A Case Analysis Of Heterogeneous Classes Of Life Is All About Choices

The case analysis is concerned with heterogeneous classes of senior English,in which three cases of the extracurricular reading Life is all about choices,chosen from the complementary material for Advance with English Module 1 were described and analyzed.Three teachers employ different teaching designs to implement the same class.The theoretical bases of the study are Krashen's Input Hypothesis,Scaffolding Theory and Schema Theory.The significance of this study lies in four aspects:helping teachers perfect teaching designs;helping teachers rethink profoundly and improve teaching skills;helping teachers learn advanced aspects from other teachers in order to better themselves;promoting teachers' professional development.The procedure of carrying out the case analysis of heterogeneous classes included watching the video of the class again and again,and transcribing it;describing,discussing and analyzing the class;making reflections on the class and summarizing improvement of class.This study described the process of the three classes at full length and analyzes the cases one by one.The three teachers were labeled as TA,TB and TC.TA mainly used the summarizing strategy to carry out her teaching designs.Firstly,she let students read with a focus on the protagonist,Michael,who survived a serious accident.Secondly,she made students read with a focus on summarizing the plot:Michael underwent hardships,but he chose to live in a positive way.Thirdly,she made students read with a focus on summarizing the protagonist's choice of view of life:optimistic,strong-willed and positive.Fourthly,she let students have a discussion with a focus on summarizing the theme:Life is all about choices.TB mainly employed the task-based teaching approach.The first task was to make students apperceive the theme:Life is full of choices through answering a hypothetical question about examination failure;the second task was to make students conclude the protagonist Michael's personalities through analyzing supporting sentences;the third task was to make students find out common ground between Amy and Michael through watching a video whose protagonist was Amy;the fourth task was to make students apply knowledge to real life through answering two hypothetical questions.TC mainly used the PWP model to implement his teaching design.In the pre-reading part,he asked students to think and express ideas about a hypothetical situation about examination failure.Besides,students were encouraged to ask questions about this passage in the process of preview.In the while-reading part,he helped students analyze Michael's experience and character through multiple choice and blank filling.In the post-reading part,students were asked to retell the story with their own words and express ideas about an imagined situation:When left on a deserted island,you want to choose whom to accompany you.The study has yielded the following major findings.In general,all the three teachers showed clear teaching thoughts and displayed unique classes on the basis of analyzing students comprehensibly.In terms of strengths,"choices"repeatedly appeared in TA's class,which highlighted the theme.With the summarizing strategy,TA made it easier for students to grasp both the content and the structure of the text.TB finally could make students deal with practical problems in life through completing tasks step by step.Besides,her hypothetical questions which had no standard answers could make students exhibit their ideas adequately.TC spent adequate time in helping students analyze the passage and deal with its details,which was beneficial for obtaining basic knowledge fully.He could set questions and tasks according to learning situation,which spurred students to express their ideas boldly.In terms of weaknesses,TA firstly made students focus on what happened to Michael,but later,she still spent time in making students conclude plot,which may be a waste of time.TB spent much time in analyzing Michael's personalities,but she ignored guiding students to focus on Michael's experience,which made students unable to comprehend this passage entirely.TC's class was filled with much exercise,i.e.multiple choice,which could make students tired of this class.In short,the three teachers' different teaching philosophy,experience and personalities lead to different effects of teaching.There are three limitations in this study.Firstly,because the researcher did not participate in the classes personally,the observation and description of the classes lack in intuitive feeling.Secondly,the analyses of three teachers' classes are subjective and one-sided because of the lack of comments made by other teachers who observed the classes and students who participated in the classes.Thirdly,the classes observed can not reflect the reality of the daily teaching well,because the teachers and students know the purpose of the classes ahead of time.