Blog III_SS2018

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Permalink Reply by Oscar Bustamante on April 17, 2018 at 11:15pm

              The mini lesson presented by Xochitl and me, aimed to review the preterit of some verbs that mostly end in -ar by using the story of a poor Colombian boy named Juan. We taught the lesson, as required, through culture. That is why we showed an aspect of child poverty and abuse that is part of the socio-cultural reality of Latin America. First we started by showing Juan's picture and we asked the students, looking at the child's picture, to guess some words about his story. Then we made a vocabulary of those words on the board and showed a list of verbs on the screen and their respective conjugations in the past tense in the third person. Then we played the video of Juan's story and distributed sheets with the exercises that consisted in completing the vocabulary, filling in the blanks and answering some questions of the story. In the end we explained a little about the sad reality of the poor children of Latin America.

              The lesson went good because it covered the proposed goal of teaching the lesson through culture but unfortunately the lesson went very quick for the short time available. We received a criticism for translating the vocabulary, but the teacher said that the translation was fine in this case. Another mistake that was made was to play the video only once, and that it should have been played in segments, but again, it was not possible to do so for the scant seven minutes programmed. The teacher said that it was not necessary to cover the whole lesson but only one activity of it instead. We may not have understood his instructions well before the presentation. We will try to be more attentive and make sure we understand well what is required. Thank you all for making us see our mistakes that teach us to correct them and be eventually better.

               (317 words)

Permalink Reply by Maria Sciortino on April 20, 2018 at 8:45am

I felt the same way, I feel like we had to present something in order to assign the activity.I enjoyed your activity and the culture embedded in it. I did not find your micro-teaching confusing at all, and I agree that a second listening should have helped the comprehension. Regarding the technical issue, we all had them that day, but let's not forget that before being future teachers, we are learners, so we will try our best to learn for next time. 

Permalink Reply by Maria Rodriguez on April 22, 2018 at 5:47pm

The mini-lesson about the Tomatina de Buñol en Valencia
The mini-lesson was based on the structure of a reading activity in which the three phases of reading were implemented: Pre-Reading, While- reading, and Post- reading. At the beginning, the lesson went well because the material was appropriate to the students’ interest. During the Pre-reading, students had the opportunity to watch a video clip about “El Festival de La Tomatina de Buñol en Valencia” in which students were able to visualize the cultural aspects of the festival “La Tomatina”. Also, students were exposed to new vocabulary with pictures relating to the topic. Through the While-reading activity students were able to work in pairs and help each other to answer the questions about the article. Students seemed engaged and interested during the reading activity because they were asked question about the reading material. Even though, the while-reading activity had to be modified because we were running out time. In the original activity, students were supposed to take turns and read parts of the reading material. Also, the Post-reading activity had to be rushed out and students did not have enough time to contribute with their back-ground knowledge about the topic. However, the most important concept was that students were able to understand the new input of the cultural activity and the objective of the lesson was successfully met. The purpose of the lesson was to learn about sociocultural festivities and traditions of other cultures. The following lesson will begin by allowing students to talk about any sociocultural festivity or traditions of their culture. This lesson would be modified by implementing the original lesson parts of the while-reading and the post-reading phases because students would have a better understanding of the cultural topic. 281 words.

Permalink Reply by Katheryn Gutierrez on April 30, 2018 at 9:04pm

  Hello Maria, I found your mini- lesson to be very interesting I like how to you and your partner chose the topic of “La Tomatina” in Spain because it looks like something fun and it grasp your attention as a student. I liked like you covered all the 5 c’s and you seemed to cover everything between the time framed that was given. Great Job!

Permalink Reply by Margarita Mejia-Ramos on April 26, 2018 at 6:58pm

The primary goal of a language teacher is to make sure that do students are able to achieve the objectives of the class, but it is also to make sure that the pupils enjoy the lesson that has been planned for that day. When doing a listening activity, one must make sure to have a Pre-activity, a while listening activity, an intensive listening activity (depending on the level of the class) and lastly educators must include a post-listening activity. All these requirements will help students have a clearer understanding of what is going on in. However, as Lee and VanPatten said educators should also focus on doing activities that “use of personal experience and cultural context to assign meaning to what is heard” (pg. 195)

As for the while listening activity that was planned for the class on Friday, was not successful as one had hope. Educators must check what kind of content they are bringing into the classrooms; especially when it comes to inappropriate language. One must avoid repetitions, although, this could be good since the pupils would be able to remember the words and phrases of the song, the negative of this could be that some students could get bored. Some of the aspects that went well in the lesson are that most of the students were able to see a few of the five C’s. This is important because as educator’s connections must be made. For example, in this listening activity, students were able to connect with the song because they had heard it on the radio. They also the culture that was in the music video. Doing these things, help future teachers become better, learning from their mistakes and satisfying experiences can change the way one teaches. 

(291 words)

Permalink Reply by Gloria Payne on April 29, 2018 at 1:25pm

Hi Margarita,

I totally agree with you on all aspects of your comments. There is no need to focus too much on the negative as the positives clearly outweighed the negatives. Yes, there are areas of improvement that we can work on to improve our presentation skills, so that the class can better follow the lesson plan that was laid out. In doing, so we would have maintained the attention of the classroom. Additionally, as stated we continue to learn, and as we do we will be able to better manage our time around our lesson plan. Further, I do agree that we did a good job in connecting the 5 c’s to the students. It is also possible that we can use other mediums besides music to connect and communicate the listening activity segment with the classroom. Students continue to evolve, and we as educators should be flexible with the tools that we have available for our use.

(156 words)

Permalink Reply by Katheryn Gutierrez on April 30, 2018 at 8:52pm

Hello Margarita, I believe your group did an excellent job you guys covered the 5 c’s and involved modern music which is something that engages the students in a class instead of an old boring music video but like you mentioned we do need to be a bit careful to what kind of lyrics the music has just to be precautions as future educators. And like professor Salgado mentioned in class as future educators we should double check with the policies of the school will be working to see what is allowed just to keep us safe.

Permalink Reply by Leslie Gonzalez on May 3, 2018 at 9:42pm

Hello Margarita,

          I think that your group did an interesting teaching slice. It definitely captured everyone's attention which is good. In addition, it was very entertaining and usually that is what is needed for students to pay attention and enjoy what they are learning. The fact that the activity involved a lot of listening and it was put together with a popular catchy song was an excellent job of capturing student's attention. It is always good to incorporate culture which is what was done in this teaching slice.

Permalink Reply by Briana Lopez on April 26, 2018 at 8:39pm

During the teaching slice of this week, my co teachers and I were required to come up with a listening activity. Although our teaching slice did not go as planned, we tried our best to make what we had work. We were taught from previous lessons that a listening activity should consist of a pre-activity, while listening activity, intensive listening activity and post listening activity. In our teaching slice we focused on the while listening activity. One did not forget to do the other 3 listening activities; however, since one was limited on time, one decide it would be best if we focused on just one activity and not all four. In one’s teaching slice one failed when it came to choosing a song that was appropriate for one’s student. The reason for this is because one chose a song that had inappropriate language. One didn’t think it was inappropriate since one would be teaching high school students but at the same time one has to keep in mind our high school students are still under age and the language of the song would not be a good influence for them. However, we did a good job in connecting the 5 c’s into our activity and in return our students seem interested and entertained. Lastly, for the next teaching slice one will make sure the activity one chooses is appropriate for one’s student. One will also try to find an activity that isn’t a song, that repeats itself too much and usually goes to quickly.  One will try to choose a short nice video that’s level appropriate and that students can relate to.(273)

Permalink Reply by Gloria Payne on April 28, 2018 at 8:37am

I agree with Briana on several aspects of her comments.  Clearly, we can improve our presentation skills, so that the class can better follow the lesson plan that was laid out. Also, we could have focused on drilling down in applying the listening activities in a more concise manner.  In doing, so we would have maintained the attention of the classroom.  Additionally, as stated we continue to learn, and as we do we will be able to better manage our time around our lesson plan.  Further, I do agree that we did a good job in connecting the 5 c’s to the students. It is also possible that we can use other mediums besides music to connect and communicate the listening activity segment with the classroom.  Students continue to evolve, and we as educators should be flexible in keeping current with the tools we have available to teach them with. (150 words)

Permalink Reply by Leslie Gonzalez on May 3, 2018 at 9:49pm

Hello Briana,

          Overall, the main objective of your group's teaching slice was good because the class heard the song and were able to fill in the blanks with the missing songs from the lyrics. I agree that your group did a good job connecting to the 5 C's and that was very noticeable to everyone. It had all the student's attention plus it was entertaining. Me personally, I enjoy hearing songs in different languages especially when it has a good rhythm therefore I am very sure that your student's would enjoy an activity like this in the future since it's different and from a different culture. It was good that you and your group were able to observe yourselves where the lesson could have been better because that way our next teaching experience can always be better.

Permalink Reply by Leslie Gonzalez on April 26, 2018 at 8:48pm

          The micro teaching slice was a speaking activity in which the class had to participate and practice their Spanish. The activity included physical and personality descriptions. This way it allows the students to use the basic Spanish they would have already learned considering it was aimed for a first level spanish class. Methods such as group work was implemented in the teaching slice by pairing up each student and having them describe each other, one personality description on one index card and a physical description on the second. After a few minutes of classwork, students were encouraged to read the positive descriptions they made of their partner. This created a relaxed and fun environment for the class and got them engaged and captivated their attention.

          The time aspect of the teaching slice was successful as well. Everything that was supposed to be analyzed for this activity was covered successfully and each section was divided in a way that allowed the presentation to run smoothly. It allowed the students to finish and accomplish the objective of the activity which was to practice speaking Spanish using descriptions and key terms. A few aspects that did not go so well were the grammatical errors in the slides during the presentation because it would be teaching the students the wrong way of writing and pronouncing the words. Additionally, the variety of ways that a concept can be said can be dangerous when teaching as well.

          A good observation that my colleagues pointed out is that “hair” in Spanish was said in more than one way. Even though the definition is the same and may be used correctly while teaching, it may cause confusion for the beginner students and one may realize that it can come off a bit unorganized when that may not be the case. Therefore, this can be avoided by having a clear idea of the words and objective one must teach during the lesson. The next lesson should probably continue with descriptions but instead of describing people, perhaps describing objects and places would be the next step. Overall, it was an interesting and delightful experience creating a speaking activity for the micro teaching lesson.

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