The lesson started with the teacher engaging students by asking about additional assignments or activities they might have pending. After that, the teacher provided clear instructions for the exam. The topics covered included interculturality, community problems, the present simple tense, and imperatives. The exam consisted of multiple-choice questions, gap-filling exercises, and open-ended questions. Throughout the exam, some students asked for clarification regarding the meaning of certain words or how to answer specific questions. Most students were able to finish on time and submit their exams successfully, while a few required additional time to complete them.

Students prepared to take their exams. The teacher asked me to call two students from 1C who had been absent the previous day so they could take the test alongside 1B students. The exam covered the same topics, and students had some doubts about how to answer certain questions, especially related to verbs and sentence structures for discussing community problems. Once the exam was completed, the class continued until the end of the period.

To reinforce learning and provide an opportunity for extra credit, the teacher asked students to rewrite their incorrect answers with the correct versions. She then reviewed the final grades and ensured all students had their scores recorded. Despite having work to do, students appeared restless and somewhat distracted during the lesson.

Then I ask who want to share. Some raise their hands and talk about singers or painters. One student chose Peso Pluma and talk about his music. Another student draw a picture of a famous mural from Toluca and explain it’s part of our culture. I try to support every answer and encourage them to explain more.

After that, I ask them to describe how the cultural manifestation make them feel. I write some feelings on the whiteboard: happy, sad, impressed, scared, relaxed. I ask them to choose one and say why. I give an example: “This painting makes me feel sad because it is gray and the person looks alone.” Some students copy my example and write similar sentences.

Then I gave them a worksheet where they have to draw their cultural manifestation again and write: “This ___ makes me feel ___ because it is ___.” I explain it step by step. Some ask a lot of questions, and I answer with patience. I walk around the library, checking their work. Some drawings are very creative and the sentences are simple but correct. I feel happy they are learning and using the new vocabulary.

At the end, I ask two students to read their sentence out loud. Everyone clap and I say “Good job!” I leave the library feeling more confident and with a smile because the activity worked and students participated more than other days.

I show again the same vocabulary about feelings and adjectives: happy, sad, colorful, boring, interesting. I bring some printed images from the internet with paintings, dances and food. I ask the students to describe how the image makes them feel. They say “It makes me feel hungry!” when I show the food, and “scared” with a creepy painting. We laugh and it help the mood of the class.

Then we continue with the sentence structure “This ___ makes me feel ___ because it is ___.” I write examples and ask them to write their own. I give them a worksheet to draw the manifestation they like and write a sentence using feelings and adjectives. I help them with ideas. One student write: “This music makes me feel happy because it is loud and fun.” I think is a very good sentence and I say congratulations.

Some students get distracted and talk a lot. I try to call their attention saying “Five more minutes” or “Eyes on me!” but not always they listen. I think I still need to work in my classroom management.

Before the class ends, I ask for two volunteers to share their sentence. They speak a little shy but they try their best. I think it’s important to motivate them and make them feel proud of their work.

Then I give them the worksheet we use in other groups where they have to draw a cultural manifestation and write the sentence: “This ___ makes me feel ___ because it is ___.” Some already know how to do it because we practiced before, but I still explain step by step. I help the ones who didn’t understand or ask questions.

I walk around and see they are very focused. One student draws the Cosmovitral and write: “This place makes me feel amazed because it is big and colorful.” I feel proud because they use the words we practice.

After 30 minutes of work, I tell them we will do a short Easter activity. I give them some printed Easter eggs with adjectives and they have to color and write the feeling. For example: “This egg is happy because it is bright.” Some students enjoy it a lot and color with creativity. Others finish fast and start helping their friends. I think it’s a nice way to end the week.

Before we leave the library, I ask if they enjoyed the class and most say yes. I feel more relaxed today and I think students are getting more confidence to use English.

Then I ask them if they know some artworks in the city like murals or sculptures. Some of them mention “El Cosmovitral” and other murals they saw in Toluca center or in museums. I explain a little more about these examples and repeat again what kind of manifestations they are. We do a small drill where I say the word and they say what type of manifestation it is, like: “Painting — artwork!”, “Dance — performance!”. It help to repeat and remember.

After that, I gave the students a crossword worksheet. The topic is cultural manifestations. I explain how to complete and tell them to find the words like sculpture, music, tradition, art, etc. I go table by table helping and reading the clues aloud for some groups. Some students complete fast and check with classmates.

Later we check together the answers and I write them on the board so they can correct. During the class the main teacher walk around and check their notebooks to see if they are writing and completing the work. This is to register their progress and participation. Some students don’t finish all but try their best. I see they are getting better to recognize what are cultural manifestations.

After that, I gave them a worksheet about feelings. The worksheet has different faces with blank expressions and the students need to draw the correct emotion on the face. Also they need to write a sentence like “This makes me feel happy” or “This makes me feel sad” depending on the emotion they draw. I explain the activity and ask them if they know some feelings in English. Some students say “happy”, “angry”, “sad”, and we write them on the board. Then they start working on the worksheet. They do it slow but with effort. Some of the ss confuse the words or spell them wrong, like write “japy” instead of “happy” or “sade” for “sad”, but I walk around the classroom and go table by table to help and correct. Some students ask for help and others try to copy from their classmates. I tell them is better to try by their own.

When most of the students finish, I continue with the next part of the lesson. I write on the board the question: “How can you describe a painting or an artwork?” I ask them to think and answer. Some students give me adjectives in Spanish like “bonito”, “feo”, “raro”, “interesante”. I write those and then show the flashcards with the English adjectives: “beautiful”, “strange”, “sad”, “colorful”, “big”, “dark”. We practice pronunciation all together, and I repeat the words many times. Some students don’t want to repeat, so I encourage them and say “Let’s do it together!” Then we do a little drill where I show the flashcard and they have to say the word.

Then I ask them to copy the adjectives in their notebooks and write one or two example sentences. Some students write things like “This picture is big” or “It is beautiful”. I check their notebooks and help them to fix the mistakes. A few students confuse feelings with adjectives again. For example, one wrote “The artwork is happy” when they want to say “beautiful”. I explain again that “happy” is a feeling and “beautiful” is how something looks. I try to make the difference clear, but is not easy for all of them.

I continue helping individually and checking the progress of each student. Some students ask many questions and others are more quiet and wait for me to come to their table. I try to talk with each group and give feedback. At the end of the class, I ask who wants to show their work. Some students raise hands and we see their drawings and sentences. I correct gently and give positive comments. Most of them do a good job and understand more about feelings and adjectives.

The class end good, but I notice that some students were tired at the end, maybe because is Monday or they don’t sleep well. Still, most of the group stay focus and participate. I think the use of images and movement help to keep the energy and interest.

When they finish the worksheet, I introduce new adjectives. I bring flashcards with words like “big”, “sad”, “funny”, “colorful”, “dark”, “beautiful”. I put the flashcards in the whiteboard with magnets and read the words out loud. Then I ask the students to repeat after me. Some repeat, others not, so I repeat the activity and encourage more students to say the words. We do a small drill saying the word and doing a gesture or expression to help remember the meaning. For example, for “big” I open my arms, for “sad” I do a sad face. This help some students to understand better.

After the drill, I wrote example sentences on the whiteboard using the adjectives. I write:“The painting is big and colorful.”, It looks sad but beautiful.”“This artwork is funny.”

I try to connect the adjectives with the artwork we talk before or with general objects they know. I ask “Can you describe this painting?” or “How is this picture?” but only a few ss answer. Some students are not paying atention and keep talking or playing. It was hard to make all the group focus at the same time. I raise my voice sometimes to give instructions but try to stay calm. A few ss copy fast the sentences, but others are very slow and don’t want to write. I go table by table to help and motivate, saying “Come on, you can do it” or “Just try, I help you.”

Some ss confuse the feelings and adjectives again, for example write “happy” when they need to say “beautiful”. I explain that “happy” is how you feel, and “beautiful” is how something looks. I use simple language to explain and give examples. I ask “Are you big?” or “Is the painting big?” and try to show the difference.

At the end of the class, I ask if they have questions or if the activity was easy or hard. Some students tell me “It’s difficult” but also say “interesting” or “I like the drawings”. I think the class was a bit noisy and slow, but they are learning step by step. I notice some students are more motivated when we use images or drawings, so I plan to continue using more visual support. I think I need to give more examples and maybe write more slowly on the board because some students don’t finish copying everything. The class ended with most students finishing the activity, but with different levels of understanding.

We read the text together. Some students raise their hands to help with the reading. I give them short parts to read aloud. Others prefer to listen only. Some students don’t understand the meaning, so I try to help using my hands or making faces to explain feelings. For example, when the text says the children look “sad” or “nervous,” I make a sad face and cross my arms like scared. That help the students to understand better what happen in the text.

After the reading, I ask some questions to check their understanding. I say “Why the kids look like that?” or “What feeling do you think the artist wants to show?” Some students answer in Spanish, so I help them to say it in English, like “They are sad,” “They are lonely.” I give them a worksheet with questions about the reading. They have to answer what the painting shows, what they think about the artist, and if they like the picture or not. Some ss write short sentences, others only words, but I accept it because they are still learning. I walk around to help and check if they are answering correctly.

After that, I ask them to highlight the feelings in the text, like we did the last time. We look for the words “sad,” “scared,” “impressed,” “nervous,” and mark them with color. Then we talk again about these feelings. I ask: “How do you feel when you see this painting?” or “What feeling do you see in their faces?” and some ss give very interesting opinions.

Then I show new flashcards with feelings words like “happy,” “scared,” “impressed,” and “surprised.” I pronounce the words slowly and ask students to repeat. We play a game where I make a face and they guess what feeling it is. They like this game and laugh. I also ask some students to come to the front and make a face, and the rest guess the emotion. It was fun and more students participate in this part.

After the game, I give them another worksheet with faces. They have to draw the expression that shows each feeling word. I say, “Draw a happy face,” “Draw a scared face,” and so on. Some students ask me “How is surprised?” or “What is impressed?” so I explain with gestures again. They enjoy this part more because they like drawing and feel more relax. I give them time and most finish the task.

At the end of the class, we show some of their drawings and I ask, “What feeling is this?” and they answer. I ask, “How do you feel today?” and they answer using the words we learned. Some say “happy,” others say “tired,” and one said “surprised because of the story.” I like that they start to use the words with more confidence.

The class finish with good actitud. Most students were more focus in the second part of the lesson, especially with the drawings and game. Still, some students confuse the feelings and adjectives like say “beautiful” for a feeling or “happy” for how a painting looks. I remind them the difference but I know need to work more in this topic. I think I will prepare more activities to help understand better this difference and maybe use more real objects or images. But in general, the class went well and I see progress in some students.

After the game, I check the worksheets about feelings from the last class. I ask students, “What do we use to describe something?” At first some are confused, but then a few students say adjectives like “beautiful,” “colorful,” “big.” I show flashcards with these words and repeat them with the class. We do a small drill with pronunciation. Then I write on the board a sentence frame:
"This painting makes me feel ___ because it is ___."
I ask students to complete it using the adjectives. Some say, “It makes me feel happy because it is colorful.” Other students need more help, but I go one by one.

At the end, I give homework. They need to decorate an Easter egg for a small competition in school. I explain that they will bring it on Thursday and we will vote for the most creative. Some are excited and ask questions. This activity is also to connect with art and expression.

Once we finished the collection and registration of the eggs, I transitioned into the planned English lesson. I introduced the video titled “Steve Martin on How to Look at Abstract Art”, a short clip produced by MoMA and BBC. I explained to students that the purpose of watching the video was to observe how the speaker expresses personal opinions about artworks, especially using specific phrases in English.

Before watching the video, I gave students a worksheet with a two-column table. In the first column were opinion phrases that might appear in the video (e.g., “I think this is…”, “This painting makes me feel…”), while the second column was left blank for students to mark whether each phrase was actually used. I read the phrases aloud with the group and explained any unfamiliar vocabulary. This pre-listening activity helped activate prior knowledge and prepare them to focus on specific language structures.

I played the video two times. During the first viewing, students tried to listen for key phrases and get the general idea. In the second viewing, they focused more closely on identifying specific expressions from the table. I noticed that some students were able to understand the main points of the video on their own, while others worked together and whispered to each other to compare notes and clarify doubts. This peer interaction was positive and showed that students are developing cooperative strategies to learn.

After the second viewing, I guided the group in checking the worksheet. We discussed which phrases were actually used by the speaker in the video. I prompted students to share their answers and explain what they heard. Then, I helped them correct any misunderstandings and we wrote the correct answers on the board. During this activity, I took time to explain the function of each opinion phrase, encouraging students to think about how they could use them in their own descriptions of artworks.

Finally, we reflected briefly on the importance of being able to express personal opinions in English, especially in relation to visual art, which often evokes different emotions and interpretations. Students seemed engaged and curious, even though the activity required close listening and some of the language was challenging.

Overall, the lesson was successful despite the teacher’s absence. The students remained respectful and participative, and I was able to maintain order and lead the activity with confidence. I learned that clear instructions, well-prepared materials, and student collaboration are key when working in less structured situations. I also saw the value of using authentic audiovisual materials to expose students to natural language use and different cultural perspectives.

To begin the class, I wrote a two-column table on the whiteboard. One column was titled “Phrases we might hear in the video,” and the other was “Phrases we probably won’t hear.” I had previously prepared a list of opinion expressions such as “I think this is interesting,” “This painting makes me feel confused,” or “In my opinion, it’s beautiful,” as well as less likely or unrelated phrases like “This painting was made in 1995,” or “This is a sculpture.” These examples helped students focus on the language of opinion rather than factual descriptions.

I asked students to copy the table into their notebooks, and as a group, we read each phrase aloud together. I took this moment to check pronunciation and clarify the meaning of certain expressions. This pre-listening activity served to activate their vocabulary and give them a clear objective for the video.

Unfortunately, we encountered a technical problem with the classroom TV screen, which made it impossible to play the video as planned. As an alternative, I decided to play the video from my laptop, although I was aware that visibility would be limited for the whole group. Despite this challenge, students were attentive and tried to focus on the audio. To support comprehension, I paused the video at key points and replayed short segments so students could hear certain expressions more clearly. I also repeated some parts myself and gestured or paraphrased when necessary to reinforce understanding.

After watching the video, we checked the table together. I encouraged students to share which expressions they heard and asked them to justify their answers by referring to specific moments in the video. This generated a short but meaningful discussion and helped consolidate their understanding of how opinions are expressed in English.

To build on this, I asked students, “How do people begin to express their opinions in English?” Several students responded with useful phrases such as “I think,” “I like,” and “In my opinion.” I wrote these sentence starters on the board and asked the class to repeat them with correct pronunciation. We practiced making short sample sentences using these prompts. Like : “I think this painting is colorful.”etc. This activity was particularly useful as it gave students practical tools for giving personal opinions, which is a skill they will need for their upcoming project presentations on artworks. I took this opportunity to emphasize that there is no single “correct” opinion when interpreting art, and what matters is how they express and support their ideas.

Despite the audiovisual limitations, the class remained engaged and motivated. I was pleased to see that some students who are usually shy participated in sharing their thoughts. This experience reinforced the importance of being adaptable and maintaining a clear communicative objective, even when technical difficulties arise.

The class begin with a question I made to the group: “How can we give an opinion in English?” Some students answer in Spanish, but the answers was good because they said things like yo creo, en mi punto de vista, and yo opino. I help them to translate and I write I think, I believe, and In my opinion on the whiteboard.

Then, I ask them to help me with some examples. I guide them to say sentences like I think this painting is beautiful or It makes me feel happy because the colors are bright. Some students repeat after me, and I correct the pronunciation. We practiced this together for some minutes and I notice some of them were starting to understand how to make an opinion sentence.

After that, I gave them a worksheet to complete opinion sentences using the expressions I think, I believe, and In my opinion. The worksheet was not difficult, and most students finished it fast, but there was still too much distraction in the classroom. Some students was talking or not paying attention, so I had to remind them to focus.

Then I organize the teams for the project. I wrote the names on the board and they move to sit with their groups. It was a little bit confusing for them at the beginning, because some students didn’t remember who was in their team, but after a few minutes, all the groups were ready. We started to fill the group organization worksheet.

Then, I ask a question to the class: “How do you give an opinion?” Some students answer in English and others in Spanish. I wrote their ideas on the whiteboard and we create a small list of expressions like I think, In my opinion, and I believe. I explain the meaning of each one and when to use them.

After that, we made examples together. I asked students to describe a painting and say how it makes them feel. We wrote sentences like In my opinion, this painting is sad because the colors are dark. The students copied the examples in their notebooks, and then I gave them a worksheet with incomplete sentences so they could complete them with their own ideas.

It took me some extra time to write everything on the board, but I prefer to do it so everyone can see and copy. Some students was confused with the structure, but I help them.

At the end of the class, teacher Gabriela said that students can bring a photo or image of a cultural manifestation for next class, because they will use it to make their Instagram-style post. Students looked motivated with the idea of choosing their own cultural expression.

Each group received a printed artwork that they chose in the last class. Then, I gave them the rubric and worksheet to plan their post. The students start to organize and draw their image, and they also begin to write sentences using expressions like I think this painting is... or It makes me feel....

Some students asked me if their sentences were correct. I walk around the classroom and help them one by one. They were very engaged with the activity, and some even asked to work outside the classroom because they wanted more space to draw.

During the class, I noticed that some teams had better organization and could divide the tasks better. Others needed help to start writing. Even if not all the students finish the activity, I saw that they were trying to use the vocabulary and sentence structure from the previous classes.

At the end, I collect the worksheets and tell them that we will continue in the next class to finish the drawing and the final version of the Instagram post. I think this session was productive, and the students show interest in the creative part of the task.

Each group had their materials ready. Some students brought colored pencils, markers, and other things to decorate their drawing. They start to talk and plan what they are going to write. I remind them to use expressions like I think, In my opinion, or I believe followed by adjectives and feelings.

I walked around the classroom checking their drafts. Some students asked for help to write their sentences. I corrected small grammar mistakes and gave them suggestions to improve their ideas. One team finished their work completely and I gave them a grade using the rubric. The other teams didn’t finish, but they completed most of the writing.

Teacher Gabriela came at the end of the class and she said she was going to give the final grades for the Instagram post. I told the students that they should complete the drawing and correct the sentences for next class. I think the activity helps them to connect art with language and express their opinion in English.