Reflection 6 - A case of effective language teaching

The students were asked to write a persuasive speech, and present it in front of the class. Through brain storming the students decided what topics had to be presented; some of them were abortion, working age, alcohol, and video games. Each student took a topic, and started to work on that. The teacher gave the students an example worksheet with the appropriate structure for the required speech; they had to start with an anecdote or a quote; to kick out the conversation they had to establish their point of view and make a strong statement about their topic. The students had to look for information on the Internet, and write down their thoughts in the worksheet given. The Chilean teachers made some corrections; after that they were ready to present their work.
From my point of view in this activity the teacher gave the students a really good support; he gave them an appropriate scaffolding. One particular student caught the idea immediately; he was quite motivated, and willing to share his opinion. He asked for help at every moment; even when he was on his free time. I think that this student was pretty engaged with the activity because he found that he could tell something interesting to share with the class. All of this was reflected on his final presentation because he was one of the strongest speakers, and the most eloquent.