Primary level

1. THE
REFLECTIVE CYCLE
By Patricia González

2. Concrete Experience
The aim of this experience was to develop my teaching skills with Young learners. However,
not only this was the first time I planned for primary level but also the first time I had to do it
in a total different context: the virtual one. Currently, I am not teaching at any school or
institute, that is the reason why I had to design lessons for imaginary groups. But even
though my students were not real, when I designed the lessons I took into account the same
elements and resources as in regular classes.
My partners and I were asked to design two Didactic Units, consequently I chose the topic
“Toys” for the first one and I worked with the theme “My funny Monster” in the second unit.
Each of them lasted four weeks, and as pre-service teacher, I had to choose what to teach and
how to do it. The requirements were: at least one tutorial video per Didactic Unit;
differentiation of contents / activities / resources so as to cater for the needs of SEN students;
skills integration; authentic materials; customized games; tasks to promote creativity and
collaborative work; and one synchronous online lesson per unit. Thus, I did my best.

3. Reflective observation
I am currently teaching online for adults students and I aware of how demanding it is to do
it through the screen. This is related with how necessary are digital tools in order to carry
out each lesson. It is advisable to design presentions (power point, Google presentations, etc)
and also to include some online games and worksheets to keep learners´ motivation and
interest in the subject. However, I noticed that it´s even more complicated to design lessons
for kids since they need constant stimulus and motivation. That is the reason why, I created
colourful presentations by using short stories as introduction to the topic, I send them one
video tutorial per unit with the retelling of these literary works; I also planned easy
homework with short and easy explanation, so that they could carry out the activities
without any difficulty; I provided them an example of each activity; and finally, I asked
them to use their imagination and make their own toy and Monster with recyclable materials
or with those which they can find at home.
According to the synchronouns online lessons, I planned different games as warm-up
activities and I encouraged their speaking and listening skills.

4. Abstract conceptualization
It was a challenge for me to create interactive activities and that´s why I worked with the
digital tools that I found easier to handle. Nevertheless, I would definitely go for other
resources in the future since after digging in the website, I discovered that there are a lot
of tutorials with clear explanations about how to use each of them.
On the other hand, I think I would introduce less characters in the second Didactic unit
related to “My funny Monster” since kids would not remember all of them. According to
the introduction of “Toys” I would replace it by a funny story that call students´s
attention. And of course, I would include more games to make the learning process
funnier and engaging.

5. Active experimentation
According to the different communicative approaches we saw thoughout Primary
Didactic subject, I would love to apply CLIL technique since it refers to situations in
which content from some subject is integrated with the teaching of a foreign language.
Unfortunatelly, I have never attend a lesson like this during my childhood, but I
definitely think it is one of the most useful and accurate approaches because it motivates
students due to they can learn new contents and revise others of their interest and
curiosity which are linked to their personal experiences. So, I will love to apply these
kind of lessons at some time in the near future. I think my future students would love to
learn that way since it would encourage their active and independent participation.