Week #8: PLANNING A LESSON

“A key aspect of effective teaching is having a plan for what will happen in the classroom each day. Creating such a plan involves setting realistic goals, deciding how to incorporate required materials (course textbooks) and other materials, and developing activities that will promote learning”.

                                                                                    

My Opinion

               Make a lesson plan before a class is a great help. Since, without planning you are lost. Why? Because if you do not plan your lesson before a class, your students will notice that you are not prepared with the material. So, planning a lesson is very important, because it means that you are organized, and believe me, being an organized person means that you are a good teacher. Why? Because, this means that you are doing a good job, well trained for the work and demonstrate that you know what you are doing.

               On the other hand, the reading mentions the lesson goals, it says that “Lesson goals are most usefully stated in terms of what students will have done or accomplished at the end of the lesson. Stating goals in this way allows both teacher and learners to know when the goals have been reached”. This means that if you prepare your lesson before classes, with the corresponding objectives and activities, it is possible that at the end of the class your students will have done or accomplished their goals. So, in order to achieve it, we as teachers should take into account at the moment of doing our lesson plan a set of lesson goals, for example:

Ø  Identify a topic for the lesson.

Ø  Identify specific linguistic content, such as vocabulary and points of grammar or language use, to be introduced or reviewed.

Ø  Identify specific communication tasks to be completed by students.

Ø  Identify specific learning strategies to be introduced or reviewed in connection with the lesson.

Ø  Create goal statements for the linguistic content, communication tasks, and learning strategies that state what you will do and what students will do during the lesson.

Fifth week: My teaching experience… A new unit

 This past week was different, as we talked during our last class with Nely, I applied the method to speak only in English to my students. Although, I have to admit that for some of them it is very difficult to understand some words, well, you will see it in the video I recorded, since it shows how some of them did not know the numbers of some pages I asked to check. But, this has solution, this can change if I speak to them only in English, and use mimic if they do not understand a word.

On the other hand, I have to say that I am very happy with my group. They work hard in each class and they learn very fast. The last Thursday we finished working on unit 8; so, that is why they had a quiz where all of them had excellent grades, because of the practice we did during class. Now, we are working on unit 9 that is about “Puppets”. They are so excited with this topic, because this coming week they will have to create their own puppet, and create a play with them. I am sad because this is going to be my last week, but I will enjoy it the most.

Week #7: TEACHING GOALS AND METHODS

The reading mentions that the goal of every learner “is based on the idea that the goal of language acquisition is communicative competence: the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals”.

So, this means that we as teachers should help the students to have a clear communication; we should teach them the use of good grammar in a conversation, to know the structure of a phrase to ovoid confusions in the message, etc. Something very important that the reading mentions is that “the learner should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest”.

On the other hand, we have the methods, the reading mentions the “Method: Learner-centered Instruction which encourages students to take responsibility for their own language skill development and helps them gain confidence in their ability to learn and use the language. Teachers support students by devoting some class time to non-traditional activities, including teaching learners how to use learning strategies, how to use available tools and resources, and how to reflect on their own learning”.

So, it is important  that the teachers help the students to have confidence at the moment of learning a second language. They should let the students to discover new learning methods, and to use different and interesting activities that call their attention. So, what the learner-centered do is to get the students more involved in the learning processes.

Fourth week: My teaching experience… Almost finished :)

The last Monday we made the English exam. So after the exam we started with unit 8: “In shape”. Despite, this is one of the last units; they are very excited to work on it. We are studying how to make question using the past tense, and they are learning a lot about it. Sometimes, they get confused with the verbs, but I am trying to give them a lot of practice and activities for them to memorize the verbs.  This past week they did a very good job, they worked hard and learned new vocabulary since we had different activities, we went to farm y we had a fair at school where they learned a lot of new vocabulay, and the most important they understood how to use the past tense. So, this coming week I am very sure they will do the same. They are good students, although I have two more weeks to finish my teaching part with them, I have to recognize that I am going to miss them.

Week #6: Language Teaching

I think that in language teaching the teachers should have a good command of their native language, and in case of a second language teaching, the teachers should also have a good command of the language they teach, which is their area of specialization.  They should have an appropriate reading, writing, comprehension, and grammar skills, since they have the responsibility to transmit all that knowledge to their students. Also, it is important to take into account the way the teachers transmit that information, since is not their native language, the teachers should use the correct expression for different terms.

On the other hand, the reading talks about the language learning, it says: “Language learning is a process of discovery. Learner develops ability to use the language for specific communication purposes. Teacher models language use and facilitates students’ development of language skills”. This is very important, because as the reading says, students and teachers are active participants who share responsibility for student’s learning. So, this means that a good teacher is the one that works together, step by step with their students while learning a new language.

Third week: My teaching experience… New method to use.

This was a great week with my students. We were practicing the use of “there is, there isn´t, there are, there aren´t” for the exam they have this coming week. At the beginning of the week they were very animated practicing, but at the end they were a little bit tired for being practicing the same topic, so, the last day of the week as a reward for their effort, we watched one of their favorite movies. So, I think this is a good method to use in order to motivate them to continue studying, because they will know that at the end they will have a good prize for their effort.