Historical philosophical, theoretical, and legal foundations of special and i...
Vanesa's feedback
1. PRACTICE II, DIDACTICS OF ELT and Practicum Primary School
level. Adjunto Regular a/c Prof. Estela N. Braun (2017).
Teacher Assistants: Prof. Vanesa Cabral and Prof. Maria Lis Luján
Ramos. ETA MA John Brakke.
REGISTRO:
ALUMNA RESIDENTE: Laura Ramirez
COLEGIO: Escuela 4. 5th Year.
DOCENTE CO-FORMADORA: Romina Cheme
Fecha: 13/09/2017
There are 23 students. They are quite noisy. Laura enters the
classroom but she doesn´t say hello to the whole group. She greets
some of them, who are near the teacher´s desk but not to the whole
group. Suggestion: it is really important to greet them at the very
beginning because it is essential to teach them routine habits and to
show respect to them. In this way, you show them that you are glad
to see them again, and you are telling them “Hello, I am here, we are
going to start to work in the English class”.
She starts writing the date on the board, her handwriting is clear and
her tone of voice is loud. She starts copying but the students are
standing up and talking among them. Suggestion: ask them to sit
down, to make silence and then, you start copying. Otherwise, they
will not notice that you are copying the task for them.
Another suggestion: if you want to start copying, maybe, you can copy
a certain part of the task and you ask them to start copying; you must
monitor them and ask them to start copying, then, you continue
2. copying the rest. Otherwise, you are giving your back to them for a
long time and the disruptive behaviour increases.
She gives the instructions in English and the students understand
perfectly well. She uses both languages in a balanced way.
For the first activity, she makes them sit in groups but it is not
necessary. Moreover, I think it was a disadvantage because they had
to move without any specific purpose, they did not need to sit in groups
because the question they read had to be answered by the partner who
was sitting next to him/her, so it was nonsense to have groups of four
or five. Another suggestion: if the student who has to read the question
is called to stand at the front, you can call everybody´s attention
because they do not know, who is going to be named so, they must
pay more attention.
Then, she shows them some ice-cream sticks and tells them that they
are going to play a game. She makes them guess the meaning of “ice-
cream sticks” by mimes, and she asks them the meaning. Or for
example, she asks them what the meaning of “wink the eyes” is! She
uses gestures for actions too. Very good! When the students guess the
meaning, she says “excellent/very good!!”. This is very important for
young learners, you must always reward them.
A suggestion: maybe, when the first sticks are chosen, you can take
them out, so they do not repeat the same actions so many times and
they can´t practice others.
She also writes the new vocabulary on the board and she points at it
all the time, each time a student picks up a stick with a difficult word,
she points at the written word on the board and tries to help them to
guess the meaning. Well done! She uses the board as a tool to help
her make the explanations clearer. Very good! Suggestion: you can
make them repeat the words orally all together, to practice them and
get the correct pronunciation.
3. When it is necessary she asks for silence firmly. She can manage the
group very well. She knows the names of all the students. Great!
Suggestion: when it is your turn to choose who is going to participate,
please, try to move from the front of the classroom to the back.
Otherwise, all the students who are sitting at the back get bored.
The bell rings and they cannot finish the activity. They cannot check
the crossword or do the rest of the activities that had been planned for
this class. Suggestion: Always have a watch with you, so you can
handle time according to the activities that are missing or the ones that
you need, at least, to correct. Suggestion: if you know that a few
minutes are left, maybe you can stop the game, you do the crossword,
you check it, and then, if you have time, you continue playing, if not,
at least you finished one activity (the did it and they corrected it).
Another suggestion: this activity (that could not be finished in class)
could have been assigned as homework, of course, if all of them copied
the words from the board.
To sum up, you are building teacher stance, you have clear voice, good
group management, creativity for activities but you need to handle
time and to mark the beginning and the end of the class with energy!
Come on! Go on! You have good qualities to be a great teacher!!!!
As pedagogical partner, you helped Bessim a lot, you were very
active, you walked around their desks to keep discipline ok and you
asked them to sit down or to be in silence many times. Well done!
Prof. Vanesa Cabral