Not all lessons land the first time—and that’s something I’m learning to accept with more patience.

Last week  session with this class was tough. We focused on listening and vocabulary related to the days of the week and months of the year, using a listening activity as the main anchor. The plan was simple: listen, match words to pictures, and build towards sentence construction using key phrases.

In reality, the class struggled to cope.

Even with support, the learners had difficulty keeping up with the fill-in-the-blanks tasks. I found myself pausing frequently to help individuals catch up or re-explain the activity entirely. Despite breaking down the instructions and reducing the language load, many learners were still lost midway through. By the afternoon session—when we revisited the same vocabulary through another listening-based fill-in-the-blanks exercise—it became clear: they weren’t ready to move on yet.

In hindsight, the lesson needs to be repeated next week. But this time, with a stronger emphasis on sentence patterns and structured vocabulary reinforcement.

What Didn’t Work

One major hurdle was the textbook itself. The presentation was too crowded, too wordy, and didn’t guide the learners’ attention to key ideas. The layout overwhelmed rather than supported. I’ve now realised that for this class, I need to adapt the materials much more carefully—simplified visuals, clearer focus, and just one language skill at a time.

Moving Forward

This weekend, I’ll be planning a full one-cycle lesson built around the four core skills:

• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing

Plus a little Language Arts for creativity and fun.

The centre of it all? Vocabulary and sentence patterns. If learners can grasp these clearly, the rest will follow more naturally.

The goal isn’t speed—it’s clarity. If it takes two or even three rounds to get there, then so be it.

Some classes push me to teach differently—and this is one of them. They’re not less capable, just differently paced. And it’s my job to meet them where they are.

Let’s see how the next cycle goes. Am praying hard.