Lesson reflection: My students really impressed me during this (and the following) lesson. Students loved watching the YouTube clip and finding the persuasive features Leonadro diCaprio was using in his speech. Students were able to hear the persuasive language, and understand how Leonardo's choice of words were crucial in helping his audience understand the severity of climate change. Listening to the whole speech once helped the students to buy-in to the lesson, and allowed them to enjoy the speech and understand the topic. Then, breaking up the speech into smaller chunks and using Google Slides helped students to really focus on each segment of the speech. Being able to control where the clip started and stopped, and also displaying the transcript on the right was really useful.

WALT and SC: as this is the third lesson about persuasive language features, students understanding of persuasive language features is increasing. Because they were confident in understanding persuasive langauge features, it was appropriate for them to begin identifying them in texts. Students are beginning to notice which persuasive language features are being used in a speech, and they are usually able to explain why they know it is a particular language feature.

Active listening and turn taking: I have noticed that my students talk over each other during lessons. They are usually so keen to share their ideas, that they just blurt it out. This has become a problem as sometimes the lessons are dominated by particular students. Often other group members have fantastic ideas, however they are not always heard. This will be a big focus for me in the subsequent lessons. It is important that my students learn to be active listeners, and to take turns sharing their ideas.

Something to note: We had a Woolf Fisher observer in our classroom during the lesson. In addition to this, we had problems with the tripod, which meant that the lesson kept being interrupted. While this did change the tone of the room and the flow of the lesson, I do feel that the group coped well and were able to continue focussing on the lesson.