18 ago 2011

Whatta...????!!!!!

For this class I had to check a homework the students had. It was a reading, a long reading; the teacher told me that I had to prepare some activities to use with that reading, so I used my creativity last night and I prepared some cool activities to use. I arrived early to the classroom and I started to paste a lot of pieces of tape on the board. The students arrived and I started the class with a nice warm up; students had to make three groups and sit together; then, they had to send a representative to the front and that representative had to pick up a strip of paper with some instructions written on it (for example 5 sentences using verb+infinitive, 5 sentences using verb + gerund, etc.) they had to finish and the first group that finished had to shout stop! and the rest of the teams had to stop writing. If they had their sentences OK, they got a point; at the end there was a winner of course. That activity was for them to review the use of patterns in English. The teacher liked the warm up because all the students were involved in the activity. This group of advance 1 is very difficult; they know a lot but they are lazy; sometimes, they speak Spanish in class and that is something that annoys the teacher a lot.
After that, it was time to work with the reading. This time a prepared some very cool activities because I learned the lesson from my second class in this subject. First, I gave two paper strips to every student; those paper strips contained extracts from the reading; also, I included some distractors. The dynamic was simple but efficient. I read the paragraph and the students had to go to the front to paste on the board the paper strip they had, but they had to do so when they heard that specific part, so they had to pay strict attention  because at the end there was a penalty for the one who did not paste his/her strips. The teacher was surprised because all of them were paying attention to the reading. After that activity, it was time for them to read the same paragraph and practice their pronunciation. I gave a number to every student and number one started to read; after some sentences, I just told number two or another number and that student continued with the reading. After all of them read at least a part of the paragraph, I made them repeat those words that they had mispronounced. Once again, the teacher liked that activity. Well, I continue working with them in the post activity. They had to match some expressions with their meaning in formal English; it was easy, they had an idea so they did it fast. I finished my class by making them work in the next appendix of the handout they had.
Feedback time.
Well here comes the unbelievable part of my day. The teacher told me that she had liked the warm up because it was nice that the students were involved in the activity. Also, she told me that she really liked the activities I used for the reading; she even told me that she was going to "steal" that activity because she was surprised that the students were paying attention carefully when I was reading even though they are a big group. Some observations she did to my class were that I had made a mistake with the pronunciation of three words and that some of the students went out during the class and that affected my classroom management (they are 28 students and not even the teacher is able to manage the class, but she was expecting I did it); I said OK, that's true, they were mistakes. The thing that I consider incredible was that my grade was 7.5!!!!!! In other words, she told me "I really liked the activities you prepared for the class but your grade is 7.5". I said in my mind: "what a f... reak!!'" I still wonder why those comments about my class and why that grade. I'm totally disappointed.

2 comentarios:

  1. Hay Chulada!! That had happened to me,exactly like you!! I already know that when a teacher told me one and another time that I did it very well and he/she really liked everything;it is because there is a not so good grade behind all that flattery!! My last time was like yours and at the end I got 7.4!!! Who understands the tutors????

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  2. Do not worry chickens, what should really matter it's that we know we did our best even when people don't appreciate our efforts.

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