knye tpd 2016-journal secondary level

TALLER DE PRÁCTICA DOCENTE 2016

Trainee’s Name: Knye, María Isabel

Practicum level: Secondary

Group: 1st year “B”

Date: August 31st, 2016

Observation 1 (80’)

At secondary level students do not line up after the lunch break, when the bell rings they just

go into their classrooms. I waited along with the teacher in charge outside the classroom till

every student was inside. Both of us got into the room and the teacher explained that I was

going to be with them for some time, that in the beginning I was just going to observe the

classes and how they worked and that at a later stage I was going to deliver the lessons

myself.

As they were beginning a new unit: “Your mind”, the teacher started the class with a

breathing activity to put the students in the mood for the topic they were going to deal with,

which was explained to the students once the activity was over. Students had great fun

performing the activity proposed since it included not only breathing, but the need to focus

on different movements as they breathed.

After that, the teacher asked the students to look at a picture for a minute and then give

them another minute to write down as many things as they could remember about the

illustration. Once the time was over, she asked different students to share what they have

written down and later she also asked them what strategies had they used in order to

remember. It was clear that not all of them had applied the same strategies, some of them

just got an idea of the scene and from there onwards they related the situation to their own

experiences; some others used alphabetical order to remember what they saw. It was

obvious that different individuals resort to different ways/strategies to recall information.

To link the previous activity to the following one which was a listening one, the teacher wrote

the following on the board:

“Your brain is a muscle: use it or lose it.”

and allowed students to brainstorm as many ideas about the meaning of this title. After that,

she played the recording and ask the kids to check if any of the things they have mentioned

and that were written on the board were mentioned in the recording. She then went on to a

True or False activity based on the same recording.

Finally, the teacher introduced determiners through a reading text about the brain on the

book and asked students to locate as many as possible and then assigned some homework

from the book.

The most important things that I observed during this first class was that although most of

the group uses the L2 most of the time, there was a small group of boys who were speaking

Spanish at all times and didn’t follow the class, they were just misbehaving and mocking at

others. The other one was that the teacher worked only on the book and that students didn’t

have any notes to resort to if they needed to revise the grammar they had been introduced

to and that there was little practice, just one or two exercises which were in the student’s

book.

I know this won’t be easy because this group of students are just used to work on their

books so they might resist my teaching style; but I’ll quote Seneca:

“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”




Date: September 2nd, 2016


This second class the teacher started the class by asking questions in which students were

supposed to answer using determiners (which I have always known as indefinite

compounds, such as somebody, no one / nobody, anything, nowhere, etc.). As students

came up with different sentences she wrote them on the board so that they could recall the

when they are used, for instance, affirmative statements, negative statements and

questions.

After having done this, homework was is checked by having students read the answers they

had have given to the activities in their books. What I noticed was that not every student had

done their homework so they just copied what their classmates said out loud or they didn’t

even check what they had written. As I moved around I could see that they ticked the

sentences as if they were OK although they were wrong.

A reflection about this. Why will we give homework to our students if we are not going to

make sure that their work is well done? I understand that the teacher cannot take every

student’s book home in order to check them, but she could have asked them to pass their

answers to a separate sheet of paper.

I keep on thinking about how much emphasis you put on our transition words in order to link

one activity to the next one, but that is something I haven’t seen in this class, specifically.

Once the homework had been checked orally, the teacher went on to introduce other words

related to thinking, such as consider, believe, remember, etc. She did so by saying the

words and asked the students what those verbs meant. She accepted their explanations

and then sent them to the book and asked them to complete a matching activity in which

they were supposed to join the verbs with the correct definition. This was, after some

minutes, checked orally and in my opinion without paying attention to the work done by

those students who don’t usually work, but just copy from their partner’s.

This activity was followed by a listening activity about “Multiple intelligences”. The students

were very interested in the idea of having different kinds of intelligences, but the activity was

just to match what it was said to some pictures depicting the intelligences, such as two

teenagers talking to each other to show interpersonal intelligence, someone working on

his/her own to show intrapersonal intelligence and so on. I thought the topic was of great

interest to the kids and that it could have been exploited further.

The best part of the class was the closure activity in which students were asked to perform

different types of tests in order to find out what kind of intelligence was their main one.

For example, in one of the tests that were to be carried out in pairs, each student had to

write 10 numbers on a piece of paper and then show those numbers to their partner for a

minute after which they had to write as many as they could remember. In the second one,

Comentario [1]: Right!

Comentario [2]: Corrected

Comentario [3]: How could this

procedure be improved?

Comentario [4]: Students could

exchange books and check their classmates work although there's still a chance that they tick as right what it is

not if sts. are not really paying attention.

Comentario [5]: One possibility. :)

Comentario [6]: Was all this interconnected and contextualised? Were students really engaged?

Comentario [7]: They were verbs connected to thinking since the whole unit was about the brain and ways in

which we learn, remember things, and intelligences.

Comentario [8]: Yes!!!

students had to choose ten numbers again but this time, instead of showing them to each

other they had to say them out loud and then allow their partner time to write the ones

he/she remembered on a piece of paper. There was a third one but the bell rang and

students couldn’t do it. While doing this activity, students got really engaged and also used

their English at all times.

As a conclusion, I could see that students get engaged in activities in which they have to

work in pairs purposefully; in other words, when they can relate what they are doing to

themselves.

My reflection this time is:




Date: September 7th, 2016


As students were quiet and sitting at their desks, both the teacher and myself got into the

classroom and greet the students. There was a little small talk and the teacher started the

lesson. She brought back the theme of multiple intelligences by showing the students a

picture of Leonardo da Vinci and asking them what type(s) of intelligence(s) da Vinci had.

The kids knew a lot about da Vinci’s abilities; for instance, they mentioned his paintings, his

drawings, his logical-mathematical mind which helped him to design incredible machines

that were absolutely advanced for this time. After having talked for some minutes about the

topic, the teacher proceeded to show students a very short excerpt of something written by

Leonardo which clearly showed mirror writing. This fact called students attention a lot, they

couldn’t believe that someone that was so brilliant at other things couldn’t write correctly.

Every student had a comment to share and they did so in English.

Comentario [9]: Great! Good

observation!

Comentario [10]: Interesting! Why

did you choose it?

Comentario [11]: Because I really

think that being a good teacher implies so many things. You need to be knowledgeable, kind, patient,

empathetic, strict, etc. I hope you understand what I mean.

Comentario [12]: I have added the journal corresponding to the third observation.

Then, the teacher reminded the students about the tests they had worked on the previous

class and explained a last test for them to carry out. This time, students had to choose 10

numbers and draw them with their fingers on their partners palm. After that, they had some

time to write down the numbers they had felt being drawn on their hands.

Once students had finished, the teacher posed some questions for them to discuss, such as

in which of the tests they had got better results, if the one in which they had looked at the

numbers, the one in which they had listened to the numbers or the one in which they had felt

the numbers on the palm of their hands and what conclusions they could draw from there.

Students were given some time to discuss the questions in groups of four and at a later

stage they were asked to report back the way each of them learn the best according to what

they had debated.

This first part of the class was of great interest to the students. It was very easy to see they

were really engaged with the topic and I think that it was because they could see that all of

them had different intelligences and thus different ways of learning and that made them feel

good.

At this point, the teacher told the students: “I’m sorry, but we must move on the a different

topic. As you all know, we have to finish some more topics before the end of the year. We

don’t have to complete the whole book, but we need to get as far as possible.” There was

a little fuzz at this moment in which students started speaking Spanish. The teacher took

advantage of the situation to tell the kids: “Remember you mustn’t speak Spanish during

the class.” As it was obvious, the new topic was modal verbs for obligation or strong advice,

prohibition and lack of necessity, but she didn’t mention it; she just used the vocabulary.

She told the students that they were going to read a letter from a problem page, that they

were going to work in pairs to read it and decide what the problem was and once they had

spotted it, they had to discuss what piece of advice they would give to the writer and write

down some notes. She handed out copies of the letter to every student, made sure they had

understood what they were supposed to do and set them to work in pairs. She gave the

students 15 minutes to spot the problem and think what advice they would give “Lisa”. Once

time was over, the students were asked to turn around and compare their suggestions with

other pairs. By the time they had finished discussing, the bell rang and learners were asked

to save their notes for the following class in which they would be able to share their answers

with the rest of the class and dismissed the class.

I thought this quotation would suit the topic dealt with and our ability as teachers as well.






As this was my last observation class, the teacher asked me to help her during the class so

that I could have more interaction with the students. After getting into the classroom and

having gone through her usual routine, she projected the problem page on the IWB. She

asked the students to read the different paragraphs and went on to ask the groups that had

worked together the previous class to share what they thought the problem was and what

piece of advice they would give the girl. Every group was eager to participate and share

their ideas. It was clear to me that students could see themselves reflected in the situation

because of their conclusion and the debate which followed between the different groups. It

was also obvious that they had related the problem to multiple intelligences as they started

talking about what subject they enjoyed most and wondered why they should be good at

every one of them. They also said that parents wanted them to be good at everything and

that it wasn’t fair. I could observe that most of the students were speaking in the L2 except

for three or four of them that were speaking to each other in Spanish and not about the topic

being dealt with.

Once the kids had calmed down, because they had got very excited, Miss Marta asked me

what advice I would give Lisa with regard to her dilemma. What I did was to share with the

students what my attitude had been towards this situation with my own son, that I had

always told him that he didn’t have to be the best, but that he had to give his best at

everything he did. Since nobody can excel at all they do, we must try to do our best.

Students made me a lot of questions about my son and what kind of student he was. Kids

love when teachers share personal experiences with them; I think that we become ordinary

human beings to them not only teachers.

Comentario [13]: Great quote,

Marisa! Your detailed account of the lesson is very telling!

After a while, using the IWB, the teacher underlined the sentence “My dad says I must try

harder” and circled the word must. Then she asked the students to find other words in the

text which were used to express what advice Lisa’s parents gave her and what the girl said

about her brother. Different students approached the IWB and underlined other parts of the

text. The teacher kept asking the rest of the class if they agreed on what had been marked

and, if not, who could correct it. When every related word was correctly marked, she went

on to ask students what those words meant and when they used them - she wanted to elicit

students’ previous knowledge. Finally, she asked students what the difference between

mustn’t and don’t have to was taking the context into account.

Students were, then, asked to open their folders and to copy the sentences that were

underlined on the IWB and then complete a rule she copied on the board leaving blanks for

them to complete with must/mustn’t and don’t have to. As soon as the students had

finished, the rule was checked orally and they were assigned some written exercises in the

book to practise the use of the modal verbs they had been working on. Once the exercises

were again checked orally, the teacher asked the students to work in groups of four and

write a short letter to Lisa offering their advice.

After the 15 minutes assigned, different groups read their production and the the teacher

projected two sample answers on the IWB and asked students to improve their production if

they thought it needed to be improved and to hand them in to be checked and marked.

By the time students had finished, the bell rang and before they left for recess, Miss Marta

told them that I was going to be teaching the next 6 classes. They said good bye and

hurriedly left.

I thought this was a great class because the students participated a lot and shared their

ideas and experiences.





Class 1 (80’)

Section 1: Describing the lesson as it unfolds

4. What aspects of the lesson do you consider successful?

On the whole, I consider all of the lesson was successful because the students were really

engaged with the topic. They wanted to participate speaking about their personal

experiences as I shared with them my own regarding the topic being dealt with, which was

“Music”. As we started talking about music and music makers, students were able to relate it

to the previous topic they had been working on, that of multiple intelligences, one of them

being “musical intelligence”.

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

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

it was important.

In order to introduce the topic of Music Makers, I prepared a PowerPoint presentation to tell

my brother’s story and his love for music. As I started telling the students the way he had

developed as a musician I felt that I had every student’s attention. They were very

interested in knowing what I had to share with them and showed it to me by following me

with their eyes and asking follow-up questions as I added information. I have always thought

that there’s no better way to catch student’s attention than sharing life experiences because

they feel that you are letting them in your own life and in return they are willing to share their

own ones which is the best way to make them speak about themselves. We always need to

bear in mind that communication is the main goal when learning a foreign language.




Date: October 7th, 2016

Class 6 (80’)

Comentario [14]: That's great!

Comentario [15]: ;)

Comentario [16]: If we go beyond,

we can refer to the effects that those exchanges have on our lives. You made communication meaningful by

talking about your brother. =)


6. What do you find useful of this lesson that will help you plan the next one?

Although I will not plan any other lesson for this group since this was the last one, this class

showed me how useful games are to get students to use the language being worked with so

that they don’t feel they are working with a grammar. Given a purpose the students enjoyed

playing while they were using the L2 but in a meaningful and fun way. In conclusion, I’ll

make sure that I include more games in my classes as a way of wrapping them up.


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

say why it was important.

From what I could observe, the whole lesson was important for the students since they were

able to share the type of music they like to listen to while playing different games in which

they used the Present Perfect Simple and Continuous in order to win. The first game was

played in pair, students were provided with two grids, one in which they had to place their

ships and another one in which they marked what they had hit from their partner’s ships.

The second game was a board game and they discussed among the members of the group

is the answer was right or wrong, in case they did not come to an agreement they would

resort to me. The game was a kind of “snake and ladder”. They had a lot of fun and used

not only the L2, but also the grammar points.

Section 3: Interpreting the lesson in words and images

11. Choose a quotation that represents an insight in this lesson.

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”

And the teacher as well. My Secondary Practicum period has been of great importance to

me. It has enriched my teaching practice and has showed me that I must relax a bit when

I’m in the classroom. Students are like sponges, the thing is to find the correct way to get to

them and get them involved with their learning process, and this could be done through

games and plenty of other activities which are meaningful to them and of their interest. I

have been very lucky with the topic I had to work with because music interests almost

everybody although it can be different types of music.

Let me share with you a final photo with the group of students I worked with.


11. Include a photo of a moment in the lesson or task students did and describe it.

Comentario [17]: Same thing. This is the last sentence in your journal and I

cannot see any photo below... Don't worry. I will check the rest of the entry asap.

Comentario [18]: Thanks El 23/11/2016 12:09, "Cecilia

Zemborain (Google Drive)" <

At this stage of the lesson, students were working in pairs and discussing the answers to

some questions they had been asked to answer. As it can be seen in the photo, students

were involved in the task while using the L2 and putting into practice the strategies of

scanning, supporting choices, analizing and elaborating which were the aim of the activity

since they had completed other activities and at this point they were quite familiar with the

text.





Class 2 (80’)


3. How did the students react to the lesson?

This second class, using the same text we had already worked on the previous one, on

which they had done a listening activity and also answered some questions, was focused on

grammar: Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous. However, the approch

was different from the one students were used to. I did not start with explanations, on the

contrary, I wanted the students to find the tenses and explain why they were used in different

parts of the text what I wanted was that they inferred the meaning; of course I guided them

through the different stages and wrote their answers on the board. Once they had come up

with the correct answers and understood the differences in meaning, I made them copy what

they had inferred in their folders. This way I came to learn that they didn’t have a folder for

Use of English, which in first year secondary, when students are still dependant on notes to

refer to in case they need it, they had nothing but the book chart with very little information to

go back to. Students were kind of reluctant to my teaching approach.

Comentario [19]: They look engaged!


8. Choose a moment that was imprtant for the students during the lesson. Secribeit and say

why it was important.

Altohugh grammar lessons are not the most exciting ones for students, I think it was

important for them to realize that they could come up with the answers regarding meaning of

tenses. Based on the sentences students extracted from the text and using the context,

learners were able to infer the meaning of both Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect

Continuous despite some difficulties. For what I could observed, students were very pleased

with their answers and to realize that they didn’t need an explanation from the teacher in

order to get the meaning. They got a sense of achievement and noticed that by analysing

the situations everything was clear enough for them to be able to use the correct tenses

according to what they want to express.


10. Choose a quotation that represents an insight to this lesson.

I’ve chosen this Hellen Keller’s quotation since I truly believe it can be applied not only to the

students, but to myself as a teacher. If students are optimistic and self-confident they are

able to achieve everything they want to. With regard to myself, I have never lose hope or

self-confidence, which in the end will lead to get my degree as a teacher of English for which

I have struggled so much.

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence”. Helen Keller





Class 3 (80’)


4. What aspects of the lesson do you consider successful?

Once students had figuered out the differences between ongoing and completed actions by

watching a PowerPoint presentation and to close the lesson, they were provided with a

board and a dice so that they could play a game related to both tenses.

In order to win the game, they had to use both of the tenses they had worked with including

for and since. As they were having fun, they did not realize they were practicing grammar

and the was because there was a purpose behind, it was meaningful to them. They all

wanted to win the game,

Section 2: Making sense of the lesson through relevant lived expeirences.



As a warm-up for this lesson I chose an anctivity which consisted on a sentence that I wrote

on the board and which students had to change in order to express their own opinions,

feelings or reality and once they had changed it they read it out loud.

The original sentence was:

“I’ve been teaching this wonderful language for nearly two years now.”

So as to be clear about what they were supposed to do I changed it first so that it fit my own

reality and the sentence became:

“I’ve been teaching this wonderful language for nearly 25 years now.”

By the time all of the students had gone to the board the sentence ended up expressing how

long students had been playing a sport or learning how to play a musical instrument. As

they changed different words they practiced using the structure, but what’s more important

they related it to their own life experiences.

Section 3: Interpreting the lesson in words or images


“Language is best taught when it is being used to transmit messages, not when it is explicitly taught for conscious learning.” ― Stephen D. Krashen, The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom

I couldn’t have thought of a better quotation than this of Krashen since it summarises what

my feelings were about this lesson in particular.





Class 4 (80’)


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

they react to the lesson?

To reintroduce the topic of music, I took some extracts of music from the Beatles which they

enjoyed a lot. All of them new who the members of the group were although they are very

young as so are their parents. After that they went on to a pair work activity in which they

had to communicate in order to get missing information about Paul McCartney. I’m

including a photo of a moment in which can be seen that they were all working and using the

L2 in order to get what they needed from their partner.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/396881.Stephen_D_Krashen

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/735848

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/735848

Also, in this lesson they listened to different types of music and had the opportunity to

mention the ones they enjoy listening to. The activities in this class were mainly speaking to

their partners and share their knowledge of the topic. The students really enjoyed the lesson.



it was important.

It is difficult at times to divide the lesson into sections since they are so interrelated. To me,

it was very important to see how engaged the students were with the activities proposed.

They were eager to participate and the noise made by all of the students speaking to each

other was music to my ears. It is amazing to notice that humanizing the book a bit in order

to fit the students interests can make a world of a difference.


“I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music.” Billy Joel http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_music.html

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_music.html

I chose this quotation since I think that the reason why students enjoyed the lesson so much

is because everyone is touched by music in one way or another, so speaking about it makes

us express our feelings and emotions.





Class 5 (80’)


2. What strategies did you use? Which ones were effective?

During the video activity to reinforce the use of the Present Perfect Simple and the Present

Perfect Continuous, mainly, I explained what I wanted them to pay attention to and what they

were going to revise. Then I told them what they needed to be able to do and finally I used

elicitation to make sure they had understood what they were supposed to do. And of course,

they were paired up so that they helped each other with the proposed activity which was

different from anything they had previously done. Because of the questions that follow I

should say that it was not clear for them what they were supposed to do, so I guess I must

improve my ability to make sure that students hav understood the task they are about to do.

On the other hand, the possibility of working in pair to consult with each other made them

feel confident and that was an effective strategy.



it was important.

As students started working in the video activity, they found it interesting because it was

differrent. However, they had some trouble completing the tasks they were asked to do.

What I considered important of this situation is that they did not hesitate to ask for my help

and I think I was supportive and provided them with hints so that they could complete the

task. At the beginning students were working individually instead of in pairs and that is

because they were not used to being allowed to work that way. Their work with the teacher

in charge was mainly individual except for the moment to check their productions.


As students realized it was easier to work in pairs, they were able to complete the taks with

less difficulty. And as for me, I also learned that making myself available for my students I

gained their trust and helped them become more self-confident.





Class 6 (80’)


6. What do you find useful of this lesson that will help you plan the next one?

Although I will not plan any other lesson for this group since this was the last one, this class

showed me how useful games are to get students to use the language being worked with so

that they don’t feel they are working with a grammar. Given a purpose the students enjoyed

playing while they were using the L2 but in a meaningful and fun way. In conclusion, I’ll

make sure that I include more games in my classes as a way of wrapping them up.




From what I could observe, the whole lesson was important for the students since they were

able to share the type of music they like to listen to while playing different games in which

they used the Present Perfect Simple and Continuous in order to win. The first game was

played in pair, students were provided with two grids, one in which they had to place their

ships and another one in which they marked what they had hit from their partner’s ships.

The second game was a board game and they discussed among the memebers of the group

is the answer was right or wrong, in case they did not come to an agreement theywould

resort to me. The game was a kind of “snake and ladder”. They had a lot of fun and used

not only the L2, but also the grammar points.



“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”

And the teacher as well. My Secondary Practicum period has been of great importance to

me. It has enriched my teaching practice and has showed me that I must relax a bit when

I’m in the classroom. Students are like sponges, the thing is to find the correct way to get to

them and get them involved with their learning process, and this could be done through

games and plenty of other activities which are meaningful to them and of their interest. I

have been very lucky with the topic I had to work with because music interests almost

everybody although it can be different types of music.

Let me share with you a final photo with the group of students I worked with.

Comentario [20]: Dear Marisa

You have worked really hard to achieve your goals! It has been a pleasure to read your journals, to observe the

photos you have shared which are very telling. =) You may now upload this journal to the

campus and to your blog. Best Cecilia

Comentario [21]: Thanks Cecilia

knye tpd 2016-journal secondary level

Education