My fifth class! The last one!

This class was really interesting because the students were giving suggestions using the modal "should" in order to talk about health problems. I noticed that they liked a lot the warm -up (as always) activity because they were making a drawing of the parts of the body I was saying. This game is called visual consequences and let me tell you that it is a nice game because the students draw one part and they fold the part of the page they used. Then, they pass the folded page to the student standing on their right side. This student continues the drawing with the part that the teacher says. At the end, all of them have a funny drawing in which many students have worked on.

The activity of the class that went well was a listening activity because the students were practicing their listening skills. This activity helped them a lot because after my class, they were going to have a listening comprehension test. The students were working a lot on this listening activity because they knew that this was a good opportunity for them to get a good grade in the exam.



Fortunately, I do not have a part of the lesson that had not been well because the students already know how to give pieces of advice using the modal "should". This class helped them remember what they learned at Basic English, and they knew about health problems because they were studying about it last class.

The students were working in pairs and in groups. I asked them to change partners for every activity because it is a problem when they work with the same classmates.
I am sure that I reached my objective because at the end of my class, the students were able to give suggestions using the health problems I had in my flashcards. In pairs, they took a flashcard and they created a sentence using "should" and another sentence using "shouldn´t" taking into account the flashcard I had given to them.

If I teach that lesson again, I will give more examples using different personal pronouns because I forgot to use plural pronouns in the examples I gave. Fortunately, it did not affect my class.



This is a really nice group and I liked the way we worked during this period. I wish I could have another group like them because they are a group of friendly students who made a good job while I was there. Thanks to them I had a good experience sharing some knowledge with them and at the same time I was learning from them and from my own experience.

My fourth class!!

Here I am again!!
My fourth class was really interesting because the students were participating a lot. I was teaching the different uses of the apostrophe. It was really easy for me to explain it because they studied it when they were at Basis English. They understood very well all what I explained about it, and they were able of giving examples just after I had explained it.
I think that the part that engaged the students the most was the very controlled practice because the students were using the apostrophe in some written activities I brought to the class.
I was really happy because all the students were participating in different activities. I just had one problem with the warm-up activity because there were two students that did not have the chance of participating. The problem was that I did not notice they were not in the game. I assigned them a group and I asked them to make a line per group, but these two students did not stand in the line. Another problem is that the room was too small that is why, I did not see that they were out of the line. I think that it would have been better to change the activity because the space was not enough to make the lines I needed. Another option could be to look for another classroom or place.
The students were working in teams in the warm-up activity and they were also working in pairs in order to discuss the uses of the apostrophe. There were also some activities in which they had to work individually because those were very controlled activities.
I do not have a part of the lesson in which students had not been very involved. I tried to make them work as much as possible in every activity because I have noticed that they need to interact with different classmates through some speaking games and activities. I brought charts, photocopies and pictures in order to make students participate in different ways (written and speaking form). Unfortunately, as always I took some minutes from my tutor´s class. I needed to finish the last speaking activity in which I gave the students a picture and a subject. They had to create a sentence (orally) using the apostrophe in the correct place. It was really nice because they created the sentences without making mistakes. In that case, this activity permitted me demonstrate that the students had understood the structures and that my objective had been reached.
If I teach that lesson again, I will check if all the students are participating in the warm-up activity (well, in all the activities) in order to give them an equal chance of participation. I will also, check the time because this is a problem I have in every class!!

My third class!!

This class was very interesting because the students were studying the use of countable and uncountable nouns that is why, the part of the lesson that went well was the grammar explanation. This was like a review for the students because they already studied something about countable and uncountable when they were at Basic English. I just tried to include more vocabulary in order to use this grammar because when the students studied it, the context was about food. Now, I tried to include different things that can be counted or that cannot be.

Fortunately, I do not have a part of the lesson that did not go well. For me, this was a very good class because the students were participating a lot and I did not spend too much time in the grammar stage (It was not needed). I would like you to give me some ideas to explain grammar because as you know, it is a really boring part for the students and we can´t spend too much time there.

I think that the part that engaged the students the most was the very controlled stage because the students were using the grammar I had just explained. They were asking different questions, and it was really nice because they showed me that they were interested in learning something more from my class.

I had some problems with the time. I had prepared a game for the end of my class, but I could not develop it because as some of you know, teachers hate when we take time from their class. Anyways, it was my fault because I was not checking the time for each activity.

If I teach that lesson again, I think that I will look for different ways to teach the countable and uncountable nouns because the students get bored when they are studying a part of grammar that they already know.

CLASS 2 OF THE FIRST PERDIOD.

Hello everybody, as you can see this is my second class at the Intermediate English I. I want to share with you that the very controlled activities work very well in this group, but most of the students have problems while doing less controlled or free activities. The problem is not that they do not have enough controlled practice. I think that the problem here is that they were not pushed to use the target language when they were at Basic English. Now, they want to pass almost all the class speaking Spanish. My tutor teacher has made them change the places where they like to sit with their friends. Unfortunately, they continue speaking to much Spanish. I would like you to give me some tips for this problem because the tutor teacher wrote in my evaluation sheet that I was permitting students to use Spanish in the class!! I really do not know what to do...

Then, I had another problem. I wanted the students to write a short conversation about a friend that was coming to their country (They had an example in their books). They had to tell this friend the places he/she can visit in the country. I asked a group to present their conversation in front of the class, and they did not want to pass even when I was pushing them a little. I noticed that they did not know how to structure a simple question!! Even when it was a review of the there is/are structure that they studied at Basic English! Fortunately, two volunteers presented the one they had done and let me tell you that they did a great job. They passed to the front of the class without their notebooks and they begun talking, and describing a lot places of our country. I congratulate them because I was surprised of the work they had done.

I think that the part of the lesson that engaged them the most was a Fill in the blank activity. I brought a chart with some sentences in which they had to complete them by writing: there is/there are/there isn´t/there aren´t/ are there/ is there. First, I asked them to read the sentence and then, to tell me the complete sentence with the part that was missing. Everybody was sating the sentences at the same time. Then, I gave them some time to copy them (the complete sentences) on their notebooks.

Well as I mentioned before, I had some problems in this class; that is why you know that they were not using the language the way they were supposed to do it (of course that not all the students). Even when they were working in groups in some activities, they did not show the level of English they are supposed to have.

If I teach that lesson again, I will include more speaking activities even if the students have problems developing them. I think that step by step, they will be able to do it.










speak too much spanish