Final self- and peer reflections (FS19)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by CAROLINA PUERTA on December 13, 2019 at 9:05am

After observing this class and having taught my lesson, I am not completely satisfied with several aspects. The students had learned the lesson of the family, where they knew the vocabulary of family members and relatives. They also had knowledge of the verb "tener". My frustration began from the beginning where the students had to individually read a reading about "Miguel and su familia" had 5 minutes to do it. While they were reading I saw that some students did not know how to read in TL. After 5 minutes we all read the story again, asking students for help reading some sentences from the story, the majority of students willing to read were students whose L1 is Spanish. I made use of illustrations, which I think helped me. Authentic speech evidently needs to be made comprehensible in one way or another if it is to be useful. Its lack of any concession to the learner needs to be compensated for in some way, for example, with explanations or visuals. (Cook 2008, pg 162).

Second, during the two activities that I use as production. Taking into account that my teaching slide was "reading and reading comprehension" the activities were prepared to work in pairs. I chose the couples myself, but I realized after they were seated by students like, (L1, L1) and (L2, L2) then, the L1 students finished much faster than the L2, I realized in the middle of the first activity. What I did was help the L2 students. I think it would have been better if I had combined students from L1 and L2, so they would help each other, but, I also think that if L2 knows that L1 can do it, it would leave work alone to L1.

Finally, during my observations I could see that the students are accustomed to the translation method, where the teacher gives a list of vocabulary words in TL and at the front is what it means in English. In my activities only the instructions were in English, the rest in TL. Many students were lost because they did not have a guide with the meaning of the words (family members) in English, so I saw that they found it difficult to perform the activities. I have learned that we should teach the lessons in a contextualized way, and not letting ourselves be carried away by traditional teachings such as "traditional method" Grammar-translation method: the traditional academic style of teaching, which places heavy emphasis on grammar explanation and translation as a teaching technique (Cook, pg 238)

Among all the frustrations I had, I can say that the students are very respectful and are motivated to do the activities and participate, regardless of whether they are wrong or not. Many participated. My frustrations are for those who did not, but I know they were lost, they were not connected to the subject, so I do not blame them, there was no connection between them and the subject.

Cook, V. (2008). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (4^th Edition). Oxford University Press.

Words 511

Permalink Reply by Fazima Kausar on December 15, 2019 at 9:05pm

After watching and closely examining Carolina’s instruction during her teaching slice, I could not help but notice the simplification she implemented throughout her lesson. Carolina did an excellent job at executing the Spanish language in a way that made it comprehensible for Level 1 intermediate school students. She not only incorporated Level 1 vocabulary that students may have learned or will learn, but she also made great use of maintaining clear speech while speaking at a steady rate, as declared by scholars “it is important to begin with sentences first, the shorter the better. Short, isolated sentences give learners processing time…” (Lee and VanPatten, 2006, p.  156).

Unfortunately, I did notice throughout the video that many of the students were accustomed to learn Spanish with heavy incorporation of English, in a translation-based manner. As observers, and from our class discussions, it is pretty easy to conclude that teaching in such a manner is a problem that is deeply embedded in many second language classrooms. We as future educators, need to take this problem into strong consideration and be mindful to not assimilate to that of others, as research has shown “pioneers of the new language teaching, such as Henry Sweet and Otto Jespersen, emphasized the spoken language and the naturalness of language learning, and insisted on the importance of using the second language in the classroom rather than the first” (Cook, 2008, p.  3).

To address the situation that HLLs finished the activities a lot sooner than the rest of the class, it is important for us as future educators to get to familiarize ourselves with our students. Being that in the future, we can create activities for students adequately with the help of differentiation. 

All in all, I can easily distinguish my Carolina's development and growth of implementing the feedback from the previous semester and the content we have been learning all along! (298 words)

Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making communicative language teaching happen. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Cook, V. (2008). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (4^th Edition). Oxford University Press.

 

Permalink Reply by Geomyra Granados on December 19, 2019 at 10:18pm

My lesson is divided into three categories such as pre-reading, while reading and post-reading. The slide presented in class was my presentation part which is my pre-reading. As suggested by Lee and VanPatten(2003), when conducting a reading comprehension lesson, one must provide the student with a pre-reading, while-reading and a post-reading. I started my lesson by providing the students with a short video based on what my reading lesson is going to be about. The video usage as my hook is important since it will grab the attention of the students and therefore, they will be more focused throughout the rest of the lesson. The video presented is very easy for the students to understand since it provides students great input and a good source of introduction to the topic. It is important to provide the students easy and understandable input (Lee& VanPatten 2003) Following the video, I provided the students with a follow-up activity about what they had learned throughout my video demonstration. The reason as to why I provided the students with a follow-up activity is to assess the student and see how connected and how well they are understanding the lesson. 

My presentation did not go as planned. In the begging of the lesson my powerpoint did not want to open. I was having technical difficulties when opening my lesson. However, I was able to work around the inconvenience and play the video that I wanted to show the class. My lesson is a reading comprehension lesson. I started by showing the students my presentation phase. First I showed them a video which related to the topic of my lesson,  “¿Dónde te gusta vivir?”. I started by introducing the topic and then having a follow-up activity which consisted of the students working in pairs. As the students worked in the activity, I was walking around the classroom to make students aware that I was available to answer any questions and help them with the activity if they needed me to do so. An essential element necessary for students to learn foreign language communication is engaging in the expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning. As an instructor it is important to engage students in the acquisition of the TL. By this Lee and VanPatten conclude that it is the instructor’s job to facilitate an easy input throughout the lesson. For this particular reason, I started to walk around the classroom to facilitate the input of my lesson since I realized that I have used a word that the students were not so familiar with which was “ Semejanzas”. When walking around one of the students asked me what the word meant, therefore I tried to simplify my input by describing the words as “similitudes” in the target language. 

I created this lesson with the purpose of having students see the differences and similarities that there are between the rural and the urban. I believe throughout this activity the students are able to engage with one another since we will respond to the activity as a whole. Throughout the lesson, listening to the video in the beginning of the class is a crucial hook to the lesson, since later on it will aid the students when working on their while-reading and post-reading activities. The achievement of the activity presented is for students to familiarize themselves with the topic in the TL. One of the things I would change about my lesson would be the challenge of the activity since it would provide the students to challenge themselves more when conducting the activity. Overall, the part of the lesson presented achieves the purpose of students interacting with each other and connecting all the activities together. The pre-reading of a lesson is crucial for the student to be able to perform well on the rest of the lesson. It is important for the teacher to deliver a great input when presenting this activity. As Lee & VanPatten mentioned, “Comprehension is assessed by comparing readers’ performance on the pre-reading questions and the post-reading activity”. (683)

Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making communicative language teaching happen. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Permalink Reply by Karolina Custodio on December 19, 2019 at 10:21pm

             

     Geomyra after watching your teaching demo, I have to comment that your activity was well presented. It engaged students and they had the opportunity to practice the TL. It is very important to let students communicate in class, in order to enhance students’ skills in the TL. According to Lee and VanPatten (2003) communicative language approach promote real communication in class, where students interact with their peers and they do not only focus on the acquisition of grammar or vocabulary. You showed them a video about “el campo y la ciudad” before the activity but something that I would have done different is to project pictures during the activity, so students can visualize the differences and similarities that exist in these two places. In this way, you simplify the language for the students through non-linguistic means (such pictures, objects and gestures), which can be employed throughout the lesson to aid students’. (Lee & VanPatten, 2003). Another aspect that I like from your video is that you approached each student individually when needed help. Therefore, it would have been better if you demonstrated them an example before doing the activity.

As I mentioned before your teaching demo was well presented and I particularly enjoyed the way you walked around the classroom to help your students. Additionally, you managed to create an environment where some students were actively participating which it is good in a language classroom, when students are attentive and engage on the lesson. To conclude, you have applied almost everything we have learned in class and you delivered such a good demo of your lesson. (266)

References:

Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen. (2^nd ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Permalink Reply by Karolina Custodio on December 19, 2019 at 10:20pm

       My teaching slice did not go as I planned but it allowed me to gain more experience in a real classroom setting. After watching my video, I realized that I was nervous because of something that happen before my videotaping. However, what motivated me to continue with my teaching slice was the energy of the students who were prepared to do the activity. I prepared a reading comprehension activity about Carla’s family and their jobs in Colombia. I provided students the handouts with the reading and the questions they will have to answer. Additionally, I projected the same handout on the smartboard, so they were able to visualize better. This is seen as the helpful way to aid students to make a better sense of the TL. As Lee and VanPatten (2003) states that “Visuals such as photos and drawings anchor the input making the ideas and references more concrete". On my activities I made use of different visuals as pictures of the professions and workplaces in Colombia so students could better understand the text and the questions.

       Even though I made sure that everything was ready for my teaching demonstration, I had difficulties that I did not anticipated. One of the main issues I faced was for the consent form that students received a day before and they did not sign for the videotaping. I ended up working with a very small group of students, which interaction was very short and therefore also the video. However, the short time we had, I tried to engage these students into the activity. I asked them to read the text out loud, so they can practice the TL. After they read the paragraph, I asked them to work independently to answer the questions based on the reading. When they finished, they had to share their responses with the whole class. Something that I made sure was that they had more opportunity to practice the TL. As Lee and VanPatten (2003) suggest the importance of communicative language teaching (CLT) where students learn to communicate in the TL while communicating. For this reason, I asked them to read the text out loud by themselves. Because I noticed that they were able to comprehend the reading and to respond the questions without any difficulties. Furthermore, I have observed this class before, and these students were confidence with the TL. As I mentioned before, the small group I had while delivering my teaching demo was very participative and they were engaged with the reading. If I had to redo my teaching slice, I will make sure to have half of the period as well as making sure that students are aware of the videotaping in order to avoid any misunderstanding with the school administration. Overall, I enjoyed this experience despite the technical difficulties, but one is learning and practicing to not make the same mistakes for future presentations. (483)

References:

Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen. (2^nd ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Permalink Reply by Geomyra Granados on December 19, 2019 at 10:30pm

Hi Karolina,

I enjoyed your teaching slide. I liked how you presented your activity in your video. The usage of the video is a great hook in order to catch students’ attention and they will also be able to apply it to the follow-up activity. With regards your activity set up, the students working in pairs is a great way to start the class since they all feel engaged with one another. According to Lee and VanPatten (2003), They both suggest that one of the most important phases throughout a reading lesson is the pre-reading and the post-reading. As they suggested, it is important to be able to catch students’ attention by bringing them topics of interest and making them work in groups. The one negative point that I see about your video is that as an observer I am not able to see the whole picture of the class. I can hear that the class is working in groups, but I am unable to see the whole picture. It is important to see how well they are interacting with one another. 

Another positive point that I see throughout your teaching slide is how well you presented the vocabulary, as we have studied throughout the semester it is important to simplify our input in order for the students to understand it and be able to communicate in the target language. As mentioned in the reading by Lee and VanPatten (2003), it is crucial to simplify the input presented in the class, the reason for this being is for the students to be able to understand the content of your lesson to the fullest. Overall, your teaching slide went great, I think as an instructor you were able to deliver your topic and the students were able to understand the lesson in the target language which is the number one purpose of your lesson.  (316)

Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen. (2^nd ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

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