Natalia Vareseo completed her secondary practicum teaching English to 13-year old students in Argentina. She faced the challenge of a heterogeneous class level, from students with no English knowledge to those attending private institutes. Natalia reflected on using visual aids, videos and hands-on activities to engage students at different levels. She worked to improve her classroom management and timing. Overall, the experience helped Natalia gain confidence in teaching adolescents and she learned the importance of adapting lessons to meet students' needs.

1. INSTITUTO DE FORMACIÓN DOCENTE CONTINUA
LENGUAS VIVAS BARILOCHE (A-052)
TALLER DE PRACTICA DOCENTE
STUDENT’S NAME: NATALIA VARESIO
TUTOR’S NAME: AURELIA VELAZQUEZ
FINAL REFLECTION ON SECONDARY PRACTICUM
Introduction
I developed my secondary practicum period at I.C.E.B.L.E. School, the same institution that
Kindergartenandprimarylevel.Iworkedwith a group of thirteen-years-old students that are
in first year. They are twelve students and have one stimulus of 80 minutes per week. The
group has a very heterogeneous level of English. Some students come from other schools
where do not have English language while some students attend private institutes so they
have acquired more level of the target language than their classmates. Although the teacher
uses a pre-intermediate course book, most of the students have a low level of English. In
addition,she explainsthe instructionsin L2 but also resorts to Spanish equivalent overall for
those weaker students.
Accordingto the LearningCycle theorydeveloped by David Kolb, I will reflect on my teaching
experience on Secondary level.
Concrete Experience
Duringmy lessons the students were exposed to two different topics: Geographical features
and animal petsthatwere the contexttointroduce the new language structure (modal verbs:
(obligation,noobligation,prohibition,suggestion). It’simportanttomentionthatthe students
onlyworkwiththeirbooks.Whatis more,theirteacherdoesnotworkwith activities from the
bookthat involve speakingtasks, soitwas difficult for students to express themselves orally.
Since they are not used to working with appealing or authentic material I tried to include
differentresourcesinmylessons. Iusedvisual aids,videos,imagesandmaterials developedby
me that caught students’ attention. They really enjoyed competition games such as a quiz
game to revise superlatives and a Pictionary game to practice modal verbs. Nevertheless, at
the teacher’srequest,Ihadto deliverall my lessons using the course book due to the time of

2. the year andbecause I shouldfinish the unit in the course book covering the specific content
from it.
With respect to the use of technological devices, in most of my lessons I used my computer
and took advantage of the projector, an effective tool that allowed me to display the
audiovisual material and some activities to perform with the students. They felt engaged in
passingto the board and complete some activities or simply watch some videos or images at
the presentation stage.
Regardingthe level of the targetlanguage,the groupis very heterogeneous. Consequently, I
approachedto weakerstudents toprovide supportandhelpwiththe activities. Some of them
knowalmostnothingaboutthe language. For this reason they had to work hard to succeed in
the activities. Onthe otherhand,Iprovidedstudentswithsome controlledandless controlled
speakingactivities(Information gap, competition games, reading sentences, etc.) in order to
help them to develop their oral skills. At the beginning of the class, I always devoted some
minutes to interact with the students encouraging them to speak.
In general terms,mostof the students couldfollowmy instructionsthoughsometimes I had to
give further explanations or apply the sandwich technique, particularly for weaker students.
Reflective observation
Regardingmyteachingstrategies,Iusedvisual aids,gestures,demonstrating,exemplifying, so
the students couldunderstandthe instructions.Inaddition,Iaskedsome advancedstudentsto
explainthe activitiesinL1 so that their mates could understand them. I encouraged students
to produce chunks of language by asking questions about the topics studied. In doing so, I
elicitedanswersorrecastinEnglishif studentsrespondedin L1. Sometimes I used gestures or
body language to show some actions, overall when I taught modals of obligation and no
obligation or to explain new vocabulary.
Thinking about my performance in class, I worked hard with weaker students and tried to do
my best for students to understand the language and the activities. As they are twelve
students, I could devote some time with each of them to provide support and guidance.
However, a couple of students didn’t have a good behavior during this year and also in my
lessons but in general, most of the students worked very well and made a big effort while
performingthe activities. Luckily,Icouldsee students’ results in their exams because most of
them got good marks, which were better than previous trimester when half of students had
passed their exams.
AlthoughI have improved my classroom managements, I should continue keeping an eye on
discipline. Ialsorealizedthatitisa goodideato change the organizationof the classroom such
as the seating arrangement. Unfortunately, the teacher did not want the students to work in
groupsor collaborativelyinordernotto getdistracted.Forthisreason, I couldnotdevelopthis
aspect in all my lessons, just a couple of them.

3. Regarding timing, I have to say that I improved a lot since I could end my lessons on time.
Then,I also learnt that students had to work as their own pace giving them time to complete
the activities due to their low level of L2.
Abstract Conceptualization
As usual, rightat the beginningof my firstlessonsIfeltverynervous, but then I enjoyed them
a lot.Studentswere nice andaffectionatewithme,theyalwaysgave me awarm welcome and
a kiss when they entered and went out of the classroom.
The fact that I was recorded and observed by the local teacher made me feel very tense so
maybe I commit some mistakes during my lessons, but anyway, I am satisfied with my
performance. Little bylittle,Iwasgainingmore confidence and I became more relaxed which
allowed me to feel more comfortable and enjoy the rest of the lessons.
Active Experimentation
This experience was a challenge for me because of my limited experience teaching
adolescents. The teacher’s profession is a lifelong process where we have to analyze and
evaluate severalaspects.We are constantlylearning from our students who allow us to adapt
the lessons according to their needs and interests. In addition, we expand our knowledge
about the language when we have to get the material to teach specific contents becoming
more proficientteachers.Therefore,we will alwayshave to learn from our mistakes, improve
our teachingstrategies, provide studentswithmeaningful activities that have significance for
them and keep us updated with the language in order to become better teachers.