PRÁCTICA IV

FINAL REPORT

Trainee Teacher: Melisa Anabel Gonzalez

Teacher: Leticia Nuñez Year: 2012

FINAL REPORT

When I did my practices to become a teacher, I dealt with two similar groups. Both of

them were integrated by teenagers. The first group was composed of twenty-four

students of third year, who were between fifteen and seventeen years old. The other

one, was composed of twenty-eight students of second year, who were between

thirteen and sixteen years old.

OBSERVATION STAGE

GROUP Nº1:

When I started with my observations, I noticed that this group would not be very

difficult to handle. Although there were two or three students that did not work, the

rest of them did not present problems related to that. There were no big problems

regarding indiscipline or misbehavior, and most of students were very smart and quick

to understand the explanations.

That is the reason why I knew that my hardest challenge would be to motivate those

who did not like the subject.

During that first period in which I had the chance to observe the other teacher’s

techniques, I paid special attention to the way she motivated her students. She offered

positive grades or rewards for those volunteers who were encouraged to go to the

blackboard or to read aloud. She congratulated them when they did things right, and

she was also very subtle to correct their mistakes. She promoted participation, and I

decided that those strategies would be useful for me too. In fact, at that moment I

started remembering what I had already read about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

in my classes of Methodology, and more ideas came to my mind.

She also used a modern book which had interesting texts about topics well-known by

the teenagers. Moreover, it was very complete: it included all kind of activities

(reading, writing, listening and speaking). Because of that, it seemed to me a good idea

not to change the book. But, there was a problem: many students went to English

Institutes and they already knew how to solve the exercises in the book, so they did it

at home, and then they were bored or became very talkative in class, distracting their

classmates. Due to that, I decided that I would use the exercises from the book, but

not all of them, and I would also bring (or carry?) extra material, my own material. This

way, all of them would work and pay attention in class.

As regards the use of English in the class, I noticed it was very limited. The host teacher

entered the classroom greeting in Spanish; all the instructions and explanations were

given in the same way. The students only used the language when reading a text or a

dialogue. If there was an unknown word, the teacher immediately wrote its meaning

on the board (in Spanish). It reminded me of the Grammar-translation method, but I

was conscious that my classes would be mostly based on the Communicative

approach. Sincerely, I was a bit worried about this situation because when it was my

turn, I would speak in English as much as possible, so I was afraid my students did not

understand or hated me for that!

Another thing that called my attention was that the teacher worked with the book

only. She did not use other materials such as posters, pictures, cards, videos, songs,

games, etc. Therefore, I thought it would be good to exploit as much as I could that

kind of resources which students were not used to.

As I said before, the group did not present problems of indiscipline. Sometimes they

were noisy, but it was not necessary to call their attention many times. They were very

respectful and their relationship with the teacher was really nice! The teacher was able

to keep the class under control all the time, and that was admirable for me.

Regarding the teacher’s explanations, they were very clear. Generally, the students

caught the information quickly. Maybe, the level of English that most of them already

had was of great help too.

Another positive aspect to remark was that the host teacher was very well organized

to work and to give instructions. It was good because students did not get confused

about what they had to do.

GROUP Nº2:

The first class I observed this group, I felt scared and surprised at the same time.

I was afraid because I noticed this would be a group difficult to handle. They were

numerous, talkative, noisy, restless and some of them were also disrespectful and

undisciplined.

On the other hand, I was astonished because there was a deaf girl in the classroom and

it was incredible for me to see how she understood everything and how she

communicated with her classmates. Most of her classmates knew the sign language, so

if she got lost or she did not catch some explanation, they explained everything to her

through signs. It was really comforting to witness such demonstration of fellowship.

Regarding the teacher’s attitude, I found some positive and negative aspects.

As positive, I can mention that the teacher looked strong and confident. She had

adopted a firm posture which was not easy to confront. Her ears were always

attentive, so, if some student wanted to make fun of her, he/she would have to face

the consequences of that. She did not hesitate if she had to sanction any student due

to troublesome behavior.

It was also remarkable that she used other resources besides the book. She brought

authentic material such as songs, or dialogue recordings which made students to

become more enthusiastic. Furthermore, the host teacher always created context

before introducing a new topic and I really liked that.

As negative aspects, I would have chosen another book to work with, because the one

they used was quite disorganized in my opinion. Due to that, I thought the same about

the classes. It seemed to me like students were learning loose topics. It was confusing.

I also noticed that the explanations and instructions were not very clear despite they

were given in Spanish. The relationship between the teacher and the students was not

so good either, and group correction on the board was never applied. It was not my

intention to criticize the other teacher. I just saw some things that maybe could be

improved, and I decided that I would work in a different way.

PLANNING STAGE

I have to admit that planning was not an easy task for me. It took me a lot of time to

organize the whole lesson according to the time allotted, to choose the activities that

would be included and the material that would be used, etc. I had to find a way to

introduce the topic, but I had to create context first. To be sincere, that was something

I was not used to do when I worked at school, so it was a bad habit hard to break.

Another mistake in my lesson plans was that I provided the structures directly. I did

not make my students were able to think, to guess, to infer...

Moreover, I could not think of creative ideas to start with my class. It seemed like my

mind was blank, empty of inspiration.

The first plan that I handed in to my teacher was almost completely modified, so I got

a bit discouraged at that moment. But I paid special attention to my teacher’s

suggestions and everything was easier for me since then.

Generally, my lessons plans included:

WARM-UP

PRESENTATION OF THE TOPIC

PRACTICE: Vocabulary activities

Grammar activities

Reading activities

Writing activities

Listening activities

Speaking activities

HOMEWORK

CLOSURE

Logically, it was not possible to include the whole variety of activities in every class, but

the 4 macro abilities (reading, writing, listening and speaking) were developed along

the four weeks I stood as a teacher with each group.

If the students had been assigned some homework the previous class, a “checking”

section was added at the beginning of my lesson plans.

As a conclusion of this period, I can say that planning was a very rich and helpful stage.

It was useful to organize myself and the contents I was going to teach. It also allowed

me to manage the time better.

PRACTISING STAGE:

This stage was the most difficult for me. I had always been a person who was afraid of

speaking in public and being evaluated. When the moment of entering the classroom

arrived, I was so scared that I thought I was going to faint. I felt nervous and insecure,

but I knew I had to do it somehow.

That was the first class, and my students were supposed to learn vocabulary about

Natural Disasters, so I had prepared big pictures of real catastrophes. I also used

posters with highlighted words or phrases because I considered that it would be

helpful to call their attention. It was gratifying for me to see their enthusiasm. They

were not used to work with that kind of material and I realized they really liked it.

They were very kind to me. Some students offered themselves to help me to stick the

pictures or posters on the board. They were very respectful and participative. As long

as the minutes passed, I felt more confident and comfortable. If some students were

not working or paying attention to me, I was able to call them by their names and ask

for silence. By doing so, they realized that I knew who they were and began to behave

better.

I spoke almost everything in English, except for the explanations, and I could see that

my students made a big effort to understand. It was a challenge for them and for me

too. Many times I had to resort to the mimics, but in the end, it resulted successful.

When I assigned some exercise to do, I kept walking around the classroom controlling

that they were working. After each activity, we made group correction. I called some

students to copy their answers on the board, or to read them aloud, and we checked

all together.

Generally we worked with the book, but in some cases, I included material taken from

other books or the internet. It was good because some students became anxious to

know what activity would follow. If I had used only the book, maybe most of them had

finished the work ahead of time and I would have lost the control of the class.

Once, we played a game to review vocabulary, and it was very enjoyable too.

When we worked with listening activity, I realized they liked to be familiarized with

authentic material. They stayed in silence trying to listen to the recordings.

I always gave them some little homework to do, and it was checked the following class.

I rewarded with a positive grade those students who were responsible and

participative.

Of course, I made lots of mistakes which I was correcting little by little with the help of

my training teacher. At the beginning, my handwriting on the board was not big

enough. Then, I began to write a bit larger so that everybody could read from the back

of the classroom.

As I tried to speak all the time in English, there were things that my students did not

understood very well. My teacher suggested me not to worry about using English all

the time and use Spanish when necessary, because it was more important to make

sure that my students understood. I also used to mix languages when I was explaining.

I tried hard not doing so anymore. Sometimes when I assigned some exercise, I forgot

to write the page on the board or providing an example first. Moreover, it was difficult

for me to manage time appropriately during the first classes. With the experience and

the passage of time, those things were improving.

When it was my turn to become the teacher of the second group, the experience was

quite similar, but I was not so nervous and I had already learnt a lot of things and

techniques from my first practice. The mistakes that I had made before were rarely

present this time. I noticed that my attitude was different. I felt more confident and

free to evaluate my students.

I was a bit worried because I thought that my deaf student probably would not

understand what I said. But she knew how to read my lips very well and I tried to

modulate as much as possible. There was no problem respect to that.

The techniques and materials used during this second practicing stage were similar to

those used during the previous one, and the results were almost the same.

If I have to mention some negative aspect, I could say that it was very difficult for me

to handle and motivate this group. They were very noisy and talkative. Although I did

my best to engage them in fun activities and to reward their work and participation

with positive grades, they seemed to be uninterested and tired. I thought it could be

due to it was already November, English was their last subject of the day, and the

three hours were together. They worked very slowly, so it also influenced the

management of time. I must to highlight that despite my students seemed to be over

the moon, after a while they came back to earth and worked pretty well.

It is true that this experience was harder than the first one, but it was a meaningful

challenge for me.

CONCLUSION:

I must admit I was terrified about taking this step, for that reason I deferred my

decision. Now, I can say I regret having waited so long to do it, because it was the most

gratifying experience in my life. I was able to be at the front of a class, to transmit my

knowledge, but also to learn a lot. I felt happy when I did things right, but what really

taught me were the mistakes I made. I took advantage of them, and tried hard not to

repeat them, but correct them.

I know it is not the end of my practices. It is just the beginning. There is a lot that I still

have to learn and to go through.

I thank both host teachers because they were in solidarity with me. They showed me

how to get the material they were using, and gave me good energy all the time. I thank

both groups of students because they did my task easier. I noticed that they behave

better than they generally did, and most of them were very participative. And finally, I

thank my training teacher, Leticia, who gave me the best suggestions and guided me

along the way. It was a real pleasure to have such a teacher.

My challenges in both classrooms led me to grow personally and professionally. I hope

to be a good teacher and to keep on learning throughout life. I will do my best!

Melisa Gonzalez