November 11. Lesson

This lesson was given last Wednesday and it was given by Nancy, Yan, Brenda, Jaqueline and Gloria.

I like the way how they create an appropriate environment for learning. They are really creative and that is something that I admire from them. Their visual aids were great. Their activities were really nice. The feeling that they have while teaching is fantastic.

The kids could feel their enthusiasm and they feel encouraged to learn, to participate in the activities.

We as spectators could see that the kids were learning and they were enjoying the class.

Everybody has the capacity for teaching, but we have to improve our methods because when we are teaching, we are giving to our students something that they could use in their daily life. They will use that information, that knowledge in the future.

We are giving to them the base of something. And we have to do it in the best way we can.

The Fifth Lesson

This was our second lesson as a group. Our topic was about possessive adjectives and demonstrative pronouns. Because of organization we had some problem with the lesson.

The visual aids were a little bit late in the classroom. However, our classmates improve at the moment of starting the class and the visual aids were not necessary at that moment.

The class was a little sad, there just were 2 kids because of the weather.

In my personal opinion the kids understood the lesson. I think that they will not forget how to use this, that, these and those.

The activities that we chose to develop with the kids were effective because the kids did them and in some cases they looked that they were enjoying them. The most important aspect is that they enjoy while they are learning.

In this day, we could see the importance of having a backup plan. We as teacher should be prepared for everything. We should know how to improvise when it is necessary. We have to apply our knowledge about the kids, about different strategies that we could use for our kids.

The Fourth Lesson

The fourth lesson was given by the group of Xunaxi, Olmes, Josue, Kriscia and Susana.

Their class was really good. My classmates and I could observe that they explained the topic in an excellent way. I think that the visual aids were really attractive. In my personal opinion I could perceive that the kids liked all the pictures and the flashcards that the group used. I could see that kids understood the topic, and at the moment to show what they have learnt, they did it. The lesson was about activities that students like to do. They were talking about pronounces and they were learning and practicing present tense.

In this class I could understood the importance of creating an attractive environment for learning. Pictures, activities, and attitude of teachers are really important factors that encourage students for learning.

Other thing is that in some cases is necessary the use of the native language, but we do not have to abuse of it. Students are learning something new and it is necessary to involve them in this new adventure.

Second Class

The second lesson was in charge of the second group. This group is formed by Brenda, Nancy, Gloria, Yaneth and Jacky.

This class was really entertained. The visual aids and the decoration were really flamboyant. They inspired to learn. I really enjoyed the warm up activity. It was really funny and I saw that the kids enjoyed it too. I think that I could use it in the future while giving a lesson. They refresh previous knowledge with this activity and in my personal opinion all of us would refresh knowledge from the last class in the warm up.

The material that they presented to students was appropriate because they were big enough to notice them. I like the activities to pass to the front and complete the statement or the question. Students could practice what the teachers had taught them in the class.

The interaction of teacher-student and student-student were applied properly in the development of activities. I really liked that because our duty as teachers is to encourage our kids for learning English. I think that with the activities that we developed in the lesson, our students feel comfortable and they want to participate.

Every teacher has a different method of teaching, but the objective is the same, that our students learn something. We have to focus in our objective and give the best of us because only in that way we could reach our purpose. 

Our First Official Class

This day was officially the first day of classes of our children. We are group number one, so we give this first class. In our first class with them we developed these topics: The present continuous and also activities in the classroom. We started with the song that we chose as a group to start the classes.

  First we did the activity “sharks are coming”. This activity had the purpose of choosing a child to complete a word. These words were related with classroom objects. We did this because in the diagnostic class we could see that they know some classroom objects. However we wanted them to write in the correct way the name of those objects.

After that we were explaining about the present continuous. Most of the things were practice in an oral way. For some activities we were acting in order to reinforce what students saw in the pictures that we presented to them. My activity was about to make groups and the group ‘A’ has to make mimics about the activities that we explained in classes and the group ‘B’ had to guess what they were doing. This activity was really nice. I really enjoy it because all the children were willing to participate. All of them give ideas and all of them speak and make mimics. I could see that they enjoyed this activity. After this activity they did the wrap up activity and then we sang the song for the end of the class.

In the feedback part we listened to our classmates. They had some observations. For example they notice that some visual aids were a little small, so they told to us that we could improve that part the next time.

Our first class was successful and I think that the kids learnt something that they. We have things to improve and we will do it. Teachers have to look for the best way for teaching because it is in our hands if our students learn something or not.

Diagnostic Class

The first class was a diagnostic class. This was our first meeting with the children that will be in this last period with us.

There were only five children. We were expecting more children to work with. I think that only five children is not that challenging as if there were twenty children. Maybe we are going to work better only with few children.

In this diagnostic class we just have to develop some activities with the children in order to know how much knowledge they have of English. We just test how children were about vocabulary. For example. We were the first group and we did two activities. The first activity was about animals, domestic and some wild animals. We could see that children know about animals and colors. They know about the pronunciation and also they know how to write them. This was pretty impressive for me because on Saturdays I am giving classes to children about the same age. One Saturday I asked these children what they know about colors and they told me some colors, but when I asked them to write the colors they wrote them in a wrong way. Maybe in their school they have not had enough time to assimilate the correct spelling of these words. My group and I could see that the children in the diagnostic class already have knowledge of vocabulary and some structures.

With the other activities that my classmates did, we got the conclusion that our children are not basic, they need something more challenging to learn. After the diagnostic class we were talking with our teacher and we agreed about what units and topics should be taught to them.

Here are some topics that my classmates used for their activities.

·     The numbers
·         The alphabet
·         The personal pronouns
·         Classroom objects
·         The family members
·         Action verbs, and some others.

This first class was really nice and at the end of the activities our nervous were gone. There was a point in which we felt comfortable with the situation. I think it was a good experience to all of us.

Workshop With the Drama Teacher

In the last two Wednesdays we were working with a drama teacher. The drama teacher told us that there are some important aspects that we as future teachers need to take control of. These aspects are about how to treat with children and people in general.

This activity was really funny. My classmates and I had a really good time doing all the things that the drama teacher told us to do.

Those activities had a purpose. For example: One of them had the purpose of showing that we had to give the best of us without the fear of looking ridiculous. If we are going to work with children we have to be like a child. We have to do all the things that they do. Why do we have to do that? We have to do that because in that way we can create an environment that is cool for children. They will feel comfortable with us and they will learn better because children identify themselves with the teacher.

  

Also the drama teacher told us that we have to project our voices, we have transmit confidence through our voice. We need to have a good attitude any time because in that way people will feel good with us. People will see something in us, and maybe that something will inspire them to learn or to give their best while learning.

Also we identify some toggles that we have when we are speaking in front of people. All of us have some aspects that we need to improve. And the drama teacher helped us to do it. In the second wednesday I could not attend to the activity, but my classmates were practicing about focus in things but they had to perceive what was happening around them.

There is another thing that I would like to mention and it is that the drama teacher gave us some advices about walking around the classroom. We do not have to let any space without passing there because we need to know our environment. We need to be in contact with our children. We need to transmit our desires of teaching because children feel that.
All the things that I practiced and I learnt in this workshop will be useful not only in the future, but they will be useful right now for me. We are learning and we have to put in practice what we learnt in order to get better results in our daily life.

Catching the Attention Of Our Students

In the first class for this week we were talking about some things that we as teacher could use in our classes for catching the attention of children. We were sharing some material in order to reach that objective.

Yaneth shared a “Spinning Wheel”. In my personal opinion a spinning wheel can be used at any level of learning and not only for children. There are many different ways of how to use it. We can stick some question in order to see how much the child had learnt in the class. Yan said that making that spinning wheel is not too difficult, and we saw that it is an interesting activity for catching everybody’s attention. Also we talk about puppets. I brought some ideas for this kind of material. So, I made two puppets with socks. I used wool in order to give to the sock hair. Also I pasted two little glass eyes. We know that kind of puppets are cheap and easy to make. Also there are sticks puppets that are easier to make. With puppets children can play, they can be in a role, they can act with the puppet and they will learn playing with them.

We talked about molding clay. I think that molding clay can be used for filling images. There are a lot of different colors of molding clay that students can use for expressing themselves in this activity.

Also we can make musical instrument and give a rhythm to our classes. I did not know how to make a music instrument, but my classmates and teacher told us how to make them. You can fill some cans of soda with sand or rocks. They are easy to make.

Flipcharts for telling stories are a good way to catch students’ attention because while we are speaking they are watching images related with the story. So. They can identify the principal idea of what teacher are saying and can understand better the story.

In conclusion, if we want to be good teachers we need to use this methods for catching the attention of our students. When students are comfortable with the activities that teachers develop in classes they learn better because they are enjoying what they are doing. They are having fun and learning.

Teaching with Songs

This week of classes was really interesting. We were using chants and songs for teaching children of 7 to 11 years old. The classes were really funny and we enjoyed them a lot. There are many chants and songs that we as teacher could use in order to give to our students the opportunity of learn while they are having fun. In my personal opinion this is an effective way for teaching because children love this kind of activities and they tend to memorize songs and assimilate what the song says.

The first chant that we sang in the classroom was “The Hokey Pokey”. This chant was brought by Yaneth. I think that this chant is a really nice activity for doing with kids because they have to move different parts of their bodies. Students hear what body part the song says, then they identify it. After that they have to shake it. Kids have fun while they are learning about body parts. The second song was called “The Opposites Song”. This song was brought by myself. In this song we were studying about adjectives. Even though kids are not able to understand what an adjective is, they will learn some vocabulary that will be useful in the future. The third song that we sang was “The Hello Song”. This song was brought by Gloria. This is a nice song which could be used in the first day of classes. It includes greetings and could result a very nice warm up for kids. The fourth song was “The old McDonald”. Luis brought this really useful song. With this song teachers can make a lot of things because it is about animals and their different sounds. With this song kids will know how to pronounce different names of animals. This song was really funny because it is a little challenging and in some parts of this song we did not sing at the correct pace. Sometimes we did not sing correctly the song and that was funny. Also, Luis gave a different animal to each of us, so we have lead once the singing with our corresponding animal. The last chant that we sang was about numbers from 1 to 10. This chant was brought by William. It is useful because is a nice way to teach children how to count from 1 to 10.

The second day of classes we had to bring with us a different song, but this time we had to bring the audio or a video of the song. Yaneth brought a song about moves. We had to listen what the song said and then we had to do it. It was funny and entertaining for us. That song will be useful for teaching body parts. I think that children love those kind of activities because they have a lot of energy and that is a good way to let it out. Gloria´s song was really nice and we enjoyed making mimics about what the song said. Children could identify the different feelings that the song presents and then imitate and pronounce them. The song that Luis used was about animals. In my personal case in all the song I could not say ‘Hickory dickory dock’. After seeing the lyrics I was able to say that. The song that William chose was about colors. This song has a nice rhythm and children could feel identified with it. Also the song could suffer some changes in order to teach our students other colors. My song was the same about opposites (adjectives). However, this time we were dancing and making mimics about the adjectives that appeared on the video. We had a really god time with it.

We were having fun with these chants and songs. However, we were analyzing them in order to take advantages of these interesting and useful resource: Chants and Songs. Children need something that catch their attention in order to have a better learning development. If the child likes the way of teaching, he is going to learn more and better. It is our duty to use properly all the resources that we have because we are teachers and we want our students to learn and acquire in a good way English language.

Workshop

This week we had to make a lesson for listening and speaking skills, then we had to make a lesson for reading and vocabulary. Here is my first lesson. My teacher, my classmates and I were analyzing some lessons and identifying some mistakes that we made when we create the lesson.

I had some mistakes. For example. My objective could be more specific. I could mention the number of words that students will learn. Some parts of my during activity should be done in the Pre listening activity. Also I forgot to write some details such as the interaction that would be in the classroom and others. Another mistake that I made was to call my wrap up, “final activity”. Also this activity needs some changes in order to take more advantage of it.


Don Bosco University

Teaching Practicum I “Teaching English to Young Learners”

Teacher: José Eduardo Escobar Vásquez                                                           

Date: August 24, 2015

Topic: My Classroom

Objective: SWBAT identify and pronounce some of the different objects that they have in the classroom. Also they will use some information questions such as: What is this? What Is that? And they will answer appropriately with: This is … That is …

Target Skills: Listening/Speaking                                                                           

Planning Framework: PDP

Time	Stage	Activities/Description	Details
5 Min.	Warm Up	Students will play to pass a ball while teacher is playing a song. When the song stops the student with the ball has to choose a partner for a little role play in order to make a short conversation using structures from the previous classes such as: Hi, I am _____. Nice to meet you. How old are you? I am _____ years old. Bye, Bye. He is my friend ____. He is _____ years old.	Aim: It is to refresh knowledge from previous classes. Materials: A little ball, CD player.
10 Min.	Pre	Teacher will present the topic: The Classroom. Also he will present the vocabulary that will be used for the class. Teacher will show some picture and some objects that are in the classroom to the students in order to get familiar with the topic and the pronunciation that they will be using.	Aim: To know the vocabulary that students should use in the class. To get familiar with the pronunciation of them. Materials: Pictures of some classroom objects. Also some classroom objects
15 Min.	During	Teacher will present the information questions that will be used in the class and the appropriate manner of answer to them. Students will repeat with the teacher how to ask them. What is this? This is …     What is that? That is … What are these? These are …    What are those? Those are …	Aim: To identify and apply the correct way of asking for what are things. Materials: Pictures of different classroom objects, the board and markers.
10 Min.	Post	Students will practice by themselves asking and answering each other: What is this? This is ____ What is that? That is ____ What are these? These are __ What are those? Those are ___	Aim: To put in practice what they understood from the lesson. Materials: Different objects from the classroom and the pictures used before.
10 Min.	Final Activity	Students are going to do a similar activity as the Warm Up, but this time they have to answer to the teacher the questions that he ask to them. This questions are from the lesson.	Aim: To see how much students had understood from the lesson. If they can ask and answer correctly the question studied in class.

MY SECOND LESSON

Don Bosco University

Teaching Practicum I “Teaching English to Young Learners”

Teacher: José Eduardo Escobar Vásquez                                                           

Date: August 27, 2015

Topic: My Classroom

Objective: SWBAT pronounce and write in the correct way at least 8 objects from the classroom.

Target Skills: Vocabulary/Writing                                                                          

Planning Framework: PPP

Time	Stage	Activities/Description	Details
5 Min.	Warm Up	Students will a play a game called Sharks are coming. In this game students have to walk around the classroom, then the teacher say “Sharks are coming”. Students have to answer “How many?”, and the teacher has to say a number, then the students have to form groups with the number of people that teacher said before. The student without a group has to answer a question that the teacher will ask.	Aim: It is to review knowledge from previous classes. Materials: --- Interaction: T-S
15 Min.	Presentation Writing	The vocabulary that will be used for the class will be presented by the teacher. Teacher will show picture of some objects that are in the classroom to the students, with their corresponding name. Also some information questions will be presented in order to ask for those things. This questions will be: What is this? This is …     What is that? That is … What are these? These are …    What are those? Those are …	Aim: To know the vocabulary and the questions that students should use in the class, also to know how to spell/write their names correctly. Materials: Pictures of some classroom objects with their corresponding name Interaction: T-S
15 Min.	Practice Writing	Teacher will practice with students the questions presented before. The correct pronunciation and the correct application or use of them. A sheet of paper with some pictures should be resolved by students. In these exercises they have to filling some blank spaces with the answers that they consider correct.	Aim: To identify and apply the correct way of asking and answering for what are things. Materials: Pictures of different classroom objects, the board and markers. A sheet of paper with some exercises   Interaction: T-S
10 Min.	Production Writing	Students will practice by themselves drawing and writing in their notebooks. Students will write the question: What is this? And then they have to draw a classroom object and write the answer for that question. After that they are going to change notebooks in order to see what their classmates drew.	Aim: To put in practice what they understood from the lesson. Materials: Their notebooks, pencil, colors. Interaction: S-S
10 Min.	Wrap Up	Some students are going to pass to the board and draw and object, then they will ask their classmates what is that object and another participant is going to the board and write the answer that their classmates gave.	Aim: To see how much students had understood from the lesson. If they can write correctly some objects that we were learning about in the class. Materials: The board, some markers. Interaction: T-S; S-S

Case of Study

In my case of study I wanted to see the behavior and the reasoning of children. And I took Kohlberg theory in order to base my experiment.

I have the opportunity of being working with children at church. I work with children of 1 – 12 years old. And the experience that I have been going through is a really interesting because you can see them interacting with other children. People might think that there exist some groups of children and that they get in group with their similar, but most of the “elder” children enjoys to play with younger children. In my analysis I could say that not all the children think in the same way. Not all the children act in the same way. They are unique and the fact that in some cases they act in a similar way does not mean that they are exactly or have exactly the same mind.

I would like to mention many cases of the children that I see every week at church, but I have to choose only one for my project.

Objective: To probe that Kolhberg theory about Pre-Conventional Morality is presented in children, in this specially case, a six yeras old girl.

Child’s Profile
Name	Keyry Abigail Carrillo
Age	6 years old
Likes	Play soccer, Running, Going to school
	She is a very active child. In some cases is a little bit difficult to control her.

   

Kohlberg in his theory in the preconventional morality said that: People make decisions based on what is best for themselves, without regard for others' needs or feelings. They obey rules only if established by more powerful individuals; they may disobey if they aren't likely to get caught. "Wrong" behaviors are those that will be punished. Moral code is shaped by the standards of adults and the consequences of following or breaking their rules.

I told the children in general a story, but I paid special attention to Keyry’s answer. This story was similar to Heinz’s story that Kohlberg mentioned. I told them that there was a family with nothing to eat. The family was an elder brother of 15 years old and two little children of 5 and 6 years old. The elder brother go out to look for something to eat for him and his brothers but at the end of the day he could not get anything to eat so he decided to do something and he went to steal some bread for him and his little brothers.

I asked to the children if the elder brother’s action was ok or not. The answer of this little girl was that it was a bad action, she told me that steal thing or food is bad. I asked why it was a bad action and I explain to her that they were hungry and they needed to eat. She told me that her parents told her that steal is a bad action.

I could see the reaction of this little girl and I could understand better the theory of Kohlberg when he said that moral code is shaped by the standards of adults.

It could appear that children know what is good or what is bad, but when they are in an early age they just know what parents say. When they are growing up they know the difference of bad and good actions by themselves.

Also Kohlberg said that Children recognize that others also have needs. They may try to satisfy others' needs if their own needs are also met ("you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours"). They continue to define right and wrong primarily in terms of consequences to themselves.

I noticed that when I was talking to them, Keyry wanted to go out, but I told her that when I finish then she could go out. After that she tried to stay quiet and pay attention to what I was saying. In this little situation I could see that she for almost 2 minutes approximately was paying attention, but after that she got distracted and started to do other things. In this situation I perceive that she wanted to go out because she was trying to behave. I asked her to wait and she waited for a moment. We both had an objective I wanted to finish my talk to them and she wanted to out. It was “you pay attention, you go out”.

My conclusion is that the behavior of children is pretty similar in many cases. Their attitudes could be predictable and maybe the strategies that we as teacher have to use with them could result similar too, but there will be some variation depending of the children and we have to modify our strategy for any child.

It is really interesting see how is children development and knowing the different theories of child development created for some psychologist is really useful in order to understand their stages. 

Children development theories are necessary for teachers in order to look for some strategies that will help young students to learn better things, in our case, English.