Narrative- School Observations

1. School Observations
At the end of August, on the 24th to be more precise, I began to observe a group
of students of 5TH grade at School 27. When I arrived to school, a lot of feelings
experienced me because the day that I had desired so much had come: make my
observations and practicum. I felt a lot of nerves and that fear that appears when we
begin to go through a new experience, but my joy was much greater. I must say that the
first day, I arrived at school an hour before because I did not know how long it would
take and I was very eager to meet the English teacher and the students. I was very well
received and invited to wait in the teachers' lounge. Although I consider myself a shy
person but that day I felt very comfortable with the rest of the teachers that I began to
talk with them pleasantly. One of them was writing a tale in braille system, which I was
completely unaware of and by the way, it caught my attention. This was something I
always wanted to learn, so I started talking with her about it.
When the time came, the preceptor accompanied me to the classroom, in which
the group was formed by nine students in their ten and eleven years old; and there she
introduced me to the English teacher called Norma, whom I did not know because my
interview was with another teacher who stopped working at that time. Upon entering
the classroom, the students had just arrived from art lesson and they were a bit excited
since it was the last class and then they would go home. One of them said "look! The
new girl" and asked me my name, that's when I introduced myself.
Regarding the classroom, I could see that there is a poster with nouns and
adjectives in Spanish, a large map that covers half of one of the classroom walls, and
above the blackboard a colourful alphabet is stuck on the wall. The tables are separated
leaving one of them unoccupied in the middle, some of them were occupied by two
students, and the other by only one. Even though students should remain seatedin their
place, some of them who are more active find it impossible, that is why they stand up
and go to talk with other classmates. According to the use of the face mask, some
students take it off and the teacher has to tellthem to put iton, or sometimes they come
to the classroomand eat bread. Furthermore, I have not observed that students sanitize
themselves.

2. Regarding students, I think it must be taken into account that lastyear due to the
pandemic, virtual classes were complicated for many of them, therefore the English
subject this year is more difficultfor them. The topics they learnt were: “School Objects”,
“Numbers” and “Colours”. In my first observation, a review of the school supplies and
colours was made, the English teacher was showing the different tools and they had to
saytheir name and colour. Most of the students participated in the lesson,some of them
remembered how to saythese words but others not somuch; for example, when Norma
showed them a bag, one of them said "mochil" and the rest did not remember how to
say it. They do not work with a book; therefore, they work with the activities that the
teacher gives them in each lesson. After that, Norma gave them another activity, which
was a review of the previous lessons with their first English teacher whose name is
Veronica, and the topic was “Food and Drinks”. In that given activity which was about
reading and matching, they did not want to read, probably out of shame and one of
them said "let the new teacher read it." So, I read the sentence “I’ve got a sandwich and
an apple” and then they matched it correctly with the image. The given activities
involved reading, drawing, painting and listening, being the last one the most difficult
for them. I want to highlight that the teacher read allthe instructions in Englishand then
she had to repeat them in Spanish since they did not understand.
All the activities were corrected orally altogether, but usually many students did
not respect when other schoolmate spoke, for that reason Norma let them know about
values and the importance of listening and respecting the other, since we all must learn.
Moreover, I want to emphasise something that caught my attention in my third
observation, and it was the return of a student to school. Their parents told her at home
the following: "If you don't do things well, we will change your school", therefore this
student was changed to another school for a while and then she returned. She is an
excellent student in the English subject and I don't know what really happened, but I
think that School 27 is important for her, that's why her parents considered it as a
punishment.
To conclude and considering the previously mentioned, that although students
do not have much knowledge of the language, they like to participate in the lesson and
I think that I have to design activities in which they feel motivated and develop their

3. attention to the maximum. Also, I believe that it will be an experience with a lot of
learning and dedication.