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hen teaching, you are so full of ideas, plans
and expectations about the topic you will develop with your respective group…but
what a terrible feeling when you see on the Ss `s face a big QUESTION MARK???? Jajaja
lots of things come to your mind while teaching and it is really
demanding, because if you are like me
perfectionist , you will want that everything
works on your own pace…
After reading many of your blogs my
dear friends, I can tell you that since
I know which topic has been assigned to
me, I started thinking over and over what can I do, how do I want to develop
the topic in the classroom and a brainstorming comes to my mind.
During my second class, the main
topic was the Family members and the Possessive case it means two topics for
one hour class…maybe for us the information can be a “piece of cake” , but when
we face the fact that some of the Ss will get the idea very quickly, but others
are with a question mark on their faces….ouuchhhh what a terrible feeling…
I`m going to share with you how was
my second experience and what I did to overcome that bad feeling…well my class
started with a warm up in which I asked them to divide the class into two
groups. I put two desks in front of the board, but looking to the front. One
representative of each group must sit in front of them, the rest of the
classmates were stand up in front of the student, and they were waiting for a
word that I wrote on the board…the objective of the activity was that I wrote a
profession on the board, and they had to give clues to their classmates in
order to figure out which profession was…as I said in my previous blog, they
are really nice, they cooperate with you in the different activities, and they
did it. Unfortunately, some of them were cheating, and said the profession
without any sound…and the other group was angry…but anyways it was funny.
In order to present the first topic
which was THE FAMILY MEMBERS, I brought a big Tree made of cardboard and some
flashcards representing some family members like : mother, father, sister,
brother, etc.
After I pasted the big tree on the
board without any explanation or clue
about the next topic, I started asking them as in a brainstorming, what comes
to their minds when looking at the big tree. Some of them said fruits, birds,
leaves, nest, etc. and I presented the
topic by saying that in a certain way we
have our own tree, when I said that, they immediately said that the
topic was the family, and that gave me the chance to present the family
members. They helped me identifying each member with some strips that I brought
, and which they were asked to paste next to each one.
That practice gave me the chance to
introduce the second topic. Which was the possessive case, and I was sure that
with the help of the family members the information will be more accurate…but
my surprise was that during the grammar explanation, some of they were like ??????WHAT?????
…ouchhh that was the exact moment when I was what can I do now? What I can tell you is that bringing the
grammar explanation on charts helps you a lot, immediately I gave them real
examples with their own names, and which were related with the examples given
on the chart.
At the end, they were in the same
level and I felt really nice that most of them understood the explanation and
were able to work with the practice sheets.
As Roger mentioned in his blog, time
is our worst enemy, and it is not because you are not well prepared in time
management, but you can´t force or stop the Ss`s participation when they want
to comment or give their opinions.
Let´s continue working my dear
friends, we have to reach our dreams and to kill our own fears!!! Please comment
on my ideas…and share yours with me!!!!
What a nice entry Sarita! I can see you have given your best. Good point the fact of brainstorming the topic. Also the activity is a good one since SS learn in a playful way, and, at the same time, everybody gets fun with it. As teachers we must take into account learning styles. As you say, there were some students with a big question mark over their heads so in order to make our explanation clearer, it 's good to vary the activities. If there's a variety of activities, you involve all the senses (the more senses are involved, the greater the experience) and,thus, the learning process is easily and successfully achieved. Exemplifying is like a key when teaching, especially in basic levels. Remember that it's better telling and showing than telling or showing. Well done Sarita!
ResponderEliminarHi Sarita I like the way you presented the topic. You used a creative material in order to teach the topic, and students likes that. I know the way you work, and you wont have any problem teaching them. Nice job my friend.
ResponderEliminarI was in your class, indeed. And I consider that activating their schema is really important, make them think was a good idea to approach the topic of the family. I agree with george when talking about the variety of activities because that help us as teachers to be, have our students involved in the process. Of course in our case that we are practicing is kind of difficult to cover all the topic since there are only 50 minutes to do so. I believe that if you are going to teach something, do it completely good, even if you only focus in one topic is better. At the end, it's their learning what we are helping them to develop.
ResponderEliminarnice job sarita.
It is really difficult Sarita when you notice that some students aren't getting the idea of what is going on! But we have to remember that students have to make an effor in order to improve thmeselves. As teacher, we can not teach every single thing about a topic. The difficult part for me is mark a limit when teaching. I want to teach them all the knowledge possible, but time and preparetaion aren't enough. Good job Sarita!
ResponderEliminar