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.