EXPECTATIONS FOR THE COMING PRACTICE WITH CHILDREN

I think that teaching English to children is not the easiest work in the world, actually it could be very hard because I expect to have the similar experiences that I had when I was teaching to children in the church where I have realized that there are many children that are so energetic that most of the time it is difficult to catch their attention and make them to learn. On the other hand, there is another type of children that are so quiet and they never like to participate during the class, so it is very difficult to help them in their learning process. However, I am very sure that after this first period in the subject “Teaching Practicum I” in which I have been reading and investigating a lot about children’s development in the different areas such as physical, Cognitive, and Psychosocial. I have created another perspective about children because nowadays I know many of the reasons why children behave in different ways, I am conscious about the importance of stimulation, and I have discovered through all the topics discussed in classes many parameters that can guide me on my coming practice with children. Thus, I expect to do my best effort and all the time that it is going to be required to review the topics presented during this first period, I will start to read them again and look for some ideas in order to elaborate the most appropriate materials for the classes and the activities that children can perform. Finally, I know that with God’s help and doing my best, I will be able to achieve my goal  for the coming practice which is learn a lot about how to teach English to children in the most efficiently way.

CASE OF STUDY

My case of study was based on a preschooler Salvadorian girl whose full name is Astrid Nicolle Torres Alvarado. She is four years old and she lives with her parents and a big sister who is ten years old. Now, talking about her school life, she has started  kindergarten in this year in a public school where she only has two classmates and a teacher. In addition, it is important to mention that Nicolle is left handed. The purpose of my research was to discover if fine and gross motor skills development of a Salvadorian child is at the same rate of American children’s motor skills development during the early childhood based on John Shamrock’s book. Moreover, the research question that I formulated before the development of the research was about how a Salvadorian child’s fine and gross motor skills development is similar to American children motor skills development. Next, I will provide more details about the whole process of my case of study.

Before recording the case of study

Firstly, I look information about physical development during early childhood. Then, I started to classify the information that I found, but I faced with a problem that the majority of the information that I found on internet was not very valid. Thus, I decided to base my research on the book “Children” written by John Santrock who is a successful psychologist that has developed many researches on children’s development. Next, I chose the physical activities that according to Santrock are the ones that indicate the fine and gross motor skills development, and I look for the instruments that I was going to need in order to make the preschooler girl performance those activities. Finally, I asked the child’s father (who is my uncle) if he could borrow me his daughter, and he agreed. Thus, I looked for the camera and I started to record the preschooler.  

During recording the case of study

First, I asked the preschooler whose name is Nicolle, to do all the activities that I prepared in order to evaluate her fine and gross motor skills. I started to observe her fine motor skill by using materials such as blocks, drawings, fat crayons, beads, and a pencil. Some of the activities I asked her to perform were to build a tower and a bridge with blocks, pour to different containers, draw a person, and string beads. Then, I asked her to perform the activities designed to evaluate her gross motor skill such as bounce a ball, jump, hop in one foot, and catch and throw a 6 inch ball.     

After recording the case of study

Once I had recorder the child, I started to classify the higher quality videos, and I organized them in an orderly way. While I was editing the short videos by using the movie maker program, I was recording my voice in order to narrate the video and to talk about the contrast between theory and reality. It was very hard to edit the video and to synchronize the time of my voice recording with it because I spend a whole day editing this video, but in the end all the effort was worth!

Now, talking about my findings and conclusions on this preschooler, Firstly I could realize that the development of gross and fine motor skills of a Salvadorian child is similar to the rate of American children’s gross and fine motor skills development due to the fact that the girl was able to perform accurately all the physical activities that American children can do at the age of four years according to Shamrock’s book. Second, I could find out that the girl performed very well all those physical activities such as jump in a foot, build a tower with blocks, string beads, draw a person, and color drawings because of the stimulation that she had received. Her mother said that since the girl was almost two years old, she started to try to color the coloring books of her big sister, and she really loves to spend her free time by drawing and coloring. Finally, I discovered that her left handedness is not a problem because in the end she was able to perform all the tasks, even though, she did them in different ways. However, according to pediatricians, the handedness does not affect the gross and fine motor skills development of children. They say that the only physical difference between left handers and right handers is that the muscles that are stimulated more are going to experiment the Hypertrophy. It means that if a person is left handed, the muscles of his or her left hand are going to increase in volume more than his or her right hand.

References:

Santrock,John W.Children. pp.254-359. Mc Graw Hill.USA,2010.

UNDERSTANDING AND REGULATING EMOTIONS DURING EARLY CHILDHOOD

During the early childhood, not only the physical and cognitive changes are crucial but also the emotional changes are crucial and important. It is because during this period of time children develop many important abilities such as to recognize emotions, and regulate emotions. Next, I will present these important aspects that children develop during the early childhood.

Recognizing emotions

Children start to understand emotions during the early childhood because they understand that certain situations are likely to cause particular emotions. Moreover, they realize that facial expressions indicate specific emotions, and that the emotions can be used to influence other’s emotions. Between 2 and 4 years old, children increase the number of terms to describe emotions. Moreover, they learn about the consequences and causes of their feelings. When they are 4-5 years old, children increase the ability to reflect on emotions. In addition, they understand that an event can cause different feelings in different people. 

Regulating emotions

By the age of 5 years, children show a growing awareness that they need to regulate their emotions to meet the social standards. Thus, it is a very important ability that must be well developed because from this it is going to depend the correct development of the emotional intelligence which refers to the ability to monitor one's own and other people's emotions in order to use the emotional information to guide the thinking and the behavior. Therefore, it is very essential for children to develop this ability and parents can play an important role in helping their children to regulate their emotions by: 

• Teaching children the importance of values such as tolerance, generosity and respect.

•  Teaching children that emotions are very important and that occur within them every time something happens.

•   Helping children to identify the emotions (like anger, sadness, happiness, fear, frustration, surprise, love, shame, disgust, etc.)  through the following questions: When do you feel anger? Where do you feel it? Why did you feel it? And how do you think you can manage this emotion?

 

References: 

Santrock,John W.Children. pp.316-318. Mc Graw Hill.USA,2010.

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/emotional-development-early-childhood-years-1756.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence

PIAGET'S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

During childhood children pass through different stages of their Cognitive Development in which the abilities associated with memory, reasoning, problem-solving and thinking continue to emerge throughout of it. According to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, children move through four different stages of mental development which are Sensorimotor Stage, Preoperational Stage, Concrete Operational Stage, and Formal Operational Stage. Next, I will present with many details one by one the four stages of cognitive development according to Jean Piaget.

Sensorimotor Stage

The first stage is the Sensorimotor which last from the birth until 2 years old and it is centering on the baby trying to make sense of the world. Thus, during this stage, an infant's knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities. It means that the behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli. Moreover, childeren utilize skills and abilities taht they were born with (such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening) in order to learn more about the environment.This stage is divided in to six separate sub stages that are characterized by the development of a new skill. Next, it is going to be presented the six sub stages.

Substages:

Reflexes (0-1 month):

During this substage, the child understands the environment  through inborn reflexes such as sucking and looking.

Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months):

This substage involves coordinating sensation and new schemas. For example, a child may such his or her thumb by accident and then later intentionally repeat the action. These actions are repeated because the baby finds them pleasurable.

Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months):

During this substage, the child becomes more focused on the world and begins to intentionally repeat an action in order to trigger a response in the environment. For example, a child will purposefully pick up a toy in order to put it in his or her mouth.

Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months):

During this substage, the child starts to show clearly intentional actions. The child may also combine schemas in order to achieve a desired effect. Children begin exploring the environment around them and will often imitate the observed behavior of others. The understanding of objects also begins during this time and children begin to recognize certain objects as having specific qualities. For example, a child might realize that a rattle will make a sound when shaken.

Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months):

Children begin a period of trial-and-error experimentation during the fifth substage. For example, a child may try out different sounds or actions as a way of getting attention from a caregiver.

Early Representational Thought (18-24 months):

Children begin to develop symbols to represent events or objects in the world in the final sensorimotor substage. 

Preoperational Stage

This stage lasts from 2 to 7 years old, so it occurs during the early childhood. In this stage children begin to represent the world in a symbolic way. Therefore, they represent the world with images, words, and drawings. Moreover, children begin to reason but like in a rustic way because the are some factors such as egocentrism, animism and magical beliefs that do not let the child to reason formally. Finally, the preoperational stage emphasizes that children do not yet perform operations which means reversible mental actions like mentally adding and subtracting numbers. This stage is divided into two substages which are the symbolic function substage and the intuitive thought substage.

Substages:

The Symbolic Function Substage

It substage occurs in the ages between 2 and 4. During this period of time, children develop the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present, so they start to use scribble designs in order to represent people, objects, and animals and so on. Therefore, during this stage children make a big progress on their cognitive development, but their thoughts still has limitations such as egocentrism which means that children see the things only from their point of view. Another limitation is animism which is the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities.

The Intuitive Thought Substage

This substage occurs between 4 and 7 years old. It is essentially based on that children begin to use primitive reasoning which still have limitations such as centration which is the focusing of attention to only property of the things, and lack of conservation which is the awareness if you alter an object’s or substance’s appearance it does not change its basic properties.

Concrete Operational Stage

This stage lasts from 7 to 11 years old. During this stage, children begin to think logically about concrete events. They begin to understand the concept of conservation, so they know that the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass. Moreover they have the ability to divide or classify things into different sets and they are capable of seriation which is the ability to order stimuli along a quantitative dimension. For example children are able to order sticks by length. In addition, children in the concrete operational stage are very good at the use of inductive logic which involves going from a specific experience to a general principle. On the other hand, children at this age have difficulty using deductive logic which involves the use of a general principle to determine the results of a specific event.   

Formal Operational Stage

This stage begins at approximately age twelve and lasts into adulthood. During this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge during this stage. Moreover, the ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical way emerges. Children at the formal operational stage of cognitive development are often able to quickly plan an organized approach to solving a problem.

References: 

http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/p/formaloperation.htm

Santrock,John W.Children. pp.281-286 & 384-386. Mc Graw Hill.USA,2010.

http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/l/bl-piaget-stages.htm

GROSS AND FINE MOTOR SKILLS ( Early and Middle Childhood )

• First of all, let's  see the definitions of Gross Motor and Fine Motor

 

-   Gross Motor refers to physical skills that use large body movements which normally involve the entire body. In the sense used here, gross means "large" rather than "disgusting."*

-          

    Fine Motor refers to more precise movements, normally using the hands and fingers.  Therefore, Fine motor skills are different than gross motor skills which require less precision to perform.*

Early Childhood (2- 6 years old)

During the Early Childhood considerable progress is made in children’s gross and fine motor skills. Thus, let’s explore the changes!

Gross Motor skill

The child can:

Bounces and catches balls

  

Runs ten feet and stops

Carries 10 pound object

Catches ball

Bounces a ball under control

Hops on one foot four hops

Roller stakes

Rolls ball to hit object

  

Rides bike with training wheels

Fine Motor skill

The child can:

String and laces shoelace

  

Cuts following a line

Strings ten beads

Copies figure X

Builds five blocks

Pours from various containers

Draws triangle, circle,square,and triangle

Middle Childhood (7-11 years old)

During middle childhood, children's motor development becomes more smother and more coordiante.

Gross Motor skill

Children can:

    Balance in one foot withou looking

Hop and jump accurately into small squares 

Can throw a small ball 49 feet

Jump 9 inches

Participate in jumping Jack excersice


Participate in gymnastics

Fine Motor skill

children can:

Cut and paste

Make simple figures of clay  

Use common tools such as harmer

Take music lessons for piano, violin, flute, or other instruments

Draw and paint

* Finally, I wan to share a video about The Denver Developmental Screening Test II which is the way how developmentalists measure children's motor development and the other areas of children's development.

References: 

*http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=12755&cn=462

Santrock,John W.Children. pp.254-359. Mc Graw Hill.USA,2010.

Introducing myself

 

My full name is Yaneli Sofia Miranda Torres. I am a student of licenciatura en idiomas con especialidad en la enseñanza del Inglés  of the Don Bosco University of El Salvador. I decided to study this career because of two relevant reasons. First, I consider that learning another language is something very important especially if it is English which the most spoken language around the world. Second, I really love teaching   because I am very aware about the importance of it in order to help our society to become better, so I am expecting to be an English teacher who is going to facilitate the students’ learning of English and as a consequent motivate them to learn a second language.

Since I started to study this career, I have been doing my best effort in order to learn English which is not as easy as I thought it was going to be because through all the experiences and situations that I have had to face during my English learning process, I have realized that learning another language needs a big effort from the student.  Moreover, learning how to teach a language to others is not “a piece of cake” because after I have taken subjects such as Psychopedagogy and Didactics, I have noticed that a teacher must be very careful when he or she is deciding the teaching method for a class, designing the correct materials for the class, and elaborating the efficient assessments for the students.  Thus, Nowadays that I am taking Teaching Practicum I, I can say that it is not going to be easy to teach English to children. However, I know that with God’s help and doing my best, I can achieve my goal which is learn a lot about how to teach efficiently to children through the practice.

Finally, I would like to share my expectations as a future English teacher. Firstly, I want to be a teacher who is going to perform the role of a facilitator. Secondly, I am going to motivate students to learn a second language by making them understand about the importance of it. Lastly,  I am going to do my best during my classes in order to help to improve the education of our country.