University of Puerto Rico at Humacao

English Department

Teacher Work Sample: Parts 1-7

Alfonso Casta Martnez High School

Maunabo, Puerto Rico

Cooperating Teacher: Sonia N. Aponte Aponte

Group: 12-2

Luis E. Pabn Martnez

842-07-6105

Practice Teaching

EDPE 4006/4018

Dr. Anbal Muoz Claudio

April 28, 2014

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Table of Contents

I. Contextual Factors .. 2 - 4

II. Learning Goals .. 5 - 8

Alignment with GLE .. 9

Appropriateness for Students .. 10

III. Assessment Plan .. 11-14

IV. Design for Instruction .. 15-16

Activities .. 17-18

V. Instructional Decision-Making .. 19-24

VI. Analysis of Student Learning .. 25-28

VII. Reflection and Self-Evaluation .. 29-30

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Part 1: Contextual Factors

Community, district, school factors, and implications

The Alfonso Casta Martnez High School is located in the city of Maunabo, Puerto Rico.

Its a vocational school that offers courses in Carpentry, Commerce, and the General curriculum.

The school is quite easy to find. Its right after the Vicente Morales Lebrn tunnels, close to the

center of the town. It has an active enrollment of 265 students and a total of 48 people as

personnel of the school, which includes teachers, the director, janitors, and security guards,

amongst others. When it comes to the economic side, Maunabo is one of the poorest towns in

Puerto Rico. Some of the students families struggle with their finances. This is something that I

have noticed in my time so far in the school. An example for this would be the time I went on a

field trip with my students. One of the teachers paid for some of the students food because they

didnt have money, other students opted not to go to the field trip because they didnt have

money or didnt want the teacher to pay for them. The students are very humble, caring, and very

willing to help you. Some of my students have helped me thus far with my special project or

when they see me working on classroom decorations. I believe that the school has a lot of tools

to work with, I barely see a teacher missing something they need in their classroom. The only

thing the school needs is a revamp or remodel in the physical structures. The school has three

floors, yet it doesnt have a ramp or elevator for the handicapped. That is something that is

necessary and should be implemented as soon as possible. There are some classrooms that are

closed and used alternatively as storage rooms, some bathrooms that are not in condition to be

used and are closed. Thats something that the school can improve in too.

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The school schedule is from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. From 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM the school

has a tutoring program for the Spanish and Math class, which helps students with their

homework and also gives them snacks, among other activities that they plan for the students

occasionally. Last year, the school had the Recreacin y Deportes program after school, but

that has been taken away from it. A lot of the students miss those extracurricular activities, and

mention it to me quite often.

Classroom factors

The classroom where I am currently doing my practice teaching is very well-equipped

compared to other classrooms. It has an air-conditioner, but it doesnt work. It has only one

white-board, but the teacher requested two smart-boards for the classroom. It has a reading

station that I helped organize, with books that the students can borrow. It has laptops and a

projector that the students can use for class purposes, new desks and chairs, a printing station

equipped with various printers and scanners, and a listening station thats under development.

The classroom is one of the few that have internet access, but it has its good days and bad days in

terms of connectivity and speed.

Student Characteristics

The group that Im teaching is the 12-2. This group is composed of Carpentry and

General Program students. It has a total of 18 students, 11 males and 7 females. Their ages range

from 17-19 years old. Most of them live near to the school. They all speak Spanish, and most of

them say that they dont understand or speak English. The students like to work in groups, but

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they will work alone if they need to. They are not shy when it comes to asking for help if they

dont understand something. I am usually very busy when giving them class, moving around

explaining things or translating what they dont know or what theyre trying to say. The students

that work better in the classroom are: Itzia, Yiralis, Cristal, Kimberly, and Edgar. These students

may not be very fluent in English, but they try and get the work done. The students that need

more help are: Anlexy, Joselito, and Luis. These students dont like to participate in class and

sometimes are reluctant to talk at all. My case study student, Anlexy, is a very talented student

when it comes to car mechanics, working as an electrician, and in carpentry; but he lacks the

motivation when it comes to the English class, and doesnt like to work at times (he doesnt have

behavior issues). The rest of the group is average or below average with the English language.

Another thing that I am aware of is the quantity of students that have access to a computer and/or

internet at home. The majority of my students (10 out of 18) do not have a computer at home, but

10 out of 18 do have internet access in their home. Some students mentioned that their computers

are damaged and do not work, others simply dont have computers. This motivates me to help

them learn how to use computers in the classroom and also lets me know what type of

assignments I can give them and what I can expect out of them.

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Part 2: Learning Goals

I will be focusing on speaking and writing standards and expectations that are set for 12th

grade students. The students are very shy when it comes to public speaking skills. Another

difficulty the students have is writing correctly. Since they need to improve in these two areas, I

took it upon myself to develop objectives that help them gain a new level of knowledge so that

the students could meet their grade level expectations. Knowing how important technology is

today, I wanted to incorporate the use of technological tools such as computers and cellular

phones in the classroom. This will help develop the students technological skills while making

the class more attractive and motivating for them. The three goals that I have for the unit are:

Learning Goal #1 (LG1): Students will be able to identify and compare past and

current events orally through a guided discussion.

Learning Goal #2 (LG2): Students will be able to give an oral presentation.

Learning Goal #3 (LG3): Students will be able to write an essay.

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Learning Goal #1 Assessment Instrument

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Learning Goal #2 Assessment Instrument

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Learning Goal #3 Assessment Instrument

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Alignment with Grade Level Expectations

As it was mentioned before, the learning goals I have set for the students are tied to the Content

Standards, and Grade Level Expectations of the DEPR. The following standards are in direct

correlation with my unit in order to help improve the students speaking and writing skills:

Listening & Speaking:

L/S.12.2 Listens and responds to synthesize, explain, describe, analyze, justify, and debate

information; answers and formulates closed and open-ended questions.

L/S.12.3 Uses appropriate language structure to analyze and evaluate issues, express opinions

integrating comparison and contrast statements.

L/S.12.4 Expresses thoughts and opinions to evaluate text, debate current events, concepts, and

literary elements; makes predictions and inferences, as well as draws conclusions from listening

to a variety of texts, performances, and multimedia sources; listens to sort and prioritize

information.

Writing:

W.12.2 - Evaluates and applies a variety of organizational techniques to write effective narrative,

expository, and persuasive essays using the writing process; demonstrates a preferred style of

writing.

W.12.5 Organizes, synthesizes, outlines, and evaluates information to write a research paper;

demonstrates voice and knowledge of topic throughout the writing.

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Appropriateness for students

This unit is designed specifically to help the students improve on their speaking and

writing skills. After taking into consideration the results of the students performance pre-test

that was given to them at the beginning of the school year, I focused on creating a unit that

would address these two skills by using activities focused on the theme of Then and Now (past

and present). What I expect out of this unit is that the students get motivated and learn efficiently

by bringing background knowledge to the table. This will let my students acquire new

knowledge by comparing and contrasting, and discussing with their classmates. I want my

students to gain knowledge by sharing their experiences and their previous knowledge with their

classmates, so that their foundation continues to solidify and learning becomes something

meaningful for them, and allows progress for the rest of their lives.

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Part 3: Assessment Plan

Learning Goals Assessments Format of

Assessment Adaptation

LG1 - Students will

be able to identify

and compare past and

current events orally

through a guided

discussion.

L/S.12.2

L/S.12.3

L/S.12.4

Pre-Assessment

Students are handed

the vocabulary words

on a sheet of paper,

the students will

recognize some

words because of the

similarities in the

Spanish language.

Discussion of the

vocabulary words

prior to giving them

the sheet of paper that

contains them. Write

the words on the

board and get the

students to define

them in their own

words, provide them

with verbal cues and

guide them towards

the correct answer.

Formative

Assessment

Students will watch

the video of

Prohibition:

Increased Penalties

Act; the students

will compare past and

current events orally

through a guided

discussion.

Provide verbal cues,

ask comprehension

questions, and guide

the discussion.

Post-Assessment

Students will identify

current and historical

events through a

power point

presentation.

Visual exercise that

lets the students

identify which type

of event the picture

provided is.

LG2 - Students will

be able to give an

oral presentation.

W.12.5

L/S.12.4

Pre-Assessment

Students will be

given a Power Point

Presentation on

sources of

information.

Students will be able

to identify and

classify the different

types of sources of

information given to

them in an exercise.

Students will be

asked where they get

information from, list

their answers on the

whiteboard.

Go through each one

in the power point

and explain in detail

(with examples) the

ones that they are not

familiar with.

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Learning Goals Assessments Format of

Assessment Adaptation

LG2 - Students will

be able to give an

oral presentation.

W.12.5

L/S.12.4

Students will be

given a visual

exercise where they

will identify the

different types of

information that are

presented to them in

pictures.

Formative

Assessment

Students will search

for an article about a

historical and recent

event that are related

to each other and

compare them.

The students will use

computers and

newspapers to find

the articles.

They will fill out the

required information

in the worksheets

provided (Author,

Title, Date of

Publication, Source,

Summary) and fill

out the venn diagram

worksheet in order to

compare and contrast

both articles.

Post-Assessment

The students will

prepare a Power

Point Presentation

along with their

findings to do an oral

presentation.

The students are

given about 8

minutes to give their

oral presentations.

Because of the

quantity of students,

the work was

assigned as groups of

2-3.

Ask key questions

during and after the

presentation to verify

student knowledge of

the topic.

LG3 - Students will

be able to write an

essay.

W.12.2

Pre-Assessment

Students will watch a

Power Point

Presentation about

the History of

After watching the

PPT about the

History of Language

Instruction in Puerto

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Learning Goals Assessments Format of

Assessment Adaptation

LG3 - Students will

be able to write an

essay.

W.12.2

W.12.5

Language Instruction

in Puerto Rico.

Students will list the

pros and cons of the

English language.

Rico, the students

will share their

thoughts and opinions

on the matter orally.

When the students

start listing the pros

and cons of the

English language,

motivate them to

participate more by

letting them write

their answers on the

whiteboard.

Get the students into

the topic by getting

them to write in their

notebooks how they

feel about the English

language and about

how it has been

implemented in

Puerto Rico.

Formative

Assessment

Review of how to

write an essay

through a Power

Point Presentation.

Students will recall

each step and discuss

it orally in order to

clear doubts.

Students will write

their essays topic

and sub-topics

Provide oral cues,

comprehension

questions, clear any

lingering doubts

regarding essay

writing and its steps.

Help and guide the

students with the

choosing of their

topics and sub-topics

for the essay writing.

Post-Assessment

Students will write an

essay while being

guided step by step

(writing process):

Provide oral

instructions, help and

guide the students

throughout the

writing process.

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Learning Goals Assessments Format of

Assessment Adaptation

LG3 - Students will

be able to write an

essay.

W.12.2

W.12.5

Topic and sub-topics (thesis

statement)

Research

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

Provide the students

with a teacher/peer

review stage to help

them revise and proof

read their writing.

Figure #1

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Part 4: Design for Instruction

The performance pre-test that Mrs. Aponte gave at the start of the school year showed

that out of eighteen students only three scored average or above average scores in listening and

speaking, and all eighteen students scored a zero in writing. I consider that their English

vocabulary is rather limited for students their age (save for a few that understand the language

quite well, but have problems mostly in speaking and writing). Since their vocabulary is limited,

their output is very limited as well (speaking and writing). What I decided to do is to give them

assignments in which they have to write, but before they write they have to do research which

makes them read, thus increasing their vocabulary. At the beginning of my unit, I gave them

vocabulary words that they were going to work with throughout the unit. They recognized some

of them due to the similarities with Spanish, this can be catalogued into what we call the

Psycholinguistic Guessing Game. This is a very useful tool for ESL learners. By getting them

to do research I will motivate them to read and then write in their own words their findings. After

they complete their research, theyre going to organize their ideas and prepare an oral

presentation in which they will have to prepare to speak in front of the class, something that they

dont like to do because they feel theyre not good enough speaking the language.

After the oral presentations I move on to focusing on writing. What I decided to do was

get them to write an essay, something that for them is very intimidating when writing it in

English. In order to get them comfortable with it, I decided to divide the essay writing into 5

basic parts: Brainstorming a topic and sub-topics from which theyre going to write their thesis

statement, researching their sub-topics from which theyre going to write the body of the essay,

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writing the introduction, writing the body, and writing the conclusion. By dividing the essay

writing into smaller tasks, the students will feel more comfortable and wont feel like they have a

huge burden on them. By making myself accessible and helping them throughout the writing

process, the students will gain confidence in their writing skills and will be motivated to write in

the future. My unit mixes both speaking and writing very well, as well as incorporating reading

in order to help with their writing by expanding their vocabulary. These skills are meant to work

with each other, thats why in this unit youll notice that the activities have them in some

instances mixed.

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Activities

Topic Goal Affected Activity Materials/Technology

Vocabulary Words

present in the Unit

Then and Now

LG1 Discussion of vocabulary words,

students will recall/state

the definition.

Students will watch a video of the

prohibition, then they

will compare past and

current events.

Students will identify historical and current

events in a visual

exercise.

-Whiteboard

-Projector

-Computer

-Vocabulary Sheet

Then and Now:

Historical Events LG1

Students will be given a handout in which they

will fill in the required

fields for their research.

-Whiteboard

-Worksheet

-Laptops

Then and Now:

Current Events LG1

Students will be given a handout in which they

will fill in the required

fields for their research.

-Whiteboard

-Worksheet

-Laptops

Then and Now:

Comparison and

Contrast

LG1

Students will be given a handout containing a

Venn diagram in which

they will fill out the

similarities and

differences of the

chosen Historical and

Current events.

-Whiteboard

-Worksheet

-Laptops

Then and Now:

Preparing a Power

Point Presentation

LG2

Students will prepare a Power Point

Presentation to go

along with their oral

presentation.

-Laptops

-Projector

-Whiteboard

Then and Now:

Oral Presentation LG2

Students will give their oral presentations.

-Laptops

-Projector

Then and Now:

History of English in

Puerto Rico

LG3

The students will share their thoughts and

opinions on the

Implementation of the

English Language in

Puerto Rico orally.

-Laptops

-Projector

-Whiteboard

-Notebooks

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Figure #2

The students will list the pros and cons of the

English language.

The students will write how they feel about the

English language and

its implementation in

Puerto Rico.

How to write an

essay LG3

After watching a PPT of how to write an

essay, the students will

recall each step and

discuss it orally in order

to clear any doubts.

The students will write a topic and sub-topics

for their essay.

The students will share how they feel about the

task at hand.

-Laptop

-Projector

-Notebooks

-Whiteboard

Doing research LG3

The students will conduct research about

their sub-topics.

The students will write their findings in their

notebooks.

-Laptops

-Notebooks

Essay Writing LG3

The students will write an essay following the

guidelines and the

writing process.

-Laptops

-Notebooks

-Whiteboard

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Part 5. Instructional Decision-Making

During my time teaching I had to analyze the students learning and adapt it to my

teaching. Based on students responses I had to modify the allotted time that I was giving the

students to write a persuasive letter. Some of the students couldnt grasp the concept of being

persuasive, which meant that I had to find extra examples for them to try and understand what it

meant to be persuasive. The examples ranged from TV Commercials, street vendors, and

business letters. I had to go into a more personal way of teaching and go to each student and

make sure that they didnt have any doubts and were doing their work correctly. By doing this I

managed to get every student on track.

As a teacher, Im not the only one able to help the students in the classroom. Some

students manage to grasp the concepts quickly and will work faster than others. Those students

that finished the persuasive letter faster were used as tutors that helped the other students

understand the different concepts of persuasive writing. I believe that this improved my students

progress towards the goal because the ones that finished writing are reinforcing what they

already learned plus the ones that are having trouble are getting extra help from a classmate who

already succeeded and completed the work. This goes along with the theory of learning Zone of

Proximal Development by Lev Vygotsky. Simply put, in Lev Vygotskys words: What the

child is able to do in collaboration today, he will be able to do independently tomorrow.

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Another time in which I had to modify my design for instruction on the spot was when I

was teaching them about poetry, mainly assonance and rhyme. These two require knowledge of

how the words are pronounced in order to identify them. For one of the classes I had prepared a

worksheet that I was going to correct later on in the class individually. When they were working

by themselves I noticed that a lot of them were calling out to me to help them understand how to

pronounce the different words. As soon as that happened, I went through each sentence again so

the whole group would understand. After they finished, instead of correcting it individually, I

decided to change it and do it as a group discussion instead. I had the students read the sentences

and the words that they circled as their answer, then I corrected them or read the sentence again

myself so that they can grasp the pronunciation of the words. Based on their feedback, the

students let me know that they understood the lesson much better that way because they have

trouble pronouncing some words, which is crucial when working with rhymes, assonance,

among others.

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Instructional Decision-Making Examples:

Recent Article, Comparison and Contrast, and Oral Presentation:

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Persuasive Letter

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Essay Writing

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Poetry Booklet

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Part 6. Analysis of Student Learning

When it comes to the pre-test and the post-test performance, there was a huge difference

in the students. Figure number three shows that the students went from a seventeen percent in the

skill of listening and speaking to an eighty eight percent. This shows that the vast majority of the

students meet the goal for this unit. The students were capable of each one of the criterias

required to them in the rubric. Only two of the students didnt meet the goals (as shown in Figure

#4). This was due to elocution errors such as mumbling and pronunciation mistakes, lack of

subject knowledge, and grammatical errors. This part was directly connected with the learning

goal 2, which was to give an oral presentation. The students didnt master the subject they were

talking about, had many pronunciation errors, and grammatical errors in the Power Point

Presentation.

Figure #3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Percentage

Student Performance: Listening/Speaking Skill

Pre-Assessment Post-Assessment

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Students Name Organization Subject

Knowledge Language

Eye

Contact Elocution Total

1. Student #1 10 5 5 8 6 34 (68%)

2. Student #2 10 7 8 10 8 43(86%)

3. Student #3 10 7 9 6 7 39 (78%)

4. Student #4 10 5 5 8 6 34 (68%)

5. Student #5 10 10 9 10 9 48 (96%)

6. Student #6 10 5 5 8 7 35 (70%)

7. Student #7 10 7 10 9 9 46 (92%)

8. Student #8 10 10 9 10 9 48 (96%)

9. Student #9 10 7 9 6 7 39 (78%)

10. Student #10 10 10 9 10 9 48 (96%)

11. Student #11 10 10 10 9 10 49 (98%)

12. Student #12 10 10 9 10 9 48 (96%)

13. Student #13 10 10 9 10 9 48 (96%)

14. Student #14 10 7 5 8 7 37 (74%)

15. Student #15 10 8 10 9 9 46 (92%)

16. Student #16 10 6 9 9 8 42 (84%)

17. Student #17 10 7 8 10 8 46 (92%)

18. Student #18 10 6 9 9 8 42 (84%)

Figure #4

Figure #5

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Male Female

Student Performance: Listening/Speaking Skill by Gender

Pre-Test Post-Test

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Figure number five shows us the results of the pre and post-test divided in genders. I

decided to do this analysis by genders because in the pre-test only two females and one male

managed meet the Listening/Speaking skill. The pre-test shows us that the males had only nine

percent of them meet the expectations (one student), and the females had eighteen percent meet

the expectations (two students). In the post-test the males had eighty one percent meet the

expectations (nine students out of eleven), and the females had one hundred percent meet the

expectations (seven out of seven). Overall, the vast majority of the students passed the post-test

and reached the learning goals which shows that they all made huge improvements from the start

of the academic year. Even the ones who didnt meet the expectations still improved from 28%

and 14% to 68%.

Figure #6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Student #1 Student #15

Student Performance:Listening/Speaking Skill Comparison

Pre-Test Post-Test

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In figure number six we can see the results in percentage of two students in particular. I

selected these two students because the two of them were among the lowest scores in the pre-test

at the Listening/Speaking skill. Student number one chose to pair up with one of his best friends

who also did poorly in the Oral Presentation. I noticed that both of them preferred to talk in class

and didnt put much effort into the work. While student number fifteen chose to pair up with a

fellow classmate that guided him and pushed him to do better in class. It definitely showed when

he did his part in the oral presentation. Student number one had a 28% in the Listening/Speaking

skill in the Pre-Test while student number fifteen had a 0% in the Listening/Speaking skill in the

Pre-Test. Yet, Student number 15 performed way better obtaining a 92% in the Post-Test and

meeting the expectations, while student number 1 obtained a 68% in the Post-Test and did not

meet the expectations, while still improving from before.

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Part 7. Reflection and Self-Evaluation

The learning goal in which the students were most successful was the Oral

Presentation which focused on the Listening/Speaking skills. The students were very nervous

with this activity. They were afraid of speaking in English, they had mentioned it before when

they were preparing their Power Point Presentations. However, they didnt back off and did what

they had to do. Pronunciation-wise, most of them have a lot to improve on, but what I considered

important was the fact that they participated and presented their work to the group orally. This is

coming from a group that only three students had met the Listening/Speaking skills expectations

in the pre-test. They showed a lot of improvement, willingness to speak the English language

regardless of accent or pronunciation mistakes, and I consider that a huge win for them and me.

A lot of the students fear speaking English because of their accent, they think they dont know

the language, or they just dont care about it. With this activity I managed to motivate and

challenge them, getting them to accomplish the goal I set up for them.

The learning goal in which the students were least successful was essay writing

which focused on their writing skills. The students struggled with the basics of essay writing,

mostly with the introduction. They rely on translators, thus get the sentence syntax wrong most

of the time. Most of them can write simple sentences, but struggle when it comes to expressing

their ideas in English. These incidents made me have to extend the lessons for a few days so that

I could explain how to write an essay in a different way and provide more personalized feedback

to the students. Even though the lesson had to be extended and the writing process didnt go as I

wanted it to, all of the students wrote their essays and turned them in. If I were to teach this

lesson again to them I would be even more basic than how I was with them. I would have them

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write each sentence of the introduction at the same time with me. This would take longer, but

theyll get the concept at once and I wouldnt have to re-teach. I believe that I trusted them to

know how to write an essay in English since theyve done it in their Spanish class. They are still

in a grammar-translation stage, they lack vocabulary, and I believe thats what hurts them the

most when it comes to writing because they cant express their ideas very well, thus take longer

to write. Providing them with a translator speeds up their writing process, but most of them dont

fix the syntax, making it a tool that functions as a double-edged sword; it helps them but hurts

them at the same time.