Write down here your proposal for developing the selected skill after reading the literature on Moodle. Please take into account the information on learning key factors as seen in class.
-VALLE- That is what I did during my teaching practice in the school Nuestra Señora de Las Mercedes from 22nd February to 29th February. Later on, I will upload what I did in March.
o 22nd February
- 1º A E.S.O and 1º B E.S.O: it was my first day in the class, for this reason, I only listened how the teacher introduced unit 5 to students. Since I did not meet any of them before, the teacher asked them to do a writing in which they described themselves (name, age, family, hobbies, etc) for me to know them better, and then, each of them read his/her description aloud. The last part of the class was devoted to show me the rules of a competition in which they were expected to participate, The Big Challenge. This game was addressed to all those students who had English as foreign language and its purpose was to foster their motivation for learning English, at the same time they interacted with students coming from all over the world. At the beginning, I must confess that I felt a little bit nervous. However, I was also extremely exciting about this new project of being in front of an entire class of students. I must point out that these two courses were very active and participatory, what facilitated my integration and interaction with each of them. Furthermore, our participation in The Big Challenge made me enjoy very much because I saw how interested they were for working together and learning as much as possible in order to win the game. In 1ºB there are three students with special necessities for learning who need more attention.
- 4º B E.S.O. (problematic course, it was more difficult to teach on this course) and 4º A E.S.O. (hard-working and efficient course whose attitudes were brilliant): The teacher have prepared an activity for fostering the international culture. So, the class was divided in 5 groups of 5 students. Students will have to look for information about London, New York, San Francisco, Sidney and Edinburgh and also to create a poster full of photos and short and original phrases dealing with the most attractive cultural and touristic aspects of these places (similar to a travel guide). They will have to expose their presentations aloud in order to improve their pronunciation. The teacher and I facilitated them those details that couldn't be forgotten and guided their works in order to solve every doubt. They were given three days of class to carry out this activity. Thus, they would learn in a much more didactic manner, being this activity a clear example of task-based model. At the end of the class, the teacher asked them to do a writing using past simple and present perfect, the theme of the writing is a love letter analyzing the reasons why a couple of lovers are thinking about breaking their relationship.
o 23rd February:
- 4º A E.S.O: this class is devoted to continue creating the posters of London, New York, Sydney, Edinburgh and San Francisco. Both, teacher and I will help them to select the information, to choose the best distribution of the poster and practice the pronunciation of what they have to expose. - 1ºB E.S.O: In this class, I worked with the three students with special necessities so that they could follow the normal rhythm of the class without problem. So, we used the web support 'yellow pencil' for them to increase their knowledge of the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms of the verb To Be. Meanwhile, the other students practiced, and progressively memorize, a dialogue about how to buy two tickets for a rock concert in order to check their pronunciation and learn new structures. For this activity, the class was divided into two groups: the customer and the seller. The behavior and participation of both courses were excellent!
- 4º A & B E.S.O: in this class, both courses rehearse the musical of Glee that the school is organizing. This initiative makes students interact, work together, look for new choreographies and also promote their interest in English (improving their English pronunciation) because they will have to learn by heart the lyrics of the songs. I must recognize that I was fascinated with this project, it was incredible their motivation and how well we worked together (since I helped them in everything related to the musical, scenario, dances, etc)!
- 1º A E.S.O: since in this class all students are more or less at the same level of English, everyone can participate in the speaking activity about how to buy a ticket. This is the first class I had to teach, so, I was responsible for leading the dialogue, emphasizing on the correct pronunciation of words and on the intonation of questions, assuring that students understood properly the message of the dialogue and teaching them how to apply it to other purchases (for example, how to buy a sandwich). This activity was presented to them as a game so that they were able to apply this structure to any context of purchase. I must confess that I always felt very comfortable in this course and they participated actively and with motivation in all the activities I prepared for them.
o 29th February:
- 1º A & B E.S.O: I was expected to teach units 5 and 6 to these courses. In this class, I prepared a very visual and didactic power point presentation in which I explained to them a series of vocabulary concerning the daily routines (with its correspondent activities and games to facilitate them the comprehension), as well as the place of adverbs of frequency in a simple sentence. At the end of the class, I asked them for writing in 15 minute, a brief composition in which they had to expose aloud what they used to do day after day. Accordingly, they used simple present, vocabulary of daily routines and adverbs of frequency. Then, all of them told their classmates what they wrote and so, they could interact asking for their favorite daily routines.
- 4º A & B E.S.O: in this class, students continued working on their posters about the cities. I had to help each group and assured that all of them worked properly.
- 1º A E.S.O: in this class, I continued teaching Unit 5 to students. On this occasion, I used my power point presentation in order to provide the students with the vocabulary dealing with the school subjects. For this lesson, I prepared many funny activities, that they enjoyed very much, with a strong visual and didactic component that fostered their participation and interaction for learning English. In order to put in practice their speaking skills, I proposed them to tell me what subject they liked and what subject they hated as well as their reasons. So, the students used the structure: My favourite subject is ___ because …// I hate or I don’t like ______ because … This kind of activities made them speak aloud, putting apart their fear to speak publically, and check their pronunciation. In terms of grammar, I taught them the use of ‘can’ in all its forms (affirmative, negative and interrogative) and in groups, they had to make a chart in which each component of the group was expected to write something he/she could do and something he/she couldn’t do and then, they had to share it with their mates aloud.
- 4º A & B E.S.O: the teacher and I prepared an activity for students to know more about the origin of Saint Valentine’s Day, and how it was celebrated in different countries of the world: China, Japan, France, Italy, United Kingdom, United States and Korea. I told them about the origin of this day. Then, by means of a reading activity they knew more about the celebration of this day in the countries previously mentioned, and they had to answer some questions in order to ensure they understood the message of the text properly. Subsequently, I asked them how they (singles and engaged) celebrated this day in Spain (all of them spoke aloud, checking their pronunciation) and at the end, they had to choose the tradition they liked the most of those celebrated in China, Japan, France, Italy, United Kingdom, United States and Korea, and say why they preferred it particularly. I really enjoyed this activity and the way the students participated on it !
o 5th March:
- 1º B E.S.O: in this class, I did the same that in 1º A E.S.O on 2nd March (school subjects, use of can) since both courses were following the same syllabus. I must point out that there were a lot of participation and the working atmosphere in this course was excellent. Their behavior was brilliant although they were a little bit naughty because of their age. They also told me that they were enjoying very much the activities I prepared for them.
Hi everyone, I began my teaching practice in the high school Averroes yesterday, but I did not have time to post my experience here, so I will do it now.
4º ESO-A was my first class and I was simply observing what they were doing. Students of this course did a listening test about art from unit 6, and after that, they did a reading quiz about the book "Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Here they had to change the title of the book, select their favourite character explaining why, tell who was the hero and villain of the story and change the ending.
Then, I went to 1º BACH-D. In this class, the teacher involved the students in a story about finding a magical ring; so, they had to think and write about what they would do if they had the power of doing whatever they want. In this way, they were practising the conditional sentences too, which were their topic in unit 7. Meanwhile, the teacher was doing a speaking test to some of the students about their idols.
After this, I went to 3º DIV. Here, students did some activities related to emails and, at the same time, they could use their computers for doing them. They had to read an email and write about how many files it has and what do they contain; they had to identify subjects and verbs, possessives, present simple, present continuous, etc; then they had to correct some wrong sentences, imagine they had different photos and describe them; and to finish they had to write an email to some friend including some photos in it.
An finally, I went to 2º ESO-A. In this class, some students did an oral test about irregular verbs, and then, all of them were watching different videos about comparatives. They watched a video of the song "fighter" by Christina Aguilera, and here they had to identify the different comparative forms; then they watched a video of Sesame Street which used the structures less than / more than; and they finished with a video which contained different slides comparing two persons, places or things.
And today I have had my second day of my teaching practice. During the first hour I have been with 4º ESO-A, and students have been revising the future tense, seeing the difference between 'be going to', 'going to' and 'will', they have done some activities related to it. Then, the teacher suggested to me to give an overview about predictions and how they are used; so, I did it and I proposed them to predict the different futures of their partners.
After this, I went to 1º BACH-D, where I have been teaching them the meanings of the different phrasal verbs of unit 7. To carry out this purpose, they have been doing an exercise in which they had a column with sentences with the phrasal verbs and another one with their meanings, so they had to match them, trying to guess the correct senses taking into account the context given by the sentence. Then, I checked what they thought, and I showed them different slides which contained one image for each phrasal verb, and students had to give me what they represented. And finally they have been doing a short composition using these phrasal verbs.
At the end of the day, I went to 3º DIV. and I have taught students how to write and use chat language: I gave them a brief glossary with the main abbreviations, and they have been reading them aloud, so I could solve their doubts and questions. In order to put into practice all these things, they have been chatting through the high school platform.
Hi everyone again, I had my third class yesterday, and I think that I was more nervous than the day before; I suppose that it was due to the fact that I had not prepared anything at home for this day, and I had to improvise. I was talking with the teacher before the classes and, in this way, he proposed me what I could do with the students.
Firstly, I was in 4º ESO-A, and as the previous day they were studying the future tense and predictions, they completed this section with a listening about that. Here there was a conversation between two friends and they had to note which predictions they were mentioning, and then, they had to finish the incomplete dialogue. Once they did it, we corrected it aloud, and I proposed them to predict their future lives. All of them had to talk me about it at the same time that they presented themselves, in this way, they were practising predictions and I was able to know them a little bit too.
And after this class I was in 2º ESO-A, where I suggested them to do a quiz about if they were adventurous persons or not. I was helping them with the vocabulary and then, they told me their different results. Taking into account what they had obtained, they had to write a brief idea about what they were going to do next summer. And as in the previous class, I proposed them to present themselves and talk me about their holidays in order to know them too.
That is what I did yesterday, I'll come back on Monday!
- 1º B E.S.O: in this week, my function was to explain Unit 6 to this course. This new unit was concerned with "sports", in terms of vocabulary, and “the use of present continuous” as well as the difference in use between “simple present” and “present continuous”, grammatically speaking. First at all, I made students remember all the sports they have learned in other courses and we wrote them in the blackboard. Thus, they realized that it was not a new topic and consequently, everything would be easier for them. Since this class was at the end of the morning, I decided to teach them the new sports by means of a game of mimicry in which all of them, in groups, would interact and play in order to combat their boredom. This activity was completely successful because all of them showed a high degree of motivation, participation, cooperation and the most important thing, they enjoyed while they were learning. Once we finished this activity, I took advantage of their positive reactions in order to introduce the "present continuous" to them, I must point out that they remembered some ideas what made easier their learning. In the next class, we worked deeply with the grammatical use of "present continuous" vs. "simple present" through a new power point presentation that I prepared for them.
- 4º A E.S.O: in this week, I was expected to explain to this course "the use of the passive voice", so I decided to prepare a power point presentation that I would upload to their Edmodo (virtual platform). Firstly, since they had some knowledge about the use of the “passive voice”, I asked them to explain to me what they remembered of it and then, I highlighted those points that they could not forget about the “passive voice”. After that, I had to explain to them the most theoretical part of this topic, that is, all the changes they had to do in order to transform an active sentence into passive, but then we played a game I prepared for them in order to practice the “passive voice”. Once they had understood everything, they were divided into groups and each group had to go out from the class (while the rest of students changed something within the class) and when the group entered they had to explain by using the passive voice what had happened in the class. For instance, the windows have been opened, the tables have been put in order, a message has been written on the blackboard, etc. We enjoyed a lot with this activity and I ensured that they had understood every detail dealing with the “passive voice”. The last 15 minutes, there was the oral exposition of the poster about the city of Edinburgh, in which the students used the video ‘A time lapse across the city’.
- 1º A E.S.O: in this class, I did the same that in 1º B E.S.O (sports & “present continuous” vs. “simple present”) because they shared the same syllabus, but in this course I could finish the entire lesson. So, I also asked them to do two activities at home by means of which I could figure out if they had learned to distinguish clearly “the simple present” vs. “the present continuous”. At the end of the class, I prepared to them a new activity concerning both “simple present and present continuous”, which would be made orally, in order to foster their pronunciation and interaction with their classmates.
- 2º B E.S.O: this course was quite problematic and the teacher was during an important part of the hour telling them off. So, I only could present to them the topic I was intended to explain, “the comparatives”, and we did some exercises in order to put into practice the contents they had learnt about the structure of the comparative form in short adjectives.
- 1º A E.S.O: since the next they would have the exam of units 5 and 6, they were doing many activities in their computers in order to ensure that they had no doubts about what they had learnt (daily routines, sports, adverbs of frequency, simple present and present continuous). When the students had doubts, all the class together did the exercises on the digital blackboard and I explained again those points that were not clear at all. For this activity, the teacher proposed to use this web site: http://www.montsemorales.com/. I found this web page very interesting, and I perceived how motivated students were for learning, and how they helped each other in those things that they did not understand. So, they developed a cooperative learning which increased their interaction.
- 4º B E.S.O: in this class I explained the passive voice in the same way I did it in 4º A, but the level of this class was somehow much lower than in 4º A E.S.O. For this reason, I had to explain everything very slowly and do much more activities in order to practice the transformation of active sentences into passive. Even, it was surprising to me how I had to do many explanations in Spanish because they did not understand a single word in English.
- 4º A E.S.O.: firstly, I must mention that everything was explained in English in this course since their attitude, participation and English level was excellent. Since most of them understood the most ‘theoretical explanation’ of the passive voice, they were practicing with exercises about it, while those students that did not get the point asked me for explaining again the theory for them to understand better this topic. They suggested me to form a group and I explained everything again to this group, then I improvised some additional exercises much easier for them to understand the function and use of the passive voice. At the end, even those students were able to do the same exercises that the rest of their classmates did, what was very satisfactory for me. The way those students worked reflected all their motivation and eager for learning English, and also I liked very much the way they did the exercises together and they helped each other. The last 10 minutes, the students carried out their oral presentation about London. It was fantastic the atmosphere of fellowship that it was present in this class and it was extraordinary how they behaved: they gave confidence each other and they positively valued the work of their classmates. It was a fantastic class!
- 1º A E.S.O.: the focus of this class was put on doing activities from the progress check session of their book. They did the activities in groups and the students were who checked if their classmates’ answers were correct or not, explaining why the wrong answers were wrong and how they would put them in the correct way. Thus, the teacher and I ensured that they had understood everything, at the same time they learnt to explain and use what they had learnt in units 5 and 6.
- 2º B E.S.O: as I said before, this course was quite difficult because they had no motivation or interest in learning English, so everything the teacher and I did, had no effects over them. Nevertheless, I continued explaining the last part of the lesson about comparatives, particularly, the formation of comparatives with long adjectives. At the end of the class, they were practicing with activities, that I prepared in my power point presentation, in which they had to be able to figure out the differences between comparatives with short, long and irregular adjectives. I must say that, unfortunately, it was very complicated to play games or do oral activities in this course.
- 4º A & B E.S.O.: for this class, the teacher and I prepared together a kind of game whose purpose was to make students memorize some key words concerning Art vocabulary and some original phrases that important artists had said. This activity was very well received by the students who showed their enthusiasm, participation, motivation and fellowship, while they were also fostering their capacity for memorizing and pronunciation. Even, the students of 4º B E.S.O. participated in this activity and were ”somehow” motivated for winning this game and getting a good mark. This game was a clear example of task-based activity since students were able to learn new vocabulary without paying attention to theory.
o 12nd March:
- 1º B E.S.O.: since they had everything clear in relation to the vocabulary and grammar of units 5 and 6, I suggested the teacher to do an activity, by means of a game, in which the students would foster their imagination and their story-telling skills. For this activity, I formed 5 groups by chance and then, I gave to the students the title “The mystery of the mummy”. They had to write a brief composition (using the ‘simple present’ and dictionary) about what they believed that would occur in the story. In addition, I helped them in their compositions and once they had finished their stories, each group had to read their composition aloud and explain it with their own words. Thus, they used the simple present tense, they worked together, they spoke in English and I could check their pronunciation. I must point out that I emphasized on the lack of importance of grammar and the importance of conveying meanings. They told me how much they liked this activity and how much they had learnt by working together what increased their autonomous learning. At the end, I showed to them the video of the story about the mystery of the mummy and they could check if their predictions were right or not. I ENJOYED VERY MUCH THIS CLASS!
- 1º B & A E.S.O: in this new week, we worked hard because the exam was quite near in time. Accordingly, I did many interactive activities with the students in order to highlight the most important details of what they had learnt, and I also emphasized on those aspects that were most relevant in order to facilitate their comprehension of both units. At the end of the class, 1º B E.S.O prepared a surprise for my goodbye and they told me that they felt the necessity of showing their gratitude for everything I had done for them. It was fantastic and exciting!
- 4º A E.S.O: the same happened to this course, the exam was quite near and they had to practice with the use of the passive voice. So, the first part of the class was devoted to practice with active and passive sentences, and the second part of the class was concerned with the teaching of some American expressions for them to learn more useful vocabulary. I must confess that this session was very well received by the students because they were very interested in everything related to the United States. Moreover, in this class the students shared their aspirations and they also made comments on the fact that if they found English language useful for their future.
o 14th March:
- 1º A E.S.O: I was in the exam with them. In addition, at the end of the class, they also prepared a surprise for my goodbye and I was talking with them about my practice teaching.
- 4º B E.S.O: We were doing more activities about the passive voice in order to ensure that everything was clear for the exam and then, I said goodbye to them and commented with them everything I had done during those three weeks in teaching practice.
- 4º A E.S.O: I was in the exam with them. At the end of the class, they also prepared a surprise for my goodbye, they performed the song I liked the most from the “Glee Musical” they were preparing at school, and I thanked how much they had facilitated my period of teaching practice. I have no words to describe how good I felt with them!
THAT IS ALL I DID DURING MY TEACHING PRACTICE,I LIKED VERY MUCH THIS EXPERIENCE AND LEARNT A LOTS OF THINGS FROM THE STUDENTS!:)
Hi everyone, I'm sorry for the delay... As this week I could not have posted my experiences at school, I will tell you them right now:
On Monday, I was firstly in 2ºESO-A and, as they were studying the comparative forms during the previous days, I proposed them to play "who is who". Here, one student had to think about one particular person (class-partner, famous people or cartoons) and the rest of the class had to guess it, and once they had two different figures they had to compare them using the comparative structures they knew. In this way, they were practising these forms at the same time they were having a good time.
Then, I was in 3ºDIV. and here, the teacher suggested them to do an activity about retelling classical tales in groups. So, studens had to think about a story and write it in the way they wanted and, after a few minutes, they had to change their stories with their partners. In this way, the new student had to continue the previous story and so on. At the end, each group had to select one tale and tell it aloud to the rest of the class, but they did not have time to finish the activity.
On Tuesday I had no class because the teacher made a presentation about the evolution of British rock music with the help of a student who is doing his teaching practice. Here, he showed how music had changed from one age to another and how different or similar they were, and in some occasions, Pepe (the student) played his guitar and sang to prove it. I really enjoyed it and I also learnt some things because I only knew the last songs.
I was firstly in 1ºBACH-D, where I did the activity of chat language: I gave them a copy with the more usual abbreviation, and students were taking a look at them in groups. Then, I tried to know if they had any doubt or problem by asking them about the vocabulary of their papers, and when their questions were solved I proposed them to create a chat in order to put into practice all this.
Later on, I was in 3ºDIV. and here students were finishing the activity about retelling classical tales. Once they had their stories, each group had to choose one tale and post it on the class blog. While they were writing their tales the teacher and me were helping them with the vocabulary.
And finally, I was in 2ºESO-A. In this class, students were doing a webquest about urban tribes from isabelperez.com, where students had a lot of information about this topic and, at the end, they had a game about discovering their own personalities. During this activity I was helping them with the vocabulary too.
And that's all for now, I'll come back after Easter.
Hi everyone, This week has been the last one during my teaching practice period, so I am going to tell you what I have done during these days.
On Monday, I was firstly in 2ºESO-A, and here students were revising their knowledge about comparatives through different activities from the workbook, translating sentences, ordering phrases, comparing different elements such as two cars, etc. Then, we corrected all these exercises and I suggested them to compare themselves in pairs in order to check their understanding.
Then I went to 3ºDIV. and in this class we were seeing unit 7. Here, students did different activities related to the corresponding listening of the topic, which was about food, learning the specific vocabulary and the useful articles (a/an, some/any).
And finally I was in 2ºBACH-C. This was my first class with these girls because they had been in a school trip. Here, they were doing a listening about pharmacy and its respective vocabulary, taking into account some differences between British and American English in relation to this field. They did the activities and we corrected them and they also practise this topic with speaking. At the end of the class, I introduced them the topic of chat language.
On Tuesday I was in 2ºBACH-C again, and here we started with a listening about social English, with two persons talking about a party, and students did the corresponding activities about it. Then I proposed them to revise the topic of chat language, and they started a chat in order to put their knowledge into practice. Since all of them had a blackberry, they suggested to use it for this activity, and they were practising it until the end of the class.
The other class was 4ºESO-A, where students talked about their school trip, telling their experiences. After this activity, they did different listening exercises about work and career advisers, practising at the same time the respective adjectives of the unit such as lazy, hard-working, sociable, ambitious... Then, we finished the class by introducing the first conditional structure.
On Wednesday, I was in 3ºDIV. and we were revising the previous topic about food, clarifying some doubts related to the use of a/an and some/any. In this way, we created a chart on the blackboard which students themselves completed with my help; so, once they had a whole understanding of these structures, they were doing different activities in order to check their knowledge and to revise the specific vocabulary of the unit.
And then, I went to 2ºESO-A where we corrected some activities about superlatives. After this, we revised the corresponding vocabulary of the unit, which was composed by adjectives such as boring, interesting, terrible, etc. and the different kinds of films such as western, science-fiction, action, etc. In this way, students did a listening about three different films and the respective activities, including reading and a dialogue.
On Thursday, I was firstly in 4ºESO-A, and here we were revising the first conditional structure, doing some activities about it. Then, once we had corrected all of them, I suggested the students to imagine their respective lives in order to put into practice this structure, and they did it in pairs. As homework, they had to do some activities from the workbook.
Then I was in 2ºBACH-C, where students did some activities about phobias and fears, learning some specific vocabulary such as the word wasp. They did a listening about this topic with the corresponding exercises, and they practised the speaking telling their own experiences about fears. At the same time, they were revising the present perfect tense and the use of since / for.
Later on, I went to 1ºBACH-D, and here I had prepared some listening and speaking activities about bullying, which was the topic of their unit. Firstly, as a pre-listening activity, students were doing an activity from their books in which they could revise the vocabulary and the different phrasal verbs. Then, they saw an image on the screen with a girl who was alone and excluded; here, they had to speak about what they thought about her and about her situation. Then, I put them a video about a real tragic story of bullying, and once they had watched and listened it, they had to decide in groups between different discussion questions I had selected for them; they had to think about it and tell it to the rest of the class, sharing their personal experiences.
And finally, I was in 3ºDIV. where students were finishing some activities about the previous topic. Then, we started the following unit, and here they had vocabulary about the different places they could visit in their free time (shopping centre, supermarket, launderette, etc.). Once we revised this vocabulary, they were doing some activities related to it, and after this, we were remembering the past simple tense of the verb to be, doing the corresponding activities.
And yesterday I had my last day on this high school. I was firstly in 2ºBACH-C, and here we were doing some activities about pronunciation: students had to distinguish between different words with the sounds /i/ or /ai/ (such as live / life), and once they had done it, I put them the corresponding listening in order to check themselves their answers. Then, they put them into practice by repeating these words in different sentences. Moreover, they were practising the present perfect tense through speaking, creating dialogues in pairs, and after this exercise, they read some information about two films and their directors: Kill Bill by Tarantino and The Birds by Hitchcock.
Then I went to 4ºESO-A, where we were correcting their homework about the corresponding unit, dealing with the future tense, predictions, specific vocabulary, first conditional...
And finally I was in 2ºESO-A. Here students wanted to see a film, so, while the teacher was looking for it, I proposed them to do a dialogue about their favourite films in pairs in order to revise their previous knowledge, and then, they started to watch Oliver Twist.
And that's all I have done during my teaching practice, I have really enjoyed it and liked it so much.
Now it is my turn to show you what I was doing during my first week.
9th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A I was a little bit nervous because today was my first class. It was only one class from 9.30 to 10.30. The class corresponds to 3º E.S.O. A. The center is special but this course is not the most problematic one. They are still in unit 4. The absence of students is quite obvious from the beginning. The teacher (Victoria) did not expect more than 5 students but for our surprise, today there were 8 students of which 3 of them arrived late. The first thing Victoria did was to say hello to everybody personally. She is very close to students and very affective and as she said to me, those students have a lack of affection in their respective homes, within their families. She likes to help the students in all the possible ways, not only teaching and giving them affection is one step more to create the confident in the student. Secondly she checked the list attendance and wrote down those students who arrived late and also the ones who did not arrive. Victoria introduces me as her ‘assistant teacher’ and encourages them to behave well in order to offer me a good impression. As it was the day after the Easter Week and the evaluations were done before the holidays, some students asked her about the marks and she was clear to them. She told them than the marks were not positive at all in general but they can pass the year if they make an effort and do some work. It was very interesting how she stimulates and encourages the student to make an effort in this last part of the academic year. Victoria decided to make her students to present themselves saying their names. It was very shocking the lack of interest and level the students already have. They just presented themselves saying: “I’m + their respective names” But even with this simple statement the teacher had to help them saying it before them. Meanwhile some students are chatting and mocking each other or listening to music with headphones or texting by phone. As only two students came to class the last day before Easter Week, Victoria decides to run through the grammar of unit 4: Past simple with regular verbs in its positive, negative and interrogative forms. ‘There was / there were’ construction was also remembered. The students were told to write down in their notebooks the basic vocabulary of the same unit and to look for the translation from the glossary as an activity to keep them focused individually (because some of them did not stop talking while Victoria was speaking). The next exercise consists of 3 different pictures (landscape or scenery pictures) beside 3 different descriptions using the vocabulary of the unit. Their task was to match the descriptions to the pictures and when this was done I suggested: to write on the blackboard the name of the 3 landscapes (beach, desert and forest) and they have to match the names with the numbers of the pictures. The activity was so easy but this keep them focused on the class in the last 5 minutes and also encouraged them to speak a little bit in English aloud.
10th April 2012 – 4º E.S.O. A Today it was my first day in 4º E.S.O. A. In this case, there were more students (about 15 students). They have finished unit 4 and the level of this group is also very low. The teacher started as usual, saying hello to everyone in a very friendship way. After that Victoria check the assistance list and asked the students if they had studied the list of irregular verbs but they did not. Students were so excited and uncontrollable so Victoria had to take control of the situation. When they were calmer she asked them about the last verbs they were practicing the last day before Easter Day. They did not remember but after having a look at their notebooks they were able to answer Victoria. The class continues with the presentation of the irregular verbs in present, past and past particle. Although the students could follow the verbs from their books, Victoria decides to write down on the blackboard to reinforce the vision of the verbs and the differences between the verb endings and the pronunciation from the teacher. As it is quite hard to keep the attention of the students for more than 5 minutes they were said to write down the list in their respective notebooks and find the Spanish meaning. Then they also had to write a word related with this verbs, for example: see, saw, seen (ver) – sight (vista) As the students were finishing the exercise, Victoria and I checked it individually. After that, she started to pronounce the verbs randomly and they had to repeat it aloud but they stopped paying attention to her so Victoria told me to continue with the pronunciation exercise and she wrote down on the blackboard the names of those students who were not participating. Apparently this idea work and I could work the pronunciation with them and also I asked them about the meaning in Spanish. Sometimes they knew and sometimes they did not but they looked for it in the glossary voluntarily (so I was happy because they were interested to answer me correctly). At the end of pronunciation exercise Victoria told them that the next day we will have an irregular verb exam so they should start studying as soon as possible. But I do not think it is going to work, perhaps, the little exercise of today will reinforce the list of verbs in their mind.
12th april 2012 4º E.S.O. & 1º E.S.O. B Today it was programmed a scholar trip to ‘Instituto Ramon y Cajal’. Here the students of 4º E.S.O. had been presented the different option that they can do when they finish E.S.O. I have to say that their behaviour for first time was good and they showed some enthusiasm and curiosity about the curses offered. After the scholar trip, I was in 1º E.S.O. B. In this class there are always two teachers, a main one and a support one. Today the class was focused on activities from the workbook. There were around 10 students in which surprisingly 6 of them were willing of participate and learn something. We were practicing some ‘house vocabulary’ (bed, chairs, table, living room, kitchen, carpet, bathroom, bedroom, etc) in pronunciation and also included in sentences. The sentences were written in present continuous because the unit was focused on it. After the vocabulary exercise we reinforce it speaking and using mime in relation to the meaning and the moment. The following exercises dealt with the use of present continuous in a ‘complete the sentences exercise’. The first one was done aloud as an example of procedure. They made the second one by themselves and we went to every chair helping out them. In my opinion I think that students understand the exercises better with the personal help we gave to them. We solved out vocabulary doubts through mime and I was so surprised when they were able to finish the exercise by themselves after explaining personally the first example. At the end, we solved the exercise aloud for everybody and students were able to answer correctly aloud as well. As a award we made them choose a English song to be listened 5 minutes before the end of the class. Not everything was so perfect. Meanwhile, in the background, it was a terrible noise from others students that makes the good ones being distracted. The support teacher was focused on them and she had to write down the incident in an official document to be delivered to the director. This incident generated a bigger one that I am not going to explain here because it is not the place but I would like to make a little reference to it because this incident made us miss the following class and get a terrible sensation after the class.
13th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A, 4º E.S.O. B & 1º E.S.O. B My first class today was 3º E.S.O. A. An exam was programmed for today but, only 3 students were in class and one of them has special problems and she has to work apart. This special student was told to write down some vocabulary related to unit 4 and 5 in her notebook and look for the meaning in the glossary. The others two did not remember that the exam was programmed so they did not study at home at all. The exam was related to unit 4 (past simple and irregular verbs). When the exam was handed in the students did not know what to do, they were just looking at the paper and thinking about their things. I decided to help them out in order to get some profit for them and I think I managed. They were more interested in the exam and in learning when I approached to their tables. I explained little by little every exercise and I help them to fill it. In the first part of the exam there were exercises related to change some irregular verbs into their past form. Other exercises dealt with ‘there was’ and ‘there were’ so the students have to focus on the subject and also on the structure of the sentence (negative, affirmative or interrogative). The second part of the exam was focused on reading and vocabulary of the unit. I help them to understand the reading giving them some clues. I think the exam was so prolific for these two students because this helped them to assimilate the unit better. The second hour of the day was in 4º E.S.O. B. About 13 students came to class today. Next Wednesday it is programmed an irregular verb exam and as they do not study at home Victoria decides to go through the verbs in class in an activity in which we described the actions in English (and Spanish sometimes) and with mime if they do not understand. The students had to say it in English and they received one point for each correct verb. We made 3 games: one for the ‘base form’, another for the ‘base form & past form’ and the last one a combination of ‘base form, past form & past particle’. In the last game I was said to choose 33 irregular verbs from the list for the exam. A made a table with 4 columns (base form, past, past particle & meaning or translation) and I wrote one form of each verbs so they will have to fill the gaps in blank. I have to highlight that today the students collaborate and the class were so entertain for the teachers as well as for the students. 1º E.S.O. B was my last class today. In this class there are always 2 teachers (apart from me) a main one and a support one who focuses on the conflict kids. Today the main teacher had a meeting so I took her position. I worked the workbook with them in the same place we finished the day before. In these exercises, the last ones of the unit, the main purpose is to compare the present continuous to present simple. I pointed out the importance of some ‘key’ words to decide when to use one verb or another, for example: Now, at the time, right now present continuous Usually, on Mondays, every day present simple The children cooperate and I encouraged them to work together if they could not understand something (always under my supervision). Children seem to acquire and understand better when a classmate explain the exercise with their own words.
16th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. & 4º E.S.O. My classes today have been substituted by a lecture about drugs in which the students from 3º E.S.O. and 4º E.S.O. have assisted and paid attention. My job today has been to control the students when they stop being focused on the lecture or when they are talking and interrupting the lecturer. In the meanwhile Victoria and I were finishing the next exam checking little details. After the class we used the computer to print out the exam and make photocopies in order to be ready for the next day.
17TH April 2012 – 1º E.S.O. B & 4º E.S.O. B In 1º E.S.O. B, I worked as a supporter teacher today. I focused on 2 problematic kids who always try to have fun in class speaking aloud, playing and not working at all. As I am ‘the new’ apparently they respected me a little bit more than usual. They were given special photocopies because their level of English is lower than the rest of the class. The photocopies dealt with vocabulary of the house and present continuous. I worked with them individually. I had to separate them in different tables in order to make them focus on the task. I said to one of them to write down in his notebook the present continuous examples given by the book in affirmative, negative and its respective translation into Spanish (also offered in the book). Meanwhile I started to work with the other kid. With the help of the little glossary of the photocopy we solved out 3 exercises about vocabulary but the 4th exercise was impossible to do it without a huge help. The 4th exercise was about present continuous sentences in which the student has to focus on the subject and add the –ing form to the verb given in brackets. The kid was not able to do the exercise by himself. I had to translate basically the whole sentence in order to be understood by the student. I had to make reference to examples of the present continuous but the student seemed to not understand what I was talking about at all. I did my best and, at least, I think he understood the structure of the present continuous but I am not sure if he will remember when to use it. When the first kid finished his task, I switched table and I worked the exercise with the other kid. The student who was doing the exercise with my help was said to write down the present continuous examples in affirmative, negative and Spanish as his classmate did before. The level of the second kid was the same but, apparently, this one was quicker understanding my explanations. When we finish the exercises, we still got some time until the end of the class so I decided to come back to the vocabulary and I made questions to them in Spanish (because I tried two in English and they were completely lost, too much difficulty for them). They answered me in Spanish and every time I had to say look for the word in English. They did not remember the vocabulary but at least, they made the effort to look for it into the glossary and repeat it aloud in English several times with different questions. When I arrived to 4º ESO B, we asked the students if they had studied for the irregular verbs exam, but they did not. As we had problems doing the photocopies we decided to give them a chance and move the exam for the next day, tomorrow. They all promised to study, but I am not sure about it to be honest. They worked on a vocabulary exercise about ‘the house’ in general (related to the unit they already finished). They had to make a picture of a house and write down all the vocabulary of the house they could remember and after look through the previous units in order to find new vocabulary related to the house. It was not an intense activity but as they had to go back to previous units in order to look for vocabulary they had the chance (unconsciously) of running through previous units. The last part of the class was focused on the new unit (unit 5) related to sports. We decided to make in the last 7 minutes of the class a vocabulary pronunciation exercises from a “brainstorming” session or activity in which everybody collaborated. I was asking them about what sports they usually made at school and writing down in the blackboard. When we got sports enough I asked them for things they usually use in sports.
It was a funny activity in which I think they made an effort to remember English words and acquire new ones. I have to say that today I learnt a new word from them and it was so funny because I did not how to write down it properly so I have to ask one of them to help me out. Some voluntaries help me out and one of them came to the blackboard and wrote it for me. For me it was important because that means cooperation and interest about the class and the teacher. The word was: ‘parkour’ (this new sport that deals with people jumping over walls and obstacles with incredible movements).
18th April 2012 – 4º E.S.O. B & 1º E.S.O. B The class of 4º E.S.O. started late because the students were out in a scholarship. When they arrived was only half an hour left. In this half an hour they did the irregular verbs exam. They complained about the exam saying that they did not study but the exam cannot be postponed anymore. The students’ attitude was so negative and after 5 minutes they started talking and copying each other and from the book. My task today was to keep an eye on them and control the copying. The last students finished his exam just one minute before the end of the class. We encourage them to study the vocabulary of the new unit we are going to start on the next day. In 1º E.S.O. the group was divided. The supporter teacher took the 3 conflictive students out of the class to another class in order to focus on them more personally and individually. I stayed in class with Victoria with a group of 8 students. We continued with the unit and we ran through the vocabulary of the house but adding ‘household activities’. They copy all the vocabulary in their notebook and they had to look for the vocabulary in their glossary. I was helping them going through the class and visiting every table and I use mime for those words not available in the glossary. When this was done, we made a comparison between present continuous and present simple and they wrote down in their notebooks. We finished the class 5 minutes before because students always leave the class without cleaning up their books (which are always in class, the students never take the books to their houses) and the chairs. We encouraged them to save the books into the cupboard and put the chairs on the tables. They did it perfectly without any complaint.
19th April 2012 – 4º E.S.O. B, 1º E.S.O. B & 3º E.S.O. A Students of 4º E.S.O. B were given a lecture about ‘Road Safety’. Victoria, other teacher and I were controlling the students, encouraged them to pay attention and not talk in the middle of the lecture. As they were behaving quite well, Victoria suggested me to have a look of a series of grammar and vocabulary activities for the next exam (Friday) of 1º E.S.O. B. I chose 5 activities easy to develop from ‘the teacher book’ according to the level the students already have in which vocabulary related to the house and present continuous were the main goals. Victoria chose another 5 ones and I think the selection is very interesting and if the students focus on the exam a little bit they will be able to pass because the chosen exercises are very similar to the ones we were working on class. In 1º E.S.O. B, the students were working the workbook. Victoria chosen more exercises related or more similar to the exam. The class was so participative and we were solving the exercise together. As the students were answering aloud we had the chance to correct the pronunciation. I was so surprise today because they showed great advances and I have to say that those children had the capacity to learn more if the conditions were different in this school. I could realize that 2 or 3 children had corrected their pronunciation of the word ‘table’ (which was pronounced as it is written in the Spanish way) since the last class the day before by the correct pronunciation. At the end of the class the student were told to pick their books up and put them on the cupboard again. They did it without any complain. I have to confess that Victoria and I got out of the class with a sense of pride because we could check a minimal progress in a class where seemed to be impossible. In 3º E.S.O. A, 7 students attended to the class to day. This class is significant for the absence of students. 4 of them had to do the exam they did not do last week and Victoria was with them. I was concentrated on the other 3 and I presented the new unit to them. The unit 5 talks about ‘feelings, emotions’ and the past continuous and past simple tense. In the first page of the unit we could see different people with different face expressions showing emotions. Firstly I read the emotions given and they repeated after me in order to correct their pronunciation. I said to them to write down in their notebook, in 1 minute, this vocabulary. I asked them to read it again carefully and try to guess the meaning of the words they could. They did well and they guessed two or three words such as ‘furious’ and ‘confused’. After that I linked orally the ‘emotion words’ to the pictures. We did the next exercises following the students’ book so we practice some verbs and speaking with sentences like ‘I felt exhausted when I played football’. I did some examples with past continuous in order to make the students familiar to the new tense for the new class.
20th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A & 4º E.S.O. B 3º E.S.O. A. - Today has been a good day from my point of view. Although only two students arrived we were working hard and I could see results. These two students did not come to the last class in which I started the new unit. We ‘re-started’ the new unit, unit 5, in which vocabulary about feelings and emotions are related to past simple and past continuous. They were told to write down in their notebook the new vocabulary about emotions. When they did it I asked them if they were able to tell me the meaning of at least one or two words. They did it well and they guessed two or three words. They had to look for the meaning of the rest in the glossary of the book. I asked them to read aloud each word. I corrected their pronunciation and also I emphasized with several repetitions the meaning of the word and the correct pronunciation (they always repeated after me). As they acquired the new words, I played the listening of the activity. This listening consisted on the repletion of the words after the dictation. They did it well, the correct pronunciation started to be acquired apparently. The second listening consisted on three dialogues in which the new vocabulary was used in different contexts. They had to match the context with the speakers. Before the listening I encouraged them to look at the context in the book (three sceneries represented the three dialogues). I asked them to tell me about English words that they could find from the drawings. Then, I said to them to focus on these words and try to listen from the dialogues. For my surprise, they recognized some of the words so they were able to match each drawing with its dialogue. The third listening was related to the previous dialogues and their content. In this exercise they needed a little bit of my help to success. After the listening exercises I introduced them to the new grammar of this unit: Past continuous. I used the blackboard to write down the affirmative, negative and interrogative after my explanation and always asking them what I should write according to what I explained to them. They did well; they only needed to focus on the subject of the sentences. We did two exercises related to past continuous in which they had to look for what a family was doing in the picture. After this exercise I asked them to create new sentences using subjects, verbs and complements from the unit but in the interrogative form. 4º E.S.O. B - We also used listening today in order to make easy the last day of the week. The unit 5 talks about Sports. I said to write down all the sport’s equipment that they could guess the meaning from the first page of the unit. After that they copied the rest of them and looked for the meaning in the glossary. Then I played the listening and I was correcting their pronunciation doing pause after each word. The next listening was a conversation in a sport shop in which all the before vocabulary was in it. The listening was long and I played twice. The exercise related to the listening was a comprehension exercise about the listening. As they were answering me true or fault I was asking them why. I have to say that although I encouraged them to answer me in English they did not, just some words. At least I forced them to tell me the new vocabulary in English all the time. In the last minutes of the class the students asked the teacher if they can repeat the irregular verb exam (which everybody fail with a mark no more than 30 over 100). We decided to give them the chance to repeat exactly the same exam just because in this way perhaps, they will study the verbs they can remember from the previous exam. At least it is a way to make them run through the irregular verbs again.
- The 2nd day I went again with the PCPI, with only 4 pupils this time. They made an oral exam, but the simplest one ever. They learnt by hard a few lines from the book (English for adults) about the description of their houses, and then they followed with the looking for information. While one was doing the oral exam I was helping the others, guiding them in their searches. - That day I assisted with my tutor, who is the bilingual coordinator, to an auxiliaries meeting (they have several in a week). As the center is bilingual, they have an integrated project and once a week the students have a class entirely in English with an American native (Math, History, English, google…) so my tutor plans with them some activities. In this case useful expressions for London and steps to follow at the airport. - The next day with 1º ESO Bilingual; first they were assigned to read the 1st chapter of the Great Fire of London and to do the activities for the next day and they correct exercises about subject and object pronouns and also in the digital board played a game (Treasure Hunt: fill the gap). - And with 2º ESO, again, the first thing the teacher has to do when come in the classroom is reorganizing the class, because this class is always a chaos. They made comments on their exams and made exercises about animals in the practice book and in the tactile board. I was surprised of the low level in general, so I realized that choosing that group to teach would be a challenge for me. At the end of this 1st week I have a reunion with my tutor in order to know my expectations for my teaching classes. I chose 2º ESO and 1º ESO Bilingual to teach them the following week. My tutor explained me what they were going to do and which could be my aspects to teach. She also offered me to participate in the integrated project of the languages. The departments of Spanish Language, French and English organize activities of any subject for students and I accepted, of course, but I will explain that forward.
2nd week: - The 2nd week I started with only one girl in PCPI, maybe because Easter was coming, so she finished her searching of information and I gave her the basic notions for making a power point presentation. - The next class was with 1º ESO Bilingual. They corrected their homework about using auxiliaries in questions, abject & subject pronouns, -ing phrases (expressing likes & dislikes) and steps to interview someone. After that, the correction of the lecture book The Great Fire of London; they made a list of the characters and noted the vocabulary they did not know. - The last class of the day was with the peculiar 2º ESO. They were taught to describe animal or at least that was the intention, because this group is a very difficult one. The teacher showed them some pictures of animals and they had to say which animal was. Then she introduced some very basic notions to describe animals. This part of animal was the one I prepared for teach them, or better play with them that week.
- The following day was a different one because I went to observe the way in which they work with Becky, the Native American auxiliary woman who meets with them once a week. They reinforce aspects studied in class with their English teacher. As the group is huge, they are divided into two and spent half hour with each one. With Becky they played a game with a dice; divided also into two groups they passed through a board making suggestions and answering in function of their likes. And with Claudia they followed with The Great Fire of London; they commented the chapter two and corrected the activities. In the 1st part with Becky they were very enthusiastic and participative, but with Claudia some of them forgot to bring the activities done, so they get a negative mark. - The next day was my debut as a teacher, but in the morning I went to two different groups with the auxiliary, 3º ESO Bilingual, who practiced the vocabulary for giving directions, and 1º ESO, who practiced different ways of expressing likes and dislikes about sports. - And my 1st teaching class came: I was devoted to teach them animal vocabulary in general, especially descriptions, so I prepared to play a game in order they demonstrate what they had learnt, but very soon I realized I was wrong. We played to who is who with animals; by means of asking for their descriptions they had to guess the animal. And in the last minutes a play of some very easy irregular verbs in groups; it consisted of matching couples of verbs, but with the difficulty the cards were upside down, if someone fail finding the couple, the turn was for the next, and when they had the couples, formed by the image of the action in one card and the corresponding irregular verb in the other, they had to read load correctly the three forms of the verb. I was happy because they were more or less “educated”, so I performed right my role of teacher! And my tutor congratulated me because I handled very well the situation. - And the last day before Easter vacations I taught to 1º ESO Bilingual, but with the added difficulty that half class was from bilingual and the other half not. This was due to the Easter Hunt, play English teachers organized for the 10 best students of each class, so the game I had to invent had to be with aspects both levels saw. The game was named How fast can you think?; I disordered the structure of 10 phrases related to likes and dislikes and the 10 faster came out to the white board to correct each one. As they had seen this theme they were able to recognize the structure of subject+verb+-ing and the different expressions, so the goal of this activity was achieved.
I finished very happy too because I felt like a real teacher and pupils attended me. My tutor said me that I was like a magician because I had been able of teaching a 30 children mixed class, so I was very satisfied. - As I mentioned before I was in charge of participate in the Integrated Project of the Languages, so it has also served to fill my thirty hours of practices. I have made a battery of questions with three possible options, thirty of grammar, going from low to higher level and ten related to London. And that is all .
Following I will detail how was my last week at the school, I hope all of you found it as interesting as I found these long 3 weeks working there. Cheers!
23rd April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A Nice day! I really enjoyed but it was a shame that I could work with just three students. They are hard-workers when they want to be. Today we were working again with the past simple, doing more examples of situations such as: “what were you doing yesterday at 3’00 o’clock in the morning? I was sleeping”, or “what were you doing half an hour ago? We were studying Spanish language”. They did it well so I decided to go further and compare past continuous and past simple. I pointed out the use of the conjunction ‘while’ and ‘when’ with the different tenses. I highlighted the meaning as well in the blackboard in that way: While (mientras) + past continuous When (cuando) + past simple It was useful with the following exercises because they could check and revise every time which one to use and after 5 or 6 examples they relation was acquired and they answered me directly without looking at their notebooks. As they have not much vocabulary I decided to ask them for a group translation in each exercise with each sentence we were working in order to remember old vocabulary and learn new one. They did well and they were so cooperative so I felt very proud of them.
E.S.O. B & 4º E.S.O. B My first class today (1º E.S.O.) started a new unit. First of all, Victoria gave them the results of the exam they did the day before. About 5 students passed (two of them with a good marks), what it is positive, and some of them were so close to pass. I have to say that there are also some of them with a very bad mark. I saw some hope for this group of students within the conditions of the high school. The new unit talks about food in general and we presented the new vocabulary to the students doing our best because today they were so cheeky and talkative between them. They copied the new vocabulary in their notebook and then all the students tried to translate it and we helped them. Victoria brought from her house some empty food containers and we showed to them and they had to say the name in English. There was also new vocabulary that does not appear in the unit. When the students hit the correct answer they collected the containers. At the end, we wrote down the names of the students on the blackboard and gave them points for correct answers. In 4º E.S.O. the students redid the irregular verb exam in which I had to control them to copy. It was the same exam than before with the exactly the same verbs and after finishing corrected 1 hour ago in my house by myself only two students pass with the minimum mark (5) and the rest of them failed with a mark about 3 or less. This second exam has been so disappointing because it was a second chance for them (a chance that they asked for) and they did not take advantage of the situation. After the exam, Victoria was introducing the future (will) doing prediction with an interesting activity: “palm reading”.
25th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A, 4º E.S.O. B & 1º E.S.O. B It was a difficult day because the kids were so hyperactive. We did our best. In 3º E.S.O. there were 4 students today. 2 of them did not come in the previous classes so I had to do a quick revision of the use of the past continuous and the present continuous. I drew a box, like the following one, in the blackboard as a summary: WHILE (mientras) past continuous: WAS/WERE + VERB-ING WHEN (cuando) past simple After the quick explanation, we continued with the exercises of the unit and I wrote down every verb we found in the exercises in the blackboard with its past form and meaning. They wrote it down in their notebook as a little glossary. Every single exercise was translated into Spanish by the students with my help and wrote it down in their notebook in order to assimilate new vocabulary and the construction. The last exercises we did it was a little narration in which the students had to chose the tense. 4º E.S.O. B were so hyperactive today. It took us a while to control the class a little bit. We informed them about their marks of the last irregular verb exam. Only two passed the exam and the rest of them failed. They were not very affected about the news. We continued with the future tense. We had to write down on the blackboard the structure because of their low level: SUBJECT + WILL + VERB (BASE FORM/INFINITIVE) After that, they were told to write down 5 sentences about what they will do in 5 years. They wrote very simple sentences but I encouraged them to make the sentence longer (using complements). After finishing, they went to the blackboard and wrote down their sentences and all of us correct them. Victoria informed them about some homework they will have to do tomorrow as they are going to a scholar trip and they will miss the English class. In this way they will work in their house (I doubt they will). When we arrived to 1º E.S.O. the students were uncontrollable. It was last hour and perhaps, this was the reason. We continued working with the ‘supermarket’ vocabulary. We added new words and brought some real examples to reinforce the acquisition of the new words. They wrote down all the new vocabulary and its respective meaning in their notebook while I was repeating again aloud the correct pronunciation. They repeated after me while they were writing. After that we presented the following structures in order to be used with the new vocabulary: I LOVE…. I LIKE… I DON’T LIKE… I LIKE… I HATE… They had to take an item, without looking, from a bag full of empty containers that represent the new vocabulary. They had to create sentences with the before structures about their taste. When it was finished, only 3 minutes left to go and they students were told to pick up their books and saved them into the cupboard and cleaned up the class before leaving.
27th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A, 4º E.S.O. B & 1º E.S.O. B My last day in 3º E.S.O. was very nice. Four students arrived today. I finished the last exercises about past continuous and past simple using ‘while’ and ‘when’. In my view, I have to say that they have acquired the essence of the unit. If they work a little bit in their house the exercises from the workbook, they will complete the learning perfectly. The unit continued with new vocabulary about jobs and professions. We made some exercises relating the jobs with their meaning and after that we played a listening about jobs in which they had to repeat the words. The next activity consisted on a reading about a famous character (Vidocq) who had too many jobs in his life. The tenses of the reading were past tense and pas continuous. After the reading we played the listening of the reading and we did some exercises about comprehension. In 4º E.S.O. the class was so productive. I made a little and basic table about the different tenses when speaking about future: WILL PREDICTIONS, PROMISES & INSTANT DECISIONS – Predicciones, promesas y decisions instantáneas. I will do the exercise. Haré el ejercicio. BE GOING TO (IR A + INFINITIVO) INTENTIONS, PLANS, CLOSE FUTURE DECISIONS, WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN – Intenciones, planes, decisiones futuras cercanas, qué va a pasar. You are going to pass the exam. Vosotros vais a aprobar el examen. PRESENT CONTINUOUS (FUTURE MEANING) PERSONAL DECISIONS PLANNED IN THE PAST. IT GOES WITH A FUTURE REFERENCE ALWAYS. Decisiones personales planeadas en el pasado. Va siempre con una referencia futura. He is traveling to London next year. Él viaja a Londres el próximo año. They copied on their notebooks and after it I asked them when to use one or the other. We played some listening related to this in order to acquire the future structures. We made some exercises about the use of ‘will’ and the use of ‘be going to’ but we had no more time. 1º E.S.O. B was a disaster today. It is unbelievable that with only 5 students, we could do as little. Today the topic was related to the last class about ‘supermarket vocabulary’. We introduce the structures: There is / There are In combination with the articles: ‘a, an, some, any’ I tried my best to explain the structures in their different forms: affirmative, negative and interrogative as well as their corresponding answer structure: Yes, there is; Not, there isn’t. I only could do more or less an exercise about countable and uncountable nouns and another one about the use of ‘there is’ and ‘there are’.
I have to say that my classes were a hard work because of the situation of the students. It is a difficult school but I would like to say as well that there are some potential students that cannot develop themselves because of their environment. I think that these days working with them have been very positive, as my teacher said. They were more focus and I think they got some of my lessons. Anyway, it was a very excitement experience that I really enjoy. Cheers
This is an account of the main facts that happened to me during my work experience period at “Santos Isasa” (Montoro, Córdoba) high-school. As well, I have included some visions or critical opinions about the methodology the teacher used in her classes, the level and interests the students showed and other factors that are fundamental when a person is trying to create a proper background for an adequate learning process.
This text is just about the experiences I had in my first day in the centre, so it is considerably longer, as I had a lot of new information to be reported. In addition, the information is organized according to the teacher’s timetable in order to make the effort of describing the different groups of students, their level and other factors easier.
The first day I got to the high-school at 12’00 , and the first class I attended to was with the students of the so called “PCPI”, a program that allows those students who are at risk of being excluded from the society to get the certificate of secondary education by lowering the levels and giving them some other facilities. From this previous information we can guess that this group was the most difficult one among those groups the teacher had by far; in fact, the same day I started my period in the school, one of the students had just returned after having been sent off the school for a month. When the teacher came into the classroom she realised there was a swearword written on the blackboard and they had an argument once again. What I want to show by means of this extra information is the kind of students the teacher had at this particular time. All these students were boys, except for two girls. None of them had any interest in learning anything, so the only target the teachers wanted to accomplish was to teach them a series of values; to improve them as citizens, so to speak. There were some more arguments and punishments that day. After half an hour, the guys were sent to the Technology Lab to help the caretaker to clean and order the place. The teacher told me that she had to behave in a different way with this particular group if she wanted to be respected; I could realize about this after a while. However, I got surprised when I realised that even in that classroom, the commands, rules or information in the walls were written in English, as it happened in the whole centre, which was bilingual as I said. Nevertheless, these students had a very poor level of English according to their age (16-17).
The following hour was much easier, it was in the second course of upper secondary education. There were not so many people, probably because these students had just finished an exam. During this hour, the teacher corrected some exercises the students had to have done as homework, and she introduced them new words and colloquial expressions. There were 4-5 students who were continually interrupting by mocking at people and finally, one of them got expelled from the classroom. The group went on correcting exercises and translating sentences. It was an average group, although the most of the classroom developed in English, which sincerely, surprised me.
The third and last hour I spent at the high school my first day, I was with the best group I have had during my work experience period by far. They belonged to the last course of secondary education (4ºESO). At this time, 2 o’clock on Monday, the students were really tired and the atmosphere was more relaxed than normal. Due to this external factors, the teacher decided to do a “role playing” in order to fix some new structures with “would”. In addition, I could realize that a lot of different teaching methods were used by means of this activity and that’s why I liked a lot this kind of exercise, although it was conditioned by the external factors that I previously mentioned. I could observe how the teacher made them to work in groups by asking them to create a dialogue in which both sudents had to ask and answer different times; also, when the students were talking, the teacher emphasized always on fluency rather than on accuracy. In that way, the oral skills of the students, who showed a great disposition, improved and also their intonation and pronunciation. Then, the teacher started to correct some exercises the students had to do, but in a very practical way, dinamical and not boring. As it was previously mentioned, this group was very respectful and homogeneous (they all knew each other since a long time ago) which made them to be a pretty good group, even above the average both in knowledge and interest to learn.
In the second day that I attended to the high-school during my work experience period, I adopted the role of a hearer as well, as it was indicated to me by the teacher. This day was much longer for me because I had the same timetable than the teacher every day, and she had five classes on Tuesday, from 8:30 to 14:00.
The first hour I went with the teacher to the classroom of the group I previously qualified as the best one among those groups the teacher had; the last course of secondary education. During this hour the students had to revise some grammatical concepts such as the “passives”, as they had an exam three days later. After this initial activity, they had another “role playing” and finally they corrected some exercises aloud in order to go on revising the grammar for the exam. I didn’t really like these exercises and way of correcting them because the students got inhibited in some cases due to the exposure they suffered, that is to say, the students were corrected publicly and personally when they commited a mistake, so they were a kind of target for their partners’ mocks.
In the next hour the different English teachers of the centre had a meeting in which they argued about the development of some activities, the arrangement of some others, and also established the level and kind of activities for the following exams. After this meeting, in which I was allowed to be present at, I had a short conversation with my mentor, and she openly talked to me about the methodology they were using for their classes.
At the beginning of the third hour of the day, there was an argument in the middle of the corridor between teachers (my mentor and another one) and, after having witnessed that episode, I was asked to go alone to the corresponding classroom to keep the students in silence and not to let them alone. I simply had to watch the students out while they were studying for another exam.
After this happening, I had to attend to another exam with my mentor to help her to watch the students out while they were doing it, in order to avoid them to cheat on the exam. I was also allowed to help the students with their doubts during the test. This exam was done by the students of the first course of upper secondary education.
My second day at the high school finished with probably one of the more problematic groups among those the teacher had, however, they were not bad students, they were older (2º Bachillerato) and always trying to call the teacher’s attention. This hour was mainly used to correct exercises and clarify some concepts for their final exam, which was dated two days after this class.
My third day at the high school started with a talk or chat by means of which some professionals from the Spanish Army tried to convince those students that were not sure about their future and options to join them. I had the opportunity to question them as the information they were providing was not totally true. For me, it was a case of what we normally call deceitful or fallacious advertising, because some important aspects related to this job, such as the risks and conditions, were left aside. The break time came immediately after this talk. The teacher had been appointed as the invigilator for this concrete time, and I decided to accompany her during this half an hour, but it was just my decission, totally optional. During this time we had a chance to exchange our opinions and thoughts about the previous chat.
Then, at 12’00, I had my second experience with the most problematic group, the one that was included in a program to guarantee their education and avoid them to be socially excluded. At this time I could realize that these guys had no interest to learn anything. They were using books for the first year of secondary education and some of them were almost 18 years old. Moreover, they interrupted the class constantly and there was a great absence of solidarity among partners.
At 13’00, it was time for the group of the first year of the upper secondary education. As it normally happened during my work experience period, the class was determined by the final exams, that were too close as to start teaching new concepts. Then, the teacher suggested the students to do some exercises on “conditionals” to revise this for the test. These exercises were individually corrected; however, the teacher didn’t obliged anyone to correct their exercises aloud, she simply looked for volunteers who had understood that correcting their sentences in that way helped them to improve their level and also to avoid common mistakes in the exam. The guys showed a good attitude and disposition to learn, and there weren’t not too many interruptions.
During the last hour of this day, both the teacher and me, attended to a series of presentations the students of the last year of the upper secondary education had to do. These presentations were compulsory for a new subject in schools, what I really found very useful according to the quantity of presentations the students are going to have to do in their following educational stage at the University.
After this exam, I had to go to the English Department of the centre to hand my tutor the exams the students had done. Then, I came with her into the classroom of the following group in which she had to teach. It was the first course of the upper secondary education (1º BACHILLERATO), and this particular day was quite weird, since the group was highly reduced because of a visit to the University some teacher had programmed for a part of the students (those who were studying the technological option of the course).
Due to this situation, the teacher couldn’t move forward in the syllabus, so she decided to focus on other important skills that are normally less trained, so to speak, such as the listening. That day, the work background was more relaxed, although the students were a bit reluctant to work; probably because their partners were outside the school “having fun”.
I spent the last hour of that day at the centre with the other group of the last year of the upper secondary education. As it was quite late and the students were tired, the teacher proposed them an English exam like the ones they were to find in their university entrance examination for them to get used to the format. Once again, I just had to give advice to the students and help them to solve their doubts and problems with the exam.
The first hour of my fourth day at the high school was also the first hour the students of the last course of secondary education (4º ESO) had after their final exam. Thus, the teacher decided to devote this hour to the revision of the previous test. First, I helped the teacher in the task of handing out the students their exams. As I had to read aloud the students’ names to give them their tests, I could realize that some of them were brothers and sisters of former partners I had had in the same centre years ago. As I said, the whole hour was devoted to the correction of the exam the students had done days ago. My role in the classroom was limited; I just had to help the teacher to solve the doubts and problems the students individually had. At the end of the hour, the students were told their marks. The global results were very good, the average mark was high enough and there were very few people who had failed the exam as I guessed.
During the next two hours I was told to do whatever I wanted because the teachers of the English Department had another meeting. Then, I decided to stay in the centre, and had breakfast with some of the former teachers I had had. In the next hour, the group of the last year of the upper secondary education (2º BACHILLERATO) had an exam, and, as the meeting hadn’t finished yet I was asked to stay with the students in the classroom while they were doing the exam. I had to call their attention once or twice, but the students behaved appropriately in general terms. The exam took one hour and half and I was allowed by the teacher to answer certain doubts the students had, not all of them obviously.
One of the most effective methods or techniques I have been taught to reinforce the students knowledge and avoid their mistakes is to repeat different times the same exercise or exam they have already done. In that sense, the teacher made the students to repeat the exam they had done the day before in order to fix their errors and not to commit them again. Obviously, this second exam hadn’t any value for their marks, but it did have a lot of value for their individual learning processes.
This happened with one of the groups of the last course of upper secondary education, and even the students realised while correcting their exam that the most of their mistakes were caused by their lack of vocabulary. After the exam was redone and explained, the teacher displayed the film version of a book the students had to read at home in order to allow them to have a better understanding of what was going on in the book’s plot. This book is called The Age of the Innocence. It was possible to watch the movie in the classroom thanks to the resources the centre has, such as projectors, digital screens and blackboards, and computers. These resources are used almost everyday. The movie was displayed in original version with English subtitles, so the teacher had to stop it in different moments (keyfacts) to explain what was going on; however, these explanations were made also in English, but in a level that was easier to understand for the students.
After this initial class, I had two hours of free time because, apart from the break, the following class were in a programmed visit outside the centre. Then, I came with my tutor into the classroom of her following group, first year of upper secondary education, where she had programmed an oral exam.
Because of this test, the group was very excited so it was a bit difficult to calm them down and start the class. They were also nervous due to the fact that they had to speak English publicly. The students had to do the exam by pairs, which reinforces the “Group-work methodology”. The level the students showed was more or less adequate, maybe too elementary. I didn’t really like the way in which the exam was programmed; the students had to stand up in front of the classroom which clearly increased their inhibition. Nevertheless, the group was respectful enough and they didn’t interrupt or mock at anybody. It was dynamic and the students showed a high level of fluency, probably because they had learned their dialogues by heart.
To finish this day, I attended together my tutor to another series of presentations the students had to do as part of the new subject I mentioned in the day #3. This subject obliges the students to choose some ethical topics to prepare their presentations and also, to create debates in their classrooms. As I said when I analysed that day, I think it is useful because the students will have to talk in public a lot of times in the following years. However, it was a bit less interesting for me, because the presentations were in Spanish.
-12/03/12: Today has been my first day but this week I will be in class as listener in order to know the group. The teacher has explained to children the functions of modal verbs "can/can not/must/musn't." After theory children have put into practice the lessons learned through exercises from the student book and workbook.
-13/03/12: Today in the class, the teacher has begun checking the homework. After that, children have read a text and have made some exercises related with the text.
-15/03/12: Today the children had an exam but the teacher forgot it and she suggested to me to do some activities from the workbook with the students.
-16/03/12: Today is the exam that Consuelo forgot yesterday, so I have been solving the doubts of the children. This is my last day as listener. I have felt very comfortable this week.
-16/04/12: This has been my first day as “teacher” so I have felt very nervous all the day. I have started with a power point presentation with some pictures of famous people in order to make a review of some jobs and professions such as writer, explorer, actor… Children enjoyed this activity so I was very happy. To finish the class, we made together a funny Quiz of professions.
-17/04/12:
10:15-11:15 (1º ESO A): Today I have started checking the homework about famous people. After that, I have explained grammar, the past of the verb to be, and the use of “there was” and “there were”. At the end of the class we practice the theory with some exercises.
11:45-12:40 (2º ESO B): Today I have also been in other classes. In 2º ESO students have had a 15 minutes exam and I have been solving the doubts. After that, we read a text and complete the questions proposed in the book.
12:40- 13:35 (RT 1º BTO): In this tutorial session I have learnt how the coordinator of 1º BTO, in this case my tutor Consuelo, talk with the tutors of 1º BTO and they organize the activities related with the different subjects and the activities outside the school such as excursions, meetings…
-19/04/12: Today I have made a review of the theory that I explained the previous day. I also have explained more grammar, in this case, the use of affirmative and negative forms of “was” and “were”. We practiced with exercises from the student book.
-20/04/12: Today children went on an excursion on “Almadén Mines”.
-23/04/12:
08:00-09:00 (1º ESO A): Like every day, I have started the class checking the homework. Moreover, we have listened the reading of a text from the cassette and later on I choose some children to read the text on the book. Finally, I asked the children about their trip and they used expressions referred to the past such as “there was” and “there were” to talk about it.
09:15-10:15 (4º ESO): We have read a text called “Money in English-speaking countries”. We have been talking about different coins around the world and the importance of the money. I talked to the students that when I was child I used to buy candies with 100 pesetas (veinte duros). It was quite funny to remember that and students listened to me very interested.
10:15-11:15 (2º BTO): In this class we have been discussing the importance of the media and the influence of internet on information. We also talked about gossip programmes. Finally, we read a text related with this topic and answered some question about that.
-24/04/12: Today has been a very difficult day for me, because I have tried to explain the pronunciation of verbs in the past. We practiced with verbs ended on /d/, /t/ and (words ended on t or d + ed /id/). I also have explained when we have to double the final consonant or when we have to change the final vowel (y+ed= i).
-26/04/12: I have made a review of the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms of the past and I have explained the use of ago. We have practiced with some exercises.
-07/05/12:
08:00-09:00 (1º ESO A): We have made a dictation from the workbook and later on we have been doing exercises related with the grammar of this unit. (Unit 7)
09:15-10:15 (4º ESO B): The students have a 15 minutes vocabulary exam and I have been solving doubts. After that, Consuelo explains to the students how to identify an argumentative text.
-08/05/12: Today all the students have made a flower offering to the Virgin Mary with dances, poems and songs.
-10/05/12: We have been finished all the exercises from the student book and the workbook.
-11/05/12: Consuelo gave to the children three pages of exercises with one, two and three stars depending on the difficulty of the exercises. We have been checking all of them.
-14/05/12: Today is the final exam. One more time, I have been solving doubts.
-15/05/12: Today is my last day and we have done a game in order to practice the grammar explained in this unit. At the end of the class, I took some photos with the children and I gave them a candies cake made by myself.
This is the last day I was at the high school during my work experience period. As I have been told that I had to prepare a lesson plan to teach at the centre, I did so. However, the teacher refused my proposal and she indicated me everything I had to do. This day was also the last one before the Easter Holidays, so the students were not so much focused on their studies and classes.
I was told that I had to prepare oral activities that would help the students of the last year of secondary education (4º ESO) to revise both the first and second conditionals. In addition, the teacher told me that I had to occupy the whole hour and use the specific vocabulary of the lesson plan she was developing at the time, which was related to the working world. The following lines are the proposal I made for this session according to the criteria the teacher indicated me:
1ST CONDITIONAL
• IF + PRESENT, FUTURE (WILL)
• POSIBILIDAD/SITUACIÓN REAL
• NOT “WHEN”
• What the students have to do is just to try to figure out how they think their lives are going to be in the following years. This future is built upon a series of conditions the teacher will propose. It is a “warm-up” exercise. It is related to the working world, study... The students have just to complete the sentences orally. Originality in their answers will be possitively valued.
LET’S TALK ABOUT OUR FUTURE
• Sentences:
• If I study hard for my exams, I...
• If I can get a (part-time) job for the summer, I...
• If I don’t finish 4ºESO this year, next one I...
• If I don’t want to study anymore, I...
• If I am not good at my job, I...
• If am not comfortable working in an office, I...
• If I want to have an interview for a job, I...
• If I finish Bachillerato with good marks, I...
• If I can’t find the studies I like, I...
• If am not well-paid at my job, I...
• If I go to the University, I...
• I will be richer if I...
• I won’t be happy if I...
• I will live in London if I...
• If I have a foreigner boyfriend/girlfriend, I...
• If I don’t get marry, I...
• I will have no children if...
• What will you do if don’t have a job?
• What will you do if you can’t study?
• If I can go abroad as an Erasmus student, I...
• I will travel a lot if I...
• If I have a job, but my sallary is not good enough, I...
- Imaginary situations - If + past simple (meaning is present), would + infinitive (condicional)
The students have to create their own story (short dialogue); not written, but orally. They have to figure out they have found a magical lamp, and it provides them the powers they want to have. What would they do?
Answer-question (What would you do if you found a magical lamp? If I found a...)
Teamwork
5 minutes for the preparation After having done these exercises during the first session, I had to explain the modal verbs to the students of the last year of the upper secondary education (2º BACHILLERATO). Nevertheless, there is not much to be added at this point, since I was nearly asked by the teacher to reproduce the explanation of the book. After having read aloud this information the students had in their books, I just had to do the corresponding exercises. Although it wasn’t challenging absolutely, it was very easy for me because the guys had their exams very soon and they payed a lot of attention to my “explanations”. The methodology I was insisted to use was just the oppossite to what we have studied during our period at the University. First, I had to provide all the grammatical rules and later, to do “fill in the gap” exercises, whose value while learning a language is almost “zero”.
Hello everyone! Here I am going to share my notes of what I had done during my practice period in the Séneca S.C.A.:
APRIL, 23
2º B (with Juan Luque) The first day, the professor made a reviewing of the uses of the quantifiers some/any and how much / how many, helping himself in the explanation with a Power Point presentation. After giving some examples to the students in order to clarify the explained grammar, they were asked to do some fill-in-the gap exercises to apply their acquired information to the practice. Then, the professor asked some of them to check what they had done in front of the class, and he corrected them when they were wrong. In the last 20 minutes of the class, the students were asked to write some lines about a trip they did in the past, using vocabulary of the environment and describing landscapes. The ones who did not finish it in the class could do it at home, as it was going to be checked in the next session. As this was my first day and my first class, I just was sat next to my tutor and listening and looking at how he arranged the lesson, taking notes of what he was doing.
1º A (with Nieves Hita) After the class with Juan, I went to the classroom of 1º A, which was a little bit noisier than the previous one. The group was learning the regular and irregular verbs, and for this, the professor handed out a photocopy with some exercises that consisted on differentiating between the two kinds of verbs, placing them in the correct past form, writing negative sentences with didn’t, asking questions with did, and so on. As this group was a bit restless and some of the students were disturbing the rest of the class, it took too much the performance of the activity. In the last part of the class, the professor played a dictation on the CD player. It was played four times: the first one, the students were asked just to listen to it; in the second, they had to listen and write what they could identify; the third one, they had to listen to it and check what they had previously written; and the fourth time, they had to listen and write what they had missed in the previous dictations. Although the dictation was played quite a lot of times, not all the students were able to transcribe it, so the professor read it one more time.
2º A (with Charo Ramírez) In the last hour of my first day, I had a class with the other group of 2º ESO: 2º A. In this last class, the professor explained the past continuous and then made a collective and spontaneous fill-in-the-gap activity with the students. It consisted on that each student had to read a sentence placing the verb in the correct form. As all the students had a mini-laptop, they carried out these activities on them instead of handing out photocopies. In order that the student did not just turn the verb into past and obviate the meaning of the rest of the sentence, they were also asked to translate it into Spanish, so as they could acquire some extra vocabulary.
4º B (with Charo Ramírez) The second day, I began with Charo’s group 4º B. It was the most studious and diligent group of the high school module, and it was very easy to drive the lesson without interruptions. In the first part of the class, the professor reviewed the uses of the passive voice and solved the doubts that arose among the students. After this explanation, the students checked the homework about this topic in front of the class, and the people that did not have the exercises done – as the previous week they went on an end-of-year cruise – were asked to do them spontaneously. These activities consisted on changing from past to present, singular to plural, negative to affirmative, and vice versa.
1º B (with Nieves Hita) The two groups of 1º ESO follow the same schedule at the more or less same time, so they were also studying the past simple with the regular and irregular verbs. As this group had the exam of this unit the following Thursday (that was in two days), the professor used this class in order to prepare them for the exam and to make a summarized explanation of the main key points of the grammar. Thus, she explained the past simple, the uses of was/were, the meaning and use of the adverb ago, and the formation of the regular verbs. She handed out the same photocopy of activities that she gave to the students of the other group of 1º ESO and let them do the exercises. Then, she proceeded to the correction of it. In the last part of the class, she introduced the pronunciation of the -ed suffix, making just two distinctions: that of the words in which the “e” is pronounced as // and that of the words that the “e” is silent. As it was the first hour of the day, the students were quite calmed down, so the class was much more productive that ones that are after the break.
4º A (with Juan Luque) Then, in the second hour, I had a new group of 4º ESO. In this group, there was a mixture between 4º ESO and diversification (the latter was composed just of 8 students). The students of diversification were given a photocopy with different activities about the uses of the verb to be. But despite the simplicity of these exercises, much of the students did not do them. Juan began to explain the different uses of the Conditional I and II, and then, he handed out a photocopy with exercises for a listening. He played the song “If I were a boy” by Beyoncé several times, and the students were asked to do different tasks: to complete the missing words, to order the lines correctly, to place correctly the missing verses, and finally, to write around 50 words about the differences between the chorus and the last part of the song, to build conditional sentences from given simple sentences, and to write sentences in conditional about themselves. Almost all the exercises were checked in class, except the ones of writing, which were handed to the professor and he corrected them personally. With these tasks, the students put the grammar of the Conditional I and II into practice, as well as developed their listening and writing skills.
4º B (with Charo Ramírez) In my second session with the group of 4º B, the professor began to ask about some adjectives related to clothing (such as colorful, plain, tight, baggy, etc.) and the students tried to guess their meaning in Spanish. Then, some of them offered themselves as volunteers to read a text about this topic, and then we started a debate about it. I tried to make them discuss about the importance of clothing in society, asking them questions such as Do you think we should judge people for their clothes? Why / why not? Why do you think it is important for some people wearing expensive clothes? And so on. After the debate, the professor let me explain the different uses of the quantity adverbs so, such, too, enough and not enough. At the end of the class, Charo gave them some exercises to do at home about the previous explanation.
4º A (with Juan Luque) This group had an exam, so I just sat next to my tutor and he gave me pieces of advice about how to drive a lesson, how to control a group of students, etc. The students of diversification were given a photocopy with exercises about the past simple, so some of them began to do it while their classmates where taking the exam.
1º A (with Nieves Hita) After trying to calm down the students because it was the last hour of the day and they were quite agitated, the professor and I proceeded to check the photocopy of the last day. Thus, some students (randomly chosen by Nieves) read one activity, and I told them why something was wrong or why it was right. Then, Nieves summarized the grammar of the following day’s exam, and she asked the students to do some exercises on their workbook about was/were, there was / there were, past simple (regular and irregular verbs), and the adverb ago. While the students were doing these activities, I was passing around them solving their doubts and writing on the blackboard the irregular verbs that they did not know.
4º A (with Juan Luque) My tutor started the class with the explanation of the passive voice, giving the students the different uses of it in different tenses, as well as the formation of it. He also made a grammatical and semantic distinction between the passive and the active voice. Then, the students were asked to divide themselves into groups of 4-5 people in order to do some activities of passive in present and past (completing missing information, placing the verb to be in the right form, and turning some active sentences into passive ones). The correction of the photocopy where carried out by some volunteers.
2º B (with Juan Luque) Juan asked some students to read their writing of the previous lesson about the trip they did, checking their grammar and their vocabulary. Then, he handed out some photocopies about environmental and landscape vocabulary. In the first one, the students were requested to fill some words such as deforestation, pollution, and recycling bin in the correct gaps in order that the sentences made sense. Then, in groups, they had to collect some ideas of possible ways of saving the environment. This activity was put in common to the rest of the class by a spokesman of each group, who read their ideas aloud to the class. Finally, as there were 10 minutes left, the students were asked to find some words related to landscapes and environment on a word search game.
3º B (with Charo Ramírez) The group of 3º B was learning the modal verbs, so the professor asked them to do some exercises on their workbook, which were then read by some volunteers and corrected by Charo. Then, the professor began to ask the students about vocabulary related to school, such as private school, skip a class, director of studies, etc., in order that they guess the meaning of them. Finally, they were asked to do the review exercises of the end of the unit, as they had an exam about it in the following session. These exercises were checked as the students finish them.
4º A (with Juan Luque) The professor played a conversation between some teenagers about text messaging and mobiles phones, and the student had to listen to it while the read the transcription of the listening in the book. Then, some of them were asked randomly to translate the paragraphs of the text. Subsequently, they were requested to do some comprehension activities about the text, which were corrected in the blackboard by me.
3º B (with Charo Ramírez) The two last hours of this day were taken to celebrate the beginning of the month of May, a month that, as we all know, is full of celebrations and parties here in Córdoba. The celebration began with the reading of poetry from authors of our city by some of the students, followed by a performance of Sevillanas dance by the students of elementary school.
4º B (with Charo Ramírez) After a long weekend due to the 1st of May (“Labor Day”), we took up the classes again with a review of what was previously explained in the last session: the use of the adverbs so, such, too and enough. After this revision, the students put into practice again their knowledge of this topic with some exercises, which were checked by them and corrected by the professor after some minutes of work. At the end of the class, they also make some practice exercises of the passive, turning active sentences into passive and vice versa.
4º A (with Juan) At fifth hour I had class with the other group of 4º ESO. Here, a dictation were played three times and then checked in the blackboard by two students. I was asked by Juan to correct them and to explain the mistakes. After this, the students were asked to transform the sentences of the dictation from active into passive and vice versa. Two other students went to the blackboard to write their sentences and Juan corrected them as I did with the previous task, explaining why something was wrong.
1º A (with Nieves Hita) As it was the last hour of the day and the students were again a little bit agitated, the professor asked them to do some exercises on the workbook about regular and irregular verbs. While they were doing them, both Nieves and I were passing around the class solving the doubts that arose among the students.
3º A (with Nieves Hita) In the first hour of the day, the students were asked to complete some exercises about the conditional I, vocabulary, correction of mistakes in a text, and translations of sentences. Meanwhile, Nieves began to take roll call of the students, asking them to hand the formal letter they had to write the day before at home. Once all the students had handled their letters in, we proceeded to the correction of the activities. Finally, Nieves taught vocabulary related to film and fiction, and we opened a debate about one’s favorite films, books and genres.
4º A (with Juan Luque) Juan proceeded to the explanation of the Conditional III in contrast with the I and the II, giving a lot of examples in order that the students could catch the different uses and providing the students with a photocopy where they could see the differences from one kind of conditional to another. Then, they were asked to rewrite some sentences using Conditional III and to match the two halves of a third-conditional sentence. When they were done, two volunteers went to the blackboard to write their answers and I corrected the sentences that were wrong explaining the reason to the rest of the class.
2º B (with Juan Luque) The previous week Juan had asked me if I would like to make a speaking activity for one of his groups, and I, excited, answered that I would love to prepare it, so he gave me the whole hour with 2º B to carry it out. As the topic they were studying were the one of quantifiers, I began the lesson making a review of what it had been already explained the previous week, always asking the students about the uses of each quantifier, letting them give the explanation to the rest of the class. After this brief summary of the grammar, I asked them to form 5 groups and to choose a spokesman who, in this case, was going to play the role of a cook. Then, I handed out a photocopy to each group with a picture of a dish and asked them to make questions to the cook about the quantity of ingredients they would need to prepare that dish. I gave them 20 minutes to do this task, and meanwhile I was passing around solving doubts, spelling them the ingredients they did not know, suggesting some ideas, etc. When they were done, I asked each cook of each group to tell me what they had been discussing (they had to note down full sentences with some/any, how much / how many, much/many and the ingredients they chose) and checked that everything was right.
3º B (with Charo Ramírez) In this hour, the students took an exam about modal verbs and the school vocabulary that we were seeing in the last session.
3º B (with Charo Ramírez) As Charo had an appointment with the doctor and she could not attend to the first half of the class, I tried to make the students talk a little in an informal and spontaneous way about what they were going to do during the weekend. Some of them tried to do it, and as they were very interested in me (almost all of them were teenage girls), they began to ask me questions about what I was studying, etc. When Charo came back, we did a collective reading of a text and then each student was asked to do a 5-line summary.
4º A (with Juan Luque) Juan handed out an exam to the students of diversification about the present and the past simple. Meanwhile, the rests of the students were asked to do some activities about the Conditional III in order that they did not disturb the classmates that were taking the exam. When they had doubts about any exercise, they came to me and asked me, as Juan was marking some other exams.
2º B (with Juan Luque) Juan handed out a photocopy with some exercises about a video, which was played three times in order that the students could complete all the activities. These activities consisted of choosing a correct answer from three options, ticking things or situations that appeared on the video, answering some questions about the characters, etc. When the students had finished completing their activities, Juan and I proceeded to the correction of them, asking some students to read their answers in front of the class in order to share them with their classmates, and correcting them when they were wrong.
1º A (with Nieves Hita) Again, Nieves asked the students to do some exercises on their workbooks about regular and irregular verbs, and I was passing around solving doubts to the students and writing on the blackboard the irregular verbs that they did not know.
2º A (with Charo Ramírez) Charo asked some students to read the writing they had to do at home, marking them on her notepad. They had also as homework a reading and some comprehension questions about the text, so some volunteers offer themselves to read their answers to the rest of the class. Then, they were asked to form groups of 4 people and invent a story about a strange experience using the past simple and past continuous. When they finished, each group read their story, and Charo and I corrected the grammatical mistakes.
4º B (with Charo Ramírez) This group had an exam in this hour about the passive voice, the adverbs so, such, too and enough, and the vocabulary related to clothes.
1º B (with Nieves Hita) Nieves made a review of the regular and irregular verbs, as the students would have to take soon an exam of them. They were asked to do some exercises about present and past simple, with regular and irregular verbs. The professor and I were passing around solving doubts.
4º A (with Juan Luque) With this group, we were reviewing again the 3rd conditional and the passive voice with some exercises of sentence transformation, etc.
3º B (with Charo Ramírez) Before explaining the conditional to the group of 3º B, the professor wanted the students to play a game in pairs, which consisted on match the first and the second part of the conditional sentences of Murphy’s Law. After this activity, the Charo explained the formation and the uses of the Conditional I, and handed out a photocopy with some exercises about it (placing the verb in the correct tense).
20/02/12 2nd BACHILLERATO (HUMANIDADES) Today is my first day at the secondary school “Emilio Canalejo Olmeda”. I have been with students of 2nd of Bachillerato. Today students have read a text and then they have translated it at home. Before correcting the translation, they have done a warming up activity, the teacher has asked them if they agree or disagree on some statements. After that, they have done an activity about vocabulary related to false friends. They have some words and they have to choose the correct one.
22/02/12 2nd ESO Today the students have done an exam of irregular verbs. The teacher has prepared it in the following way: she has divided the paper into five columns (infinitive, past simple, past participle and translation) and she has written only some forms of the verb so as they could recognize the verb and then they had to complete all the gaps. After that, the teacher has begun a new unit giving them some vocabulary about the topic of the unit. She has read the words, then she has written them in the blackboard and finally she has given the translation into Spanish. Then they have done a listening activity, they have listened to it three times but there was no time to finish the activity.
PCPI Today I have been observing how the teacher has carried out the correction of some exercises related to the present perfect tense. The students have to give the solution explaining why they have used present perfect tense. After that they have translated all the sentences. The teacher wrote all the solutions in the tactile blackboard so as they could correct their mistakes.
23/02/12 4th ESO B At the beginning of the class the teacher has corrected some exercises. After that she has done a brief exercise of speaking related to the exercises they had done previously at home. They had to say if they agreed or disagreed in some statements. Despite the exercise was very easy they have not participated at all and only some of them have talked but very little. Then they have done an exercise of pronunciation in which they had to practice the sounds [j] and [dʒ]. Firstly, the teacher has pronounced both sounds and then she has done a listening activity in which the students have listened to the two sounds and to some different words, and finally they had to classify them. The end of the class has been devoted to grammar. The teacher has explained the grammatical rules of the future with “will”. She has explained the use of future tense, writing in the blackboard the uses of it and then she has explained how future is formed.
2nd ESO C Today they have finished the listening activity and then the teacher has started a new unit. The teacher has read the introductory text in order to make the students get familiarized with the pronunciation and then the students have read it aloud sentence by sentence. After that, she has asked them some questions about the text in order to see if they had comprehended the text. At the end of the class the teacher has allowed me to do an activity with them. First of all I have introduced myself in English but slowly so as they could understand me. Then I have asked them to do an identity card with their names, their ages, the city where they live and their hobbies. Once they have finished their cards they have introduced themselves in front of the class. I have chosen a volunteer to start the game and after that the same student has chosen a classmate to continue the game. The purpose of this activity is to make them feel comfortable with me since I am a “new teacher” and to make them write and speak in a spontaneous way. I have used this game with simple sentences because although the teacher told me that the level of English was a little bit low, I wanted to check if they were able to speak some basic sentences without any difficulty.
24/02/12 1st ESO A In this class I have been observing how the teacher has corrected some exercises done at home previously. Each student has corrected one exercise in the blackboard. After that, the teacher has explained the verb “can/can’t”. She has explained their uses, how it is formed and how it is translated into Spanish giving some examples such as “I can swim”, (yo sé nadar). After that, she has started unit six called “sports for all” by giving some vocabulary related to the topic for example cycling, playing football, playing basketball, athletics, scuba diving, jogging, swimming among other sports. She has read all the words and then she has given the translation into Spanish. Then she has asked them to read all the words for two or three minutes so as to do a game with the words. One student has started the game saying a sport in English and then in Spanish, then the following student had to say his or her classmate’s sport and then choose another one. The goal of the game was to memorize the sports and their meanings in Spanish. After this game I have done an exercise with them, I have asked them to choose a sport and mimic the action in front of all the students so as the rest could guess it. After the game, the teacher has played a listening so as the student could listen to the words in English and then they had to repeat the words. Before finishing the class, the teacher has also provided some grammatical rules related to this topic. She has written in the blackboard the different ways of talking about sports; the use of the verb play with ball sports as in “play football”, the use of the verb go plus –ing as in “swimming” and the use of the verb do to talk about other activities. Finally I have talked a little bit in English with them and I have done a speaking exercise related to the topic they have learnt today. I have written in the blackboard the question “what sports do you do in your free time? In pairs, they had to ask this question to their classmates for two or three minutes and then each couple had to stand up and repeat the game aloud and in front of the class in order to share their answers. The purpose of this activity was to make them speak in English some simple sentences related to a specific theme as “sports”, to check if they have memorized the vocabulary and to check if they have used the basic grammatical rules to talk about sports.
2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES) Today I have corrected the exercises related to the text they had to read at home and that I could not do the first day. Students had to read a text and then they had to translate it at home. After that, they have done an activity about vocabulary related to false friends as the other bachillerato did. After finishing with the exercises I have asked them with a smile and in a spontaneous way “what makes you happy?” in order to activate their knowledge about the following activity. First of all I have explained the students the activities we were going to do. I have chosen this question because it is related to the text they had read before called “Born happy?” Then I have played a video on YouTube: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8XLzqQx478 ) in which they can see some people talking about what makes them happy. After watching the video I have shown them some questions in the tactile blackboard in order to have a kind of guide for the debate. The questions were: - What makes you happy? - Do you think that money is the most important thing in life? - Do you want to improve something of your life? Why? - Is there anything essential that you don’t have and you need it? Why? - Are you happy with your life? - What piece of advice would you give to a person? Afterwards, the students started to share their opinions speaking in English and even they answered some of the previous questions. I have noticed that they were very interested in trying to communicate what they wanted in the best possible way. I am very satisfied with this activity because my purpose was to practice the skill of speaking, a skill that is not very developed in the class due to the high number of students, the number of hours among other things.
4th ESO A Today I have been as an occasional student in the first part of the class because the teacher has been correcting the translation of a chapter of a book. Both groups have a “reading book” but with a different level of English. First of all, she has read the text and then she has asked them to read some sentences and translate them into Spanish. She has done the same with the diversification group. The second part of the class has been devoted to the debate. I have prepared a power point presentation with images, a video and some vocabulary. First of all I have shown them some words with their images related to the topic such happiness, sadness, smile, cry, fun, tragedy among others. Then I have played a video on YouTube with the purpose of make them think about the topic and try to give critical opinions about it at the end. After the video I have shown them the following questions:
- Do you know how to say “botellón” in English? - What do people do in it? - How old are people who do binge-drinking? - Do you think that binge-drinking has positive or negative aspects? - Which are the problems of drinking alcohol? - What are the effects of alcohol? - Why do teenagers drink alcohol? - What do you think about people who don’t drink alcohol? - What can you tell to people who don’t drink? - Do you recommend them to drink alcohol? - Do you think that alcohol makes you feel better/ happier…? The final part of the class has been devoted to the debate with the help of these questions. Some students have tried to answer the questions but they were ashamed of making mistakes. They did not feel secure when they were speaking in English. However, there are other students who do not pay much attention to the activities. Some students of diversification were not able to say a full sentence. They wanted to answer but they could not so they have answered in Spanish. After the debate the students have chosen the following topic for the next debate “Anorexia”.
Today I have proposed a new activity for my students; I dare to say “my” students because the whole class are very interested in my activities and even in my studies and life. To begin with I have given the details of what we were going to do, the purpose of the activity, the procedure and the time. I have based my activity on the “creating stories technique” in order to practice the skill of writing and also the skill of speaking. It is an individual activity in which the students have had to create a situation based on some values or ideas such as TRUTH, LIE, HAPPINESS, SADNESS, LONELINESS, JEAULOUSY, AMBITION, PEACE, VIOLENCE, FREEDOM, HONESTY, JUSTICE, SUCCESS, FAILURE, HEALTH, PLEASURE, TOLERANCE, and SOLIDARITY… I have written all these values on the tactile blackboard using a power point presentation.
Then they have had to write a “mini-story” (or situation) whose ending was a question, for example, what would you do if you discovered that your best friend lies to you? After that, I have collected their papers and I have delivered them to other partners. Each student has had to read his mate’s story with the final question and has answered it using Conditional Sentences and Modal Verbs. With this part of the activity they have practiced the skill of speaking since they have read aloud the stories and they have had to use conditional sentences to give their point of views and modal verbs to give solutions to the problems or situations. However, I have realized that there was a problem with this activity. The problem is that each student have a different level of English, so there were some students who couldn’t understand their mates’ stories. They are not used to writing stories spontaneously and they spent a lot of time thinking about what to write. The stories had many mistakes. I should give more specific instructions, for example, write questions based on a value and then answer them using conditional sentences. Almost the entire class has been devoted to the attempt to write their stories since they had many doubts, so we have not had enough time to finish the activity. So for next class I am going to change the activity a little bit, students will work in pairs and they will have to read the stories they have in order to get a global idea of them. After that they will make questions and the rest of students will answer them using conditional sentences and modal verbs.
4th ESO A Today the students have read a new chapter of their books at the beginning of the class and then I have carried out my activity. The topic for the debate has been “anorexia”. I have prepared a power point presentation with some vocabulary as a starting point, something that I consider very important because they are not familiarized with some specific terms. Then I have explained what anorexia is, the symptoms, the problems of it and the possible reasons using simple sentences and many images. Then they have watched two videos on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKzAzeil4SI / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1iWGCTh4QQ&feature=related) and at the end of the presentation I have asked them some questions in order to check if they had understood my explanation and also to make them speak in English.
05/03/12 2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES) Today I have finished the activity of creating stories but taking into account the problem I had the first day. Now students have worked in pairs and they have read the stories they had in order to get a global idea of them. After that they have asked a question to other group using the conditional form and the other group has answered correctly. Finally I will show them the grammar in a power point presentation as a way of revising what they have learnt with their teacher in previous classes. And finally we have done some exercises related to the conditional and to modal verbs and we have corrected together orally, practicing again the skills of reading and speaking.
PCPI The teacher has corrected some exercises always showing the solutions in the tactile blackboard. Each student has corrected one exercise, reading the sentences in English and then translating them into Spanish. The teacher is always insisting on the correct pronunciation of words making them repeat the words or sentences several times. After that they have done some activities related to the present perfect tense and related to “for and since”. The final activity has been focused on speaking. The teacher has asked them some questions in present perfect tense and they have had to answer orally.
2nd BACHILLERATO (HUMANIDADES) In this class I have been as an occasional student and I have been observing how the teacher explained the “transformations of sentences”, exercises that all the students find very difficult because they have to take into account many things and all the grammar they have learnt.
06/03/12 PCPI Today the teacher has checked the homework, something that he always does in order to have a control of the students who work every day. Then he has kept on with the correction of exercises explaining the grammar rules at the end of each solution and of course insisting on the pronunciation. Finally the teacher and I have asked them some questions about themselves in English using the present perfect tense.
4th ESO C The teacher has not come and I have been with the students together with another teacher. I have been helping them with their English homework.
2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES) Today the students have done an exam, the model of exam that they have to pass if they want to go to the university.
07/03/12 2nd ESO Before correcting the exercises the teacher has revised the grammar that was the negative and interrogative form of the past tense. After that, she has explained the pronunciation of the past tense by means of a listening in which the students have listened to some words. Then they have read a text focusing on the past tense pronunciation and they have also translated it. The teacher has written in the blackboard all the words they did not understand, explaining it in English with other words and then giving the translation. At the end of the class the teacher has shown them a power point presentation with an activity about prepositions of movement (through, down, over, across, up and under). The power point was very colourful, animated and with some pictures. The teacher has used the tactile blackboard in order to make them participate touching the screen and choosing the correct option. If the student was right he or she could pass to the following sentence but if he or she was not right the preposition disappeared and he or she had another chance.
PCPI Today they have done some exercises from their workbook about past simple and present perfect tenses. They have had to complete the exercises explaining why they have used one tense or another. I have realized that although the level of English is not very high their pronunciation is very good. At the end of the class they have done an activity of vocabulary related to clothes, they have done a word search puzzle. Something that called my attention was how the teacher, while the students were looking for the words, asked them for a word that did not appear in the list. I was very surprised because they thought about it for some time and they tried to find it. The teacher’s purpose was to make them learn a new word and remember it.
09/03/12 1st ESO Today they have done writing and listening exam. The first part was about writing, the students had to write a paragraph about the place where they live using the questions to help themselves: - Where do you live? (Town, village, city, island) - What’s it like? - Do you like living there? The second part was devoted to the listening. The listening was a phone call conversation played three times. After that they had two activities of comprehension, in the first one they had to say if the statements were true or false and in the second one they had to answer some questions. Despite the exam was very easy, they finished quickly because they did not understand anything and even their compositions were bad, some of them only wrote the questions but changing the order.
2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES) Today I have devoted the class to modal verbs. I have prepared another power point presentation in which I have introduced the main functions of the modal verbs in order to make them remember what they have studied before. Then I have shown them some pictures so as they give a sentence using modal verbs. Sometimes it was a little bit difficult to give a correct answer and all the students were in silence. So the teacher intervened and tried to give hints to them. Then we have done some exercises in class and then we have corrected them together. I have felt very self-confident when they asked me their doubts since they have understood all my explanations.
4th ESO A They have done an exam of writing and listening. There were two types of exam, one for students of ESO and another one for the class of diversification. The second group has finished the exam quickly because the majority of them did not write at all. After finishing the exam, I have done a listening activity with them. I have chosen a song of the singer Adele. They had to fill the gaps while they were listening to the song.
12/03/12 2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES) Today they have had their vocabulary and listening exam. In the exam of vocabulary they had some words in English and other in Spanish. The listening was divided into three parts, the first one was about answering some questions; the second one was about multiple choice and the third one was a dictation of three sentences. The listening has been played twice.
4th ESO A Today they have done the exam of use of English in which they have different exercises of grammar and vocabulary.
PCPI They have spent the whole class doing exercises and solving their doubts for the exam. I have been helping them with their homework.
13/03/12 PCPI They have also spent the whole class doing exercises and solving their doubts for the exam and I have been helping them with their homework. 4th ESO C I have done the listening activity I did with the other class of 4th ESO. I have also chosen the song of the singer Adele, Someone like you. They had to fill the gaps while they were listening to the song. After that they have read a text from their book; then they have listened to it and then they have translated it.
ACTIVITY OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM The school organized a cultural activity related to the English culture. All the classes of 4th ESO participated in this activity. We went to the “Garnelo theatre” to see an English play called “With a little bit of fun”. I enjoyed a lot because the plot of the play was very funny and the actors were always calling the students’ attention. From my point of view, this play helps the student to see the English language as something good, considering it as an easy language. The actors were native speakers of English, they repeated several times the sentences using mimic to make the students understand better what they were saying. They also asked students to go on the stage and take part of the show. The actors used bright colours and they sang songs but with subtitles so as the students could read the lyrics. What most called my attention was the importance of sounds and music but also the different roles the students had to do with the actors.
14/03/12 PCPI Today they have done their grammar exam based on all the activities they had been doing in class, the majority of them were the same exercises they did in class (filling the gaps, turning present simple sentences into negative and interrogative form and so on)
15/03/12 4th ESO B Today I have been observing how the teacher corrected some exercises. However, they were not participating, they did not pronounce good and they were always talking. But in the final part of the class I have done an activity with them but before it I have told that if they were not interested in it they could wait outside the class because I did not want people who disturb those who really want to do the activity. I was very shocked when all of them kept quiet and let me carry out my activity. I have also done the activity of filling the gaps in the song of Adele.
16/03/12 1st ESO At the beginning of the class the teacher has corrected some grammar exercises and then I have done a cultural activity with them related to Saint Patrick’s Day. First of all I have asked them about this festivity in order to know if they knew something about it, but only a girl answered. After that I have explained a little bit who Saint Patrick is and why this festivity is celebrated. Then I have delivered a paper with a word search puzzle with some words related to this festivity. Moreover I have written in the blackboard the meaning of each word. The students have had fun with this activity and I think that they have learnt something new.
2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES) I have also done the cultural activity related to Saint Patrick’s Day. First of all I have explained some information about this festivity. Then I have played a song and I have delivered the lyrics with some gaps. They had a good time because the song was old and slow but for this reason the teacher asked me to play again with the purpose of sing with the students. After that I delivered a piece of paper with a summary of this festivity and also with some gaps to check if they had learnt something.
PCPI This was my last class with them so we did an activity to practice speaking. These students were very interested in knowing me, so I decided to change the role, they asked me questions and I had to answer. The purpose of this activity was to make them use the grammar they had learnt before since I told them that the questions should be in present tense, past tense, present perfect tense or future tense. After answering some questions each student asked a question to other classmate in order to make the class to answer spontaneously. 4th ESO A I have also done the cultural activity related to Saint Patrick’s Day. First of all I have explained some information about this festivity. Then I have played a song and I have delivered the lyrics with some gaps.. After that I delivered a piece of paper with a summary of this festivity and also with some gaps to check if they had learnt something. Finally I have delivered a piece of paper with another word search and in pairs they have done the activity.
-VALLE- That is what I did during my teaching practice in the school Nuestra Señora de Las Mercedes from 22nd February to 29th February. Later on, I will upload what I did in March.
ResponderEliminaro 22nd February
- 1º A E.S.O and 1º B E.S.O: it was my first day in the class, for this reason, I only listened how the teacher introduced unit 5 to students. Since I did not meet any of them before, the teacher asked them to do a writing in which they described themselves (name, age, family, hobbies, etc) for me to know them better, and then, each of them read his/her description aloud. The last part of the class was devoted to show me the rules of a competition in which they were expected to participate, The Big Challenge. This game was addressed to all those students who had English as foreign language and its purpose was to foster their motivation for learning English, at the same time they interacted with students coming from all over the world.
At the beginning, I must confess that I felt a little bit nervous. However, I was also extremely exciting about this new project of being in front of an entire class of students. I must point out that these two courses were very active and participatory, what facilitated my integration and interaction with each of them. Furthermore, our participation in The Big Challenge made me enjoy very much because I saw how interested they were for working together and learning as much as possible in order to win the game. In 1ºB there are three students with special necessities for learning who need more attention.
- 4º B E.S.O. (problematic course, it was more difficult to teach on this course) and 4º A E.S.O. (hard-working and efficient course whose attitudes were brilliant):
The teacher have prepared an activity for fostering the international culture. So, the class was divided in 5 groups of 5 students. Students will have to look for information about London, New York, San Francisco, Sidney and Edinburgh and also to create a poster full of photos and short and original phrases dealing with the most attractive cultural and touristic aspects of these places (similar to a travel guide). They will have to expose their presentations aloud in order to improve their pronunciation. The teacher and I facilitated them those details that couldn't be forgotten and guided their works in order to solve every doubt. They were given three days of class to carry out this activity. Thus, they would learn in a much more didactic manner, being this activity a clear example of task-based model. At the end of the class, the teacher asked them to do a writing using past simple and present perfect, the theme of the writing is a love letter analyzing the reasons why a couple of lovers are thinking about breaking their relationship.
o 23rd February:
- 4º A E.S.O: this class is devoted to continue creating the posters of London, New York, Sydney, Edinburgh and San Francisco. Both, teacher and I will help them to select the information, to choose the best distribution of the poster and practice the pronunciation of what they have to expose.
- 1ºB E.S.O: In this class, I worked with the three students with special necessities so that they could follow the normal rhythm of the class without problem. So, we used the web support 'yellow pencil' for them to increase their knowledge of the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms of the verb To Be. Meanwhile, the other students practiced, and progressively memorize, a dialogue about how to buy two tickets for a rock concert in order to check their pronunciation and learn new structures. For this activity, the class was divided into two groups: the customer and the seller.
The behavior and participation of both courses were excellent!
o 24th February:
ResponderEliminar- 4º A & B E.S.O: in this class, both courses rehearse the musical of Glee that the school is organizing. This initiative makes students interact, work together, look for new choreographies and also promote their interest in English (improving their English pronunciation) because they will have to learn by heart the lyrics of the songs.
I must recognize that I was fascinated with this project, it was incredible their motivation and how well we worked together (since I helped them in everything related to the musical, scenario, dances, etc)!
- 1º A E.S.O: since in this class all students are more or less at the same level of English, everyone can participate in the speaking activity about how to buy a ticket. This is the first class I had to teach, so, I was responsible for leading the dialogue, emphasizing on the correct pronunciation of words and on the intonation of questions, assuring that students understood properly the message of the dialogue and teaching them how to apply it to other purchases (for example, how to buy a sandwich). This activity was presented to them as a game so that they were able to apply this structure to any context of purchase.
I must confess that I always felt very comfortable in this course and they participated actively and with motivation in all the activities I prepared for them.
o 29th February:
- 1º A & B E.S.O: I was expected to teach units 5 and 6 to these courses. In this class, I prepared a very visual and didactic power point presentation in which I explained to them a series of vocabulary concerning the daily routines (with its correspondent activities and games to facilitate them the comprehension), as well as the place of adverbs of frequency in a simple sentence. At the end of the class, I asked them for writing in 15 minute, a brief composition in which they had to expose aloud what they used to do day after day. Accordingly, they used simple present, vocabulary of daily routines and adverbs of frequency. Then, all of them told their classmates what they wrote and so, they could interact asking for their favorite daily routines.
- 4º A & B E.S.O: in this class, students continued working on their posters about the cities. I had to help each group and assured that all of them worked properly.
o 2nd March:
ResponderEliminar- 1º A E.S.O: in this class, I continued teaching Unit 5 to students. On this occasion, I used my power point presentation in order to provide the students with the vocabulary dealing with the school subjects. For this lesson, I prepared many funny activities, that they enjoyed very much, with a strong visual and didactic component that fostered their participation and interaction for learning English. In order to put in practice their speaking skills, I proposed them to tell me what subject they liked and what subject they hated as well as their reasons. So, the students used the structure: My favourite subject is ___ because …// I hate or I don’t like ______ because … This kind of activities made them speak aloud, putting apart their fear to speak publically, and check their pronunciation. In terms of grammar, I taught them the use of ‘can’ in all its forms (affirmative, negative and interrogative) and in groups, they had to make a chart in which each component of the group was expected to write something he/she could do and something he/she couldn’t do and then, they had to share it with their mates aloud.
- 4º A & B E.S.O: the teacher and I prepared an activity for students to know more about the origin of Saint Valentine’s Day, and how it was celebrated in different countries of the world: China, Japan, France, Italy, United Kingdom, United States and Korea. I told them about the origin of this day. Then, by means of a reading activity they knew more about the celebration of this day in the countries previously mentioned, and they had to answer some questions in order to ensure they understood the message of the text properly. Subsequently, I asked them how they (singles and engaged) celebrated this day in Spain (all of them spoke aloud, checking their pronunciation) and at the end, they had to choose the tradition they liked the most of those celebrated in China, Japan, France, Italy, United Kingdom, United States and Korea, and say why they preferred it particularly.
I really enjoyed this activity and the way the students participated on it !
o 5th March:
- 1º B E.S.O: in this class, I did the same that in 1º A E.S.O on 2nd March (school subjects, use of can) since both courses were following the same syllabus. I must point out that there were a lot of participation and the working atmosphere in this course was excellent. Their behavior was brilliant although they were a little bit naughty because of their age. They also told me that they were enjoying very much the activities I prepared for them.
Ok Valle, well done! We aré just Washington for the others to comment here...
ResponderEliminarHi everyone,
ResponderEliminarI began my teaching practice in the high school Averroes yesterday, but I did not have time to post my experience here, so I will do it now.
4º ESO-A was my first class and I was simply observing what they were doing. Students of this course did a listening test about art from unit 6, and after that, they did a reading quiz about the book "Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Here they had to change the title of the book, select their favourite character explaining why, tell who was the hero and villain of the story and change the ending.
Then, I went to 1º BACH-D. In this class, the teacher involved the students in a story about finding a magical ring; so, they had to think and write about what they would do if they had the power of doing whatever they want. In this way, they were practising the conditional sentences too, which were their topic in unit 7.
Meanwhile, the teacher was doing a speaking test to some of the students about their idols.
After this, I went to 3º DIV. Here, students did some activities related to emails and, at the same time, they could use their computers for doing them. They had to read an email and write about how many files it has and what do they contain; they had to identify subjects and verbs, possessives, present simple, present continuous, etc; then they had to correct some wrong sentences, imagine they had different photos and describe them; and to finish they had to write an email to some friend including some photos in it.
An finally, I went to 2º ESO-A. In this class, some students did an oral test about irregular verbs, and then, all of them were watching different videos about comparatives. They watched a video of the song "fighter" by Christina Aguilera, and here they had to identify the different comparative forms; then they watched a video of Sesame Street which used the structures less than / more than; and they finished with a video which contained different slides comparing two persons, places or things.
And today I have had my second day of my teaching practice.
During the first hour I have been with 4º ESO-A, and students have been revising the future tense, seeing the difference between 'be going to', 'going to' and 'will', they have done some activities related to it. Then, the teacher suggested to me to give an overview about predictions and how they are used; so, I did it and I proposed them to predict the different futures of their partners.
After this, I went to 1º BACH-D, where I have been teaching them the meanings of the different phrasal verbs of unit 7. To carry out this purpose, they have been doing an exercise in which they had a column with sentences with the phrasal verbs and another one with their meanings, so they had to match them, trying to guess the correct senses taking into account the context given by the sentence.
Then, I checked what they thought, and I showed them different slides which contained one image for each phrasal verb, and students had to give me what they represented. And finally they have been doing a short composition using these phrasal verbs.
At the end of the day, I went to 3º DIV. and I have taught students how to write and use chat language: I gave them a brief glossary with the main abbreviations, and they have been reading them aloud, so I could solve their doubts and questions. In order to put into practice all these things, they have been chatting through the high school platform.
And that's all!
Hi everyone again,
ResponderEliminarI had my third class yesterday, and I think that I was more nervous than the day before; I suppose that it was due to the fact that I had not prepared anything at home for this day, and I had to improvise.
I was talking with the teacher before the classes and, in this way, he proposed me what I could do with the students.
Firstly, I was in 4º ESO-A, and as the previous day they were studying the future tense and predictions, they completed this section with a listening about that. Here there was a conversation between two friends and they had to note which predictions they were mentioning, and then, they had to finish the incomplete dialogue.
Once they did it, we corrected it aloud, and I proposed them to predict their future lives. All of them had to talk me about it at the same time that they presented themselves, in this way, they were practising predictions and I was able to know them a little bit too.
And after this class I was in 2º ESO-A, where I suggested them to do a quiz about if they were adventurous persons or not. I was helping them with the vocabulary and then, they told me their different results. Taking into account what they had obtained, they had to write a brief idea about what they were going to do next summer.
And as in the previous class, I proposed them to present themselves and talk me about their holidays in order to know them too.
That is what I did yesterday, I'll come back on Monday!
OK, Elena, well done, it seems to be on the right track
ResponderEliminaro 6th March:
ResponderEliminar- 1º B E.S.O: in this week, my function was to explain Unit 6 to this course. This new unit was concerned with "sports", in terms of vocabulary, and “the use of present continuous” as well as the difference in use between “simple present” and “present continuous”, grammatically speaking. First at all, I made students remember all the sports they have learned in other courses and we wrote them in the blackboard. Thus, they realized that it was not a new topic and consequently, everything would be easier for them. Since this class was at the end of the morning, I decided to teach them the new sports by means of a game of mimicry in which all of them, in groups, would interact and play in order to combat their boredom. This activity was completely successful because all of them showed a high degree of motivation, participation, cooperation and the most important thing, they enjoyed while they were learning. Once we finished this activity, I took advantage of their positive reactions in order to introduce the "present continuous" to them, I must point out that they remembered some ideas what made easier their learning. In the next class, we worked deeply with the grammatical use of "present continuous" vs. "simple present" through a new power point presentation that I prepared for them.
- 4º A E.S.O: in this week, I was expected to explain to this course "the use of the passive voice", so I decided to prepare a power point presentation that I would upload to their Edmodo (virtual platform). Firstly, since they had some knowledge about the use of the “passive voice”, I asked them to explain to me what they remembered of it and then, I highlighted those points that they could not forget about the “passive voice”. After that, I had to explain to them the most theoretical part of this topic, that is, all the changes they had to do in order to transform an active sentence into passive, but then we played a game I prepared for them in order to practice the “passive voice”. Once they had understood everything, they were divided into groups and each group had to go out from the class (while the rest of students changed something within the class) and when the group entered they had to explain by using the passive voice what had happened in the class. For instance, the windows have been opened, the tables have been put in order, a message has been written on the blackboard, etc. We enjoyed a lot with this activity and I ensured that they had understood every detail dealing with the “passive voice”. The last 15 minutes, there was the oral exposition of the poster about the city of Edinburgh, in which the students used the video ‘A time lapse across the city’.
- 1º A E.S.O: in this class, I did the same that in 1º B E.S.O (sports & “present continuous” vs. “simple present”) because they shared the same syllabus, but in this course I could finish the entire lesson. So, I also asked them to do two activities at home by means of which I could figure out if they had learned to distinguish clearly “the simple present” vs. “the present continuous”. At the end of the class, I prepared to them a new activity concerning both “simple present and present continuous”, which would be made orally, in order to foster their pronunciation and interaction with their classmates.
- 2º B E.S.O: this course was quite problematic and the teacher was during an important part of the hour telling them off. So, I only could present to them the topic I was intended to explain, “the comparatives”, and we did some exercises in order to put into practice the contents they had learnt about the structure of the comparative form in short adjectives.
o 7th March:
ResponderEliminar- 1º A E.S.O: since the next they would have the exam of units 5 and 6, they were doing many activities in their computers in order to ensure that they had no doubts about what they had learnt (daily routines, sports, adverbs of frequency, simple present and present continuous). When the students had doubts, all the class together did the exercises on the digital blackboard and I explained again those points that were not clear at all. For this activity, the teacher proposed to use this web site: http://www.montsemorales.com/. I found this web page very interesting, and I perceived how motivated students were for learning, and how they helped each other in those things that they did not understand. So, they developed a cooperative learning which increased their interaction.
- 4º B E.S.O: in this class I explained the passive voice in the same way I did it in 4º A, but the level of this class was somehow much lower than in 4º A E.S.O. For this reason, I had to explain everything very slowly and do much more activities in order to practice the transformation of active sentences into passive. Even, it was surprising to me how I had to do many explanations in Spanish because they did not understand a single word in English.
- 4º A E.S.O.: firstly, I must mention that everything was explained in English in this course since their attitude, participation and English level was excellent. Since most of them understood the most ‘theoretical explanation’ of the passive voice, they were practicing with exercises about it, while those students that did not get the point asked me for explaining again the theory for them to understand better this topic. They suggested me to form a group and I explained everything again to this group, then I improvised some additional exercises much easier for them to understand the function and use of the passive voice. At the end, even those students were able to do the same exercises that the rest of their classmates did, what was very satisfactory for me. The way those students worked reflected all their motivation and eager for learning English, and also I liked very much the way they did the exercises together and they helped each other. The last 10 minutes, the students carried out their oral presentation about London. It was fantastic the atmosphere of fellowship that it was present in this class and it was extraordinary how they behaved: they gave confidence each other and they positively valued the work of their classmates. It was a fantastic class!
o 9th March:
ResponderEliminar- 1º A E.S.O.: the focus of this class was put on doing activities from the progress check session of their book. They did the activities in groups and the students were who checked if their classmates’ answers were correct or not, explaining why the wrong answers were wrong and how they would put them in the correct way. Thus, the teacher and I ensured that they had understood everything, at the same time they learnt to explain and use what they had learnt in units 5 and 6.
- 2º B E.S.O: as I said before, this course was quite difficult because they had no motivation or interest in learning English, so everything the teacher and I did, had no effects over them. Nevertheless, I continued explaining the last part of the lesson about comparatives, particularly, the formation of comparatives with long adjectives. At the end of the class, they were practicing with activities, that I prepared in my power point presentation, in which they had to be able to figure out the differences between comparatives with short, long and irregular adjectives. I must say that, unfortunately, it was very complicated to play games or do oral activities in this course.
- 4º A & B E.S.O.: for this class, the teacher and I prepared together a kind of game whose purpose was to make students memorize some key words concerning Art vocabulary and some original phrases that important artists had said. This activity was very well received by the students who showed their enthusiasm, participation, motivation and fellowship, while they were also fostering their capacity for memorizing and pronunciation. Even, the students of 4º B E.S.O. participated in this activity and were ”somehow” motivated for winning this game and getting a good mark. This game was a clear example of task-based activity since students were able to learn new vocabulary without paying attention to theory.
o 12nd March:
- 1º B E.S.O.: since they had everything clear in relation to the vocabulary and grammar of units 5 and 6, I suggested the teacher to do an activity, by means of a game, in which the students would foster their imagination and their story-telling skills. For this activity, I formed 5 groups by chance and then, I gave to the students the title “The mystery of the mummy”. They had to write a brief composition (using the ‘simple present’ and dictionary) about what they believed that would occur in the story. In addition, I helped them in their compositions and once they had finished their stories, each group had to read their composition aloud and explain it with their own words. Thus, they used the simple present tense, they worked together, they spoke in English and I could check their pronunciation. I must point out that I emphasized on the lack of importance of grammar and the importance of conveying meanings. They told me how much they liked this activity and how much they had learnt by working together what increased their autonomous learning. At the end, I showed to them the video of the story about the mystery of the mummy and they could check if their predictions were right or not. I ENJOYED VERY MUCH THIS CLASS!
o 13rd March:
ResponderEliminar- 1º B & A E.S.O: in this new week, we worked hard because the exam was quite near in time. Accordingly, I did many interactive activities with the students in order to highlight the most important details of what they had learnt, and I also emphasized on those aspects that were most relevant in order to facilitate their comprehension of both units. At the end of the class, 1º B E.S.O prepared a surprise for my goodbye and they told me that they felt the necessity of showing their gratitude for everything I had done for them. It was fantastic and exciting!
- 4º A E.S.O: the same happened to this course, the exam was quite near and they had to practice with the use of the passive voice. So, the first part of the class was devoted to practice with active and passive sentences, and the second part of the class was concerned with the teaching of some American expressions for them to learn more useful vocabulary. I must confess that this session was very well received by the students because they were very interested in everything related to the United States. Moreover, in this class the students shared their aspirations and they also made comments on the fact that if they found English language useful for their future.
o 14th March:
- 1º A E.S.O: I was in the exam with them. In addition, at the end of the class, they also prepared a surprise for my goodbye and I was talking with them about my practice teaching.
- 4º B E.S.O: We were doing more activities about the passive voice in order to ensure that everything was clear for the exam and then, I said goodbye to them and commented with them everything I had done during those three weeks in teaching practice.
- 4º A E.S.O: I was in the exam with them. At the end of the class, they also prepared a surprise for my goodbye, they performed the song I liked the most from the “Glee Musical” they were preparing at school, and I thanked how much they had facilitated my period of teaching practice. I have no words to describe how good I felt with them!
THAT IS ALL I DID DURING MY TEACHING PRACTICE,I LIKED VERY MUCH THIS EXPERIENCE AND LEARNT A LOTS OF THINGS FROM THE STUDENTS!:)
Hi everyone, I'm sorry for the delay...
ResponderEliminarAs this week I could not have posted my experiences at school, I will tell you them right now:
On Monday, I was firstly in 2ºESO-A and, as they were studying the comparative forms during the previous days, I proposed them to play "who is who". Here, one student had to think about one particular person (class-partner, famous people or cartoons) and the rest of the class had to guess it, and once they had two different figures they had to compare them using the comparative structures they knew. In this way, they were practising these forms at the same time they were having a good time.
Then, I was in 3ºDIV. and here, the teacher suggested them to do an activity about retelling classical tales in groups. So, studens had to think about a story and write it in the way they wanted and, after a few minutes, they had to change their stories with their partners. In this way, the new student had to continue the previous story and so on. At the end, each group had to select one tale and tell it aloud to the rest of the class, but they did not have time to finish the activity.
On Tuesday I had no class because the teacher made a presentation about the evolution of British rock music with the help of a student who is doing his teaching practice. Here, he showed how music had changed from one age to another and how different or similar they were, and in some occasions, Pepe (the student) played his guitar and sang to prove it.
ResponderEliminarI really enjoyed it and I also learnt some things because I only knew the last songs.
And on Wednesday, I had three different classes.
ResponderEliminarI was firstly in 1ºBACH-D, where I did the activity of chat language: I gave them a copy with the more usual abbreviation, and students were taking a look at them in groups. Then, I tried to know if they had any doubt or problem by asking them about the vocabulary of their papers, and when their questions were solved I proposed them to create a chat in order to put into practice all this.
Later on, I was in 3ºDIV. and here students were finishing the activity about retelling classical tales. Once they had their stories, each group had to choose one tale and post it on the class blog. While they were writing their tales the teacher and me were helping them with the vocabulary.
And finally, I was in 2ºESO-A. In this class, students were doing a webquest about urban tribes from isabelperez.com, where students had a lot of information about this topic and, at the end, they had a game about discovering their own personalities. During this activity I was helping them with the vocabulary too.
And that's all for now, I'll come back after Easter.
Ok Elena, that's fine
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ResponderEliminarHi everyone,
ResponderEliminarThis week has been the last one during my teaching practice period, so I am going to tell you what I have done during these days.
On Monday, I was firstly in 2ºESO-A, and here students were revising their knowledge about comparatives through different activities from the workbook, translating sentences, ordering phrases, comparing different elements such as two cars, etc. Then, we corrected all these exercises and I suggested them to compare themselves in pairs in order to check their understanding.
Then I went to 3ºDIV. and in this class we were seeing unit 7. Here, students did different activities related to the corresponding listening of the topic, which was about food, learning the specific vocabulary and the useful articles (a/an, some/any).
And finally I was in 2ºBACH-C. This was my first class with these girls because they had been in a school trip. Here, they were doing a listening about pharmacy and its respective vocabulary, taking into account some differences between British and American English in relation to this field. They did the activities and we corrected them and they also practise this topic with speaking. At the end of the class, I introduced them the topic of chat language.
On Tuesday I was in 2ºBACH-C again, and here we started with a listening about social English, with two persons talking about a party, and students did the corresponding activities about it. Then I proposed them to revise the topic of chat language, and they started a chat in order to put their knowledge into practice. Since all of them had a blackberry, they suggested to use it for this activity, and they were practising it until the end of the class.
ResponderEliminarThe other class was 4ºESO-A, where students talked about their school trip, telling their experiences. After this activity, they did different listening exercises about work and career advisers, practising at the same time the respective adjectives of the unit such as lazy, hard-working, sociable, ambitious...
Then, we finished the class by introducing the first conditional structure.
On Wednesday, I was in 3ºDIV. and we were revising the previous topic about food, clarifying some doubts related to the use of a/an and some/any. In this way, we created a chart on the blackboard which students themselves completed with my help; so, once they had a whole understanding of these structures, they were doing different activities in order to check their knowledge and to revise the specific vocabulary of the unit.
ResponderEliminarAnd then, I went to 2ºESO-A where we corrected some activities about superlatives. After this, we revised the corresponding vocabulary of the unit, which was composed by adjectives such as boring, interesting, terrible, etc. and the different kinds of films such as western, science-fiction, action, etc. In this way, students did a listening about three different films and the respective activities, including reading and a dialogue.
On Thursday, I was firstly in 4ºESO-A, and here we were revising the first conditional structure, doing some activities about it. Then, once we had corrected all of them, I suggested the students to imagine their respective lives in order to put into practice this structure, and they did it in pairs. As homework, they had to do some activities from the workbook.
ResponderEliminarThen I was in 2ºBACH-C, where students did some activities about phobias and fears, learning some specific vocabulary such as the word wasp. They did a listening about this topic with the corresponding exercises, and they practised the speaking telling their own experiences about fears. At the same time, they were revising the present perfect tense and the use of since / for.
Later on, I went to 1ºBACH-D, and here I had prepared some listening and speaking activities about bullying, which was the topic of their unit.
Firstly, as a pre-listening activity, students were doing an activity from their books in which they could revise the vocabulary and the different phrasal verbs. Then, they saw an image on the screen with a girl who was alone and excluded; here, they had to speak about what they thought about her and about her situation.
Then, I put them a video about a real tragic story of bullying, and once they had watched and listened it, they had to decide in groups between different discussion questions I had selected for them; they had to think about it and tell it to the rest of the class, sharing their personal experiences.
And finally, I was in 3ºDIV. where students were finishing some activities about the previous topic. Then, we started the following unit, and here they had vocabulary about the different places they could visit in their free time (shopping centre, supermarket, launderette, etc.). Once we revised this vocabulary, they were doing some activities related to it, and after this, we were remembering the past simple tense of the verb to be, doing the corresponding activities.
And yesterday I had my last day on this high school.
ResponderEliminarI was firstly in 2ºBACH-C, and here we were doing some activities about pronunciation: students had to distinguish between different words with the sounds /i/ or /ai/ (such as live / life), and once they had done it, I put them the corresponding listening in order to check themselves their answers. Then, they put them into practice by repeating these words in different sentences.
Moreover, they were practising the present perfect tense through speaking, creating dialogues in pairs, and after this exercise, they read some information about two films and their directors: Kill Bill by Tarantino and The Birds by Hitchcock.
Then I went to 4ºESO-A, where we were correcting their homework about the corresponding unit, dealing with the future tense, predictions, specific vocabulary, first conditional...
And finally I was in 2ºESO-A. Here students wanted to see a film, so, while the teacher was looking for it, I proposed them to do a dialogue about their favourite films in pairs in order to revise their previous knowledge, and then, they started to watch Oliver Twist.
And that's all I have done during my teaching practice, I have really enjoyed it and liked it so much.
Well done Elena. You've developed a great work at the highschool. Congratulaciones!!
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ResponderEliminarHi everybody!!
ResponderEliminarNow it is my turn to show you what I was doing during my first week.
9th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A
I was a little bit nervous because today was my first class. It was only one class from 9.30 to 10.30. The class corresponds to 3º E.S.O. A. The center is special but this course is not the most problematic one. They are still in unit 4. The absence of students is quite obvious from the beginning. The teacher (Victoria) did not expect more than 5 students but for our surprise, today there were 8 students of which 3 of them arrived late.
The first thing Victoria did was to say hello to everybody personally. She is very close to students and very affective and as she said to me, those students have a lack of affection in their respective homes, within their families. She likes to help the students in all the possible ways, not only teaching and giving them affection is one step more to create the confident in the student.
Secondly she checked the list attendance and wrote down those students who arrived late and also the ones who did not arrive. Victoria introduces me as her ‘assistant teacher’ and encourages them to behave well in order to offer me a good impression. As it was the day after the Easter Week and the evaluations were done before the holidays, some students asked her about the marks and she was clear to them. She told them than the marks were not positive at all in general but they can pass the year if they make an effort and do some work. It was very interesting how she stimulates and encourages the student to make an effort in this last part of the academic year.
Victoria decided to make her students to present themselves saying their names. It was very shocking the lack of interest and level the students already have. They just presented themselves saying:
“I’m + their respective names”
But even with this simple statement the teacher had to help them saying it before them. Meanwhile some students are chatting and mocking each other or listening to music with headphones or texting by phone.
As only two students came to class the last day before Easter Week, Victoria decides to run through the grammar of unit 4: Past simple with regular verbs in its positive, negative and interrogative forms. ‘There was / there were’ construction was also remembered.
The students were told to write down in their notebooks the basic vocabulary of the same unit and to look for the translation from the glossary as an activity to keep them focused individually (because some of them did not stop talking while Victoria was speaking).
The next exercise consists of 3 different pictures (landscape or scenery pictures) beside 3 different descriptions using the vocabulary of the unit. Their task was to match the descriptions to the pictures and when this was done I suggested: to write on the blackboard the name of the 3 landscapes (beach, desert and forest) and they have to match the names with the numbers of the pictures. The activity was so easy but this keep them focused on the class in the last 5 minutes and also encouraged them to speak a little bit in English aloud.
10th April 2012 – 4º E.S.O. A
ResponderEliminarToday it was my first day in 4º E.S.O. A. In this case, there were more students (about 15 students). They have finished unit 4 and the level of this group is also very low. The teacher started as usual, saying hello to everyone in a very friendship way. After that Victoria check the assistance list and asked the students if they had studied the list of irregular verbs but they did not.
Students were so excited and uncontrollable so Victoria had to take control of the situation. When they were calmer she asked them about the last verbs they were practicing the last day before Easter Day. They did not remember but after having a look at their notebooks they were able to answer Victoria.
The class continues with the presentation of the irregular verbs in present, past and past particle. Although the students could follow the verbs from their books, Victoria decides to write down on the blackboard to reinforce the vision of the verbs and the differences between the verb endings and the pronunciation from the teacher.
As it is quite hard to keep the attention of the students for more than 5 minutes they were said to write down the list in their respective notebooks and find the Spanish meaning. Then they also had to write a word related with this verbs, for example:
see, saw, seen (ver) – sight (vista)
As the students were finishing the exercise, Victoria and I checked it individually. After that, she started to pronounce the verbs randomly and they had to repeat it aloud but they stopped paying attention to her so Victoria told me to continue with the pronunciation exercise and she wrote down on the blackboard the names of those students who were not participating. Apparently this idea work and I could work the pronunciation with them and also I asked them about the meaning in Spanish. Sometimes they knew and sometimes they did not but they looked for it in the glossary voluntarily (so I was happy because they were interested to answer me correctly).
At the end of pronunciation exercise Victoria told them that the next day we will have an irregular verb exam so they should start studying as soon as possible. But I do not think it is going to work, perhaps, the little exercise of today will reinforce the list of verbs in their mind.
12th april 2012 4º E.S.O. & 1º E.S.O. B
ResponderEliminarToday it was programmed a scholar trip to ‘Instituto Ramon y Cajal’. Here the students of 4º E.S.O. had been presented the different option that they can do when they finish E.S.O. I have to say that their behaviour for first time was good and they showed some enthusiasm and curiosity about the curses offered.
After the scholar trip, I was in 1º E.S.O. B. In this class there are always two teachers, a main one and a support one. Today the class was focused on activities from the workbook. There were around 10 students in which surprisingly 6 of them were willing of participate and learn something. We were practicing some ‘house vocabulary’ (bed, chairs, table, living room, kitchen, carpet, bathroom, bedroom, etc) in pronunciation and also included in sentences. The sentences were written in present continuous because the unit was focused on it. After the vocabulary exercise we reinforce it speaking and using mime in relation to the meaning and the moment.
The following exercises dealt with the use of present continuous in a ‘complete the sentences exercise’. The first one was done aloud as an example of procedure. They made the second one by themselves and we went to every chair helping out them. In my opinion I think that students understand the exercises better with the personal help we gave to them. We solved out vocabulary doubts through mime and I was so surprised when they were able to finish the exercise by themselves after explaining personally the first example. At the end, we solved the exercise aloud for everybody and students were able to answer correctly aloud as well. As a award we made them choose a English song to be listened 5 minutes before the end of the class.
Not everything was so perfect. Meanwhile, in the background, it was a terrible noise from others students that makes the good ones being distracted. The support teacher was focused on them and she had to write down the incident in an official document to be delivered to the director. This incident generated a bigger one that I am not going to explain here because it is not the place but I would like to make a little reference to it because this incident made us miss the following class and get a terrible sensation after the class.
13th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A, 4º E.S.O. B & 1º E.S.O. B
ResponderEliminarMy first class today was 3º E.S.O. A. An exam was programmed for today but, only 3 students were in class and one of them has special problems and she has to work apart. This special student was told to write down some vocabulary related to unit 4 and 5 in her notebook and look for the meaning in the glossary. The others two did not remember that the exam was programmed so they did not study at home at all.
The exam was related to unit 4 (past simple and irregular verbs). When the exam was handed in the students did not know what to do, they were just looking at the paper and thinking about their things. I decided to help them out in order to get some profit for them and I think I managed. They were more interested in the exam and in learning when I approached to their tables. I explained little by little every exercise and I help them to fill it. In the first part of the exam there were exercises related to change some irregular verbs into their past form. Other exercises dealt with ‘there was’ and ‘there were’ so the students have to focus on the subject and also on the structure of the sentence (negative, affirmative or interrogative). The second part of the exam was focused on reading and vocabulary of the unit. I help them to understand the reading giving them some clues. I think the exam was so prolific for these two students because this helped them to assimilate the unit better.
The second hour of the day was in 4º E.S.O. B. About 13 students came to class today. Next Wednesday it is programmed an irregular verb exam and as they do not study at home Victoria decides to go through the verbs in class in an activity in which we described the actions in English (and Spanish sometimes) and with mime if they do not understand. The students had to say it in English and they received one point for each correct verb. We made 3 games: one for the ‘base form’, another for the ‘base form & past form’ and the last one a combination of ‘base form, past form & past particle’. In the last game I was said to choose 33 irregular verbs from the list for the exam. A made a table with 4 columns (base form, past, past particle & meaning or translation) and I wrote one form of each verbs so they will have to fill the gaps in blank. I have to highlight that today the students collaborate and the class were so entertain for the teachers as well as for the students.
1º E.S.O. B was my last class today. In this class there are always 2 teachers (apart from me) a main one and a support one who focuses on the conflict kids. Today the main teacher had a meeting so I took her position. I worked the workbook with them in the same place we finished the day before. In these exercises, the last ones of the unit, the main purpose is to compare the present continuous to present simple. I pointed out the importance of some ‘key’ words to decide when to use one verb or another, for example:
Now, at the time, right now present continuous
Usually, on Mondays, every day present simple
The children cooperate and I encouraged them to work together if they could not understand something (always under my supervision). Children seem to acquire and understand better when a classmate explain the exercise with their own words.
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ResponderEliminarHello everybody!!! Here my second week!!! ;)
ResponderEliminar16th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. & 4º E.S.O.
My classes today have been substituted by a lecture about drugs in which the students from 3º E.S.O. and 4º E.S.O. have assisted and paid attention. My job today has been to control the students when they stop being focused on the lecture or when they are talking and interrupting the lecturer. In the meanwhile Victoria and I were finishing the next exam checking little details. After the class we used the computer to print out the exam and make photocopies in order to be ready for the next day.
17TH April 2012 – 1º E.S.O. B & 4º E.S.O. B
ResponderEliminarIn 1º E.S.O. B, I worked as a supporter teacher today. I focused on 2 problematic kids who always try to have fun in class speaking aloud, playing and not working at all. As I am ‘the new’ apparently they respected me a little bit more than usual. They were given special photocopies because their level of English is lower than the rest of the class. The photocopies dealt with vocabulary of the house and present continuous. I worked with them individually. I had to separate them in different tables in order to make them focus on the task. I said to one of them to write down in his notebook the present continuous examples given by the book in affirmative, negative and its respective translation into Spanish (also offered in the book). Meanwhile I started to work with the other kid. With the help of the little glossary of the photocopy we solved out 3 exercises about vocabulary but the 4th exercise was impossible to do it without a huge help. The 4th exercise was about present continuous sentences in which the student has to focus on the subject and add the –ing form to the verb given in brackets. The kid was not able to do the exercise by himself. I had to translate basically the whole sentence in order to be understood by the student. I had to make reference to examples of the present continuous but the student seemed to not understand what I was talking about at all. I did my best and, at least, I think he understood the structure of the present continuous but I am not sure if he will remember when to use it.
When the first kid finished his task, I switched table and I worked the exercise with the other kid. The student who was doing the exercise with my help was said to write down the present continuous examples in affirmative, negative and Spanish as his classmate did before. The level of the second kid was the same but, apparently, this one was quicker understanding my explanations. When we finish the exercises, we still got some time until the end of the class so I decided to come back to the vocabulary and I made questions to them in Spanish (because I tried two in English and they were completely lost, too much difficulty for them). They answered me in Spanish and every time I had to say look for the word in English. They did not remember the vocabulary but at least, they made the effort to look for it into the glossary and repeat it aloud in English several times with different questions.
When I arrived to 4º ESO B, we asked the students if they had studied for the irregular verbs exam, but they did not. As we had problems doing the photocopies we decided to give them a chance and move the exam for the next day, tomorrow. They all promised to study, but I am not sure about it to be honest. They worked on a vocabulary exercise about ‘the house’ in general (related to the unit they already finished). They had to make a picture of a house and write down all the vocabulary of the house they could remember and after look through the previous units in order to find new vocabulary related to the house. It was not an intense activity but as they had to go back to previous units in order to look for vocabulary they had the chance (unconsciously) of running through previous units.
The last part of the class was focused on the new unit (unit 5) related to sports. We decided to make in the last 7 minutes of the class a vocabulary pronunciation exercises from a “brainstorming” session or activity in which everybody collaborated. I was asking them about what sports they usually made at school and writing down in the blackboard. When we got sports enough I asked them for things they usually use in sports.
It was a funny activity in which I think they made an effort to remember English words and acquire new ones. I have to say that today I learnt a new word from them and it was so funny because I did not how to write down it properly so I have to ask one of them to help me out. Some voluntaries help me out and one of them came to the blackboard and wrote it for me. For me it was important because that means cooperation and interest about the class and the teacher. The word was: ‘parkour’ (this new sport that deals with people jumping over walls and obstacles with incredible movements).
ResponderEliminar18th April 2012 – 4º E.S.O. B & 1º E.S.O. B
ResponderEliminarThe class of 4º E.S.O. started late because the students were out in a scholarship. When they arrived was only half an hour left. In this half an hour they did the irregular verbs exam. They complained about the exam saying that they did not study but the exam cannot be postponed anymore. The students’ attitude was so negative and after 5 minutes they started talking and copying each other and from the book. My task today was to keep an eye on them and control the copying. The last students finished his exam just one minute before the end of the class. We encourage them to study the vocabulary of the new unit we are going to start on the next day.
In 1º E.S.O. the group was divided. The supporter teacher took the 3 conflictive students out of the class to another class in order to focus on them more personally and individually. I stayed in class with Victoria with a group of 8 students. We continued with the unit and we ran through the vocabulary of the house but adding ‘household activities’. They copy all the vocabulary in their notebook and they had to look for the vocabulary in their glossary. I was helping them going through the class and visiting every table and I use mime for those words not available in the glossary. When this was done, we made a comparison between present continuous and present simple and they wrote down in their notebooks. We finished the class 5 minutes before because students always leave the class without cleaning up their books (which are always in class, the students never take the books to their houses) and the chairs. We encouraged them to save the books into the cupboard and put the chairs on the tables. They did it perfectly without any complaint.
19th April 2012 – 4º E.S.O. B, 1º E.S.O. B & 3º E.S.O. A
ResponderEliminarStudents of 4º E.S.O. B were given a lecture about ‘Road Safety’. Victoria, other teacher and I were controlling the students, encouraged them to pay attention and not talk in the middle of the lecture. As they were behaving quite well, Victoria suggested me to have a look of a series of grammar and vocabulary activities for the next exam (Friday) of 1º E.S.O. B. I chose 5 activities easy to develop from ‘the teacher book’ according to the level the students already have in which vocabulary related to the house and present continuous were the main goals. Victoria chose another 5 ones and I think the selection is very interesting and if the students focus on the exam a little bit they will be able to pass because the chosen exercises are very similar to the ones we were working on class.
In 1º E.S.O. B, the students were working the workbook. Victoria chosen more exercises related or more similar to the exam. The class was so participative and we were solving the exercise together. As the students were answering aloud we had the chance to correct the pronunciation. I was so surprise today because they showed great advances and I have to say that those children had the capacity to learn more if the conditions were different in this school. I could realize that 2 or 3 children had corrected their pronunciation of the word ‘table’ (which was pronounced as it is written in the Spanish way) since the last class the day before by the correct pronunciation. At the end of the class the student were told to pick their books up and put them on the cupboard again. They did it without any complain. I have to confess that Victoria and I got out of the class with a sense of pride because we could check a minimal progress in a class where seemed to be impossible.
In 3º E.S.O. A, 7 students attended to the class to day. This class is significant for the absence of students. 4 of them had to do the exam they did not do last week and Victoria was with them. I was concentrated on the other 3 and I presented the new unit to them. The unit 5 talks about ‘feelings, emotions’ and the past continuous and past simple tense. In the first page of the unit we could see different people with different face expressions showing emotions. Firstly I read the emotions given and they repeated after me in order to correct their pronunciation. I said to them to write down in their notebook, in 1 minute, this vocabulary. I asked them to read it again carefully and try to guess the meaning of the words they could. They did well and they guessed two or three words such as ‘furious’ and ‘confused’. After that I linked orally the ‘emotion words’ to the pictures. We did the next exercises following the students’ book so we practice some verbs and speaking with sentences like ‘I felt exhausted when I played football’. I did some examples with past continuous in order to make the students familiar to the new tense for the new class.
20th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A & 4º E.S.O. B
ResponderEliminar3º E.S.O. A. - Today has been a good day from my point of view. Although only two students arrived we were working hard and I could see results. These two students did not come to the last class in which I started the new unit. We ‘re-started’ the new unit, unit 5, in which vocabulary about feelings and emotions are related to past simple and past continuous. They were told to write down in their notebook the new vocabulary about emotions. When they did it I asked them if they were able to tell me the meaning of at least one or two words. They did it well and they guessed two or three words. They had to look for the meaning of the rest in the glossary of the book. I asked them to read aloud each word. I corrected their pronunciation and also I emphasized with several repetitions the meaning of the word and the correct pronunciation (they always repeated after me).
As they acquired the new words, I played the listening of the activity. This listening consisted on the repletion of the words after the dictation. They did it well, the correct pronunciation started to be acquired apparently.
The second listening consisted on three dialogues in which the new vocabulary was used in different contexts. They had to match the context with the speakers. Before the listening I encouraged them to look at the context in the book (three sceneries represented the three dialogues). I asked them to tell me about English words that they could find from the drawings. Then, I said to them to focus on these words and try to listen from the dialogues. For my surprise, they recognized some of the words so they were able to match each drawing with its dialogue.
The third listening was related to the previous dialogues and their content. In this exercise they needed a little bit of my help to success.
After the listening exercises I introduced them to the new grammar of this unit: Past continuous. I used the blackboard to write down the affirmative, negative and interrogative after my explanation and always asking them what I should write according to what I explained to them. They did well; they only needed to focus on the subject of the sentences. We did two exercises related to past continuous in which they had to look for what a family was doing in the picture. After this exercise I asked them to create new sentences using subjects, verbs and complements from the unit but in the interrogative form.
4º E.S.O. B - We also used listening today in order to make easy the last day of the week. The unit 5 talks about Sports. I said to write down all the sport’s equipment that they could guess the meaning from the first page of the unit. After that they copied the rest of them and looked for the meaning in the glossary. Then I played the listening and I was correcting their pronunciation doing pause after each word.
The next listening was a conversation in a sport shop in which all the before vocabulary was in it. The listening was long and I played twice. The exercise related to the listening was a comprehension exercise about the listening. As they were answering me true or fault I was asking them why. I have to say that although I encouraged them to answer me in English they did not, just some words. At least I forced them to tell me the new vocabulary in English all the time.
In the last minutes of the class the students asked the teacher if they can repeat the irregular verb exam (which everybody fail with a mark no more than 30 over 100). We decided to give them the chance to repeat exactly the same exam just because in this way perhaps, they will study the verbs they can remember from the previous exam. At least it is a way to make them run through the irregular verbs again.
Conchi,
EliminarI see you are doing well in spite of the more than dificulta environment. Congratulations!!
- The 2nd day I went again with the PCPI, with only 4 pupils this time. They made an oral exam, but the simplest one ever. They learnt by hard a few lines from the book (English for adults) about the description of their houses, and then they followed with the looking for information. While one was doing the oral exam I was helping the others, guiding them in their searches.
ResponderEliminar- That day I assisted with my tutor, who is the bilingual coordinator, to an auxiliaries meeting (they have several in a week). As the center is bilingual, they have an integrated project and once a week the students have a class entirely in English with an American native (Math, History, English, google…) so my tutor plans with them some activities. In this case useful expressions for London and steps to follow at the airport.
- The next day with 1º ESO Bilingual; first they were assigned to read the 1st chapter of the Great Fire of London and to do the activities for the next day and they correct exercises about subject and object pronouns and also in the digital board played a game (Treasure Hunt: fill the gap).
- And with 2º ESO, again, the first thing the teacher has to do when come in the classroom is reorganizing the class, because this class is always a chaos. They made comments on their exams and made exercises about animals in the practice book and in the tactile board. I was surprised of the low level in general, so I realized that choosing that group to teach would be a challenge for me.
At the end of this 1st week I have a reunion with my tutor in order to know my expectations for my teaching classes. I chose 2º ESO and 1º ESO Bilingual to teach them the following week. My tutor explained me what they were going to do and which could be my aspects to teach.
She also offered me to participate in the integrated project of the languages. The departments of Spanish Language, French and English organize activities of any subject for students and I accepted, of course, but I will explain that forward.
2nd week:
ResponderEliminar- The 2nd week I started with only one girl in PCPI, maybe because Easter was coming, so she finished her searching of information and I gave her the basic notions for making a power point presentation.
- The next class was with 1º ESO Bilingual. They corrected their homework about using auxiliaries in questions, abject & subject pronouns, -ing phrases (expressing likes & dislikes) and steps to interview someone. After that, the correction of the lecture book The Great Fire of London; they made a list of the characters and noted the vocabulary they did not know.
- The last class of the day was with the peculiar 2º ESO. They were taught to describe animal or at least that was the intention, because this group is a very difficult one. The teacher showed them some pictures of animals and they had to say which animal was. Then she introduced some very basic notions to describe animals. This part of animal was the one I prepared for teach them, or better play with them that week.
- The following day was a different one because I went to observe the way in which they work with Becky, the Native American auxiliary woman who meets with them once a week. They reinforce aspects studied in class with their English teacher. As the group is huge, they are divided into two and spent half hour with each one.
ResponderEliminarWith Becky they played a game with a dice; divided also into two groups they passed through a board making suggestions and answering in function of their likes. And with Claudia they followed with The Great Fire of London; they commented the chapter two and corrected the activities.
In the 1st part with Becky they were very enthusiastic and participative, but with Claudia some of them forgot to bring the activities done, so they get a negative mark.
- The next day was my debut as a teacher, but in the morning I went to two different groups with the auxiliary, 3º ESO Bilingual, who practiced the vocabulary for giving directions, and 1º ESO, who practiced different ways of expressing likes and dislikes about sports.
- And my 1st teaching class came: I was devoted to teach them animal vocabulary in general, especially descriptions, so I prepared to play a game in order they demonstrate what they had learnt, but very soon I realized I was wrong. We played to who is who with animals; by means of asking for their descriptions they had to guess the animal. And in the last minutes a play of some very easy irregular verbs in groups; it consisted of matching couples of verbs, but with the difficulty the cards were upside down, if someone fail finding the couple, the turn was for the next, and when they had the couples, formed by the image of the action in one card and the corresponding irregular verb in the other, they had to read load correctly the three forms of the verb.
I was happy because they were more or less “educated”, so I performed right my role of teacher! And my tutor congratulated me because I handled very well the situation.
- And the last day before Easter vacations I taught to 1º ESO Bilingual, but with the added difficulty that half class was from bilingual and the other half not. This was due to the Easter Hunt, play English teachers organized for the 10 best students of each class, so the game I had to invent had to be with aspects both levels saw.
The game was named How fast can you think?; I disordered the structure of 10 phrases related to likes and dislikes and the 10 faster came out to the white board to correct each one. As they had seen this theme they were able to recognize the structure of subject+verb+-ing and the different expressions, so the goal of this activity was achieved.
I finished very happy too because I felt like a real teacher and pupils attended me. My tutor said me that I was like a magician because I had been able of teaching a 30 children mixed class, so I was very satisfied.
ResponderEliminar- As I mentioned before I was in charge of participate in the Integrated Project of the Languages, so it has also served to fill my thirty hours of practices. I have made a battery of questions with three possible options, thirty of grammar, going from low to higher level and ten related to London.
And that is all .
Hi!!!
ResponderEliminarFollowing I will detail how was my last week at the school, I hope all of you found it as interesting as I found these long 3 weeks working there.
Cheers!
23rd April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A
ResponderEliminarNice day! I really enjoyed but it was a shame that I could work with just three students. They are hard-workers when they want to be. Today we were working again with the past simple, doing more examples of situations such as: “what were you doing yesterday at 3’00 o’clock in the morning? I was sleeping”, or “what were you doing half an hour ago? We were studying Spanish language”. They did it well so I decided to go further and compare past continuous and past simple. I pointed out the use of the conjunction ‘while’ and ‘when’ with the different tenses. I highlighted the meaning as well in the blackboard in that way:
While (mientras) + past continuous
When (cuando) + past simple
It was useful with the following exercises because they could check and revise every time which one to use and after 5 or 6 examples they relation was acquired and they answered me directly without looking at their notebooks.
As they have not much vocabulary I decided to ask them for a group translation in each exercise with each sentence we were working in order to remember old vocabulary and learn new one. They did well and they were so cooperative so I felt very proud of them.
E.S.O. B & 4º E.S.O. B
ResponderEliminarMy first class today (1º E.S.O.) started a new unit. First of all, Victoria gave them the results of the exam they did the day before. About 5 students passed (two of them with a good marks), what it is positive, and some of them were so close to pass. I have to say that there are also some of them with a very bad mark. I saw some hope for this group of students within the conditions of the high school. The new unit talks about food in general and we presented the new vocabulary to the students doing our best because today they were so cheeky and talkative between them. They copied the new vocabulary in their notebook and then all the students tried to translate it and we helped them. Victoria brought from her house some empty food containers and we showed to them and they had to say the name in English. There was also new vocabulary that does not appear in the unit. When the students hit the correct answer they collected the containers. At the end, we wrote down the names of the students on the blackboard and gave them points for correct answers.
In 4º E.S.O. the students redid the irregular verb exam in which I had to control them to copy. It was the same exam than before with the exactly the same verbs and after finishing corrected 1 hour ago in my house by myself only two students pass with the minimum mark (5) and the rest of them failed with a mark about 3 or less. This second exam has been so disappointing because it was a second chance for them (a chance that they asked for) and they did not take advantage of the situation. After the exam, Victoria was introducing the future (will) doing prediction with an interesting activity: “palm reading”.
25th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A, 4º E.S.O. B & 1º E.S.O. B
ResponderEliminarIt was a difficult day because the kids were so hyperactive. We did our best. In 3º E.S.O. there were 4 students today. 2 of them did not come in the previous classes so I had to do a quick revision of the use of the past continuous and the present continuous. I drew a box, like the following one, in the blackboard as a summary:
WHILE (mientras) past continuous: WAS/WERE + VERB-ING
WHEN (cuando) past simple
After the quick explanation, we continued with the exercises of the unit and I wrote down every verb we found in the exercises in the blackboard with its past form and meaning. They wrote it down in their notebook as a little glossary. Every single exercise was translated into Spanish by the students with my help and wrote it down in their notebook in order to assimilate new vocabulary and the construction. The last exercises we did it was a little narration in which the students had to chose the tense.
4º E.S.O. B were so hyperactive today. It took us a while to control the class a little bit. We informed them about their marks of the last irregular verb exam. Only two passed the exam and the rest of them failed. They were not very affected about the news. We continued with the future tense. We had to write down on the blackboard the structure because of their low level:
SUBJECT + WILL + VERB (BASE FORM/INFINITIVE)
After that, they were told to write down 5 sentences about what they will do in 5 years. They wrote very simple sentences but I encouraged them to make the sentence longer (using complements). After finishing, they went to the blackboard and wrote down their sentences and all of us correct them. Victoria informed them about some homework they will have to do tomorrow as they are going to a scholar trip and they will miss the English class. In this way they will work in their house (I doubt they will).
When we arrived to 1º E.S.O. the students were uncontrollable. It was last hour and perhaps, this was the reason. We continued working with the ‘supermarket’ vocabulary. We added new words and brought some real examples to reinforce the acquisition of the new words. They wrote down all the new vocabulary and its respective meaning in their notebook while I was repeating again aloud the correct pronunciation. They repeated after me while they were writing. After that we presented the following structures in order to be used with the new vocabulary:
I LOVE…. I LIKE… I DON’T LIKE… I LIKE… I HATE…
They had to take an item, without looking, from a bag full of empty containers that represent the new vocabulary. They had to create sentences with the before structures about their taste.
When it was finished, only 3 minutes left to go and they students were told to pick up their books and saved them into the cupboard and cleaned up the class before leaving.
27th April 2012 – 3º E.S.O. A, 4º E.S.O. B & 1º E.S.O. B
ResponderEliminarMy last day in 3º E.S.O. was very nice. Four students arrived today. I finished the last exercises about past continuous and past simple using ‘while’ and ‘when’. In my view, I have to say that they have acquired the essence of the unit. If they work a little bit in their house the exercises from the workbook, they will complete the learning perfectly.
The unit continued with new vocabulary about jobs and professions. We made some exercises relating the jobs with their meaning and after that we played a listening about jobs in which they had to repeat the words.
The next activity consisted on a reading about a famous character (Vidocq) who had too many jobs in his life. The tenses of the reading were past tense and pas continuous. After the reading we played the listening of the reading and we did some exercises about comprehension.
In 4º E.S.O. the class was so productive. I made a little and basic table about the different tenses when speaking about future:
WILL
PREDICTIONS, PROMISES & INSTANT DECISIONS – Predicciones, promesas y decisions instantáneas.
I will do the exercise.
Haré el ejercicio.
BE GOING TO (IR A + INFINITIVO)
INTENTIONS, PLANS, CLOSE FUTURE DECISIONS, WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN – Intenciones, planes, decisiones futuras cercanas, qué va a pasar.
You are going to pass the exam.
Vosotros vais a aprobar el examen.
PRESENT CONTINUOUS (FUTURE MEANING)
PERSONAL DECISIONS PLANNED IN THE PAST. IT GOES WITH A FUTURE REFERENCE ALWAYS. Decisiones personales planeadas en el pasado. Va siempre con una referencia futura.
He is traveling to London next year.
Él viaja a Londres el próximo año.
They copied on their notebooks and after it I asked them when to use one or the other. We played some listening related to this in order to acquire the future structures. We made some exercises about the use of ‘will’ and the use of ‘be going to’ but we had no more time.
1º E.S.O. B was a disaster today. It is unbelievable that with only 5 students, we could do as little. Today the topic was related to the last class about ‘supermarket vocabulary’. We introduce the structures:
There is / There are
In combination with the articles: ‘a, an, some, any’
I tried my best to explain the structures in their different forms: affirmative, negative and interrogative as well as their corresponding answer structure: Yes, there is; Not, there isn’t.
I only could do more or less an exercise about countable and uncountable nouns and another one about the use of ‘there is’ and ‘there are’.
I have to say that my classes were a hard work because of the situation of the students. It is a difficult school but I would like to say as well that there are some potential students that cannot develop themselves because of their environment.
ResponderEliminarI think that these days working with them have been very positive, as my teacher said. They were more focus and I think they got some of my lessons. Anyway, it was a very excitement experience that I really enjoy.
Cheers
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ResponderEliminarDAY #1 (MONDAY, 5th MARCH)
ResponderEliminarThis is an account of the main facts that happened to me during my work experience period at “Santos Isasa” (Montoro, Córdoba) high-school. As well, I have included some visions or critical opinions about the methodology the teacher used in her classes, the level and interests the students showed and other factors that are fundamental when a person is trying to create a proper background for an adequate learning process.
This text is just about the experiences I had in my first day in the centre, so it is considerably longer, as I had a lot of new information to be reported. In addition, the information is organized according to the teacher’s timetable in order to make the effort of describing the different groups of students, their level and other factors easier.
The first day I got to the high-school at 12’00 , and the first class I attended to was with the students of the so called “PCPI”, a program that allows those students who are at risk of being excluded from the society to get the certificate of secondary education by lowering the levels and giving them some other facilities. From this previous information we can guess that this group was the most difficult one among those groups the teacher had by far; in fact, the same day I started my period in the school, one of the students had just returned after having been sent off the school for a month. When the teacher came into the classroom she realised there was a swearword written on the blackboard and they had an argument once again. What I want to show by means of this extra information is the kind of students the teacher had at this particular time. All these students were boys, except for two girls. None of them had any interest in learning anything, so the only target the teachers wanted to accomplish was to teach them a series of values; to improve them as citizens, so to speak. There were some more arguments and punishments that day. After half an hour, the guys were sent to the Technology Lab to help the caretaker to clean and order the place. The teacher told me that she had to behave in a different way with this particular group if she wanted to be respected; I could realize about this after a while. However, I got surprised when I realised that even in that classroom, the commands, rules or information in the walls were written in English, as it happened in the whole centre, which was bilingual as I said. Nevertheless, these students had a very poor level of English according to their age (16-17).
TO BE CONTINUED...
... (DAY #1)
ResponderEliminarThe following hour was much easier, it was in the second course of upper secondary education. There were not so many people, probably because these students had just finished an exam. During this hour, the teacher corrected some exercises the students had to have done as homework, and she introduced them new words and colloquial expressions. There were 4-5 students who were continually interrupting by mocking at people and finally, one of them got expelled from the classroom. The group went on correcting exercises and translating sentences. It was an average group, although the most of the classroom developed in English, which sincerely, surprised me.
The third and last hour I spent at the high school my first day, I was with the best group I have had during my work experience period by far. They belonged to the last course of secondary education (4ºESO). At this time, 2 o’clock on Monday, the students were really tired and the atmosphere was more relaxed than normal. Due to this external factors, the teacher decided to do a “role playing” in order to fix some new structures with “would”. In addition, I could realize that a lot of different teaching methods were used by means of this activity and that’s why I liked a lot this kind of exercise, although it was conditioned by the external factors that I previously mentioned. I could observe how the teacher made them to work in groups by asking them to create a dialogue in which both sudents had to ask and answer different times; also, when the students were talking, the teacher emphasized always on fluency rather than on accuracy. In that way, the oral skills of the students, who showed a great disposition, improved and also their intonation and pronunciation. Then, the teacher started to correct some exercises the students had to do, but in a very practical way, dinamical and not boring. As it was previously mentioned, this group was very respectful and homogeneous (they all knew each other since a long time ago) which made them to be a pretty good group, even above the average both in knowledge and interest to learn.
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ResponderEliminarDAY #2 (TUESDAY, 6TH MARCH)
ResponderEliminarIn the second day that I attended to the high-school during my work experience period, I adopted the role of a hearer as well, as it was indicated to me by the teacher. This day was much longer for me because I had the same timetable than the teacher every day, and she had five classes on Tuesday, from 8:30 to 14:00.
The first hour I went with the teacher to the classroom of the group I previously qualified as the best one among those groups the teacher had; the last course of secondary education. During this hour the students had to revise some grammatical concepts such as the “passives”, as they had an exam three days later. After this initial activity, they had another “role playing” and finally they corrected some exercises aloud in order to go on revising the grammar for the exam. I didn’t really like these exercises and way of correcting them because the students got inhibited in some cases due to the exposure they suffered, that is to say, the students were corrected publicly and personally when they commited a mistake, so they were a kind of target for their partners’ mocks.
In the next hour the different English teachers of the centre had a meeting in which they argued about the development of some activities, the arrangement of some others, and also established the level and kind of activities for the following exams. After this meeting, in which I was allowed to be present at, I had a short conversation with my mentor, and she openly talked to me about the methodology they were using for their classes.
At the beginning of the third hour of the day, there was an argument in the middle of the corridor between teachers (my mentor and another one) and, after having witnessed that episode, I was asked to go alone to the corresponding classroom to keep the students in silence and not to let them alone. I simply had to watch the students out while they were studying for another exam.
After this happening, I had to attend to another exam with my mentor to help her to watch the students out while they were doing it, in order to avoid them to cheat on the exam. I was also allowed to help the students with their doubts during the test. This exam was done by the students of the first course of upper secondary education.
My second day at the high school finished with probably one of the more problematic groups among those the teacher had, however, they were not bad students, they were older (2º Bachillerato) and always trying to call the teacher’s attention. This hour was mainly used to correct exercises and clarify some concepts for their final exam, which was dated two days after this class.
DAY #3 (THURSDAY, 8TH MARCH)
ResponderEliminarMy third day at the high school started with a talk or chat by means of which some professionals from the Spanish Army tried to convince those students that were not sure about their future and options to join them. I had the opportunity to question them as the information they were providing was not totally true. For me, it was a case of what we normally call deceitful or fallacious advertising, because some important aspects related to this job, such as the risks and conditions, were left aside. The break time came immediately after this talk. The teacher had been appointed as the invigilator for this concrete time, and I decided to accompany her during this half an hour, but it was just my decission, totally optional. During this time we had a chance to exchange our opinions and thoughts about the previous chat.
Then, at 12’00, I had my second experience with the most problematic group, the one that was included in a program to guarantee their education and avoid them to be socially excluded. At this time I could realize that these guys had no interest to learn anything. They were using books for the first year of secondary education and some of them were almost 18 years old. Moreover, they interrupted the class constantly and there was a great absence of solidarity among partners.
...
...
ResponderEliminarAt 13’00, it was time for the group of the first year of the upper secondary education. As it normally happened during my work experience period, the class was determined by the final exams, that were too close as to start teaching new concepts. Then, the teacher suggested the students to do some exercises on “conditionals” to revise this for the test. These exercises were individually corrected; however, the teacher didn’t obliged anyone to correct their exercises aloud, she simply looked for volunteers who had understood that correcting their sentences in that way helped them to improve their level and also to avoid common mistakes in the exam. The guys showed a good attitude and disposition to learn, and there weren’t not too many interruptions.
During the last hour of this day, both the teacher and me, attended to a series of presentations the students of the last year of the upper secondary education had to do. These presentations were compulsory for a new subject in schools, what I really found very useful according to the quantity of presentations the students are going to have to do in their following educational stage at the University.
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ResponderEliminar...more DAY #4
ResponderEliminarAfter this exam, I had to go to the English Department of the centre to hand my tutor the exams the students had done. Then, I came with her into the classroom of the following group in which she had to teach. It was the first course of the upper secondary education (1º BACHILLERATO), and this particular day was quite weird, since the group was highly reduced because of a visit to the University some teacher had programmed for a part of the students (those who were studying the technological option of the course).
Due to this situation, the teacher couldn’t move forward in the syllabus, so she decided to focus on other important skills that are normally less trained, so to speak, such as the listening. That day, the work background was more relaxed, although the students were a bit reluctant to work; probably because their partners were outside the school “having fun”.
I spent the last hour of that day at the centre with the other group of the last year of the upper secondary education. As it was quite late and the students were tired, the teacher proposed them an English exam like the ones they were to find in their university entrance examination for them to get used to the format. Once again, I just had to give advice to the students and help them to solve their doubts and problems with the exam.
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ResponderEliminarDAY #4 (TUESDAY, 13TH MARCH)
ResponderEliminarThe first hour of my fourth day at the high school was also the first hour the students of the last course of secondary education (4º ESO) had after their final exam. Thus, the teacher decided to devote this hour to the revision of the previous test. First, I helped the teacher in the task of handing out the students their exams. As I had to read aloud the students’ names to give them their tests, I could realize that some of them were brothers and sisters of former partners I had had in the same centre years ago. As I said, the whole hour was devoted to the correction of the exam the students had done days ago. My role in the classroom was limited; I just had to help the teacher to solve the doubts and problems the students individually had. At the end of the hour, the students were told their marks. The global results were very good, the average mark was high enough and there were very few people who had failed the exam as I guessed.
During the next two hours I was told to do whatever I wanted because the teachers of the English Department had another meeting. Then, I decided to stay in the centre, and had breakfast with some of the former teachers I had had. In the next hour, the group of the last year of the upper secondary education (2º BACHILLERATO) had an exam, and, as the meeting hadn’t finished yet I was asked to stay with the students in the classroom while they were doing the exam. I had to call their attention once or twice, but the students behaved appropriately in general terms. The exam took one hour and half and I was allowed by the teacher to answer certain doubts the students had, not all of them obviously.
DAY #5 (THURSDAY, 15TH MARCH)
ResponderEliminarOne of the most effective methods or techniques I have been taught to reinforce the students knowledge and avoid their mistakes is to repeat different times the same exercise or exam they have already done. In that sense, the teacher made the students to repeat the exam they had done the day before in order to fix their errors and not to commit them again. Obviously, this second exam hadn’t any value for their marks, but it did have a lot of value for their individual learning processes.
This happened with one of the groups of the last course of upper secondary education, and even the students realised while correcting their exam that the most of their mistakes were caused by their lack of vocabulary. After the exam was redone and explained, the teacher displayed the film version of a book the students had to read at home in order to allow them to have a better understanding of what was going on in the book’s plot. This book is called The Age of the Innocence. It was possible to watch the movie in the classroom thanks to the resources the centre has, such as projectors, digital screens and blackboards, and computers. These resources are used almost everyday. The movie was displayed in original version with English subtitles, so the teacher had to stop it in different moments (keyfacts) to explain what was going on; however, these explanations were made also in English, but in a level that was easier to understand for the students.
After this initial class, I had two hours of free time because, apart from the break, the following class were in a programmed visit outside the centre. Then, I came with my tutor into the classroom of her following group, first year of upper secondary education, where she had programmed an oral exam.
ResponderEliminarBecause of this test, the group was very excited so it was a bit difficult to calm them down and start the class. They were also nervous due to the fact that they had to speak English publicly. The students had to do the exam by pairs, which reinforces the “Group-work methodology”. The level the students showed was more or less adequate, maybe too elementary. I didn’t really like the way in which the exam was programmed; the students had to stand up in front of the classroom which clearly increased their inhibition. Nevertheless, the group was respectful enough and they didn’t interrupt or mock at anybody. It was dynamic and the students showed a high level of fluency, probably because they had learned their dialogues by heart.
To finish this day, I attended together my tutor to another series of presentations the students had to do as part of the new subject I mentioned in the day #3. This subject obliges the students to choose some ethical topics to prepare their presentations and also, to create debates in their classrooms. As I said when I analysed that day, I think it is useful because the students will have to talk in public a lot of times in the following years. However, it was a bit less interesting for me, because the presentations were in Spanish.
-12/03/12: Today has been my first day but this week I will be in class as listener in order to know the group. The teacher has explained to children the functions of modal verbs "can/can not/must/musn't." After theory children have put into practice the lessons learned through exercises from the student book and workbook.
ResponderEliminar-13/03/12: Today in the class, the teacher has begun checking the homework. After that, children have read a text and have made some exercises related with the text.
-15/03/12: Today the children had an exam but the teacher forgot it and she suggested to me to do some activities from the workbook with the students.
-16/03/12: Today is the exam that Consuelo forgot yesterday, so I have been solving the doubts of the children. This is my last day as listener. I have felt very comfortable this week.
-16/04/12: This has been my first day as “teacher” so I have felt very nervous all the day. I have started with a power point presentation with some pictures of famous people in order to make a review of some jobs and professions such as writer, explorer, actor… Children enjoyed this activity so I was very happy. To finish the class, we made together a funny Quiz of professions.
-17/04/12:
10:15-11:15 (1º ESO A): Today I have started checking the homework about famous people. After that, I have explained grammar, the past of the verb to be, and the use of “there was” and “there were”. At the end of the class we practice the theory with some exercises.
11:45-12:40 (2º ESO B): Today I have also been in other classes. In 2º ESO students have had a 15 minutes exam and I have been solving the doubts. After that, we read a text and complete the questions proposed in the book.
12:40- 13:35 (RT 1º BTO): In this tutorial session I have learnt how the coordinator of 1º BTO, in this case my tutor Consuelo, talk with the tutors of 1º BTO and they organize the activities related with the different subjects and the activities outside the school such as excursions, meetings…
-19/04/12: Today I have made a review of the theory that I explained the previous day. I also have explained more grammar, in this case, the use of affirmative and negative forms of “was” and “were”. We practiced with exercises from the student book.
ResponderEliminar-20/04/12: Today children went on an excursion on “Almadén Mines”.
-23/04/12:
08:00-09:00 (1º ESO A): Like every day, I have started the class checking the homework. Moreover, we have listened the reading of a text from the cassette and later on I choose some children to read the text on the book. Finally, I asked the children about their trip and they used expressions referred to the past such as “there was” and “there were” to talk about it.
09:15-10:15 (4º ESO): We have read a text called “Money in English-speaking countries”. We have been talking about different coins around the world and the importance of the money. I talked to the students that when I was child I used to buy candies with 100 pesetas (veinte duros). It was quite funny to remember that and students listened to me very interested.
10:15-11:15 (2º BTO): In this class we have been discussing the importance of the media and the influence of internet on information. We also talked about gossip programmes. Finally, we read a text related with this topic and answered some question about that.
-24/04/12: Today has been a very difficult day for me, because I have tried to explain the pronunciation of verbs in the past. We practiced with verbs ended on /d/, /t/ and (words ended on t or d + ed /id/). I also have explained when we have to double the final consonant or when we have to change the final vowel (y+ed= i).
-26/04/12: I have made a review of the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms of the past and I have explained the use of ago. We have practiced with some exercises.
-07/05/12:
08:00-09:00 (1º ESO A): We have made a dictation from the workbook and later on we have been doing exercises related with the grammar of this unit. (Unit 7)
09:15-10:15 (4º ESO B): The students have a 15 minutes vocabulary exam and I have been solving doubts. After that, Consuelo explains to the students how to identify an argumentative text.
-08/05/12: Today all the students have made a flower offering to the Virgin Mary with dances, poems and songs.
-10/05/12: We have been finished all the exercises from the student book and the workbook.
-11/05/12: Consuelo gave to the children three pages of exercises with one, two and three stars depending on the difficulty of the exercises. We have been checking all of them.
-14/05/12: Today is the final exam. One more time, I have been solving doubts.
-15/05/12: Today is my last day and we have done a game in order to practice the grammar explained in this unit. At the end of the class, I took some photos with the children and I gave them a candies cake made by myself.
This is the last day I was at the high school during my work experience period. As I have been told that I had to prepare a lesson plan to teach at the centre, I did so. However, the teacher refused my proposal and she indicated me everything I had to do. This day was also the last one before the Easter Holidays, so the students were not so much focused on their studies and classes.
ResponderEliminarI was told that I had to prepare oral activities that would help the students of the last year of secondary education (4º ESO) to revise both the first and second conditionals. In addition, the teacher told me that I had to occupy the whole hour and use the specific vocabulary of the lesson plan she was developing at the time, which was related to the working world. The following lines are the proposal I made for this session according to the criteria the teacher indicated me:
1ST CONDITIONAL
• IF + PRESENT, FUTURE (WILL)
• POSIBILIDAD/SITUACIÓN REAL
• NOT “WHEN”
• What the students have to do is just to try to figure out how they think their lives are going to be in the following years. This future is built upon a series of conditions the teacher will propose. It is a “warm-up” exercise. It is related to the working world, study...
The students have just to complete the sentences orally. Originality in their answers will be possitively valued.
LET’S TALK ABOUT OUR FUTURE
• Sentences:
• If I study hard for my exams, I...
• If I can get a (part-time) job for the summer, I...
• If I don’t finish 4ºESO this year, next one I...
• If I don’t want to study anymore, I...
• If I am not good at my job, I...
• If am not comfortable working in an office, I...
• If I want to have an interview for a job, I...
• If I finish Bachillerato with good marks, I...
• If I can’t find the studies I like, I...
• If am not well-paid at my job, I...
• If I go to the University, I...
• I will be richer if I...
• I won’t be happy if I...
• I will live in London if I...
• If I have a foreigner boyfriend/girlfriend, I...
• If I don’t get marry, I...
• I will have no children if...
• What will you do if don’t have a job?
• What will you do if you can’t study?
• If I can go abroad as an Erasmus student, I...
• I will travel a lot if I...
• If I have a job, but my sallary is not good enough, I...
• If I can’t work outdoors, I...
(DAY #6, CONTINUATION)
ResponderEliminar2ND CONDITIONAL
- Imaginary situations
- If + past simple (meaning is present), would + infinitive (condicional)
The students have to create their own story (short dialogue); not written, but orally. They have to figure out they have found a magical lamp, and it provides them the powers they want to have. What would they do?
Answer-question (What would you do if you found a magical lamp? If I found a...)
Teamwork
5 minutes for the preparation
After having done these exercises during the first session, I had to explain the modal verbs to the students of the last year of the upper secondary education (2º BACHILLERATO). Nevertheless, there is not much to be added at this point, since I was nearly asked by the teacher to reproduce the explanation of the book. After having read aloud this information the students had in their books, I just had to do the corresponding exercises. Although it wasn’t challenging absolutely, it was very easy for me because the guys had their exams very soon and they payed a lot of attention to my “explanations”. The methodology I was insisted to use was just the oppossite to what we have studied during our period at the University. First, I had to provide all the grammatical rules and later, to do “fill in the gap” exercises, whose value while learning a language is almost “zero”.
Hello everyone! Here I am going to share my notes of what I had done during my practice period in the Séneca S.C.A.:
ResponderEliminarAPRIL, 23
2º B (with Juan Luque)
The first day, the professor made a reviewing of the uses of the quantifiers some/any and how much / how many, helping himself in the explanation with a Power Point presentation. After giving some examples to the students in order to clarify the explained grammar, they were asked to do some fill-in-the gap exercises to apply their acquired information to the practice. Then, the professor asked some of them to check what they had done in front of the class, and he corrected them when they were wrong.
In the last 20 minutes of the class, the students were asked to write some lines about a trip they did in the past, using vocabulary of the environment and describing landscapes. The ones who did not finish it in the class could do it at home, as it was going to be checked in the next session.
As this was my first day and my first class, I just was sat next to my tutor and listening and looking at how he arranged the lesson, taking notes of what he was doing.
1º A (with Nieves Hita)
After the class with Juan, I went to the classroom of 1º A, which was a little bit noisier than the previous one. The group was learning the regular and irregular verbs, and for this, the professor handed out a photocopy with some exercises that consisted on differentiating between the two kinds of verbs, placing them in the correct past form, writing negative sentences with didn’t, asking questions with did, and so on. As this group was a bit restless and some of the students were disturbing the rest of the class, it took too much the performance of the activity.
In the last part of the class, the professor played a dictation on the CD player. It was played four times: the first one, the students were asked just to listen to it; in the second, they had to listen and write what they could identify; the third one, they had to listen to it and check what they had previously written; and the fourth time, they had to listen and write what they had missed in the previous dictations. Although the dictation was played quite a lot of times, not all the students were able to transcribe it, so the professor read it one more time.
2º A (with Charo Ramírez)
In the last hour of my first day, I had a class with the other group of 2º ESO: 2º A. In this last class, the professor explained the past continuous and then made a collective and spontaneous fill-in-the-gap activity with the students. It consisted on that each student had to read a sentence placing the verb in the correct form. As all the students had a mini-laptop, they carried out these activities on them instead of handing out photocopies.
In order that the student did not just turn the verb into past and obviate the meaning of the rest of the sentence, they were also asked to translate it into Spanish, so as they could acquire some extra vocabulary.
APRIL, 24
ResponderEliminar4º B (with Charo Ramírez)
The second day, I began with Charo’s group 4º B. It was the most studious and diligent group of the high school module, and it was very easy to drive the lesson without interruptions.
In the first part of the class, the professor reviewed the uses of the passive voice and solved the doubts that arose among the students. After this explanation, the students checked the homework about this topic in front of the class, and the people that did not have the exercises done – as the previous week they went on an end-of-year cruise – were asked to do them spontaneously. These activities consisted on changing from past to present, singular to plural, negative to affirmative, and vice versa.
1º B (with Nieves Hita)
The two groups of 1º ESO follow the same schedule at the more or less same time, so they were also studying the past simple with the regular and irregular verbs. As this group had the exam of this unit the following Thursday (that was in two days), the professor used this class in order to prepare them for the exam and to make a summarized explanation of the main key points of the grammar. Thus, she explained the past simple, the uses of was/were, the meaning and use of the adverb ago, and the formation of the regular verbs. She handed out the same photocopy of activities that she gave to the students of the other group of 1º ESO and let them do the exercises. Then, she proceeded to the correction of it.
In the last part of the class, she introduced the pronunciation of the -ed suffix, making just two distinctions: that of the words in which the “e” is pronounced as // and that of the words that the “e” is silent.
As it was the first hour of the day, the students were quite calmed down, so the class was much more productive that ones that are after the break.
4º A (with Juan Luque)
Then, in the second hour, I had a new group of 4º ESO. In this group, there was a mixture between 4º ESO and diversification (the latter was composed just of 8 students). The students of diversification were given a photocopy with different activities about the uses of the verb to be. But despite the simplicity of these exercises, much of the students did not do them.
Juan began to explain the different uses of the Conditional I and II, and then, he handed out a photocopy with exercises for a listening. He played the song “If I were a boy” by Beyoncé several times, and the students were asked to do different tasks: to complete the missing words, to order the lines correctly, to place correctly the missing verses, and finally, to write around 50 words about the differences between the chorus and the last part of the song, to build conditional sentences from given simple sentences, and to write sentences in conditional about themselves. Almost all the exercises were checked in class, except the ones of writing, which were handed to the professor and he corrected them personally.
With these tasks, the students put the grammar of the Conditional I and II into practice, as well as developed their listening and writing skills.
APRIL, 25
ResponderEliminar4º B (with Charo Ramírez)
In my second session with the group of 4º B, the professor began to ask about some adjectives related to clothing (such as colorful, plain, tight, baggy, etc.) and the students tried to guess their meaning in Spanish. Then, some of them offered themselves as volunteers to read a text about this topic, and then we started a debate about it. I tried to make them discuss about the importance of clothing in society, asking them questions such as Do you think we should judge people for their clothes? Why / why not? Why do you think it is important for some people wearing expensive clothes? And so on.
After the debate, the professor let me explain the different uses of the quantity adverbs so, such, too, enough and not enough. At the end of the class, Charo gave them some exercises to do at home about the previous explanation.
4º A (with Juan Luque)
This group had an exam, so I just sat next to my tutor and he gave me pieces of advice about how to drive a lesson, how to control a group of students, etc.
The students of diversification were given a photocopy with exercises about the past simple, so some of them began to do it while their classmates where taking the exam.
1º A (with Nieves Hita)
After trying to calm down the students because it was the last hour of the day and they were quite agitated, the professor and I proceeded to check the photocopy of the last day. Thus, some students (randomly chosen by Nieves) read one activity, and I told them why something was wrong or why it was right.
Then, Nieves summarized the grammar of the following day’s exam, and she asked the students to do some exercises on their workbook about was/were, there was / there were, past simple (regular and irregular verbs), and the adverb ago. While the students were doing these activities, I was passing around them solving their doubts and writing on the blackboard the irregular verbs that they did not know.
APRIL, 26
ResponderEliminar4º A (with Juan Luque)
My tutor started the class with the explanation of the passive voice, giving the students the different uses of it in different tenses, as well as the formation of it. He also made a grammatical and semantic distinction between the passive and the active voice.
Then, the students were asked to divide themselves into groups of 4-5 people in order to do some activities of passive in present and past (completing missing information, placing the verb to be in the right form, and turning some active sentences into passive ones). The correction of the photocopy where carried out by some volunteers.
2º B (with Juan Luque)
Juan asked some students to read their writing of the previous lesson about the trip they did, checking their grammar and their vocabulary. Then, he handed out some photocopies about environmental and landscape vocabulary. In the first one, the students were requested to fill some words such as deforestation, pollution, and recycling bin in the correct gaps in order that the sentences made sense. Then, in groups, they had to collect some ideas of possible ways of saving the environment. This activity was put in common to the rest of the class by a spokesman of each group, who read their ideas aloud to the class.
Finally, as there were 10 minutes left, the students were asked to find some words related to landscapes and environment on a word search game.
3º B (with Charo Ramírez)
The group of 3º B was learning the modal verbs, so the professor asked them to do some exercises on their workbook, which were then read by some volunteers and corrected by Charo.
Then, the professor began to ask the students about vocabulary related to school, such as private school, skip a class, director of studies, etc., in order that they guess the meaning of them.
Finally, they were asked to do the review exercises of the end of the unit, as they had an exam about it in the following session. These exercises were checked as the students finish them.
APRIL, 27
ResponderEliminar4º A (with Juan Luque)
The professor played a conversation between some teenagers about text messaging and mobiles phones, and the student had to listen to it while the read the transcription of the listening in the book. Then, some of them were asked randomly to translate the paragraphs of the text. Subsequently, they were requested to do some comprehension activities about the text, which were corrected in the blackboard by me.
3º B (with Charo Ramírez)
The two last hours of this day were taken to celebrate the beginning of the month of May, a month that, as we all know, is full of celebrations and parties here in Córdoba. The celebration began with the reading of poetry from authors of our city by some of the students, followed by a performance of Sevillanas dance by the students of elementary school.
MAY, 2
ResponderEliminar4º B (with Charo Ramírez)
After a long weekend due to the 1st of May (“Labor Day”), we took up the classes again with a review of what was previously explained in the last session: the use of the adverbs so, such, too and enough. After this revision, the students put into practice again their knowledge of this topic with some exercises, which were checked by them and corrected by the professor after some minutes of work.
At the end of the class, they also make some practice exercises of the passive, turning active sentences into passive and vice versa.
4º A (with Juan)
At fifth hour I had class with the other group of 4º ESO. Here, a dictation were played three times and then checked in the blackboard by two students. I was asked by Juan to correct them and to explain the mistakes.
After this, the students were asked to transform the sentences of the dictation from active into passive and vice versa. Two other students went to the blackboard to write their sentences and Juan corrected them as I did with the previous task, explaining why something was wrong.
1º A (with Nieves Hita)
As it was the last hour of the day and the students were again a little bit agitated, the professor asked them to do some exercises on the workbook about regular and irregular verbs. While they were doing them, both Nieves and I were passing around the class solving the doubts that arose among the students.
MAY, 3
ResponderEliminar3º A (with Nieves Hita)
In the first hour of the day, the students were asked to complete some exercises about the conditional I, vocabulary, correction of mistakes in a text, and translations of sentences. Meanwhile, Nieves began to take roll call of the students, asking them to hand the formal letter they had to write the day before at home. Once all the students had handled their letters in, we proceeded to the correction of the activities.
Finally, Nieves taught vocabulary related to film and fiction, and we opened a debate about one’s favorite films, books and genres.
4º A (with Juan Luque)
Juan proceeded to the explanation of the Conditional III in contrast with the I and the II, giving a lot of examples in order that the students could catch the different uses and providing the students with a photocopy where they could see the differences from one kind of conditional to another. Then, they were asked to rewrite some sentences using Conditional III and to match the two halves of a third-conditional sentence. When they were done, two volunteers went to the blackboard to write their answers and I corrected the sentences that were wrong explaining the reason to the rest of the class.
2º B (with Juan Luque)
The previous week Juan had asked me if I would like to make a speaking activity for one of his groups, and I, excited, answered that I would love to prepare it, so he gave me the whole hour with 2º B to carry it out.
As the topic they were studying were the one of quantifiers, I began the lesson making a review of what it had been already explained the previous week, always asking the students about the uses of each quantifier, letting them give the explanation to the rest of the class.
After this brief summary of the grammar, I asked them to form 5 groups and to choose a spokesman who, in this case, was going to play the role of a cook. Then, I handed out a photocopy to each group with a picture of a dish and asked them to make questions to the cook about the quantity of ingredients they would need to prepare that dish. I gave them 20 minutes to do this task, and meanwhile I was passing around solving doubts, spelling them the ingredients they did not know, suggesting some ideas, etc. When they were done, I asked each cook of each group to tell me what they had been discussing (they had to note down full sentences with some/any, how much / how many, much/many and the ingredients they chose) and checked that everything was right.
3º B (with Charo Ramírez)
In this hour, the students took an exam about modal verbs and the school vocabulary that we were seeing in the last session.
MAY, 4
ResponderEliminar3º B (with Charo Ramírez)
As Charo had an appointment with the doctor and she could not attend to the first half of the class, I tried to make the students talk a little in an informal and spontaneous way about what they were going to do during the weekend. Some of them tried to do it, and as they were very interested in me (almost all of them were teenage girls), they began to ask me questions about what I was studying, etc.
When Charo came back, we did a collective reading of a text and then each student was asked to do a 5-line summary.
4º A (with Juan Luque)
Juan handed out an exam to the students of diversification about the present and the past simple. Meanwhile, the rests of the students were asked to do some activities about the Conditional III in order that they did not disturb the classmates that were taking the exam. When they had doubts about any exercise, they came to me and asked me, as Juan was marking some other exams.
MAY, 7
ResponderEliminar2º B (with Juan Luque)
Juan handed out a photocopy with some exercises about a video, which was played three times in order that the students could complete all the activities. These activities consisted of choosing a correct answer from three options, ticking things or situations that appeared on the video, answering some questions about the characters, etc.
When the students had finished completing their activities, Juan and I proceeded to the correction of them, asking some students to read their answers in front of the class in order to share them with their classmates, and correcting them when they were wrong.
1º A (with Nieves Hita)
Again, Nieves asked the students to do some exercises on their workbooks about regular and irregular verbs, and I was passing around solving doubts to the students and writing on the blackboard the irregular verbs that they did not know.
2º A (with Charo Ramírez)
Charo asked some students to read the writing they had to do at home, marking them on her notepad. They had also as homework a reading and some comprehension questions about the text, so some volunteers offer themselves to read their answers to the rest of the class.
Then, they were asked to form groups of 4 people and invent a story about a strange experience using the past simple and past continuous. When they finished, each group read their story, and Charo and I corrected the grammatical mistakes.
MAY, 8
ResponderEliminar4º B (with Charo Ramírez)
This group had an exam in this hour about the passive voice, the adverbs so, such, too and enough, and the vocabulary related to clothes.
1º B (with Nieves Hita)
Nieves made a review of the regular and irregular verbs, as the students would have to take soon an exam of them. They were asked to do some exercises about present and past simple, with regular and irregular verbs. The professor and I were passing around solving doubts.
4º A (with Juan Luque)
With this group, we were reviewing again the 3rd conditional and the passive voice with some exercises of sentence transformation, etc.
3º B (with Charo Ramírez)
Before explaining the conditional to the group of 3º B, the professor wanted the students to play a game in pairs, which consisted on match the first and the second part of the conditional sentences of Murphy’s Law.
After this activity, the Charo explained the formation and the uses of the Conditional I, and handed out a photocopy with some exercises about it (placing the verb in the correct tense).
20/02/12
ResponderEliminar2nd BACHILLERATO (HUMANIDADES)
Today is my first day at the secondary school “Emilio Canalejo Olmeda”. I have been with students of 2nd of Bachillerato. Today students have read a text and then they have translated it at home. Before correcting the translation, they have done a warming up activity, the teacher has asked them if they agree or disagree on some statements. After that, they have done an activity about vocabulary related to false friends. They have some words and they have to choose the correct one.
22/02/12
ResponderEliminar2nd ESO
Today the students have done an exam of irregular verbs. The teacher has prepared it in the following way: she has divided the paper into five columns (infinitive, past simple, past participle and translation) and she has written only some forms of the verb so as they could recognize the verb and then they had to complete all the gaps. After that, the teacher has begun a new unit giving them some vocabulary about the topic of the unit. She has read the words, then she has written them in the blackboard and finally she has given the translation into Spanish. Then they have done a listening activity, they have listened to it three times but there was no time to finish the activity.
PCPI
Today I have been observing how the teacher has carried out the correction of some exercises related to the present perfect tense. The students have to give the solution explaining why they have used present perfect tense. After that they have translated all the sentences. The teacher wrote all the solutions in the tactile blackboard so as they could correct their mistakes.
23/02/12
ResponderEliminar4th ESO B
At the beginning of the class the teacher has corrected some exercises. After that she has done a brief exercise of speaking related to the exercises they had done previously at home. They had to say if they agreed or disagreed in some statements. Despite the exercise was very easy they have not participated at all and only some of them have talked but very little. Then they have done an exercise of pronunciation in which they had to practice the sounds [j] and [dʒ]. Firstly, the teacher has pronounced both sounds and then she has done a listening activity in which the students have listened to the two sounds and to some different words, and finally they had to classify them. The end of the class has been devoted to grammar. The teacher has explained the grammatical rules of the future with “will”. She has explained the use of future tense, writing in the blackboard the uses of it and then she has explained how future is formed.
2nd ESO C
Today they have finished the listening activity and then the teacher has started a new unit. The teacher has read the introductory text in order to make the students get familiarized with the pronunciation and then the students have read it aloud sentence by sentence. After that, she has asked them some questions about the text in order to see if they had comprehended the text. At the end of the class the teacher has allowed me to do an activity with them. First of all I have introduced myself in English but slowly so as they could understand me. Then I have asked them to do an identity card with their names, their ages, the city where they live and their hobbies. Once they have finished their cards they have introduced themselves in front of the class. I have chosen a volunteer to start the game and after that the same student has chosen a classmate to continue the game. The purpose of this activity is to make them feel comfortable with me since I am a “new teacher” and to make them write and speak in a spontaneous way. I have used this game with simple sentences because although the teacher told me that the level of English was a little bit low, I wanted to check if they were able to speak some basic sentences without any difficulty.
24/02/12
ResponderEliminar1st ESO A
In this class I have been observing how the teacher has corrected some exercises done at home previously. Each student has corrected one exercise in the blackboard. After that, the teacher has explained the verb “can/can’t”. She has explained their uses, how it is formed and how it is translated into Spanish giving some examples such as “I can swim”, (yo sé nadar). After that, she has started unit six called “sports for all” by giving some vocabulary related to the topic for example cycling, playing football, playing basketball, athletics, scuba diving, jogging, swimming among other sports. She has read all the words and then she has given the translation into Spanish. Then she has asked them to read all the words for two or three minutes so as to do a game with the words. One student has started the game saying a sport in English and then in Spanish, then the following student had to say his or her classmate’s sport and then choose another one. The goal of the game was to memorize the sports and their meanings in Spanish. After this game I have done an exercise with them, I have asked them to choose a sport and mimic the action in front of all the students so as the rest could guess it. After the game, the teacher has played a listening so as the student could listen to the words in English and then they had to repeat the words. Before finishing the class, the teacher has also provided some grammatical rules related to this topic. She has written in the blackboard the different ways of talking about sports; the use of the verb play with ball sports as in “play football”, the use of the verb go plus –ing as in “swimming” and the use of the verb do to talk about other activities. Finally I have talked a little bit in English with them and I have done a speaking exercise related to the topic they have learnt today. I have written in the blackboard the question “what sports do you do in your free time? In pairs, they had to ask this question to their classmates for two or three minutes and then each couple had to stand up and repeat the game aloud and in front of the class in order to share their answers. The purpose of this activity was to make them speak in English some simple sentences related to a specific theme as “sports”, to check if they have memorized the vocabulary and to check if they have used the basic grammatical rules to talk about sports.
2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES)
ResponderEliminarToday I have corrected the exercises related to the text they had to read at home and that I could not do the first day. Students had to read a text and then they had to translate it at home. After that, they have done an activity about vocabulary related to false friends as the other bachillerato did. After finishing with the exercises I have asked them with a smile and in a spontaneous way “what makes you happy?” in order to activate their knowledge about the following activity. First of all I have explained the students the activities we were going to do. I have chosen this question because it is related to the text they had read before called “Born happy?” Then I have played a video on YouTube: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8XLzqQx478 ) in which they can see some people talking about what makes them happy. After watching the video I have shown them some questions in the tactile blackboard in order to have a kind of guide for the debate. The questions were:
- What makes you happy?
- Do you think that money is the most important thing in life?
- Do you want to improve something of your life? Why?
- Is there anything essential that you don’t have and you need it? Why?
- Are you happy with your life?
- What piece of advice would you give to a person?
Afterwards, the students started to share their opinions speaking in English and even they answered some of the previous questions. I have noticed that they were very interested in trying to communicate what they wanted in the best possible way. I am very satisfied with this activity because my purpose was to practice the skill of speaking, a skill that is not very developed in the class due to the high number of students, the number of hours among other things.
4th ESO A
ResponderEliminarToday I have been as an occasional student in the first part of the class because the teacher has been correcting the translation of a chapter of a book. Both groups have a “reading book” but with a different level of English. First of all, she has read the text and then she has asked them to read some sentences and translate them into Spanish. She has done the same with the diversification group. The second part of the class has been devoted to the debate. I have prepared a power point presentation with images, a video and some vocabulary. First of all I have shown them some words with their images related to the topic such happiness, sadness, smile, cry, fun, tragedy among others. Then I have played a video on YouTube with the purpose of make them think about the topic and try to give critical opinions about it at the end. After the video I have shown them the following questions:
- Do you know how to say “botellón” in English?
- What do people do in it?
- How old are people who do binge-drinking?
- Do you think that binge-drinking has positive or negative aspects?
- Which are the problems of drinking alcohol?
- What are the effects of alcohol?
- Why do teenagers drink alcohol?
- What do you think about people who don’t drink alcohol?
- What can you tell to people who don’t drink?
- Do you recommend them to drink alcohol?
- Do you think that alcohol makes you feel better/ happier…?
The final part of the class has been devoted to the debate with the help of these questions. Some students have tried to answer the questions but they were ashamed of making mistakes. They did not feel secure when they were speaking in English. However, there are other students who do not pay much attention to the activities. Some students of diversification were not able to say a full sentence. They wanted to answer but they could not so they have answered in Spanish. After the debate the students have chosen the following topic for the next debate “Anorexia”.
02/03/12
ResponderEliminar2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES)
Today I have proposed a new activity for my students; I dare to say “my” students because the whole class are very interested in my activities and even in my studies and life. To begin with I have given the details of what we were going to do, the purpose of the activity, the procedure and the time. I have based my activity on the “creating stories technique” in order to practice the skill of writing and also the skill of speaking. It is an individual activity in which the students have had to create a situation based on some values or ideas such as TRUTH, LIE, HAPPINESS, SADNESS, LONELINESS, JEAULOUSY, AMBITION, PEACE, VIOLENCE, FREEDOM, HONESTY, JUSTICE, SUCCESS, FAILURE, HEALTH, PLEASURE, TOLERANCE, and SOLIDARITY… I have written all these values on the tactile blackboard using a power point presentation.
Then they have had to write a “mini-story” (or situation) whose ending was a question, for example, what would you do if you discovered that your best friend lies to you?
After that, I have collected their papers and I have delivered them to other partners. Each student has had to read his mate’s story with the final question and has answered it using Conditional Sentences and Modal Verbs. With this part of the activity they have practiced the skill of speaking since they have read aloud the stories and they have had to use conditional sentences to give their point of views and modal verbs to give solutions to the problems or situations. However, I have realized that there was a problem with this activity. The problem is that each student have a different level of English, so there were some students who couldn’t understand their mates’ stories. They are not used to writing stories spontaneously and they spent a lot of time thinking about what to write. The stories had many mistakes. I should give more specific instructions, for example, write questions based on a value and then answer them using conditional sentences. Almost the entire class has been devoted to the attempt to write their stories since they had many doubts, so we have not had enough time to finish the activity. So for next class I am going to change the activity a little bit, students will work in pairs and they will have to read the stories they have in order to get a global idea of them. After that they will make questions and the rest of students will answer them using conditional sentences and modal verbs.
4th ESO A
ResponderEliminarToday the students have read a new chapter of their books at the beginning of the class and then I have carried out my activity. The topic for the debate has been “anorexia”. I have prepared a power point presentation with some vocabulary as a starting point, something that I consider very important because they are not familiarized with some specific terms. Then I have explained what anorexia is, the symptoms, the problems of it and the possible reasons using simple sentences and many images. Then they have watched two videos on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKzAzeil4SI / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1iWGCTh4QQ&feature=related) and at the end of the presentation I have asked them some questions in order to check if they had understood my explanation and also to make them speak in English.
05/03/12
ResponderEliminar2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES)
Today I have finished the activity of creating stories but taking into account the problem I had the first day. Now students have worked in pairs and they have read the stories they had in order to get a global idea of them. After that they have asked a question to other group using the conditional form and the other group has answered correctly. Finally I will show them the grammar in a power point presentation as a way of revising what they have learnt with their teacher in previous classes. And finally we have done some exercises related to the conditional and to modal verbs and we have corrected together orally, practicing again the skills of reading and speaking.
PCPI
The teacher has corrected some exercises always showing the solutions in the tactile blackboard. Each student has corrected one exercise, reading the sentences in English and then translating them into Spanish. The teacher is always insisting on the correct pronunciation of words making them repeat the words or sentences several times. After that they have done some activities related to the present perfect tense and related to “for and since”. The final activity has been focused on speaking. The teacher has asked them some questions in present perfect tense and they have had to answer orally.
2nd BACHILLERATO (HUMANIDADES)
In this class I have been as an occasional student and I have been observing how the teacher explained the “transformations of sentences”, exercises that all the students find very difficult because they have to take into account many things and all the grammar they have learnt.
06/03/12
ResponderEliminarPCPI
Today the teacher has checked the homework, something that he always does in order to have a control of the students who work every day. Then he has kept on with the correction of exercises explaining the grammar rules at the end of each solution and of course insisting on the pronunciation. Finally the teacher and I have asked them some questions about themselves in English using the present perfect tense.
4th ESO C
The teacher has not come and I have been with the students together with another teacher. I have been helping them with their English homework.
2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES)
Today the students have done an exam, the model of exam that they have to pass if they want to go to the university.
07/03/12
ResponderEliminar2nd ESO
Before correcting the exercises the teacher has revised the grammar that was the negative and interrogative form of the past tense. After that, she has explained the pronunciation of the past tense by means of a listening in which the students have listened to some words. Then they have read a text focusing on the past tense pronunciation and they have also translated it. The teacher has written in the blackboard all the words they did not understand, explaining it in English with other words and then giving the translation. At the end of the class the teacher has shown them a power point presentation with an activity about prepositions of movement (through, down, over, across, up and under). The power point was very colourful, animated and with some pictures. The teacher has used the tactile blackboard in order to make them participate touching the screen and choosing the correct option. If the student was right he or she could pass to the following sentence but if he or she was not right the preposition disappeared and he or she had another chance.
PCPI
Today they have done some exercises from their workbook about past simple and present perfect tenses. They have had to complete the exercises explaining why they have used one tense or another. I have realized that although the level of English is not very high their pronunciation is very good. At the end of the class they have done an activity of vocabulary related to clothes, they have done a word search puzzle. Something that called my attention was how the teacher, while the students were looking for the words, asked them for a word that did not appear in the list. I was very surprised because they thought about it for some time and they tried to find it. The teacher’s purpose was to make them learn a new word and remember it.
08/03/12
ResponderEliminar4th ESO B
Today the students spend all the time doing exercises, resolving their doubts for the exam of use of English.
09/03/12
ResponderEliminar1st ESO
Today they have done writing and listening exam. The first part was about writing, the students had to write a paragraph about the place where they live using the questions to help themselves:
- Where do you live? (Town, village, city, island)
- What’s it like?
- Do you like living there?
The second part was devoted to the listening. The listening was a phone call conversation played three times. After that they had two activities of comprehension, in the first one they had to say if the statements were true or false and in the second one they had to answer some questions. Despite the exam was very easy, they finished quickly because they did not understand anything and even their compositions were bad, some of them only wrote the questions but changing the order.
2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES)
Today I have devoted the class to modal verbs. I have prepared another power point presentation in which I have introduced the main functions of the modal verbs in order to make them remember what they have studied before. Then I have shown them some pictures so as they give a sentence using modal verbs. Sometimes it was a little bit difficult to give a correct answer and all the students were in silence. So the teacher intervened and tried to give hints to them. Then we have done some exercises in class and then we have corrected them together. I have felt very self-confident when they asked me their doubts since they have understood all my explanations.
4th ESO A
They have done an exam of writing and listening. There were two types of exam, one for students of ESO and another one for the class of diversification. The second group has finished the exam quickly because the majority of them did not write at all. After finishing the exam, I have done a listening activity with them. I have chosen a song of the singer Adele. They had to fill the gaps while they were listening to the song.
12/03/12
ResponderEliminar2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES)
Today they have had their vocabulary and listening exam. In the exam of vocabulary they had some words in English and other in Spanish. The listening was divided into three parts, the first one was about answering some questions; the second one was about multiple choice and the third one was a dictation of three sentences. The listening has been played twice.
4th ESO A
Today they have done the exam of use of English in which they have different exercises of grammar and vocabulary.
PCPI
They have spent the whole class doing exercises and solving their doubts for the exam. I have been helping them with their homework.
13/03/12
ResponderEliminarPCPI
They have also spent the whole class doing exercises and solving their doubts for the exam and I have been helping them with their homework.
4th ESO C
I have done the listening activity I did with the other class of 4th ESO. I have also chosen the song of the singer Adele, Someone like you. They had to fill the gaps while they were listening to the song. After that they have read a text from their book; then they have listened to it and then they have translated it.
ACTIVITY OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
The school organized a cultural activity related to the English culture. All the classes of 4th ESO participated in this activity. We went to the “Garnelo theatre” to see an English play called “With a little bit of fun”. I enjoyed a lot because the plot of the play was very funny and the actors were always calling the students’ attention. From my point of view, this play helps the student to see the English language as something good, considering it as an easy language. The actors were native speakers of English, they repeated several times the sentences using mimic to make the students understand better what they were saying. They also asked students to go on the stage and take part of the show. The actors used bright colours and they sang songs but with subtitles so as the students could read the lyrics. What most called my attention was the importance of sounds and music but also the different roles the students had to do with the actors.
14/03/12
ResponderEliminarPCPI
Today they have done their grammar exam based on all the activities they had been doing in class, the majority of them were the same exercises they did in class (filling the gaps, turning present simple sentences into negative and interrogative form and so on)
15/03/12
4th ESO B
Today I have been observing how the teacher corrected some exercises. However, they were not participating, they did not pronounce good and they were always talking. But in the final part of the class I have done an activity with them but before it I have told that if they were not interested in it they could wait outside the class because I did not want people who disturb those who really want to do the activity. I was very shocked when all of them kept quiet and let me carry out my activity. I have also done the activity of filling the gaps in the song of Adele.
16/03/12
ResponderEliminar1st ESO
At the beginning of the class the teacher has corrected some grammar exercises and then I have done a cultural activity with them related to Saint Patrick’s Day. First of all I have asked them about this festivity in order to know if they knew something about it, but only a girl answered. After that I have explained a little bit who Saint Patrick is and why this festivity is celebrated. Then I have delivered a paper with a word search puzzle with some words related to this festivity. Moreover I have written in the blackboard the meaning of each word. The students have had fun with this activity and I think that they have learnt something new.
2nd BACHILLERATO (SCIENCES)
I have also done the cultural activity related to Saint Patrick’s Day. First of all I have explained some information about this festivity. Then I have played a song and I have delivered the lyrics with some gaps. They had a good time because the song was old and slow but for this reason the teacher asked me to play again with the purpose of sing with the students. After that I delivered a piece of paper with a summary of this festivity and also with some gaps to check if they had learnt something.
PCPI
ResponderEliminarThis was my last class with them so we did an activity to practice speaking. These students were very interested in knowing me, so I decided to change the role, they asked me questions and I had to answer. The purpose of this activity was to make them use the grammar they had learnt before since I told them that the questions should be in present tense, past tense, present perfect tense or future tense. After answering some questions each student asked a question to other classmate in order to make the class to answer spontaneously.
4th ESO A
I have also done the cultural activity related to Saint Patrick’s Day. First of all I have explained some information about this festivity. Then I have played a song and I have delivered the lyrics with some gaps.. After that I delivered a piece of paper with a summary of this festivity and also with some gaps to check if they had learnt something. Finally I have delivered a piece of paper with another word search and in pairs they have done the activity.