Weekly Reflection

This week I am going to based my reflection on the activity I did with the students of the 1st year of high school: the game “Find someone who…” . At the beginning I thought maybe it wouldn’t be possible to do this game with the students because they wouldn’t take it seriously, so I wasn’t sure, but once I explained the rules and what they had to do, I noticed they were very excited and that they wanted to participate. So in that moment I knew that it wasn’t so bad having planned that game as an activity for practicing and studying for their test that was programmed for the next class (the next day). In this game in which they worked in big groups because the class was divided into 3 groups, they worked very well. The instructions were that using the words that I gave them and the tenses I gave them they must create questions and then ask those questions to their classmates, after that they must write the answers. They worked as a team; the three groups were trying to create the questions correctly and also the answers. So, all of them participated on this activity that for me and for them was a success. This activity was very enriching for me since I felt the students really leant with it.

David Trumbull Weekly Activities.

8th Grade

Date of the lesson: June 15th, 2010.

This week the students did a listening and a writing activity. First they finished the listening activity they started last week. That consisted on answering some questions based on an interview. After that the students did a writing activity in which they must write an interview and look for the information for answering the questions of the interview on internet at their homes. Then the students completed a dialog which must be presented next class.

1st Year of High School

Dates of the lessons: June 15th – 16th, 2010.

On the first class the students did activities that were focused on the test they were going to have the next day. First they played a game called “Find someone who…”in which they were divided into three groups. The students must create some questions in different tenses and then ask them to their classmates and write the answers. The first group that finishes and has the majority of the questions and answers correct wins the game. They played this game and it was very funny. After that the pupils did an exercise of completing with the past, present and gerund of some verbs on the board. Finally they did a crossword, a puzzle and some exercises of completing for practicing the vocabulary of the units studied during the semester. For the next lesson the students had their synthesis test that was based on the Units 1 and 2 of their books.

Post- observation feedback "REFLECTION"

When I started the observation stage in this school I knew I would be able to do at least some activities with the students since they seemed to know enough English for their level. At the beginning when I started to teach I was afraid since I thought maybe they wouldn’t respect me since I am young. I also thought they wouldn’t cooperate with me in the activities. But as the time pasted by I realized they were good students. I started to do classes and they were pretty well, at least the students participated and paid attention to the lesson I was giving to them but once I started the lesson and gave them the instruction for it, and here it comes the critical aspect, I used to explained the activities once and that was all, so once the pupils started to do the activities they were a bit lost so they started to ask again and again: Miss… What do we have to do? And I had to repeat the instruction again and again. At the beginning I thought maybe they were not prepared to do these activities…. But then Miss Isabel and my guide teacher Miss Erika told me I had to explain the activities better, that I must give them more examples and also write them on the board in order to check the students understood the exercises. I started thinking about this piece of advice both teachers gave me and of course I took it into account for my future lessons, so now I explain the activities more times and clearly so the students don’t have much problems on doing them.

Another critical aspect toward my lessons is that I used to prepared material for the lessons and I was sure I was taking full advantage of it but the truth was that I wasn’t doing that. I just realized about this situation once Miss Isabel asked me: What would you change of your lesson? I didn’t know what to answer so she told me I should take full advantage of the material I was preparing for the students since it was a good material and it took me long time to prepare it. So now I am aware of the mistakes I was making at the moment of doing classes, and I am trying to not making them again and I have noticed my lessons have improved a lot and that makes me happy.

When the teachers referred to the mistakes I made and told me what should I do, I felt good, not ashamed or down since I know that this is my practicum and I am learning so I think it is good this things happen now during this process of my life because I am going to learn from these mistakes.

Weekly Reflection

This week my topic for reflection is based on a mistake I made with the studentsof the 1st year, of course it is not a big mistake but it is something I learnt from. The situation was that I prepared a test for the students last week on June 2th, 2010, so the next class (June 8th), I delivered the tests. What I didn’t realize at that moment was that on the day the pupils had their test some of them didn’t attend to classes, but I didn’t remember that in that moment. After the lesson finished some students came to ask me when they were going to have their test since they didn’t do it because they didn’t go to class. On that moment I told them that the test will be on the 22nd of June, they were agree and they left the classroom. After that and talking to my guide teacher I made the comment to her that I will do the test for the students that didn’t attend to it on the 22nd of June. She told me: Okay no problem that is up to yo, but I am gonna tell you only one thing: did you realize that you delivered the tests to the students before doing the test to the pupils that didn’t attend to that class? To what I answered: yes, mmmm…now I see… now I won’t be able to do the same test for the pupils that didn’t attend to class!!! So my guide teacher told me that that was one thing I must take into account at the moment of delivering papers or test to the students, if there are students that don´t go the lessons in which there are evaluations, I would just give them their grades but not their works so I would be able to use the same formats for the rest of the students. My guide teacher advised me that I must remember that for the next time, not because it must be that way but because it is better for me. She told me that now it is not a problem for me because I have enough time for preparing new tests but in the future maybe I won’t have enough time for doing it so it is something important. I was thinking about all this and of course I agree with her since that way I save time and I also can evaluate all the students in the same way. I think it was positive that this happen to me now, while I am doing my practicum, since I am still learning and improving my teaching style.

David Trumbull Weekly Activities

8th Grade

Date of the lesson: June 8th, 2010.

During this lesson the students did a listening activity that included a pre, while and post listening activities in which they learnt some new vocabulary related to music and pop stars. They had to predict information and also complete a chart with information from the listening; they also had to answer some question. They participated a lot so the lesson was good.

1st Year of High School.

Date of the lessons: June 8th – 9th, 2010.

On the first lesson on Tuesday, the students reviewed all the tenses they have learnt through the Units (present simple, present continuous, past simple and past continuous) through a PPT. They also did some exercises on the board using the same PPT in order to check their understanding. After the lesson finished I sent the PPT to the students for them to study for their test.
On the second lesson on Wednesday, the students practiced the four tenses doing some listening, writing and speaking activities. For the Listening activity the pupils must recognize participants in a communicative situation and identify the tenses of some sentences. For the speaking activity the students practiced a dialog and some new useful expressions that are used in daily activities. For the writing activities the students must create some sentences using some pictures from the PPT planning activities for the weekend. Finally the students must deliver a dialog they must create based on a dialog they practiced during the listening activity.

Weekly Reflection

This week I am going to make my reflection based on a fact that happened to me with 2 students from the 1st year. The situation was the following: all the pupils had to deliver a dialog created by them which will be evaluated as a written and oral task in couples. The students gave me their written dialogs, I corrected them and I gave them back to the students for them to present them orally next lesson (next week). I chose two students for delivering the dialogs, so they delivered them for me. One couple, told me (the day they had to perform their dialogs), they didn’t receive their dialog last class, so they wouldn’t be able to do their oral presentation that day because they couldn’t study. I told them that that was impossible because I corrected their dialog and one of their classmates gave it to them, that I was sure because I remembered that. They told me that I was wrong, but that they would give the dialog tomorrow after the lesson if I wanted. I told them that I was going to check at my home if their dialog was in my house, because maybe I was wrong, but that they must do anyway their oral presentation the next day. They told me that if I didn’t find their dialog they will do a new one. I accepted, but I had a strange felling. I commented this with my guide teacher and she told me I should be careful since those two students were very intelligent and tricky, so maybe the truth was that they just didn’t study for the oral presentation and they invented the whole story. Thinking about this situation later on, it was my mistake, because I should have delivered the dialogs by myself instead of choosing two students for doing it. That way I could have been completely sure I gave the dialog to them but I as I didn’t do that I had to give them the opportunity to do their presentation next class. So from now on I am going to be the one who deliver the students’ works in order to avoid this kind of situation. My guide teacher advised me the same thing. In spite of having these problems with my students I am happy because this is my practicum and I am learning a lot about the behavior of the students. So I am sure this will help me to be a better teacher.

David Trumbull Weekly Activities.

Class: 8th grade
Date: June 1st, 2010.

This week the students were evaluated with an accumulative grade. It was a written test that consisted on identify general and specific information from a text that was in the past simple tense and to use correctly the connectors “or” and “because”.

Class: 1st year of High School.
Dates: June 1st – 2nd, 2010.

For the first lesson, the students had to perform orally the dialog they created before in couples. This dialogs were about being a good citizen and consisted on 6 questions with their respective answers using the past simple and the past continuous tenses. For this activity the pupils were recorded using an Mp4.
During the next lesson the students had a written test evaluated only with one grade. This test consisted on identify and extract general and specific information from a text, identify and be able to use the conjunctions “so’ and “because” and to put into practice the simple past and past continuous tenses.