Journal VIII

 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.

Eighth Week: Explanations and Clarifications

During this week, I taught superlatives to students from the second level. At the beginning of the class, I showed them some pictures in which there was an obvious difference between the three objects in each picture. For example, I showed them a picture with three buildings and I told them one of them was the highest and another was the shortest pointing to the corresponding building. After I did that, I show them another image and they made sentences in Spanish. Afterward, I explained the grammar. Students got a little confused since the previous topic was comparatives and the rules are almost the same. Then, I had to clarify the difference between these two grammar topics. Later on, students worked on some exercises from the book in which they had to write the corresponding superlative for some nouns and other in which they had to write superlative sentences according to some information provided in a chart. Finally, I prepared a kind of a general knowledge contest for them to play and practice the superlative structure. From this lesson, I think I what would change is the amount of practice I allowed students to do since they are not used to English I had to explain more than once the grammar so they had little practice before making the contest.

Then, I worked with students from the other level II. There was no topic to be taught to them since what my class was based on is in practicing both comparatives and superlatives. At the beginning of the class, I asked students some questions using both of the structures. Some of the students participated but most of the students do not like participating when doing it in this way. As I noticed there were still some problems when expressing a correct sentence, I decided to make a quick review of the topics. However, I did not implement some examples to contextualize students. In spite of that, students remembered the correct use of the structures. After that, I gave a handout in which students had to complete the sentences writing a comparative adjective or a superlative adjective. Most of the students worked on the exercise but some others were just waiting for the activity to finish. I think I have to work more on making these students participate in every activity. Finally, students were divided into two groups and each group will make some questions to the other. The other team had to answer the questions providing the right answer and using the structure correctly. I tried that the students participating were different students from the ones that always participate.

Finally, on Thursday, I taught “should and should not for advice” to students from the first level. I brought a comic to the class and handed it out to students so that everyone had the comic and could read it. I asked them some questions such as “what was happening in the comic” and then we focused on the part in which one of the characters provides a piece of advice. Then, I explained the situation and proceeded to explain the grammar topic. I provided some examples. Students were a little confused about the use of the main verb in the sentences because it is always used in its base form and does not change when referring to the third person. When the grammar was explained, they worked on some exercises in their books for making some practice and then we checked them. Finally, I gave each student a piece of paper with a problem and a chart for writing some advice. They had to ask for advice to solve their problem and then select the best one. Before doing so, I made an example with the whole class so that they did not get confused with the instructions. This time, students were more focused on the class. Regarding something I would change, I think I would slow a little more when explaining because there were some doubts when doing the last exercise more than anything because of the use of the auxiliary verb should and the main verb.