1. JOURNAL
Trainee’s name: Ivón Valdez
Practicum level: Beginners
Group: 5 year-olds
Date: June 5th
Lesson number: 1
When planning this lesson I thought of the Natural Approach as an effective
way of emphasizing communication through not forcing language output, but allowing it
to come out instinctively after providing language input. Besides, I thought it was a
good idea to organize it according to the PPP method because, according to Jeremy
Harmer (2009), it is a method that is widely used in teaching simple language at lower
levels.
Finally, when delivering the lesson I found that the Natural Approach was
appropriate since students responded well to it.
The teaching strategies I used were modeling what children were expected to
do, showing pictures and pointing at the corresponding item while naming it to help
them make the connection between names and meaning, explaining and
demonstrating instructions, describing, and miming the vocabulary so that children can
remember it while playing.
These strategies were really useful for me, specially showing pictures to help
comprehension and avoid translation.
Students reacted really well to the activities: they were eager to participate and
seemed to have a lot of fun as well.
Regarding the material, they were fascinated when I told them I had a surprise
and showed them the poster of Peppa Pig. They wanted to get closer and touch it, one
of them even asked me whether he could touch it.
They also reacted well to the whole lesson.
However, as the children knew the characters so well, sometimes it was difficult
for them to remember the expected vocabulary (daddy, mummy, etc) since at first they
said "papá cerdito", "mamá cerdito", etc.
What I consider the most successful of the lesson is the selection of material,
and I think I could succeed in this because I investigated a lot about the current likes of
five-year-olds beforehand.
Furthermore, instructions were always followed by demonstration and I think
that was the best way to tell students how to do something: to actually do it myself. For
example, when I asked them to walk like a particular character, I showed them how to
do it.
I think what require improvement are the strategies of classroom management
since there were some students who stood up all the time and did not listen to the
instructions. Despite that, those students participated in the activities because they
observed what their mates did, nevertheless their misbehavior while standing up made
difficult to hear my instructions.
In this lesson I checked that children are noisy and energetic and that they need
to move a lot. I also knew how quickly twenty minutes pass. Those things helped me in
deciding the activities for the next lesson.
While I was observing the local teacher, I noticed she told students commands
in English and then repeat them in Spanish immediately. So I asked her about that and
she told me it was a technique called "sandwich technique" which you use when
students are very very beginners to help them make the connection between the
command and the meaning. You first say the instructions in English, then in Spanish,
and finally in English again as a reinforcement. I told her I wanted not to use L1 at all
and help them understand through miming but she said they wouldn't understand, so I
tried to do both things in order not to upset the local teacher.
2. Trainee’s name: Ivón Valdez
Practicum level: Beginners
Group: 5 year-olds
Date: June 12th
Lesson number: 2
Just like in the first lesson, when planning this one I thought of the Natural
Approach as a way of emphasizing communication. However, when delivering it, I
found it a bit frustrating that children couldn't understand full utterances yet. Anyway,
regarding organization, I organized it according to the PPP method again because that
worked well.
The teaching strategies were again modeling what children were expected to
do, showing flashcards and pointing at the corresponding item while naming it so that
they understand the meaning, demonstrating instructions, and miming the vocabulary
of clothes so that children can remember it better.
These strategies were in fact helpful for me, just as in the previous lesson, so I
decided I will use them in the next one too.
Students reacted very well to the activities, they participated, and they had fun
too. They also reacted well to the whole lesson.
Regarding the material, one day while planning this lesson I decided to ask one
of the teachers of that school what other cartoon children would like, and she told me
that she did not like conventional cartoon's families, that she preferred children to see
pictures of unknown characters so that they do not feel identified with any of the
characters. That is why in this lesson I used a different poster.
What I consider the most successful of the lesson is the choice of activities
since children really loved colouring and I think this is thanks to the previous
investigation I carried out in order to know five-year-olds' likes.
What still requires improvement is the presentation of activities in a meaningful
context. It is difficult for me to think of a context in order not to present the activities out
of the blue, and I think this is due to the fact that these children handle very little
vocabulary and everything I think of seems too difficult for their level of English.
In this lesson, children didn't move as much as in the previous one since after
making the train to sing the welcome song, they sat to do the activities and didn't get
up until the end of the lesson. As a consequence, some of them were evidently noisy
and loud, and that made me aware of their need of movement, standing up, jumping,
etc. Therefore, I took mental notes on that and decided to make some changes for next
class.
I would like to add that after receiving feedback on my lesson plan, I decided to
use some of the suggestions. For example, in one of the activities I had planned to ask
children what a particular character of a poster wore, but when I delivered the lesson I
asked what the character was wearing, as I was suggested.
3. Trainee’s name: Ivón Valdez
Practicum level: Beginners
Group: 5 year-olds (sala amarilla y sala roja)
Date: June 19th
Lesson number: 3
When planning this lesson I thought again of the Natural, and I organized it
according to the PPP method because, according to Jeremy Harmer (2009), it is a
method that is widely used in teaching simple language at lower levels. Also, as in the
previous lessons, it was appropriate since students responded well to it.
The teaching strategies I used were demonstration, exemplification, and
modeling what children were expected to do, showing pictures and pointing at the
corresponding characters while naming them to help children make the connection
between names and meaning, new instructions were accompanied with gestures so
that children can understand them.
These strategies were useful, specially modeling the new instructions such as
close your eyes and blow a kiss because children understood immediately.
Students reacted really well to the activities because they loved singing.
Regarding the material, I made the flashcards myself, and I used a kind of clips
to fasten the arms of the characters to their bodies, so they could move them as if they
were waving. They were great!
What is more, the material I presented is what I consider the most successful of
the lesson because, as all the characters from the flashcards could move their arms
while saying "hello" and "good-bye", children were fascinated and wanted to shake
hands with them.
I think that what require improvement is that the activities didn't allow students
to move as much as they expected. Even though "sala amarilla" is big and children
could stand up and make a big circle to sing the song, I could notice they wanted to
move more, maybe to dance. "Sala roja" is smaller and children had no enough space
to make a circle, so they just stood up next to their chairs.
One more time, the issue of need for movement appeared, and that was
influential in deciding the activities for the next lesson.
I want to add that the local teacher keeps telling me I should use the "sandwich
technique" all the time, so I did.
Besides, I want to tell you about a problem I had, which I already commented
on the forum: when all the children were sitting in a big circle and I was showing the
flashcards, one of them continuously stood up to say something to another child, then
to me, and then to another child again, and again and again. So I decided to name him
"my secretary" and asked him to take the flashcards and lift them up for me. This
worked really well, but when the activity was over, other children asked me to be
secretaries too. I told them we had finished for today, and that next class I would
choose another secretary, and some of them were really disappointed. One child even
cried... he actually cried his eyes out! I I told him next time he could be the secretary
but he went on crying. I didn't know what to do! Finally, the local teacher came to me
and told me he was always like this because he was the only child in his family so he
was very spoiled, and that I shouldn't worry. A terrible moment!
Then I knew that every day there are two different designated "secretaries" a
course in order to help to hoist the flag. So in the second group I chose those ones to
hold the pictures for me.
4. Trainee’s name: Ivón Valdez
Practicum level: Beginners
Group: 5 year-olds (sala amarilla y sala roja)
Date: June 26th
Lesson number: 4
When planning this lesson I again thought of the Natural Approach organized
through the PPP method because I found it appropriate for teaching at lower levels.
The teaching strategies I used were demonstration and exemplification,
explanation and showing pictures while pointing at the corresponding colours and
naming them to help children make the connection between names and meaning.
These strategies were useful. Besides, I asked children to repeat after me the new
colours so that they can practise their pronunciation, but maybe I should have asked
them to repeat chunks rather than isolated words as you suggested me. But then,
during the song, they could learn chunks.
Students reacted really well to the activities because I planned them bearing in
mind that they really like colouring and singing.
As regards the material, I had planned to stick a straw on each child's picture so
that they can rise them up while singing. However, in "sala amarilla" I had no time to do
so since the lesson was a bit shorter (because the school teachers couldn't reach an
agreement about when children should practise a song for an act). Anyway, in "sala
roja" I could do it and it was great since children liked it a lot.
What I consider the most successful of the lesson is the selection of activities
because I opted for the ones which I knew that worked well.
I think that what requires improvement is the fact that I give little time to think to
children, as the local teacher told me, so I often ended up answering my own questions
instead of waiting for the students to answer.
I would like to add that when I was delivering the lesson in "sala amarilla", the
headmistress entered and interrupted me to ask if I could substitute an absent teacher.
We talked for a couple of minutes and then she left. I found that inappropriate, since
children were waiting for me. Another thing that happened was that while we were
singing, the school teacher, who was sitting in the back of the classroom, said she
couldn't listen to the song and that encourage children to sing louder. That was very
helpful.
In "sala roja" the school teacher usually participated in all the lessons: she
always repeated after me, sang, and helped me deliver the colour pencils and stuff.
She was great.
In general, I think the biggest problem for me was the time because I found hard
to plan interesting activities to do in such short lessons. Besides, the local teacher was
always in a rush since she delivered four lessons one after the other. Therefore, after
finishing with the second group, she said good bye to me and disappeared into another
classroom. It was always difficult for me to have a minute to talk to her about anything:
teaching points and materials, to ask her about children's previous knowledge (what
colours they knew, what clothes, etc). Finally, we ended up talking on the phone.
