CLASS EVALUATION

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to the evaluation of the course I have been implementing my didactic unit in. As I have already explained, it is a special class, with only 20 students and the whole group has an adaptated curricula for most of the subjects. None of the students have passed all subjects and most of them have failed 5 or 6. During the evaluation session, we went student by student. All teachers were highlighting his/her weak points, behavior problems... The tutor was really concerned about all students and tried to gather as much information as possible.

Another issue that was discussed was the fact that some teachers were giving high marks to some of the students of the group and other teachers were defending that no more than a "Bé" should be given in a group where the level is much lower than in the others.

LAST DAY OF THE DIDACTIC UNIT

For the last day I prepared a Summary activity about what we had been working. To start, I gave them a chart with 8 different professions and asked them to give their opinion about different facts: Who do you think works more hours a day? Who do you think enjoys his/her work most?... At the end I asked them to write what is their favourite job: I had putative babysitters, cooks, and even a police man!

Then we worked on the Treasure Hunt: My schedule. I prepared a week schedule of a woman that lives in New York but some information was missing. They had to visit different websites: a restaurant, a Hospital, NY Knicks... and find those pieces of information: an hour, an address... They liked the activity and working with realia. It was nice because students helped me explain the activity to other students.

LAST LESSONS

On Monday we went on with my lesson plan. It was the Scientist day. I really wanted to show them interesting things about science and I thought that a virtual visit to the laboratory I work in could be a good starting point. Thus, I started the class explaining students that I studied Chemistry and that I work in Research. Afterwards I showed them the video I recorded in the lab (English subtitles and very easy vocabulary) and asked them to write some of the words they heard: experiment, pipette, residue, cell, bacteria... They understood the video and I saw them paying attention and quite surprised. Some of them asked me questions about its location and so on...



Afterwards, as I had just half of the class, I thought that it would be nice to do a quiz about Science: HOW MUCH SCIENCE DO YOU KNOW? I made two teams and with a Power Point help we asked and answered questions I had prepared: "The fastest animal is...? How many colours are there in the rainbow? Who discovered Penicillin?" They had four options and were given a star if they knew the correct answer. I also prepared four jokers they could use in case of doubt: Teacher help (50%), Translation, 2 min Internet, Pass it to the other group.

GOING ON WITH THE UNIT

Another week has already gone... And I have already done 4 lessons! After the first Introductory class (which was somehow a mess, as I explained) everything has worked really fine. The day dedicated to artists was clearly interesting to students. They worked a lot without realising it: asking correct sentences: Is he recording a new album? Yes, he is... Not only speaking but they also learnt deduction strategies and student-student interaction. I had such a nice feeling when I saw them working and having fun at the same time!

On Tuesday, it was the Cook day. We warmed up by doing a "snake vocabulary" game. Each student had to say a word about food and the following one had to say the previous word and add another one... The next one, add another one... So at the end, they had to remember around 20 words! Afterwards we worked on a cake recipe, but the sweetest part was not still there. Once we finished the exercise, I brought them the real cake! They couldn't believe it! They were so surprised about the fact that I had prepared a cake for them that they even applaused me! They found it delicious and I hope that will motivate them to try and prepare the cake by themselves. I was so happy the following day, when a student brought me another recipe in English...

On Friday, it was the Sportspeople day. We worked on Wikipedia and had to use its lists to find a good sportsman/woman and prepare a mini poster about him. I have realised that on Fridays (last hour) they need an individual activity and this class is particularly good at creating (drawing, painting...)

MY FIRST LITTLE SUCCESS

Uauuu!!! That was a different feeling. Today the class was great! Good time management, students involved in activities!! I feel much better. The fact is that the context was quite different. I just had half of the class (10 students), it was Monday instead of Friday... This weekend I adapted activites to their way of doing... First a bit of vocabulary warm up around art: painter, sculptor, actor... Then a Who is who activity with famous people. I think they enjoyed it a lot. And then to finish an easy song in which they had to underline the words heard. It really worked!!

IMPLEMENTING THE UNIT

So... That was the day. At the moment I feel exhausted. It remembers me when I did exams at university. After a whole morning exam I felt really tired and my mind needed a break. I had shown my planning to the teacher and all the material I had prepared: pictures, a poster, activities... She found it very interesting and well organised and that gave me confidence.

When I arrived, I first told them that I would be teaching them English for two weeks. I started with a warming up activity to introduce them the core unit. I took with me the naughtiest boy in the class to help me with some pictures about jobs, so that he was not disrupting my first activity. All students had to recognise the job and they surprised me quite a lot. That first activity was better than I expected so I went on with the core activity. They had to gather in groups of 4 people and read about a character's life: Messi, Ferran Adrià, Shakira and a flight surgeon from NASA. They had to fulfill a poster with basic information: Name, Picture (were given to them), nationality, What is she/he doing now? What can he/She do?... That activity was very tough to be explained. It was very difficult to keep their attention for 5 minutes and classroom configuration was doing things even more difficult (we were in a class with computers). I had prepared roles for them: Dictionary user, Chart filler, Reader, Secretary... But I decided not to use them because it was very difficult for them to understand how to behave. The activity was not yet completed but I decided to stop it because some of the students were not participating and the class was getting out of my control. I asked one person per group to read its part of the chart. I had prepared a chart with the things they told me that they like doing. We commented on that: "Who likes playing football?" And I tried to make them interact with me explaining when, with who...


But that was somehow difficult because of their low level. I still had 10 minutes to finish the class and I started to feel I couldn't anymore. I had to ask for silence every 2 seconds and my voice was starting to feel those 40 minutes of class (1200 silence please!!). I decided to try to summarise the important points of the lesson with them and practise a little bit. We worked doing oral sentences with CAN, CAN't around their favourite leisure activities. And that was it. The bell rang. I need to analyse the class and take into consideration their way of working to readapt the activities I prepared for next week. But I'll do it tomorrow. Today I need to relax... The teacher gave me support but I feel I need to do it much better.

BRAINSTORMING FOR THE DIDATIC UNIT

Next week I am starting my Didactic Unit with the 2nd ESO course. I first I was a little bit scared about having to organise 6 lessons for that class. Students have a low English level, they can hardly understand basic instructions in English and are not fully motivated. I felt that the chances of unsuccess were great. But after a week thinking about the Unit Core and my personal approach I am starting to feel more confident and face this situation as a real challenge. Today I prepared pieces of paper and at the end of the lesson I asked students to write (anonymously) their favourite song and personal interests. They were quite receptive to that, willing to tell me what they like doing. I think that I can orient my Didactic Unit taking into consideration their preferences and giving a sense to all of it. Hope I'll work a lot this weekend because next Friday will be my first day!