1. SELFT- OBSERVATION REPORT
April 21, on Tuesday
The class started later due to a school even. Then I tried to have everything ready
but the person who would record my class, didn’t come and I asked a favor my
tutor, at that moment I felt frustrated but I could manage that situation. According to
the lesson plan the first activity to do was to introduce the vocabulary which it was
show some pictures and gave papers with words’ meaning related with images. In
this part the I gave the instruction to students and gave examples. At the beginning
the students’ attention was focused on my instruction but I had to explain many
times until one of them understood it, I used sometimes my body language to help
them then I continued the activity as I felt pressured by time Then I gave an
envelope by each file and numerate the groups, When they finished organizing, I
have to explain again what they were going to do because some of them asked
what they were going to do.
I had to monitor each group for helping them if they had some doubts. Each group
argued and analyzed each sentences would be appropriated for each pictures;
some of them used their native language. When students finished reading, I
explained the next stage. I gave an object to students which they had to pass it
while everybody sang “hot potatoes” the person, who kept the object at the end of
the song, had to pass and said was appropriated and gave a short sentence
according to words. All students were attentive in the “hot potatoes activity and the
person. who had to bring one of the papers given, selected one picture, then he
gave a short sentences about the word, it was difficult to express his ideas and I
tried to helped him but if I only focused on him , the rest of the students would
started to make a noise. Later one student made a mistake, I helped him to
recognize it through questions like do you think it is correct? And asked for
everybody what do you think about his answer?. Sometimes I felt that it was risked
if he felt ashamed and frustrated for making a mistake but fortunately they
respected and helped between them.
Then the next section was a film about The Hunger Games. There were not
speakers which it made me worried but when the film was continued my worries
was decreased because their attention was concentrated in the film and some of
them interacted with their partners what it was about. Then I asked students what
it was author’s inspiration to create this movie. Students actively participated but
they didn’t wait their turn. One student distracted her classmates when she came
back to the class. But I decided to continue my explanation. Then, I created a
2. brainstorm from the students’ ideas. I felt so happy for their opinion although I
didn’t understand what they said but they was trying to speak in English I made
some mistakes in pronunciations what I ignored at the moment to speak. Another I
didn’t call the students for their names. When students participated, I tried to
remember them one of the class’ rules. “Only raise your hand if you want to talk”
When I finished creating a brainstorm, I started to explain the reading section
which they had to read the text and complete the crossword about the reading.
When I concluded this activity, I checked students’ understanding through
questions. I spoke some words in Spanish to attract their attentions and continued
to explain in English. Then I assigned one students to explain what they were
going to do, they used Spanish language. Later I delivered the reading and
worksheet for each student. Some students had no idea what they had to do, and it
could have been because they were distracted or I was not clear and I had to
explain them again. While the students read the text, I monitored and helped them
to clarify their doubts. During this task the students asked about vocabulary which
they didn’t know, for that I used synonyms and my body language, when one of the
students asked me what is CHILD? I used my hand and said her “ when I was a
child ..”.
Then I checked their answer with helping all students, and selected one person
who read the first question. The students corrected their answer all together.
When.one of the students didn’t have the answer; I asked for all students what it
was the answer I expected a volunteer. One student didn’t know why she was
wrong then I commanded all students to come back on the reading and look for the
paragraph and she didn’t still understand. I tried to give them some example and
don’t used the Spanish. Fortunately one of her classmate explained in Spanish
why it was her mistake and she caught it and compared her answers with her
classmate. The last question was so difficult for them but it was the number of
boxes which there were two writer’s inspirations Reality and war shows. Then I
ordered them to look at the last paragraph which talked about it. And the end, they
understood the first inspiration due to translation used by them.. With the last
answer in the crossword it had to be more specific for completing but they
understood the general idea what it showed me that they achieved one of the
objectives class . But unfortunately the time was over.
For the last activity I asked students what the students did last class and showed
them the Hunger Games’ reading. Some of them did not pay attention and the
discipline was difficult to manage. But I tried to ask them some question about the
reading and the participations was good but It was so difficult to involve all due to
noises. I gave the instruction for the dice activity. But I forgot to check if they
understood what they were going to do. The students were organized by groups.
3. Before starting the activity, I numerated the groups wrote it on the board. Each
group would have a happy face if they gave their opinion according to the
questions were stuck on the board. Some students didn’t pay attention an the
noises was raised. when the noise
One student, who rolled the dice and read the question, felt frustrated because she
didn’t know how to express her opinion and I gave the opportunity to tell them in
Spanish. The issue in this part when I explained my question, the other students
were distracted and made noises. Later, it was interesting when some of them
argued about what they would do if they lived the same situations about the hunger
games. Then I involved all students’ opinions which were to suicide, to survive, to
play and kill the people. I tried to move In different places inside the classroom to
check if all students were paying attention what their classmate said.
For the next participant read the questions in Spanish, her partners helped her to
say some reality shows examples. She felt frustrated and gave her turn to one
member of her groups. I respected her decision and didn’t push her to give an
answer because it could make her demotivated to learn English Due to the noise I
had to speak in Spanish in order to respect their classmates and me but they were
not interesting. The activity spent a lot of time and students were bored.
For the writing skills, I assigned students to create a blog about reality shows in
Colombia which they had to express their opinion about it and propose a TV
alternative. In this part I had to create a group on Facebook where I could explain
How to create a blog and gave some examples.
Theory and practice
According to Brown, H. D, “Teaching by principles” he said “readers brings
information knowledge, emotion and experience” that concept is called the scheme
theory. In this class when the teacher created a brainstorm about the Hunger
Games they expressed their feeling and opinions. In other words they activated
their background knowledge .Also it helped them to predict what the topic was.
The use of the skimming and scanning strategies for reading were reflecting in this
class, “ the skimming consists of quickly running one’s eyes across a whole text” (
Brown, 2001) when the teacher gave a reading, some of the students only started
to use a skimming strategies but the rest of them used scamming strategies for
completing the worksheet. “The purpose of scanning is to extract specific
information without reading through the whole text”.
4. Also Brown emphasized the importance of material and the topic must have in the
students reading process like use of the authentic language and contextualization
from the text. The hunger Games reading was an interesting topic for the students
which it motivated them to participate. And the text was related with their lives for
that it facilitated the teacher’s purpose.
According to critical literacy help students to develop their critical skills, in the last
activity when students had to express their opinion about the text. They analyzed
and argued their thinking about the social context according to the Hunger Game.
This reading had two different aspects that they could develop their critical skill like
hierarchy social and the Reality shows in Colombia.
Improvement Aspects
There are some important aspects that I have to improve like class management,
and pronunciation, to call students for their name and be sure if the students
understand the instruction.
For improving these aspects I think that I have to practice a lot with my next
students and recognize my weakness in order to improve. I think the practice is the
most important in whatever field. As some people said “practice makes perfect” but
also being objective to recognize our own mistakes.
JENIFFER RUIZ NAVARRO
051350482009
