My Nineth Class

           To teach the comparative form of adjectives was the topic in my last class; therefore, I created a power point presentation for explaining the grammar rules of the comparative form, developed controlled and semi-controlled activities for students to remember and internalize what they learned from the grammar phase. However, the part of my lesson that liked me the most was the end. For the end of my lesson, I planned a role-play for students to create performances using the new target language and structure; also, as it was the last class, I decided to let them work by affinity because they were really motivated, so they worked in pairs. During the preparation of the role-play (8 minutes), I showed them an example of the speeches they could use through the Cannon Projector for them to have a guide or to continue the idea; also, I helped them by supporting ideas and providing vocabulary. After these eight minutes, I invited them to participate, and they really wanted to collaborate. As a result, all of them participated and created awesome, funny, and interesting role-plays in which they showed they understood the new target language and structure I taught.   

           Now, I am sure that the role-plays my students have performed worked really well; they have prepared themselves in a quiet appropriate and creative way and use the target language and structure by following the example I provided and the issues I have taught, and their ideas have flowed easily and naturally. Furthermore, I really love role-plays because students can apply what they are learning in a fluency way. Likewise, by developing role-plays, students have freedom in regard to what they want to express; also, a role-play is like the time for them to show how much they have learned from the topic and how much they can manage it. Besides, I believe that role-plays help students to kick the fear out when learning a new language; thus, the learning process becomes more significant, and students get more excited towards these types of activities instead of filling the blanks. Additionally, I think that a role-play is a key to identify students´ weaknesses and mistakes and to take notes of them so that professors can reinforce these weaknesses during the learning process and correct mistakes at the end of the role-plays for students to think about these mistakes and avoid them.

            In future lesson, I will use role-plays because they help students to let their ideas flow, to kick the fear out, and to act freely; as a result, I will have funniest and more cooperative classes. Besides, I will use role-plays because they help students to think, to wake up creative, and to improve three macro-skills (Writing when preparing the dialogues or the speeches; speaking when performing the rope-play; and listening when listening to the performance). In addition, I will always model or present a model of the activity for student to have a support and get some ideas because I have realized how much to provide a model or just to model the activity helps in free activities. Besides, I will keep in mind this class next time I teach this topic because I really liked the way I planned; however, I will improve some aspects such as to give directions, to congratulate students for their performance, and to manage time.

This is the model I used for students to get ideas for their role-plays or to flow my idea. 

      

My Eighth Class

               In my eighth class, I had to introduce and teach vocabulary related to clothing items. Therefore, in order to have an interesting class, I brought some clothing items (blouse, blue jeans, skirt, scarf, sunglasses, snickers, shorts, cap, socks, panties, men´s boxer, shirt, belt, raincoat, bras, suit, hat, mameluke, etc.) for the presentation phase which was the funniest and the most important part of my class. To start off the presentation phase, I had the name of each clothing item written down on pieces of paper and spread them on the teachers´ desk; also, as I had the clothing items in a basket, I put the basket in the middle of the class; then, I invited students to stand up, to pick up a clothing item, and to make a circle. When all of them got a clothing item, I provided them the corresponding tags for their clothing items. Later on, I presented each of their clothing items in order to introduce pronunciation, and then I introduce the verb “wear” and explain to them the meaning of the verb. After that, I wrote down on the board the phrase “I am wearing …” for students to follow the example, so I started the presentation by showing my clothing item with its tag and telling to the person next to me “Hello my friend, I am wearing my new…”; then, the person who was next to me had to follow the sequence by showing the clothing item with its tag and telling to the person next to him what he was wearing. To finish up, in the same circle, I invited students to describe what I and some other classmates were wearing in order to use the new target language.

             

             When teaching the clothing items, realia is the key for students to have a significant learning. Knowing that, I decided to develop my class using around thirty clothing items; the ideas matched perfectly because students could learn the vocabulary meaningfully; also, when presenting the vocabulary in the circle and by using the realia, they could appreciate the new target language by manipulating and knowing the new language. Besides, I believe that to let students use the material in all my activities was amazing and important because they were allowed to use the material whenever possible so that they felt free and worked well; for example, at the end of my class, I asked them to perform a role-play in which they performed some situations such as purchases at stores and some special deals at street; therefore, they used the authentic and real material instead of imagining the objects or using pictures. Besides, I think that the usage of realia is an essential key tool in class when teaching vocabulary like this.  To finish up, students tend to have fun when developing activities using realia. In my case, they had fun by making weird combination of clothing items and by using the clothing items in the role-play.

            

              Well, I have to admit that I had some mistakes and forgot some details in this class; for instance, I forgot to tell students that they could pick up more than a clothing item in the presentation phase. However, I will not forget that issue next time I teach the clothing items. Besides, in my future lessons, I will do my job as in this class because I am sure I fulfilled my objective and did my teaching practice in the most appropriate way, so I will teach this lesson in the same way, but I will include that details I forgot and correct mistakes when giving directions.

My Seventh Class

Today, I was teaching the simple past to my new group of Basic students in the morning. At the very beginning, I faced problems with technology, but I kept calm and started off my class naturally. In order to diagnose their proficiency level, I started by developing a filler, changing verbs, which was the activity that liked me the most. In this activity, I numbered students from one to three for having the class divided into three groups of seven people; also, I placed students in the following way: Group #1 at the cornerstone; Group #2 at the board; Group #3 at the door. Later, I provided a sheet of paper to each group, markets, and masking tape for them to paste the sheet of paper on the wall. When having the sheets of paper pasted on their place, I asked them to make a line in front of their sheet of paper for them not to cheat. After that, I said that I would say a verb the in present, and they had to write down on the sheet of paper the past form of that verb; however, they had to do it quickly and to pass the market to the person behind them for continuing the sequence. After all, I stopped the activity and asked for the markets, so my work was to count how many verb they had written down correctly. To finish, the group which got more hits was the winner.

In this filler, I not only wanted to recall the verbs in past from, but also I wanted to know how much they knew about the verbs in past from and to introduce new verbs that I used. Besides, I think that to let student write down verbs is a good chance for teacher to know whether or not students have been studied, or if they need reinforcement. Also, when correcting mistakes, students realize and improve what they have done wrong. In addition, I think that it is a good idea to include listening and writing skills in a simple activity like this one because students show if they can recognize the verb by hearing, and they proof if they have learned the spelling correctly. As a result, I can realize if they are going on well in their learning process.

To finish up, I will be more careful in regard to technology for not to have the same problems. Also, I have to admit that sometimes I lose students´ control, so I need to work on that next class I teach. Regarding to the activity, I will have the verbs that I will say in a sheet of paper for not to lose control and time and for not to complicate when revising the verbs students will get at the end of the activity.   

My Sixth Class

After having done the controlled and semi-controlled activities, I continued with the free practice. The grammar issue was relative clauses, and the topic was culture, but I decided to conclude the class with a free practice in which students could show me how they managed relative clauses, so the activity I include was “A Perfect Person”. To introduce the activity, I wrote down on the board that phrase and asked students to pay attention. As an example, I started to describe a perfect person for me, so I said “A perfect person for me is someone who has dreams and goals; also, this person should be someone who works or studies hard. Therefore, this person should be someone who wants to build a better future for us and enjoys life by traveling around the world.” Then, I asked them to discuss with the person next to them about their perfect or favorite people. After some minutes of discussion, I invited students to pass to the front and to talk about their perfect people. In order to make the activity funnier, I wrote down a number on a piece of paper and asked students for that number, so the student who guessed the number had to pass. In addition, everyone participated in this activity.

In this activity, I wanted to evaluate students´ understandings about relative clauses, so I could notice that they understood the grammar part correctly. Besides, I think that to describe a person they want or wish is a good idea when developing this grammar because they can use easily the relative clauses and also simple present as a practice. Also, I am sure that this activity helped me to increase rapport and self-confidence because students felt free of telling us what they really want and I believe that it was because I also let them know my wishes since the very beginning, so I transmitted motivation through my example. Also, as they are teenagers, they enjoyed the activity because most of them were talking about their girlfriend/boyfriend. For instances, they were telling things as:

“A perfect person for me is someone who gives me chocolate, loves me, and protects me.”

“A perfect person for me is someone who gives me money.”

“A perfect person for me is someone who respects me as I am; someone who wants to follow their dreams; a person who also loves me and threats me specially.”

            Regarding to my vision towards future classes, I would like to include more situation instead of having just one situation. Also, it will be a good idea to use this activity as a guessing because there are many situations in which this can be applied; for example:

1.      My favorite person is someone who kisses me, hugs me, loves me…

2.      My favorite instrument or thing is something that allows me to chat with…

3.      My favorite food is something that tastes spacy…

4.      Something that really makes me laugh is …

Next time I teach this lesson, I can also take into account this grammar for describing people; for instance:

1.      A real friend is someone who is always with me in bad and good situations…

2.      An honest person is someone who never…

3.      A good teacher is someone who…

4.      An excellent father/mother is someone who …

To finish up, I will include these new ideas in my future classes or the next time I teach this lesson because I have a new outlook of this grammar point, and these ideas can be better and useful for students to understand the matter.

My Fifth Class

To start off the class, I encouraged students to speak by asking them about activities, moments, trips, and things they did on their vacation; they were telling me all the things they did, and then I asked them if they cleaned their bedroom during their vacation, but the most of them said “No”, so I wrote down the word “MESS” on the board and asked them for some synonyms; they provided words as chaos, disturbance, disorder, and noise. After that, I asked them to get in pairs for them to work on a worksheet I passed. The worksheet contained a picture of an apartment that was a complete mess. I said to students that it was Jennifer´s apartment, and then I invited them to take a look to the picture and notice the mess. Later, I asked them to discuss about it with their partners and to talk about the things that Jennifer should have done or should not have done.  After some minutes of discussion, I asked one by one for them to contribute with some ideas they had about the picture. To finish up, I brought the class together and asked them if they had their bedroom like Jennifer´s.

 By developing the activity described above, my intentions were to recall previous knowledge and diagnose students´ proficiency level when talking about advisability in the past. I think that the activity was appropriate for the topic because students understood easily the point. When discussing about the things Jennifer should have done or should not have done, they found some hardships; however, as my intention was to diagnose how much they knew about the topic, I took advantage and explained to the students who faced hardships while the rest of them were talking. Also, I am sure that this activity made students warm their minds by thinking, formulating, and managing the grammar structure taught.

According to my tutor suggestions, I should have included colors and movements when developing the activity described above, so I will take into account these two observations. How? In my future classes, I will try to have the same picture in color or a better one in a big chart pasted on the board in order to make it visible to the whole class.  Besides, next time I teach this lesson, I will ask students to stand up and go around the class telling others what the girl, in the case, should have done or should not have done for them not to talk with the same mate and not to be sitting in the same place; also, I will try to use the Suggestiopidia approach in order to create a better environment.