Final self- and peer reflections (FS19)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dennis Galicia on December 6, 2019 at 5:42pm

The teaching demo allowed me to gain more experience in a real-life classroom. Essentially, it allowed me to interact with the students in a real context. Subsequently, it also allowed me to reflect on it with a different set of lenses. Nonetheless, after a careful analysis of my recording, many discrepancies began to emerge.

 

Mainly during the development of the class, in some instances, my speech was not modified, which can be detrimental for the students. Primarily, my actions go against the framework presented by Cook (2008) regarding simplified input. Especially, because according to the theorist, simplification of input is vital to aid the comprehension of the students. Similarly, I spoke English in some instances of the class. Another aspect that needs to improve are the class management strategies. For instance, I noticed that a few of the students were having conversations about other topics, which is a clear indicator that class management must improve from my part. Lastly, another aspect that needs improvement is the class engagement. I noticed that a few of the students were not involved in the activity. Such a characteristic is a clear indicator that I must implement different ways to engage the students in the future.

 

On the other hand, one of the aspects that went well was the sequencing of activities. Mostly, I planned the activities to provide opportunities for student interactions. In my opinion, the activities proved to effective because they allowed the students to become the key players inside the classroom. The discussion presented by Lee and Van Patten (2003), regarding communicative language teaching, influenced significantly in the construction of the activities. According to the theorists, the classroom should serve as a medium to facilitate communication among the students.

 

Furthermore, another aspect that went well was the cultural aspect of the lesson, mainly because the lesson managed to merge the language and the culture. Primarily, 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 in-class activities to develop cultural fluency. Lastly, the activities also reflected the interests of the students, because they infused popular social media websites and the instruction.

 

Also, I believe that the message that students received from the lesson was the innovative methods to learn Spanish. Primarily, the methodology used during the development of the class presented interactive approaches for students. Mainly, the sequencing of activities attempted to shift away from explicit grammar teaching. Instead, it attempted to recreate real-life events. Therefore, the interactions among the students were real and meaningful. In the same way, I believe that the lesson objectives were achieved. Mainly, the lesson aimed to consolidate previous knowledge.

 

To conclude, the lesson should begin the following day through a serious 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. In the same way, the lesson can be modified to cover a wide variety of topics. For instance, it can cover food and weather. Also, the lesson can be modified to obtain more written, visual, or oral input from the students.

 

(534 words). 

References:

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

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

Permalink Reply by melinda vargas on December 8, 2019 at 5:02pm

After watching my peer’s teaching slice it can be observed that he spoke in the target language for 80% of the video only switching to english when he noticed a student's frustration or worry of not understanding. In addition, to speaking in the target language he continued to walk around assisting students while the students attempted to complete the worksheet in pairs of two or groups of three. Although my peer used the target language throughout the class time it can be observed that the level of spanish may have been too high for the class. For example, when directing students to work in pairs of two or groups of three; my peer stated, “trabajan en pares o tercios” and then walked around grouping the students. Do you think students will understand better if we said “van a trabajar en pares de dos o grupos de 3” instead a suggestion could be to also point out the smiley face emojis on the worksheet indicating how many students can work together on the assignment. When students began to answer questions out loud few praises were given and do you think it may be helpful to clarify why the city is called the city of Mexico and not just Mexico. Lastly, do you think it might work better next time if you wrote out words on the whiteboard for students to pronounce out loud, write the answers on the board as you go through them or underline the answers in the reading on the whiteboard ask students give the answer to assist visual learners? (263)

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

Permalink Reply by melinda vargas on December 9, 2019 at 6:22pm

One aspect that went well was the first activity in which students had to fill in the blanks. This activity seemed to be at the level of understanding for the students. Another activity that went well was the conjugation song; students seemed very intrigued by the car, gar, zar song; a song created to increase memorization of the conjugations in the first person. Although this went well I did notice as the class continued some students had difficulty creating sentences in part because I did not provide concrete instruction to create sentences in the present instead I let them choose the tense which created confusion for the L2 students. I think students took away the car, gar, zar song as well as the reason why conjugations are different in english and in spanish. Students interacted well with each other by enticing each other to sing as well as explaining answers to each other.

The objectives of the lesson were not achieved, the lesson was too grammar based and did not allow students to have an open conversation throughout the lesson. The only time students were able to have an open conversation was in the production phase which does not allow students to achieve their individual goals. The class learned the conjugation rules and individual students learned they have the potential to find the answers within relatable content. For the following class the lesson should begin with the second activity in which students should translate the conjugation and prepare to start the production. Other ways the lesson could be re-taught would be with more contextualized grammar maybe through a reading comprehension activity or impromptu play.

As an introductory lesson of -Ar verbs the lesson was way too grammatical and taught traditionally which goes against all research on successful teaching strategies. In addition, to the traditional approach the lesson is lacking culture besides the production in which students would compare and contrast schools in the United States and in Spanish speaking countries. Another thing I could have done is provide students with more opportunities to speak instead of speaking the majority of the time, allowing students to teach me as well as the class with a little assistance or guidance. By providing students with examples of how spanish words like “buscar” would sound if english conjugation rules were applied. This allows students to receive a bit of linguistic knowledge and see the difference between english and spanish grammatical rules. It has been known that students learn by using their five senses through my lesson students were only able to use three, by adding my visuals instead of trying to act out words I would provide students with the visual attraction and understanding needed to enhance understanding and memorization. (456)

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

Permalink Reply by Dennis Galicia on December 10, 2019 at 8:03pm

Dear Melinda:

Overall, the teaching slice was good. However, it is vital to acknowledge the limitations one has while teaching in an unknown class. Subsequently, it is essential to acknowledge that no lesson is perfect. Nonetheless, the lesson was good.

To begin with, the fill-in-the blank’s activity seemed to be well suited, mainly because you made use of visuals. In the same way, the interactions from students seemed to be good. However, it is essential to mention that there were a few aspects that were not clear. For instance, the lesson seemed to be approached from a grammar-translation based methodology, which goes against the concepts presented by Lee and Van Patten (2003). In the same way, I noticed that you made use of repetition during the development of the class.

Also, you made use of English during a vast amount of the class. At times, it turned into Spanglish. Similarly, the classroom seemed to be teacher-based. Lastly, the left side of the classroom seemed to be disconnected from the instruction. It seemed that you were teaching to the right side only.

I would suggest that perhaps for the future, you take a more inductive approach to cover the grammatical aspect of the class. For instance, you can formulate a text containing the grammatical structure, cognates, and vocabulary. Such vision aligns with the discussion presented by Krashen (1982), regarding explicit grammar. According to the author, metalinguistic knowledge fails during an oral exchange. Subsequently, you could have developed a task to work on the grammatical component of the lesson. For instance, you could have instructed the students to classify the verbs on a given chart according to their conjugation.

In the same form, you could have merged the culture with the activities. For instance, you could have introduced the culture during the presentation phase, and work from there. Lastly, the grouping was not clear. Perhaps, for the future, you can arrange the classroom into blocks of four desks.

(324 words).

 

References:

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

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

Permalink Reply by Fazima Kausar on December 9, 2019 at 7:04pm

Reflection is deliberate and structured thinking about choices. It is an integral step to improving our practice. Through reflection, we as educators can look clearly at our successes and struggles and consider options for change. This kind of self-awareness is a powerful tool for a teacher. 

When preparing to deliver my teaching slice to the students, I remained mindful to not commit the same error I had committed the previous semester, which is following the footsteps of my cooperating teacher and adapting his/her methodology of teaching a second language in English. This resonates with the belief that many instructors believe that the language cannot be used with beginning learners, as they will not understand anything (Lee & VanPatten, 2006). But many studies have shown otherwise. The key to meaning-bearing input is simplification of the language, as scholars have proven “Input to [nonnative speaker] is shorter and less complicated and is produced at a slower rate…” (Larsen-Freeman, 1985). During my instruction, I remained mindful to use vocabulary that Level 1 students have already learned, this includes verbs, prepositions, nouns, etc.

On the other hand, one aspect I feel I neglected was my preparedness for materials I needed to contribute to my teaching slice. I had plans to have students write their answers on the board after completing each activity but, unfortunately, the classroom was under-equipped and there was no dry-erase marker. This made me conscious of the fact that in the future it would be safer for me to bring any necessary materials on my own account. Due to lack of recourses, when going over the activities with the class it had to be done verbally. Students were not only not able to participate to share their answers on the board, but class was also unable to see their peers’ answers and compare them to their own. This made my teaching-slice shorter than I expected of 15-18 minutes down to only 11.

Overall, student reaction was not as I anticipated. Students did not demonstrate much enthusiasm, many students walked in during or after my teaching-slice and only two students were participating during the activities. In the future for such a class, I would make use of the technology that exists in the classroom by including tons of visuals, since students learn best when information is presented in multifaceted ways, as Shrum & Glisan (2016) state “Proponents of learning styles attempt to describe an individual in terms of one learning style used across all content areas, whereas a learner may still select one of several multiple intelligences depending on the context” (p.  351)

Moreover, an aspect that I believed went well was the implementation of culture. Since my cooperating teacher’s lesson consisted of teaching the possessive adjectives by incorporating vocabulary of family members (the preceding lesson), I presented students with a document in which the narrator, named Kelly, talks about her Mexican American family. Another objective I had in mind while creating such an activity was to increase cultural sensitivity, which means “Learning about one’s cultural values and making them salient is a good first step to take” (Lee and VanPatten, 2006, p.  213).  (522 words)

References:

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

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

Permalink Reply by Evelyn Salazar on December 12, 2019 at 8:43pm

After watching Fazima video teaching slide I would like to give a feedback of the points that she did well and some of things she might have room to improve. I noticed that she was teaching the whole activity in the target language (TL). That was one of the main points that she improved from her last teaching slide from last semester.

            The lesson that you presented was about Mexican family, your activity was cultural, and informative. The exercise seems according to the level of the students with clear objectives for the student’s knowledge, however I think the handout activity made the students to focus in the paper most of the time rather to pay attention to you. I believe was a great tool to provide but would be better after you finish giving instructions. One of the good things I would recommend you is having a hook to graph students’ interest and attention. As Tomlinson (2001) highlights “a key feature of artful teaching is having a plan to engage or “hook” students on the topic at hand. Engagement is a nonnegotiable of teaching and learning” (p. 52).

            Another suggestion can be to suggest students to work on group rather than by themselves. This will make students to interact to other students while the use the target language. Many classes have heritage learners (HL) where second language learners (SLL) can benefit from them and vice versa. According to Tomlinson (2001) “You can help students learn to work collegially by suggesting that they ask a peer for clarification when they get “stuck.” Some classrooms have an “expert of the day” desk where one or more students especially skilled with the day’s task sit and serve as consultants” (p. 36).

            Overall, I saw you implementing the feedback from last semester and the content that we learned over the semester. (words 306)

 

 

References:

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

Permalink Reply by Selena Jaquez on December 12, 2019 at 4:55am

    In general, I was not completely satisfied with how the lesson went. However,  the objectives of the lesson were achieved. Students were able to get a clear understanding of the vocabulary words relating to the city  and countryside and understand how to use the words correctly. Students were able to practice the usage of the language and exchange ideas. On the other hand,  to minimize confusion in the classroom, I made use of pictures instead of translations. According to researchers, this method since to work the best since many of the students have a better idea of the vocabulary and what they need to comprehend. Lee and VanPatten (2003) claim that when educators combine words with illustrations, the students can gain a better understanding of the topic, “they are encouraged to make direct form-meaning connections similar to those that they would make if the vocabulary were presented within the context of comprehensible (38).

     The primary goal for all foreign language educators is to speak in the target language. However, after reviewing carefully my teaching slice, I noted that my speech was not simplified. Lee and VanPatten suggest that the language to which the teacher exposes students must be understandable and purposeful. Teachers need to consider what they want to say and how they could convey meaning through  basic vocabulary, cognates, modeling, pictures, and gestures. In a second language classroom, speech must be comprehensible in order to effectively nurture language acquisition. Another failure of the lesson was that during the practice activity I spoke most of the time. According to Cook (2008), is the teacher’s responsibility to give the students the opportunity to talk. It becomes critical when students discuss tasks or ideas and question one another, negotiate meaning, clarify their own understanding, and make their ideas comprehensible to their partners. 

     Furthermore, one unanticipated consequence this can cause is intimidation; students do not have confidence in speaking Spanish. As teachers, it is important to know that sharing answers with the entire class can be challenging for students due to the reasons they do not have confidence in speaking Spanish. However, we should always have to make our students feel motivated and engaged in  class (Lee & Vanpatten, 2003). 

     To conclude, the next lesson will start with a brief review about what students learned in the previous day. It will give students a better idea of what to expect in the following lesson and make them more confident with the material (Lee & VanPatten, 2003). If I had to re-teach the lesson, I would provide a video where the second language learners would have the opportunity to hear the pronunciation of the words and see the words being used. I would also try to incorporate more culture within the lesson, by adding a video relating to a specific country in Latin America. (467  words)

Permalink Reply by Maria Lorena Flores on December 16, 2019 at 12:39pm

Selena:
After watching your video, I noticed a lot of positive things, one the activity you provided was excellent and the great deal of pictures to help students with their vocabulary. Simplification was implemented throughout the whole lesson which I found impressive. Your lesson was extremely well worked and made it easier for students to grasp the lesson in various ways specially visually. Your voice was clear and loud throughout the whole lesson. Additionally, I did notice you differentiated instruction by giving HLL students different activities, which helped for them to finish their activity at almost the same time as all the other students by giving them a more challenging activity.
Overall the teaching slice was great, clear and on point. One suggestion might be to walk around the classroom in order to have students engaged and participant, at times I felt like they were getting lost at times and lost a little bit of interest but overall they were able to complete what was expected of them. I believe that the power point was a great useful tool to use when it came to presenting the lesson about the city and the country. Most of the lesson was modified and the interaction between the students were effective. I think you covered everything that is expected by an educator and everything was meticulous worked.

Permalink Reply by Evelyn Salazar on December 12, 2019 at 7:49pm

After I presented my teaching activities for the students of Port Richmond High School Spanish level III, I had the opportunity to watch the video and reflect of the things that went well and some of things that I have room to improve. Recording myself while I was teaching gives a different point of view of the way I present the activities. While I was doing the activities with the students, I was thinking of the main points that were not working properly and the ones the students were doing great. However, when I came home and review the video, I noticed some of the areas that I need to improve that I was not aware while I was teaching.

            My lesson was reading comprehension, the objective of the students was to gather information about Santa Claus in Latin families while they were learning new Christmas vocabulary, and practicing the target language (TL). One of the good strategies that I used before I presented my teaching activities was to do an assessment to the class and have an idea about students cognitive skills, this assessment help me to prepare my activities according to their knowledge and their level. As Shrum and Glisan points out “the information gathered during assessment provides a window into student learning, thinking, and performance. Equipped with this knowledge, teachers can improve instruction and student performance” (p. 395).

            My first activity did not go accordingly how I planned; I was so nervous that I totally forget some of the words in Spanish. I was trying to simplify some words for students, because I refuse to use words that might be to difficult for them, but instead I nervous and said some words that were not correct. Another unplanned circumstance was the projector, I am not familiar with that type of technology, so I was asking for help with this projector. This situation provokes me more nervous but for the future I will ask how to use the projector and avoid this situation.

            Some of the great things that happens in my presentation was that I had a good connection with the students. My activities were done based on the reading of the class and made the students motivated and engaged with the topic and the activities. One of the activities made the students exited because I divided the class into two groups and challenge them to answer the questions of the lecture. According to Lee and Vanpatten (2003) “We can conclude that teacher-fronted activities may not be optimal for providing opportunities to develop communicative language ability. Paired and group work, on other hand, do seem to provide these opportunities” (p. 60).  The other activity was also according to the level and the story, students challenge themselves to complete the tasks and asked questions. If I have to opportunity to continue this lesson, I will start by asking them what is the perspective of the lecture or what message is in the story and why?  (words 498)

           

Permalink Reply by CAROLINA PUERTA on December 15, 2019 at 7:30pm

Watching the video of my peer Evelyn Salazar, I could see some good points and others not so good, but I think in general the purpose of the teaching slide was fulfilled in an expected way.

Started with the not-so-good points, I think that the position of the camera prevented me from seeing the activities, and when you were helping other students, because of the position of the camera I did not see you and then the minutes passed and I could not know that I was happening, but I think it was only because of the position of the camera. Another small point that you yourself said in your reflection is that you forgot some Spanish words, but I think it's normal, it happens to all of us.

Positive points: the activities were very well done and the students were motivated. I really liked the activity where they had to go to the smart board, and I could see the motivation of the students to accept the challenge of going and writing. I also liked the activity of the groups where they were divided by "Red and Blue" colors since apart from what they are learning, they are challenging each other as a group and they took it as a game, I was glad that you asked them the "why?" " of each answer, and not only "false or true."

In conclusion, I congratulate you for the work done, you did very well.

Permalink Reply by Maria Lorena Flores on December 13, 2019 at 7:51am

 The teaching demo presented allowed me to gain some experience and knowledge in the classroom.  One of the main difficulties I encounter was the fact that my cooperating teacher was not in that specific day, which I found challenging for me to be able to perform in the class alone.  On one hand it gave me the opportunity to try to have some classroom management.  Overall students interaction was good and I managed to have them do their activity provided.  All students felt comfortable with the activity and actively participated in what was asked for.  Some students did have a hard time understanding the instructions in the Target Language which made me simplify the content, however I was able to tell they did not understand instructions such as going up to the board and completing the assignment, therefore it left me with speaking English in order for them to be able to understand what it was expected from them.  Every teacher knows that some students will learn a second language effortlessly, others will struggle (Cook 2008).

                Also, another aspect that was not anticipated was the whiteboard I was planning on utilizing was not available since the teacher was not present I had to improvise and instead had the students go up to the board and complete the sentences.  Perhaps for the future I would always have a second plan in case the first one does not work.  My activity was created inductively containing a reading about a nurse who went to Perú to help people who did not have an opportunity to obtain health care and its was primary based on the verb ser / estar.  During my instruction all students were motivated and actively participant.  

                Students interacted accordingly and respectfully with each other, the activity presented was expected to be worked individually, one particular thing that caused my attention was that one student created a conjugation table on the side in order to complete the activity, for the future would use one on the activity sheet to be used as a reference, which was provided in the power point created.  Mainly I was focused on meaningful learning rather than grammatical correctness.   In order to be able to teach a following class, I would go over the work from the previous day for about five minutes and present the next lesson based on professions.

References:

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

Permalink Reply by Selena Jaquez on December 15, 2019 at 8:54pm

    Maria, you were able to engage the student and successfully implement your lesson plan.  I was impressed by your ability to manage the classroom by yourself. It gave you the opportunity to be aware of how well prepared you need to be as a future educator. Even though you had issues with the white board, you were able to do a great job. 

    After watching your teaching demo, it can be observed that the target language was used about fifty percent of the time and the first language was used about the same range. Lee and VanPatten argue that is fine for teachers to use the students first language when clarification needs to be made, however when teaching basic grammar, they should use the TL. 
   As I said before,  I loved the activity you proposed and the way you introduced the topic, however, when presenting topics about grammar I suggest you to bring real life objects (realia) into the classroom, this way the students are more aware of the material they are learning). Although this can not always get done, something else that can help the students comprehend the material better is by using videos, pictures, gestures or songs, this way you will have their full attention (Lee & Van Patten, 2003). 

   On the other hand, I did not notice that you provided any type of feedback to the students. By doing so, they are more aware to what is accurate and inaccurate about their work. A couple of questions to consider: Don't you think next time it is better to implement activities in pairs so they can interact more? Do you think Big C and little could help students understand the lesson better? Overall, you did a great job Maria. (293 words) 

References: 

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

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