Final self- and peer reflections (FS18)

Section A:

After the teaching slice is delivered, it is necessary to reflect on the teaching/learning process. Your reflection (450 words minimum; 500 words maximum) may answer questions, such as: what aspects of the lesson went well?; which aspects did not go so well?; what do you think the students took away from this lesson?; are there any unanticipated consequences?; how did the students interact with each other and with you?; were the objectives of the lesson achieved?; what did the class and individual students learn today?; where should the lesson begin for the following class?; and, inter alia, are there other ways to teach or re-teach this lesson or some part of it?

Deadline: Sunday, December 9, 2018, 11:59 p.m.

Section B:

Your peer reflection (250 words minimum; 300 words maximum) may answer questions, such as: what did your peer do well?; what needs work? Offer him/her concrete suggestions. You can do this by formulating them as questions (e.g., did you think of doing such and such a thing? Do you think that such and such a thing might work better next time if you/the students do this, etc.)

Deadline: Tuesday, December 11, 2018, 5:59 p.m.

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Permalink Reply by Oscar Bustamante on December 9, 2018 at 10:58pm

The teaching slice went well although there were technical difficulties. One wishes one had more recording time to show the whole lesson in context so all can see a different performance that these short 16 minutes seem to be. It is accepted that this time the teacher candidate spoke some parts of the lesson in English, especially the grammar part. In the teaching slice discussion day one could notice that this teacher candidate's voice sounded distorted and the video sounded distorted too. The teaching slice was about the commands of some regular and irregular verbs. One followed the structure of the lesson that consists of the three phases: Presentation, practice and production. There was interaction between the students and the teacher and among themselves. The culture context used in class was advertisements in the target language (TL). The students really enjoyed them and learned from authentic TL text. The students behave very well and always willing to participate. The students learned about the informal commands of regular and irregular verbs. The regular verb commands were easy to construct and understand but the irregular ones not. In the presentation part, a video created by the Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, was played, in where the mothers of the athletes around the world are celebrated. From that video the students had to identify all the commands they could such as the household chores the mothers perform. Indeed, the whole teaching slice is based in household chores. That video activity constituted the big hook of the lesson. In the teaching slice one used many visuals such as images in the TL to make the students learn the concepts without translating. One can observe that more culture could have been incorporated in the teaching slice. Perhaps variation of commands in Argentina which are quite different than the rest of Latin America. In Argentina they say "¡lavá tu ropa!" (wash your clothes!) instead of "lava" (/láva/). So in the commands there is also a linguistic variation but also a lexical variation. In Argentina they say "laburar" (to work) instead of "trabajar," so the command for that verb in Argentina would be "laburá". One can say that in the commands, culture is involved because of the lexical and linguistical variation. Another point to mention is that the teaching slice only covered the informal command. There is more to cover such the formal command (usted). One should try to find ways to teach the conjugation of the verbs in the TL in a way the students do not get confused. It is very challenging to try to explain rules without speaking English to L2 learners. At least there is a minimum of English it needs to be used in class to explain the grammar of the TL. Overall one can say that we are just beginning to learn how to become not just a teacher but a good teacher.

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Permalink Reply by Briana Lopez on December 10, 2018 at 4:48pm

Hello Oscar,

One would like to start by saying you had a well-designed lesson plan. Like you mention this is a learning experience one can learn from. One appreciates the fact you were able to recognize and be aware of the areas that need improvement. In specific, this will help one as a future educator understand and avoid making the same mistake. Your lesson was very creative. One personally enjoyed the different activities being presented to your students. Your students were engaged and interested in the lesson. These L2 learners seem to understand what was being taught which is a good thing especially since you were teaching grammar. As you mention, one needs to limit the usage of the L1 when teaching a lesson. One would recommend for you to use more visuals to avoid translation-based teaching. A student will be able to see the images and comprehend the commands being taught. For example, the presentation part of your lesson had a lot of visuals that helped your students understand the commands without having to use translation-based teaching. As Tomlinson (2001) argued, one as an educator must be aware of what works best with one's students when designing a lesson. By this one means, if a student seems to understand better with visuals, use them to your advantage. Another area, where one person can improve on would be the technology part since for certain parts of the video it was not clear what the student said. One can fix these problems by speaking louder and asking students to speak a little louder as well. In addition, one believes for future activities one should avoid randomly calling on students especially if we are trying to promote students to engage naturally. Do you think calling out on students promotes a natural engagement from students? Overall, you had a very well-designed lesson plan that contained all three P’s. Keep up the good work Oscar. (321)