, I was impressed when the teacher asked one of (blind) girls to
collect the homework; it was some sort of empowering or assigning roles in the class which
fosters the principles of motivation and autonomy. The teacher then examined their homework
silently and gave feedback for each student’s homework highlighting their mistakes and
providing corrections. The teacher’s good command of the language use was evident; however,
correcting error in front of the students must have drastically embarrassed them. The teacher here
focused on cognitive content and downplayed or even undermined the affective side doing harm
to both their self-confidence and ego. He could have taken notes of common errors and discussed
them without saying who made them, and as for individual errors he could have arranged for
after class conferences to deal with them. What I only liked during this correction task was that
he asked some of the girls to do self and peer correction, again fostering both autonomy and
collaborative learning. I noticed that, apart from focusing on two students whose pronunciation
was good, the students all participated actively particularly in the final reading task. During the
grammar section of the class and while the teacher was explaining the difference between “hard”
and “hardly”, one of the girls wanted to ask the teacher a question but he asked her to wait. This
happened twice and the girl ended up asking no question. It is possible that her questions had
been answered, but other scenarios were possible too. The teacher who might have desired no
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2. interruption for the flow of his explanation could have asked the girl whether her questions were
answered. He could have asked her to write down her question and ask her to read it after his
explanation. Unfortunately, some of this teacher’s pedagogical decisions in the class did not take
the affective side into account. The teacher started the grammar section asking the students what
the difference between the words “hard” and “hardly” could be and he then gave several
examples, some of which were in the student’s book.
The teacher reflected a good sense of humor in the class, but he excessively used Arabic (L1) and
almost adopted a single teaching approach which is the grammar translation using a lot of
metalanguage in both English and Arabic. Using terminology such as tense and auxiliary verbs in
both English and Arabic must have been confusing for the poor blind girls.
I noticed that in the classes I attended in this school there was neither pair nor group work; the
poor girls did not move at all which caused a lot of boredom in the class and prevented the
students from assisting one another and from capitalizing on the benefits of co-constructive
learning. I was surprised when the teacher later told me that one professor from Ain Shams
University conducted some research in this school and experimented on collaborative learning
and the teachers were amazed then at the benefits they and the students reaped as a result of
applying both pair and group work learning strategies. I wonder why he and the other teachers
whom I observed ignored this principle while I was attending their classes.
I also noticed that the teacher talked most of the time. Students did participate but their
contributions altogether could be like 10% percent of the class and the remaining 90% was
teacher talking time. When discussed later with the teacher, he attributed their minimal talking
time to their disabilities, which I totally disagreed with because theirs is a visual not a speech
disability. There were some questions in the grammar part in the student’s book which the
teacher read. He could have asked the students to read as a way of maximizing their talking time.
They only read from their books in the last reading section. The teacher provided several
examples that were not in the book, which proved that he was well prepared. The examples were
funny, life-like and relevant to this group of learners. I was surprised he did not encourage the
students to come up with several examples too and give them credit for that. Near the end of the
grammar section, the teacher asked the students to state the grammar rule for “hard” and “hardly”
to make sure they had understood it to the full. He even added some relevant collocations such as
“hard worker/ hard working” and I could hear several students take notes using their Braille
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3. typewriters. It was clear most of the girls were intrinsically motivated and they needed some
guidance to enhance their strategic learning. For instance, one girl asked the teacher for advice
regarding difficulties she was facing in understanding native speakers. The teacher advised her to
listen to the radio, speak English with her peers and try to imitate native speakers. His advice was
relevant to speaking rather than listening concerns.
The teacher’s techniques in dealing with several things were usually evolving round ease rather
than challenge. For example, in pronunciation he got the girls to chorally repeat new word and in
grammar he used translation and L1 most of the time. He even answered the students’ questions
regarding any trouble they had in Arabic. Despite that, it was obvious that there was rapport as
the girls accepted the teacher’s advice. One of the students asked the teacher for help regarding a
presentation about English idioms she would give in the English party. This clearly showed her
motivation to expand her vocabulary.
The teacher did not link the three parts of the lesson well. I felt like they were separate and un-
sequenced. The teacher then asked three girls to prepare the present tenses (simple , progressive
and perfect) to explain them to their friends in class and he also asked the other girls to prepare
these structures to prepare questions for their friends.
The other class I attended for Mr. Abdel-Aziz in second secondary shared most of the negatives
things mentioned above, particularly the lack of group or pair work. I discovered that the classes
were equipped with computers for all the students. The teacher who was explaining unit 13 in
their “Hello” book asked the girls at the beginning of his class to turn on their computers but the
purpose was not clear because they did not use it until later. The teacher asked one of the girls to
play a particular file on his own computer but she failed to. He left the class for almost five
minutes to bring the cassette player from the teachers’ room and when he came back he spent
more time trying to locate the wanted section for that particular lesson. Some girls helped the
teacher with this task, but others were not kept busy doing something useful. Unlike the previous
teacher, this reflected lack of preparation. Half way while the teacher was trying to start the
cassette at the right moment, the file on the computer started playing the whole listening section
of this course and the teacher said it was a good idea for them to listen to native speakers.
However it was not a guided task as they were not assessed on what they listened to. We could
not be absolutely sure they were all listening it was a way of passing the time until listening could
be done.
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4. As the students were listening, they were Braille- reading the matching passage , which helped
them a lot in understanding words pronounced fast by native speakers. The teacher paused the
listening several times and provided several explanations. I think that all pauses were beneficial
except for the first one because the teacher elaborated on the history of computers, which was
off-topic. Perhaps he wanted to have a warm-up or activate their schemata, but they were
confused and hummed their disapproval regarding this part of the lesson because they could not
see how it could be linked to the rest of the lesson. It was weird that the teacher did neither pre-
nor post reading comprehension activities. He orally checked their listening comprehension after
every pause he made. Fostering the principle of meaningful learning, the teacher encouraged the
girls to log on the internet and read (using JAWS) some news. The teacher said he would bring
them a dummy spider or a toy to let them touch it and imagine how it looked like. Neither this
teacher nor the other one used realia in their explanations. He only promised he would bring one
item to class the next time. The learners have other senses such as touching smelling and tasting
in addition to their cognitive maturity which the teachers in this school did not invest. The only
sense they developed was listening, they only method teachers use to channel their ideas to the
students. This teacher had good class discipline except when he left the class. He also used the
computers in class, unlike the other teacher in whose class all computer sets were wrapped in
bed-sheets as I was told by students in the break.
In conclusion, I really benefited from these two observations as I will try on my teaching to
avoid the caveats these teachers suffered from and I intend to minimize teacher talking time, use
all their available senses and make the best use of whatever they have in their classrooms.
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5. Section 2
Salama Teaching EFL
In this section, Salama presents four sample activities for what he did while teaching. For more on what
Salama did, four sample lesson plans are given in Appendix A.
Activity 1
The activity is called “What noise is this?” and Salama did to achieve two learning objectives: getting
the learners to use vocabularly related to inventions and a/an articles correctly. Salama downloaded ten
audio files for noises of inventions like clock, telephone, car, train, radio, television and computer.
He gave very clear instructions asking the learners to listen to each file and guess the noise, and then
they can type it using Braille. The students naturally in providing the answers used indefinite articles
saying for instance, “a car, a radio, an airplane, ..etc.”
This way Salama used technology and minimized TTT; he also praised the learners’ good answers using
English all the time. He actually cleverly extended this simple activity by asking students to work in pair
putting the inventions they brailed in order of importance in their own opinions. Later he used their
answers to introduce expressions of agreement and disagreement because each pair put the inventions in
a different order. This extension maximized the learners’ talking time, increased their motivation and
participation and their confidence as a result of using English meaningfully and authentically to talk
about themselves.
Activity 2
This activity is called “Guessing Game” which Salama did with three learning objectives in mind: Use
vocabulary related to food, ask and answer questions and use a/an articles. Salama brought a boiled egg,
banana, watermelon, onion and orange juice to class. He put the banana and the egg in a bag and asked a
volunteer to touch one object in the bag and identify it. The learners’ classmates would ask questions to
identify this object and the volunteer would provide the answers. The girl who guessed correctly was
praised and given that object as a gift; Salama praised them all for their participation and guessing; he
did the same thing with the watermelon but without using a bag. The number of questions asked plus the
answers provided good opportunity for using the language and minimizing TTT.
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6. As for the onion, Salama said he would cut an object and the learners were supposed to identify it
through smelling, which they all did. It is worth mentioning here that the learner did not simply practice
the words introduced but also learned and practice several other related words. For instance, with
watermelon, they learned “round, green, red, black, seed, fruit …etc.” With the orange juice, Salma
asked the learners to taste it. This way he made use of their available senses, added interest to his class,
raised motivation, used real objects, maximized the learner participation, encouraged collaborative
learning and minimized TTT.
Activity 3
It was actually a mini-activity called “Pre-reading vocabulary presentation” in which Salama aimed at
students’ learning and using violence-related vocabulary. Much of this vocabulary is abstract in nature
and using real objects is not possible. Salama decided to use the learner’s background knowledge
through displaying segments of very famous movies. One of the popular cinema figures in Egypt is
Mohamed Saad and Salama played part of his famous movie “ Elli Bali Balek/ What we are both
thinking of”. Salama wanted to introduce the word “criminal” and he successfully did so.
Activity 4
This activity is called “move and match” and Salama did it to achieve one learning objective: getting the
learners to use vocabulary related to violence before doing a reading task. The word he wanted the
learners to learn were 9; he designed 9 small flashcard with the words and 9 larger flashcards with the
definitions. The flashcards were typed on Braille on one side and large print on the other; he put each
flashcard in an envelope and scrambled them asking each learner to take only one envelope and read its
content. Each learner would naturally have either a word or a definition and their task is to move around
the class from learner to learner asking questions to match the words with their definitions. This way
Salama got them to meaningfully move catering for kinesthetic learners, raised their interest and
minimized TTT.
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7. Section 3
After the Unique ESL Teaching Experience
Two main things happened after this unique teaching experience: feedback was given and
recommendations were made. Salama received feedback from five different sources: his professor,
mentor, MA colleagues, visually impaired learners and himself.
Let’s start with self-reflection, below is a self-reflection report Salama wrote after one of his classes:
Reflection on my own teaching : Salama Mohamed Salama
Introduction
Self-observation is a very effective technique for teachers of English to continually improve the
quality of their instruction. Before I experienced self-observation, which will be described below,
I personally believed that observation always required two parties: the observer and the observed
teacher. My belief was based on the fact that one person can not effectively do two complex
things at the same time: teach and observe his/her own teaching. However, thanks to technology
in form of audio/video recorders and computers, it is now possible to reflect on one’s own
teaching, analyze it and make sound judgments regarding this teaching in order to gradually
improve it. In the paragraphs below, I will discuss one lesson that I taught to 12 blind and
visually impaired teenage girls in their first secondary grade. I will describe and then comment on
a reading lesson taught in 45 minutes. I wanted to record the lesson to allow me (with the help of
others) to see the lesson several times and analyze it thoroughly, but the school principal did not
permit me to record anything. I had to write down as much as I could as soon as the lesson was
over. On my comments I will focus on three points: using any available and possible aids to
facilitate comprehension, teacher/ student and student / student interaction and time management.
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8. Description
The lesson on “Hello 7” unit 14 was mainly a reading lesson about Jules Verne’s famous
novel “Around the World in Eighty Days” and I wanted to start the class in a friendly manner, so
at the warm-up time I talked about how I move from one place to another and invited several
students to do the same. My purpose was to introduce them to as many means of transportation as
possible because the reading of that lesson included several ones. I was happy that the students
could mention several means such as “in a taxi, by bus, by train, by car, by airplane, by bike, by
air … etc.” During that warm-up stage, two things happened: students made mistakes about using
the appropriate preposition before the means of transportation and one girl asked me about how
to say “tuktuk” in English. As for the latter point, I told the student that “tuktuk” is not an Arabic
word and it is possible that it is also “tuktuk’” in English. I asked her to allow me to research and
tell her more about this point next time I visit their class, which I did. I later told her that “tuktuk,
three-wheeler and rickshaw” could be used to refer to the means of transportation she asked
about. As for the use of prepositions, I noticed that some students used “by” and “in”
interchangeably. I explained to the students in general that there are three prepositions used
before means of transportation “on, in and by”. I told them that “by” is followed immediately by
the means with no word in between. I avoided using metalanguage and gave them several
examples for each preposition to make sure they notice the difference.
Because I noticed that some new words in the passage have easy opposites that students
knew, I decided to Braille-type the words and their opposites on small cards and give them to the
students asking them to move about to discover who has the opposite of the word/s each one had.
I included easy examples among the new words to motivate them and help them match the new
words easily. They moved several times in the class and sounded like they enjoyed the activity.
This activity took double the time I was planning for it.
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9. There were other new and difficult words in the reading that could not be introduced in
the same way, so I used some audio files and contextualized these words using examples and I
was happy that the students could identify their meanings. To make sure the students really
understood the words, I got them to play another matching game. I gave each student two cards: a
small one including a word and a bigger one including the definition of another word. I asked
them to move about and help each other match each small card with the big one that includes the
suitable definition. I could know that they knew the meanings when they matched the cards and
translated some of these words in Arabic (the L1 for all of these students).
I then told the students that they were going to listen to the recorded reading, then read the
passage at their own pace to answer two questions which I used as listening/reading objectives. It
took them some time, but they answered the questions correctly. I was planning to do two post-
reading exercises but the class time was up and I had to ask them to do these exercises as
homework.
Comments
I think that the warm-up was somehow useful, but if time had been managed more
effectively, it would have been more successful. I think I have a tendency to overcorrect in the
class because I spent almost 5 minutes responding to some students’ wrong use of prepositions
before means of transportation even though it was not one of the learning objectives of this
lesson. It was good that I did not use metalanguage, and I affectively dealt with this situation
without ignoring the cognitive aspect. I think I was influenced by Brown’s principle of
interlanguage as I did not address the students who made the preposition mistake so as not to
negatively influence them and I provided the students with several examples to make sure they
cognitively identified what is correct. However, the timing and duration of this correction was not
appropriate. I think I somehow honestly and professionally dealt with the student who asked me
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10. for the English translation for an Arabic word. It was ok to research and give this girl and all the
class; however, I should have developed strategic learning and just guided the student showing
her how to access information of this sort.
Again in the activity that followed, I could not control the time and I spent more time than
I should. Despite this drawback, I managed it use good aids in form of Braille-typed cards that
the students tried and managed to match each word with its opposite. The students were really
motivated and happy to move about in the class and as I was monitoring them, I noticed their
enthusiasm. They even asked me to let them keep the cards. I think every activity usually took
more time because of their disability and because of logistics as their class was not large enough
for them to move easily bearing in mind their visual disability.
I was glad I got them involved again in playing a matching game in vocabulary. I also
used Braille-typed cards of different sizes after using some audio files, some of which are taken
from Arabic comic movies. I noticed they were very happy as I was using the computer and
audio files. I should say that using such materials maximized effective and meaningful interaction
between me and them and definitely among themselves. It is true they did not use English all the
time but their use of English increased compared to the first time I visited them. The only
disadvantage of applying these technology-assisted meaningful and communicative student-
centered activities is time management. The effect was so obvious because I could not do all the
activities I planned to do and had to ask them to do two exercises as homework.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it was really good practice for me to observe myself and reflect on what I
did. At least I discovered that some of my teaching procedures are enlightened and based on
informed approaches and readings. For example, the way I addressed the preposition error, the
way I responded to the girl who had a question about a new word, avoiding the use of
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11. metalanguage, using Braille-typed cards, using technology, enhancing learners motivation,
encouraging collaborative learning in the matching games, encouraging interaction with and
among the students and developing learners’’ autonomy in finding the answers to several
questions on their own. However from this observation I discovered that I really need to plan for
overcoming the time management obstacle and I need to further enhance strategic learning as
well. As a result of discovering some positive and negative things in my teaching, I am now fully
convinced that self-observation and self-evaluation are very useful for professional development
in the field of English language teaching.
Salama received feedback from his professor in form of recorded audio files and had received a lot of
feedback from his mentor through face-ta-face discussions, telephone talks and emails. Salama also
received feedback from his colleagues through an activity called critical friendship circles. Four
colleagues would meet after their teaching practice classes; each would talk about his or her performance
in addition to the problems and challenges faced and then each would be critiqued and advised to
improve the teaching quality. Below is Salama’s description of one of the critical friendship circles CFCs
he attended:
A Description of a Critical Friendship Circle
Introduction
The practice of critical friendship circles is highly useful for both teachers and students. It is both
constructive and corrective because it includes both warm and cool feedback regarding teaching
performance. What is so professional and agreeable about CFC is that it has a very well-
organized structure in which all participants know before they start doing it what they will do
exactly, so there is no or very little room for misunderstanding or hard feelings. I think that the
role of the facilitator or coordinator is the trickiest. In my CFC team, it was Mariam who played
this role. She was like a nice “tyrant” whose instructions must be followed because she helped
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12. the process run smoothly. The rest of the CFC is collaborative learning because we all learn from
our experiences and mistakes.
I did not practice CFC in 511 only, but in several courses in my MA TEFL program. For
example in 540 ESP/ English for Business, I remember all course participants were involved in
this practice which was extremely useful. It improved my presentation, teaching and oral skills.
Due to its success, I decided to apply CFC in the school I manage not only in language meetings
and sessions involving subjects such as English, German and French but also in other content
areas. At first, teachers were reluctant to criticize one another, however after some sessions they
realized how useful it is and started to find it interesting.
CFC in 511
I attended and participated in five CFC sessions: four in my own CFC team and another session
held by another CFC team. I will describe in detail the CFC session in which I acted as the
presenter. I intentionally selected a problem in my teaching with which I have a long and bad
history. This problem is “time management”; I thought three colleagues with different
experiences could help me with this problem. I also thought that what I learned in 511 could help
me with this problem, but I was disappointed as the problem endured. I related to my CFC team
members my experience teaching 12 visually impaired first secondary girl students. I told them
about the materials that I prepared before teaching this class. I intentionally decided to tap on
their other senses, so much of the materials included media files to address their hearing. I also
brought to class real objects to address their touching, tasting and smelling senses. For example, I
brought to class with me toys, fruits, vegetables and other relevant materials. However, each
activity and task that the students participated in took almost double the time I was planning. My
CFC team members started with probing questions focusing on this particular group of learners.
For example they asked about how I planned to raise their motivation and how I planned to check
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13. their written work; which was a real challenge for me because these learners use the Braille
system in their writing, which I know nothing about. What added to this challenge is that I
mainly use the computer in my writing and most of the girls are technophobic. It was either to
learn Braille or change their attitude about using technology, two tough choices for me. As a way
out, I asked one my friends to help me prepare Braille materials for them, read for me their
written tasks and help me type to them my feedback in Braille as well.
The probing question section was followed by positive and warm feedback. Heba said she
liked it when I identified the problem of time management stating that the first step in both
analyzing and solving any problem is to know the problem itself. Norhan praised my courage
when I discussed this problem with my professor, Dr Wachob, before the professor herself
discussed it. Mariam liked my preparation and the materials I brought to my classes. She wished
she could have attended any of my classes to see how these learners reacted. As a joke, she said
the materials must have cost me a lot of money.
In the cool feedback section, they mainly made suggestions such as running a pre-
diagnostic test to pre-assess the students’ proficiency level to time everything appropriately. They
also suggested that I read their school book very well and stick to it as it was mainly prepared for
this particular group of learners. It was Braille typed and they said I could have asked my friend
to read and describe everything in it for me. They set a challenge for me which could solve my
problem of time management. They suggested choosing materials and tasks that would not take
this group of beginner level learners much time.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I am grateful to both my professor and colleagues as they helped me get involved
in this very helpful and practical technique. It gave me the opportunity to voice my opinion
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14. regarding others performance and it allowed me to get a lot of valuable advice from my
colleagues. As a reaction to the CFC sessions I attended, I plan to apply what my colleagues
suggested. I am also influence regarding their suggestion to other colleagues’ teaching
performance. I also plan to apply other useful suggestions. What I am sure about is that I will
carry on practicing CFC broadly in my teaching later on to continually improve my teaching
quality and help other reap its amazing benefits. Finally, I do recommend this CFC practice to all
TEFLers.
The last and the most important source of feedback, according to Salama, is the learners themselves.
When Salama was done with his teaching practicum, he asked the learners to anonymously Braille their
comments on his performance mentioning both positive and negative sides. To help them express
themselves freely and effectively, he said they could write the comments in Arabic. Ten out of eleven
girls wrote their comments; they liked Salama’s use of technology, making them participate, the type of
tasks, use of English and diversity of teaching methods. As for the negative points, some of them swore
there was nothing bad at all. One of the learners said the main negative point is that they do not have
enough of Salama’s classes.
To summarize the feedback points Salama garnered from different sources, positive remarks include
using English, raising motivation, using all possible senses and background knowledge, utilizing
technology, pair-work and group-work tasks. However Salama needed to work on mainly two things :
activity timing and time management in addition to teacher talking time.
Recommendations Made
- Using diagnostic tests to pace activities
- Avoiding overcorrection
- Using interesting activities near the end of late classes
- Planning how to monitor learners’ work
- Creating online social networking (such as Facebook) to maximize learning time outside the
classroom and enhance learner autonomy
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15. What Has Changed in Salama’s Teaching after This Experience
Below is a description by Salama explaining how he change after that unique ESL teaching experience
and after doing the related course:
Successful language teachers are dynamic and ready to change so as to perform better. I admit
several changes have occurred to my teaching attitudes and practices during my MA TEFL years
and particularly during this Spring as a result of the 511 teaching practicum. In this paper, I will
describe some of the major changes I have experienced.
The first and the most important change that I experience is that I gained my first teaching
experience. Before doing the 511 course, I used to look at teaching as an outsider or an observer.
I read about and studied teaching theories and several topics related to pedagogy. I discussed
teaching ideas with the teachers in the school I run during meetings. I only minimally and
informally taught some conversation and grammar lessons to the math and science teachers in the
school I run. However, I did not know what a challenge the teaching profession is until I did
teach a class of first secondary girls in a school for visually impaired students. It was then that I
started to experiment what I read about before. My ideas about both pair and group work and
their great benefits were confirmed when I discovered how helpful they were for these students.
Through group work and pair work activities, I realized that teachers are not the only
source of learning in the language classroom and that learners could assist one another if paired
or grouped appropriately. The girls I was teaching told me in a feedback session that they liked it
better when they worked together. My ideas about collaborative learning were thus changed.
As a principal in Zohor El-Yasmin language school, I used to believe that teachers-
including language teachers- should control the class and allow little or no noise at all; therefore,
students’ moving around in the class was really irritating for me. However, this is totally wrong. I
15

16. found out that I was wrong not only as a result of my reading that some learners are kinesthetic
but as a result of applying this in El-Nor Wa El-Amal School. I was told by my mentor that when
I got the students to move about in the class while doing meaningful activities, they got
motivated and learned better. Now I think that as long as students’ moving in the class is
purposeful, the teacher still reflects a high level of class management. I myself changed my
attitude toward the teacher’s moving about in the classroom. I used to think that teachers should
stand in front of all the students who sit in rows and columns to make himself visible to all
students. That is totally wrong and annoying at the same time. I discovered how annoying this
could be when I taught 12 visually impaired girls sitting in a small classroom; I was deprived of
moving about to monitor, encourage and help the students when necessary. Now I strongly
believe that the teacher somehow should be near every student in the class.
My concept about the importance of preparation was also changed because I was teaching
visually impaired students who could use Braille but I use the computer instead of Braille. It was
very interesting to prepare materials for them that only them could read it. I learned that my
teaching should be student-centered and that the students must know why they are doing a
particular activity. I became more convinced that technology applications in language learning
are becoming very important particularly when teaching students with certain disabilities.
Again as a school principal, I used to believe that teachers should stick to the school book,
but now I have realized that motivated and successful teachers design their own materials to
adapt to particular learners.
At the beginning of 511, we were asked to attend Nile TESOL conference, and my
concept about continual teacher development was definitely changed. I now believe that I should
seize every possible opportunity to add to my teaching performance.
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17. The CFC practice that I was involved in changed my idea about being criticized by my
colleagues. I now strongly believe that peer teaching and observation are essential to improve
teaching quality. Other changes that occurred to me include my view about teaching grammar
and about error correction. I now believe that grammar is better taught inductively and that not all
error should be corrected. Learning objectives should be heeded all the time regarding any
teaching decision made during my teaching.
In conclusion, I can honestly say that my teaching performance, methods, and decisions
have witnessed a tremendous change because of the 511 course.
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18. Appendix A
Salama’s Sample Lesson Plans
Lesson plan 1
Things to be observed: Teacher talking time and use of available facilities for blind learners
Tuesday 23rd March 2010
7th period
AlNor Wa Alamal School
First secondary
Unit 13
Lesson 2 SB page 82 + WB page 80
Goal
Students will become familiar with some basic uses of both definite and indefinite articles.
Objectives
Terminal objectives
 Students will produce at least 5 sentences in both written and spoken forms using the articles
"a/n" and "the" correctly.
 Students will be able to identify 7 basic rules for definite and indefinite articles and match them
with example sentences.
 Students will be able to tell the difference in meaning between definite and indefinite articles by
examining 3 pairs of sentences that are identical in all words except in articles.
Enabling objectives
 Students will be able to revise what they have studied in the previous lesson and relate to the
main grammar point discussed in this lesson, which is "articles".
 Students will learn and practice using the definite article with inventions.
 Students will learn and practice using the indefinite article with jobs.
 Students will learn and practice using the indefinite article with things mentioned for the first
time and the definite article with things already known through playing a guessing game.
 Students will be able to notice different uses of articles in a listening context.
 Students will be able to engage in real life conversations using articles.
18

19. Materials and equipment
Students' book
Work-book
Braille typed sheets
Computer with assisting software for blind and visually impaired learners
Speakers
Realia such as fruit and egg
Sound files
Supplementary soft copies of exercises in Word files
Procedures
Warm-up
1. Remember inventions (2 minutes)
Teacher reviews the students' preferred inventions and draws their attention to the use of “the” before
inventions.
Example inventions: TV, Radio, Computer, Plane, Train, Car …etc.
Activity 1
2. What noise is this? (6 minutes)
Teacher plays some audio files and students guess what these noises represent. The teacher draws
attention to using “a/an” when we talk about one out of many.
3. Just one job (2 minutes)
Teacher then talks about relatives and friend’s jobs; he also asks students what jobs they like to do in the
future. This is done to elicit the use of “a/an” before jobs and to also mean “one out of many”.
19

20. Activity 2
4. Guessing game (5 mins)
Teacher plays the guessing game with the students; the purpose here is to capitalize on the blind
students’ other 4 senses (hearing, touching, smelling and tasting) and background cognitive schemata.
T: I have some things my bag now and I want you to guess what they are. The first thing is a kind of
vegetable, I will cut into small pieces, you smell it and tell me what it is.
S: An onion.
T: Excellent. An onion, one out of many. “an” is used before this noun. Time for tasting , you will not
eat the onion or drink its juice, don’t worry. It is fruit this time. You taste the juice and tell me what it is.
S: Orange.
T: Yes, it is the juice of an orange. Just one orange, an orange. One out of many. Do we know which
orange?
S: No.
T: We did not see the person who made it into juice. An orange, any orange. “an” comes before
unknown things. Now something else; it is not a vegetable or fruit. Not a kind of fruity this time. It is
white from outside and yellow from inside. Birds produce it. It can be easily broken. We can eat it boiled
or fried. What is it?
S: It is an egg.
T: Excellent. (T explains more about “an” and draws students’ attention that all the previous three noun
begin with a vowel and that’s why we did not use “a” which will be used for the next one)Now
something else. Back to fruit. I want to tell you that my bag is very big to hold this thing. I want you to
touch it and tell me what it is. This fruit is like a big ball, green from outside and red from inside. It is
good to eat in summer. We have to use the knife to cut it open. It has small black seeds inside too. What
is it?
20

21. S: A watermelon.
T: Excellent. Which one of them is the biggest, smallest…..etc
Then the teacher points out that the first time we talked about these things, we use “a/an” but once they
have become know, we used “the”. We also use it before adjectives ending in “-est”
The teacher can ask the students to count how many “the” do we have in each of the following
sentences:
“The egg is the smallest thing.”
“The watermelon is the biggest thing.”
Teacher points what that the second “the” is used before superlative adjectives.
An adjective can be simple such as “nice”, “big”, “easy” describing one person or thing.
Fatima is a nice girl.
This is a big class.
This is an easy lesson. (Notice the use of “a/n” here.)
An adjective that is used to compare, compare one thing or person to another is not a simple adjective, it
is a comparative (from compare) adjective.
Fatima is nicer than Fola.
This class is a bigger than my class.
This lesson is easy. (Notice the use of no article.)
An adjective can be use to say that some one is super, super when we compare only one to many. We
call this adjective superlative (from super)
21

22. Fatima is the nicest girl here.
This class is the biggest class in the school.
This lesson is the easiest grammar lesson. (Notice the use of “the” here.)
Activity 3
Listen to Saleh from Saudi Arabia (7mins)
Teacher plays the audio file and pauses whenever appropriate to check comprehension and point how
a/an/the are used.
More practice
Exercise 1 page 82 (Read and discuss) (7 min)
Teacher asks students to work in pairs, one reading the explanation and the other matches it with the
appropriate example. Each pair or group answers one question and teacher elicits and/or provides
appropriate feedback.
Exercise 2 (5 min)
Students read each pair of sentences and try to tell the difference in meaning between them. Each pair or
group answers one question and teacher elicits and/or provides appropriate feedback Teacher motivates
students to express themselves.
Evaluation
Exercise 3 (4 min)
22

23. Students sit in pairs to choose the appropriate answer. Teacher monitors and gives feedback. Each pair or
group answers one question and teacher elicits and/or provides appropriate feedback
1. a, the, the
2. the
3. a, a, the, the
4. the, the
Exercise 4 (6 min)
All students are encouraged to participate in this discussion. The teacher can give a sample answer to
help students know what they will say.
Extra Practice and evaluation
Practice “grammar challenge” sheets
Homework
Depending on time, students are asked to do 1, 2 or exercises in their workbook page 80.
Lesson Plan 2
Lesson plan for Professor Phyllis Wachob
Things to be observed: Time and timing management + Use of Activities that engender Risk-taking
Thursday 6th May 2010
7th period
AlNor Wa Alamal School (Light and Hope School)
First secondary
Unit 18
Lesson 3 SB page 113
Goal
Students will practice reading for identifying the main idea and specific details.
Objectives
Terminal objectives
23

24.  Students will be able to skim and scan a reading passage to answer general questions based on a
short reading passage.
 Students will be able to answer questions related to who, what, when, where, how and why…
based on a short reading passage.
 Students will be able to identify the meaning of new words from context.
Enabling objectives
 Students will be able to use a mini-dictionary to identify word meanings.
 Students will read to get the general meaning of a passage and improve their pronunciation at the
same time.
Materials and equipment
Students' book
Braille typed sheets and activities
Computer with assisting software for the instructor
Speakers
Realia such as a toy tortoise
Supplementary soft copies of exercises in Word files (For the instructor)
Procedures
Warm-up
1. Remember holidays (5 minutes)
Organizing class into groups
Quickly discuss students’ reflection on previous lessons.
Teacher talks about a strange holiday that he went on to introduce the word “adventure” and encourages
the students to talk about similar experiences.
Activity 1 (10 minutes) Pair or small group work
Students are given an exercise and the mini-dictionary to answer this exercise. They help each other to
reach the correct answer. After reading the mini-dictionary, the teacher asks the students about other
words they learned from the dictionary and what they could mean; this is done to prepare for the next
activity.
24

25. Activity
Before browsing the mini-dictionary that includes 12 words, try filling in the following sentences
using one of the words below. Then check if your answers are correct or not using this mini-
dictionary.
Tortoise
Sailing
Instructor / Trainer
Disabilities
Coast
Climate
a. Alexandria is on the north…of Egypt.
b. When I went to the zoo, I saw a big…. there. It was moving very slowly.
c. The … in Egypt during winter is warm, and it sometimes rains.
d. I love to go…when I am in Sharm El-Sheik.
e. My driving ….teaches me how to drive my car safely.
f. We are going to help children suffering from different … .
DICTIONARY
First Secondary Mini-Dictionary
For Unit 18
A Dozen New Words Worth Learning
1. Adventure
An unusual, exciting and dangerous activity such as a journey or experience, or the excitement produced
by such an activity
She had some exciting adventures in Egypt.
2. Climate
The general weather conditions usually found in any place
a hot/dry climate
3. Coast
25

26. The land next to or close to the sea
We spent a week by/on the coast (= by the sea) .
4. Community
The people living in one area or people who are considered as a unit because of their common interests,
or nationality
He's well-known in the Egyptian community.
5. Conservation
The protection of plants and animals, natural areas, and interesting and important structures and
buildings, especially from the damaging effects of human activity
a conservation area
6. Disability
An illness, injury or condition that makes it difficult for someone to do the things that other people do
She is deaf, but refuses to let her disability prevent her from doing what she wants to do.
7. Expedition
An organized journey
We're going on a shopping expedition on Saturday.
8. Experience
Something that happens to you that affects how you feel
I had a bad experience at the dentist's.
9. Instructor / Trainer
A person whose job is to teach people a practical skill
a driving/ski/swimming instructor
26

27. 10. Rare
Not common; very unusual
a rare disease/species
11. Sailing
The sport or activity of using boats moving at the sea
She loves to go sailing.
12. Tortoise
An animal with a thick, hard shell that it can move its head and legs into for protection. It eats plants,
moves very slowly and sleeps during the winter.
Activity 2 (4 minutes) Whole class work.
Students move about to match the words and their translations. They are also asked to read the
information in the dictionary about the word to confirm its correct translation. This activity is mainly
designed to engender risk-taking.
Activity
After browsing the mini-dictionary, match the word with its translation.
Rare
‫ﻣﻐﺎﻣﺮة‬
Experience
‫ﻣﺠﺘﻤﻊ‬
Expedition
‫ﺣﻔﻆ‬
Conservation
‫ﺑﻌﺜﺔ‬
Community
‫ﺧﺒﺮة‬
Adventure
27

28. ‫ﻧﺎدر‬
Activity 3 Silent Reading 5 minutes
Students read the passage silently to answer the following questions:
 Name the countries and cities mentioned in the passage?
Passage
Global Challenge Holidays
Global Challenge will give you an adventure holiday – and you will give something to the
community you join. Our expeditions last for a month. Our friendly instructors will train you
before you leave and will help you all the time you are away. Global Challenge arranges
expeditions to 30 countries. Here are two people’s experiences:
James Hammond, from Australia, is in India. This is what he says about his experience:
Before I came, I thought life in a small village with no television and a strange language would
be difficult. But it hasn’t been difficult at all. We’ve helped in a home for children with
disabilities. We’ve had invitations for meals with Indian facilities. Our instructor Michael has
taken us for a day’s sailing on the Indian Ocean.
Olivia Owen, from London, is in Egypt. This is what she says:
The Mediterranean coast of Egypt is beautiful and has a wonderful climate. I’ve spent a lot of
time here helping a tortoise conservation society. The Egyptian tortoise is one of the smallest and
rarest tortoises in the world. Unfortunately people are building on many of the places where the
tortoises usually live, so we are finding new , safe homes for them to live in.
Activity 4 Intensive reading (10 minutes)
Students take turns to read, the teacher asks questions to makes sure they understand the passage well
and then answers the questions in exercise 3.
Exercise 3
a. Are these holidays different from ordinary holidays?
b. What happens before young people go on Global Challenge holidays?
c. Why did James think living in the Indian village would be difficult?
d. How does James help in the local community?
e. Why does the Egyptian tortoise need help?
f. What has Olivia done to help the tortoises?
Activity 5 (Open speaking activity) Group work
28

29. This activity has been added because students are tired at this time of the day and they need to do
something interesting.
Students choose a country a city or a place they like in their country or in their school , think about basic
information related to it and gives a small speech to encourage other students to visit it.
Or
Guess where I went game.
Students ask questions and a contestant answers to help them guess where she went.
Questions could be like:
Where is this country?
What is it famous for?
What can we see there?
What is the capital?
What language do people speak there?
How can we go there?
Homework
Exercise 4 , page 113
Lesson Plan 3
Goal
Students will learn about agreement and disagreement expressions.
Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Use agreement expressions in 5 sentences at least.
Learn and practice some vocabulary related to inventions.
Materials
Student book.
29

30. Computer
Audio files
Procedures
Warm-up (3min)
Teacher starts saying he likes apples very much and invites students to sit in groups of three according to
their preferred fruit. Let’s say we will have the following groups:
- the apple group
- the banana group
- the orange group
- the grapes group
- the strawberry group
While doing that, the teacher introduces agreement and disagreement expressions such as” I agree with
you, you are right, apples are the best fruit.” Or “I disagree with you, that is not right, bananas are not my
favorite fruit.” ...etc.
Guess what the invention is (12 min)
Teacher plays 10 audio files for different noises representing 10 inventions (car, clock, computer, phone,
plane, radio, train, TV, typewriter, and vacuum cleaner) , asks them to write each invention down, and
asks each group to rate them in order of their importance.
Teacher invites students to read their lists and explains why each invention is important.
Teacher then engages in a dialogue with one student and gets him to carry on the dialogue with another
student and so on using the expressions “I agree with you.” Or “I disagree with you.”
What life would be like without … (4 min)
Teacher talks about what he has in his pocket , bag , class and home.
Teacher asks what students have in their bags.
Teacher tells students what life would be like without these inventions and gets the students to say” I
agree or disagree with you.”
Example dialogue:
30

31. T: Life would be more difficult without mobile phones.
S: I agree.
T: Computers made learning very slow.
S: I disagree.
Listening
First time listening (4 min)
Teacher tells the students that they are going to listen to three people talking about important inventions.
They need to find out what the inventions are and why they are chosen. They also compare these
inventions with their own preferences.
Second time listening (4min)
This time they can listen to this file using an assisting software such as JAWS to read for them to
mention what good and bad points each person in the conversation mentioned about his/her
preferred invention.
Script
Interviewer: Hello, everybody.
All: Hi.
Interviewer: Now you’ve seen the different inventions, I'd like you to tell me which you think is the most
important and give me your reasons. Then, can you also say something about the
disadvantages of your choice? Magdi, let’s start with you.
Magdi: OK. In my opinion, the most important invention of the last hundred years is the plane,
because it has made the world a smaller place. People can travel to other countries in a very
short time. For example, I can get on a plane at Cairo airport and be in London in about
four hours. The disadvantage is that planes cause air and noise pollution and we have to do
something about that soon.
Interviewer: Thanks, Magdi. Nahla, what about you?
Nahla: Mmm ... I'm afraid I don't agree with Magdi. I think the most important invention of the last
hundred years has been the telephone - and particularly the mobile phone. Just think about
it. I can put a few numbers into my phone and talk to people anywhere in the world
31

32. immediately. Or, if I haven't got much time, I send a text message. In the past, you had to
write letters and they took weeks to arrive in a foreign country. The only problem is the cost -
international calls can be quite expensive.
Interviewer: Thanks, Nahla. What do you think, Hussein?
Hussein: Well, I agree with both Magdi and Nahla, but in my opinion the
most important invention has been the radio. You just switch it on
and you can get news from all over the world in different
languages. I'm an English teacher and I often listen to radio
programmes in English.
Interviewer: Are there any disadvantages to the radio?
Hussein: Well, not many. It can sometimes be difficult to find a station.
And when you've found the station, it s sometimes difficult to hear
clearly unless you have an expensive radio.
Interviewer: OK - thanks a lot for giving me your opinions.
Discuss (5 min)
Some sentences to discuss:
1- The television is better than the radio.
2- The computer wastes our time.
3- Air travel is very expensive.
4- The mobile phone saves our time.
5- The car causes a lot of pollution.
Teacher reads through these sentences with the class, and then asks the students to take a minute or
two to think about what they could say about each of the sentences. Teacher puts the students into
pairs and asks them to take turns saying what they think about each sentence.
Practice and Homework (12-15 min)
Workbook page 79
Students sit in pairs and do the exercises on this page. Teacher discusses the answers after each exercise.
32

33. Exercise 1
Teacher reads the listening script and asks the students to complete the sentences
Script
a Air travel has made the world a smaller place.
b You can fly from Cairo to London in about four hours.
c You can send people text messages if you don't have much time.
d Unfortunately, planes cause air and noise pollution.
e It can be expensive to make international phone calls.
f Hussein often listens to radio programmes in English.
g Sometimes it can be difficult to find a radio station.
Exercise 2
Students sit in pairs and complete the missing prepositions:
Answers
a to (given); in
b on; in; in
c into; to; in
d In; in
c from; in
Exercise 3
Students sit in pairs and discuss the possible answers.
Answers
b. You’re right.
c. I don’t agree.
d. In my opinion. / I don’t agree.
33

34. Lesson Plan 4
UNIT 14
LESSON 4
PAGE 88
Goal
Students will develop their reading comprehension skills.
Objectives
By the end of the lesson, students will be able
Learn and practice vocabulary related to means of transportation.
Learn and practice some antonyms.
Develop their reading comprehension skills through a narrative text.
To identify the main idea and specific details in a narrative text.
Guess meaning of new words from context.
Materials
Student book
Computer
Speakers
Assisting software for the instructor
Audio files
Some Braille typed cards and sheets
Warm-up
Means of transportation (in/on/by) 6 MINUTES
a. The teacher asks the students about different means of transportation, about how people travel.
Suggested answers:
On foot, on a camel, on horseback, on a boat, on a ship, on a helicopter, on a motorbike, on a cart, in a
carriage, in a taxi, in a tuktuk (rickshaw), by bus, by train, by car, by elephant, by airplane, by bike, by
air, by sea, …etc.
34

35. b. The teacher could get the students to use in, on and by before these means of transportation.
(These words need to be typed in braille.)
1. Foot
2. Sea
3. Carriage
4. Camel
5. Air
6. Horseback
7. A donkey
8. Bike
9. A motorbike
10. A helicopter
11. Airplane
12. Car
13. A taxi
14. Train
15. Elephant
16. A ship
17. A tuktuk
Opposites 4 MINUTES
(These words need to be typed in braille.)
1. Rich
2. poor
3. Succeed
4. Fail
5. Win
35

36. 6. lose
7. Leave
8. return – reach
9. Catch the train
10. miss the train
11. Lucky
12. unlucky
13. Fortunate
14. unfortunate
15. Fortunately
16. unfortunately
17. Start
18. finish
19. Late
20. early
Vocabulary presentation 8 MINUTES
Argument
Listen to cats arguing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P52ky_G7bQ
Man arguing aloud
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kAbwVdbIpY
Criminal
Interview with one famous criminal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsMCktJi3Io&feature=related
36

37. kidnap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkbyaJe0Yuw&feature=related
Servant = someone who helps a wife at home
Railway = it is the place where the train moves
Rescue = to save from danger
Journey = travel from one place to another
Fuel = the liquid material used by cars and buses to move
Arrest = catch by the police
Discover = find out something for the first time
Vocabulary game 8 MINUTES
Match the word card with the definition card (braille typed using diffferent papewr size)
ARGUMENT
a disagreement
CRIMINAL
someone who commits a crime such as a thief or a murderer
KIDNAP
for a criminal to take a person away in order to ask for money before making him or her free
RAILWAY
the metal tracks on which trains run
RESCUE
to help someone or something out of a dangerous, harmful situation
JOURNEY
travelling from one place to another
FUEL
a material which is used to give heat or power, usually by being burned
37

38. ARREST
If the police arrest someone, they take them away to ask them about something wrong they may have
done
DISCOVER
to find information, a place or an object, for the first time
Listening objective for silent reading (10 MINUTES)
(THESE Three QUESTIONS ARE TO BE TYPED IN BRAILE)
What happened to Passepartout in New York?
Did Fogg succeed in traveling around the world in 80 days?
What happened at the end of the story?
Intensive reading (10 MINUTES)
Around the World in Eighty Days
The story begins in a London club on October 2, 1872. Phileas Fogg, a rich man, has an argument
with a friend about how long it would take him to travel round the world. Fogg's friend does not believe
that Fogg can finish the journey in 80 days. If he succeeds, Fogg will win £20,000.
Fogg leaves London, with his servant Passepartout, at 8.45 pm on October 2, They will have to
return at the same time on December 21. After seven days, they reach Suez, where they meet a man
called Fix. Fix is a policeman who thinks that Fogg is the criminal he is looking for. The three men
travel to Bombay by ship, then to Calcutta by train. Unfortunately, the railway line is not finished and
they need to travel part of the way by elephant. On their journey, they save a young woman from death.
She is called Aouda and she goes with them on their journey. From Calcutta, they travel by ship to
Hong Kong, then across the Pacific to San Francisco.
In San Francisco, Fogg, Passepartout, Fix and Aouda catch the train to New York, but during this
journey Passepartout is kidnapped. Fogg rescues his servant, but they get to New York late and miss
their boat to Liverpool. After fuel problems, the next boat finally reaches Britain.
38

39. As soon as they arrive, Fix arrests Fogg. He quickly realises that Fogg is not the real criminal, but
by now they have missed their train to London, lost a day and so lost the money. However, Passepartout
discovers that it is December 20, not December 21. Because they had travelled east, they had crossed
the International Date Line and saved a day! Fogg and Passepartout hurry to the club and arrive in time
to win the £20,000.
(4 students read the main 4 paragraphs) and the teacher explains.
Book exercises 3 and 4 (20 minutes)
Exercise 3
Read and order
Read the story and put these events in the order they happened.
a. Arrest of Fogg by Fix
b. Arrival in Suez
c. Disagreement between Fogg and his friend
d. Fogg and Passepartout leave London
e. Journey by elephant
f. Journey from Liverpool to London
g. Kidnap of Passepartout
h. Passepartout finds out the date
i. Rescue of young woman
Answers
a. 7 i. 5
b. 3
c. 1
d. 2
e. 4
f. 9
g. 6
h. 8
39

40. Exercise 4
Read and answer
Read again and answer these questions.
a What does Fogg catch in San Francisco?
b What do they miss in New York?
c What two things do they think they lose in Britain?
Answers
a. train
b. a boat to Liverpool
c. a day and the money
40

41. Appendix B
The Presentation Slides
Raafat M Gabriel & Salama M Salama
American University in Cairo
41

42. Outline
• What was done before
teaching VI learners
• What was done during this
experience
• What was done after this
experience
How the story started
• 511
Teaching
Practicum
– Choosing a
school for
visually
impaired
learners
42

43. Challenges and how
we met them
• How to impart language skills to visually
impaired learners/ how to import EFL and
positively impact VI learners
• How to apply or at least just try
• How to provide them with what, how and why
• How to teach them to learn and keep an eye
– Salama will reflect and recollect
– We will read and select.. (Salama underlining
what is perceived to be important)..
– Salama will observe other teachers..
Results of reading
• No sight , no problem (Guinan, 1997; Snyder, 1971)
– No one asks : Do you see English?
• Explore and accommodate, never imitate /
Be creative (Kashdan & Barnes, n.d.)
• Take advantage of what VILs can do and
focus not on what they cannot (MIUSA, n.d.)
• Study and teach the place in addition to
equipping it; familiarity is crucial for
facilitation of learning (Schreiner, n.d.)
43

44. Results of reading
• Move them. If you want them to love English &
improve, make them meaningfully move
(Schreiner, n.d.)
• Use Braille AND /or assisting technology… learn
and teach them (Schreiner, n.d.)
• Develop awareness of SLA theories/ LAD
accessibility at early years/ Cognitive maturity
and schemata (L1) later on (AFB, n.d.)
• Cross-training. Content and ESL teaching
proficiency are key but not enough. Credibility is
crucial. You are a VIP. (Mitchel, 2007)
Results of reading
• Spell out, speak up… Nothing is
taken for granted.
• Simulate and do what visual
learners cannot visualize
• Plan , prepare, observe, be
observed, reflect… grow (AFB, n.d.)
44

45. Observing Other
Teachers
• Ten hours of class
observation
• Three different
teachers
• Pluses (social |& affective)
• Good rapport
• Sense of Humor
Observing Other
Teachers
• Minuses
• LOTS , not HOTS / Easy tasks
with no cognitive challenge
• Unused technology
• No use of real objects
• Depending heavily on listening/
TTMTTT
• Static lifeless classes
• Excessive use of L1
• No pair work/ no group work
• Inappropriate feedback styles
(error correction)
45

46. Sample activities
Activity 1
What noise is this? (6 minutes)
Learning objectives
Use vocabulary related to inventions
Use a/an articles
Procedures
Teacher plays some audio files and students guess what these noises
represent. The teacher draws attention to using “a/an” when we
talk about one out of many.
Comments
Using listening / computer/ praise
The activity was actually extended to learn “expressing agreement
and maximize learners’ talking time.
Sample activities
Activity 2
Guessing Game (5 minutes)
Learning objectives `
Use vocabulary related to food
Ask and answer questions
Use a/an articles
Procedures
A volunteer holds a bag, the teacher hides something inside the bag and
the volunteer silently identifies it. Other students ask the volunteer
questions to find out the answer.
Comments
Using real objects / Accessing other senses
Maximizing learner ‘s talking time.
Collaboration / interesting / praise..
46

47. Sample activities
Mini-Activity 3
Pre-reading vocabulary presentation (5 minutes)
Learning objectives
Use vocabulary related
to violence
Procedures
Play the video
Comments
Using background and cognitive maturity/ L1
background
Minimizing use of L1 in introducing abstract vocabulary
Sample activities
Activity 4
Move and match (5 minutes)
Learning objectives
Use vocabulary related to violence
Procedures
Hand out the vocabulary and definition
cards
Each learner finds her pair
Comments
Serving kinesthetic learners
Interest
Praise
TTT
47

48. What happened after: Feedback &
Recommendations
- Professor’s feedback
- Mentor’s feedback
- CFC (Critical Friendship Circles)
- Self reflection
- Students’ feedback
- Recommendations based on
various feedback inputs
Feedback Summary
- Apart from positive remarks related to
using English, raising motivation, using all
possible senses and background
knowledge, utilizing technology, pair-work
and group-work tasks,…etc., I needed to
focus on things to work on and these are:
- Activity timing and time management
- Teacher talking time
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49. ‫‪Students’ Feedback‬‬
‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻷول:‬
‫أوﻻ اﻟﻣﯾزة: إﺳﺗﺧدام اﻟطرق اﻟرﺷﯾﻘﺔ واﻟﻣﻧوﻋﺔ ﻓﻲ اﻟﺷرح اﻟﺗﻲ ﻧﻔﺿﻠﮭﺎ ﻧﺣن ﻓﻲ اﻟﺷرح ﺑﺗﻌدد‬
‫إﺳﺗﺧدام اﻷﺳﺎﻟﯾب اﻟﻣﺗﻧوﻋﺔ ﻓﻲ اﻟﺷرح.‬
‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: ﺑدون ﻣﺟﺎﻣﻠﺔ وﺑﻣﺎ ﯾرﺿﻲ ﷲ ﻋز وﺟل ﻻ أﺟد أﯾﺔ ﻣﺷﻛﻠﺔ أو ﻋﯾب ﺳواء ﻓﻲ اﻟﺷرح أو اﻟﻣﻌﺎﻣﻠﺔ.‬
‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻟﺛﺎﻧﻲ:‬
‫أوﻻ اﻟﻣﯾزة: إﺗﺑﺎع اﻟطرق اﻟﻐﯾر ﺗﻘﻠﯾدﯾﺔ وإﺳﺗﺧدام اﻹﻧﺟﻠﯾزﯾﺔ.‬
‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: ﺑﻣﻧﺗﮭﻰ اﻟﺿﻣﯾر ﻻ أﺟد وﷲ ﻓﻲ اﻟﺷﺧص أو اﻟﺷرح ﻣﻊ اﻟﺗوﻓﯾق.‬
‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻟﺛﺎﻟث:‬
‫أوﻻ اﻟﻣﯾزة: أﻋﺟﺑﺗﻧﻲ ﺣﺻﺔ ﯾوم اﻷرﺑﻌﺎء وأﻋﺟﺑﻧﻲ ﻧظﺎم اﻟﺳﻣﻊ ﻣن اﻟﻛﻣﺑﯾوﺗر ﻓﻲ أن ﻧﺳﻣﻊ‬
‫اﻟﺷﻲء وﻧﻘول ﻣﺎ ھو ﺑﺎﻹﻧﺟﻠش.‬
‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: وﻟم أﺟد ﺷﻲءا ﻟم ﯾﻌﺟﺑﻧﻲ.‬
‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻟراﺑﻊ:اﻟﺳﻼم ﻋﻠﯾﻛم ورﺣﻣﺔ ﷲ وﺑرﻛﺎﺗﮫ اﻟﺗﺣﯾﺔ طﯾﺑﺔ ﯾﺎ ﻣﺳﺗر ﺳﻼﻣﺔ وﺑﻌد:‬
‫أوﻻ اﻟﻣﯾزة: طرﯾﻘﺔ ﺷرح ﻏﯾر ﺗﻘﻠﯾدﯾﺔ واﻟﺗﺣدث ﻓﻲ ﻣﻌظم اﻟﺣﺻص ﺑﺎﻟﻠﻐﺔ اﻹﻧﺟﻠﯾزﯾﺔ ﻷن ھذا‬
‫ﯾﻌودﻧﺎ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺗﺣﺳن اﻟﻠﻐﺔ ﻟدﯾﻧﺎ.‬
‫‪Pluses: Diversity of teaching‬‬ ‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: ﻻ أﺟد أي ﻋﯾب ﺳواء ﻓﻲ اﻟﺷرح أو اﻟﺷﺧﺻﯾﺔ.‬
‫‪Methods, Using English and‬‬ ‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻟﺧﺎﻣس:‬
‫.‪Technology‬‬ ‫أوﻻ اﻟﻣﯾزة: اﻟﺷرح ﺑﺑﺳﺎطﺔ واﻟﺗﺣدث ﺑﺎﻹﻧﺟﻠﯾزﯾﺔ.‬
‫.‪Minuses: Nothing‬‬ ‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: ﻻ أﻛﺗﺷف ﻋﯾب ﻟﺣد وﻗﺗﻧﺎ ھذا.‬
‫‪Students’ Feedback‬‬
‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻟﺳﺎدس:‬
‫أوﻻ اﻟﻣﯾزة: أن اﻟﺷﻐل ﻓﻲ اﻟﺣﺻﺔ ﺑﺎﺳﺗﺧدام اﻟﺣﺎﺳب اﻵﻟﻲ.‬
‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: ﻗﻠﺔ ﻋدد اﻟﺣﺻص.‬
‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻟﺳﺎﺑﻊ:‬
‫أوﻻ اﻟﻣﯾزة: طرﯾﻘﺔ اﻟﺷرح اﻟرﺷﯾﻘﺔ اﻟﻣﺑﺳطﺔ اﻟﻠذﯾذة اﻟﺗﻲ أﻓﺿﻠﮭﺎ أﻧﺎ.‬
‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: ﺑﻣﺎ ﯾرﺿﻲ ﷲ وﺿﻣﯾري ﻟم أﺟد ﻋﯾب ﺳواء ﻓﻲ اﻟﺷﺧﺻﯾﺔ أو اﻟﺷرح.‬
‫‪Pluses: Simple preferred‬‬ ‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻟﺛﺎﻣن:‬
‫‪language , using English and‬‬ ‫أوﻻ: أن اﻟﻠﻐﺔ اﻟﺳﺎﺋدة ﻓﻲ اﻟﺣﺻﺔ ھﻲ ﻟﻐﺔ اﻹﻧﺟﻠﯾزي.‬
‫‪technology, encouraging‬‬ ‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: أن اﻟﺣﺻص ﻗﻠﯾﻠﺔ.‬
‫.‪participation, type of tasks‬‬ ‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻟﺗﺎﺳﻊ:‬
‫أوﻻ اﻟﻣﯾزة: ﺗﺷﺟﯾﻊ اﻟطﻠﺑﺔ ﺑﺎﺷﺗراﻛﮭم ﻣﻊ ﺑﻌﺿﮭم ﻓﻲ اﻟﺣﺻﺔ. ‪Minuses: Having few classes‬‬
‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: ﻻ أﺟد ﻋﯾب.‬
‫اﻟﺗﻌﻠﯾق اﻟﻌﺎﺷر:‬
‫أوﻻ اﻟﻣﯾزة: اﻟذي أﻋﺟﺑﻧﻲ ﻓﻲ اﻟﺗﻘﺳﯾم أﻟﻰ ﻣﺟﻣوﻋﺎت واﻷظرف اﻟﺗﻲ ﺑﮭﺎ اﻟﻛﻠﻣﺔ وﻋﻛﺳﮭﺎ أو‬
‫ﻣﻌﻧﺎھﺎ وﺳﻣﺎع ﺑﻌض اﻟﻣﺧﺗرﻋﺎت اﻟﺗﻛﻧوﻟوﺟﯾﺔ واﻟﺗﻣﯾﯾز ﺑﯾﻧﮭﺎ.‬
‫وﺳﻣﺎع ﺑﻌض اﻷﺻوات ﻣﺛل اﻟﻣﺟرم واﻟﺳﻔﯾﻧﺔ اﻟﺗﻲ ﺧطﻔت ﺑﻣﺷﺎھد ﻣﺿﺣﻛﺔ وﻣﻌروﻓﺔ ﻟﻧﺎ‬
‫وأﯾﺿﺎ اﻟﺷرح.‬
‫ﺛﺎﻧﯾﺎ اﻟﻌﯾب: وﻟﻛن ﻻ ﯾوﺟد ﻋﯾب ﺑﻌﯾﻧﮫ أﺗﺣدث ﻋﻧﮫ وﻟﻛن ﻋﻧدﻣﺎ أﺧذﻧﺎ اﻟﻌﺻﺎﺋر وﻣﯾزﻧﺎ ﺑﯾﻧﮭم‬
‫ﻟﯾس ھذا ﻋﯾﺑﺎ وﻟﻛﻧﮭﺎ أﻗل إﺳﺗﻣﺗﺎﻋﺎ ﻣن اﻷﺷﯾﺎء اﻟﺳﺎﺑﻘﺔ.‬
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50. Recommendations
- Using diagnostic tests to pace activities
- Avoiding overcorrection
- Using interesting activities near the end
of late classes
- Planning how to monitor ss work
- Creating more networking to maximize
learning time and learner autonomy
Wrap-up
• What was done before
teaching VI learners (reading and
observation)
• What was done during this
experience (Sample activities)
• What was done after this
experience (Feedback &
Recommendations
50

51. Raafat M Gabriel Salama M Salama
mrraafat@aucegypt.edu Salama_mhd@aucegypt.edu
American University in Cairo American University in Cairo
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