Monica, Gisselt, and Cristela’s second class

Teachers: Gisselt, Cristela, Monica

Topic: Days of the week and numbers from 11-20

Vocabulary: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Grammar: What day is today? What is your favorite day?

The first teaching class of the third period was carried out by my classmates Monica, Gisselt, and Cristela, who even though facing some problems, they did a great job. In this entry, I will not talk about my case of study because she was not there.

Monica started the class by singing the “how are you” song, which students are already familiar with it, so they did not show problem at all. I liked how they did it because it was a new way of singing the song, and also because children enjoyed singing it. Then, she did the

warm up activity which was about playing with a spinning wheel. By the way, it was her technique in the workshop, so she used it for the warm up. I liked this activity because through it students were able not only to review a single topic but some others. The topics they review were about colors, numbers, family members, and spelling. In this activity, I could see that children enjoyed doing it. However, I could notice some problems that could be avoided in order to get students involved. For example, the groups could be better done because I could see that the youngest and some older children were in one group, and in the other there were children neither that younger nor that older, so I consider the first team was in disadvantage with the youngest children because most of the times they were at the top, the opposite group got the answers first even though the youngest children knew the answers. Nevertheless, as they are younger, they have not developed their developmental areas in the same speed as older children. So I consider the teams needs to be balanced in order to both teams could be at the same level.

Next, Monica presented the topic by completing a weekly planner. I was a great way of introducing the topic because children had the

opportunity to participate by choosing a number and finding at its back a day of the week, then Monica put that day in the weekly planner. Once she finished all days, she start singing a son; in this way, children could learn the vocabulary easier. Something that I consider that could be even more interesting the activity could have been that children tried to paste by themselves every day of the week in the weekly planner. Although it was the presentation, by doing so she could measure students’ prior knowledge.

Then, Gisselt continued the class and started the practice stage. One of the activities that she did was about making a train. Through this activity children were able to use their fine motor skills, and although at this stage children are able to use them, not all children use them at the same speed because some of them are starring the stage and some others are almost leaving it, so the

youngest need more time for performing well. I think it was a great activity in which all students got involved. However, I consider that Gisselt could have arranged children in a better way as a semicircle because they were arranged in a kind of line, so if she had had them in a semicircle, she could have controlled them without being moving a lot and controlling everybody’s actions.

Another interesting activity that I consider children enjoyed a lot was about using play dough. In it students had to paint a day of the week

with play dough. For me it was an activity that rescued Cristela’s control on the class since in the previous activity she had lost it, so it helped a lot to have them busy all the time without being distracted. As it was an activity that required using fine motor skills, and not all children have developed a same speed, not all of them finished the activity in a hundred percent. I saw most of the children’s works, and I saw that some older children even were doing a second day while some of the youngest were not able to finish just one. However, although those youngest children did not finish that activity, they are already able to do it as older ones, but having more time to work.

Even when some little problems took place, without doubt it was a nice class because children learned and enjoyed the class a lot.     

References:

Papalia, D., et al. A child's world. pp. 239-290. Mc Graw Hill. USA, 2006 

Workshop day!

Workshop day!

“When you study great teachers... you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.” 

― William Glasser

 

It was the first class of the third period, and every of us had to share each other activities in which we could use some useful techniques for teaching.

 

The first to present her technique was Iliana. She presented some memory games in which students can look for pairs either of images or image and pictures, so they can remember some vocabulary. Also, this kind of activity can be presented not only with pictures or simple words but also with concepts according to the students’ level. I consider that these kind of activities are very appealing for students’ learning because students can learn in a more interesting and easier way as these activities make them to be concentrated and get more involved in the activities, and also they can develop their cognitive abilities since they have to use their memory.

 

The second activity was carried out by Gisselt. Her technique was about using boxes. She recommended using it with the topic about animals. However, as she mentioned, it can be used in any other topic. She explained that we can do the activity by making competences. For example, we make two students’ lines and we put many boxes with pictures in the front of them, and the students at the top of the lines can throw a ball in the box which contains the picture of the word that they listen to. Instead of pictures, we can use objects. In my opinion it is a great idea because the children to whom we are teaching are very energetic and they like to perform activities in which they can be active.

 

The third to present was Luis (I guess). I consider that all of us like his technique because it is a very interesting activity in which students can be focused all the time since it is about puppets, and children as older people like them. Also, through this activity, students can learn new things by doing what the puppets ask them. I liked this technique because Luis presented not only one way of how we can get the puppets but also he said that we get them by making them ourselves, so it is in our hands to spend too much or to save some many, and also because there is not only one way in which we can do activities using puppets but many others that are really interesting for children.  

 

Next, Monica presented her technique about using a spinning wheel. This is a very great idea for using in a class because we can use it with more than one topic in order that students can review or internalize vocabulary and even grammar structures. It can be used in any level and it is an activity that calls students’ attention because it is an entertainment way of learning. However, sometimes it can be kind of expensive regarding to the kind of materials we want to use to make it.

 

Then, Raúl presented the technique about telling stories. It was a very interesting activity that we can apply while teaching because with them we can get students’ attention. In my personal opinion –and I think all my partners share my thoughts– I really enjoyed Raúl’s idea because of the way as he did it was amazing. At the beginning he told us some step of how to tell a good story, but then he started putting on practice all those steps by telling us the story and showing us some pictures in a flipchart. For me it is a great idea to teach. However, we need to be aware of so many things when doing this activity since it is not an easy task to perform, so we need to have a lot of preparation before doing it.

 

Another very interesting activity was carried out by Cristela, and it was about modeling clay. We can use this technique in any topic for creating whatever we want and students have to use their fine motor skills by following teacher’s directions. I consider this activity is appealing at the time of teaching because student love working with clay, so if we want them to have children get involved and learn at the same time, it is a very useful technique that we can apply at any stage of the class.

 

The technique “name tags” was carried out by Ingrid. She presented us a useful way in which we can not only use them to identify children but also to make them work in pairs since we can include inside of the name tags either picture/picture or picture/word in order they can match with their pairs. Also, it can be used with any topic and we can use name tags not only for working once, but twice or even more times.   

 

Moreover, Juan presented his technique which was about songs. It is a great idea to be used in any class with any topic since we just need to have some songs regarding to the topic we want to teach, and we just need to be creative in order to students can enjoy the activity. Children really like when they have these kind of activities because we have noticed this in previous classes and all children have got excited when performing an activity in which they have a song.

 

Next, my turn to show my technique came, and it was about using disposable plates in an activity.

I designed this activity for using it with the topic “Clothes” in a practice stage; however, it can be used with any other topic.

Materials and budget:

·       Two plastic disposable plates ($1.92 in Super Selectos)

·       Glue or cold silicone ($1.22 in Super Selectos)

·       Scissors

·       Decorative ribbon ($1.26 in Super Selectos)

·       Pen

·       Ruler or something straight to mark a line

·       Glitter ($0.95 in Super Selectos)

·       Family members’ body shapes (printed in paper. Price depends on the place, type of paper and quantity)

·       Clothes items (made or printed in paper)

First, you have to use the ruler and mark with the pen three centimeters below of the plastic disposable plate’ roundness and mark a straight line from one side to the other. Then cut the line and the space in which you count the three centimeters in order to make a handle to the plates. Put ribbons and any other decorative material that you want to put in every plate (as you wish). Paste both plates to form a kind of bag. Finally, you can use the bag to include in it body shapes of family members and clothes items, so that students can paste those clothes items according to every body shape. Once they finish this, students can describe who every family member is and what they are wearing by saying color and clothes items. At the end, students keep back all the materials in the bag.  

       

Then, JC presented us her technique, and it was about recycling paper. I think it is a great idea of how we can not only recycle materials and save money but also create some attractive material that get students’ attention. JC taught us to create a shaker. For me it is a useful technique because we can use it for many purpose such us when we want to use Juan’s technique. In this way, we can combine both techniques and provide a good environment for students.

 

Finally, Gloria presented the technique about using hats. She showed some ways of how students can create their own hats in order to show every student’ mood because she told us that through the hats they can express some adjective such as: happy, sad, etc. I liked this idea because students can use their fine motor skills, be entertained for a while and review some vocabulary.

In my personal opinion, I liked every single technique that every of my classmates presented because all of them can be useful for students’ learning during any class; we just need to do some adaptations in order to do them in any other topic. 

Iliana & JC’s class

Class 5

Topic: My body.

Vocabulary: mouth, nose, tooth, teeth, eyes, ears, hands, feet, foot.

Grammar: Do you have…? Yes, I do. No, I don’t.

 

It was the fifth and the last class of the second period, and it was definitely a very good class since Iliana and Jc tried to improve all the errors that we had made. Unfortunately my case of study did not go again, so I will not talk about her.

The class started with the warm up activity, and I personally think that it was the best way as that song could have been carried out because it was not only sung but also it was danced, and I saw that all children enjoyed a lot doing it in that way –even I did it too.

 

Next, Iliana started presenting the topic “My Body”. She had two uncompleted bodies on the board, and she started introducing the vocabulary putting and saying the missing parts to the first body. Then, she asked the students to pass to the front and put and say the names for completing the second uncompleted body.  I consider it was a good activity for introducing topic, I consider she could have showed them the vocabulary some other times before asking them to pass to do it because they just had encountered the vocabulary, but they had not clarified it, so they needed to review at least a more time, ad also because there were several words at the same time and they needed to little by little. However, it was just what I thought.

 

Then, the practice started. One of the activities that was very interesting was the one about “king Simon” because I consider it was a great idea to bring an object that called students attention, and at the same time could help to the students’ learning because when children saw the monkey they engaged in the activity and tried to do what king Simon asked for. Also, it was interesting because students not only followed JC’s instructions but also they could participate giving them. In this way, they were not just listening to the vocabulary but also saying it, and if they could not do it JC helped them so they could not feel intimidated.

 

Also, another activity that really got my attention was when they sing the song “shake, shake….” because I could realize that children were getting bored. However, when the song took place all of them got involved again in the class because they just love movement activities. Therefore, this activity made them to feel excited. In this way, they can learn more easily because with activities like this, they really want to learn.

 

At the end, they ended with the “good bye” song. However, they did a good job because they not only sang the song but also they taught it little by little until most of the students were able to sing it. It was a very very nice class.

Juan & Raúl's class

Class 4

Topic: My pet

Vocabulary: Cat, dog, snake, rabbit, turtle, bird.

Grammar: Do you have a … Yes, I do. No, I don’t.

 

It was the fourth class for the children. I consider it was a good class because they overcame most of the problem which the previous groups had had.

 

The class started with a warm up activity. It was to sign the “how are you” song. Although they just sang it once, they enjoyed it because most of them already knew the lyrics and that it is the song they have to sing at the beginning of every class as a kind of routine, so they can internalize it.  

 

After they sang the song, Juan started to introduce the topic “PETS” by asking them if they liked pets. I could see that few of them could understand what he was asking since the word “like” was new for the most of them. Then, Juan introduced the vocabulary about pets through a power point presentation. It was a great idea to introduce the topic in that way because they can see the pictures in a better way.Then, Juan introduced the vocabulary about pets through a power point presentation. It was a great idea to introduce the topic in that way because they can see the pictures in a better way.I remember he continue  showing some pictures about pets and asking the name of every pet in order to elicit vocabulary. I could notice that my

case of study, Darlin, did not know much about the topic. She could have showed this because she is a younger child compared with the rest of the class, and her cognitive area is not as developed as an older child. Probably she may need more time to think and say what is being asked. 

 

Then, the practice stage started, and one of the activities was to pass a ball while they listened to a very nice music for children. When the music stopped, the child who had the ball had to go to the board and write the missing letters for some words regarding with the new target language. It was very interesting because I could notice that every time the words were more and more difficult; however, children were able to do a very good job.

 

Another very interesting activity was one in which the children had a little book. In it they had to paste some images according to what every page said. All children did it excellent in this part because Raúl was modeling one by one. However, in this same task they had to write down the missing letters in the words below of the image. I thought that all children had done it well because the complete word was above

of the image, but I saw Imelda’s book, and she missed the last word. I think that it was not because she was not able to do it, but because she is just a six year old and she is in disadvantage of her speed to complete some tasks as older children. As it was an activity that required using fine motor skills, she is not still in the stage in which she can be able to copy letters or words, but not in the same speed of their partners. Besides of that, it was a great activity.   

Ingrid & Mercy's class

Friday, September 27th, 20013

Class 3

Topic: My family.

Vocabulary: Father, mother, sister, brother, 

grandfather, grandmother.

Grammar: Who’s this? It’s. Is that your…. Yes, it is. No it’s not.

 

It was our time to teach and put into practice all what we have learned about teaching children without making mistakes that our classmates had had in the previous classes. Also, it was time to see children’s behavior and reaction toward our activities. This time I will not focus on my case of study because unfortunately, she did not go to the class.

 

We started singing the “how are you” song. As we forgot the video, we had to sing it by ourselves, so even we were not prepared for that, we did it good and all children involved singing it because we provided them enough opportunities to do it. It was not difficult for them because they were already familiar with the song and because the lyrics of the song were not difficult to remember, so they learned easily and also because at this stage children have develop language abilities and their brain is ready for doing things that require to use the memory.

 

Next, it was my turn to start the class with a warm up activity. It was about giving short commands. For example, if I said and showed “CAR”, they had to clap their hands; if I said and showed “BED”, they had to sit on the floor; and if I said “BALL”, they had to jump. As they are able to understand chants, they were able to perform the activity very well. Also, because children at this stage have already developed physical abilities, so they did not show problems for moving their body even if they had to do it fast. Some of my partners suggested me to ask per student, trios or small groups to perform every command in order to prove that all of them had understood every command and not just following the rest. Indeed, I consider it was a very great suggestion for measuring every student’s knowledge. Thus, I will consider it for the next time.

 

In the presentation, I started introducing the topic “My Family” through a power point presentation. At the beginning, I asked them some questions about the family members, I thought that children were not going to know the vocabulary; however, to my surprise most of them were familiar with because even Imelda who is the youngest knew it, so it helped me to save time because I presented it in less time of what I had planned it. Indeed, it favored us because we had started the class five minutes later.

 

Then, it was time to the practice stage. The first activity was about showing flashcards when they read the given word regarding to the family members vocabulary. Children at this stage are ready to differentiate personal characteristics, so they were able to make a difference between the six family members without confusing mother with grandmother or father with grandfather because they are able to identify what makes everyone different from the other. It was a mistake sub estimates them because as I thought that they did not know the vocabulary, I gave them the six family members’ flashcard per trios, and it was a big mistake because they were getting bored because they were not always participating; as a result, a got bored too. However, when one of my partners pointed out that, and told me that I could have given the six flashcards to every student, I appreciated that because I had not thought on that, and it was a great strategy to get them involved during the whole activity.     

 

My teaching time finished, and it was Ingrid’s turn to continue the practice stage. The first she did was a matching activity. At this stage children are able to work in groups, and even most of them already show preference to be with same sex groups, they can work mixed. This was an activity that required group work, so I could see that they did it very well, and that all of them participating in the matching task by taking turns. Also, I could notice that have mastered very well their fine motor skills because they had to draw lines and they did it well. I saw that they could manage the task; however, at the time of checking every group work, the groups that were not busy were talking, so it was something in which the activity failed because the students were not occupied doing something all the time. It was a great idea that she could have carried all students checking every group. In this way, they would have not been distracted.  

 

The next activity was a crossword activity in which students had to pass to the front and find some words that Ingrid had written in some pages. At this stage, students start reading, so as Imelda is the only one who is starting this stage, she still shows some problems when performing this kind of activities due to the fact that she has not developed her reading ability as her classmates. Besides of that, it was a very well done activity because even when Imelda is not able to read very well, she tried to engage in the task. Although the activity was great, it presented some troubles because there was a time in which my partner Ingrid lost the control and all students were in the front, so I consider she could have avoided this by reacting in the same moment in which it started. Another thing was that she gave them some rewards for participating. However, she could do this at the end of this activity because in a way that made her lose the control as she was more focused on giving them and not in children’s control. It was something that our classmates pointed out, and I consider it was a great contribution for avoiding those problems when we are teaching in the real life.  

 

The last activity was about puppets. Here students had to use their fine motor skills by putting some things to every family member according to their imagination. At this stage most of the children are able to use their fine motor skills in a good way. Nevertheless, because of the difference of ages that we have in the group, some of them can use them but with less speed than others, so some of them needed more time for completing the whole task. As a result, I could see that Imelda did not finish the task as she is a six year old. Moreover, I could realize that all children enjoyed a lot the activity. However, it had some troubles because some children did not use the things for every family member as it was expected. It was something that our classmates noticed that could be improved, so they suggested that she could avoid this by modeling them one by one until getting the six family members done. In this way, all children had done it as it was expected.  

 

At the end, we sang the “Good bye” song. We could have improved the way as we did it, but we did not have enough time to do it, so it was not a success. In this way the class finished… 

Here is the planning:

Teaching Practicum I “Teaching English to Children”

Names of the Teachers: Ingrid Girón& Mercy Márquez                       Date: 09-27-13

Lesson: 3                                                                                         Topic: My Family

Vocabulary: Father, mother, sister, brother, grandfather, grandmother.

Objective of the lesson: By the end of this lesson, SWBATidentify and use at least between 40% and 80% of the target language presented in the lesson in the “Family Song” using the family members’ flashcards. (and those who can already identify and use the 40% or more of  it will be able to use it more fluently).
Time	Stage	Procedure	Notes
2-5” 5-6”	Welcome Song and video Warm up	I will set up the video so the students can again sing along with both teachers. Children stand up in a circle and I give them directions to follow: When I say “CAR”, it means 'walk around' “BED” = sit down (on the floor) “BALL” = jump.  I say the directions as I want, for example: bed, doll, car or doll, car, bed, etc. and Ss just have to do what it is expected with that word. Then, I will speed up a little more.	Aim of the activity: To get Ss sing. This helps them know that they are welcomed to the class. Materials: Speakers, projector and computer. Aim of the activity: to start thinking in English. Type of learner: A-K Interaction:T-Ss Materials:none Responsible:Mercy
15”	Presentation	Introduce the topic “My family” by showing them some pictures in order to elicit some vocabulary. Then, have them repeat vocabulary up to three times. I will show them the flashcards and then I will say the word twice. The six vocabulary items will be explained this way.Ss will see the family´s power point presentations that have the family members with pictures to get the target vocabulary clearer. After this, SS will imagine that the pictures in the flashcards represent a family member for all of them. For example, the picture which has a mother on it that will be the mother for all. Ss are asked: “Who’s this?” “Is that the mother?” (Pointing a picture), if the picture corresponds to the word “mother, they should say “Yes, it is”; on the contrary, they should say “no, it’s not” (I will model this).	Aim of the activity:Encounter and remember target language. Type of learner:V-A Interaction:T-Ss Materials: family members’ flashcards and the “Family” power point presentation. Responsible:Mercy
10”	Practice	1-Ss sit on the floor. They will work in trios; every trio will have the 6 family members’ flashcards with them. I will show and say out loud a family member name, and every trio will have to show me the right flashcard according to what I say. For example, if I show and say: “brother”, Ss have to raise and show the flashcard that I have asked for. To check it is the right flashcard, I will see every group. If a trio does not have the correct flashcard, I will ask them “Is that your brother?” if they say “yes”, I will ask everybody the same question, so they can get help. When either the trio or the whole group say “no”, I will ask them “Who’s this?” until I get the right answer.	Aim of the activity:To get students practice the new target vocabulary. Type of learner:V-A-T Interaction:T-Ss Materials:Family member´s flashcards and their names. Responsible:Mercy
15”		2- Students will form 4 groups. This is how they will be together:  On the floor there will be 4 images, for example: Teddy bear, Ball, Chair, and Book. Each child will get a strip of paper with a number from 1 to 4. They will be working according to the number they have.For number one´s:Teddy Bear; Two´s:Ball; Three´s: Chair;Four´s: Book. Next, students will work in groups in order to match the word with the image. I will give them the exercise. Each group will have one to work with. They will take turns to resolve the matching exercise. For this, I will also give them a color pencil so that they take turns in matching one item at a time. I will monitor them if they happen to have troubles with the exercise. The vocabulary that will appear in this activity are the following words: Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Grandmother, Grandfather, Ruler, Bed, Pen, Eraser.	Aim of the activity: To match the word spelling with the picture. Type of learner: V-K Interaction: T-Ss Materials: the matching images with their words, 10 images and 10 words in the quarter of fabriano paper. Responsible: Ingrid
15”		3-I will have on the board the crossword with 16 vocabulary words that Ss have learned the last two weeks. I will say something like: “We will do an activity of finding words in this crossword soup!  I want you to look at the crossword and look for one of these words”. I will give them a small piece of colored chalk to highlight the word. These are the following words that will be on the crossword: Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Grandmother, Grandfather, Ruler, Bed, Pen, Eraser, Pencil, Ball, Book, Yellow, Red, Family; 16 in total. Then, I will first say the word and then they will repeat it after me. I will call them by their name so that each one has an opportunity to pass and find a word.	Aim of the activity: To find the target vocabulary in order to identify and get familiar with the spelling. Type of learner: V-T Interaction: T-Ss Materials: the crossword in the board, chalk to highlight the founded word.  Responsible: Ingrid
15”-20”		4-Ss will get an individual kit of the prompts that they will use to make their family members´ puppets, glue and I will be monitoring them in case they need my help to glue something. They will have the six family members and at the end I will ask them to show me the “father”, like this: “Show me father”, “Show me mother, and so on”.I will also elicit the number of the members of the family:“How many members of the family are? Ss will say: “one, two, three.” or I will say the numbers and they will raise the puppet meaning “one”, “two” and so on.Finally, I will say“What color is the…” in order to get the colors of thedifferent prompts of the puppets and I can include the “Who is this…” by pointing to one of the Ss´s puppet and have them say orally the answer.	Aim of the activity: To get students doing their own version of a family using puppets. Type of learner: T Interaction: T-SS Materials: All the puppets prompts: wool hair, sticks with the cartoon circle, bar glue, and accessories and their own bag for saving the puppets. Responsible: Ingrid
Closure: 2”-3”    SS and Teachers (Mercy and Ingrid will guide the students to end of the lesson by singing the “Goodbye Song”). Ts will something like:  “Now, it is time to leave so we are going to sing the “Goodbye Song”, let´s stand up and join us!” Ts will begin singing along with the SS doing the song’s body movements as the last week. We will sing acapela.
Assignments and announcements