A not so good day. Where do I start from? Well, I received the lesson plan yesterday a night. Today I had to begin the class with a new lesson plan; it was about verb patterns (verb + infinitive, verb + gerund, etc.). The warm up was a joke (literally, a joke); I had to tell a joke and then some students had to tell their own jokes. That warm up was to promote students' speaking. I decided to change that warm up because I am not good at telling jokes. Another issue I faced was that the presentation of the lesson was a reading that was in the students' book, and I do not have the students' book; anyway, I had to leave like that. Later, I had to teach the grammar notes, and if I had time, I had to start with the controlled practice.
Today I arrived early to the classroom (as always) and the previous class had not finished, so I did not have much time to prepare the classroom. Students started to arrive one by one. The teacher got there on time and I started my class.
I started with a warm up. The students formed three groups and each of them sent a representative to the front; that person had to sit down in front of his/her group and I put myself behind that person; I showed a flashcard to the rest of the group and they had to mimic what they saw; the representative at the front had to guess the word, the object, the fruit, or the musical instrument I was showing up. each group had 2 minutes to do it and at the end there was a winner. They liked the activity because they had a lot of fun.
The bad part of my teaching was the presentation part. I made them go to their books and make some predictions about the reading based on the pictures. I tried to figure out what the reading was about because I could not get a copy of that part on time, so I was practically "blind" in that part of the lesson. After that, I made the students read the paragraph in pairs because most of them did not have the book. I was not able to plan a good activity for that reading activity and the teacher told me at the end that I had wasted that reading session. Actually, I think she was right without a doubt. I just made them read and discuss the paragraph; the good part was that they participated providing ideas, but I could have done something more to take advantage on that important resource.
Later on, I explained part of the grammar notes. That part was easy and they got the idea really fast. I explained the use of verbs followed by infinitives and verbs followed by an object and an infinitive. My time finished and my class was over.
Feedback time. Teacher Yesenia do know how to give feedback, I insist. She liked my warm up, but the presentation (the reading part) was awful.
What did I learn from this new experience? I learned that I must plan in a different way; I must be prepared in order to face any unexpected situation. Also, I learned that I have to get prepared with a variety of activities to do with readings.
I did not get an excellent grade, but I learned an excellent lesson.
27 jul 2011
21 jul 2011
A new class
Today's class was really nice; i enjoyed it a lot.
Yesterday I did not have the lesson plan, so I was kind of lost because I had not had time to get in contact with the teacher. Later on, I got her phone number and I called her; she is very nice. She sent me the lesson plan via e-mail and gave me the topics. I had to prepare some controlled and free practice for the "so", and "neither" structures. Actually, those topics were kind of difficult for me when I was taking Advanced English. Well, I had some hours to get ready; i looked for the grammar part and reviewed that "forgotten" topic. I prepared some good activities and today I performed them.
I arrived early to the classroom; some students were out of it. I prepared the room for the class so that everything was ready.
The teacher arrived to the classroom, and I started the class with a warm up in which they had to tell her names and the name of their favorite movie. It was nice because i could know their names in advance. Then, I made a review of the previous topic -"so" and "neither"-; the students made three lines and I pasted some sentence strips on the board; for example, there was a strip with "neither can I" and when I read "I can't ride a bike", they had to pick that strip up, etc. The activity was nice because they had fun and they showed that they had understood that topic in the previous class. I had worked with that group in the last term, and they have a lot of energy.
Later on, I introduced the topic about Indirect questions; I explained how indirect questions are formed and they got the idea very fast; then, I gave them some sentences or questions as a practice; they had to check the correct ones; they did that in pairs. When we all checked and compared the answers, most of them did it correctly, so I just had to help those ones who had done it wrong. It was easy, for them and for me.
To finish my class I made them role play some situations in which they had to use indirect questions. I asked for volunteers and they were willing to participate. The first situation was a man that wanted to ask for the location of the subway; the second case was a boy who wanted to declare his love to a girl; it was really funny. The class was nice; I enjoyed it. My feedback was really nice because teacher Yesenia knows how to do it. I learned a lot!
Yesterday I did not have the lesson plan, so I was kind of lost because I had not had time to get in contact with the teacher. Later on, I got her phone number and I called her; she is very nice. She sent me the lesson plan via e-mail and gave me the topics. I had to prepare some controlled and free practice for the "so", and "neither" structures. Actually, those topics were kind of difficult for me when I was taking Advanced English. Well, I had some hours to get ready; i looked for the grammar part and reviewed that "forgotten" topic. I prepared some good activities and today I performed them.
I arrived early to the classroom; some students were out of it. I prepared the room for the class so that everything was ready.
The teacher arrived to the classroom, and I started the class with a warm up in which they had to tell her names and the name of their favorite movie. It was nice because i could know their names in advance. Then, I made a review of the previous topic -"so" and "neither"-; the students made three lines and I pasted some sentence strips on the board; for example, there was a strip with "neither can I" and when I read "I can't ride a bike", they had to pick that strip up, etc. The activity was nice because they had fun and they showed that they had understood that topic in the previous class. I had worked with that group in the last term, and they have a lot of energy.
Later on, I introduced the topic about Indirect questions; I explained how indirect questions are formed and they got the idea very fast; then, I gave them some sentences or questions as a practice; they had to check the correct ones; they did that in pairs. When we all checked and compared the answers, most of them did it correctly, so I just had to help those ones who had done it wrong. It was easy, for them and for me.
To finish my class I made them role play some situations in which they had to use indirect questions. I asked for volunteers and they were willing to participate. The first situation was a man that wanted to ask for the location of the subway; the second case was a boy who wanted to declare his love to a girl; it was really funny. The class was nice; I enjoyed it. My feedback was really nice because teacher Yesenia knows how to do it. I learned a lot!
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