my journal tpd-restivo

Instituto de Formación Docente Continua

Lenguas Vivas Bariloche (A-052)

Profesorado de Inglés – Opción pedagógica a distancia

Subject: Taller de la Práctica docente

Tutors´ names: Cecilia Zemborain and Aurelia Velazquez

Student's name: Gisela Restivo

Assignment: My Journal- Period 3

Trainee´s name: Gisela Restivo

Practicum level: Secondary

Group: 4th year

I have been teaching this group since the beginning of the year. They have English as a

subject since they were in the 1st year of Secondary School. Their level of English

corresponds to a pre intermediate level.

Class number: 1

Date: 8th September

Section 1: Describing the lesson as it unfolds

What pedagogical principles supported the planning and delivery of this lesson?

This first lesson, as the following ones, was planned under the light of the communicative

approach. Therefore, during the whole class, students could express their opinions and

predictions about the future.

In other words, students were involved in real communication. They could not only express

their ideas, but they were also able to listen to their classmates. What is more, they were

able to interact with a text.

Section 2: Making sense of the lesson through relevant lived experiences

Choose a moment that was important for you during the lesson. Describe it and say

why it was important.

The video was an important moment. Whenever we use technologies in the class, we are

exposed to the fact that they may not work. In order to prevent any difficulties and as my

class started after the break, I used those minutes to prepare the computer and projector.

To tell you the truth, I relaxed a lot after the equipment worked properly. In regards to the

students, they were actually engaged. They liked the idea of using videos whenever they are

able to understand it. Therefore, I must be careful when selecting the materials since they

must be according to the studnets´level.

Section 3: Interpreting the lesson in words and images

Here, there are the students ‘productions of the day with my corrections. I feel students

were engaged with the activities and they liked working in pairs. Now, they are supposed to

answer the questions as homework...Let´s see if they are able to do it!



Group: 4th year

Class number: 2

Date: 12th September

Section 1

How did the students react to your teaching, to the activities and the materials? How

did they react to the lesson?

In general terms, most of the students were engaged during the whole class and worked

properly. They participated in an active way in the proposed activities.

However, there were times in which I had to call their attention because they were talking or

playing.

In addition, when I was editing the video, I could see some bad behaviour which I was not

able to see during the class. I will have a talk with the involved student as soon as possible.

This kind of behaviour is not new for me since it is commonly commented by the rest of the

teachers. Students are talkative and they always make jokes.

Seating arrangement is managed by their tutor. She has tried different forms but they talk

the same! We can propose changes but they always have to respect the seating they were

assigned.

If you ask me, I think they were engaged. Although it is not the most comfortable way of

studying, they work and study meanwhile they are talking.

To edit the videos of the practicum I used Movie Maker. To be honest, it was a hard work to

do it. First, because I watched the whole class and I paid attention to every single detail.

Then, I watched it for a second time for editing it. I used text so that the faces of students

were not seen.

Section 2



The beginning was a key moment. Students were punished today and they had no break. I

do not know the reason since when I arrived at the class their “preceptor” was talking with

them and they were really angry. After that bad moment, they relaxed and me, too. To sum

up, although we did not begin in an ideal way! they were able to change their mood and do

the activities.

Section 3

Include a photo of a moment in the lesson, or a task students did, a picture from the

board or any other lesson component you would like to share, and describe it.

According to Tricia Hedge, assessment is an inclusive term that refers to the general

process of monitoring or keeping track of learners ‘progress. And she adds...”It is a part of

the whole educational process of teaching and learning”

These photos reflect today´s assessment. Students wrote their sentences on the

blackboard, they asked if they were not so sure and the whole class checked their

productions.

Through the assessment, I could see many things. First, if they could do what they were

supposed to do. Then, I could realize whether they were able to use Present continuous to

talk about arrangements or not. Besides, I discovered if they wrote grammatically correct

sentences and if they had really understood the target structure.



Group: 4th year

Class number: 3



What teaching strategies did you use? Which ones were effective? Why / why not?

The lesson plan was learner centred; therefore, the activities gave learners an active role

during the whole class. They expressed their intentions and plans, they read about other

people´s intentions, they shared plans with their classmates.

In addition, I tried to use English as the language of the class despite the fact that students

do not use it as much as they should.

Finally, as I always do, I tried to activate students ‘previous contents, when talking about

outdoor activities.

The fact that students do not use the target language as they should do is an aspect to

improve. There are many strategies that apply in this case. First of all, that the teacher uses

English during the whole class is a must. Greetings, instructions and feedback must be in

English and that is something I try to do in every class.

Furthermore, students must feel the need to communicate by using the target language.

Generating debates around a controversial topic, and allowing them to express their

opinions is a good idea.

Finally, I think that it is really important to create an appropriate atmosphere in the classroom

so that students feel confident to speak and they are not afraid of making mistakes, and for

this purpose, the teacher should help students to respect each other.

To conclude, although I do my best to speak English as much as possible, it is not enough.

Students do not feel self confident to speak in class, yet.


Choose a moment that was important for the students during the lesson. Describe it

and say why it was important.

The writing activity was an important moment for them. They find it difficult to write even a

short paragraph. I am sure they can understand much more than what they can produce

orally or written.

To make them write or speak in a more self confident way is my first goal; however it is not

an easy task!


Choose a quotation that represents an event, knowledge, insight in this lesson.

Searching in the web I find this image and its phrase, really

represents how anxious and frustrated my students felt.

I would like to use it when teaching writing. Many times students

feel they cannot do it or that they have made lots of mistakes.

Giving them the chance to correct mistakes and offering the

possibility of re writing their productions is a good way of

motivating them and showing them that they can do it!



Group: 4th year

Class number: 4



What aspects of the lesson do you consider successful?

As I always do, I used the blackboard and that was a successful aspect. In this opportunity, I

used it to classify food. Writing on the blackboard some words or the question I want

students to answer is always really helpful for visual learners. Therefore, I try to be

organized and to write as legible as possible. In addition, I use colour chalk.


Choose a moment that was important.

Acting out dialogues was an important moment for both, for me and for them. This is a

talkative group but the good thing is that they are not shy and they enjoy participating. As

they always do, most of them raise their hands when I ask them to read. Today was not the

exception, when I asked them to act, they answered positively.



Aristotle once said: “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet”

It cannot suit better! This is a difficult group. Some weeks ago, we (teachers and tutor) had a

meeting with their parents as a consequence of their bad behaviour. That would be the bitter

aspect of education. Classes as the one we had today are the sweet fruit!



Group: 4th year

Class number: 5

Date: 22nd September


How did the students react to your teaching, to the activities and the materials? How

did they react to the lesson?

Today students were really excited, perhaps a bit more than every day, since they were

celebrating their day.

The idea of playing a game was interesting for them as they felt they were not studying! So,

they were actually engaged with the auction and they enjoyed the video very much because

it was really hilarious.




Although the video was very short, it was an important moment for students. I felt that all of

them could understand it and laugh.

The images and the transcript helped them to understand better what an auction is and in

this way they were able to understand the rules of the game.




To tell you the truth, it is the first time I prepare a metacognitive activity of this kind. I adapted

it according to your suggestions. I explained that number 3 means “really well”, number 2

means “well” and 1 “with difficulty”. I took the sheets of papers home to evaluate them. After

analyzing them carefully, I could discover that the majority of the students could use the

target structure well or really well. That was extremely satisfying for me!

To conclude, this activity not only helped me to realize how my students were, but it also

allowed them to reflect about their own learning process.



Group: 4th year

Class number: 6




The lesson was really communicative. During nearly the whole class, students worked with

the same audio and the vocabulary contained in it. As a consequence, when they were

asked to make a dialogue similar to that one, they did not find it so difficult. Using the same

context to develop the lesson was really successful!




I cannot think on a special moment, the whole lesson was important.

Every lesson with them is a big challenge due to their characteristic of being extremely

talkative. However, I must recognize that they have improved a lot during the last weeks.

From the beginning of the year many teachers have complained about students´ bad

behaviour. So, the headmaster together with their tutor and a group of teachers held a

meeting with their parents to let them know what the students´ attitude was.

In addition, many students got worse marks on their exams and some of them had a

punishment such as suspension.

These facts helped them to recognize that their classroom was not a “healthy” and

comfortable place to learn and their behaviour is much better now.

Many talks with them and their parents and the results they got in exams helped them so

much noise make the classroom an uncomfortable place to learn




I chose this instant

photo from the video in

which you are able to

see Jesus above the

blackboard. Every single

room of our school have

the same cross.

Our school is a Salesian

school. Don Bosco, the

father of Salesian

schools, said: “Without

confidence and love,

there can be no true education.” And he also exclaimed: “It is not enough you love students,

they must know they are loved”

Every day I entered into the class, I thank God the possibility of working there. I try to show

students that I care of them and that I want to give them my best.

According to Carl Rogers, there are three characteristics that teachers should have:

Respectful, empathetic and authentic. Practising these three values and with very simple

gestures, we can demonstrate students that we love them. Calling them by their names,

respecting their opinions, being authentic are some of the things I always do. In addition,

being responsible with my work and empathetic with them are also gestures of love.



Group: 4th year

Class number: 7



What teaching strategies did you use? Which ones were effective? Why / why not?

In this opportunity, I used a different strategy to make students work in pairs. I gave them

cards of countries and typical food and they had to find their partner. Therefore, they could

not choose who they worked with. At first, they were not so comfortable with this idea, but

then they worked without problems. I think it was an effective technique since students were

not so talkative.




The moment of the cards was important. To tell you the truth, it is the first time in the year; I

do not allow them to work with the classmate they want. I was a bit nervous; I did not how

they were going to react. Although at the beginning they were a bit reluctant, they work

without problems… They are more flexible tan adults!



Pearse and Davies in their book “success in English Teaching” express: There are, it is true,

difficulties and risks, associated to pair and group work, for example: the noise level may rise

or students may start talking whatever they like in L1....However, you can avoid this problem

by careful preparation and organization and by training students to participate fully and

effectively.

In order to follow the authors ‘ideas and to prepare and organize carefully the lesson, many

things should be taken into account. For example, the type of activity, the number of

students you want to work together, the total number of students are aspects that must be

considered. Then, having students who have different level of English or whose learning

styles are different may help as they will enrich themselves from each other.

This is the insight of this lesson, students are getting used to working in pairs and my

previous organization helped them a lot!



Group: 4th year

Class number: 8

Date: 3 rd October


What aspects of the lesson require change / improvement?

It is not necessary to tell you that my students are really talkative! And the bad news is that

they do not speak English as much as they should.

Although, I use English as the language of the class and all of them are able to understand

what I am saying, many of them do not use the language as they are supposed to do it.

Therefore, something I should improve is that I ought to insist them on the use of L2.

For this purpose, I will go on applying to the strategies mentioned above in this journal.

However, I think that establishing English as the language of the class is not an easy task

and it cannot be achieved in a few months. On the contrary, it takes a lot of time to make

students aware of the importance of using the language inside the class.




Students were supposed to help me in order to complete a poster. To be honest, I was not

used to preparing lots of visual resources such as posters or images. So, they were really

enthusiastic when I showed them another poster...Their question was: “Will you leave it

there for the exam?” =)



David Nunan in his article “Teaching Grammar in Context” discusses the importance of

teaching grammar in context instead of giving isolated sentences. He expresses: “I have

suggested that grammar instruction will be more effective in classrooms where learners are

exposed to authentic samples of language so that the grammatical features being taught are

encountered in a range of different linguistic and experiential contexts”

Although, at first it was not easy, I planned this, and all my lesson plans, under the light of

this idea. And now, that I am near the end, I can say that it is really valuable!



Group: 4th year

Class number: 9

Date: 6th October



Today students read a text and without doubts, the activity of reading was successful. I could

realize how much my students improved in this skill due to the practice we do in class.

Students are able to read and understand the whole text and they do not worry about every

single Word. In addition, they are able to make predictions about the text and they can

discover the meaning of new words from the context.




Today it was the last lesson of the practicum; therefore the entire lesson was important for

me. The activities were engaging and students participated a lot. Although we did not have

enough time to make the poster with students’ productions, they were able to write their

opinions about being a vegetarian. I enjoyed a lot to see them using the target language to

communicate for a real purpose.


Describe this lesson in terms of a metaphor.

When I started my practicum, I described it as the beginning of a race. Today, I reached the

end of this race. It was hard and I am really tired but I felt that I won! I could learn a lot of

things and I could reflect about my own practicum. This knowledge will accompany me the

rest of my life. Furthermore, during this race, I met lots of adults and hundreds of learners

who I will never forget!

my journal tpd-restivo

Education