Final self- and peer reflections (FS18) - Classroom 2.02024-03-28T17:10:29Zhttps://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/final-self-and-peer-reflections-fs18?groupUrl=pedagogy-of-secondary-school&commentId=649749%3AComment%3A1181945&groupId=649749%3AGroup%3A863323&feed=yes&xn_auth=noDear Briana,
I can see we sha…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-11:649749:Comment:11816702018-12-11T21:02:48.239ZOscar Bustamantehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/OscarBustamante
<p>Dear Briana,</p>
<p>I can see we share the same impressions about our teaching slices. I liked your visuals and how your students answer the questions about them although their responses are not clearly understood. You, like me, got the audio distorted unfortunately. As you said, problems arise when some students come late to class and disturb the others. It looks a quiet class and students behave well but they need to be more engaged through more interaction between they and you and among…</p>
<p>Dear Briana,</p>
<p>I can see we share the same impressions about our teaching slices. I liked your visuals and how your students answer the questions about them although their responses are not clearly understood. You, like me, got the audio distorted unfortunately. As you said, problems arise when some students come late to class and disturb the others. It looks a quiet class and students behave well but they need to be more engaged through more interaction between they and you and among themselves. Don't you think next time it is better to implement activities in pairs so they can interact more? Do you think that a video should have been played so the students get hooked with the lesson? Since your lesson is about cities it could have been interesting to show them a video of a Latin American city where peculiarities such markets or street vendors can be seen (little c). This way you could also have incorporated culture in your teaching slice. You, like me, also spoke English in some parts of the class. I know it is difficult to explain grammar without speaking English. What we do know is that we have to keep the use of L1 as little as possible. I see your classroom is big and the recording device was a little far away from you. It is a pity that the voices of the students are not clearly understood. I had the same problem even though my classroom is smaller. Let's try to make sure that the audio gets better next time. We are in our road to becoming teachers and probably we are going to deal with more difficulties but we will learn from them. You did a good job Briana and keep it up!</p>
<p>(292 words)</p> Hello Oscar,
One would like t…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-10:649749:Comment:11817442018-12-10T23:48:19.667ZBriana Lopezhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/BrianaLopez
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hello Oscar,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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…</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hello Oscar,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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)</span></p>
<p><br/><br/></p> One noticed the different typ…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-10:649749:Comment:11819452018-12-10T14:43:20.553ZMargarita Mejia-Ramoshttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MargaritaMejiaRamos
<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3">One noticed the different types of strategies that one wanted to incorporate in the lesson plan. One can say that the lesson plan was well performed, and students were engaged in the activities. One observed the different activities that were used through the lesson plan. This was a great idea because students were not distracted.…</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3">One noticed the different types of strategies that one wanted to incorporate in the lesson plan. One can say that the lesson plan was well performed, and students were engaged in the activities. One observed the different activities that were used through the lesson plan. This was a great idea because students were not distracted.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span> Formative assessment was used throughout the class, and it was well done. However, one might say that the questions used for the presentation phase were very open questions, especially for a level one class. One should perhaps give the students multiple choice questions. Another way that the presentation phase could have been done differently is by doing true and false questions. The question could have been great for the HL, not for the other students.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span> One can say that the pacing was great. One had excellent interactions with the students. Students were able to follow the instruction for each activity. One may say that the TL was used about 50 percent of the time; the L1 was used about the same range. One can argue that it is fine to use the students L1 when clarification needs to be made, however when speaking basic grammar, one should use the TL.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span> Culture can be seen throughout the whole presentation. This was the best aspect of the lesson. Students were able to “visit” Mexico with the pictures that one provided. One also made connections with the students, as they were able to relate to you. Do you think that the questions were accurate for a level one Spanish class? Do you think that perhaps writing an example of how to answer the presentation phase questions could have helped students? Or do think that giving students options could have motivated them to participate more than one would have liked to? (302 words)</font></span></p> The teaching slice went well…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-10:649749:Comment:11816532018-12-10T05:58:40.069ZOscar Bustamantehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/OscarBustamante
<p>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.…</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>(482 words)</p> Maria, you were able to engag…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-10:649749:Comment:11817332018-12-10T04:56:40.714ZGloria Paynehttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/GloriaPayne
<p>Maria, you were able to engage the student and successfully implement your lesson plan. I was impressed by your ability to use the smart board in your presentation. This was helpful to provide the students with a visual outlook in which they could understand and better relate to the lesson plan. You were persistence in seeking student participation, which elicits further engagement between student and teacher in the target language (TL). The objective of the lesson plan was clearly…</p>
<p>Maria, you were able to engage the student and successfully implement your lesson plan. I was impressed by your ability to use the smart board in your presentation. This was helpful to provide the students with a visual outlook in which they could understand and better relate to the lesson plan. You were persistence in seeking student participation, which elicits further engagement between student and teacher in the target language (TL). The objective of the lesson plan was clearly received by the students.</p>
<p>We both encountered a similar issue with the role teacher having too much interaction and visibility within the class. There was a few more distraction that was out of your control, but overall you were able to recover and continue with your lesson plan. </p>
<p> Throughout the lesson, you stayed on point and using several hand gestures to communicate to the students. This is an important aspect of teaching as you were able to establish a level of interaction, which stimulated an exchange between yourself and the students. You were also able to touch on culture with your second video which was helpful and established a link to your overall goal. The students could easily relate to the individuals on video and their attires that they wore. You were able to pull this information from the students. You also touched on the use of proper verbs and their appropriate use in addressing the masculine and feminine stance. There was a clean transition between the three Ps (Presentation, Practice, and Production). Once again, Maria, you did an impressive job.</p>
<p>(word count 260)</p> Hola, Xochitl, Through the mi…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-10:649749:Comment:11817312018-12-10T04:41:02.694ZMaria Rodriguezhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MariaRodriguez43
<p>Hola, Xochitl,<br></br> Through the mini-lesson, you used the TL during instruction and students were able to answer in the TL. The vocabulary and material were at the students’ level because some students were able to participate during the discussion of the material. You were able to differentiate your mini lesson by implementing pictures, a video clip, worksheet and mimic during instruction. These materials are very helpful for visual learners because it promotes a better understanding of the…</p>
<p>Hola, Xochitl,<br/> Through the mini-lesson, you used the TL during instruction and students were able to answer in the TL. The vocabulary and material were at the students’ level because some students were able to participate during the discussion of the material. You were able to differentiate your mini lesson by implementing pictures, a video clip, worksheet and mimic during instruction. These materials are very helpful for visual learners because it promotes a better understanding of the new input in the TL. During the learning segment, some of the students were able to implement writing, listening, speaking skills which are the objectives of the lesson. I like the friendly and positive interaction between you and the students. Tomlinson (1993) “it is important to address students’ own readiness levels, interests, and learning modes. By offering variations on well-deigned products with core commonalities, teacher encourage all students to draw on their personal interest and strengths. In this way all students can grow from appropriate challenges.” <br/> However, I would suggest that in the future, you could implement cooperative and communicate learning activities, in which students could exchange their interpersonal ideas about the topic in the TL. You could use the same task implemented in the mini-lesson. Students could work in groups or pairs and put in practice the new input in the TL. This could give you the opportunity to assess their oral skills while they are engaging in a communicative activity. Also, you could use a Hispanic restaurant to introduce culture in your mini lesson. Over all, I like how you manage the lesson because It reflect a positive environment. (266 words)</p> Hello Margarita, One can say…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-10:649749:Comment:11816442018-12-10T03:07:31.642ZDavid Vazquezhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/Immajoringinbusiness
<p>Hello Margarita,<br></br> One can say you did a great job in your teaching slice. Your had all the 3 P’s in your slice. Even though you finished early, I congratulate you because you thought of a plan on the spot. It was an unexpected consequence that you managed using a game. It was a smart game too, because one can say it was a vocabulary game. You spoke loud and clear. The activities were great for what you were trying to teach. Your pacing was excellent in my opinion. Based on your last…</p>
<p>Hello Margarita,<br/> One can say you did a great job in your teaching slice. Your had all the 3 P’s in your slice. Even though you finished early, I congratulate you because you thought of a plan on the spot. It was an unexpected consequence that you managed using a game. It was a smart game too, because one can say it was a vocabulary game. You spoke loud and clear. The activities were great for what you were trying to teach. Your pacing was excellent in my opinion. Based on your last teaching slice, your pacing is something that one can say doesn't need any work. You speak very slow, and that is a good thing. I really like how you used the class objects to show students what you were talking about. That is a great way to promote binding. There is just a couple of things that need a little work. A couple of your students were not paying attention, so it is important you address that. There was little culture mentioned in your classroom. Other than that, the only suggestion I can give you is to speak up a little more, and to time yourself a little better. Maybe you could have wasted more time on the activity that was hard. Here are just a couple of questions to consider based on your teaching slice: Did my activities promote culture? Could I have taught vocabulary words from outside the classroom? Did the students understand my instructions that were said in Spanish? (253 Words)</p> One must always understand th…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-10:649749:Comment:11816412018-12-10T03:00:19.068ZMargarita Mejia-Ramoshttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MargaritaMejiaRamos
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3">One must always understand the importance of creating a good design lesson plan. One should not just focus on the context that will be present to the class, but also the differentiation one must do for students who have an individualized education program (IEP), are heritage language learners (HL), gifted and talented and so on. After this teaching…</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3">One must always understand the importance of creating a good design lesson plan. One should not just focus on the context that will be present to the class, but also the differentiation one must do for students who have an individualized education program (IEP), are heritage language learners (HL), gifted and talented and so on. After this teaching slice, one has noticed that there are good and bad aspects of the lesson, and how one can improve future lessons.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3">The primary goal for all foreign language educators is to speak in the target language (TL). However, one spoke in the students' first language (L1) the majority of the class. Cook (2008) highlights, that “an important element in L2 success appears to be how learners are treated: the teaching method they encounter the language they hear and the environment in which they are learning” (2008, p. 162). Students must be exposed to the TL in order to have a comprehension of the language. Educators should also be aware of the classroom and students vary in so many ways. Some students will need accommodations to be able to participate and understand what is going on in the classroom.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>One noticed that doing accommodations for all students was a great success. In the presentation phase, students had been presented to new vocabulary words. Lee and VanPatten (2003) argue that “input activities require visualizations” (2003, p. 43), therefore in the practice phase, one was able to create an activity for students who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), were able to move around the classroom. Students were asked to label the objects in the classroom since the unit is to learn about the objects in the classroom. Although not all students have ADHD, it is essential to create activities where students can visually, have physical descriptions, or physical items to have a good input based on vocabulary.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3">One must be able to have good time management. Unfortunately, one had created an activity for each phase; however, the activities were to brief. Brandl (2008) points out that, “pacing and timing constitute important aspects of planning a lesson, and they may influence the effectiveness of a lesson.” (2008, p. 48).<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span> Educators must be careful with their timing when creating a lesson plan. One must always create a backup plan, in case the pacing and timing do not go as one had planned. Fortunately, one was able to ask students to create a bingo chart and utilize the vocabulary words that they have been given in the presentation phase. One was able to use this idea and students continue to participate.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The objectives of the lesson were achieved, Students were able to comprehend new vocabulary and utilize it during the activities, one was able to do formative assessments for each activity, and challenge students who had a better input based on the lesson content. Brandl (2008), argues teachers need to utilize materials (e.g., videos, audiotapes, reading text) and create a learning task that will engage students learning process.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>In the next class, in the presentation phase, students should review the vocabulary from the previous day. As for the practice phase, students should learn about indirect and direct pronouns. Although they have been implicitly thought in the previous activity, it is essential for students to have a better comprehension. There are many things one will like to do differently, such as using the L1 less frequently and utilize the TL more often.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="margin: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"><font size="3">(574 words)</font></span></p> One believes this teaching sl…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-10:649749:Comment:11819332018-12-10T02:28:22.030ZBriana Lopezhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/BrianaLopez
<p>One believes this teaching slice went fairly well in certain aspects; however, one is aware improvement is needed in order to be successful for future lesson plans. The aspects that went well during the lesson was the engagement of one’s student. Students were able to remain focused and engaged throughout the whole lesson by volunteering to share their answers. The second language (L2) learners were also engaged with the lesson since the presentation activity provided a lot of visual’s that…</p>
<p>One believes this teaching slice went fairly well in certain aspects; however, one is aware improvement is needed in order to be successful for future lesson plans. The aspects that went well during the lesson was the engagement of one’s student. Students were able to remain focused and engaged throughout the whole lesson by volunteering to share their answers. The second language (L2) learners were also engaged with the lesson since the presentation activity provided a lot of visual’s that caught students attention. As Lee and VanPatten (2003) state drawing, photos, diagrams, gestures, and other visual approaches help students have a better understanding of what is being taught especially when one is teaching vocabulary.</p>
<p>The aspect that did not go well was the usage of the target language (TL). One notice there was translation-based teaching in their lesson. This could have been avoided since students were able to get a clear understanding of the vocabulary words being presented to them with all the visuals being provided. Therefore, one could have limited the usage of the first language (L1). Additionally, there was no Do Now activity, one went straight to introducing the vocabulary without a small hook to catch student’s attention.</p>
<p>Overall, one unanticipated consequence was present during the lesson when students were getting distracted by their fellow classmates that were walking into the classroom late. One also did not manage time appropriately since at the end of the class period one had to rush to finish the last activity.</p>
<p>The objectives of the lesson were achieved. Students were able to get a clear understanding of the vocabulary words relating to the city and understand how to use the words correctly. Students also had the opportunity to interact with their fellow classmates and educator. Here, students were able to practice the usage of the language and exchange ideas. As Geeslin and Long (2014) argued, good material does more than just deliver explanation but give students the chance to interact with the language. Overall, one's L2 learners were engaged, respectful and willing to participate during the lesson.</p>
<p>The next lesson will start by going over the vocabulary word and introducing the future tense. Students will be able to put into practice the vocabulary acquired in the previous lesson with the new tense being presented. If one had to re-teach the lesson, one would provide a reading or video where the L2 learners would have the opportunity to hear the pronunciation of the words and see the words being used. One would also try to incorporate more culture within the lesson, by adding a video relating to a specific country in Latin America. Overall, for future lessons, one will pay close attention to students learning profiles because as one Tomlinson (2001) claims one must be aware of what works with one's student in order for them to succeed. (475)</p>
<p> </p> During the mini lesson, stude…tag:www.classroom20.com,2018-12-10:649749:Comment:11818272018-12-10T01:27:40.609ZMaria Rodriguezhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/MariaRodriguez43
<p>During the mini lesson, students were engaged and interested in the topic. Some of the students had knowledge about the topic and contribute during the discussion. However, as always, I had problems with the technology. The projector connected to the smartboard worked for five minutes then went off. So, I did my presentation without a PowerPoint. Students did not have the opportunity to visualize the colorful pictures and get a better understanding of material. I had to improviser with the…</p>
<p>During the mini lesson, students were engaged and interested in the topic. Some of the students had knowledge about the topic and contribute during the discussion. However, as always, I had problems with the technology. The projector connected to the smartboard worked for five minutes then went off. So, I did my presentation without a PowerPoint. Students did not have the opportunity to visualize the colorful pictures and get a better understanding of material. I had to improviser with the pictures from the handouts in order to students understand the concept of the material in the TL. Then the person who was recoding my presentation, noticed that my tablet had not space to record the presentation. It was a moment of confusion because the recording person did not know what to do. However, it was amazing how students respond to the situation, they were very cooperated. Many of students offered me their cellphones to videotape my presentation. So, one of my students’ cellphone was used to videotape my presentation. After all the commotion, my videoclip was made of pieces from one minute, seven minutes, two minutes. I see this as a teachable moment event though my videoclip was short, I learn that I can count on the students’ support in a moment of difficulty like my situation.<br/> After all, students were able to engage in a listening activity in which students were exposed to a narrative story in the TL about a typical Day of Dead. Through the activity students were able experienced and obtained information of the different viewpoints of a sociocultural tradition. During the learning phases, the four cognitive skills were implemented. In the first phase of the mini lesson, students engaged in listening and speaking tasks. Students had the opportunity to eat “bread of dead,” tamales, and sure skulls. Students were able to talk about the products. In the last phases of the lesson, students engaged in reading and writing tasks in which they had to identify lexical and verbs forms in the reading passages. Students had to analyze the reading material and write the verbs in the correct tense (past or past form) The objectives of the mini lesson were met because students were able to implement the four cognitive goals. Seely N. (1976) “learning a language in isolation of its cultural roots prevent one from becoming socialized into its contextual use, knowledge of linguistic structure alone does not carry with it any special insight into the political, social, religious, or economic system.” Over all, the purpose of the mini lesson was to create awareness for students on the different cultural festivities in Hispano-American countries and allowed students to advance their sociocultural competence. <br/> In the following mini lesson, I will implement different festivities in which students will be able to select one of their choice. Brant (1998) “Two powerful and related motivation for engagement are students’ interest and students’ choice. If students have a spark of curiosity about a topic, learning is more likely for that students.”<br/>
I would like to reteach this mini lesson because I feel that the students missed the first part of the lesson at the beginning. (526 words)</p>