1) The trainee completed a teaching practicum at a public primary school in Santa Cruz, Argentina, teaching English to 7th grade students. 2) During observations, the trainee identified challenges like lessons mainly taught in Spanish and disruptive students. The trainee then planned lessons on the topic of the city. 3) The practicum period went well, with students enjoying the lessons and participating in English. Both the trainee and teacher felt the objectives were successfully met and students' language skills improved.

1. Taller de Práctica Docente - 2018
Tutor: Velázquez, Aurelia
Trainee: Barrionuevo, Patricia
Final Reflection - Primary Practicum
Introduction
For the development of her teaching practicum at primary education, the
trainee was accepted at E.P.P. N° 54 ¨Wolf Schcolnik¨, a public primary school
in Río Turbio, Santa Cruz province.
The process took place during September 2018, and lasted approximately
a month. The period was divided into: 120 minutes of observation and 240
minutes of practice.
The course assigned was year 7 section B. The group consisted of 13
students of age around 13 years old, of which 7 were boys and 6 were girls.
The school provides English learning from 4th grade, as most state schools
in the province. In 7th grade students have English lessons twice a week,
completing 120 minutes per week in two sessions: one of 40´and one of 80´. The
learners are at the beginner level and they do not follow a course book.
Experience
During the Observation Period, the first week, interviews to the class
teacher and the Directive board were carried out in order to obtain general
information about the school: its characteristics and resources, and, about the
subject in relation to the group assigned.
Most importantly, the trainee could observe two lessons by the teacher
and thereby gain some knowledge on the students: their attitude, their level of
English, their behaviour, interests, needs, and ways of learning. Also, she could
observe what topics and contents they were dealing with and the methodology,
techniques and classroom management used by the teacher in charge during
lessons.
The teacher and the trainee were by then able to agree on the contents to
be taught during the Practicum Period, basing it on the annual planning, the
previous knowledge of the pupils, their actual needs and performance, and the
subject´s priorities set for the year.

2. Some difficulties were also perceived by the trainee during observations,
which needed to be attended to for the practicum period. First, classes were
mainly taught in Spanish, English was used mainly in the written form or in some
guided oral practice or exemplification. Second, two students were reluctant to
work and learn and, practically, did not obey the teacher; they insulted and
offended each other continually, causing distraction and affecting lessons. One
of them comes from the local Children´s home and the other has a dysfunctional
familiar context.
All this allowed the trainee to attempt to plan a contextualized unit of work
for the following weeks. The main aims were thus centred on providing
opportunities for the students to understand and acquire new target language
while reinforcing and maximising what they already know, and, at the same time,
to develop all four language macro-skills, emphasising orality.
It was of utmost importance to propitiate an atmosphere of trust and
challenge to motivate learners to become active participants in the classroom. It
was then decided with the teacher to introduce the next topic from the plan: ¨the
city¨, presenting lexis related, wh-question forms and prepositions of place as
new language with the function of asking about local buildings in a city and
describing location, while revising the Present tense of the verb to Be forms in
descriptions.
Activities, resources and strategies were adapted to meet the context and
propitiate successful learning. As students were not used to having complete L2
lessons, meanings were facilitated through the aid of body language, gestures,
miming, varying voice tone and pitch; exemplifications, rephrasing and/or use of
cognates complemented of course, by catching visual material such as pictures,
posters, flashcards, and videos. All this was applied to tasks that enabled students´
involvement and participation through collaborative work, games and
contextualized meaningful practice.
The whole period proved most fruitful. Lessons were taught completely in
English, even at the time of correcting students´ behaviour or communicating
something different or extra from the contents. The learners enjoyed the topic
and became interested and involved for the most part of the practicum. They
were eager to participate and the majority attempted to respond in L2, learning
from their own mistakes. The fact that they experienced whole lessons taught in
English made them sense that communicating meanings was more important
than doing it perfectly.
It was primary that the learners could experience confidence and a sense
of achievement that would raise their self-esteem and willingness to learn. They
realized that they could use English applied to their reality for communication
such as talking about their own city and understanding everyday classroom
language and explanations.

3. Learning from experience
The last year in primary school is clearly not the easiest year to teach.
These learners are undergoing notorious physical and psychological changes
while entering adolescence which affect them in all aspects; added to the
sociocultural particularities each of them goes through. Thus, in this experience
with pre adolescents the trainee met with some issues that left some learning for
future action.
Even though the general behaviour of students was good and that they
were only 13, it becomes necessary to establish clear rules from the beginning,
especially to those students whose attitude goes against usual norms. The trainee
found it hard to be strict at some situations in trying to avoid spend all the lesson
calling someone´s attention and distracting the others. There must be strategies
related to misbehaviour and general classroom management that the trainee
need to reinforce.
Other aspects to improve for the future concern activities and timing. It
could be observed that students responded better to activities of the oral kind,
mostly if they imply movement, participation and visual or concrete resources,
with clear instructions. When given openness for creation some students went
lost, such was the case when they had to devise their own city maps: one group
spent the time just planning and could not set to work, even when the trainee
offered them suggestions. Students rejected activities if they had to write. It would
have worked better to include web applications to complete activities, but the
school did not have an internet connection. As regards timing, some activities
could not be done, because other activities took more time than planned but
students took the most from them.
Results
All in all, the experience was enriching and rewarding for all the parties
involved. The objectives set were accomplished successfully: linguistic and non-
linguistic.
The trainee was able to develop her practicum effectively and overcome
uncertainties related to the group´s age, so much so, that students expressed
they did not want the period to finish. It has been a great challenge and they
now know how much English they can manage.
Moreover, the teacher in charge expressed her contentment and could
observe her pupils from another perspective and evaluate the trainee´s and her
own practices.
It was a really satisfactory period of professional growth for everyone; it
propitiated reflection and exchange of knowledge and ideas.

4. Conclusions
Teaching English in primary education is the most appropriate context for
learning. Children go to school in order to acquire knowledge that will prepare
them as social beings for the future, as they have a right for equality in terms of
education.
It is also during this stage in their lives that they start to discover and
develop their individualities, responsibilities and attitudes. Teaching them a
foreign language is an opportunity for reflection about their own identities; it
enhances their knowledge and values about their mother tongue, and opens their
minds to other cultures, enlarging their prospective opportunities.
Consequently, there is something which should be at the heart of teaching
during primary education and it is motivation. Every day kids at school need to
be waken up and motivated to learn in order to generate their interest. They
need to be showed that what they learn is significant to their realities. That is
why, in this area of teaching, they need to be moved to communicate in other
language in order to talk about their histories as human beings: to talk about
themselves, their realities and their ideas; to connect them to the world outside.