THE FIFTH WEEK OF PRACTICING WITH CHILDREN

The last lessons that were performed by group 1 and group 2

November 10^th, 2014

 

In this day were performed the last lessons for the groups 1 and 2 of teaching practicum. In my opinion, the two groups of colleagues demonstrated that they were able to overcome many difficulties that they had to face in each lessons. I had the opportunity to observe their lessons, and I consider that throughout each lesson that they were developing, they were improving more and more.  Moreover, I consider that the two groups of colleagues took in to account all the suggestions that were given to them in order to help them to improve their lessons. It is because I noticed that most of them did not made the same mistake twice! And that was very significant.  Next, I will list the general things that I observed that they improved a lot!

- Classroom management

- Voice projection

- Self- confident

- Body language

- Creativity

- Attitude
- Clear and direct instructions 

-The use of commands 

-Monitoring students’ work 

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Lesson  17

Topic:  Everyday activities

November 11^th, 2014

We are almost about to finish the course of Teaching practicum with children and today my group and I performed our fourth lesson in which we were in charge of teach a very enjoyable topic. This time, I was in charge of the production stage.

Warm up

Brenda started the class with an activity in which students were able to review the vocabulary they learned from the lesson that was about toys.  There were three positive things I could observe in Brenda’s Participation:

1^st, she had an excellent teaching management.

2^nd, she projected her voice as much as to catch children’s attention.

3^rd, she demonstrated self- confidence.   

Presentation

This time, Gaby was in charge of the presentation part of the lesson. She introduced the topic by using flashcards and mimics. I noticed that all of the children were paying attention because most of them are visual learners and the flashcards were very catching for them, Moreover, they really enjoyed doing the mimics per each everyday activity. However, I consider that the successful of this activity was based on Gaby's attitude and the body language that she used.

Practice

During the practice stage of the lesson, Claudia developed a nice activity in order to help students to practice the target vocabulary by saying and recognizing the spelling of the words. The first part of the activity consisted on asked the students to complete puzzles about everyday activities. Then, when the puzzles were completed, children were invited to match the puzzles with the labels (in which were written the name of the everyday activities).  I consider that one more time the successful of Claudia’s activity was totally based on her high level of classroom management. Until this point, I have realized that the key of efficient teaching is based on teaching management.

Production

I was in charge of the production stage and it was the first time I developed an activity for this stage of the lesson. Before I started the activity I was deeply thinking about how to overcome any future difficulty with my activity. Thus, I had an extra plan just in case of any inconvenience. During the activity, I asked two children to give the materials that were going to be used during the activity. Then, I gave to the students the instructions and by providing then an example of what they had to do, they got it. In the development of the activity I did the mimics of the everyday activities, and they had to guess, and say which action was. Then, they had to write the name of the action. After performing this activity I was very happy to see that all the students completed the task efficiently.  I consider that all of them were able to complete it because they were paying attention since for them it was so meaningful to see a teacher doing funny mimics.

Wrap up

Brenda finished the class by asking students to make a circle and perform the all the actions that she was saying. For instance, if she said jump all of the students had to jump.

To conclude, I just want to say that for me this practice with children has been very significant because after the four lessons in which I had participated, I have discovered that I really like to work with children. Moreover, I have realized that the way in which you will catch children’s attention is by behaving as a child, but always keeping the authority of the class.  

   

My case of study

After this five week in which Astrid had been attended to our course of practicing, I have noticed that she look more confident when I asked her some questions in English. Moreover, she is able to answer questions like “How are you?”, “what’s your name?”, “how old are you?”  “How do you say… in English?” and “how do you spell this word?” 

Now, talking about her psychosocial development, I have observed that she is still behaving in the same way. She is not a problematic girl, and she is very respectful with her classmates because until this time, I have not seen her fighting with someone or saying nicknames to someone.   

Finally, in my opinion Astrid is a girl that has a good personality, and she has demonstrated it throughout all the  lessons. In addition, I have noticed that she has a good self-esteem which is something very important because if she grows up with that good self-esteem, she will be able to control and overcome the difficulties of the life.   

*Now  I will share a video  in which I elicited Astrid to produce some English words that she has learned from the lessons.

THE FOURTH WEEK OF PRACTICING WITH CHILDREN

Lesson 11

Topic: Parts of the body

November 3^rd, 2014

This lesson was about a review of the previous vocabulary which was about body part, but it was added more parts of the body such as the elbow, the nails, and the face.

 The first activity developed was a game called “the teacher says” so students were asked to do everything that the teacher was asking them to do. Some tasks were about make student to touch a specific part of their bodies, count the numbers, and say the clothes that they were wearing. I think it was a good activity in order to activate student’s prior knowledge, and to review the vocabulary of the previous lessons.

The next activity was very catching for all the children since the colleague in charge of it used very nice flashcards. The flashcards only had the drawings of the body parts. She started by asking students to say which part of the body was the drawing of the flashcard. I think that it was very efficient because children already had learned some body parts, so they had the chance to practice and produce the vocabulary the had earned.

In the Practice stage, students could practice again the song that they had learned in the previous lessons. It was the head& shoulders song! Moreover, they were asked to complete a worksheet in which they had to write the body parts.

Then, in the production stage, an interesting activity was

developed. The students were asked to draw a monster according to what the teacher was describing. At the beginning I did not believe that children were going to be able to do that, but it was surprising to see that in the end, they completed the task. I consider that at the beginning it was difficult to children to understand the instructions because the teacher gave them complex instructions, however, after some extra minutes they got it! 

Then, the lesson was finished with a new version of the song “Head & Shoulders”. I liked this because students easily learned this song with different lyrics which were instead of the original part (head and shoulders, knees and toes) it was “FACE, ELBOW, TEETH, AND TONGUE”

In my opinion, my colleagues did a good job because I noticed that the ones who had self-confident problem, today they looked more relaxed and confident. In addition, all of them were able to project their voice. However, there are still some details in which the need to improve which are simple instruction, pronunciation mistakes and classroom management.

Lesson 12

Topic: Grammar: Have/has (affirmative and negative forms) & A review of body parts

November 4^th, 2014

During this lesson, it was also reviewing the previous topic about body parts. Nevertheless, it was included a grammar topic which was the use of have and has.

The first activity consisted on sing a song that required students to move their body. It was “The Hokey pokey song." Personally, I really love this song because it is very energetic and the rhythm is great.  During the performance of this song I could see that all the children enjoyed it, as well as the teacher!

The next part of the lesson was the presentation of the topic so in order to encounter the students with the topic it was posted two big posters about two funny monsters.  Then, it was pasted labels (which had the name of the body parts) on the body parts of the monsters. I consider that the performance of the colleague in charge of it was very good because she projected her voice, she used the body language, and she was able to catch children’s attention.

Then, in the practice part, another activity was developed which consisted on “a matching game” where students were invited to paste the labels on the correct body parts of the monsters. I saw that all the children that were asked to participate were able to do that task. I think that the success of that activity was because the colleague in charge of it decided to give options to each student who was not sure about the correct answer.

After that, in the production stage, students were asked to complete a worksheet about some topics of the previous lessons and the topic of this day. Something that really catched my attention was the strategy that the colleague (in charge of this part) used. She gave the instructions before to give the material to the students. I consider that I will use this strategy for my future lessons because it really worked in order to avoid the problem that children do not follow instructions, and they start doing their worksheet wherever they want to start completing.

I think that it was an effective lesson. In addition, I could notice that my colleagues have growth as future professional because in this lesson I observe that they really felt as real teachers!

Lesson 13

Topic: Pets

November 5^th, 2014

Today was developed the third lesson of our group! And the topic that my group and I taught was one of my favorite topics, pets.  Personally, I really enjoyed when I was developing my part of the lesson which was presentation.  Next, I will share the experience of our lesson:

Warm up

Claudia started the class with an interesting activity! She asked students to pay attention and to guess which animal she was mimicking. Through this activity, I realized that most of the child already knew the major part of the vocabulary because they were able to guess and say the name of the pets.

Presentation

Before I started performing the presentation of the target vocabulary I decided to focus on the pronunciation and the spelling of the names of the animals because I noticed that in the previous activity they already knew the major part of vocabulary, and they just need to be strengthened in pronunciation and spelling. During the development of my activity, I asked students to tell me the name of the animal I was indicating with my finger, and they accurately said the correct name. After some minutes, I changed the strategy in order to avoid making students feel bored, so I divided the class in two groups and firstly I asked a group to pronounce the names of the pets and then the other group. Finally, I decided to use the question “How do you spell….?” And I asked each student to spell the name of the pets by themselves.  For me it was satisfactory to see that they were able to spell(by themselves) accurately most of the words.    

  

Practice

The material used in this part was a worksheet. Brenda was in charge of this part of the lesson, and I considered that she did a great job because when she gave instructions to children, they were very clear and direct. Thus, children started completing the worksheet very fast.

Production

Gaby asked Claudia and me to take the poster that she used in her activity.  Thus, I could observe perfectly the reaction of the children when they were asked to write all the names of the pets that were drawn in the poster. They were so excited because the poster was going to be shown for only some seconds.  However, Gaby decided to give them three opportunities more in order to help the students to write all the names of the pets. Therefore, Claudia and I were three times showing the poster to the students.  I consider that it was a great activity and it stimulated students’ brain to work quickly.

To sum up, this lesson was very enjoyable for me, and I think that it is the key in order to transmit enthusiasm to students and to create a comfortable environment for them because when you enjoy teaching, the students enjoy learning.

*Things I should improve:

1- I should be aware about the phonemes that I pronounce. Today, I had the problem that I did not notice that I was pronouncing the word bird as /v ɜːrd/ which is not the correct pronunciation.

Lesson 14

Topic: Pets & the use of have and has. (Negative and affirmative form)

November 5^th, 2014

The next group of colleagues was in charge of the grammar part which was about the use of the “Have & Has”. In my opinion, they did a great job and they presented a good teaching management.

In the first activity I could observed that all the students were paying a attention and they knew what to do because the colleague in charge of it perfectly used clear instructions. The activity consisted on showing to students some flascards about pets in which they were asked to say this/ that is ....(the name of the animal that was shown.

Then, the topic was presenting by using a nice Power point presentation and making sound of the animals. Something that I noticed that really worked in order to keep children paying attention was to play with the volume of the voice. Say something loudly and the second time lowly.

Another activity that I have observed that is very effective with children is to preset a topic through a song. I observed that children enjoyed singing and at the same time without they noticed they were learning the grammar topic.

The last activities that the group of colleagues developed were two worksheets in which students were asked to recognize when they had to use the Have, Has, doesn’t have and don’t have.

My case of study

I have noticed that Astrid has been producing more English words that the last time and because of that during these two lessons she has been participating more during the classes. However, she still has the problem that she talks in classes if she is not busy doing something or if she is next to her best friends. Therefore, I consider that it is very important to monitor all the students during the classes. Another factor is that it is considered that a seven-year-old child only has the ability to pay attention during 10 minutes, so   when an activity takes more than about 12 minutes, Astrid start to get bored and she stopped paying attention. I think that when I develope my next activities in the next lessons I will be more strict with the time because for chidren it is very hard to keep  their full attention for more than 10 minutes.