Students: 14
One thing that went well: Yesterday felt very choppy, but today we were more focused. We still worked on three different topics, but today the topics were related (-ed vs. -ing adjectives, pronouncing -ed endings, and reading a story that was mostly in the Simple Past). I also did a much better job of having them practice rather than just talking at them. One of the topics was in response to a pronunciation question they asked yesterday. Though it wasn’t perfect (see the next paragraph for more on this), it felt good to teach a solid lesson based on something they asked about yesterday. So I guess I felt that several things went pretty well today.
One thing to improve: Although I think the lesson on the pronunciation of regular past tense verbs (think of the -ed in fixed vs. studied vs. interested) was pretty effective, I think I needed to more clearly tie what we were talking about to verbs ending in -ed and to pronunciation (as opposed to spelling).
One surprise: We were reviewing the difference between adjectives for feelings that are made out of verbs. There’s usually an -ed form and an -ing form and they mean different things. Just think of “bored” and “boring.” To help them practice this, I drew them a picture of me walking up a really long staircase. I labeled myself “tired” and the stairs “tiring.” Then I had the students draw pictures and label them. Half the class did “interested” and “interesting,” and the other half did “embarrassed” and “embarrassing.” I was surprised at just how useful it was for bringing out questions that solidified their understanding. I was also surprised at how vehemently a couple of students either couldn’t or wouldn’t draw anything. Incredibly useful but incredibly controversial. Very surprising!