My Thrid Class

             In my last class, SWBAT give and ask for direction correctly by practicing oral activities was my main objective, so I tried to plan as much oral activities as possible for them to speak during the whole class. My favorite and relevant part of the class was an activity in which students worked on the floor. I asked students to make 4 groups of 7, get together, and take a sit on the floor; then, I provided students a huge map of a town, some hot wheels toys, and some questions. When having the students with the materials, I utilized the cannon project in order to screen the huge map on the board; also, I asked a student “I am at UNICAES. How can I get to the beach”, and then the student I asked had to give me the direction; but, while she was giving the direction, I used a toy in order to perform what she was saying by moving my toy on road given. She did it pretty well, so I invited students to get a toy and do the same by taking turns in their groups. I did not want to stop the activity because they were having fun, and I was interacting with them by playing in each group as well; however, after several minutes, I asked them to select two representatives from each group and to pass to the front for them to develop what I did in the example. By the way they did a well-done job.

          The use of realia is really recommendable when teaching directions and I say this because my students work, understand, and get the idea quickly when developing my activities. Besides, I think that the usage of this activity is important because students are supported by others when having a problem; also, they can correct themselves because while they are giving a direction, they can see what they are saying and correct at the time if they are not doing it well.

            Based on what I have observed, I think that students generally learn better when they work in small groups; also, they do not get frustrated when doing something incorrectly because others can support them and give them options in order to improve what they are doing at that moment. Besides, the usage of realia is pretty nice because students manipulate and control every step of the activity. Indeed, students´ learning process is motivated because they do not feel like they cannot do something as in worksheet in which they have to fill the blank, and they know that there is just an answer. In brief, for me and my tutor, this class was almost perfect because of some little mistakes; and I am sure that I fulfilled my objective because they worked well and spoke a 75% of the class.

           To finish up, I will include more realia in my future classes because I am sure that it will help my students´ learning process. In addition, the next time I teach this lesson, I will not stop the activity if my students are having fun and enjoying the activity; also, I will include a well-designed map in order to students have more streets, avenues, places, roundabout, and so on. 

My Second Class.

              To use preposition of place correctly was my objective in the most relevant part of my second class which was the semi-controlled activity. First, by having the students in a horseshoe sitting arrangement, I asked them to work in pairs; then, I utilized the Conon projector for showing them an image of a room; also, everything in the image was tagged; for example, blanket, teddy bear, door, plant, table, chair, bed, brush, mirror, closet, and so on. Now, after repeating the words in the image, I asked some questions related to the topic such as where is the pillow, desk, vase, book, and so on; so I helped them by providing some answers such as the pillow is on the bed. Later, I asked student to formulate some questions and provide answers orally as the previous examples; I gave them around 10 minutes for them to describe the image using the prepositions of place. During these 10 minutes, I was monitoring the class in order to pay attention to some mistakes. After that, I asked some questions as the examples by naming some students, so they had to answer to my questions; for instance, where is the teddy bear, Astrid?, so she said that the teddy bear was on the closet and between the poster and the mirror. Knowing all the answers without mistakes, I could notice that they not only liked the activity, but also they understood the grammar phase perfectly. To finish, I fulfilled my objective in this activity because students showed to me that they can use prepositions by describing orally where the things are instead of pointing at them only.

I can mention that this activity was a success because students worked with enthusiasm, and I can also say that the class was not bored. Besides, I think this kind of activity is appropriate for students to develop their speaking skills; also, if they think how to form questions and how to provide answers in this activity, they will develop fluency rapidly when speaking or wanting to contribute with some ideas in future issues. Therefore, I think that to let students talk in their way is the most important part when teaching to beginners because it increases confident and fluency at the same time; however, after finishing the activity, teacher can correct mistake or even their classmates can sometimes support them by let them know their mistakes.

            Well, I have realized that my students find enjoyable activities in which they can interact among them; it can be because they are participative when working on a task. Besides, I know that they understand speaking activities better than writing or reading, and I confirm this because it is notable the motivation they have when working in pairs and speaking. Another aspect I have noticed is that they prefer to speak in English instead of speaking in Spanish during the class, so it is important to take advantages of this by having more speaking activities so that they will be also improving their listening skill. Therefore, I believe that the usage of realia helped me in this class because when explaining the grammar phase, I use some students in order to teach prepositions of place; as an illustration, I ask for some volunteers; then, in the teacher´s desk, I collocated a boy under the desk, a girl behind the desk, another girl on the desk, another boy next to the desk, myself in front of the desk, a ball between the laptop and the Canon projector, and everybody in the classroom; after, I created sentences such as Ernesto is under the desk; Karen is behind the desk, and so on. Then, using the same sentences but in the questions form, I asked them “Where are we? Where is the teacher? Where is the ball?” So, they had to answer correctly. By doing all this, I believe they have had a significant learning.     

            In the future, I will improve some details and control my anxiety. Besides, I will include more speaking activities in order to have a more enjoyable class in my future lessons; also, I want to make emphasis in the use of realia because it has been something notable that students prefer to manipulate things instead of just watching them, so for this reason realia has been something that I really want to take into account in every class specially for beginners. Regarding to the semi-controlled activity, I have though that I can make some changes as instead of having just a picture for student to describe it, I can have more than one picture and give a minute for describing the picture in order to do not stress student by watching the same picture, so I will do this the next time I teach this lesson.  

My First Class.

In my first class, I decided to develop an ice breaker at the very beginning of the class; the ice breaker I chose was “What is your favorite…?” I asked students to stand up and divide the class in three groups; one group had to be in the left, the other in the right, and the other in the middle. When having the students in their groups and in a circle, I gave them an object per group; also, I used the Conon Projector in order to show some questions they might use such as what is your favorite food, animal, color, music, class, and so on. After that, I explained to them that they had to pass the objects among them and ask the mentioned questions in their groups while I played music. I was monitoring the groups by going around the class and listening to some questions, answers, pronunciation, and fluency. After some two minutes, I stopped the music, and the student, who got the object at the time in each group, had to ask whichever question to the students who had the object in the other groups; for instance, “A” student asked “B” student, and “B” student asked “C” student, and “C” student asked “A” student. Now, I could notice that the environment was appropriate because their participation and interaction were so cool. To finish, I developed this activity in order to introduce possessive adjectives (my and your), and I also wanted to know my students´ interests.

Because this was my first class, I needed to know about my students´ interests and likes, so I think that “What is your favorite…?” was significant. Besides, I am sure that most of them had not had a conversation since the term started off, so they could interact by having this activity. Also, I can affirm that they learned many new words when asking and answering. In addition, the importance of this activity was that students spoke as much as possible, and as a teacher, I encouraged them to speak whenever possible for them to improve fluency and take the fear out.  To finish up, the purpose of this was to have students all together and to make them participate.

            I think students have understood the possessive adjectives (my and your) since the very beginning because when studying the grammar phase, they did not have troubles in trying to understand the meaning of the words and the rest of the possessive adjectives. Also, I realized during the controlled practice that they did not have doubts or troubles when filling the worksheet I gave them. Besides, in the semi-controlled activity, I have to admit that I did not give directions correctly at the beginning, so I had to explain to each team again; however, they worked and use the target language well. When giving directions, I think that teacher must do it carefully because students cannot understand well, and they will be standing up and waiting for a better direction. Also, I am sure that vary the activities and the way of working can influence in students´ learning process, so my methodology was to have them sitting and standing, working solo and team work or pair work so that they will not get bored.  

           In the future, I will be careful when giving directions because it is hard when students do not understand an activity, and also it is a waste of time, so I will pay attention to it next time. Besides, I will include more dynamic activities in my future lessons in order to do not fall in the same tasks during the controlled activity. Therefore, the next time I teach this lesson, I will include more interesting things in order to get everyone´s participation. Now, regarding to the mistakes, I will take into account Miss. Jimenez´s feedback because it is important to improve my teaching skills, and my biggest mistake was my nervousness, so I will try to relax and do my best in order to avoid these mistakes because it can damage students´ learning process.