The document summarizes an observation of an English lesson taught by two trainees, Camila V. and Belén E., to a 4th grade class. The observer notes that the trainees designed a dice game that engaged students in using phrases with "There is/are", which was an effective activity. However, the rest of the lesson relied too heavily on activities from the textbook and grammar explanations. The observer provides suggestions on incorporating more creative and communicative activities, limiting grammar explanations, using props to explain vocabulary, and reducing translation.

1. Práctica Educativa II. Residencia enEscuela Primaria.
Depto. LenguasExtranjeras. F.C.H. Unlpam . Año
Académico 2018.
Prof. AdjuntoRegular A / C Estela Braun
AuxiliaresDocentes Interinas:Prof. Vanesa Cabral/ Prof.
Lis María Luján Ramos
Trainees: Camila V./ Belén E.
Class observed by Prof. Lis María Luján Ramos
Date:Tuesday, Sep. 18th.
School: School Nº6
Grade: 4th.
Timetable: Tuesdayfrom 13.15 till 15.50
Mentor Teacher: Prof. Ana Gómez García
Topic / Unit: Present Simple, Description of objects using
Have Got, School Objects, Numbers / Unit 3 : My Favourite
Thing
Materials: Textbook Follow Your Trail 1
Number of Lessons already taught by trainees: 3 / 4 each
Trainee´s Grade: Viñati, Camila 7 ( seven ) , Escudero, Belén
7 ( seven )

2. I would like to start this report by pointing out on what I liked
most of both your lessons and that was the game with the dice.
Trainees design a dice, and used it to play a linguistic game in
which students had to say a phrase using the structure “There
is /There are ...” to describe the picture the dice showed. By
taking turns, students threw the dice and then they were
requested to say the correct phrase. I think that you could have
extended this activity a little more, because students were
really interested and engaged and few of them had the
opportunity of throwing the dice. Besides, this activity foster
speaking , a skill which is rarely practised and tested among
English Lessons taught at schools. Furthermore, the activity
had a clear communicative goal: the students needed the
language, which was inserted in a propercontext, to produce
something, to say a phrase which was significant to them,
since they were describing the picture on the dice. If I were
you, I would skip the introduction to the game you chose, in
which you reminded them on the difference of meaning and
usage of “there is / there are”. I think it might be better to do
this while playing the game, so as to lessen the burden of
grammatical explanations. Actually I think that your class was
too grammatically loaded. You tended to focus too much on
grammar and I think that by doing this, you may lose the
communicative purposeof the activities.
Apart from the activity with the dice , there not seemed to be
any other really creative, appealing activity. The rest of the
activities in the class were part of the set of activities from the
book, or were activities in which you did not seem to have
displayed your creativity fully. You could have taken
advantage of the crossword youcreated, either by presenting it
in a more attractive way or by displaying the activity in a
different fashion. Unless you present grammatical contents in
within a proper framework, students are bound to forget when
and how to use a certain grammar structure. I consider your

3. class are excessively grammatically biased. I advised you to
deliver more time and energy to the practise of oral language.
Both of you mispronounced some of the words you used
during the class. Forinstance the word “eraser” was
mispronounced several times. Remember to check word
phonemes and stress before delivering your class.
Another good point concerned the use of a chant at the
beginning of the class. It is advisable to use songs and chants
in order to prepare our students for the English lesson.
I think you can take advantage of the timetable you have and
make students play, move and sing a bit more. Since you have
classes with them from the beginning of the schoolsession,
they are likely to want to play, sing and dance.
I regard the role of the pedagogical partner as successfully
fulfilled, since the partner was very active.
In my opinion, the weak points of the class concerned lack of
explanation on the activities, excessive use of L1 and little
room for active participation on part of the students. For
instance, when dealing with the crosswordyou didn´t explain
the activity properly and neither of you read the clues with
them so as to help them solve it. You provided the answers,
instead. I think that you could have profited more from this
activity if you had done it together with the whole class.
Unless you provide a properexplanation of the activity (the
crossword,in this case); the exercise loses sense and it turns
purposeless for the students.
Regarding teacher´s role during the class, I would advise you
to attempt not to appear as too imposing. It is always better to
monitor students, without reaching the point of exercising
control over them.

4. Going back to the issue of translation, I think that it is not
advisable to say a phrase in L2 and to provide its translation
into L1 immediately afterwards. If you constantly translate ,
you are not giving them time to process information and what
it is even worse, they may get used to this dynamic and they
won´t make the effort to try to understand what you are saying
in English, becausethey are going to wait for your translation
into Spanish.
The topic you are dealing with allows you to provide clues to
easily get the meaning of English words. For instance when
someone asks : “que es “pencilcase”?; you may grab a
pencilcase and show it to the student by saying: “this is a
pencilcase”; similarly with any other schoolobject or with
books or classroomfurniture. Some other times you may use
drawings, simple drawings drawn by you on the board to
clarify word meanings. You can also resourceto flashcards or
posters, oreven pictures in their textbooks to help them get the
meaning of words or phrases in English.
Concluding, I would suggest you trying to design more
creative activities, especially games or any other kind of
exercise involving TPR and catering for different learning
styles.
Reflective Questions

5.  If you had to designan activity to introduce the topic
you dealt with in this lessonand you using a TPR
approach; which activity would that be?
 Suppose you are askedto design and a warm – up
activity focusing on the different types of intelligences
and againdealing with the topic of your lesson: which
activity with you design and why. Justify your response
with proper theoreticalbackground.
 If you were askedto prepare an activity for auditory
learners to practice the contents of your class:what
would you prepare and why. Justify using theory.
 Imagine the headmistress askedyou to produce the
necessaryadjustments to one of your classroom
activities to fit the need of visual impaired learners.
Provide the necessarytheoreticalbackgroundto present
your work.