Journal Secondary

Trainee’s name: Ludmila Ruiz Díaz

Practicum level: Secondary

Group: 1st ESO - 12/13 year olds

Date: 15th October 2015

Lesson number: Observation N°1

As every first observation during my practicum, I focused on getting acquainted with the

group of students, the topic they were dealing with and their level.

The classroom is really small and the desks are distributed in a very irregular way; there

are rows of desks one right next to the other and some are perpendicular to the rest of the

rows. There is barely room to walk around them. I thought this would not allow me to

make major changes in the seating arrangement; for instance, I would be in trouble if I

wanted to seat them forming a horseshoe, or even organising group work. I hope I can

figure that out during the course.

There are 21 students in 1st Year, mostly girls. Their level is beginners and false beginners,

although it was very difficult to tell as the lesson was carried out. Later on, the L2 teacher

told me the level is not even since new students were added throughout the year; there is

even one girl who was incorporated just a few weeks ago.

Honestly, many of them did not seem very engaged in the L2 lesson. I reckon this is because

many of them lack the text book, in which the teacher relies on during her classes.

The topic in course in can/cannot for abilities. However, during the class the teacher moved

to permissions as another use of the structure although she did not make this clear. There

was a listening activity which was played on the teacher’s mobile phone with the aid of a

speaker, but not all students could listen to it properly. This activity was about two

pumpkins answering questions about what they could or could not do in an audition; the

teacher then told me she had not booked the projector and somebody else was using it so

they could not watch the video.

There was no pre listening or post listening activity. The activity they needed to carry out

was spot the verbs as the listen to the excerpt; the teacher wrote a list of them on the board

as students contributed.

Then the teacher asked them to complete an exercise from the course book; here many

students needed to share their books and work with two or three other partners since not

everyone has the material to work in class. The teacher monitored students and explained

the exercise group by group; meanwhile some students were dispersing or coming out of

the classroom.

The rest of the lesson, about 20 minutes, was devoted to preparing activities to welcome

6th Grade students to the Secondary Level.

After the lesson, the teacher told me she was not sure what I could do since she had already

covered every unit appointed for the year. She also mentioned she did not have all the

Comentario [1]: Not clear at all...??

material herself since it never arrived, so she only counted on the book but did not have the

audio material or teacher’s book to guide herself through the syllabus the book suggests.

I suggested I could do some revision of the topics covered and that it would help for

newcomers who had not had any L2 input in their previous institutions. She agreed with

that, and promised to give me a list of the topics and structures she wanted covered.

When I left the classroom, I was clouded with doubts.




Date: 22nd October 2015

Lesson number: Observation N°2

My second observation took place a week later because the previous class the teacher

could not go due to a health problem.

During this 80-minute lesson, the teacher had students work with the book once more.

Students needed to match verbs with free time activities as in surf the Internet, these

collocations were not set in a context and I could not tell if they were familiar with this

vocabulary or if she was teaching them right there. Again, I could notice some students

were not involved at all and some girls were even writing some graffiti in their notebooks

so I asked them why they were not working; one of them opened her book and I assisted

them with the activity.

After the class, we talked to the headmaster to see if I could carry on with my practice and

who would assess my lesson in situ. Fortunately; he committed to find someone who could

observe my class the following Monday.

I did not receive any material to work with these students. I decided to download from the

Internet the book students work with in order to decide on the contents to teach since the

L2 teacher only suggested to revise Introductions, Countries and Nationalities. I believe 8

classes are too many to deal with those topics alone so I want to see how long I can go with

these learners.

Another piece of information that I was given by the teacher is that there is a student with

Asperger’s, whom I should not invade his personal space or force them to work as she

suggested. And some other two with learning difficulties but she could not specify which

ones. In none of these cases was I told who these students were.

Comentario [2]: I can imagine...

Comentario [3]: Good!





Lesson number: 1

When I planned this lesson I was aware that it would not be as successful as I would like it

to be. First of all, I did not have even a glimpse of these students’ knowledge because, as

their teacher had told me, many of them did not have the material or it also took too long to

arrive so I was not sure what she had covered and how. Besides, these learners’ folders did

not show much work done since they are not asked to copy from the board or do the

exercises in the folders in case they do not have the book.

So, first of all, I planned an activity which would hopefully give me an inkling of how much

they know. I took post-it notes for students to write a word they know in English and think

of how they can use it. For this purpose, I first modelled the activity using Monday, which

students knew, and Happy, which was also familiar to them. I suggested two simple

examples ‘Today is Monday’ and ‘I am happy’.

They took this activity well, they contributed with words they knew and showed they could

think of a way of using it. I learnt here that they are familiar with ‘to be’ in the present; their

teacher had suggested they did not know this, and ‘have got’ for possessions.

The problem here is that this activity was detached from what came next and the transition

was not smooth. I had planned a listening activity which consisted of a dialogue where

some students were introduced and asked each other about their nationality. It was a

simple exchange because I thought they probably had not had much practice in the past,

and I was right. I played the dialogue four times instead of the two I had expected to,

eventually they could manage the task well.

The part where I asked them to act out the dialogue using their own information made the

students feel awkward, I believe. I had modelled the conversation with two students who

seemed proficient enough but I noticed they were rather shy. I asked some students to

move seats and work with other students and they were not very sure if they were to

follow my instruction or if they could object it. As I was monitoring their productions, I

could see they were very self-conscious and I was surprised because they were working

with their own partners. I praised them a lot and tried to make them feel comfortable but

this was my first class and I was nervous too. As a consequence, I decided not to ask them

to come to the front and model the role play for the rest of the class.

I need to have a look at timing for next lesson since the time was up and I had not listened

to everyone, some of them were not assessed during the speaking activity.

In general, I guess students were given a different way to approach L2. As suggested by the

tutor, I began my lesson telling them I would speak L2 as much as I could since this is why

we learn a foreign language: to communicate. Anyway, I needed to resort to L1 more than I

Comentario [4]: Remember to also take into account the guiding questions provided.

Comentario [5]: Was it necessary to connect both stages? How could you have done it?

Comentario [6]: Well done!! It was a big challenge to adapt to your way of teaching...

would have liked to but I could see their confused faces when I spoke English. This was

particularly difficult for me because I get carried away when I speak English and I need to

come back and repeat what I said or use L1 in order to reassure they have understood me.

Even though the activities were not extremely motivating, they were working and paying

attention and willing to complete the task. This was different to the previous lessons I had

shared with them; so I positively believe they were engaged.

As the headmaster himself observed me, he told me that I could use the school’s resources

if I needed them, such as speakers or projector. I did not know they had speakers, since I

was told they did not have them when I asked.

He also remarked the transition stage between the first activity and the second one, and

asked me to pay more attention to students whose knowledge is poorer than the rests’ or

have them work with more proficient students. I will take this advice into account for the

next lesson.

I was glad he liked my class, and felt proud when he praised for making a student with

developmental delay participate in the lesson; an objective that no one can accomplish with

her apparently.





Lesson number: 2

For this 80 minute lesson, I wanted to design a plan as communicative as possible. These

learners are not used to using L2 to communicate so I decided to include some controlled

speaking activities for them to share personal information and later, to write short

sentences about themselves to consolidate what they had been speaking about and as a

means of assessment as well. In order to recall the previous lesson’s expressions for

introductions I assembled a worksheet with speech bubbles to complete a short dialogue.

I also decided to link these expressions with Personal Information asking students what

other things we could ask someone we meet for the first time so as to elicit vocabulary

related to age, favourites and family. Then, I would draw on the board a stickman with

information about me as an example of what the next activity would entail. Fortunately, my

tutor suggested I used some known character for this procedure and I followed her advice;

partly because I would make the lesson less teacher centred and also because this would be

more interesting for the students. During my observations I had heard some of them

talking about Taylor Swift, so this was my character of choice, I assembled some

information about her and changed my original plan.

Comentario [7]: Go slowly, use simple structures and simple vocabulary.

Comentario [8]: Great!

Comentario [9]: =) Congratulations, Ludmila!!

Comentario [10]: Well done!

After talking about Taylor Swift and eliciting how to ask for a person’s name, age, origin,

family and some favourites; I would give students some colour cardboard A6 sheets to

draw themselves and include their own information as I had done on the board.

Next, I would retrieve their productions and redistribute them so every student would

receive the information of a different partner; with this information, they would work in

pairs asking and answering questions. I chose to propose this activity with a twist because

this way they would be reading someone else’s data and would make the dialogue more

interesting.

At last, they would get their information sheets back and I would ask them to write about

short sentences about themselves. This last activity would be corrected individually.

As far as students’ reaction is concerned, I believe it was welcomed. Honestly, the only

reference I have for their attitude to working in class is from the L2 lessons I observed and

they were not very keen on doing what the teacher proposed. I take it as a positive

achievement the fact that they all worked and some of them contributed during the lesson.

They were surprised when I told them I would redistribute their sheets; I was afraid some

would refrain from having some other partner hold their sheets but fortunately, it was a

good surprise. I think they liked working this way because when I was walking around I

could hear them speak L2 as they read the sheets; there was some chit chat in the

background as well but I could monitor them all.

The only part I noticed some bored faces was when I took two of their sheets; one

belonging to a boy and another to a girl, in order to check how familiar they were with

personal pronouns she/he and possessive pronouns his/her. I understand that these

explanations can be tedious but I was using their own information and asking the class

what else they knew about their own classmates.

Writing about themselves was also an activity they carried out willingly. I checked half the

class’s productions and took home the ones I could not correct on the spot. As I corrected I

could survey some common mistakes as ‘My from is’ or ‘I am name is’.

I think the most successful part of the lesson was when they had the dialogue. I asked them

to pretend they were meeting for the first time in order to provide some context; and even

though they did not quite followed this instruction, I sensed the improvement was in the

fact that they were using L2 to communicate. The previous lesson, they had been rather

uncomfortable and I believe they were more relaxed or perhaps they know I expect them to

use the language.

Regarding aspects that need improvement, I think I need to go slower. It is an aspect of my

personality to be jumpy or go rather quickly and it is very difficult to put that away; but I

need to so these students can keep up with the lesson and benefit from it. I definitely need

to give them some more time to process instructions since I could see some confused

learners while they were working; even though I asked a volunteer to explain the activity in

L1.

Comentario [11]: Great!!

Comentario [12]: Will you use these common errors to provide general feedback?

Comentario [13]: Did you write them in a simple manner on the board?

Another aspect I need to work on is transitions, I do not do this on purpose as I said before,

but I tend to ‘forget’ about them. It is the only word I can think of. I am sure this is because

of my style, it is as if I am in rush but I will endeavour to make amends for the next lessons.

I think the most useful trait I can take into account for future lessons is these students’

attitude. I am seeing a different side to them compared to the one I encountered during the

observations.

I will take advantage of their willingness to provide them with activities where they can

express themselves and participate.




Date: 2nd November 2015

Lesson number: 3

Like the previous lesson, my focus was on developing a plan based on CLT. As I had decided

to keep working with personal information; this time students would work with 3rs Person

Singular he and she, I wanted to organise a lesson as innovative and motivating as possible.

At first, they would carry out a word order activity about Taylor Swift. I had noted they

produced utterances like ‘My from is…’ so I decided to include an instance where they could

work with a sentence containing this kind of information and put it in order.

I investigated a little bit about integrating mobile phones in the classroom. The amount of

information is overwhelming, but an idea crossed my mind when reading about QR codes.

There is no computer lab at school and my laptop would not be enough for the 20 students

to work online so mobiles can be of great use to access the Internet.

I wanted students to work with popular celebrities but instead of asking them to bring the

information, I would provide it. I started to look for people who would be appealing to

them and decided they would make an oral presentation with the information about those

celebrities. I judged the content available online was too far from their ZPD and they would

perhaps feel threatened by it; to solve this problem, I decided to create a page on Google

Sites where I would place simple fact files about the celebrities chosen. Students would

access these pages by reading QR codes with their mobiles. I accessed a page that helps you

create these codes very fast and easily.

Naturally, assembling everything together took me a long time. I had no idea how to use

Google Site and even though it is very friendly and amenable, I spent some time doing trial

and error. Still, I was not happy with the outcome but it would do for the purpose of the

lesson.

Students’ reaction was good in general. There was a hint of surprise in their faces because

when I presented them with the QR codes, they were not sure what they were for. We spent

Comentario [14]: Yes!!!

Comentario [15]: Good! You may also work on common errors through a game or a similar activity after you check the writings in lesson 5.

Comentario [16]: which is...? I have to learn about them myself...;)

Comentario [17]: Why not?

some time downloading the QR readers from the mobiles’ app stores and soon enough they

were reading the codes and working.

What called my attention the most were two or three students who refused to work with

their mobiles; they told me they did not have one when I had seen them playing with them

during breaks. I was surprised and a little disappointed because my intention was also to

show them that they can take advantage of their mobiles differently and they were allowed

during the lesson! Anyway, I made the necessary arrangements changing students so that

every group had a cell phone with a QR reader.

The presentations were great but I had to interrupt them and call some students’ attention

to be quiet and pay attention as I was evaluating them. As my tutor suggested, I included

some A4 sheets of paper for students to draw their webs and show them, and designed a

simple criteria to evaluate their performance while speaking:

- Does the student show understanding of the information analysed?

- Does he/she need further assistant to complete utterances?

- Does the whole group contribute in the oral presentation?

As their L2 teacher was absent again, the headmaster evaluated my lesson once more. I

keep the criteria and the marks to share with the L2 teacher but I would have liked her be

present as she knows these students much better than me.

I guess the most successful part of the lesson was when students were organising the

presentation and working on the webs. They were debating holding their mobiles and

reading the simple fact files I had written. Even though much of the time they used L1,

when I monitored them and asked them about their celebrities, they made an effort to

speak L2.

For the lessons ahead, I will endeavour to offer appealing activities like these ones. It takes

forever not only to think about them but also to put everything together, but the time spent

and effort pay off when these outcomes are evident.

I believe I should not expect all my students to be equally motivated; I was not expecting a

denial to work with smartphone at all. Even though I was really excited about this, I guess

you cannot transmit that feeling to everyone.




Date: 5th November 2015

Lesson number: 4

For this lesson I thought students would benefit from a communicative game related to

personal information. I had come across some interesting ones but decided to design one

myself where student could work exclusively with what we had been seeing. So, I

downloaded a game board from the Internet and filled the square with different prompts

Comentario [18]: Excellent!

Comentario [19]: Indeed!!

Comentario [20]: You are right, Lu! Anyway, this should not discourage you. On the contrary. Keep it up!!

students needed to talk about. My goal was that students could share true information

about themselves using L2 and the vocabulary that has become familiar to them during the

last lessons.

Secondly, and thinking of moving on with the revision of contents; I would start with

Family. The best option to contextualise this topic I reckoned was The Simpsons; everyone

knows the characters and can recall at least one memorable episode. Consequently, I would

introduce the topic Family by showing students a picture of The Simpsons’ family tree; I

would elicit their origin, the family members’ names and would work with ‘s genitive. For

the latter, I would write some examples on the board by analysing the family tree, which

students would then have to copy in their folders/notebooks.

Then, I would propose a gap information activity where students would work in pairs

asking and answering questions about the names of the different characters using the ‘s

possessive case to complete the tree. Last, I would include a gap filling activity which would

entail analysis of the family tree to complete using words from a box.

Students’ reaction was favourable, they love The Simpsons and making connections

between relatives made the presentation on the board appealing and amenable. I needed to

do some structure comparison between L1 and L2 in order to scaffold the use of ‘s; I think it

was worth it because meaning was clear to most of them.

Working in pairs asking and answering questions was great; even though there some

students who needed a little push to perform the task as they dispersed once I was not in

command and monitoring other students.

I believe this was the most successful part of the lesson; they could complete their family

trees with all the names and then we checked the answers when I projected the same

family tree but with the names written below each character.

Unfortunately, I the L2 teacher was not there when I was supposed to begin the lesson and

then, when it was evident she was going to be absent, 15 minutes had passed so I had to

start the lesson then. The Director was once again the evaluator of my lesson; however, I

had to get rid of the board game part of the plan, I do not regret my decision but I would

have liked to start the lesson with it since it would have created a kind environment and I

had taken some prizes for the winners.

I think the most useful aspect of the lesson was the context; they know so much about this

sitcom, their characters and the episodes that it was very easy for them to grasp meaning. I

will include it once more for the writing activities I have planned for the following lesson.

The most valuable aspect I can take from this lesson is the way I dealt with time. Any other

time perhaps I would have started from the beginning and see how much I could cover; but

I think getting rid of the first part of the lesson was the best I could do so that these

learners could appreciate the rest of it as a whole.





Lesson number: 5

Following the topic we started the previous lesson, I thought it appropriate to work with

realia in the context of The Simpsons. My first thought was set on looking for an excerpt of

one the episodes; this would be perfect to develop listening skills and to provide the

students with a sense of achievement. Unfortunately, I could not find a suitable one in the

sea of possibilities of this 27-year-old sitcom; they were far too difficult, even the ones I

found in sites devoted to ESL/EFL.

I came across an interesting article on the benefits of including The Simpsons in ESL/EFL

lessons; it was really interesting but it was directed mainly to adult learners since this

sitcom’s sense of humour is more directed to them than young ones. So, I looked for comic

strips on my search engine without knowing if there were any; I could not believe there is a

site devoted to them! I browsed almost all of comic strips until I found one where Bart

writes one about his sister Lisa. I could not be more delighted; it was simple, graphic and

funny enough for students to understand without major help. I would include this comic as

a warm-up and relate to the Family topic and the vocabulary linked to it.

Then, I wrote a simple description about Bart in the first person. I included some personal

information in the first paragraph; this would allow students to recycle previous lessons’

content. The second and third paragraphs would describe his family and pets; the idea was

to use the whole writing piece as a model for their own production.

To make the activity more challenging; instead of including T/F exercises or questions, I

took out some sentences from the paragraphs students needed to place in the suitable

blank inside the main text.

To scaffold the activity, I would provide some strategies for them to follow. For instance;

suggesting they should read the text and isolated sentences before completing the task and

reading each paragraph and deciding what kind of information Bart was sharing.

Last, I would ask students to draw their own family trees. Personalising the topic would

mean dealing with a delicate subject; I would not push students to draw about every

member of the family, just to include whoever they consider part of it.

Then, they would write a similar description to the one I had presented told by Bart

Simpson. In order to help them build their text, I would separate the paragraphs into the

kind of information they were to include in each one; focusing on lexis and structures as

well.

I think their reaction was the same as the previous lesson; they liked the comic and were

happy they could understand it. As my tutor suggested, we spent some minutes talking

about Bart and Lisa’s relationship and the one the students held with their siblings. It was a

profitable moment because I could deliver some vocabulary on demand and this is always

beneficial for students.

When completing the text, students did not show major difficulties. I guess this also had to

do with the fact that I spent some time explaining my suggestions and analysing the

paragraphs with them. When the time to check came, I asked for some volunteers to read

parts of the text and there were times I had to appoint certain students because no one

volunteered. Of course, some of the refused to read and I decided not to push them; I asked

another student instead.

Working on their own family trees was, I believe, the most difficult task to face because

they were not sure who to include. Many of them do not live with both his/her parents; so I

told them they could chose to include them both or not, I did not want to make them feel

exposed or upset because some of them started complaining about their parents’ new

partners.

The timing aspect was not the ideal one; none of the students finished their descriptions

and I could barely correct some sentences. As I had written on the board some hints and an

outline of the content of each paragraph; before the lesson ended, I went over them and

asked them to complete the text for homework. I am not sure about this because I think

they need to complete this activity with the help of the teacher since they were having

many doubts at the time of producing it in the classroom.

I do not know whether to devote some time the following lesson to completing this task or

just collect their productions and then correct them at home. I believe I will know next

Thursday.

Luckily, their L2 teacher showed up today and she evaluated my lesson for the first time

since my practice begun. She was happy with lesson, and wants me to speed up so that she

can test them next week or the following one. This makes me feel concerned because now I

feel pushed to wrap up with contents I was not planning to cover; I will see what and how I

can do it. I do not consider it really fair for me or the students, but I will endeavour to meet

everyone’s expectations.





Lesson number: 6

As the L2 teacher had manifested she needed to evaluate the learners; I decided to redraft

my plans for the remaining lessons. I thought it would be appropriate to recycle structure

there is / there are and CLT would continue being my approach of choice. I would keep The

Simpsons as the context in order to link the structures we had been dealing with.

I planned a range of varied activities. First, I put a puzzle together using

http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/CrissCrossSetupForm.asp based on family

members. I would revisit family trees and the relationship between its relatives.

Then, I would elicit information of The Simpsons; where they are from, where they live,

their address, if they live in a small or a big house. I would project a tour of The Simpsons’

house I found on YouTube that someone had created with the computer game The Sims

and I would use this information to involve the learners in the activity. We would talk about

the house as the video is being played and I would ask learners to recognise the different

rooms in the house.

After watching the video we would discuss the amount of rooms using there is / there are, I

would draw two columns on the board writing down the information and students would

copy it in their notebooks. Then, we would work with a plan of the Simpsons’ house;

students would look at the two floors and read a multiple choice description of the house.

Later, we would work with objects and pieces of furniture. I remembered reading about a

house that was built some years ago in the USA, and it was almost an exact replica of the

house from the cartoon. I would use the projector again to show students different pictures

of the house and identify orally which objects they recognise in each room. Then, learners

would copy a chart from the board; each column would be devoted to a room in the house

and they would have to work in groups and think about objects that are usually found in

those rooms.

After that, I would distribute pictures of different rooms in the Simpsons House and those

same groups of students would work on a description of the room; using the different

objects we had covered with the chart activity. They would build up posters with the

pictures and description which would be later displayed on the walls.

I sincerely could not wait to deliver the lesson, I was expecting for their reaction because I

considered I was catering for different tastes and preferences. However, the L2 teacher

arrived very late and I could not start the lesson on time and I needed to readjust the plan

as a consequence.

The warm-up activity with the family tree was not solved in the time I had planned. I

explained the instructions in L1 because they did not seem to know what they were

supposed to do, perhaps it was my mistake to assume they had done these kinds of

activities in the past or perhaps they were not in the right mood since some of them were

summoned to the L2 lesson and were engaged doing activities for the school. All in all, I had

to call peer correction off and check the answers with the whole class as I copied them on

the board.

Bringing the projector to the classroom equals excitement. They were willing to watch the

video, they praised the author since it apparently is very difficult to build these houses

using The Sims. They could easily identify all the rooms in the house but the basement, but

I was expecting this. We could complete the columns using there is /there are without

http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/CrissCrossSetupForm.asp

major difficulties. This was definitely the most successful part of the lesson; students were

involved and engaged in the activity.

When the time to do the multiple choice activity came, I encountered some problems. First

of all, and I believe it has to do with their mood, some students excused themselves by

saying they did not understand English so they would not do the reading, however they did

not seem to be willing to do it. Others were really trying to solve it but it turned out to be

far too difficult. I resolved to do read it allow myself and scaffold there is /there are using

the activity; we analysed first the two floors and identified each room, they we read and

came back to the plan to make the right choice.

At this point, time had fled and I really felt I was pushing the students too hard. I decided to

continue with the plan but not the written part. I showed students the pictures of the real

Simpsons’ house and we talked about the objects we saw in each of them; then I distributed

the copies of the pictures to the groups and I asked them to prepare three statements

telling what they saw in there. I could monitor them all, but unfortunately I could notice

this structure is not as acquired as I thought it was, so my lesson was very hard for them to

cope.

I think I need to change my plans again. For the next lesson, I will include the written

activities that were left outside in this lesson but I will endeavour to scaffold the structure

better.





Lesson number: 7

Since the previous lessons I had had a timing malfunction due to the L2 teacher’s late

arrival and the lack of solid knowledge on the part of the students, I resolved to look over

my plans for the next two lessons and make some adjustments.

As I had taken for granted students were familiar with the structure there is / there are; I

decided to continue with the previous lesson’s plan, especially the written activities. The

approach would continue to be communicative; we would work with pieces of furniture,

this time writing about them instead of talking about them, and students would write a

description of a picture of one of the Simpsons’ house rooms.

To begin with, students would solve a simple word search in pairs to trigger previous

knowledge of rooms in a house. Later on, we would have a look at the Simpsons’ house on

the projector and discuss the rooms in that house; I would write a chart on the board, each

column belonging to a room where students needed to write vocabulary related to objects

and pieces of furniture associated to that room.

Last, students would work in groups of four. Each group would get a different picture of

one of the room of the Simpsons’ house; they would write a description of that room using

there is / there are and they could use the vocabulary from the chart as reference.

Unfortunately, the L2 teacher was absent once more. I was not sure if I could deliver the

lesson but luckily the headmaster offered to evaluate the class. Of course, I started later

again and some damage control was needed.

Students were great, of course the love the Simpsons. The word search activity was carried

out as a competition, I had taken some lollipops so I awarded the first two students to

finish with them.

I decided to do the vocabulary chart activity directly on the board and with students’ oral

contributions. I had them copy the chart in the notebooks because I was more interested in

them using the structure and the vocabulary than wasting time helping them remember

pieces of furniture in L2.

Picture description was a challenge for both me and the learners. I did some review on how

to use the structure and students could write random sentences about the rooms. I wanted

them to use some prepositions such as in the middle, at the back, but I could notice they

needed more assistance using the structure.

Presentations were brief and carried out while they were sitting, although I could stick

their productions on the wall. I felt everything was done in a hurry and I did not enjoy it,

students seemed to be ok with the pace of the lesson but I would have liked to be more

thorough.

I believe the most successful part of the lesson was the students’ attitude in general. I had

extended the Simpsons’ as a context for another class for the sake of their own benefit so I

was afraid they would be bored with the subject but they were not. The timing was not the

ideal one, but they could cope with the activities in the allotted time.

I think it was a success the fact that we could do everything I had planned. I wonder now at

what cost, but in retrospect I think I was the most disappointed. Of course students did not

know, but it was important for me to review this structure and I left the classroom a little

sad.

It is hard for me to say what needs improvement. I believe I coped with timing much better

than the previous lesson; I was really angry this teacher would not come or let me know

she would not come, I could have started the lesson earlier.

I am completely changing the context for next lessons, I hope students like it and I also

hope the teacher shows up next Thursday.





Lesson number: 8

Like I did with the previous lessons; I endeavoured to centre this one also on CLT.

However, I thought it was high time I changed the context since we had been working with

the Simpsons for 6 lessons; one of which was not planned but was necessary to extend.

Since the last language topic to cover was can/can’t for abilities I searched for contexts on

line that would help me cover this structure. Superheroes immediately called my attention

because they never get old; no matter your age, it is always and engaging context. I was a

little worried about the girls, who are the majority, but I think I could cater for her tastes as

well.

To begin with, I would brainstorm students’ prior knowledge of superheroes and their

powers or abilities. This would be the starting point to talk about my three superheroes of

choice: Superman, Spiderman and the Flash since they have real superpowers. Using

pictures of their logos as prompts; we would discuss their abilities and I would provide

vocabulary on demand related to them. At this point, I would recall can/can’t structure in

order to exemplify its use with the vocabulary provided by the students.

Next, we would work with a chart where these three superheroes and their superpowers

are included; students would help me decide which superpowers belongs to whom and

then, they would write sentences about them using can/can’t. In order to work with its

interrogative form, learners would role play a guessing game where each holds a picture of

a different superhero and his/her partner would try to guess who he is by asking ‘Can

you…?’

The main activity consisted in creating a superhero. I thought this would not only let

students work with the structure of the lesson, but also combine other language use we had

been dealing with: personal information and have/has got. This way, there would be an

integration of content which hopefully they could appreciate.

In order to scaffold this activity, I would hand out a worksheet where students would

decide on the superheroes’ gender, superpowers, weapons, origin, names and secret

identities. Once learners have solved this information out, I would distribute a template

according to their choice; if the superhero was a woman or a man, and they would have to

fill in speech bubbles with that information and later colour and draw on the superhero

template. Last, we would organise a contest where they would talk about their superhero

and decide which one was the best by popular demand.

Their reaction to the activities was exciting even for me. At the beginning it seemed like any

other lesson; they responded well, the context was appealing, perhaps the guessing game

was not as successful as I had expected because they started showing each other their

pictures so they knew who their partner’s superhero was but they worked with the

questions and answers all the same.

The most successful and engaging activity was of course working in groups and creating

the superhero. They were engaged and very creative in their productions; as I had told

them that we were going to decide on the most awesome superhero, they gave their best. I

think this was the most successful lesson since the beginning of this particular practice

period.

As far as changes and improvement are concerned, I think that perhaps I could have

skipped the guessing game out but I thought it was meaningful enough to include it. Other

than that, for this particular lesson I guess it was as successful as I had planned.

As my tutor had suggested, instead of thanking the teacher and the learners for granting me

the opportunity to practise, I asked for their opinion. I did not design a questionnaire but I

let the ones who wanted to share their impressions and feelings talk: they were very

affectionate, they told me they liked my classes and that they could see I had put a lot of

work on them, they did not want me to go (this was gratifying). The most common

comment they made regarding what I should improve was pace; I know this is one of my

traits but I will work on it, they thought sometimes I spoke too fast for them to understand

but I could go back and explain again or say things differently.

All in all, it was wonderful to work with this group. I think I had an excellent learning

experience throughout all the practice periods and I feel grateful for that.

Education

Journal Secondary