Teaching in Ecuador

Meeting objectives: 1, 2, 7

Lesson plans and teaching reflection

As a part of the training in TESOL-Ecuador program, I did a content-based English teaching (teach language through teaching content subject, which is a type of shelter ESL teaching) with two teachers in Otavalo for a month. Our content was geography (grade levels 9-12). The overall objective was raising students’ awareness of pollutions in their living environment. 

There were three teaching sections per week, and we teachers met every weekend and afternoon to plan our lesson (please refer to the attached file—lesson plan). In each class, every teacher was in charge of 30 minutes of teaching. After three sections, we did a simulate recall to reflect on our teaching and wrote a reflection journal (please refer to the attached file—teaching reflection).

post I made for teaching the life cycle of shoes

We started from discussing the life cycle of “stuffs” students used in their daily life (e.g., shoes, jeans, etc.) to help them related products with materials. Since one of Ecuador’s biggest exports is oil, it was quite successful to made students think about the relationship between oil consumption and a lot of products they used daily.

ceremony before the final open house

Then, we went on digging major pollutions issues around the world. This part was quit sensitive since Ecuador belongs to the third world which suffered for the first worlds’ exploitation economically and environmentally. Finally we narrowed the topic down to pollutions the students found in the cities where they grow up and reasoned causes and effects.

The final assessment was videotaping students’ 2 minute speeches about pollution issues they chose. The outcome was quit successful: all students prepared their speech well and presented in a proficient way. This recorded film was sent to one of our teacher’s Spanish class as an “international conversation” (students in that class also recorded a film to introduce themselves, and we showed our students this clip before we videotaped).

The experience was very meaningful not only because it was my first time teaching a class of students, but also because I felt I was connected to the topics while living in Otavalo. I learned Spanish, culture, and people while teaching. This experience motivated me further to become a teacher whose focus in not just language but the community, society, and culture.