Journal by Carina Soto

Observation 1

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:25:22 UTC

I think that a classroom observation is an act of watching a teacher's performance in their classroom. Moreover, a classroom observation help as it is a way of recording and measuring teacher by watching and recording them in action.

As the students enter the classroom they sing the What’s the Weather Song (Oh, My Darling Clementine)

What’s the weather?

What’s the weather like today? (Students´ name), can you tell me?

What’s the weather like today?

Is it sunny?

Is it cloudy?

Is it rainy out today?

Is it snowy?

Is it windy?

What’s the weather like today?

This is a song that they have been singing with their teacher Karen since the beginning of the year.

During the first observation, the teacher worked with a poster with numbers. They olso olays the "hot potatoe" game to say the numbers alloud.

Observation 2

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:26:02 UTC

As I have already said in the previous class. A lesson observation helps to the student in her/ his practice. The lesson is observed to assess the quality of teaching to ensure students will be receiving the most effective learning experience.

During the second observation, the teacher played "hot potaoe" with the students. After that she handed in a photocopy for the students to complete.

So from this class I piched up the idea of playing games with the students.

The teaching strategy that the teacher used here is

Teamwork. She divided the class into groups to complete a task. This is a teaching strategy that is recommended to encourage learners of mixed abilities to work with one another. By doing so, those who have more knowledge of the subject can share their knowledge and help their peers understand the topic better.

Observation 3

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:26:19 UTC

During the third observation, the teacher introduced the personal pronouns with a lovely poster. The students loved it a lot.

As a conclusion I may say that classroom observation is an essential part of teaching. It checks and adjusts a teachers performance meaning that students get the most out of their lessons, improving their academic performance and, thus improving the overall performance of the school.

Teaching Assistantship 1:

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:35:36 UTC

During the assistanship the teacher asked me to help the students to do some superheroes posters. That class she had to teach the pronouns. i helped collecting some super heroes pictures , I took some of them from the internet.The result was that the students enjoyed the activity.

Teaching Assistantship 2:

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:36:06 UTC

During the second class, the students review the previous language and structures. In fact, the teacher´s lKaren lesson lasted around three classes. As I already said, I helped collecting pictures and preparing some posters to stick on the walls.

While at school, I observed a number of learning situations and while doing this I took notes on the presence of pedagogical dimensions. I identified the particular characteristics of the class and the school.

Class 1

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:36:39 UTC

I believe that Practicum is the bridge between academia and the professional world. They provide students with an opportunity to gain professional skills .

This was one of the first classes. I presented to the students the Dinosour family. They we enthusiastic to "meet my friends".

The experience was nice. I could follow what I have planned and the children were confortable with the activities. i felt welcome at ESC. n°8

I think that the main characteristics of an effective Lesson Plan should include this aspects:

Builds upon students' prior knowledge.
Fosters creativity.
Clarifies transitions comments bettwen the different stages.
Give the students enough to reflect.

Class 2

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:36:50 UTC

This class was better than the other class, I felt more comfortable.

All the classes are different , the children are on diferent mood each time. The activities proposed are varied and the children like that. In this case, they put the dinosour story in order .

Class 3

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:37:00 UTC

The next class the poster was still on the wall and the students were eager to say review the new vocabulary, so I decided to do a quick warm up. The students were very enthusiastic to say the vocabulary alloud, they had fun in the classroom.

After that, I coul contnue with the lesson plan.

Here realiced that many things can happen in the classroom, we have to be prepare for changes and to be flexible.

Class 4

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:37:26 UTC

Diring the 4th class we sing a "Family song". The students liked it and sing it all together. We review personal pronouns and family vocabulary.

The benefis of rhymes aim cognitive development. Repetition of rhymes and stories is good for the brain, teaching how language works and improving memory, concentration, spatial intelligence and thinking skills. Because these verses are made up of patterns, they are easy first memorization pieces.

Link to the song:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/133tmtq79rul-vUeGmLTIUED-oh0YfLVd/view?usp=sharing

Class 5

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:37:37 UTC

During this class, I played a video: The Little Mermaid story. The benefits of listening short stories are self-contained works of prose fiction whose function is to impart a moral, capture a moment, or evoke a certain mood. In addition, short stories are often more focused, as all the elements within plot, character, pacing, story structure, and so on must work together towards this common goal. Moreover Short stories, for example, help students to learn the four skills listening, speaking, reading and writing more effectively because of the motivational benefit embedded in the stories. In addition, with short stories, instructors can teach literary, cultural, and higher-order thinking aspects.

Little Mermaid story:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19JHQwG_u4kE_ghAgxxAcK0fPQWa2UNDBncU3t2oiU9Y/edit?usp=drive_link

Class 6: The Little Marmeid

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:41:07 UTC

I prepared a Housing diorama. The students liked it a lot and had fun during the warm up. I think students enjoy the dioramas as they get the real context of a house and its furniture. As teachers we have to help ours students to develop their imagination. Dioramas are a good toll for that.

Class 7: The Little Marmeid

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:41:23 UTC

We played a game with the vocabulary of the house. It was a guessing game. One student had to choose one of the rooms and keep the secret. The other students had to guess!

Class 8: The Fox and the Stork

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:41:35 UTC

During this class the students identify food vocabulary and review parts of the house. I used a poster to show the new vocabulary and I also used realia. I brought some food so that the students have a real context.

The learning aims are:

During this lesson, learners will be able to:

To review the structures : “Is there? Are there?” . Yes, there is . No there isn't. “There are six chairs”.
To review parts of the house and furniture vocabulary
To recognize food vocabulary: milkshake, soup, tomatoes, bread, water, rice, strawberries, chocolate, cherries, sausages
To recognize the new structures: Do you like (milkshake)? Yes, I do. No, I don't.
To develop listening skills
To develop reading skills

Class 9 : Goldilocks and the three little bears.

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:41:43 UTC

In this oportunity the students use the "I like and I dont like plates". The activity consisted in talking about their tastes and food preferences.

To talk about general likes or dislikes, the students followed this pattern: I like tomatoes. I don´t like spagetti.

In future lesson plans I can include some other verbs to express likes and dislikes for example love, enjoy, like and hate.

Class 10: Goldilocks and the three little bears.

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:41:52 UTC

I prepared for this lesson some ideas based on CLIL. The experience was fantastic. The class begun with the Unit "Goldilocks". I told the traditional short story. Then the CLIL Project consited in learn to eat healthy food. During the class pupils became familiar with food and their properties through the use of skills in L2 and nutrition. This project aimed to enable students to use food accurately and raise awareness of the positive effects on their health.

In this oportuunity beside dealing with healthy we also dealt with unhealthy food. We started with a very nice video, then we pass to the activities. The students were engaged to choose healthy food.

Class 11: Goldilocks and the three Little bears.

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:43:13 UTC

In this class we continue analysing healthy and unhlealthy food , but on this occation, for didactic purposes I chose a nutritional pyramid.

As mentioned before, this was part of the school CLIL project. It is an approach where students learn a subject and a second language at the same time. The subjects involved were science and they will not only learned about science, but they also gained relevant vocabulary and language skills. CLIL courses should truly integrate the language and content in order to be successful and success is determined when both the subject matter and language is learned.

In my opinion active class participation improves critical and higher level thinking skills. This level of thinking goes beyond and it can can improve memory.

Class 12: The Jungle Book

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:43:22 UTC

We identify the following structures

Lions are carnivores. They eat meat.

Monkeys are herbivores. They eat plants.

Mowgli is omnivore. They eat meat and plants.

So we waltch the Jungle Book video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QhFG-8ObpusUSxHu0kSBUfK-0Zd9OIlh/view?usp=sharing

I think that the topic of the Unit wild animals and food are very adaptable and you as a teacher can make a lot of creative activities. To describe this Unit, I will use the following methafor : "Life is a winding road". That is to say , it ismarked by repeated turns and bends. “winding roads are full of surprises”.

Class 13: The Jungle Book

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:43:31 UTC

We analised another version of the Jungle Book, a modern one. In this ocassion I read the story and the students had to put the story in order.

The new structures are :

There are snakes

There is a tiger

The class consisted in that the students identify and describe the animals in the Jungle Book.

Traditionally, fairy tales started out as folk tales passed on orally, before literary tales started to be written down in books. Nowadays, fairy tales can take the form of films, picture books, audio books, series, interactive exhibitions, comics or computer games. And if you are a creative teacher, you can adap the stories to modern times. In this case the animals of the Jungle Book had a cellphone to call to their friends.

Class 14: The Jungle Book

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:43:39 UTC

The teacher played a song based on the story “THE JUNGLE BOOK”. For comprehension, the teacher modeled the language and demonstrate the animals that appear in the story by pointing to the animals in the diorama.

After that teacher will play the song again and the students will sing the song as they try to figure out what they can see in the diorama.

The students sign

In the forest:

“Theres is Mowgli”

“Theres is a Wolf “

“There are Panthers”

I decided to use dioramas as they are a three-dimensional representation of a complete scene.I thought that with a diorama made up of a shoe box, some elements "of the jungles " such as a landscape and the animals were be apreciated and that the students would to be engaged .

Class 15: Little Red Riding Hood: Body parts

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:43:49 UTC

Little Red Riding Hood Small World Scene

The students had fun with their "small world" scene. They created this "small world" scene. They also retelled the story of Little Red Riding Hood!

This provides what we think is the perfect combination of creative craft and creative play opportunity.

The teacher will give to each one of the students different boxes. The students will decorate the inside of the box to look like a room. They can paint it, and be as creative as they like.

Class 16

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:45:05 UTC

I played the “HEAD AND SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES” song.

Then I showed a poster with the parts of the body that are the song. The song was sung in a significant way for the students to acquire the language.

I used some basic principles to sing the song such as movements to show the different parts of the body that the song mentions. That is to say, simple language and body language will be added.

I helped to create the atmosphere, context and the scene of the song not only with the song but also with flashcards and body movements.

Here there are some links to the most important parts of the Lesson:

WARM- UP

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bfjALP9rB-k9Cint1UxKhao5N15fDhB7/view?usp=drive_link

PRESENTATION

Head shoulders, knees and toes song lyrics

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VE2Kdz18nqncXGZlZi27TehQL_tkomWM4BDL9-VdXd0/edit?usp=sharing

Head shoulders, knees and toes song video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GQvRDJq80u37skZJ2ohap0L8eXS1XkpJ/view?usp=sharing

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes Visual Supports:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g2Pz1W9q4mNB_M_EeR2KJybsq98ZdJSZ/view?usp=sharing

DEVELOPMENT (PRACTICE and PRODUCTION)

Activity 1:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dV_4Ba-cJjivzYUxmuciNbGx9lJQS0Cm/view?usp=sharing

Closure Activity:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rYNHzGSjQR1sFLinCG9puTIjIS3Jvp4aBO4bLbInxR0/edit?usp=sharing

Class 17

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:45:13 UTC

She will also stick a poster with animal body parts, to help the students to understand the quizz.

The quiz will be played in a significant way for the students to acquire the language.

The teacher will use some basic principles to play the video, such as movements to show the different parts of the animals´ body. That is to say, simple language and body language will be added.

The teacher will help to create the atmosphere, context and the scene of the quizz not only with the song but also with flashcards.

The teacher will ask to the students

Which one has pink feathers?

the students will answer :

The Flamingo has got pink feathers!

She will stop the quiz before each answer is heard, so the students can play and guess which animal has certain features.

I believe that an effective lesson plan makes the class more interesting. It allows the students to grow more interest in the subject matter and they participate in actively. This interaction gets the students thinking and helps them build new skills. Engaging lessons helps the students to concentrate more and learn them.

Class 18

carinasoto03 — 2023-04-12 22:45:21 UTC

In order to catch the students attention and to review vocabulary of wild animals, the teacher will show a diorama with some realia animals. That is to say plastic wild animals.

The teacher will say:

I went to the Jungle and met some wild animals

Teacher will say I met these animals:

This is a lion. It has a big head.

This is a Giraffe. It has a long neck.

This is a hippo. It has four legs.

Then the teacher will ask:

Has the giraffe got a long neck ?

Yes, it has.

No, it hasn't.

The students will most probably remember the wild animals, so they are going to be answering actively as the teacher asks.

As a conclusion I may say that the practicum allows you to apply what you've learned in class to your field of study. Having a field placement can be an invaluable component of our career preparation. The purpose of a practicum is to gain experience in our field.