Second class: At home (Cristela, Gisselt and Monica's class)

Hello!

It is nice to meet again in the blog! Hoping that you are reading and following me in this adventure! 

In this opportunity, my classmates Cristela, Gisselt and Monica had to develop a topic called "At home" which they had to present vocabulary related, plus a review of the first class that Luis and Gloria did. 

I will develop my thoughts, comments to improve on or suggestions for them to take into account for further classes. We have to remember that the group of students were 15 and their cognitive abilities varied which is good because we can absolutely develop a series of activities prepared for their multiple characteristics.  

WARM UP
The first thing that I noticed is that they used a  video-song "hello" to welcome the students. I think that this was so useful for them to start thinking that it is time to learn English! I think that Gisselt use it properly giving the students the chance to be happy and chant a little. The lyric  is easy to understand. However, I think that the song was not played enough so they can enjoy more the song. 
This would have been enhanced if the group of the teachers had song at least four times the song and more important let the children to sing and move along with them. 

PRESENTATION

Giss presented the class. She used a power presentation. I think that it was so nice designed and because this was for children, it had to be simple and so clear. Students were paying attention to it while Giss was eliciting or giving the presentation. 
I liked the fact that she called the child's name if the student was not paying attention to her or was distracted. This is an excellent technique to implement! I will use it next time. 

PRACTICE

This stage is so important because in here we are able to see that students are capable of practicing what they had just learnt. Giss gave the students boxes to each of them and students had to use their pencil or pen to do the activity. Giss was saying: "The pencial is on the box", "the pencil is in the box", so that each preposition was used. I think that what was complicated to do for a child is that they did not know how to identify the front and the back of the box. For me, in order to put this in the box, Giss could have put a door at the front of the box, pretending to be a house; this may have helped the children, because some of them were confused whether the pencil will be put behind the box or not. This is significative but not so much of importance. Then, it was a chart that the prepositions were there with a proper draw so the students could identify each preposition. They had the chance to practice more, and Giss asked them "where is the ball?" and they said: "the ball is on the box", pointing to the draw that accompanied the prepo. This was so useful! I think that even though they are good readers, some were not and the drawing guided them to identify each prepo according to the actual draw or picture. 

The next activity that I liked and that it was under debate on the class, was Cristela's kinestetic activity. 

She developped and managed it well. I think that she could have done better if the control of order was manage, but children were so energetic that moment that sometimes even when you said "behave!", they did not behave, they just wanted to move around the room that they even scream of joy! I said that this activity was under debate, because someone  said that they just followed the oldest children to move and look for the preposition. The prepositions were sticked in the floor with the word and a picture of it. They just moved, but I think that was went wrong is that it was not observable in itself if the children were just copying the movements of the oldest children or they actually got the information. 
Then, the practices were related with the alphabet, the numbers, colors all of these gave the children the chance to recycling all the vocabulary they had learned in the first class. 
Then, I also liked Monica´s activity in which students were given a sheet of paper with a drawing of a room. This room contained elements of the vocabulary of the classroom, like ruler, book, toys, etc and the new one. Monica said: Where is the doll? and she called a girls's name or boy's name for the answer. Then, the boy or girl had to grab the object that was named and put it on the exact place that teacher Monica mentioned. 

MY CASE OF STUDY: IMELDA MARIEL ABARCA

Well, I have reached this part where I want to update you about my case of study. This means that I observe this girl and how she manages in each activity. It is really interesting to note their advancement in the learning process. First, I can say that Imelda is a quiet student, though this does not mean that she does do what the teachers asked her to respond or do. In fact, she answers to the questions she is asked by the teachers. Sometimes she is helped by Maritza, an older girl. She is very active and responsive in the activities, wheter the activities are quiet or moving. 
When Giss was presenting the topic, Mariel was writing on her notebook and one can think that she was not paying attention to Giss and to the lesson. However, when Giss asked her something like "Where is the pencil?" She said the prepositon only and Giss completed the sentence. I think that she is learning even when she knows she is the youngest in the group, she is very capable of participating in any activity.