Class 4

“True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their
own.” 
― Nikos Kazantzakis

It is necessary to inspire our students so that learning can go from a boring moment to a fantastic instance, and this is what we are precisely trying to do; thus, in this opportunity; it was Raul and Juan chance to inspire the kids assisting to our practicum project.

During the class:

The topic of the class was “My Pet” in which kids were supposed to learn some animal nouns plus the grammar structure which was “Do you like___? Yes, I do/ no, I do not” accompanied by the spelling of the animal nouns.

The class started having the kids going to the bathroom right at the beginning, so that they would not ask for going to the restroom once the class had already started. This was a good technique because no one asked for going to the bathroom during the whole class, and they did not miss any moment of the teaching.

The presentation stage was covered by Juan. During this stage we could observe that the animal nouns were introduced to the kids in a very creative way. A power presentation and some big flashcards helped Juan to perfectly present the target vocabulary. Here, most of the kids seemed already familiar with the vocabulary that was being introduced to them; however, they were not aware of the accurate pronunciation of the animal’s nouns. Juan worked on pronunciation and at the same time the numbers and the colors were also rehearsed. This practice just demonstrated that kids are becoming more and more familiar with the language and that now, it is not a difficult challenge to achieve the goals of the lessons we present every Friday. In conclusion, Juan’s work was on preparing the ground, so that Raul could just rehearse the knowledge encountered by the children during the presentation stage.

The practice stage was conducted by Raul. During this stage kids demonstrated acquisition of the target vocabulary. This practice moment stared with an activity about having kids in a circle and making groups of certain numbers every time Raul said one number. For example; Raul said, “Make groups of 4” and the kids were supposed to make groups of four. This task was not really oriented to practice the target vocabulary, but to practice numbers. The activity failed a little bit because the instructions were too long for the kids to get them, demonstrating with this; that kids can be only addressed with chunks and commands and not with long directions. Then, a new activity was developed. In this opportunity children were asked to sit on the floor and paste the picture of the animal that the teacher was pronouncing on a notebook that was provided by Raul. This activity worked well. Kids like pasting activities and being on the floor all together. To sum up, Raul worked on practicing the knowledge that Juan had already presented.

Finally, the class finished too early and having some time left; Juan decided to come up with some extra activities to fill the moment left. Although, the activities that were implemented in the last minutes were not created with goals and preplanned material; they did work well and were very useful to keep kids practicing, taking into account that the practice stage was reduced to two activities that did not encourage much production from the kids. Nevertheless, with the Juan’s last participation, as a team; they could assure the kids’ acquisition of the target vocabulary.

Some findings:

This class was a good opportunity to notice some advancements that the kids are having!!!!!

-kids are more familiar with the language. There is no need to model commands such as, sit down or stand up anymore; they already understand the meaning of these two words and quickly obey to the command.

-kids are more familiar with one another. They have already made groups of friends and they are not shy any longer.

-They have already started using expressions for ridiculing their classmates.

-They tempt to be aggressive in activities that demand too much action from them. Whenever they are asked to run or be fast at doing something, kids may be a little aggressive, especially boys.

-kids get distracted easily when they are sitting down next to their friends.

All these new aspects that characterize kids’ behavior need to be considered when designing lesson plans and tasks, so special attention will be paid to the next class to identify whether these problems have been solved or not.

To conclude, it can be said that this class met the expected goals which were, make students identify, pronounce and spell accurately some animal nouns, expressing their preferences toward pets, and answering the question, “do you like__?, yes, I do/no, I do not.”