Reflection #3 (Spring 2019)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fazima Kausar on May 4, 2019 at 6:46pm

Hello Melinda, 

I appreciate how you emphasized the importance of pronunciation of certain letters. During my beginner Spanish level classes, it was very rare to come across a teacher that dedicated time to explaining the sounds of certain letters as it is often assumed that just because Spanish and English have the same alphabet that all the letters sound the same phonetically. 

Permalink Reply by Evelyn Salazar on April 30, 2019 at 2:16pm

In the micro-teaching presentation that my partner and I created, we focused in writing introducing to new vocabulary of professions and conjugating the verb to be. One thing that I like about this activity was that students were able to learn the material and create new sentences to send and communicate with others in other language. As Lee and VanPatten (2003) points out writers wants to express their meaning with audience or without, writing is the act of communication that involves interpretation, expression, and negotiation just as speaking does. That is why our production was completely about writing, the more practice students had they better they will become.We use exercises for students to practice  and identify professions in Spanish and be able to write about their family member’s jobs in Spanish. Something that I would have done different was our second activity about pronouns using the verb to be with the power-point in the implicit differentiation, allowing students to have a better engage with the topic, minimizing the answer and encouraging students to interact with the teacher and understanding the meaning of the practice. Also I will change the slide of how we presented the vocabulary and make it with only pictures instead of writing material.

In this presentation we used a video about professions in Spanish and famous figures with their professions. We could incorporated the similarities of Spanish professions words that are in Spanish and are similar to the English one, and the different forms we use to call one profession like doctor in Spanish can be (doctor, medico) as a Hispanic culture.  Words (266)

Reference:

Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making communicative language teaching happen. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Permalink Reply by Selena Jaquez on May 2, 2019 at 7:23am

Hi Evelyn,

Your lesson was comprehensible and colorful. However, the activity had so much translation to English. As teachers, we should try to incorporate binding in our lesson. Binding occurs when students link a form to its meaning, rather than its translation. When students are able to associate vocabulary with its meaning instead of its translation, speech becomes more fluid because words are accessed directly in the target language rather than via translation from English (Lee and Vanpatten, 2003). It would help the students understand the material better and  to become active participants in the teaching process. (words 95)

References 

Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making communicative language teaching happen. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Permalink Reply by melinda vargas on May 4, 2019 at 9:02pm

Hi Evelyn,

I enjoyed your lesson; it was very colorful and interactive. As VanPatten stated repetition assists with memory and when presenting a good input will cause a good output. I agree in that there should have been more of a cultural view or differentiation of careers in Spanish speaking countries however I feel the one thing that was missing is an assistance on how to pronunciation words with characters students may not feel comfortable with. (76)

Reference:

Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making communicative language teaching happen. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Permalink Reply by Geomyra Granados on April 30, 2019 at 8:10pm

Our speaking lesson consisted of presenting the students about greetings in the target language. Throughout our presentation, the students were able to learn also about culture. In one of the activities presented, we had a map where the spanish speaking countries were the highlighted parts of the map. Throughout this example the students is learning about the many different countries that speak the target language in which they are trying to learn and didn't even know about it. The type of input presented with my partner was more visual in order for the students to grasp the lesson in a way that they can understand. Throughout our presentation my partner and I also presented a short 1 minute conversation between us, using the greetings that were being taught to the students. Throughout this exercise the students are able to see the realia of what the lesson is about. In our lesson, we implemented simple, exercises in which the students can learn the target language in a simplified method. Like we have seen throughout our readings, it is important to present the topic in a way that students were able to student instead of overwhelming them. For our production my partner and I had the students work on interview made out of a pair of students and once they had gathered the information that was being asked they had to share it with the rest of the class. This exercise was helpful for the students to try to speak in the target language. (252)

Permalink Reply by Selena Jaquez on May 2, 2019 at 7:32am

Hi Geomyra,

The micro-teaching activity that you presented along with Melinda was very interactive. Nonetheless, as it was mentioned in class, we should use textbooks as much as we can in order to make our lesson meaningful and authentic; however, we have to adapt it to the needs of our lesson and our students. As Lee and Vanpatten point out, some of the best ways to make learning “stick” include connecting content with meaning and using familiar and real materials. (words 78)

References 

Lee, J. F., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making communicative language teaching happen. (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Permalink Reply by Fazima Kausar on May 1, 2019 at 11:13am

My partner, Dennis, and I were assigned to construct a lesson based on listening comprehension, an important skill for all language learners. We chose to present the vocabulary of food and drinks with the help of visuals later accompanied with a short video. The video consisted of two characters arriving at a restaurant and making an order. It made use of many of the verbs the students were already aware of and connected that previous knowledge to the current lesson. Later during the feedback session of our presentation, Professor Salgado had revealed to us that our lesson has gone in two directions. Our lesson consisted of both new vocabulary and listening comprehension, which is not an adequate way of presenting a lesson strictly dedicated to listening comprehension. As mentioned by Lee and Van Patten (2003) classrooms should provide the students with the opportunity to expand their listening skills.

This presentation has helped me gain insight on how to go about future lesson plans focused on listening comprehension. For the future, I would present a pre-listening activity which would urge the students to think and take into consideration the information the they will be presented during the listening comprehension session. This activity could be a picture, or since our lesson was focused on foods we can urge students to discuss their favorite foods in Spanish. Then for the listening session, I would present students with a short video that makes use of what they have learned and also connects with the previous activity. For the video, I would make sure it sounds natural as well as comprehensible for the students, as that was another area where my partner and I needed improvement.

References:

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

Permalink Reply by Karolina Custodio on May 2, 2019 at 9:14pm

Hello Fazima,

The micro-teaching activity you and your partner presented was very helpful for your students. It displayed a lot of visuals which is helpful when teaching a language. Also, the activities you prepared were engaging and educative for the class. However, as you mentioned, the listening comprehension must follow a structure and that was missing in your presentation. (words 59)

Permalink Reply by Evelyn Salazar on May 2, 2019 at 8:56pm

Hello Fazima,

 

The micro-teaching activity that you and your partner presented in class was very dynamic using biding, videos and images for students interest. The activities were fun and educative but the video was not according to the level of the class you were presented. In my opinion the production part was more about writing than listening. (words 55)

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