THIRD PERIOD -- ENGLISH ACCESS

First class – Monday, October 26^th, 2015   

In this class, I started late because teachers and students move to the building F, so I started at 3:15 pm. Moreover, the classroom was so short, and there was not enough space for moving because this access group has 21 students. I started the class with a warm-up; then, I gave them a reading about healthy food; students read the reading, and then discuss it, and as last step, they answered some questions about it. In addition, I developed the grammar explanation and involved all the students. After that, I developed a fill in the blanks activities. To conclude, I develop a wrap-up where students made and answered some questions using the structure taught.   

Interpretation

Students learn better when they are part of the learning process. Therefore, we as a teacher have to involve all the students in the activities. In addition, this technique increases the rapport in the classroom. In this section, they ask a lot about new vocabulary and many things that come to their minds at the moment, so it proves how much we know about basic vocabulary, however, nobody knows all the words (we are not dictionaries) that the English language has.

Generalize

Based on what already know about monitoring activities, I think this is a really useful technique not only help students, but also teachers because they can notice in which part of the activity students are having problems; moreover, after giving directions, the teachers have to do a CCQ in order to be sure that all of them understood the activity.

PLAN ACTION

For future classes, I am going to plan better the warm-ups because in this class, it took a lot of time maybe more than 12 minutes, and I know that it was not good. Moreover, I will continue using visual aids, for it makes the class more interesting.   

Class Description

Third class – Friday, September 25^th, 2015

As previous classes, I wrote the date, the objective and the agenda. In this class the teacher came late; however, I started the class without her developing the warm-up inside the classroom because the weather was rainy. After the warm-up, I showed students some power point presentations about beauty and appearance; then, the students discussed about the images, and share their opinions with the whole class. The next activity was a board game where students practiced about quantifiers; it took some time. After that, I developed a wrap- up, and it was a role play; students performed the situations that I gave them, and they did it better than my expectations because they lived their characters.

I think that to create a good rapport with the students is really important and useful because they enjoy the class, and have the enough confidence to ask; moreover, the teacher has to create activities where students feel identified in the context, that is an extra motivation for them, for  they perceive the information that teacher provides them is meaningful.

Based on what I already know about monitoring activities, I think that our duty as teachers is to supervise the work of the students, and at the same time we are sending a message that they are important for us because if we take care of them in the class, we will realize about students’ progress.

For future classes, I will use digital visual aids because it is cheaper than printed visual aids; in addition, I will use role-plays because it is a good way to know the progress of the students in the area of speaking.

Class Description

Second class – Friday, September 18^th, 2015

During the first minutes, students came to the classroom and seated in traditional way because the classroom did not allowed another way because it is too short. I developed a warm-up outside of the classroom in the basketball field; students made two rows and competed to each other, so they enjoyed that activity; after that, we came back to the classroom and started to work in the activities, for this class I developed only practices. I included controlled, semi-controlled and free activities; the first activity was an unscramble focus in the topic “third type conditional”, so they did very fast and perfectly; then, in the second activity, I gave them some cards  situations, and they solved those situations very fast, and as every activity, I checked the answers with the whole group. The third activity was a role-play, and they performed it with a lot of creativity as real actors. To conclude my class, I did a wrap-up about some famous inventors using the third type conditional obviously.

I think that students have to know about unreal situations in the past is really important because they also could analysesome choices that they did; moreover, they acquired some new words about money matters; it is useful for them, for they could learn some tips how to save money.

Based on what already know about learning process, I think that using visual aids in the classroom is very useful and important for the learning process; for this class I used many colorful pictures in order to explain something about money matters, and the students expressed their opinions about the pictures. They really enjoyed learning through seeing some material.

For future classes, I am going to continue using visual aids as poster, charts, and drawings because students learn better when they use their senses as sight, hearing, and touching. Moreover, I have to prepare activities related to my future student’s age; it is another very important point.

Second period class description

First class – Wednesday, September 9^th, 2015

This is my second practice in English Access, but my first time with advanced students in this modality. I had many expectations about this group of students, and I was right they were awesome because they loved English. I started my first class by writing the agenda, objective and date; then, I developed a warm-up where students had to go out of the classroom and look for some verbs around the building the winner was the person who got more verbs. I gave them a reading where students had to read, and underline this structure “will + have + v3”, then they answered three questions about the reading; I performed the grammar explanation about “future perfect” and wrote the structure and some examples on the board; in addition, I made the line time and explained to them when the future perfect occurred using the line time. As activities, I developed a fill in the blanks where students did it very fast, and I check the answers with the whole class; moreover, as a wrap-up, students wrote and expressed what will they have done before 2020?

I think that in the grammar explanation is very important to bring many examples about the new grammar structure that they are learning; moreover, as teachers, we have to be innovators; for example, I could realize that they really enjoy when I pasted the red cord as a line time on the board. I think that this strategy helped them to understand the topic faster          than only write or say something.

Based on what I already know about teaching, monitor every activity that we as teachers developed was really important in order to encourage them to ask any doubt that they could have. About the seating arrangement, students were seating in the traditional way because the classroom was too short, and they were 26 students.

For my future classes, I will try to develop only kinaesthetic warm-ups, for students enjoy working in this kind of activities: furthermore, I will use more colourful pictures and visual aids. 

Third class – English Access Program

Class 3 – Wednesday, August 19^th, 2015

Description

My last class in this period was in another group because I had some problems with the schedule, so I had to teach there with intermediate students in the English access program as well. The classroom was a little bigger than where I taught my previous classes: in addition, the seating arrangement was different; they were seating in a semi-circle, and it was nice because I had a better sight of the group. I started the class with a warm-up where the students had to unscramble some sentences in present perfect tense, and they worked in groups of four. After that, I taught the present perfect tense in interrogative form by writing on the board the structure of the questions. As a surprise, I noticed that they understood very fast, so I did not spend time in the grammar explanation; then, I develop a fill in the blanks activity where they worked individual. In addition, I developed a very nice activity called FIND SOMEONE WHO; the students had to stand up and ask some question to their classmate, and I finished the class with a wrap-up where they had to make some questions.

Interpret

I noticed that grammar phase is very important to establish the bases of a topic; moreover, I could see that the attitude of the teacher influences a lot in the students because they perceive when the teacher enjoys teaching, and it motivates them to learn.

Generalize

Body language is very important to communicate when the words do not work. In this class, it helped me too much because I used it for giving directions; moreover, students liked to guess what I wanted to say. In addition, this group liked to participate and ask as much as possible because they wanted to clarify all their doubts, and I liked that because the duty of all teachers is to clarify their doubts.

Plan action

For future classes, I will try to use more funny and significant activities because students like to learn while they are playing; moreover, I will use more visual aids and any other resources as magazines, newspapers, and I will try to be more enthusiastic in my classes.

My second class

Second class – English Access Program

Class 2 – Monday, August 10^th, 2015

Description

This is my second class in the English Access Program and I had good expectations about the class. I started the class with a kinesthetic warm up; therefore, I developed it in the soccer field, and students enjoyed being outside running and making sentences using adjectives in the superlative form. After the warm-up, we came back to the classroom, and the seating arrangement was as the first class in rows in front to the board. I developed the first semi-controlled activity; the students had to answer some questions using the superlative form of the adjectives that were in the questions; in addition, I checked the activity by asking to some students. For this second class I used more visual aids; for example, I prepared a matching activity where the students had to match an adjective with a picture and make a sentence using both things. I could notice that they enjoyed that activity because many people wanted to participate. Moreover, I developed a wrap-up as last activity. As the first class, students participated in all the activities and the rapport was better than the first class because I perceived more confidence to each other. In addition, I managed the time perfectly because I finish all the activities at 5:00 pm and felt less nervousness than the first class. As last point, the students asked me a lot of questions in order to clarify their doubts, and I really liked the interest that they showed for learning.

Interpret

In this second class, I could notice that students really enjoy the warm-up because it demanded a lot of movements, but I spent a little more time; in addition, I realized that visual aids are a very good methodology in order to encourage students to learn; however, it was necessary to support them with examples and body language, so it means that we as teachers have to use all the resources that we have in order to improve the learning process.

Generalize 

To give clear directions to students is really important because it makes the teachers’ life easier. Some advantages of giving clear directions are students ask less, work faster and save time. In addition, if students do not understand the directions orally, teacher can write them on the board or he can use body language for supporting the explanation, but the best way is to show them some examples about the activity.

Plan action

For future classes, I ‘m going to provide some examples for every activity; moreover, I am going to use more visual aids in order to increase the students’ learning, and I am going to write some rules on the board before starting the class; it will help me to control them better.

FIRST CLASS

Firs class – English Acces Program.

Class 1 – Monday, July 27^th, 2015

Description

This is my first class of the semester and my first experience in English Access Program. I could notice the pretty short classroom, the warm weather and 21 students waiting for the class; however, I saw the students with a good attitude toward the class; in addition, they were seating in rows in front of the board because the space did not allow other seating arrangement; I prepared some identifications for every students in order to know their names; moreover, it helped me to create a good rapport with them, and I developed a warm up activity about thing that they should do for living a healthy life. After that, I also did some semi-controlled activities based on the modals should and could.

They participated in all the activities that I developed and did a really good job; I think that I could fulfill my objective because they wanted to learn more about English. In addition, I could manage the time perfectly because I finished at 5 o’clock; also, I finished with all the activities that I prepared for them.

In summary, I felt a little nervous at the beginning of the class; after that, I really enjoyed the class because they asked many things in order to fill all the doubts, and it is the way that students should be in all the classes.

Interpret

The most common problems practitioners face as new teachers is that they have to keep the group of students’ attention in the lesson because of their age they can easily distract themselves by speaking with other students. Another problem that practitioners face is how to manage the time; it is sometimes common because something that they don’t expect can happen; for example, students do not understand the topic very well and the teacher has to reinforce the topic. It demands time that is out of their plan.  

Generalize

Based on what I already know about teaching, teachers must prepare material related to the topic, and that material has to fulfill the students’ needs; on the other hand, the material has to make the learning process easier for the students in order to they clarify all the doubts about the topic. Furthermore, based on what I observer, the students in English Access are always ready for learning new things about English, and they show their interest by asking, working, participating. As last point, I am sure that visual aids and active activities help students to learn better.

Plan actions

In future lessons, I will develop more interactive activities, and group activities: moreover, for the next class, I am going to develop a warm-up activity outside the classroom; I will make more visual aids because the learning is better when students work their senses; for example,  the sight, the hearing and touch. In addition, I will try to make the passive students participate more frequently.