knye journal-tpd2016 (2)

TALLER DE PRÁCTICA DOCENTE 2016

Trainee’s Name: Knye, María Isabel

Practicum level: First - Nivel inicial

Group: 5 year old children

Date: April 28th, 2016

Observation 1

I entered the classroom with the teacher who introduced me to the children and told them

that I would be sharing the classroom with them for some classes and that at some point I

would be their teacher for a while. They told me their names which I tried to learn

immediately. They were just five children because the sixth one was absent. They were

called Sofía, Matías, Elías, Bautista and Agustín.

Immediately, the teacher started with their routine, the “Hello song”, the same I’ll be using

during my practicum. They listened to the song and sang along; it was just the music and

the lyrics, I’ll try to download the video so that they can have the images too. The school

doesn’t have internet so whatever I want to use during my classes will have to be already

downloaded onto my computer.

After they had listened to and sang the song, the teacher moved on to play another song,

this time related to activities such as walking, jumping, running, swimming, “tiptoe”, “sleep”.

As the kids move around the classroom performing the actions, they seemed to be very

happy running around, but they were not really singing although they followed the teacher

and did what she did.

After having completed this activity, the teacher stuck a poster to the white board with

drawings of eyes, a nose, a mouth, ears and hands on the left side and on the right side

there were drawings of an ice cream, a picture, a piano with musical notes coming out of it,

some objects that may be touched and flowers. It seemed to be a revision but kids were

not very sure about the vocabulary and the teacher tried to introduce can, for example,

T: What can I do with my eyes? She mimicked the action but immediately she repeated

“¿Qué puedo hacer con los ojos?”

Sts: ver

T: Yes, I can see.

And she moved on to the next item

T: What can I do with the nose? ¿Qué puedo hacer con la nariz?

Sts: oler

T: Yes, I can smell

and so forth.

Then, they joined the drawings on both columns with some paper arrows, always with the

help of the teacher. Once this was done, the kids sat at one of the tables available in the

classroom and they were provided with a copy of a similar activity and markers for them to

match the items that had been working on before. In a few minutes the activity was over

and they went on to sing another song called “Five little monkeys jumping on the bed”

which revises numbers 1 to 5 and the class time was over.

I couldn’t find a thread to follow the class, I thought it was disorganized and that the topics

were not connected. I felt a bit disappointed because I thought I was going to be able to

take advantage of this observation. I left the school feeling more nervous than before I

arrived.

I really hope I can do well despite the lack of guidance.

Comentario [1]: Great to know this in advance! :)

Comentario [2]: interesting

observation

I did learn something, activities must be very short and varied in order to keep the kids

motivated.




Date: May 3rd, 2016

Observation 2

My second observation was kind of shocking to me. I don’t really know how I will deal with

this small group. As I came into the class with the teacher, the kids greet me and I got to

know the sixth member of the group, his name is Genaro. The class started as the

previous one with the teacher playing the hello song and the kids singing along, but after

that everything became kind of chaotic.

The previous class the children had been working with senses so she had thought of an

activity in which she covered the students eyes - one at a time - and have them smell,

taste or listen to something and they have to guess what it was by using their senses. I

thought that it was a great idea because they were going to reinforce the vocabulary, but

the kids really misbehaved and started shouting what it was, of course that in Spanish, so,

to me, the activity was useless. The teacher had to use her Spanish at all times so that

the kids could understand what they were supposed to do and also to try to put some

order in the group. This activity took up most of the class, with the kids shouting, arguing

and trying to call everyone’s attention. Maybe, it was just the idea of having an outsider in

the classroom; that would be me.

The last activity was a new song in which the children were supposed to dance around a

circle performing some of the actions they have already worked on as dance around the

circle, hop, fall down, and there was also a party in which they were supposed to sing that

they were sleepy. Instead of performing the actions while they moved around the circle,

they pushed each other so that they could be inside the circle.

When the song finished, time was over and the children were overexcited and in my

opinion they hadn’t learned anything.

What I’ve noticed is that the vocabulary taught is not practised enough and/or revisited so

as to have students remember the lexicon.

If I could choose an image and a word to describe the class, it would be these ones.

Comentario [3]: I`m positive you

have learnt a big deal! The activities ought to be short and appealing, and they should also include movement and

music. But I guess the most important thing you`ve spotted is the importance of being cohesive, and providing the

students with contextualised activities. You`ll do a great job!

Comentario [4]: Thank you for your

support.

Comentario [5]: Oh my!

Comentario [6]: But I guess you have

learnt a lot.

I’m already panicking. I really don’t know how I’ll handle the group. It’s incredible, they are

just six very young kids and not even the teacher, who has known and worked with them

since they were three years old, can deal with them.

When I sit at my computer to plan my lessons, I keep making changes because I think

each activity will take much longer than what is necessary. Besides, I think that kids

should have more practice on the lexis and structures to be learned. I support quality over

quantity. I don’t see the point in introducing lots of words or structures if the children can’t

remember any of them or produce at least small chunks of language.

I wanted to share with you a video recording of this class, there are no images because

kids get distracted and want to stand in front of the tablet which happened when I filmed

the first class in order to watch it carefully at home later, so what I did was to leave my

tablet on top of the teachers table while it recorded, so you can hear everything that went

on in the class, but you can’t see anything. I tried to upload it to the Google Drive and

share it with you but I couldn’t do it from the tablet. I need a cable to pass it onto my

computer and maybe like that I’ll be able to share it with you.

I need some encouraging warm words so as to be able to complete my practicum.




Comentario [7]: Absolutely!

Comentario [8]: Do not worry. Thanks to your vivid description we can

figure it out :(

Date: May 5th, 2016

Observation 3

I found this image on the Internet and I thought “I hope so”

Yesterday, I observed my last kindergarten class, next Monday I’ll be in charge, will I? I’m

pretty scared, everything around me seems to be dark gray or black.

I didn’t take my tablet to the class, I wanted to become more active and to participate a bit

more, which the teacher approved.

When I got into the classroom the kids approached me and some of them even hugged

me. Sofi, the only girl in the group offered me a chair and made me sit down. Then other

kids came and sat on my lap. I think they have already accepted me.

They started with their routine, but today the children didn’t even sing the Hello song, they

fought all the time and the teacher had to call their attention, she even threatened them to

send them to the kitchen which seems to be the place where they are sent when they

misbehave a lot. They didn’t like that, but it lasted for a few seconds.

While all this chaos was in progress, Genaro’s attitude called my attention. He is the boy

who was absent the first day I observed classes. Genaro was lying on the floor as if he

were sleeping. I started to pay special attention to him, he seemed to be tired and he did

not participate.

For today’s class, the teacher had prepared a hands on activity as a final project on the

topic “senses”. The children made a drum out of a tuna can and a balloon to cover the top

side and they decorated it with small pieces of colour papers glued to the perimeter where

the teacher had placed masking tape. I helped her to place the balloons properly on the

can, and then I sat next to Genaro. He had been crying, well not really crying but making

as if he were because of the excessive noise the other children had made with the cans

while they were waiting for them to be ready to decorate. I helped him to place the glue in

place with his finger showing him how to do it and then passing the small pieces of paper

for him to glue to the tin. It seemed to me that he was pleased that someone was paying

attention to him. Genaro is not a noisy boy, on the contrary he seems to be a very quiet

one. Too quiet, to my mind, there’s something going on with this kid, maybe some kind of

problem at home.

During the whole activity, which I thought a great idea to wrap-up the unit, the only word

said in English was “balloon” and although the kids are supposed to know the colours

none of them used the words to refer to the colour of the papers to be used to decorate the

drums. I repeated the colours to them whenever I passed them a small piece of paper.

Comentario [9]: Of course you will!

Comentario [10]: She must have

been so happy and thankful!

I insist, I’m worried. I’ve been trying to figure out what the problem with the group is and I

can’t seem to find an answer. The teacher seems to be very nice and she has known

them for a couple of years. She’s also a kindergarten teacher, so she is qualified to deal

with very young kids.

Is it that kids are supposed to be taught too many structures and vocabulary, but at the

same time they are not exposed to enough English? I mean, English is not used enough in

the classroom and vocabulary is not recycled in different kinds of activities as if someone

thought that it would be too repetitive to go on working on the same lexis until kids can

really internalize it and use it in different context and situations.

I haven’t taught young children for a long time, but I try to recycle whatever structure I

teach to teenagers using different contexts and showing them that every piece of English

they learn is applied to different functions and also that there are dissimilar ways of

expressing the same thing. Is it that this strategy does not apply to young learners?

Undoubtedly, I have more questions than answers.

I’ll try to be as positive as this statement since it is true that I have got this far.

Trainee’s name: Knye, María Isabel

Practicum level: Kindergarten - Nivel inicial

Group: K 5

Date: 10th May, 2016

Lesson number: 1 (one)

Section 1: Describing the lesson as it unfolds.

How did students react to your teaching, to the activities and the materials? How did they

react to the lesson?

I think that the children found it strange that I spoke English all the time. Regarding the

activities, they had fun with the one that they had to draw pictures out of a bag and say the

words. Everyone had a go since I had included enough pictures for every to do so. As

Comentario [11]: I guess you have

found out where the problem lies...

Comentario [12]: Fantastic! It is important that every student is able to

participate.

each of them drew one out, we revised the previous ones and I guess they liked that I

praised them each time they came up with the correct word. I encouraged them to

produce the whole chunk by saying "it's a...", but I didn't succeed. At least they could

produce the words. I also took my computer for them to watch the video as they listened

to the songs. I don't think this was a good idea since they were more interested in the

computer or in watching the video than in singing the songs although one of them was the

hello song that they have sung since they were in K 3. On the whole, I must say that they

found the class so different from what they are used to that they were relieved when it was

over.

Section 2: Making sense of the lesson through relevant lived experiences

"Choose a moment that was important for you during the lesson. Describe it and say why

it was important."

The important moment for me during the lesson was when I sat on the floor in front of the

children holding a bag with pictures to revise vocabulary that was supposed to be revision

- school, teacher, boy and girl - because the kids seem to be excited about what was

inside the bag. As I drew the first picture out of the bag, which was a photo I had taken

from the outside of their school, as I expected they said "el jardín" and I told them "Yes, it

is the school, the school." Then, I asked each of them to draw one picture out of the bag,

there were two teachers, two boys and two girls. You might be wondering why this

moment was important for me. The truth is that I was very happy because they seemed to

be enjoying the activity and I had a sense of relief since I was very nervous about the

whole process.

Here I share a standstill of the video recording where you can see the kids very interested

in what they were doing and one of the few moments they were quiet instead of restless.

Comentario [13]: It was the first time. Don´t worry. They are not used to this. But it´s worth trying and not giving up.

Comentario [14]: :)

Section 3: Interpreting the lesson in words and images

If I had to choose a quotation that would give me an insight of the lesson, it would be:

"Practice makes perfect"

On the whole, I think I did my best, I slowed down my pace of speaking, I gestured in order

to make myself understood, and I spoke almost no Spanish during the lesson. However, I

feel I have failed; I'm distressed and disappointed. On top of everything, the teacher is

never on time so I waste valuable time as I can’t get into the classroom to get things ready

beforehand.

I really wonder how I will build a stronger bond with the children so as to have their

attention and meaningful and relaxed lessons.



Group: K 5


Lesson number: 2 (two)


What pedagogical principles supported the planning and delivery of this lesson?

I took into account students’ age according to Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.

This stage is the Preoperational one which states that children use words and images to

Comentario [15]: Why do you think so? Just because students couldn`t

produce complete utterances? Remember that it takes time. At least you are exposing them to a whole new

world. Cheer up and keep on working hard!

Comentario [16]: You may talk to

their regular teacher.

Comentario [17]: I did that, but it is not possible. They are with their

Spanish teacher before and I have to wait till the English teacher finishes her previous class. What's worse, children

do not have any kind of recess where they can run around and do whatever they want and I, personally, think that it

is a drawback.

Comentario [18]: Then you can use some Energizer, there are plenty of

them online. They truly work!

Comentario [19]: I found some on the internet. I'm going to give them a

try. Thanks!

represent objects - visual/auditory resources - and I aimed to their ability to pretend to be

someone else; that was the point of including the use of a puppet so that children could

act out through the puppet. I must have not taken into account the children egocentrism

since everything they wanted was to be the centre of attention by trying to grab Mickey.


“Choose a moment that was important for the students during the lesson. Describe it and

say why it was important.”

A moment that might have been important for the students was when I showed them the

puppet and told them that I would allow them to have it if they came up with, at least, a

word. Nevertheless, I consider the activity was not successful because I couldn’t elicit any

utterances from the students while they were holding the puppet.


To interpret this lesson in words and images I chose an excerpt from the poem “Shame”

by Vivian Gilbert Zabel

I stand nude before the world,

My faults and shortcomings

Exposed for all to see.

Like a tacky, tattered blanket,

A cloud of despair.

…

Article resource: http://EnzineArticles.com/114598

And also, I chose to include a stand still from a moment in the classroom in which I was

unsuccessfully trying to get students organised and ready to sing a song (TPR)

It is time now, for me, to decide which way to take:

Comentario [20]: Never lose hope!

Comentario [21]: I'll try not to, bur it's not just a feeling, the other teachers

agree with my view of the group. They also say these kids are unable to concentrate.

http://enzinearticles.com/114598



Group: K 5


Lesson number: 3 (Three)


What do you find useful of this lesson that will help you plan the next one?

Throughout this lesson I learnt that this group, in special, needs a lot of TPR activities.

Undoubtedly, these children’s main learning styles are auditory and kinesthetic. Having

learnt this, my next plan will include activities which imply a lot of movement without

leaving out the lexis I am supposed to teach.


“Choose a moment that was important for you during the lesson. Describe it and say why

it was important.”

The most important moment for me was when I allowed the students to choose what

activity do do after they listened to the puppets telling their story. The children were

supposed to colour the puppets´school but they wanted to cut out the image they were

provided with. After that, it was them who wanted to colour it. They were so engaged in

the activity that they didn’t want to stop although the English class time was over and the

goodbye song was already being played. This was the first time I felt I had achieved a

goal.

Comentario [22]: Absolutely!

Comentario [23]: to do

Comentario [24]: Negotiation worked ;)


To interpret this lesson in words and images

The children enjoyed the “puppet show”, they understood most of what I said even though

I didn’t use any word in Spanish, of course I resorted to different tones of voice, gestures

and visual aids. They also laughed at the puppets comments. For the first time I had a

sense of relief. However, I can’t get students to use English words, not even when I

repeat them several times to see if they imitate me.

I finished my last entry with a picture which shows two possible ways to follow.Today I

would like to share this saying.

It seems that there’s always room for hope.



Group: K 5


Lesson number: 4 (Four)


“What aspects of the lesson require change / improvement?”

There are plenty of aspects of the lesson planning that require changes and improvement.

For instance, I know that I should include more STT (Student Talking Time), but I can’t get

the children to use the language. Nevertheless, I think that, at least, they understand what

I say although I speak almost no Spanish during the lessons. Another aspect I must

improve is related to the time I spend handing out the material the children are going to

use in the activities planned. Perhaps, I should have it ready in individual envelopes so as

to give the material out faster. I always prepare everything beforehand at home, but that is

not enough. Since I cannot get into the classroom in advanced, I place the material in a

portfolio I bought for this purpose. Last but not least, I need to improve timing. I always

plan more than it is necessary and that is because I tend to forget that this group of

children need more time to get organized than what I picture in my mind. For example,

when I planned this lesson I included a video related to shapes to watch which I skipped.

If I had showed it to the kids, there wouldn’t have been enough time for making the puzzle

which proved to be successful.

Comentario [25]: Yes!


“Choose a moment that was important for you and the students during the lesson.

Describe it and say why it was important.”

An important moment during the lesson for both the children and myself was the object

race. Students enjoyed the race and were eager to participate. They had a great time and

when I was going to announce who the winner was, I realized that it was very important

that all of children had a sense of achievement and that they felt that all of them had done

a great job. All the kids jumped with excitement when I said that all of them were winners

and we clapped and cheered together. I learnt that when working with such young

children there cannot be just one winner if we want to keep motivation up.


Making a puzzle.

This is the finished puzzle. As it can be noticed in the standstill of the video, the children

did a great job.

I first told the kids that we were going to make a puzzle of Mickey’s school. Each of them

was given a blank page, a glue stick and the necessary shapes cut out of glazed paper

Comentario [26]: :)

and a big picture was placed on the whiteboard just in case they needed to look at it in

order to put the puzzle together. They immediately understood and, eagerly, got to work.

When the work was finished, kids were very excited about what they had accomplished

and I had a sense of relief, achievement and happiness for the first time since I started my

practicum.

In conclusion, I know there’s a long way to go if I were to teach young children. However,

this is not my goal; I aim at teaching older students. In some way, I would just want to end

my teaching career getting my degree as a teacher of English although this may happen

once I have already retired.



Group: K 5


Lesson number: 5 (Five)


5. “What aspects of the lesson do you consider successful?

This last lesson was a success from the beginning to the very end. To start with, while

singing the Hello song, the kids addressed me when asking “How are you today?”

After the routine, the children were given their small cards with shapes and as I held up

one of my cards, they picked up theirs and repeated the names of the shapes as a chant

as it was suggested by the tutor and she was right. The kids found it appealing and had a

lot of fun with the chant.


“Choose a moment that was important for the students during the lesson. Describe it and

say why it was important.”

I think that having practiced the names of the shapes through a chant made the following

activity more enjoyable for the students since the video we watched was about shapes and

they felt confident enough to pick the correct card and name the shapes as they appeared

in the video. This sense of confidence made them be at ease and they were willing to

watch the video a second time. While doing this, the children not only repeated the words

we have been practising, but also pointed at the different things that were shown, such as

trees, houses, a school bus and other items which were drawn with very simple shapes

and name them appropriately.


Today, I’ve chosen an image that depicts my feelings along this first practicum period. I

really questioned myself as I moved along. Now I can say “Mission Accomplished”, but

I would like to add that:

knye journal-tpd2016 (2)

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