Lesson 3
Topic: The Alphabet
October 20th, 2014
Today was developed one of my favorite topics to
teach, “The alphabet”. I consider that my colleagues did a better job than the
last time because I could observe that they have improved in many details such
the projection of their voice, teaching management, simple instructions for the
activities, and apply only the immersive approach in which students will be
exposed only in the target language.
During the lesson, I had the opportunity to observe
the different activities that my colleagues developed with the group of
children in order to make students learn the alphabet. Moreover, I consider
that I learned new strategies that I can apply for my coming practice tomorrow.
The first activity was very meaningful because it made
students to review the last lesson. It
was about the numbers, so the teacher in change of it used some flashcards with
the numbers, and the students had to say the number she was showing. I consider
that it was a nice activity because my colleagues could see how efficient the
lesson that they performed last time was.
Then, in the presentation stage, I observed that two
activities were developed. In the first one the young learners were invited to
sing the alphabet song. Next, they were asked to spell short words. The second
activity was the “hot potato game” in which students who got the hot potato
were asked to say a letter of the alphabet.
I consider that those activities were appropriate to this stage since students
encounter with the target topic.
Then, in the presentation stage, I observed that two
activities were developed. In the first one the young learners were invited to
sing the alphabet song. Next, they were asked to spell short words. The second
activity was the “hot potato game” in which students who got the hot potato
were asked to say a letter of the alphabet.
I consider that those activities were appropriate to this stage since students
encounter with the target topic.
Next, in the practice stage an enjoyable activity was developed!
I saw that all the children were focus on this task because they love to
complete puzzles. In this case they had to match each capital letter with
the lower letters of the alphabet. Although, there were some inconveniences
such as the time I think that it was a good activity to practice spelling
recognition.
Then, in the production stage, I observed that it was
Finally, in the wrap up, each student had pasted on
his back a page in which it was written the name of a school object and the picture
of it. Then, they were asked to spell the name of the school object that their
classmates had in order to help them to know which school object they had. I
think this activity was really good because one more time students were asked
to practice the topic by spelling the words.
Lesson 4
Topic:Days of the week
October 20th, 2014
The second lesson of this day was performed by another group of colleagues who were in charge to teach a very nice topic, “The days of the week”. In this lesson I still continue observing the different activities that they developed with the children in order to make them learn the topic. Moreover, I saw that my colleagues did a better job that the last time because they improved in many things such as to give clear instructions, to be confident when performing the lesson, and smile during the activities.
The first activity which “broke the ice” was very
funny! I consider that all the children enjoyed the activity as well as the colleague
in charge of it. This activity consisted on put a hat on the head and passes it
while the music was playing. Then, the child who had it when the music stopped
had to say the name of the school object that the teacher was showing them.
The first activity which “broke the ice” was very
funny! I consider that all the children enjoyed the activity as well as the colleague
in charge of it. This activity consisted on put a hat on the head and passes it
while the music was playing. Then, the child who had it when the music stopped
had to say the name of the school object that the teacher was showing them.
Next, in the presentation stage, there were posters
about the days of the week pasted on the white board. Then, the colleague in
charge of this part introduces the topic by asking the students to pronounce
the days of the week from Sunday until Saturday. Consequently, she got close to
the students, and she asked them questions like “What day is today?” and “What’s
your favorite day?” When students answer the questions by saying one day of the
week, I observed something good that the colleague did, she corrected any students’
pronunciation mistake immediately. I think it is important because children
need to be corrected immediately in order to avoid future pronunciation’s
problem.
Next, in the presentation stage, there were posters
about the days of the week pasted on the white board. Then, the colleague in
charge of this part introduces the topic by asking the students to pronounce
the days of the week from Sunday until Saturday. Consequently, she got close to
the students, and she asked them questions like “What day is today?” and “What’s
your favorite day?” When students answer the questions by saying one day of the
week, I observed something good that the colleague did, she corrected any students’
pronunciation mistake immediately. I think it is important because children
need to be corrected immediately in order to avoid future pronunciation’s
problem.
Afterwards, in the practice part, I observed two
activities. The first one consisted on make groups and to ask the students to
put in order the days of the week, so it was given to each group a set of
pieces of paper in which was written each day of the week. The second activity
was “the bottle game” in which the students that the bottle pointed had to answer some questios like "What day is today?" and"what's your favorite day?" I
consider that those activities were very meaningful because the students
practiced the pronunciation of the days of the week and the recognition of the spelling
of them. However, it would have been better if the colleague would have projected
more her voice because children would have felt more enthusiastic with the games.
Afterwards, in the practice part, I observed two
activities. The first one consisted on make groups and to ask the students to
put in order the days of the week, so it was given to each group a set of
pieces of paper in which was written each day of the week. The second activity
was “the bottle game” in which the students that the bottle pointed had to answer some questios like "What day is today?" and"what's your favorite day?" I
consider that those activities were very meaningful because the students
practiced the pronunciation of the days of the week and the recognition of the spelling
of them. However, it would have been better if the colleague would have projected
more her voice because children would have felt more enthusiastic with the games.
Then, in the production stage, it was given to each
student a worksheet which contained two parts. The first one was a letter soup
in which they had to find the days on the week, and the second part was about
gap filling words in which children had to write the missing letters of the words.
I think that it was a good activity because I observed that most of the
children really love to find words in a letter soup. They looked happy! Although,
there were some students who were not able to complete the task in the
established time. Probably because it was the first time that they did an
activity like this or it was because they felt not so confident and they worked
slowly.
In the end of this lesson, students were asked to sing
a very nice song about the days of the week. Then, they were asked to sing it
two more times. I consider that it was a great activity because it catched
children’s attention and the rhythm was perfect for children!
Lesson 5
Topic: School Objects
October 21st, 2014
Today was developed the first lesson of my
group in which I was in charge of the presentation stage and the wrap up.
Personally, I consider that it was a great experience since my group and I were
able to perform all the activities. Even though, we had some inconveniences
such as one of my colleague did not come, and we had to think about who was
going to develop her activities. However, another colleague and I decided to be
in charge of those activities, and it worked. Now, I will share the experience of our first
lesson:
Warm up
My colleague, Claudia was in charge of
it. Firstly, she asked students to sit
and pass a paper ball while the music was playing. When the music stopped, the
child who had the paper ball was invited to take out a piece of paper from the
ball and answer the question that was written in it. The questions were very
basic such as what is your name? , and how old are you? I consider that she
performed very well the activity since she gave the student clear and simple
instructions, and all the students enjoyed the activity because they knew what
to do.
Presentation
I was in charge of this part of the lesson,
and I want to share my experience performing this part. Before I started to
perform the activity, I was really anxious because it was going to be the first
time I was going to perform an activity in an English lesson for children. Some of my thoughts before the activity were
“if the students do not understand my instructions, I will be in troubles! ”And
“I have to do my best since now I know some of the mistakes that my colleagues
did during their lessons, and I must avoid them.” Then, my turn came, and I started performing
my activity by asking them a question that was going to break the ice, “how are
you?” And by using body language they
understood what I was asking them and they said “fine”. Next, I present the target vocabulary by showing them a set of real school objects and by using
pieces of paper I asked them to spell the names of the school objects that were
written in each piece of paper. That was
a part which was not included in the lesson plan, but I decided to add it since
I observed that in the Alphabet’s lesson, they really learned how to spell. Thus,
they were able to spell the words. During the activity I could observed that
all of the children were paying attention most of the time, but in some moments
when one or two of them were distracted, I tried to catched their attention by
moving the bag pack I had and making a surprising gesture. I think it worked
because they again were participating in the activity. Finally, after I had presented
all the target vocabulary which was eighteen school objects, I finished my
presentation.
Practice
Claudia was in charge of the two activities for the practice stage
that were planned for this lesson. The first task was a matching game in which
students had to recognize the spelling of the name of the school objects, and
they had to match the words with the appropriate picture. Then, students were
asked to complete a worksheet in which they only had to fill the missing
letters of a word of the target vocabulary. I consider that those activities were very
effective since children could practice the vocabulary that was presented previously.
Production
In this part Brenda used a nice object in
order to perform the activity. She used a fortune teller in which was pasted
the written name of the school objects and in other parts of it was pasted
pictures. Thus, her activity consisted on ask children to identify the spelling
and drawings of school objects by saying them. I consider that Brenda did a good job
developing this activity, however, I could notice that it was too difficult for
her to control the children since all of them wanted to participate in the activity,
and all of them wanted to see the fortune teller.
Wrap up
I was in charge of the last activity, and I
had to figure out how to make the activity shorter than it was planned because I
only had 3 minutes in order to develop it. Thus, I decided to play "the spinning
bottle" with the children, so I asked them to spell, to say and to identify the
different school object. In this part I discovered that our lesson was
effective because I confirm that most of the children who participate in this
activity really knew the vocabulary.
To conclude, I consider that my group and I
did a good job, even though, we had some difficulties. I think that in the end,
the most important of this experimental practice is that we are getting
experience and throughout our mistakes we can learn and improve!
*Now
I will list the things I should improve:
1-When I ask students to spell and practice
the pronunciation of words several times, I should find out many strategies in order
to make the activity more interesting.
Lesson 6
I was in charge of the last activity, and I had to figure out how to make the activity shorter than it was planned because I only had 3 minutes in order to develop it. Thus, I decided to play "the spinning bottle" with the children, so I asked them to spell, to say and to identify the different school object. In this part I discovered that our lesson was effective because I confirm that most of the children who participate in this activity really knew the vocabulary.
To conclude, I consider that my group and I did a good job, even though, we had some difficulties. I think that in the end, the most important of this experimental practice is that we are getting experience and throughout our mistakes we can learn and improve!
Topic: Grammar, This/That &These/Those
October 21st, 2014
The next group of colleagues was in charge
of performing the second lesson which was a grammar topic. I consider that the topic that they taught was
very challenging! Thus, I could observe that in the end of the lesson, most of the
children did not identify the differences between the use of This& That and
These& Those.
Next, I will share the activities performed
in order to teach the topic.
The first activity was very short because
it has the aim of
recall students’ previous knowledge regarding school objects.
I observed that students were asked to play the hot potato and they had to name
the school objects that were displayed in the hot potato. 
The second activity was used in order to
teach the use of the demonstrative pronouns, so the teacher in charge demonstrated
to children the use of the demonstrative pronouns by showing them real school
objects such as markers, the white board, and a chair.
Another activity that I observed, and I
really liked was a big
dice which had pictures of the use of the demonstrative pronouns.
Thus, by using the dice, children were asked to answer questions like, “what is
that?” and “what are those?”. I think it was a good strategy in order to make
the students to practice and learned the use of the demonstrative pronouns. 
The last activity, consisted on invited the
students to use the demonstrative pronounce by giving them real objects and asking
them to use the appropriate demonstrative pronoun. However, I observed that most
of the children did not even know what they were going to do, and which demonstrative
pronoun the had to use. I think that it was because for them it was a complex
topic.
To conclude, I consider that my colleagues did
a big effort teaching this complex topic. However, it would have been better if
they would have feel more relax and if they would have tried to avoid mistakes
such as touching an object and using the
demonstrative pronoun “That”.
My case of study
During this second week, I could observe
that Astrid behaves in the same way as in the first week.
She is very sociable,
energetic, and friendly. Moreover, I have observed that she can work with all
her classmates, and she play with any person as long as that person is friendly
and she or he offers her to play an interesting game. I have said this because
during the break time of these two classes I have interact with her by asking
her some questions like “How are you?” and “Did you like the class?” Then, I
have offered her to play some games, and she play with me normally as she does
with her friends.
Finally, I think that there is not any doubt that her gross motor skill development is excellent because most of the time she is moving her body. I have observed that during the classes when it is asked to stand up, she stands up and start moving her legs. Moreover, during the break time, she prefers to play games that involve physical activities such as jump and run.
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