Midterm self- and peer reflections (FS19)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dennis Galicia on October 24, 2019 at 11:11pm

This particular teaching demo has allowed me to view lesson planning from a different perspective. It allowed me to notice the smaller details in the sequencing of activities. For example, during the planning of the lesson, I kept asking myself, how can I cater to the different learning styles of my students? Mainly, most of the instruction was modelled after the concepts presented by Lee and Van Patten (2003) regarding communicative language teaching, since according to the theorists, the classroom should provide room for communication between the students.

Mainly, the strong points of the lesson were the activities because they provided opportunities for written and oral communication between the students. Apart from the presentation activity, the rest of the tasks were collaborative. Such decision was influenced by the research by Rulon and McCreary (1986) regarding communicative language teaching. According to the researchers, group activities are more beneficial than teacher-fronted activities because they allow the students to communicate and negotiate input. Similarly, another aspect that went well was the cultural aspect of the lesson, mainly, because the lesson managed to merge the language and culture. Mainly, the discussion presented by Lee and Van Patten (2003) regarding culture provided the framework to connect the language and the culture. According to the theorists, culture should be merged with the in-class activities to develop cultural fluency.

On the other hand, one of the aspects that did not go well was the lack of computer literacy from my part. Although the activities were functional in allowing room for communication, they could have been better in appearance.

Also, in my opinion, the message that the students took away from this lesson was the innovative methods to learn Spanish. Mainly, the methodology used in the development of the class presented interactive approaches for the students through contextualized activities. Primarily, the focus of the lesson was to move away from explicit grammar teaching. Instead, the class was aimed towards recreating real-life events. As a result, the interactions between the students were real and meaningful.

Overall, the lesson objectives were achieved because the students learned more about Latin American countries through cultural events. Also, the students made comparisons in Spanish. Subsequently, they observed social norms across cultures. Lastly, they reinforced grammatical knowledge through the activities.

Lastly, the lesson should begin the following day through a series of activities that contain the material covered during this lesson. Primarily, one can expand the lesson through a listening comprehension correlated to the main idea of this lesson. It all comes down to personal preference. To conclude, it is essential to mention that this lesson can be modified to cover a wide variety of topics. For example, it can cover food, weather, and sports. Also, the lesson can be modified to obtain more written, visual or oral input from the students.

(468 words).

References: 

Lee, J., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Making communicative language teaching happen, (2nd Ed). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Rulon, K., & McCreary, J. (1986). Negotiation of content: Teacher fronted and small-group interactions. In R. Day (Ed.), Talking to learn (pp. 182-199). Cambridge, MA: Newbury House.

Permalink Reply by Evelyn Salazar on October 29, 2019 at 4:44pm

The lesson that you presented was realistic, cultural and informative. I like the fact that you took the time to integrate a narration where students can read about the experience of other students but also the part that you provide good information about a tradition in Mexico.

The first picture it was a little confusing for me, in one part it was a piece of map which can reflect traveling but the other part of the picture was not so clear. However the second picture where you introduce your presentation activity it was clear, related to the topic and informative. I love the part that you used big letters to remark the title and also the title itself is engaging and motivational for students. 

The practice activity a great choice for students vocabulary, similarities to english language and practice of the verbs and the grammar that they are learning. But I would like to mention that in the passage slide you used different bold letters (one type on one side and the other for the other side), I am not sure if you did it intentionally for a specific reason or it was just an error. Also the letters were very small, I do not think is a big problem but just take into consideration that some students may find it difficult to see. In addition to the passage I noticed that you used some words that may be for a higher level like Asimismo or normalmente and in some instances the asimismo word is not the best choice for the narration.

Overall I think you presentation was well done, your use details, great content, lexico, you integrated culture and the activities were done according to your lesson.

Permalink Reply by Selena Jaquez on October 27, 2019 at 11:16am

         Good teachers have always known to vary their teaching style and combine modalities as often as possible to reach students who learn differently in the classroom. When students are allowed to work in ways that are comfortable for them, they are more efficient in their learning. However, teachers must also be aware that the lessons they present in the classroom will not always go as planned. Educators areconstantly faced with the question of how they can best present material so that it is optimally learnable for the different students they are trying to reach. The primary goal of this lesson is to teach students the new vocabulary implicitly. The purpose of this teaching technique is to give students instructions with a variety of several examples and to allow students to create their own schemas for understanding rules instead of memorizing specific rules. 

     After the lesson was presented in class, I decided to change the activity to where students would work in small groups. This would give students a more obvious purpose for doing the activity, and this change would also make the activity more meaningful and communicative because they have to share their answers and their learned information. Working with others give the students the opportunity to interact with a variety of peers and learn from one another. It also encourages cooperation which would help students get along in class  (Lee & VanPatten, 2003). Something that I think the students would take away from this lesson is the student classroom interaction. Classes where students have time to communicate with each other help students effectively construct their knowledge (Lee & VanPatten, 2003). One unanticipated consequence this can cause is intimidation. Sometimes, students are afraid to share their answers, mostly because they do not have enough confidence in the target language. However, teachers always have to make their students feel motivated and engaged in class. 

    The students interaction with each other and with me, as I planned, would be effective. The students would be satisfied when I approach them in their seats when doing the production, as well as when they have to do the activity in small groups. By interacting with other learners and the teacher, learners would increase their language and social skills. The objectives for this lesson, would be achieved. In order to complete the production phase, students would have  to use implicit method. As Lee & VanPatten (2003) highlight, this method is more communicative, more contextualized and more authentic. 

    The students would learn how to properly use the verbs in the present tense and the vocabulary about traditional food from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. For the following class the lesson should begin with a brief review about what students learned in the previous day. It would give students a better idea of what to expect in the following lesson. It would help them feel more confident with the material. Another way this lesson could have been taught is by using realia. It is used to improve students' understanding of other cultures and real-life situations. (508 words)

Reference 

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

 

Permalink Reply by Maria Lorena Flores on October 28, 2019 at 5:37pm

Selena:

                The activity you presented gave students the opportunity to explore a variety of cultural foods through visuals.  It is a great way to get students interests and help them retain concepts better, food is a great way to learn about other people, their cultures, and places.  Learning about foods motivates students to be part of a culture that is not necessarily theirs.  According to Cook (2008) high motivation is one factor that causes successful learning and successful learning causes high motivation.   On the activities presented each dish that was presented included their own visual, along with a brief description and questions about the reading comprehension.  Overall, the lesson was well presented and included all the tools necessary for effective learning.

                One of the changes one can make in this particular lesson is maybe to include smaller descriptions of the foods, too much information at once could be a little overwhelming for students, however, it is understandable also as an educator to want the students to learn as much as they can.  I enjoyed the lesson provided, it was fun and engaging.  It allowed students to work together which can help with discussions between them and to help each other come up with the right answer.      (215)

References:

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

Permalink Reply by Maria Lorena Flores on October 27, 2019 at 5:01pm

            The teaching slice presented in class was based on reading comprehension, this lesson was chosen for students to learn the differences between living in the country and living in the city.  It provided a wide range of valuable information and simplified input to make the process of learning more authentic.  According to Cook (2008) It is up to the teacher whether authentic language should be used in the classroom or whether non- authentic language reflects a legitimate way into the language.  Therefore, the importance of students to acquire and retain information is crucial for them to be able to develop the Target Language accurately.  The reading activity was divided into two parts, for each part students had to answer questions and find synonyms, antonyms and fill in the blanks, this gives students the advantage of learning new words and increase their vocabulary, therefore students can find various ways of saying the same thing.

These previous aspects of the lesson were productive and concrete.  However, the aspects that did not go as expected was the way that the reading was presented, mainly because the pictures of the city and the country were one next to another.  It would have been more effective to place a picture of the city with the reading about the city and a picture of the country with the reading about the country.  This way it would go hand in hand with one another.  What students took from this lesson is an interactive way of learning, they were motivated to learn more and created confidence in speaking, writing and reading the language.  It is important for teachers to show a positive attitude to ensure that the student is learning what is being taught.  The class and individual students learned in this class the differences between the country and the city, for example in the city we find more cars, more people, wide range of transportation, schools and hospitals.  In the country we find a fewer cars, people and more animals.  Students learn the differences as well as new contextualized vocabulary.

The lesson objectives were achieved because the students were able to learn science in the Target language, culture, vocabulary and they were also able to interact and help each other in meaningful conversation, which includes sharing ideas and discussion.  The next lesson for the next class should be going over what we did the previous class, also do an informal assessment by asking basic questions to students.  The way one can teach the same lesson differently is by increasing the amount of pictures provided in the activities, for each activity one can add a few more images, teaching with images can help students visualize and relate better to the text as well as a new language.  (460)

References:

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

Permalink Reply by Selena Jaquez on October 28, 2019 at 1:57pm

Hi Maria, 

      The lesson was well presented, since the activities were appropriate for the level. To start, I liked how the images you presented helped students associate them with the correct vocabulary word. In particular,visuals aids for learning can have a huge impact on how students retain information.Lee and VanPatten (2003) maintain, when instructors combine words with illustrations, whether it is a drawing or an actual picture, the students can gain a better understanding of the topic (p. 38).  I loved the activity you proposed and the way you introduced questions about finding synonyms and antonyms. However, I think the activity might be challenging for some students, since they have to work individually. For this type of activities, the students feel more comfortable when they have the opportunity to interact and engage with each other by making groups. It makes study more efficient and fun, and it also enables to pool their ideas from different perspectives. Also, one method you could use to aid students with comprehending the text is previewing titles or headings. Not only does this give the students the opportunity to collaborate with everyone, but it also gives them the chance to make connections before they even begin to read. It helps students to think about what they already know about a given topic and predict what they will read. As a result, students read texts more fluently, and with greater engagement and understanding (Lee & VanPatten, 2003).  A couple of questions to consider: Do you feel like you added enough culture? Do you think Big C and little could help students understand the lesson better? Overall, you did a good job Maria. (277 words)

 Reference 

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

 

Permalink Reply by Karolina Custodio on October 27, 2019 at 10:59pm

     The teaching slice I presented in class was based on a reading comprehension activity. I presented the pre-reading activity about Barranquilla’s carnival. First, I presented a video about the carnival and after that I created some helpful questions that students will be able to answer based on the video. The video supports part of the lesson because it will create discussion among students, and they will be able to recognize and compare how Hispanic festivals are celebrated. Additionally, through this activity students not only will explore more about the cultural aspect but also reinforce previous vocabulary and grammar knowledge.  Vocabulary, grammar and culture will be presented from the presentation because students will apply them throughout the lesson.

The pre-reading activity presented in class encourage students to exchanges ideas, engage in conversations or dialogues, work in pairs and work with the class. This is important in the L2 classroom because it helps students to enhance their skills. As Lee and VanPatten (2003) suggest the importance of communicative language teaching (CLT) where students learn to communicate in the target language (TL) while communicating. For this reason, it is important to provide students the opportunity to produce the TL either verbally or written in the classroom with their peers, the more they practice the more they will acquire the language. As Cook states that “the purpose of language teaching is to provide optimal samples of language for the learner to profit from- the best ‘input’ to the process of language learning”. (p.162). Students will be working in pairs in order to exchange ideas of what they understood from the video.

Another aspect that I considered while preparing this activity was the approach or strategies, so that the students engaged in learning about an important festival in the Colombian community. For this reason, visuals, auditory and interpersonal style was used as a differentiation. According to Tomlinson (2001) it is important to understand our students’ learning preferences in order to create flexibility in our classroom that will help them in their learning. While incorporating authentic materials in the lesson, we aid students comprehend the target language and make meaningful connections with their own experiences about festival and activities such dances, parades, food, costumes, etc.

Furthermore, the presentation activity will provide students a lot of interesting information besides of the lexical and grammatical aspects. They will learn new concepts or ideas that were less familiar to them and these ideas will serve as bridge for future activities.

For the next lesson, the class will begin with a review of the previous class in order to reinforce prior knowledge. Students could be asked to talk about their favorite celebration in their community. Another way to teach this class, would be explaining more about verb tenses to avoid any confusion among the students. (465)

References: 

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

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

Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms (2nd Edition). Reston, VA: ASCD.

Permalink Reply by Geomyra Granados on October 31, 2019 at 8:32pm

Hi Karolina,

I really like how you presented your activity during your pre-reading activity. I think the use of your video is really important since it will catch the students attention and they can also learn from it since your lesson makes reference back to the video. Regarding your activity set up, the students working in pair 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. Even though your lesson required the students to answer the follow up questions regarding what they watched throughout the video. One thing I would do different when performing you lesson is showing them more visuals about the vocabulary prior  to watching the video that way the students are able to understand the lesson to the fullest. 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 lesson does accomplish what you intend to do, the 5C’s are well presented throughout your lesson. (254)

Permalink Reply by Geomyra Granados on October 27, 2019 at 11:40pm

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 these Lee and VanPatten conclude that it is the instructor’s job to facilitate an easy input throughout the lesson. For this particular reason, I created a reading comprehension lesson. My topic is about “Las compras”. I created this lesson with the purpose for students to see the similarities and differences when doing food shopping. 

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 was 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 regarding on what my 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 its very easy for the student 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 a follow-up activity about what they had learn throughout my video demonstration. The reason as to why I provided the students with a follow-up activity is to assess the student to see how connected and how well they are understanding the lesson. 

I believe throughout this activity the students are able to engaged 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 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 in for students to familiarized with the topic in the TL. One of the things I will change about my lesson will be the challenge of the activity since it will 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 2003,  mentioned “Comprehension is assessed by comparing readers’ performance on the pre-reading questions and the post-reading activity”.  (482)

Reference:

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

 

Permalink Reply by Karolina Custodio on October 29, 2019 at 3:57pm

       Your activity was well presented, and the topic of your lesson was comprehensible for students. Since they have the knowledge in the first language (L1) about “Las compras” now they will be able to make connections with the target language (TL). According to Lee and VanPatten (2003) a lesson draws on the background knowledge of the class; this facilitates comprehension and students can use their own experiences about shopping. One of the things I like from your presentation phase was how colorful and organized was the activity. Additionally, you include a video as an introduction. It is good to include visuals in your presentation phase since it will aid students to understand better 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". (p.39). The video was helpful, and it provides students a good input of the vocabulary they will be learning throughout the lesson. Both, video and illustrations will help students recognize the vocabulary in order to complete the matching activity and introduce them to the next phase (while-reading). I like this kind of activity because it will make students to increase their attention to little details presented before. Furthermore, the cultural part of you lesson was covered, students can use this to make comparison and similarities between cultures. Also, you include the term “la charcuteria” to show students language variation because it is not used in many countries. Overall, I believe your activity is appropriate for the level and the activity is not only educational but also entertaining for the students. (269)

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

Permalink Reply by CAROLINA PUERTA on October 28, 2019 at 5:57am

The teaching section presented in class is based on reading comprehension activities. The theme of my lesson is "Christmas traditions". Within the first part of my lesson is the "hook" I think it is important that from the beginning we can capture the attention of the students regarding the topic we are going to present. This video about "Christmas candles and Christmas in Colombia" allows students to get to know the culture of other countries and at the same time begin to differentiate their traditions for this type of holiday. Many of the activities in my class aim to share ideas with peers either in pairs and in groups. The methodology I use is communicative language learning since students from the beginning of the "hook" lesson are already communicating in students. In general, CLL subordinates language to the self-expression of emotions and ideas ... The goal of CLL is to develop the students ’potential and to enable them to come alive’ through L2 learning. (Cook, 267-268). In the part of the production place a reading where he talks about how Christmas begins using a holiday called "the day of the candles" using images that can so that they can identify what they are reading and thus can facilitate the understanding of student reading Within my presentation I received a comment about being careful not to use religion or to imply a religious message, so I think the activity could have some misunderstanding with the students, but I would try to focus only on the Christmas holiday and its traditions. In the part of the production use a video where you talk about Christmas traditions worldwide, in this video you will see about 12 different Christmas traditions in different countries of the world, so they practice writing and answering a question about: ¿Cuál fue la tradición navideña que más te gusto y por qué? In this way they can open their knowledge to other countries of the world and can also compare their celebrations with students from other countries.

Some of the aspects that I would think would not be right with this lesson, I have already mentioned one is for students to take the lesson as something religious and not as something cultural. Also thinking about students who do not celebrate Christmas, soon they would create confusion in their beliefs and could have problems with them and their parents. This could also lead to students not being able to open up to make a good lesson production since they don't feel well to do it.

I think there are several things for the better about my lesson, but I think the hook, presentation, activities and production are clear and can be done by a level 1 student. (460 words)

References:

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

Permalink Reply by Dennis Galicia on October 28, 2019 at 8:16pm

Hello Karolina:

Overall, the sequencing of activities from start to finish was spot on. Mainly, the activities were well connected. Essentially, the presentation led to the practice and production. Also, most of the activities were infused with the culture. Which is supported by the argument by Lee and Van Patten (2003) regarding culture. According to the theorists, in-class activities should be the bridge between instruction and culture. Another aspect that is salient from your lesson is that you allowed room for comparisons between the students’ culture and the Colombian culture. Lastly, the adaptation of the activities was well suited for a level 1.

 

Similarly, the approach to cover the grammatical structure in hand was well done. It is evident that you decided to take an inductive approach, which is supported by the discussion by Krashen (1982) regarding explicit grammar. According to the author, vast amount of grammatical structures fails during oral interactions. However, in my opinion, you could have exploited this approach more mainly because it allows you to modify a given text in different ways. For example, you could have included cognates, synonyms, and transitional phrases inside the text. Subsequently, you could have developed two activities around cognates and synonyms before the comprehension questions. Nonetheless, the task around verbs that you developed was a good option.

 

For the future, perhaps you can begin the lesson with a matching game containing the vocabulary and then present the text to the students. On the other hand, I would suggest that you stay away from “controversial” topics or perhaps cover them from a more general stance as some students might feel left out. Maybe you can view the option to create lessons around the interests of the students or modern concepts. Which is supported by the argument by Tomlinson (2001) regarding differentiation by interests, since according to the author, student engagement should be our starting point when designing a lesson.

 

(318 Words)

References: 

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

Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New York: NY Pergamon.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms (2nd Edition). Reston, VA: ASCD.

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