Most Successful Activity

Description of Procedures  

The main purpose of this activity is to help students to identify parts of the house and furniture items. I wanted to design a simple activity in which they could create their own material, so students could be able to complete the task successfully. On this activity, the first thing that students have to do is to observe the big poster of the empty house and express their own opinions about it. Second, students have to gather in groups of three. Then, they have to draw and color the furniture that goes inside the part of the house that the teacher assigned to them. Finally, students have to come to the front and paste the drawing on the empty house in the corresponding place. 

Lesson Plan

Topic

Objectives	Procedures	Useful Language	Assessment Criteria	Material	Time
Ss will be able to: -Identify basic language related to the parts of the house -Identify furniture inside of the house -Describe house items -Express actions perform inside the house	Warm up: -Ss clean their desks -Ss pay attention to T instructions Presentation: -Ss observe and express their opinions about the big poster pasted on the board. It is an empty house with just the name of the parts on it -Ss follow instructions drew by the T on the board, and gather in groups of  3 -Each group of Ss get a sheet of paper with the name of a part of a house on it Practice: -Ss brainstorm about the part of the house assigned -Ss draw and color the part of the house assigned with all the corresponding furniture on it. Consolidation: -Each group come to the board and pastes the part of the house on the corresponding place on the big poster. One group member explain the drawing to the T and classmates Closing Activity: -Ss repeat the name of each part of the house after the T	-Living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, garage, garden, office, backyard. -Where is the table, TV, bed, sofa, toilet, sink, stove, refrigerator, car, lamp, etc? -This is the dining room -This is the toilet -Here is where I play -I sleep in the bedroom	Students: -Show comprehension of expressions being use by naming, pointing or describing -Apply language or expressions being studied -Imitate words, phrases and sentences through repetition -Brainstorm and compare each part of the house -Participate -Complete the assignment	-Board -Chalk -Poster -Color papers -Crayons -Pencil -Tape	-5 min -10 min -10 min -10 min -5 min

 

Reflection

This week I worked with 3^rd grade. I brought a huge poster of a house that I hardly drew myself. The house was empty, but had the name of each part of the house on it. I started the lesson by telling to them what we were going to do first, then I gave them the instructions step by step; some of them even required translation. After they were finally gathered in groups, I gave them a piece of paper where they had to draw all the corresponding items inside the part of the house that I assigned to them. I was monitoring the groups during the process while the teacher was just observing and taking pictures. At the end, each group came to the front of the class, pasted the drawing on the poster, and explained it to the rest of their classmates. The activity was a huge success to me because it reached its purpose, and I was finally able to manage them; however, there still were some weaknesses. My tone of voice is too soft, so I had to make a painful effort to speak lauder. Then, kids took too long gathering in groups and were very noisy in the process. The teacher gave me the tip to count until three to gain their attention. I also had to translate some of the instructions because some told me: “Teacher, no entiendo”. Later on, I came up with more examples of how could I had explained to them the instructions in a different way before translating.  Finally, each group supposed to present the drawing and explained to the rest of the class, but all of them were on the board waiting for their turn to paste the draw. Anyway, the important thing is that each told me what they draw, and some of them even walked the extra mile by drawing pets and family members on the house, which were the previous topics taught. I really enjoyed the activity, even though there still were some drawbacks. The final result is what I liked the most because the house looks beautiful with all the great drawings of the kids. 

Fifth Week of Teaching

This week was kind of a mess. I think this happens because kids are coming back from vacations, so they are more hyperactive than usual, and I had some class management troubles because of that. For example, the mentor teacher left me alone with them for a few minutes while I was explaining some topics, but it seems that they don’t see me as an authority figure, so as soon as the teacher leaves the classroom, they stood up from their chairs and talked among them. I tried to call their attention with sounds, signs, and knocking the board, but nothing seemed to work; I even asked them in Spanish to go back to their sits and stay quiet, but they didn´t. Later on, there was an emergency outside our classroom, someone passed out, so the school’s guard called an ambulance. My mentor teacher went out and asked me to continue with the class. Kids immediately ran to watch the whole thing through the window, some opened the door, and it was a mess. I was running after them to make them come back to class. When finally got everyone inside, they continue watching through the window and making comments about the whole episode. I was in front of the class, sweating, and thinking what the hell I should do. I tried yelling a little bit and writing down their names on the board, it work for a couple of minutes, but as soon as I continue with the topics they came back to the window, so I finally came up with the idea of doing a game where they can move around. It worked, at least until the teacher came back inside; however, I wasn´t able to continue with the topic because of this class management issue.     

During this week, we continue working with topics related to food. We review healthy food vs. junk food with some groups that were left a little bit behind. We also reviewed kinds of food on breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and finally, we taught some flavors and how to identify food through the five senses. I brought some real food like lemons, apples, and candies just to have a more clear idea. I also tried new warm ups to gain experience on this. 

On the last day of the week, my mentor teacher brought an activity that I really loved. She used to review prepositions of place. What she did was to talk with a Carlos, a puppet that she designs by herself. I realized that kids already knew Carlos because the teacher has worked with him in other activities. I really enjoyed this activity because kids were very enthusiastic, and all of them interacted with Carlos, and asked him questions. The teacher is a great actress; she performed a very entertained show. Actually, she used to work with puppets in a very famous theater company. She traveled all around the world with this company, and she met her husband there as well. This activity was very meaningful to me because I was able to learn how to work with more dynamic and creative resources; which is something that I really would like to apply on my future lessons.

Fourth Week of Teaching

During the fourth week of teaching my mentor teacher applied the oral exams. It was the 1^st time I was able to observe how to apply this kind of exams to kids. All lessons were about reviewing family members and activities for the oral exam. We brought songs, flashcards and posters to review as much as we could. For the exam each kid brought a collage with family pictures and presented a speech to the whole class about family members and activities developed with its relatives. I noticed a broad difference among students, for example: some were shy, spoke too low, looked nervous or stressed, and some other were fluent, spoke with a normal tone of voice, and looked happy and exited. Also, some kids needed assistant from the teacher and even from their peers. Something that I found interesting was that one kid from 3^rd grade offered himself to stand next to his classmate and help him to explain the collage. It was a very kind aptitude, but also very useful to complete the assignment.  

This week I also had the opportunity to be at the school’s science job fair. It was a very nice experience to watch little kids sharing with so much enthusiasm their bright ideas.