1) The document reflects on a teacher's primary school practicum period where they taught English lessons to students they had worked with for a year and a half previously. 2) During the lessons, the students engaged well with the planned activities and surprised the teacher by deducing new grammar points with little help. 3) Upon reflection, the teacher realized some instructions could have been clearer and took advice from an observer, such as asking students to summarize what was learned, to improve future lessons.

1. Materia: Taller de Práctica Docente
Alumno: Laura Román
Tutor: Aurelia Velazquez
Reflection on Primary School Practicum Period
Concrete experience
Before starting, I was feeling so excited about doing my primary school practicum
with my own students. I felt at home because I’ve been working at Manuel Belgrano for 9
years, almost since the foundation of the institution. But I was a bit nervous anyway.
Having worked with the group for one and a half year let me know the kind of
activities they liked the most, the strategies which worked best for each child, what
difficulties or setbacks I could encounter and how to solve them.
The children responded wonderfully to the tasks planned on the first class. They are
used to my teaching style and, as I said, I know what they react better to. During that class
we started working on a new unit, but which was closely connected with the previous one.
So that also helped to have good, eager and full answers. We could engage in a
meaningful conversation about their holidays. They were also very interested in the video
because it had information about a city they had never heard about before.
Both the children and I were somehow intimidated at first by the presence of the
observer, who also happens to be my boss, and the mobile phone recording. But we soon
forgot about them and just kept on working as usual, and could complete all the activities
planned. I introduced the main topic of the unit, which was holidays, and they drew special
objects they usually pack for their holidays. We also read a short article about what people
typically lose when they go on vacations.
The second class was the longest one – 120 minutes. I started formally introducing
the unit lexis and grammar in context. We worked on printouts with pictures, labels, and an
audio. We also worked on pronunciation of gerunds. Afterwards, I used the whiteboard to
have them deduce the grammar point (Past Continuous + Simple) analysing sentences
from the previous tasks. We couldn’t finish the last two activities of classifying some of the
vocabulary items by their use, and the miming game.

2. On the third and last class, we started with a vocabulary matching race with
flashcards and labels. Then, I carried out the last two tasks from the previous class plan,
because they were closely connected to lexis. Next, after my modelling, the children could
use the target lexis and grammar in the meaningful activity of showing a family holiday
photo and saying where they were and what they were doing when they took the photo.
Again, we couldn’t finish the whole class plan since some tasks took more time than
expected.
Reflective observation
After watching the video, I was happy to see how much they engaged on the first
activity of talking about their last winter holidays. Then, when we read the article, they
spontaneously started talking about what they usually lose or forget when they are on
holidays. They loved the drawing task because the enjoy artistic activities very much. I
realized that I hadn’t been clear about the pre-watching task. I only told them we were
going to watch a conversation about holidays, but I did not ask them any questions or
other instructions to guide the first watching. I needed to be more explicit in my
instructions. Even though the students liked the video I showed them, I had to be clearer in
order to keep them focused.
The second class was my favourite because the children surprised me by how much
of the target language they could work out on their own, almost without my help. For
example, they had not worked with past continuous before, yet they deduced it perfectly
well from their previous knowledge of present continuous and simple past. I think this was
the result of the careful planning in which the vocabulary and structures were shown in a
meaningful context. They could also notice the pronunciation target sound without any
troubles, probably because we usually work on pronunciation and they are used to the IPA
and to explore their speech organs. We could not finish al the tasks I had planned. We had
many interruptions that day, which stopped the flow of thought in not a few opportunities.
Nevertheless, the unfinished class plan was also due to the fact that some activities took
more time than expected because the children were quite engaged, for example during the
miming game.
Finally, the last class was the funniest one for the kids. They loved the matching race,
and participated eagerly yet in an orderly way. They also enjoyed the show and tell of
family holidays photos. The students had quickly internalized the target grammar structure
so they could carry out the task perfectly well. I had taken some extra pictures in case
some students forgot to bring theirs, but they refused to use them because they were not

3. their family. I agreed to let them do the show and tell on the following class, so it would be
truly meaningful and communicative for them, and not just a drilling exercise. They brought
their pictures on the following classes and described it as they were supposed to.
Abstract conceptualization and active experimentation
The observer’s advice was priceless for me to see what I could have done better. For
example, a great way to close the class he told me was to ask them “What did we learn
today?”. I used it at the end of the second class and it worked wonderfully. This is
something I will definitely apply in my future lessons, especially after having introduced
new language.
On the second class he suggested I could have reinforced the commands by writing
them in short form on the board and then modelling it longer including one of the students,
instead of modelling by myself. This suggestion is excellent for speaking activities, and
also for the situations in which students are not as focused as usual.
Although I managed to eventually carry out all the activities planned, I see it would be
a good idea to ask for extra materials – such as the family photo – with more than one
class in advance, to make sure all of the students have what they need by the time I want
them to use it. I could also give them a colour slip of paper with the material required to
reinforce the oral command.
Finally, and on a more personal note, I would like to say it was a very rewarding and
emotional period I could share with my students. As I told them, a teacher always
remembers the students they have had; but I will cherish this group in particular much
more deeply because they accompanied me on such important challenge.