Lesson 3 - Part 2
The parts of the body
Teachers: Konny Martínez and Orlando Gómez
Grammar structure: Does he/she/it have ....? "No, it doesn't'" "Yes, it does"
Vocabulary: Feet, fingers, toes, teeth and tail.

To start the class, teacher Konny sang a song called "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" which made the kids feel very energetic and enthusiastic. With this song, Konny reviewed some words from the previous lesson and introduced the word "toes" that was part of our lesson. Konny sang this song along with the students in several ways, fast, slow, and in one time I (Orlando) was asked to help her. I pretended to be unable to follow their pace and to touch my toes (in fact, I was ...) by doing that, students felt that they were better than the teacher because they were the ones teaching me how to follow Konny.
After that song, it was my turn to introduce the vocabulary of the lesson. To introduce it, I used some flashcards and two big drawings, one of a girl and one of a dog. First, I taught students the vocabulary and they repeated it several times. Then, I used the two big drawings to introduce the structure "Does the girl have feet?" and its answer "No, it doesn't" for that purpose, the image of the girl had no feet, fingers and toes; and the image of the dog had no tail and no teeth. Most of the students were able to overcome the noise produced by one girl who interfered the class a lot and to reply "yes" and "no" whenever I asked the question "Does she/it  have ...?"
To practice the vocabulary, Konny sang another song called "If you are happy and you know it" here, students were ask to move or touch some parts of their bodies (the parts that we were teaching) so students moved their feet, shook their tails, moved their fingers, etc... Students were enjoying the song a lot that a couple of them had started to sing it by themselves. However, Konny and I decided to shorten the lesson since some students were kind of tired and some others were not paying attention because of the girl doing a tantrum.
In the part of the production, I told the students a story called "The Lost Dog". In this story, students had to recognize some nouns like "dog" "tail" "teeth" and the other parts of the body from the lesson. To help them recognize the words, I produce some sounds like a dog, I showed them my teeth, Konny moved here toes, Konny and I moved our fingers and so on. In this part, I expected more participation from the students; however, the fact that they were really close to me hindered their production since they couldn't focus on my movements because of the distance (they were very very close) they were seeing the pictures more than the movements that Konny and I did in order to help them say the words that we were teaching. Nevertheless, I can say that the story worked because some students did get what they had to do so they said the words out loud.
In the wrap-up Konny and I gave the kids two pictures each of long arms, long legs, short arms, short legs, short tail, long tail and so on. Then, we said sentences like "show a long tail" so students had to look for the image and the ones that had it had to show it to the rest of the class. When the kids showed the image, we encouraged them to repeat the words. In this activity, kids were a little reluctant at the beginning, but when they saw that Génesis raised her image kids started to do the same, so they saw Génesis as their model. Right after that, class was dismissed and students enjoyed a delicious "nucita" and some fruit juice.
In general I can say that both lessons were a success since students were repeating the words that we taught. In addition, students showed that they could recognize the structure "Does it/she have ...?" by moving their head for yes and no. Besides, showed Isaac and Marleny the parts of the body that teachers were asking for. In the part of the story in my class some students guessed the words and in the part of raising the cards the students did it, too.
According to Charlie's opinion when he gave me feedback. He agreed that kids got to know the vocabulary because he saw that students were repeating all the words that Konny and I tried to teach. In addition, he also said that the songs motivated the students and that if the second class had been longer, kids would have enjoyed it more and produce more. However, on purpose, Konny and I decided to shorten it because of the facts previously mentioned.

 



Lesson 3"My body"- Part 1
Grammar: Has
Vocabulary: Head, arms, legs, hands (short, long)
Teachers: Marleny Campos and Isaac Rodríguez

Teacher Isaac was the one in charge to start the lesson. He started by doing a warm up activity in which students had to stretch their bodies. At the beginning of this activity, students were kind of reluctant to follow Isaac's commands. However, in time, they started to follow what he said. Especially when he started using body language. One more time, it was demonstrated that students at this age need to see some body language during the lesson, so they can follow in a better way what the teachers want them to do. Sometimes, teacher Isaac said the words like "arms" "legs" and students repeated those words without being asked to do it.
After the warm-up activity, the teacher introduced the vocabulary to be studied in the lesson by using some flashcards, it was here when students started to repeat the words even more. In a way, it seemed that students had that "repetition" automatized in their heads.
In the practice, teacher Marleny explained in a very good way the difference between "short" and "long" by using some gestures and movements with her hands. It was great to see that in this part teacher Marleny used her body and Isaac's body to have students understand the differnce between "short " and "long" when it is related to the parts of the bodies. However, when students were commanded to touch Isaac's body they felt kind of scared and didn't do that activity as teachers expected.
To continue practicing, teacher Marleny pasted two drawings on the wall, those drawing had some missing parts, students were asked to paste the missing parts in their correct position. Most of the students did this activity well, but there were few of them who still confused the concepts "short" and "long".
The production part was very successful because students demonstrated that they understood the concepts of the parts of the body that teachers explained. When teachers asked them to show them a leg, their arms, to move their heads students did it very well. Finally, they were given some modeling clay that they used to make some bodies. Students were able to follow teachers' instructions when they told them things like "make the legs" "make the head". Right after that, students enjoyed their some cookies and juice.

 



Group 2
Part 2
Grammar: Question. Is that (your sister)? Answer: Yes, it is. / No, it isn't.
Vocabulary: cat, dog, turtle, fish, rabbit, bird.
This part of the class was taught by: Pilar and Karla

This class started in a very energetic way. Teacher Pilar started to play with the kids. Kids had to follow what Pilar did. "Sit down", "Stand up" , "jump three times" were the commands that Pilar said and the kids followed.
After that, she used stuffed animals to introduced the vocabulary for the lesson. She asked "What pet is this one? " So kids had to say "it's a dog" "it's a cat" and so forth.
Pilar challenged the kids by asking "is this a fish?" (as she showed a rabbit) Kids had to say "no, it isn't ... it is a rabbit" With her help, kids did it.
To practice, teacher Karla gave the kids images of animals. They had to fill the images with pieces of papers. When kids finished she asked "Is this a cat?" with her help, kids replied "yes, it is" or "not, it isn't".
Karla used some onomatopoeia voices (animal sounds in this case) to have students guess what animal she was referring to. Kids and Karla jumped like a rabbit, barked like a dog, meowed like a cat, moved slowly like a turtle and so on. After that, she told some kids a secret. They had to do what Karla told them in the secret. For example, she told one kid "bark like a dog" and the kid shouted "woof, woof"
Another entertaining activity was one in which students had to form animals by using some cubes. The teachers said "I's a dog" so kids formed a dog with the cubes.
Then, the animals were put into cages to simulate a pet shop. The students were given some money and pretended to buy the animals.
To finish the lesson, kids were told a story in which the animals and the grammar structures taught in the class were used. They received their meal and class was dismissed.
As teachers, Carlos and I believe that this class was very funny for kids. We think that they were motivated by the stuffed animals and by the energy that the teachers had. We only observed that in some cases, teachers could have used more the visual aids they had to compare and support the kids' work. By the way, the visual aids were very colorful and appealing for kids' eyes. Both teachers helped students by modeling the pronunciation of the words and repeating the grammar structures. In general, it was a great lesson!

 

 

Group 2
Teachers: Fátima, Pilar, Karla and Lily
Topic: Family and Friends

Part 1
Grammar: Question Who's that? Answer: It's
Vocabulary to present: me, grandma, grandpa, friend, teacher
This part of the class was taught by: Lily and Fátima.

In this time, teachers used a flipchart to present the vocabulary to the students. They were very creative because they used a puppet as a friend that was in charge of presenting the vocabulary to the kids. The puppet - Clifford - asked the kids ""Who's that?" and it helped the students to answer "It's my teacher" - Teacher Lily helped the students by modeling the pronunciation of questions and the answer.
It is also positive to say that teachers used stars to reward the students every time they participated in the class. Those stars were put on a kind of chart that they had in the wall.
As time passed, kids had to practice the vocabulary. Teacher Fátima gave them a kind of handout in which students had to circle the picture of the word that she was presenting. To do so, she used the puppet Clifford who asked the kids "Is this my grandpa?" as she showed them a picture of grandpa. It was really great that teachers used images that were appealing to kids' eyes. The images that teacher Fátima was showing were the ones that were in the handout so kids were able to associate them and circle correctly.
To practice the phrase "it's me" teachers used real pictures of the kids. Sincerely, Carlos and I agreeded that it was the best way to present that chunk, and for both of us it was the first time that we saw that technique to teach "it's me"

For kids to practice the vocabulary, teacher Fátima had students draw what she commanded. For example, she said "it's my teacher" so she showed the kids how to draw a teacher.
After this activity the class finished and teacher Lily took the kids to the cafeteria to eat a delicious popsicle!
As it was mentioned before, Carlos and I agreeded that this class was very innovative since they used real pictures of the kids to teach "it's me" In our experience as teacher, we had never seen something like that before. We also congratulated the teachers for using a puppet as a friend of the class. However, the both taught that teacher could have changed their voices a little bit when the puppet was supposedly speaking. In fact, we think that teacher delivered a good lesson, they reached their objectives sinces kids were repeating the phrases tha they taught. It was good that they had a lot of repetition so that kids could internalize all the new words in a better way.

 

Teaching Practicum 1

Period 3

lesson 1

Date: Friday, September 7 ^th 2012

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

Topic: School.

Part 1.

Grammar: Question: What’s this? (What’s) Answer: This is (It’s)
Vocabulary to present - School items: bag, pencil, book, ruler, pen.

      Despite of the fact that the students has had a gap period of the current friday english  classes. For some of them this "gap period" interfered  their performance. Another important aspect that could have affected students performance was the fact that  in this opportunity the class was longer.Nevertheless the students response was acceptable.  We as teacher expected the students  recognize the objects related with the school.  The grammar part was developed by some of the  students.The activities were designed in terms to explore each of the type of learners we have in the classroom. Teachers used the decoration for supporting the lesson. It created a learning atmosphere. In the lesson the teachers emphazised the activities paying attention on each of  details the class. The spinning wheel was one of the most succesful activities of the lesson. The teacher was clear that the time the object was presented.  Finally, The teacher used elements that students easly recognized.

 

Part 2

Grammar: Question: What’s that? Answer: It’s a/an

Vocabulary to present: desk, chair, computer, eraser, window

   

     The second part of the class was very interactive. the students were kind of tired. It was the first time they were in a two hours friday english class. In the first stage of the class the teacher presented the vocabulary and the grammar point. the teacher had to be careful in order to avoid confusion among what's this and what's that. therefore, teacher provided the objects. they had to identify and paste it on the chart. they did it very well. In terms to avoid students getting bored, the teacher asked them to do a contest. they had to touch the object that the teacher mentioned. they seem to enjoy the competion. The spinning bottle activity was exating for the students. It contributed to they were more aware of the possible questions that the teacher could ask. It encourage them to internalize the content rapidly. The attention span in the two lessons was activated from the very begginig with the dinatic stages that were presented. Something important to highlight in this part of the lesson is the improvisation capacity that the teacher should have to manage the class. In order to solve difficulties that we as teachers have.

         With the aim to highlight the experience we had as teacher. we want to say that it was so much possite. We learned a lot from the children. We enjoyed it so much. We felt that they internalized the contents. I think that I provided my portion in order to help them. In my opinion the following time they find this topic they are going to have fun because they have already studied it with me. I made my effort in order to do not disappoint them regarding the second language learning. I consider that I teaching english to children is a challenge that we can overcome and find amusing that the same time. It is riveting  notice that they develop the activities as is expected, because we design each stage of the class base on the children's necessities. It is rewarding to look a their faces when they have a possitive feeling regarding the class. we as teachers believe it is almost impossible to prevent students grow fond. In my personal case I felt that I wanted to go on with the class, but It would have not been fair because I understand it was a tiring schedule for the students. I do really want to my humbly gracefulness teacher for encourage the confidence on me. Without  your help it would not have been an enriching experience that I enjoyed so much.