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