MY THIRD CLASS (SECOND PERIOD)

Greetings!!

Thanks God, this class was a pretty nice experience because all the activities went well.

In this class, I only developed activities to practice the target grammar of the unit which was “Comparative and Superlative Adjectives”. I developed one listening activity by using a song, two recognition exercises and at the end, a game which was called “The Superlative Award”.

I used the “Survivor’s” song by Destiny child as a warm-up. Ss worked in pairs and filled in the blanks of the lyrics with the comparative or the superlative adjectives in brackets and according to the ones they listened in the song.  I played the song three times; the first time I played it all, the second part till the part which ss needed to listen to it to fill the blanks in, and the last time I stopped the song just after each blank so that ss could check their job. Finally, I checked the activity by eliciting answers orally and by asking ss to say a sentence with the comparative and superlative of each adjective in the song.

For the next two activities ss continued working in pairs. For the first one, ss fill the blanks in with the comparative or superlative adjective in brackets. For the second one, ss fill the blanks in with the comparative or superlative adjective they considered appropriate for each sentence. During both exercises, I monitored the class and I clarified their doubts. Finally, I checked both exercises orally by eliciting answers from each couple.

The last activity was my favorite because it was pretty nice and sweet; as I wrote before it was called “The Superlative Award”.  

I gave ss instructions:

1.        1.   Think about a positive adjective which best describe one of your classmates.

2      2.   Don’t repeat the adjective with another classmate.

3        3.   Don’t give the award to the same person.

Then, I modeled the activity and finally I started it with the teacher; I said “The Superlative Award” goes to: the wisest person in the classroom, everybody clapped him, and the teacher continued with it. Finally, my co-worker gave me “The Superlative Award” for the most generous person and I shared the candies, which were in the award, with the whole class.

Finally, I thanked ss for their behavior and participation because they were very nice as my tutor.

SECOND CLASS(SECOND PERIOD)

Greetings!!

On Wednesday September 11th I taught my second class and it wasn’t as good as the previous because I was tired and I had some problems with the computer and the game I used in the class.

Mental fatigue caused me troubles to think fast and remember some examples I had previously thought as well as to speak English correctly; during the class, I found myself committing many grammar mistakes, which I immediately self-corrected them.

For being honest, I wasn’t nervous neither worried because these things were happening to me inasmuch as I understand that as humans we can’t control everything so I tried to handle things with humor. Nevertheless, I felt kind of a shame with the teacher in a moment when I couldn’t remember an example for what I was explaining; it was awkward, this never happened to me before but I just said, as “El Chavo del 8”, -“But that’s the idea” so we all laughed and I continued as if nothing happened. Some minutes later, I found in the game we were playing the example I couldn’t remember so I remind ss about it and they understood my explanation better.

But…what went well?

Well, my lesson in general was good; it had three dynamic and interactive games and one speaking activity at the end.

As a warm-up, I did a common speaking and TPR game named “Swap chairs” for which ss had to use the adverbs of definite and indefinite frequency to make sentences.

Next, I numbered ss from 1 to 2 to make two groups; I did it in this way because the teacher told me that the newest ss, who always sit near the windows, don’t socialize with the former ss, who always sit near the door, so in this way I could have them all working together to play a game named “Jeopardy”, which I made. Take a look to it:

https://col125.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#!/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=10f1706a-1aa0-11e3-aad1-002264c197ee&folderid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&attindex=0&cp=-1&attdepth=0&n=1734851000

After the Jeopardy game, I gave each group a worksheet containing 10 sentences for which they found the Direct and the Indirect Object and the team who finished the task first and who had all the correct answers won candies; take a look to it:

https://col125.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#!/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=10f1706a-1aa0-11e3-aad1-002264c197ee&folderid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&attindex=1&cp=-1&attdepth=1&n=178695148

Finally, I did a speaking activity for which ss stood up and formed two lines in front of the board, one line in front the other one; then, I gave each ss a picture which their classmates used to make sentences with two objects and by using “for” and “to” in the prepositional phrase in which they included the indirect object. The mechanic was this: Each participant of line one moved to their right after having done a sentence of the picture of the classmate of line two, who was in front of them.  The activity finalized when the first person, in line one, did a sentence for the last person’s picture of line two. And finally, I checked the activity by showing some pics to the class and by asking them to share the sentences they made for them.

By the end of the day, it was a good experience because I learned from it; I especially learned the importance of resting at least some minutes before teaching.

Ok, that’s all….Once again, thanks for your comments beforehand. J

FIRST CLASS (SECOND PERIOD)

Salutations everyone!!

On Wednesday September 4^th, I taught my first class of this second period in Intermediate I; it was in the afternoon and with the group I was recorded teaching last semester.  The groups’ behavior is very good because they are very respectful, easygoing and they also work and participate in class.

Thanks God, I had a very good experience with this group; my tutor liked my lesson and the way I developed it. Nevertheless, we are still learning and we commit mistakes, aren't we? Well, what the teacher told me that I should improve was regarding the shy ss' participation...Mmmm...this is the second time I was told, so I'm going to do my best to be more aware of this situation in my next classes and I'll try to avoid it. 

In regard with the lesson, it wasn’t challenging at all to create it or develop it inasmuch as it was about “Adverbs of definite and indefinite frequency”. So, I began the class with a speaking activity which helped ss remind their previous knowledge about the target grammar. It was a “Find someone who...” activity for which I wrote on the board “Do you…?”,the question structure that ss used to make questions and complete a chart which I gave them in a piece of paper like this:

Find someone who…	Name
Usually watches T.V. at night

 After ss finished, I checked the activity orally by making questions in general; for example: “Who usually watches T.V. ….?”, and finally I asked ss to tell me the adverbs of frequency they recognized in the chart and they did it.

Next, I continued with the grammar part for which I used a PowerPoint presentation; take a look to it:

https://col125.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#!/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=a23cfb78-1537-11e3-b29b-00215ad85762&folderid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&attindex=1&cp=-1&attdepth=1&n=2019189893

The topic was easy, so I only explained it twice and they go it; the first time was with the presentation and the second time during the general practice. For the practice, we did an interactive exercise for which they had to find the mistakes in a very short reading, which was in the presentation. Then, I gave ss a worksheet containing some statements and “Adverbs of definite and indefinite Frequency” in parenthesis which they had to put in the correct place in each of the statements.

Finally, I asked ss to work in groups of five and I gave a picture to each member of each group so that they could use them to make questions by using this structure: “How often do you…?”. I modeled the activity as always and after some minutes I checked it by asking one participant of each group to share his/her question and the answers his/her classmates said.

To sum it up, the class was cool; I liked it, I enjoyed it, we laughed and I think my ss liked it too, and the most important thing: we all learned from it.

Thanks for reading my blog and for your comments beforehand ;D