Natural disaster was the topic of my first class
at English Access. Because the speaking activities are the most relevant part
for students from English Access, I presented the topic in a PPP and asked for
some comments about it. Then, I showed some pictures of natural disasters
(thunderstorm, landslide, earthquake, tsunami, tornado, flood, volcanic
eruption, and hurricane) to the students for them to know the signifier and the
significant; also, I applied the repetition drill in this part for them to
pronounce the words correctly. Further, I asked them to make groups of five or
four and to get together. When having all the groups together, I explained to
them that they had to discuss about a natural disaster they had lived; also, I
told them to choose a natural disaster for talking about it and for them to
give recommendations for people to prevent, control, and avoid some of these
phenomena. Besides, I told them that everyone in the group had to participate
at least with an experience or idea. Also, I gave them the option of working
outside because of the space; however, I was monitoring the activity and
clarifying doubts about vocabulary. After several minutes of discussion, they
had to past to the front and express their recommendations, experiences, and
ideas with the whole class. Unfortunately,
I did not that the class finished at three fifty, so only a group could pass.
When
talking about fluency, I think this activity help students a lot because they
can discuss freely and naturally what they think, or what they want to say
about any issue. In this case, they were talking about natural disaster, so
they could express their worries or thoughts about the catastrophes they have
lived. Besides, to provide recommendations for people to prevent, control, and
avoid was main objective in this activity, so it also helps students to think
about what they are doing in the environment. Furthermore, my instructions were
clear enough for students to understand and work well, but the classroom
management was not so good because I need to improve a little bit and find out
the way for working in a reduced space.
In the future, I want to include some articles for students to read
about the cause and effect of some natural disaster for them to work in groups
and create a chart in which they can present the definitions, causes, preventions,
and recommendations for each natural disaster. Also, I know that I have to
contextualize the topics; however, if I have more time in future lessons, I
would like to include more natural disaster for students to know about them
because they will not go to another country, suffer a natural disaster, and do
not know about what is happening or what to do.
