Thursday, May 15, 2014
Teaching practicum II: Adolescents
Teaching
practicum II has been an amazing experience due to the fact that, it comes from
a short group to a big one, so my classmates and I had a big opportunity to
teach in an environment real like class because there were more than 15 students;
moreover, there were some important moments occurred during this process that
help me to develop myself as a teacher. Besides, there were many comments from
the observer teachers that guided me to improve my weaknesses because every
time I had to teach I took all those aspects into account in order to overcome
them; therefore teaching practicum II allowed me to experience how to become a
teacher.
At the
beginning of this practice I experienced a soft way of teaching because it was
a short group of students and I found the way to manage them. They participated
and behaved well during the classes. However, almost at the end of practice I
had a new experience due to the fact that my group was joined with another
group of teens which represented a great challenge for me because by then the
student group was bigger than the other one and I had to be prepared to guide
them in the learning process. Thus, when I taught my first class, I noticed
that this group needed more monitoring, and motivation in the way of eliciting
them to use the L2 (Second Language) as a tool to communicate among them and
with the teacher.
Moreover,
there were three important moments occurred during this teaching practicum. The
first one was in my second teaching practicum class because the observer
teachers told me that in general all was right because I developed my lesson
plan in the way that each activity allowed students to be ready for the next
one, and also I let them practice and produce by themselves. Second one was in
one class before the last one when I was presenting vocabulary of natural
places from El Salvador. I could notice that all the students knew about them,
which made the class interesting for them because they were very active during
the whole class, so that at the production stage they were able to talk about
their favorite natural place. And the last one was in my last class in the
production part when I asked them to draw the places from their hometown, it
was really funny and helpful because they drew not only places they had studied
but also places they already know like drug store, tortillas factory, and so on.
At the end when I asked them to describe it in pairs they did it correctly.
As I said
at the beginning, there were many comments from the observer teachers that guided
me to improve my weaknesses because every time I had to teach I took all those
aspects into account in order to overcome them. Thus, to improve them I had to
find new strategies and make those strategies part of my classes. Therefore,
each class represented for me a big challenge to improve. It was not really
easy because not all the classes ended as I expected, but practice makes better
teachers.
All in all,
this teaching practicum II was full of surprises in which as teachers we learned
from the beginning how to become better teacher putting into practice our
knowledge helping others learning a second language. Personally it gave me the
opportunity to receive feedback from observer teachers which was really helpful
because I had to find the way to improve and they could witness my improvements
in every class. Consequently, there were special moments which I appreciate
because it let me feel in the right way and love my profession.
BE NEGATIVE LESSON PLAN
Hello
everyone, I would like to share with you one more amazing teaching experience. Every
time I have to prepare a new class I had a big chance to become a better
teacher because I can improve my weaknesses, so I am glad for the feedback that
my classmates and observer teachers gave me at the end of each teaching
practice because it guided me to do the things in a better way. I hope you
really learn somethingout of my faults and conquests just as I did. I have
experienced that when you teach not all the things come out as you expect.
However, it does not mean all is lost because as you know practice makes perfect.
Of course there
are some things that I still have to improve like for example: give shorter and
clearer instructions, correct some pronunciation mistakes, avoid helping
students during the production stage and elicit students to speak in English
instead of Spanish.
The objective for this class
was: Students will be able to describe Salvadorian famous people’s jobs by
using be affirmative and negative sentences.
The grammar focus for this
class was “Be (negative)”. The lesson began with a warm-up in which students
were divided into teams, and then they had to run to find a correct picture
about famous people when the teacher asked. After that they were requested to
say an affirmative sentence. Ss seemed they had internalized the vocabulary
very well as the grammar part “Be affirmative” which they had studied in the
previous class, so it did not present a big challenge for them.
Ss were presented a chart with
some “Be affirmative” sentences in order to let them remember and internalize
that grammar part studied in the previous class and help them get ready for the
“Be (negative)” form. I tried to explain them be (negative) form through the
display of each part of the structure of it on the board with different colored
papers. It was really helpful for the students because they easily understood
how to applythe “Be (negative)” form into sentences.
In the practice students were
given a worksheet with a chart and some sentences which they had to unscramble
some words to make sentences (looking at the chart for information). And while
I was monitoring them I could notice that they were able to do it because they
were working individually, and at the moment they were asked to share their
answer with the whole class they did it without any problem.
In the production part I asked
students to write three sentences: two false sentences and one true about
Salvadoran famous people using be affirmative. It was a big challenge because
even I had presented my examples, they told me they were not really familiar
with many Salvadoran famous people, so I let them write about the famous people
presented as vocabulary in the first part of the lesson. Consequently, at the
end when the observer teachers gave me the feedback they told me I could have
presented a list of Salvadoran famous people. All in all, it was helpful for
students because when they were asked to work in pairs they tried to correct
the sentences by using either “Be affirmative” or “Be (negative)”. They did it!
As I said at the beginning in
this lesson I had a big chance to improve my mistakes, let me tell you that I
did a better job by giving shorter and clearer instructions, I tried to correct
my pronunciation mistakes, I tried not to intervene students during the production,
because in that stage they have to put in practice by their own what they have learned
from the lesson. And every time they asked me something I encourage them to try
to find the way to say it in English. Nonetheless, it is still a big challenge
because when they have a question they say it but in Spanish.Hence, finding the
way to make students communicate using the L2 (Second Language) is my next
challenge.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Teaching English to Teens (Favorite People)
Friday’s class
Let me tell you that for me this class was my second chance to overcome all the challenges that I found in Monday’s class, first I had to look for activities that enabled students compete between them because at their ages they like to show what they are able to do, to their others classmates (competitors), and also I had to avoid to give large instructions, and do not speak to much. So I guess I overcome the majority of them.
I started the class with a warm-up review about demonstrative adjectives (this/that/these/those) to elicit students to encounter and remember the grammar part studied in the previous class. In this activity I could notice that all of them were able to say a sentence using the demonstratives.
The first part of my planning was about vocabulary.
I introduced the new topic (favorite people) by putting pictures on the board, and then I asked students. Do you who is he? Some of them knew about some of them, but to enable all of them knew about them I put their name below in each picture. After that I asked students, what is his or her occupation or job? I notice that most of them did not know, so I asked them to take a piece of paper from a bag and then they had to guess famous people’s occupation or job and put below to the correct picture. I enabled students to pronounce the jobs words many time each of them to internalize. After that I gave each of them a piece of paper with a description of a job and they had to find the correct picture that represented that job and put it below of the picture. It allowed them to get ready for the following activity which was ¨fly swatter¨, this activity let students identify and internalize the vocabulary words because each of them had the opportunity to swats the correct job when they heard the description.
To elicit that students practiced reading and pronunciation I gave each of them a page which contained 3 paragraph, each paragraph describe a person’s comment about a famous person and his or her jobs, each students was asked read a line from the context, so when a student made a mistake, I helped him or her to say properly. After that, I asked students to turn the page down and I asked them some questions related with the context. Please see the planning below for more information.
The second part of my planning was related with grammar (be negative) so I presented the ¨be negative¨ structure and some examples in a chart to let students got familiar with ¨be negative¨. And then, in order to explain the grammar I put on the board the structure with different color paper each part, below of it I put some sentences, each part of them, according to the color of the structure. I enabled students practice with some sentences cutting into pieces which they have to put in order following the structure, in pairs.
The last part and the most important of my lesson was the production. I told students to write 3 sentences, one negative and the others positives following the structure, and then I asked each of them to pass in front to read one or two sentences and the student who changed the positive sentences to ¨be negative¨ should get a point.
Don Bosco
University
Teaching
Practicum II
Teacher name: Raúl
Guillermo Montoya Date: March 21st, 2014
Unit3: Favorite People Lesson(s): 8
Students
will be able to talk about jobs and personal information by describing favorite
people’s jobs using be negative in sentences.
Part 1: listening and reading
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Time
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Stage
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Procedure
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Details
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2:00 – 2:10
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Warm-up
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On the wall Ss will
see some hands point out some pictures; each hand point out the picture will
have a literal. Each S is asked to take a literal, then according the literal
each of them is asked to say a sentence, and then together we are going to
check it
For instance:
a.
b.
|
Aim
of the activity: to review and encounter that/this/these/those
studied the previous class
Type
of learner: V.A
Interaction:
T-Ss
Materials:
pictures,
literals
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2:10 – 2: 25
|
Pre- Listening
|
T will introduce the
topic(Favorite People) putting pictures on the board and then Ss are asked to
pass to put their pictures, too, for instance:
Leonardo DiCaprio is an _____
Leonel Messi is a ______
And they will say:
Actor, Soccer player, so on. Then Students are asked to take a piece of paper
with the vocabulary(Jobs) from a bag and pass in front to put next to the
correct picture, after that Ss are
asked to repeat after T the vocabulary words.
Take notes!
a/an
a + consonant sound
an + vowel sound
Matching description with the correct
vocabulary
Each S is asked to
take a piece of paper which has a description of a famous person, then they
have to pass to the board an match with the correct picture, and then T and
Ss will check it together.
|
Aim
of the activity: encourage students to get familiar with the
new vocabulary.
Type
of learner: V.K.A
Interaction:
T-Ss
Materials:
pictures, papers
with numbers, markers, papers with descriptions, notebooks
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2: 25 –
2: 40
|
During/ Listening,
Reading
|
Fly swatter.
Ss are divided into
teams, line them up in front of the board and each student in the first row
will be given a fly swatter. Then, T will say a description of a job and the
first S to swats the correct answer wins a point for the team and they pass
the swatter to the next S until the last S from each line pass.
Who is your favorite person?
T will ask each
student to read a line from the reading part, there are three paragraphs, and
when the paragraph 1 is already read I will take in to account each mistake
Ss did and I will help them to correct it by practicing right pronunciation together.
For instance:
Paragraph 1.
My favorite person is Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s from
Portugal and he’s a soccer player. He’s fantastic! He is not only a soccer
player. He’s a model, too. His pictures are in fashion magazines.
Andrea, 15
|
Aim
of the activity: Let students to identify and internalize
vocabulary
Type
of learner: V.K.T.A
Interaction:
T-Ss Ss-Ss
Materials:
Fly swatter,
pages, markers
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2:40–
2: 50
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After/ Reading and listening
|
After reading T
will ask to Ss some questions without looking the text about the
reading, for instance:
1.
Is Cristiano Ronaldo Portuguese?
2.
Is Cristiano Ronaldo a Model?
3.
Is Scarlett Johansson Australian?
4.
Who is studying at Cambridge University?
5.
Is Lily Cole a British Model? So on
|
Aim
of the activity: Let Ss to put in practice what they have understood from the reading.
Type
of learner: V.T.A
Interaction:
T-Ss
Materials:
papers, markers
|
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Part 2: Grammar part
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2: 50 –
3: 00
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Presentation
|
T will present Be (Negative)
using a chart with the structure
Subject +
(be) + not
T will explain that the Auxiliary Be=am/is/are, and also that YOU
can be used to refer to a person or a group of people, example:
I love you –singular
I love all of you—plural
|
Aim
of the activity: to let Ss get familiar with the grammar part
Type
of learner: A. V.K
Interaction:
T-Ss
Materials:
Chart, markers
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3: 00 –
3: 10
|
Explanation
|
T will put be
negative structure on the board in different colors, then T will create
sentences using pieces of paper per each part of the structure and with the
same color. Then, T will put a sentence in Be affirmative in different colors
paper according to the structure.
+ + +
Some Ss are asked to
pass to the board to complete a part of a sentence. Also some Ss are asked to
change the part of sentences in order
to be correct
|
Aim
of the activity: let Ss to get familiar with the be negative
Type
of learner: V.K.A
Interaction:
T-Ss
Materials:
chart, markers
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3: 10 –
3:30
|
Practice
|
Ss are asked to work
in pairs, then T will give each pair different sentences cutting in colored
paper divided in subject, be, not, complement into an envelope, and then Ss
have to put the sentences in order. T will check if all the sentences are
correct in each pair.
Finding the correct job
Ss will see some
pictures of famous people on the wall and below it will have a wrong
vocabulary word. And right to the pictures they will see some vocabulary
words they can use in order to make it correct. Each S is asked to point out
and say, for example: She is not a singer and takes the correct word and put
it over the wrong one.
Words
Dancer
Singer
Doctor
Doctor
|
Aim
of the activity: Elicit Ss to put in practice what they have
understood from the grammar part
Type
of learner: V.K.A.
T
Interaction:
T-Ss
Materials:
Pictures, piece
of papers, markers
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3: 30 –
3:50
|
Production
|
Ss are asked to
write two false sentences and one true about people, then when they have
already finished each S is asked to
pass in front to read two one false and one true. And then S who corrects the
sentence first will get one point. T will model with one example.
|
Aim
of the activity: Let Ss produce and correct sentences by their
own
Type
of learner: V.K.A
Interaction:
T-Ss Ss-Ss
Materials:
markers,
notebooks
|
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3:50–
4:00
|
Wrap-up
|
Ss will see a chart
with some question. They will be asked can you say, count or name about
different topics they have already studied in previous classes.
|
Aim
of the activity: Let Ss remember about different topics
Type
of learner: V.K.A
Interaction:
T-Ss
Materials:
chart
|
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Assessment: Ss are asked to bring a
picture from their family members for the next class
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