Hello, there!
Here is the final assigment. It includes the lesson planning for the last eight hours of teaching practice:
This is the material used during classes:
Advanced Course in Secondary English Teaching (UNEFM- NatashAlgu)
miércoles, 10 de febrero de 2016
domingo, 15 de noviembre de 2015
Case study
In my case, it’s really hard to help a student
throughout a complete year, or even a complete semester, since university
students tend to focus only a small percentage of their time for each subject,
and the rest to the vast amount of personal responsibilities they are likely to
have. Case in hand: summer classes.
It is not the first time that I have taught
such classes, and the contrast with regular classes is unparalleled. In summer
classes, students apply themselves in the subject more actively and are more involved
in their education. On the other hand, in regular classes, students barely
speak during the lessons, neither they investigate nor check out the digital
information given to them.
What I did in summer classes was to give
students 2 or 3 classes mostly teacher centred, being bestowed more responsibilities
to the students with each class. This helped me to familiarize myself with the
students and to introduce them into the content and kind of activities they
were expected to perform in the subject. For this part, I asked them to
investigate the content of the lesson beforehand, then I would bring them a
game for promoting discussion (for example, the “Who wants to be a millionaire?”
game). Then I asked them to bring an activity with different contents to develop
in a couple of lessons (I decide on a topic related to teaching the macro
skills); this granted them the confidence to design, plan and apply the
activities; and it worked as a practice for the future classes.
On the last 8 sessions (they were 13 sessions
in total), students were in charge of presenting the content of the lessons,
providing examples and modelling the activities for their partners. My role as
a teacher was only of moderator of the discussions and fulfilling any gap in the
information provided by the students; also providing with feedback, which was
mostly focused on the positive aspects, providing an equilibrium with the stuff
they should consider for improving. Students were even in charge of appraising
their peers in the last 3 sessions.
I provided them since the beginning of the
semester with the instruments used for assessing their performances, therefore they
knew the aspects evaluated, and were confident enough for doing this, especially
since I asked them to specify first their experience with feedback and
evaluation and to compare it with the feedback provided by me through the
course of the semester. They did it wonderfully, reinforcing the positive traits
of their partners and underlying how to improve their weaknesses through their strengths.
I must say that I was quite happy how that groups turned out. I hope they
continue learning and advancing as fantastically as they did in the summer.
sábado, 24 de octubre de 2015
Second task work
In Special
Didactics, there is content related to lesson planning. For doing the review of
the material, I decided, instead of the common debate, to play a version of “Who
wants to be a millionaire”. This activity is a combination of several
workshops, since it involves promoting reading and therefore checking their
comprehension through oral discussions with the rest of the class; and I think
I also applied some stuff about motivating and awarding students for their
achievements as well. It was planned a couple of weeks beforehand, since I
needed to recollect the reading material and check it out before assigning it.
And so, I gave the links to my students a week before applying the activity. I told
them to read the material and any other text they had related to lesson planning,
since we were going to discuss it in class the following week.
I prepare the
questions and I used a template found on the web from a teacher’s website, and
adapt the instructions given. The main change were the prizes given: For every
five correct answers, students were treated with a 5% extra points from the
total of the grade obtained in any evaluation of their choosing; then 10% for
the next five correct answers; and finally 15% for the final 5 correct answers.
The prices had expiration dates, just for the sake of it, since I only have my
students for a semester; I guess High School teachers should actually mark them
with expiration dates because they have their students for a longer period.
It did not go
so well, since students failed to answer the first question correctly, and
therefore lost all their prices. However, we continue to play anyway, just
because they got caught in the format of the game. They still lost big time
(only a total of 3 correct answers; the students later confided me that, even
though they got the links and the information, they didn’t read them
completely, if nothing at all. The positive outcome of this was that they later
started looking and reading the information beforehand and participating
For later
applications, I would like to change the order of the questions and maybe change
some of them; also, I would like to add some other reading material, preferably
related to the changes that are being applied on this new school year here in
Venezuela. In addition, I would offer extra points for every acceptable explanation
for the correct answer to any of the students. The students didn’t have any
trouble understanding the questions (grammar and syntax) but I wouldn´t outrule
rewriting some or all the questions either in the future.
This is a time-consuming
activity preparation wise, in relation to application difficulty and resources
needed. But it is worth the time spent organizing it since students will want
to continue participating, even though they missed and won’t win any prices,
and is a satisfactory moment when you realized the students continue
challenging themselves and working together to improve themselves. They didn't
prepare themselves for this surprise activity even though they were given the
tools for doing it; but for the rest of Summer classes, they looked for the information
related to the topics studied, and I didn't have to remember them to do it,
upgrading the quality of their answers as well as the amount of participation
in class.
domingo, 18 de octubre de 2015
Assessment procedure
Assessment procedure
Design Stage
This is an achievement test. It was applied weekly during Special Didactics’ summer classes 2015, with the 8° semester English students. They needed to design and apply an strategy or activity related to the content discussed in the previous class.
The elements assessed were related, mostly, to their speaking skill, although the other macro skills were considered taking into account the nature and resources of the activity they applied. Aspects related to the content used and inter and intra personal skills were also taken into account. The assessment sheet stated as follows:
After a topic was explained in class and modelling activities were applied, students were asked to elaborate and apply a strategy or activity related to the content taught (all topics were related to EFL teaching). They were given the guidelines (the above aspects plus some written instructions on a spreadsheet) and a time frame (no more than 15 mins per group, with 5 mins for questions from the audience or teacher).
Application Stage
There was a total of 6 times when the assessment sheet was used with the topics related to: Icebreakers and warm ups, ages and levels of students, teaching speaking and listening, teaching reading and writing, assessment and positive feedback, and the final presentation.
The first time the instrument was applied (icebreakers and warm ups) was on an entirely formative level, in which the students tried their hands with the procedure of the class, as well to make them acquainted with the evaluation process. At the end of each participation, the students were given a feedback, emphasizing the positive aspects first, and then pinpointing the portions they should work a little bit more. Questions were answered and students approved the structure of the assessment sheet as it encompassed a complete set of aspect that helped to achieve the goal of the subject.
This procedure was repeated each week during the activity’s presentation period. As time passed, the students’ questions were fewer, as well as the aspects to be improved. By the 5th week (assessment and positive feedback), the teacher gave the rubric to students to be fulfilled in a peer evaluation. It was a success as students presented a complete assessment of their partners, stating the positive aspects, as well as the not so good aspects to still be improved. They considered this activity as an excellent practice to be applied constantly, but not with so many aspects, and not with more than 15 students per class. This technique was used again with the final presentation, in which the peer evaluation was considered in order to grade the activity.
Reflection Stage
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EhP2oRp74_pdGYEkwxZ-dnbnBuojRUN51u32QNr-WbW-xUl4_Nxqrv4zCq6HUljgRyEqRJmj8xadsz_u1mc_I5-n4xxxa5wGUBigyScL8j6dK6qpt-e6gfRSmtefohxFF38ZwM7SGXuB/s200/reflecting_large.jpg)
For following applications, I will try to create an actual rubric, particularly if the group is too big, as the time is going to be more limited and restricted; also because the feedback given is as important as the time the students may have for their activities, as it is the opportunity for them to improve.
I would like to reinforce the concept in my students that teaching, evaluating and assessment can be done with the same strategy, and because of that, they can also improve as students as well as future teachers.
viernes, 17 de abril de 2015
Reflections weeks 1-5
Through my
particular experiences as a teaching practice professor, I can compare the
methodology used in this course and the one used at the university, noting the
differences and similarities. The main similarities are related to the content
taught, the elements in the lessons planning, and the focus given to the way
learners learn, considering their ages, level of proficiency and previous
knowledge of the subject. The main difference is in the methodology used: the
pragmatics and accurate usage of the language is relegated, giving more time
and importance to grammatical aspects and correct use of the language.
In the same
order of ideas, the insight of the students is not considered at the time of
the planning. I tend to organize and plan activities that are inside of my
comfort zone, most of the time using the learning style that characterize me.
This is something that I wish to change, mainly in the Special Didactics classroom,
because even though the methodology is practical, the main objective of the
course is lost in the continued application of the activities that are alike to
one another.
I consider
planning as the most important aspect of teaching, as it avoids improvisation,
also helps to take into account the individual characteristics of our students,
their strengths and weaknesses related to the content taught. the only downside
of lesson planning from the last two semesters are in the constant changes in
the content of the course and in the little amount of time given to implement
such changes, and the little amount of time between semesters; therefore, the
time for planning is even less. I am currently talking with two senior
professors that are in charge of these modifications in order to create a
teacher’s guidebook, helping the teachers with the planning of the course, as
well as giving them a wide list of activities that focus in more than one
specific learning style.
Finally, I
must say that even though this reflection is based solely in the Special
Didactics course, the lessons I have learnt so far can be easily translated to
the Teaching Practice course, as it focuses in the improvement of our students’
performance in a classroom. For that reason, I am particularly interested in
the content related to the teaching of grammatical aspects, so I can give a
more broad range of possibilities to my students, who tend to use a grammatical
approach in their performances.
sábado, 14 de marzo de 2015
Week 1 and 2 reflections
So far, everything is going according to my spectations related to this advanced course. I'm planning my classes trying to implement as much activities as I can.
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