Workshop 2

Thursday, November 10^th, 2016.

Teacher: Claudia.

Topic: Classroom Activities.

This was the second and last workshop that we had in teaching practicum 1. Teacher Claudia was in charge of developing the presentation in which she shares some ideas about activities that we can do when teaching English, no matter what level or age the students are. At the beginning she introduced herself and asked us to say our names, too.

In the first activity, she gave us a piece of paper. She guided us to do a future teller by modeling the steps of how to do it. Everybody had a piece of paper and she asked us to fold it in different ways. After we did all the steps we get a future teller. She explained that this activity can be used as a warm-up to review previous class. But the most important is that it can be modified according to topics and level of students. She asked everybody to write different words in some spaces of the future teller, so we write words from different categories, and also we wrote some letters at the top that were used when asking another person.

Later, she divided the class into three groups. We had to discuss and remembered some activities that we developed when teaching young learners. Then, she selected three people to share their activities with the whole class. 

Moreover, she provided each group two pages. Each page had a different activity, so we discuss two questions about it. 1. Who will you use it with (kids/ teens/ adults)? 2. Would you change something (topic)? Then, she asked one member of each group to share the opinions. She chose Roxana, one member of my group, to explain one of the activities that we discuss and answer the two questions. Roxana explained the wish race game in which students are going to choose a letter from the game. They will use the grammar structure ‘I wish’ to say something they wish if some situation might happen to him/her. The situation was in the game and as Ss answer they will be able to move and reach the letter that they chose. She said that this activity can be modified according to the topic and level of Ss. For example, having pictures of animals or professions in each space and use it with children, or having verbs or questions to use it with intermedium or advance learners. Then, there were two more classmates that explained the verb trap game and the tic tac toe game.

After that presentations, teacher Claudia provide some materials to each group. She was explaining each group what activity we were going to do. My classmates and I had to do a little book with one story in it. She explained and modeled how to do the little book. We did it and we started to write one short story in the pages. That activity is perfect to challenge students to make up a story in which they can use vocabulary that was previously taught. So, they can practice it and show their new knowledge. To continue, members of the groups were moved to another in order to explain the other groups the activity they learned to do. The other groups were also explaining their activity as well. one activity that I really like was the triangle game used to review vocabulary.

In the last activity, she asked each group to take a book. She gave us one of the topics from the book, and asked us to use one of the activities that we learn in order to present the topic. The topic that she provided to my group was the tag questions. So, we decided to use the triangle game. We wrote sentences in one side and the tags questions that correspond to them in the other side, so Ss had to match and join the pieces of paper in order to form a triangle. Later, some members of the group were moved to another and they explained how they did the materials, and how they would develop the activity.

To finish the class, teacher Claudia told us that she was happy to share some ideas about activities that can be used in the classroom and that she hope it can be helpful for us. We thanked the teacher to develop a nice workshop, and also to teach us some activities that we did not know, but that we really enjoy learning how to do each one.