OBSERVATION ITEMS REFLECTION
1. Something you have observed and you would do differently
The school tutor of practicum V, used the books to develop all the lessons. However, the books were not used as a guide but as the main and only support. Lessons were structured in: Book plus workbook. Every day they did the lesson that the book suggested and the related activities in the workbook. Children were very bored and not enjoying the English lessons at all.
I consider the use of the book as useful in order to know which grammar is need to be taught and have a support where students can go back and look if they need. However, I do not agree with the fact of using a book just as the main activity of the class, and making the book be the centre of the lessons. Children should have an active role and be part of the lessons.
On the other hand, I also observed an activity which I would change. My school took part in the “English day” in Cerdanyola del Vallès. Is an activity that I really liked the idea when my tutor explained it to me. However, when I was there I could observe all the activities that students were developing and the structure of it, and I believe some aspects of it could be modified. First, the activities did not involved an active participation from the students, they were teacher focused. The teacher in charge of the activity was the “leader” and children need to follow his/her instructions. For example: "Simon says", although is a good dynamic for younger students I do not believe it can be applied for older students (sixth graders) in an “English day”, because it does not involve communication or an active participation from students. Another activity, “chinese whispers” the teacher in charge of the activity said a sentence to the first student and it had to arrive to the last one. However, when a student had said the sentence he/she was already distracted, and bored waiting for another sentence to arrive, it does not involve active participation for students either. The “hedbanz” I consider this activity good itself, however, again the teacher was the leader, asking volunteers to be in front of the other students (the groups were about 15 students), and some of them were not participating and bored.
All in all, I liked the idea of the English day and the organization of it, however the activities should be modified in order to involve more students, to make them participate and talk.
2. A fantastic strategy that you will keep using
My tutor was the English teacher in 6th grade and the Arts & Crafts teacher in the higher level. In the Arts & Crafts class students worked by table groups and there was a helper in each table. They were used to this dynamic and they knew the first they had to do is decide who has the helper. However there was a class list sticked on the door and they had to put a dot in their name on the list if they were the helpers in order to control that all of them were going to be helpers.
The helpers were in charge of taking all the materials that the students needed and they were the only ones that could be standing up. I believe is a good technique to manage the Arts & Crafts classroom as students might need to use a lot of materials and is it a good way to have everything organized.
Another strategy that I liked and I applied in my teaching unit is the use of passwords. Every day before going into the English class, there is a password students need to answer and normally it is related with the topic they are working. For example if they are working the jobs, the password could be: “ What is your mum or dad job?”. It is a good way to make students know that we are starting a lesson and also refresh which was the last topic we were working. On the other hand, during the last weeks of the course as the lessons were finishing the password were tongue twisters, which I also liked because we are not used to teach them and they are part of the English culture.