Luis and Gloria's Class: Welcome to the classroom

Friday, September 13th, 2013.


The first class just came! 

The two classmates that were going to start the English classes were Luis and Gloria. So, let's go!

First, Luis went directly to the point. I think that this is not good for the students who are not in touched and familiar with English. They just started and begun to teach the lesson. Luis presented it and he used very good materials for me. This helped him to develop the class, but the flashcards were not made for standing still (hard paper), the sheets of papers were weak and obviously you can have problems with it. Then, I guess when it is your first contact with children you are not accustomed to error correcting them and you may fail with your tone of voice, too. Thus, this elements could bring serious or not so problems with the children, because they tell everthing and then they no longer go to classes. Then, I just remember that they had a matching activity. Students had a strip of paper with the word of any of the vocabulary target and the only thing was to put it under the picture that corresponded. They did it, but they just went and sticked the strip of paper. He missed out the order of participation and this way he could have corrected or helped the students. Some of them who are leaning to read in the mother tongue seem very lost and could complete the task with peer help. 
Then, I also remember that Luis called out names of the objects of the classroom, and some of them raised the object like pencil, pen, eraser. They were lost in a moment but they were able to demostrate that they were remembering the vocabulary. They also asked the colors, numbers.

Gloria worked with the topic of alphabeth. I think that she was doing nice because she projected a special energy and then when an activity just seemed not to

work she immediately adapted it and continue with it. I think that she had to reflect on the way of modeling, giving short and clear instructions at the moment of explaining them. By doing this, she will have the opportunity to get better results in her activities and she will notice that students will get the message. She also wanted them to make a line, but they did not understand so they took too much time in making it. I think that she must reduce their teacher talking, so that next time they do more (Ss) and let them practice more.


MY CASE OF STUDY


This is Imelda Mariel Abarca. She is six years old. In the picture, she is younger... she has always been extrovertive in her family environment. She is in preschool, she is barely learning how to write and read; knows a few letters and how to write them. 

The group that we have is mixed and diverse in knowledge. They have different ages and they have multiple and nice knowledge of the target language. What I see from the official  class that started on September 13th, is that the children were kind of shy to participate and seem lost. This is not a general truth, because they liked to participate even when they did not understand most of what Luis and Gloria (my classmates) were saying. 

They implement their body language to transmit the message, examples, modeling and they finished with the practice of the lesson.  I have to talk about how I perceived my case of study and I would like to discuss first what I saw as let's say, disadvantegeous or problematic with Imelda. 
1. Since she is begining to recognize how to read words in our mother tongue (Spanish), she is not able yet to read in English. At the begining of the class, Luis elicited like 8 new words (vocabulary of the classroom) and I saw that she was copying the words but I bet she was wondering what those words meant. The rest of the group was able to read them easily, because the rest of the children are between 7 and 10. 
What she did at the time she was not getting into the task, is that she approached me and told me that she could not understand anything and that I was the one who had to translate for her. I just told her that she was going to learn and that she was going to do everything good. 
2. I also felt that she was not that into the activities that my partners were developing. Maybe she felt left behind and she did not pay attention as she was supposed to. When they were sitted on th floor, Imelda put herself at the back and was doing something else. I believe that a better order with the 15 students could have helped the SS and the T when developing the activity. We all have to be aware of this. They have to feel that they are part of the learning or games, if not they will be bored and will not participate. 

These are the two thouths that I had in mind to explain. However, there are positive actitudes that were present in this day. They participate in every activity, most of the kids learnt the lesson, the activities that my classmates prepared were actractive and  and they reached confidence in this class. Hopefully, they continue like this and get better friday after friday. It is reasonably to think that the process of Imelda in gaining experience, confidence in the learning process must be continuos and intensive. This can perfectly can done or reached through the constant inmersion in the target language. It is possible. Teachers have to remember and analize how to set activities that integrate this kind of children in English classes. They are capable if the task is well set and organized for the type of characteristic they have. 

See you!!!