Journal VII

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, May 27, 2019 to Friday, May 31, 2019_

Write a reflection about the classes you oriented this week (bear in mind the following aspects: what you planned, what you did, and what you would do differently if you were to teach your lessons again). Give examples and descriptions of those situations that, in your view, are relevant to your learning experience.

Seventh Week: Slowing down

            This week of my pedagogical practicum started by teaching to the students from the second level. The topic assigned for this lesson was comparative adjectives and the vocabulary was related to clothes. For teaching the vocabulary, I prepared a crossword in which I gave them the descriptions of the different pieces of clothes. I helped students to develop this activity by reading the descriptions and reinforcing some words with body language so that they were able to know what the descriptions were referring to and all the answers were written on the board. Students seemed to like this activity since they claimed that this is a practical and entertaining way to learn vocabulary. When I started explaining the grammar topic, students were confused even though I provided them with a small chart with the rules and some examples different from the ones on the book and on the chart. I think that something I have to change regarding this group is the amount of English and Spanish I use in my lessons and probably the speed of my explanations because students do not fully understand them. However, after I explain the rules I always ask them if they have understood but nobody says anything then I do not know if I should move on or explain again, which I sometimes do by providing more examples. After that, I showed some images of clothes and asked students to create comparative sentences for which I started with the first one making an example and I guided them with the other ones. Some students tried to do the exercise and some others were just listening to all the time. Finally, when the topic was a little clearer for students, they organized themselves in groups and we made a kind of contest. For the contest, I allowed them to use the chart I had given them and the book. The participation for this activity was not a problem, but as I had to take more time in the explanation part, we had time just for one round.

            The class with the other second level was quite similar to the first group since the topic was the same and so was the main activity. The major difference between the two groups was that with this one, I did not have to explain the grammar rules since the teacher in charge of the course provided the explanation. Compared to the previous class I had with this group the week before, they participated more and were more focused on the activity since the winning team would get some extra points for the exam. The major problem I have with this group was in terms of discipline since they got very excited about the activity because they wanted to win. Then, they were really noisy and disorganized. One aspect that I noticed is that they tended to use always the same comparative adjectives so the main idea of practicing these was hindered. With this group, I have to look for strategies to control the discipline when making this kind of activities.

            Finally, I taught possessives to the students from the first level. This topic was a little difficult for students to understand so after I made the whole explanation in English and realized they have understood nothing at all; I had to make the whole explanation again using Spanish most of the time and giving some examples in English. When I thought the topic had been understood, I asked students to develop the exercises in their book in order for them to practice, but then again I noticed they still were a little confused, not as much as at the beginning but there were still something to be clarified. Then, I went back and return to my first example, I worked with it all the time in order for students to notice the difference between the possessive adjectives and pronouns. Then, the topic had finally been understood and students could complete the exercises. When the exercises were checked, we still had fifteen minutes, which I used for making a communicative and funny activity. I gave them some cards for them to play in small groups by completing the sentences with the correct possessive form. In the end, I gave some points to the winner of each group.  

Journal VI

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, May 13, 2019 to Friday, May 17, 2019_

Write a reflection about the classes you oriented this week (bear in mind the following aspects: what you planned, what you did, and what you would do differently if you were to teach your lessons again). Give examples and descriptions of those situations that, in your view, are relevant to your learning experience.

Sixth Week: Taking Some Advice

            During this week, I had the opportunity to teach one lesson since the other two groups I am working with had this week for carrying out the exam. The topic to be taught to these students was modal verbs functioning for making requests. Then, I prepared a PowerPoint presentation with short conversations in which the use of these modal verbs was highlighted in order to lead students into the topic. Talking to my advisor, she told me that something good I could have done in order for me to take advantage of this material was to work more with it, trying to explain each type of conversation so that the differences among the modal verbs were underlined and it was clearer for students. After I introduced the main topic for the lesson, I made an explanation of these modal verbs, telling students the main difference. Regarding this, something my advisor told me was that I could have used some Spanish because some students did not understand the explanation. For the last activity, I prepared a game in which students had to act out or draw in order for their team to guess what the request was. This activity was a little difficult to carry out since some students were not willing to participate. In order for me to not have this kind of problems, my advisor told me to think of some strategies that could make students be more active in terms of participation. In addition, she also told me about some strategies that could work. Additionally, she remarked the importance of catching all the students’ attention by asking them to repeat the answers from the other groups. Summing up, I would change a little the way in which I taught this lesson in terms of being more focused on what all the students were doing and try to catch their attention by trying that everyone participates in the activities being carried out.  

Journal V

APPENDIX 3: POST OBSERVATION STUDENT

TEACHER’S SELF-EVALUATION FORM (Journal)

Name: _Astrid Yarleth Trujillo Urriago_ Date: _Monday, May 6, 2019 to Friday, May 10, 2019_

Write a reflection about the classes you oriented this week (bear in mind the following aspects: what you planned, what you did, and what you would do differently if you were to teach your lessons again). Give examples and descriptions of those situations that, in your view, are relevant to your learning experience.

Fifth Week: Adapting my Lesson Plans

            During this week, which was supposed to be the exam week, I had the opportunity to teach two of the three groups I am working with. For the students from the English I course, the topic to be taught was adverbs of frequency along with some celebrations and festivals. I started the class by asking students some questions that made them think of the grammar topic we were going to use, for example, I asked them “how often do you watch TV?” When I made this question they did not understand what I was asking them, then, I provided students with an example in which I highlighted the adverb of frequency I used for answering. After I did that, students knew and understood what my intention was. Hence, they answered the questions using the most common adverbs of frequency they knew. One of the activities that I carried out with these students was about giving students a set of cards for them to play asking and answering questions within small groups. For this activity, I tried that the verbs and vocabulary being used was familiar for students so that they would not have comprehension problems. In spite of the fact that I explained students the structure for making and answering questions, some of them were still confused about it so I had to approach them and explain again while the others that had understood were working on the activity. This makes me think that something I would change about this lesson is the amount of practice I ask students to do before introducing a communicative activity. I need to make sure they fully understood the topic before moving into the next stage and for doing so; I have to look for interesting activities because they tend to be very restless. Finally, I finished the class with a listening exercise in which students had to check if the statements were true or false. I had to play the audio track three times since the first time was almost impossible to comprehend due to the noise from the air conditioner. In the end, I checked the answers with the students and they did well.

On the other hand, the lesson for students from the English II course was about the difference between the uses of “be going to” and “will”. As students have been studying these structures in previous classes, I did not have to worry about explaining grammar structures. For starting the class, I gave students a piece of paper in which there were three different conversations; the first one was about a conversation using the “be going to” structure, the second one used the “will” structure, and the last one was a combination of both of them. What I intended to do was that students try to explain what the differences among these were; however, they were unable to so. Therefore, I had to read the conversations with them and analyze each situation. Fortunately, they did remember the uses for both structures so when I asked them “what do we use each structure for?” they answered correctly. The main activity I planned for this lesson was about providing students with a set of fortune telling runes for them to work in pairs and construct a dialogue by using the two future forms. In addition, I gave them an example of a conversation between a fortuneteller and a customer for them to be guided. Throughout the activity, some students asked me some vocabulary questions. What I had planned for the last stage of the class was that students perform what they have constructed, but as the time was short, I made the decision that they only deliver the written dialogue instead.