Seventh Week of Teaching

During this week I continued working with 1^st and 2^nd grade on the animal’s activity. After applying this activity to different groups a few times, I realized that it is true something that my mentor teacher told me before a while ago, every group has its own personality. The exact same activity could work on one group, but if might not in another. I am saying this because it happened to me these days. The activity was perfect on group 1-2, but not in 1-3. I think this happened because kids from group 1-2 are very calm, and the activity took place on the first lesson that morning; while kids from 1-3 were very anxious and talkative maybe because they had a new teacher who was replacing its guide teacher for a couple of weeks. Kids from 1-3 were harder to manage for me, and I had to repeat the instructions too many times. I also applied the activity to group 2-3 and it was a huge mess because I couldn´t make them go back to their sits to continue with the next stage of the activity, and the recorder didn´t work so I had to improvise a little bit. Something that I found very interesting is that some kids from 2^nd grade were a little bit embarrassed when doing the animals sounds and movements. When I designed the activity I thought that it could still be useful for kids between 7-8 years, but then I realized that this kind of activity could be better for preschool and kinder garden because it is more about playing around. My mentor teacher said that the activity was very nice and very well done, but that I have to consider that in primary school we have to design more controlled activities, so you can manage kids’ behavior. I think that this is true, but I really like to teach with learning by doing activities, so I guess that I have to improve in class management before continue with this kind of technique.

Now, here is the lesson plan of this great activity in case you would like to applied some time:

Date: Week 7

Student-Teacher: Silvia Buján

Level: 1^st ad 2^nd grade

Topic: Pet Animals/Domestic Animals

Objectives	Activities/ Procedures	Useful Language	Assessment Criteria	Material/ Resources	Time
Ss will be able to: -Identify basic language related to pet animals and domestic animals. -Imitate animal’s sounds and actions -Recognize animals’ sounds -Match meanings with visual material -Express likes and dislikes by drawing their favorite animals.	Warm up: -Ss will imitate animals’ sounds and movements by following the teacher’s instructions Presentation: -Ss will listen to some sounds and will have to guess which animals make those sounds. Then, T will paste a flashcard of the animal on the board. Practice: -Ss will have to identify and color the presented animals on their books. Pages 53 and 55. Consolidation: -Each student will have a palette with an animal assigned by the T. Then, when the T asked them where those animals are they will have to raise their pallets and act like that animal. Closing Activity: -Ss will have to draw and color their pets or favorite animal on a piece of paper and pasted on the board once they are done. -T congratulates Ss for the good work and participation and will give them some cookies with animal’s shapes.	Dog, chicken, rabbit, turtle, fish, cat, bird, frog, horse, cow, pig, hamster, duck, monkey. -This is a dog. It is my pet. -I have a fish. -I like cats. -I don´t like pigs. -Move like a rabbit	-Ss show comprehension of expressions being use by naming, pointing or describing -Ss apply language or expressions being studied -Ss imitate words, phrases and sentences through repetition -Ss brainstorm and compare each part of the house -Ss demonstrates understanding by performing actions and sounds requested -Ss complete the assignments	-Board -Chalk -Recorder -CD -Flashcards -Palettes -Color papers -Crayons -Pencil -Tape -Cookies	-10 min -10 min -5 min -10 min -5 min