Class 5

Class 5

“Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself.” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage

Hello everyone, in this opportunity I am going to introduce you to the last class of this period. It is incredible how fast time passes by and our kids are learning more and more.

This class was conducted by Ileana and Juan who taught the topic: My body.

During the class:

This class started with a weird peculiarity. It was surprising for all of us that by the time that the class should have started, just a few kids had already come to the classroom.  The teachers in charge waited a little bit for them, however, it was getting late and the class had to start, so the lesson started with just nine students. Nonetheless, as the time passed by; one kid more joined the class, this means that just ten students assisted to this class.

The presentation stage:

As it is common in all our classes, there is always a presentation stage in which the teachers introduce the topic of the lesson. This class was not an exception to this rule, and as it was expected; the lesson started with a good presentation stage that was conducted by Ileana. This stage started with a very active task in which Ileana had the students running across the classroom to get some balls that had some letters which had to be put together to form some words as, father, mother, sister and the like. This activity was a good instrument to make students remember the target vocabulary of the last class. Then, an activity in which the kids had to name the parts of the body was developed so that they could encounter the new target vocabulary for this opportunity that was precisely the parts of the human body. Finally this presentation stage ended up with a questions and answers task that made the children practice the vocabulary taught.

There was a surprising fact in this class. It was astonishing for me to realize that almost all the vocabulary that Ileana and JC had to teach, was already known by the kids. Thus, it was not a difficult task for the teachers to teach the target vocabulary corresponding this class due to the background knowledge that the students already had, and adding the fact that there were just ten students in the classroom.

The practice stage:

This stage of the class was carried out by JC. The practice phase was very active. Kids were addressed with many interesting activities that kept them with a high level of enthusiasm. Many tasks such as, Simon says, singing a song and an activity with a dice were the tasks that cheered kids up.

As it was expected the practice stage did not represent a big challenge. As I have already mentioned above the fact that kids already knew most of the vocabulary helped Ileana and JC not to have problems when teaching, so the practice stage was completely successful.

About my case of study !!!!

During this second period in which we started with the classes, I have been analyzing Jefferson, and now I will present my final thoughts about him for this second period.

 As I have mentioned in some posts before, Jefferson is a kid with learning problems and it has been proved here in this English project. Jefferson always seems to distracted from the class, he rarely pays attention and he is most of the time trying to get the attention of his classmates by doing jokes or distracting the class because he knows that is the only way in which he gets the class’s attention, taking into account that he has difficulties learning and paying attention. In conclusion, all the mentioned above does show that Jefferson has some problems in the learning field.

This recently class was one of the worst for Jefferson. In this opportunity Jefferson was very active, but in a negative way. He bothered a lot during the class, making the teachers look for solutions to keep him concentrated in the class.

This might be happening because Jefferson is getting more confident in the class. As the time passes by, kids get more confident and comfortable with the environment, the teachers, and the classes. However, this may bring with it some problems as the one we are observing in Jefferson; kids start to misbehave. Now, it is important that we as teachers start to make plans in keeping the control of the class.

• I would like to finish this entry with some Tips when dealing with students with attention problems.

1-     1- REMEMBER THE EMOTIONAL PART OF LEARNING. These children needspecial help in finding enjoyment in the classroom, mastery instead offailure and frustration, excitement instead of boredom or fear. It isessential to pay attention to the emotions involved in the learningprocess.

2- . Post rules. Have them written down and in full view. The childrenwill be reassured by knowing what is expected of them.

3-  Repeat directions. Write down directions. Speak directions. Repeatdirections. People with ADD need to hear things more than once.

4- . Make frequent eye contact. You can "bring back" an ADD child witheye contact. Do it often. A glance can retrieve a child from adaydream or give permission to ask a question of just give silentreassurance.

 5- Seat the ADD child near your desk or wherever you are most of the time. This helps stave off the drifting away that so bedevils these children.