Natalia evaluated her third practicum period teaching English to 20 secondary students in Argentina. She aimed to get students speaking English, despite their initial reluctance. Through activities using flashcards, videos, songs and interaction, students began speaking English in class and understanding her explanations. Natalia realized she needed to focus lessons and manage time better. Overall students and Natalia felt comfortable, and she was able to improve on her lesson planning from feedback.

1. Name: Klein, Natalia Soledad.
Subject: Taller de la Práctica Docente.
School: Escuela Secundaria N° 24.
TutorLocal observer: Sainz, Gloria.
Practicum Period: Secondary.
Final Evaluation
Third Period
“The Four Dimensions of the Reflective Learning” has showed me how to evaluate my
third practicum period of my practicum. I will develop that evaluation taking into account the
different stages based on student´ss learning. The report is based on the 1° Year with 20 students
in the secondary school Cet N° 24” situated in Colonia Julia Echarren, Río Colorado.
Thinking back, when I started the observation classes I had several possible objectives but I
had clear aims at the final of my observation classes. I wanted to explore the students, the
institution, how the students develop and manage in their classroom and how they learn the
topics. I shared with them two observation classes where I could evaluate what motivates them in
learning and what encourages them in speaking the new language which was very difficult for
them. One of my principal objectives was to make them speak in English since it resulted as a
problem when I gave my first class. I tried to make them speak into English and encouraged them
to express their ideas and opinions. The use of flashcards was vital since I could catch their
attention all the time during the explanation and it motivated them to speak about their own
cities, places in their houses, furniture, etc. I shared with them nine classes teaching them new
vocabulary and topics in the lessons. I think the objectives, activities and the use of resources were
coherent with a pedagogical perspective because the students received the new vocabulary and
topics correctly and I explored different books and materials when I was doing the lessons plans.
Con formato: Español (Argentina)
Comentario [R1]: Why would these
students want to speak English? Were they
motivated to do so?
Comentario [R2]: What does correctly
mean? Were the teaching strategies
effective?

2. They could learn the topics through different interesting activities such as fill in gaps, videos,
descriptions and songs.
Also, I could make the students interact among themselves and they could do their own
productions. Also, they enjoyed the class making all the activities proposed by me and when the
classes were finished the students had all their activities corrected and checked. Moreover, the
different classes were different one from the other because they had a variety of activities and
they could work on descriptions, songs, interviews, reports, role-plays, etc. According to skills, I
believe the four skills are important to teach. Listening, reading, writing and speaking skills were
taught since at that period the students are able to learn through the four skills and not only one
or two in isolation. During my practicum, I used songs, descriptions, short videos, interactive
games which took their attention and let them participate and interact among themselves. Also,
when I worked on vocabulary related to places in the city, the students got encouraged to interact
and give their own examples of their own city aloud and they enjoyed doing it. Constantly, I tried
to make them feel comfortable during the lessons because it facilitated the learning process.
Moreover, the students started to speak in every class and it was fantastic because when I gave
my first class they were in complete silence and they spoke speak everything into Spanish. The
students were able to listen to an explanation into English and they felt free to speak and ask their
doubts into English. In the secondary period, the learners should be able to speak, listen, read and
write into English and fortunately, they could do every activity, thus developing the four skills. In
the last classes the students answered in English and they could understand my explanations
giving in English perfectly. What´s more, I tried to provide as much exposurepositive practice as
possible by talking to learners in English, by exposing them to a range of listening materials such as
songs where they have to listen, descriptions where they have to read, and model texts where
they have to write their own productions.
Finally, there were many problems during the lessons such as the organization and timing.
It was very difficult to organize the students when they came from the break and the teacher and I
must ask them to sit in their chairs several times and it lasted several minutes. Another problem
was the timing in some lessons. In the first lesson I brought the students 3 activities to do in 40
minutes and it was impossible because they could do only 2 activities without a closure. As a
consequence, I learnt that I should bring them only 2 activities in periods of 40 minutes, so
Comentario [R3]: Integration is
essential 
Comentario [R4]: Avoid repetition of
ideas….

3. I could do the closure which is very important in a lesson. A lesson without a closure
seems to be incomplete and the students become lost. To sum up, the students at that level need
extra time to do the activities suggested by the teacher and it is essential to clear all the doubts
and check all the activities before finishing the lesson.
Thinking forward, if I had the chance to develop this practice again, I would change some
lessons for communicative ones. I planned communicative lessons but I think there should be
extra ones because it improves the speaking and listening skills. Also, I believe that it is a positive
experience since I could get one of my objectives which was were to make the students speak into
English and what´s more important to understand my explanations into English. Speaking about
introspective reflections, I believe that this experience was meaningful for me because I improved
my lesson plans since I had lots of problems and difficulties in doing them in the other two periods
previously. Moreover, I learnt how to manage the time properly in order to complete and check
the activities correctly and clarify the students’ doubts acting as a monitor during the classes. The
Checking correction was constantly done in every class and I tried to help the students correct
them not only grammar mistakes but also pronunciation ones. Anyway, I am fascinated by the way
I developed this practicum period because I was able to change wrong things and improve others
such as the lessons plans. Concluding, the students and I felt very comfortable. The classroom
atmosphere was fantastic and the students could do the activities well. I tried to check all the
activities and left them corrected. One important thing is to highlight the good predisposition of
the institution and the headmaster was always asking me if I were comfortable in doing the
practicum.
Thinking outward, it may encourage teachers to expand their own views or to reaffirm
their positions. I believe that I have to take into account others ‘viewpoints and attitudes in order
to improve my lessons in the future. Furthermore, people´s opinions are good to improve my
classes and take into account students’ necessities and thoughts. It is important to give the best to
my students and make them improve their learnings. Also, I suppose teachers should play several
roles and responsibilities. Speaking about roles, the teachers should adapt themselves according
to the groups of students who are learning. Depending on the groups of learners, the teachers
should choose one role or a combination of roles in order to check student´s understandings and
learnings. What´s more, the teachers should evaluate a variety of teaching approaches and they
must decide the best one to teach. I think the views from the teachers are important and
Comentario [R5]: Good thinking!
Comentario [R6]: Certain aspects

4. interesting to hear in order to improve or reaffirm our own views. Everything is essential to
improve the lessons and make the students feel comfortable during them, and it is vital in order to
make them speak and learn the language perfectly. Finally, I believe that the situation or problem
could have social, politic, economic and ethical implications but they have solutions in all aspects.
The students suffer from different circumstances and they have lots of problems from different
sources, so the teachers should try to help them in doing the learning easier and happier. Comentario [R7]: This paragraph had
already been included in a previous
assignment.
How did the local observer’s feedback and
your tutors’ feedback of help in this
developmental process?
Keep learning and reflecting, Natalia!!!
Best
Cecilia