Don Bosco University

 

TEACHING PRACTICUM I :TEACHING CHILDREN ENGLISH

Carlos’ and Orlando’s Blog

Instructor: Yanira Peña

Introduction

            In these four years that we have been studying our major, we have been taught theory about education. As future teachers, we have to know that there are several kinds of learners in the classroom, for example, auditory, visual and tactile learners among many more. It is in this course – Teaching Practicum I – where we are going to put into practice all the resources, methods and techniques that may help us address all the kinds of learners in order to make learning effective. Since this course is focused on children, this blog will summarize the performance of five lessons imparted by different groups to students aged between 5 to 8 years old.

 

 lesson 1

Date: Friday, August 13^th 2012

Members of the group: Magaly Pacheco, Mauricio López, Carlos Melara,

Topic: Greetings: hi, hello and the numbers: 0-10

 

 

The first class was successful. The class was led in Spanish and English. It was a great surprise that the children already knew the numbers. Therefore, the assimilation of the content was so easy for them. For that reason we decided to modify a little bit the class and to turn it into practice class and production with less presentation that we expected. The class number one determines the rhythm that teachers could apply to the rest of the course. The teacher is able to modify the plan for the class in minutes just with observing the students response regarding the activities. One of the activities to highlight was rolling dice and the “magic-box”. Regarding the magic-box the children felt curious about the content of the box. Regarding rolling the dice was kinesthetic and so appealing for children eyes. Some activities were more attractive for children than others but all of the activities were created with the aim get involved in each type of learner. Therefore the effect that the first class had was positive.

 

 

Lesson 2

Date: Friday, July 20^th 2012

Members of the group: Juan Campos, Iris Luna Erroa, Gabriel Cubías

Topic: The colors: red, yellow, green, orange, purple, black, white. Saying good bye: bye, good bye.

 Feedback: Greetings: hi, hello, numbers, 0-10.

 

This lesson started at 2:12 pm with a review of the previous class. This group linked the numbers with the colors by doing a kind of memory game. They posted some cards of pool balls containing the numbers on the board. Kids were supposed to say one numbers, they counted along wih the teachers, and then they discovered what color was under that number. John also used a roulette to choose the numbers. Kids were asked “what color is under card number two?” It was really good that teachers modeled the pronunciation of both numbers and colors. The next activity consisted of posting some cards of the colors on the board, with this cards they introduced a new color –sky blue -. In this activity the teachers helped kids to pronounce each color, then kids were asked to turn around while the teachers put aside one card. When kids looked at the board again they were asked “what color is missing?” some kids could guess the missing color.

 

Lesson 3

Date: Friday, July 27^th 2012

Members of the group: Pilar, Karla, Lily and Fatima’s.

Topic: The colors: red, yellow, green, orange, purple, black, white.

Feedback: Saying good bye: bye, good bye, numbers 0-10.

 

 The third class the children felt more confident regarding the two previous classes. It occurred because they were felt more comfortable not only among their interaction but also with the university class environment that could make them feel strange of overwhelmed. The teachers established the rapport with students in a practical way. This lesson presented the fruits and the pronunciation of each one. They also had a chart for they recognize the fruit. Teachers also brought some realia to the classroom in order to make even more appealing the lesson. Students had to develop the “blind hen” in terms to identify some fruits saying the name and the colour of each one. It was an outstanding effect caused on the students despite of the fact that it was a tactile oriented activity. They all learnt getting involved on the class.

 

 

Lesson 4

Date: Friday, August, 10^th 2012

Members of the group: Marleny, Konny, Isaack and Orlando.

Topic:  Animals: horse, dog, chicken, cat, parrot, fish, turtle, rabbit.

Feedback: The colors: red, yellow, green, orange, purple, black, white.  

                    Saying good bye: bye, good bye, numbers 0-10.

                    Fruits: banana, lemon, apple, grapes, strawberry, watermelon, pineapple

 

 

The fourth lesson had some variations and plus that one teacher dressed like an animal. Teacher arranged the class without desks in order to provide students a different perspective of the class. Not only the way that they used the decoration for supporting the class but also a more relaxing environment for the children having the students sitting on the floor. Students seem to be interested on what the way that the teachers developed the class. The activities and the lesson as well were so creative and innovated having the attention spot of the students on the right place. In other words with an entertaining way the teacher put the students in “learning mode”.  The adaptation that teachers presented in this lesson provided an amusing and acceptable effect way to get students attention and to break the monotony of the class with unexpected but successful variations.

 

 

Lesson 5

Date: Friday, August, 17^th 2012

Members of the group: Andres, Heinar, Josue and Ronald’s

Topic: Clothes and acessories: shoes, socks, dress, pants, blouse, shorts, sweater,

 

sunglasses, hat, cap, bracelet, necklace, tie.

 .

Feedback: The colors: red, yellow, green, orange, purple, black, white. 

                    Saying good bye: bye, good bye, numbers 0-10.

                    Fruits: banana, lemon, apple, grapes, strawberry, watermelon, pineapple.

                   Animals: horse, dog, chicken, cat, parrot, fish, turtle, rabbit

This class was a compilation of all the lessons plus the clothing. Teachers were in the situation to mix all of the topics previously studied in all of the activities. They  worked with only three students. This was a not a problem because the teacher were able to lead a more personal teaching lesson paying more attention on the students performance and necessities. The activity that really we all enjoyed the most was the one in which students helped the teacher to dress the models. Because it had the facilitates to get involved the all type of learners plus a little bit of comedy at the time we all looked at the models wearing this amount of clothes. Pretty much the all lesson and activities had a positive and amusing effect not only because all of the previous activities opened the schema to encourage students to internalize the information but also because all of the activities were very good designed and oriented the students to learn.   

 

Conclusion

            All of the lesson fulfilled their objective. Teaching the topics was accompanied with very good activities designed and adapted in order to achieve the students learning. Applying eclectic method and techniques to lead and develop each stages of the class. Both students and teacher made the effort to do a good job. Teachers promoted interaction and learning among students properly which was reflected on students performance.  The participation on the activities was more evident class by class. It is more than clear that not only the protagonist of the learning process who is the student but also teachers learnt with this stunning experience. It was a give a take situation in which we all participated. To have the opportunity to observe encouraged us to provide our portion to enrich the teaching class experience. We all in the roll of teachers and as observers realized the effect of some activities and how improve our results. Finally this experience taught that for teaching children we have to present appealing and colorful materials and to be aware and reduce the time that teachers take to talk.