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              Práctica Docente en Nivel Secundario                                  

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              Práctica Docente en Nivel Secundario                                  

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COLEGIO SAN PATRICIO

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What do you find useful of this period that will help you plan the next one?
In the observation period, I have found useful the questioning technique used by the teacher during the lessons which have brought about many question-and-answer exchanges. I believe that the role of questions in language teaching is crucial to encourage interaction and elicit particular structures or vocabulary. Therefore, in my future plans I will include questions as a strategy to elicit answers and create an interactional context.

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What aspects of the lessons do you consider successful?
During the assistantship period, I have had the opportunity to observe and help the students during the lessons, among other activities. I consider that monitoring and providing the necessary help have been successful aspects of the lessons as I could interact and start building a relationship with the students.

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Describe these lessons in terms of a metaphor.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

This metaphor attributed to the philosopher “Lao Tzu”, highlights the importance of taking things one at a time when any journey.

Personally, the practicum period at secondary level is challenging as I have no experience in teaching teenagers. However, I felt completely at ease during these first two lessons so I realized that they portray the first step not only in the practicum period but also in my professional journey.

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What aspects of the lessons require change / improvement?

During these lessons, I used questioning as a scaffolding strategy and I asked questions to check the students’ understanding. When questioning, I noticed that most students responded with single answers most of the time. Therefore, I believe that this aspect requires improvement in order to ask effective questions that open the dialogue and invite the students to think and provide lengthy answers and explanations. In future lessons, I will emphasise process questions and follow-up questions to probe students’ thinking further and to help them to clarify their ideas using the language.

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Include a photo of a moment in the lesson, or a task students did, a picture from the board or any other lesson component you would like to share, and describe it.

This is a picture from the board that depicts a pre-listening activty in which the students revised and classified the target vocabulary by playing a game. Students were invited to stick labels into the correct category and explain the meaning acting out the word/phrase or drawing it on the board. This was a motivating and entertainig activity that encouraged students to revise the vocabulary.

Moreover, we can see a  game on the shared sreen (on the T.V). As a warm-up activty students were invited to play a Quiz game in Kahoot! (a game-based learning platform). They answered the questions on their own devices and the answers were shared on the screen. This funny game created a positive context and activated the vocabulary of the lessons.

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Choose a moment that was important for you during the lessons. Describe it and say why it was important.

An important moment during these lessons was the development of a game before the unit test.

The game was a warm-up activity in which students were invited to play a guessing and funny game that included tips for the test, such as breathing, revising and applying strategies. It was important for me because the game helped to prepare students for the test and also it created a calm and positive environment which I believe is paramount in the teaching process. I think I made a positive contribution by creating a positive atmosphere before the exam and that was rewarding for me.

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Choose a moment that was important for the students during the lessons. Describe it and say why it was important.

In order to deal with the topics of a unit about landscapes, natural places, natural features and outdoor activities. Students were invited to work in groups and create Travel or Holiday Brochures/leaflets of Bariloche (our city). I provided each group with the brochure template and some printed pictures. This activity was important for the students because they were fully engaged in the work and they could consolidate vocabulary in a familiar context developing creativity and writing skills.

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Choose an audio / video segment from the lessons, and reflect on what is viewed or heard.

This video segment is a pre-listening activity in which I presented the target vocabulary to help the students prepare for what they were going to hear.

In the video, we can see how I stuck on the board the word “animals” and explained that animals can have different body parts and that they can do different things while sticking the different words. The video segment depicts the presentation of vocabulary, the use of the language, the blackboard organization, the rapport with learners and the use of some teaching and classroom management strategies such as eliciting answers and the use of body language and examples.

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Choose a quotation that represents an event, knowledge, insight in these lessons.

In a part of these lessons, the students were invited to give a presentation about an animal.

I chose the quotation “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”, because it represents the insight of this activity in which the learners played an active role by doing some research and by giving an oral presentation about an animal. The presentations were amazing, clear and complete reflecting the students' commitment and involvement.

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What teaching strategies did you use? Which ones were effective? Why / why not?

One of these lessons was based on developing reading comprehension skills so I focused on understanding, exploring and identifying text structure and developing different reading strategies.

One effective strategy was dividing the activities into different stages (Pre- reading, reading for gist, reading for specific information, while reading and post reading) in order to guide the students on the different methods they had to apply such as predicting, skimming, scanning or evaluating. Moreover, I used a lot of questions to guide the students and I elicited answers. In addition, I monitored students and provided the necessary help during the activities, I modeled the exercises and I illustrated them by giving examples.

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What aspects of the lessons do you consider successful?

As we know motivation is paramount in the teaching and learning process. Therefore, I believe that the use of games in these lessons was successful as students were encouraged to participate in a motivating context. Students really enjoyed playing the games and they were eager to answer and participate using the target language.

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Include a photo of a moment in the lessons, or a task students did, a picture from the board or any other lesson component you would like to share, and describe it.

This is a picture from the board in which the target vocabulary of the lessons was displayed. As a warm up activity, students were invited to watch a video about adjectives that describe food and they were asked to do a food quiz. After watching the video and playing the game, I elicited answers about the adjectives that describe food and I pasted the words on the board. We worked on examples to clarify the meanings. Moreover, these words were used later in the different activities. Therefore, the board was a resource to guide and support the students during the lessons.

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How did the students react to your teaching, to the activities and the materials? How did they react to the lesson?

Learners reacted positively to the lesson and they were motivated during all the activities. They particularly reacted favorably to the blindfold guessing game in which they had to taste and describe how different food items taste as they try them out while being blindfolded. This was a meaningful experience that rounded off the lessons and learners enjoyed it immensely.

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Choose a quotation that represents an event, knowledge, insight in these lessons.

“Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today” by Tim Fargo.

These lessons represent the end of the practicum period, but also the beginning of a new period. I know that all the knowledge I have acquired and all the experiences I have gained have contributed to my future and have helped me to construct my teacher identity.