Taller de Práctica Docente 2016

Journal

Alumno residente: Gómez Antonella Belén

Tutores: Zemborain Cecilia y Velazquez Aurelia

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Nivel Inicial

Institución educativa: Instituto Approaches

Autoridades: Cerdán Belén, Cufré Mariel y López Beatriz

Docente a cargo: Szlapski Carolina

Curso: Pre-Children

Turno: Mañana (10:30 - 11:30) Nivel lingüístico del curso: Beginner

Clase de observación N°1

Fecha: 02/05/2016

★ Section 1: Describing the lesson as it unfolds During the lesson, I observed that the class is developed through PPP using natural approach. Students follow a routine for the beginning of the class - First they sing a song to say hello, following that they copy the date and what the weather is like. To continue, if they have any homework the teacher corrects it asking students all the time about the activity they had to do. For example, they had as homework the name of different wild animals and they had to draw them. So, as a way to revise the structure ‘what is it?’ the teacher asked the question and the students answered. In some cases the teacher asked the colour of the animals, and the parts of the face. Next to this, as a way to set the proper environment they sing a song. In this case it is a song about monkeys, that according to the teacher is their favourite. With it they revise numbers 1-10. They also do the mimics for the song. Students seem to enjoy it a lot. After that they work with the course book and activity book. They continue with the topic of wild animals, they revise numbers 1-5 and the structure ‘how many (giraffes) can you see?’. They work orally all the time, do matching exercises and drawing/colouring ones. Following, they sit on the floor to play some games in order to revise for the following class test. The games are: 1) Mimic game: the teacher says a feeling and students mimic it. 2) They sing ‘If you’re happy’ song. 3) Simon says to revise parts of the face.

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4) Searching game: The teacher names a school object and students search for it. Finally, when they have finished, the teacher asks them to pack up and they play a final game (Chinese whispers) to revise the animals learnt. The teacher uses a lot of modeling, eliciting, miming and pointing during the lesson, and also some translation. Students seem to respond very well to her way of teaching and they are very comfortable with her. She has managed to build a good rapport with students and create a comfortable classroom environment. I liked the way in which she invited students to speak in English. Whenever a student asked for something in Spanish she said ‘How do you say it in English?’ so the student had to ask in English for the teacher to give them what they wanted. And they responded well to this, since sometimes they said it in Spanish not because they didn’t know it, but because it is easier. I also observed the dynamics of the lesson. Everything is very fast and very varied, always following a topic. They have to be in constant movement and varying from a quiet activity to a stirring one so that they do not get bored.

★ Section 2: Making sense of the lesson through relevant lived experiences. In my case, I greeted students at the beginning of the class and the teacher introduced me. Students do not seem to like the idea of another ‘teacher’ around at first, but then they smiled at me and asked some questions. I liked this because it helped me to start building up a connection with them. As for a moment that was important for students as regards me, it was when I offer to collect the notebooks the teacher was asking them. They noticed that I remembered their names and they seemed to like it. Sometimes is really hard to learn all their names quickly, but for them is very important.

★ Section 3: Interpreting the lesson in words and images I decided to choose a quote as to reflect this lesson:

Comentado [1]: This is something you should bear in mind when designing the activities!

Comentado [2]: Yes, totally.

Comentado [3]: Definitely! It means recognising them as individuals.

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I hope I can build a relationship with these students and ‘leave a mark on their pages’.

Clase de observación N°2

Fecha: 04/05/2016

★ Section 1: Describing the lesson as it unfolds Today’s class had two parts. The first one consisted on a test. It was about feelings, parts of the face, school objects, adjectives (small, big), colours and numbers. In the first exercise they had to match the part of the face with its name. As they do not read, or read very little, the teacher said the part of the face and students matched. For the second exercise they had to listen to the teacher name a part of the face and they had to circle the correct option. The third exercise was about feelings. The teacher said for example, ‘I’m

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happy’ and students had to draw the face. In exercise number four, students had to listen to the teacher in order to choose the correct of two options. The teacher said ‘big/small’ and a school object. The next exercise was about colouring numbers 1-5. So the teacher said ‘Number 1 is blue’, and students coloured it. The last exercise was about matching school objects with their names. Everything was very fast, and orally. They only wrote their names and the date on the test. I liked being part of this lesson because I learnt a way of assessing a group of kindergarten formally. Students responded well and they completed everything. The test was individual but they did it at the same time. I think this was important because nobody wants to be the last one, and this is a way of motivating and encouraging them. As regards the second part of the class, it was about revising the contents learnt in the last class. They worked with their activity book. The first exercise was about tracing the way from an animal to its description and then colour it as it said. The teacher read the description and students matched. In the second exercise they had a picture in which they had a hidden animal and two words to choose from. They had to circle the correct option. Finally, they had a domino game. They had to match the animals that were the same and colour them. Then the teacher ask them what animal was and its colour. On this part of the lesson I was more involved. The teacher wanted to correct the tests, so I offered to help students with the activities while she did it. Students at first didn’t know what to do, if to ask me for help or ask the teacher, but after some time they were all asking me for help. I also lent them, colour pencils, rubbers and any other object they needed so that I could gain their trust.

★ Section 2: Making sense of the lesson through relevant lived experiences. Well, for me an important part of the lesson was when it finished. Students said goodbye to the teacher and then they came and kissed me goodbye. I felt great, since I thought that I had done a good job and they liked me a

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little bit more. As for students, I think that an important part of the lesson was the test. It was challenging but they managed to do it well, so they felt great about it.

★ Section 3: Interpreting the lesson in words and images To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved. George MacDonald

I liked this quote to describe the feeling of being trusted today by the students.

Clase de práctica N°1

Fecha: 09/05/2016

★ Section 1: Describing the lesson as it unfolds Well, to start with, the lesson was quite good. I have to be honest and say that I was not satisfied by my performance and the response I had from students (of course, it was all on me). First of all, we did the routine, we sang the ‘Good morning’ song, we copy the date and what the weather was like. As a warm-up I had planned a game to review colours. There were flashcards all over the classroom, and as I named a colour they had to run and touch it. They were very enthusiastic about it and they liked it a lot. So I felt very confident at this stage. For the presentation, I took animals flashcards in order to review the ones they had learnt and to add the new one. I showed them an animal and asked them ‘what is it?’ and ‘what colour is it?’. They were happy with this exercise too and they responded very well. Their answers were very accurate since they had already practiced those questions. As for the development, we started using their book. The first exercise was a listening, in which they had to draw a bird and colour it as the listening indicated. It was a bit hard for them to understand at the beginning, but in the end they managed to do it well. Following this, we continued with the book. I asked them about some animals in a picture before listening to a song. I asked what the animals

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were and their colours. Then I played the song, in which they had to listen and guess the animal. Following this I made-up some riddles, which were about colours of an animal and they had to guess what the animal was. I tried to encourage them to make a riddle for their classmates but none of them wanted. Next, again listening to the CD, they had to listen to a description and tick the correct animal. At this stage they were already tired of the book and they were getting bored. So, as we had 10 minutes left I decided to leave the last exercise and skip directly to the closure game. Here they were happy again. We played chinese whispers, and they enjoyed it. When all of them had had the chance to participate I told them to pack up, and we said goodbye to each other.

★ Section 2: Making sense of the lesson through relevant lived experiences. As I said above, the lesson was quite good but I’m not satisfied. I didn’t like the development part. The didn’t like the activities and they got bored. At this part I felt quite nervous, since it was not what I expected. But at the end of the class before they left, the teacher asked them if they had liked the class and me, and they happily answered ‘yes’. They all came and kissed me goodbye, and I felt a lot better. This was very important for me, because I was not feeling as confident as I was at the beginning. I also give some credit myself, since it was the first time I worked with little children. I have no experience with those ages and I consider myself not being too good with little children. As I would say in Spanish ‘no tengo pasta’.

Comentado [4]: You have mentioned that the students are quite fidgety. So, working with the book for a long time was probably quite tedious for them.

Comentado [5]: It is a question of experience! Relax!

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★ Section 3: Interpreting the lesson in words and images

I have chosen this image because it describes how I saw the students at one part of the class. I hope I can do better next time and feel better with myself.

Clase de práctica N°2

Fecha: 11/05/2016

★ Section 1: Describing the lesson as it unfolds This time, the girls were less willing to start the class. So it was a bit more difficult for me to start the class. The warm-up exercise, in which they had to listen to me and draw and colour an animal, took longer than I expected, and I didn’t realize to change it when we were by the second animal. As for the presentation exercise, it was ‘Simon says’ game. They enjoyed it a lot. They like all kinds of games in which they have to move around the class. Following this we sat on the floor for the pre-listening exercise and the story. They didn’t like the pre-listening, which were some questions about the pictures so as to brainstorm. But they enjoyed the story and they answered correctly to the while listening task, which was to find out if the elephant was happy. To continue with the story and the topic of animals, they had to look for the hidden animals in four pictures. They did it quickly, and as I passed to

Comentado [6]: The important thing is that you are learning a lot. Take this as useful input to redesign your lessons.

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correct the exercise I asked them ‘what animal is it?’ They answered correctly. Finally, as the last exercise we played ‘bingo’. It was a bit hard for them to understand what they had to do, so I had to explain it to them in Spanish. They liked it, but I think that it would have been a good idea to prepare different bingo sheets, so that they didn’t spend so much time thinking and drawing. As I ran out of time I myself copy the homework on their notebooks.

★ Section 2: Making sense of the lesson through relevant lived experiences. I felt that this time was a bit better than last class. They kept asking me to play ‘chinese whispers’ and if they could sit next to me to play. Maybe I should have cut out an activity to play it with them, since then I realized that sometimes it is not always following the plan but to adjust to students likes, too. They left the classroom happy, and it was important for me.

★ Section 3: Interpreting the lesson in words and images

I think that this is the clue, what all this is about; learning together. As I teach them, they teach me.

Comentado [7]: Definitely!

Comentado [8]: :)

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Clase de práctica N°3

Fecha: 16/05/2016

★ Section 1: Describing the lesson as it unfolds To start with, as it was planned, the students started the class in their classroom, where we did the routine part. Then I told them I had a surprise, so I took them to the other classroom where I had set everything. Once in the classroom, I explained the first activity, which was running and touching the thing I named when I stopped the music. They had fun and they really enjoyed it. Next to this, we sat on the floor and I introduced the new vocabulary using the pictures on the wall. They responded very well to this part, too. Then we did the exercises of the book related to what we had learnt. They did it, but they weren’t too enthusiastic. So, I immediately changed the activity to the poster. They liked doing the poster. Once they finished, I took them to the other class where we sticked it on the wall. When we came back, as the had asked me to, we played again the game with the song. Finally, instead of giving them the homework, we did part of it, as a way to explain them what they had to do. We also played chinese whispers, and they used the new words as I encouraged them to do it. They left the class very happy, eating their lollipops (as I had planned to gift them) and humming ‘The lion sleeps tonight’.

★ Section 2: Making sense of the lesson through relevant lived experiences. I liked this lesson, the students liked it and the teacher did, too. I am really satisfied with it. I know I had mistakes and that it wasn’t perfect, but I ended the lesson feeling happy with myself, knowing that they children had enjoyed it. I think that for them it was important that I listened to what they wanted. I agreed to play the song game one more time, and to play chinese whispers as they had asked me the previous lesson and we couldn’t because of lack of time.

★ Section 3: Interpreting the lesson in words and images These are some pictures of the lesson I asked the teacher to take.

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I still have a lot to learn (we never stop doing it), but I think I had improved a lot from my first lesson to this one.

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Comentado [9]: Beautiful!