THE FIRST WEEK OF PRACTICING WITH CHILDREN

The Diagnostic Class

October 13th,2014

This was a very important day since it was the day in which I could have the first contact with the children who will attend to our teaching practicum during the whole lessons that my colleagues and I will perform in order to teach them English.

Before the class started, I was very anxious because I was thinking about what type of students would be the ones who will attend to our teaching practicum. Moreover, I was a bit nervous because I was going to be in charge of one of the activities that were going to be performed during this class in order to discover who much the students already knew about English.

During the performance of the activity, I was able to observe many important details about the children. Firstly, I discovered that the majority of them were very sociable, energetic, and there were some students that behave as a know-it-all. Secondly, I realized that the students' English level was not beginners because in the activity they participated a lot since they already know how to say in English the names of the pets that I asked them to say them in English. Lastly, I discovered that this group of students get distracted easily because they are  very energetic, so most of teh time  they need to be busy   in order to avoid that problem.

 After this great experience with children, I could see positive things such as students were very entertainment especially in the first part of the activity, and I was very happy to see that the majority of them really liked to participate in the activity.Moreover, I think that it was a meaningful experience because through out some mistakes that I made during the performance of this class, I have learned that it is essential to monitor all the students especially the ones who do not like to interact with the whole group of students. In addition, I learned that there are some questions that we shouldn't ask to children such as "Who wants to go to the bathroom?" because all of them will say that they want to go.

 

Lesson 1

Topic: Greetings: Numbers & everyday expressions

October 14th, 2014

 
The first lessons were performed by my colleagues in this day. First of all, I will share the experience of the first lesson.

Before the class started I was observing the materials that my colleagues were pasting on a green board. Since I saw the type of phrases and questions that they were pasting, I supposed that the topic of the lesson would be about greetings. Then, the children were invited to go to the specific place where the class was going to be developed.

During the lesson, I observed the different activities that my colleagues developed during each stage of the lesson.  The first activity was about a game in which students have to make groups according to the number that is assigned by the teacher. This activity was called “Sharks are coming” and I think that it was a nice activity in order to warm up the students because the children had fun and they were stimulating their brain through physical responses. 

The next activity consisted on presenting the daily expressions by long posters. The teacher in charge of it asked students to pronounce the phrases of the posters. Then, students were asked to sing a song about greetings.  

 
After that, another teacher continues with the class and she gave a worksheet to each student, so they could practice what they learned in the presentation stage.

 

In the production stage, students were invited to use a puppet in order to say some greetings and daily expressions that they had learned in the previous stages.

Finally, the class finished with a very short activity in which students reviewed the vocabulary of the daily expressions, so an envelope with cards was given to each student. Then, they took each card that was within of the envelope and they said the daily expression written in the card.

After the lesson,   I could analyze many aspects that my colleagues and I should take in to account in order to improve the lessons. For instance, I could observe that the projection of the voice is very important since children pay more attention when the teacher projects his/her voice.  Moreover, I understood that a teacher should give simple and clear instructions to children because they cannot follow complex instructions yet. Finally, I consider that we, "as future teachers" should found out the most appropriate ways to control students because during this lesson some of the students were not paying attention in some activities.  

 

Lesson 2

Topic: Personal Pronouns

October 14th, 2014

 
The second lesson developed in this day was very challenging because my colleagues had to teach a grammar topic, “The personal pronouns” which is not considered as an easy topic for young learners since they have to distinguish the personal pronouns that must be used for the singular and for the plural form. However, my colleagues developed a set of different activities in order to make students to learn the topic in an efficient way.

During the lesson, I could observe all the activities that were

developed for each stage of the lesson.  In addition, I was carefully observing my colleagues’ classroom management.  In the first activity, I could see that the colleague in charge of it was able to achieve the objective of that activity since all of the children were paying attention and participating in that activity. Moreover, I could perceive that the colleague was enjoying the activity as well as the children, so a very comfortable environment was created for children because they were happily learning. I liked this activity because it consisted on sing a very nice song, “B-I-N-G-O”.

The next activity that was developed in this lesson was about presenting the topic throughout a set of flashcards and making gestures that were representing a personal pronoun. For instance,   if the personal pronoun was “He”, children had to point a boy by using their forefinger.  I think it was a very appropriate activity for the presentation stage because I observed that some of the children understood the meaning of some of the personal pronouns.  Thus, it was a very good activity! However, it would have been better if the colleague in charge of it would have used more body language since children learn more when it is required physical responses.  

Then, in the practice stage the children were asked to complete a worksheet in order to practice the topic presented in the presentation stage. I think it was a significant worksheet because the exercises were according to the students’ English level, and children could practice, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. However, I observed that in the beginning of this activity, it was difficult to control the children. Therefore, we “as future teachers” have to find out strategies that can avoid this kind of inconveniences.

In the production stage students were asked to write the personal pronouns that were presented by showing them flashcards with the spelling of each personal pronoun.  I consider that it was a very good activity since children had the chance to produce what they learned in the previous stages.

Finally, I really liked the activity used in the wrap up since one more time students were asked to produce what they learned in this lesson. Moreover, I could see that all the children enjoyed because they were asked to see a card and say the personal pronoun that was written in it. Each time the children were asked to speak louder.

To conclude, this was a challenging lesson since it was a grammatical topic what my colleagues had to teach, however, I consider that they did a good job because I observed that they did their best. Moreover, I think that it was a very important lesson for my colleagues and I because now we have discovered many details in which we have to improve throughout this period of practicing.

 

My case of study

My case of study will be based on a seven-year-old Salvadorian girl whose full name is Astrid Iveth Rosales Regalado, she is currently studying first grade at “Complejo Educativo de Ciudad Delgado". She lives with her grandmother, parents and a young brother whose name is Alexis,he is six-year-old, and he also attends to our English classes. 

In the diagnostic class and the first day of classes I have observed that Astrid is very sociable, friendly and she likes to participate in the activities developed during the classes. Talking about her type of learning style, I considered that she is a visual learner since I have observed that she loves activities that include visual aids. Another important thing that I have discovered during this first classes is that Astrid get easily distract during the classes, and she talks in classes because of that. Moreover, I have noticed that she can work with all her classmate including the ones who are not her classmates in the school where she studies. Finally, talking about her physical development, I consider that she is perfectly performing the physical activities that at her age should be able to do. I consider that she is very energetic because before the class start or during the break time, she loves to be running around the room and playing physical games (such as “Mica” and “Tilinte”) with her classmates.