Modern detectives’ vocabulary.

Date: Tuesday, August 23^th, 2016.

Topic: Modern detectives.

Framework: PPP

Skill: Vocabulary (speaking).

Teachers’ name: Adriana Turcios

 María José López

Xiomara Torres.

Paolo Mazariego

This was the second class were I taught with my Group. We taught vocabulary and it was about detectives. First of all, T Adriana was in charge of breaking the ice with Ss in the warm-up activity. The activity was called Sherlock Holmes game. T assigned pairs. She formed columns and ask questions like how many boys are in the classroom, or how many people are wearing jeans. Ss had to investigate, run, take a marker and write the answer in the board. So, the pair who answered first in a correct way could take a sit.

After the activity T Xiomara presented the target vocabulary. She did the right and left activity. T asked Ss to stand up. Teacher showed a word written in a piece of paper and asked Ss that if they already know the word they had to move to the right and say the meaning of the word, but if they did not know the word they had to move to the left. In that way teacher could elicit the background knowledge of their Ss. Then, she pasted the vocabulary with their corresponding pictures, so tha,t Ss could have a visual idea of the meaning of the new words. She also explained the concepts of each word. T used the drill method to practice pronunciation with their students.

It was my turn to do the practice stage. I provided each student a worksheet that has two exercises. In the first one, they had to match the words from a box with the corresponding picture. The second exercise was a fill in the blank activity where they used the same words in part 1 to complete the spaces alone in a short passage about detectives. I asked some students to read the instructions, and then they started to work in it. When they finished I asked them to compare their answer with their classmates. Also, I asked one student to read the passage, so everybody could check the answers.

To continue, T Paolo asked Ss to form trios and create a criminal case where they could apply the vocabulary. Student 1 was the detective and Ss 2 and 3 were the witnesses. T Adriana, Xiomara and I modelled the activity. After that, Ss had 5 minutes to make up the situation, and then T riffled the ones who performed the role-play. Each trio were creative, and they made a really funny and interactive production of the target vocabulary.

In the wrap-up, T Adriana performed the Hot Hat Game. She threw the hat to the students and they passed it until T stopped counting. The student who had the hat when teacher stops counting took a piece of paper and answer the question. There were 4 students who answer. Finally teacher thanked students for coming and paying attention to the class.

This class was really helpful for us like teachers because we could practice with other skill and lesson framework and that will help us to develop better our skills, and also to polish our abilities in the teaching field.

In the following file you can check the planning we use: 

Workshop part II.

Date: Thursday, August 18^th, 2016

This day was the second part of the workshop. First, we formed a circle, and Giovanny explained the activity. We had a balloon per person. What we did was walk and maintain the balloon in the air just by using one finger. We walked with it in all the space in the room and avoiding to clash with other classmate. Giovanny asked us to do the same but using two fingers, then three and four until keep the balloon with the 5 fingers. Also, we could share our balloon with other person and vice versa. Suddenly, Giovanny started to explode one balloon. Some of us screamed, and we realized that he was going to take our balloons and do the same. We kept them really close to us and ran, so he also ran and exploded more balloons. After that, he asked us to think in the balloon as our own life and how much we take care about it, if we are grateful with what we have, and also if we do our best in everyday situations. He told us that we should be concerned about the difficult situation in our country, and that we have to consider that one mistake can ruin everything we have work hard to achieve.

 See the video here:

To perform the following activity, everybody had to memorize a tongue twister and a short fairy tale before going to the workshop. Some students memorized both things but some other do not. We took turns to pass in front and say the tongue twister first. Then, we tell the short fairytale. Telling the tongue twister helped us to work with the diction when pronouncing words and the level of our voice when speaking in front of people. Telling the fairytale we could identify the mistakes we had and the mistakes other people had in the presentations, so that we can overcome and do the best when teaching children.

In the next activity Giovanny made pairs and asked us to pick a chair per pair. One student sat in the chair and the other had to consent and do a massage to the one in the chair. Then, Ss changed positions and did the same. It helped us to release the stress we have from previous days. We have to acknowledge that when teaching we also feel stress because there are many things to do, plan lessons, create materials, teach, etc. Even though, it is important to take a break and consent ourselves to renovate our energy.

Finally, everybody sat in the floor making a circle. We shared our experiences and make comments about the workshop. Giovanny gave us some advices that can help us in everyday life as a teacher, and also as a human being.

To conclude, this workshop was really good. I liked a lot because it helped me to know myself better, my strengths like a teacher, and the weaknesses when performing the activities. I could identify useful ways to overcome my mistakes and improve my abilities. I learned how to trust more in my classmates, to help them in what they need. And by doing that, we will have a necessary connection when teaching together. 

Chocolate.

Date: Tuesday, August 16^th, 2016.

Topic: Chocolate

Framework: PDP

Skill: Reading

Teachers’ name: Mariana Fagoaga

Juan Jose Menjivar

Nicole Hernandez

Roxana Diaz

In the beginning of the class teacher Roxana started with an activity where students stood up and made two groups. Students picked a paper with a word from the bag she gave each group. They had to draw a picture of the word, and the members of their group had to guess the word. Ss took turns to pick a word and draw it. The group who guessed the word first was getting points, and at the end the ones who had more points win the game.

T Juan Jose performed the pre-reading stage. He gave each students a flashcards. They had to guess the meaning and match it with the words that were pasted in the board. T explained each word by giving the concept and some examples. He also practiced pronunciation with the Ss. They repeated the pronunciations as necessary as possible.

T Mariana did the next activity, she provided students a word search game, so they had to find the words presented in the pre- stage. There were 8 words in the chart.

In the during-listening, teacher divided the class in two teams. She gave each team a story, and they had to read it for 50 seconds. Four titles were pasted in the board. Students had to choose the best title for the reading. Then, she asked Ss to read the text for 40 minutes. She passed in the board some pictures according to the events of the reading. Ss had to write a number from (1-5) to order the events. T checked students’ comprehension in this activity.

In the post- T Nicole divided the class in two groups. She gave Ss one number and she said that the numbers from 1 to 5 were group 1 and from 6 to 9 were the group number 2. T activity was a basketball game. She had a basket pasted in the board and also two balls that students used to play the game. Each Ss of the teams took turns to throw the ball and score. Nobody, except a Xiomara, a Ss of group 1, could score a ball. So, they had to pick a paper from a box and answer the question about the “chocolate” reading. Students who answered correct got a point for his/her team.

Let's see a video here:

T Roxana continued with the wrap up. She asked students to work in pairs. Then, she gave Ss three papers of different colors. In the color green Ss had to write something they already knew about the lesson. In the yellow one, Ss wrote question they may have about the lesson; and in the last paper colored red they wrote something they learned in the class. Finally, she told Ss to save the paper because they will use it next class. She thanked their students to be concentrated and really responsible in the class.

Here is the lesson plan of this group:

Recommendations!

Date: Tuesday, August 16^th, 2016.

Topic: Recommendations!

Framework: PDP

Skill: Listening

Teachers’ name: María José López

Adriana Turcios

Xiomara Torres

Paolo Mazariego

This was my turn to be the teacher. There were 15 students, and I started the class greeting them. The objective of the warm up activity was to review the previous lesson. I asked Ss to work with the person next to them. I gave them some worksheets with a word search game about food preparation. I check what they learned last class by asking them to tell me some words and then, they started to look for the words. They had two minutes to find the eight words in the chart. The students who finished first were the winners of the activity.

The post- listening stage was taught by my college T Xiomara. She made two groups and asked students to stand up and form two lines. She provided each group some flashcards with expressions about giving and accepting recommendations. They had to paste the flashcard in the correct category (to give or accept). Group 1 finished first, so that, they were the winners. After that, T Xiomara checked the order of the labels , and it was almost good. She read the expressions and asked Ss to repeat after her.

T Paolo was in charge of performing the During- listening activities. First, he gave a worksheet with a conversation to each student and play the audio title “sounds good to me”. In the first track, Ss listened, read and fill in the blank spaces with the expressions they heard. In the second one, they checked their answers. After that, T Paolo asked two students to read the conversation.

The next activity was the post-.T Adriana checked students pronunciation by asking them to read the expressions. She made pairs and gave them a situation where they were supposed to be in a restaurant. Student B asked student B to recommend him the best dish using the expressions they learned. First of all, teacher Xiomara and I roleplayed the situation, so students could understand better. T Adri gave students 5 minutes to recreate the situation. After that, she asked me to say a number from 1 to 6. And the three numbers that I said where the numbers of the groups who passed in front of the class to roleplay the situation.

Finally, I was in charge to finish the class, so I did the"time bomb" game. I set the timer in my cellphone and passed a ball to my students. The student who was holding the ball, when the time stops, was the person who took a piece of paper with a question from a box and answered it. There were three Ss who answered.

This was the first lesson that my colleges and I taught in teaching practicum 1. It was a nice experience to be in front of a class like the teacher. We tried to help each other to perform the activities as better as possible, and I think all the students focused their attention in the class. They also enjoyed the activities because they were interactive.
Here you can see the lesson planification: