PRACTICE II, DIDACTICS OF ELT and Practicum Primary School level.

Adjunto Regular
a/c Prof. Estela N. Braun (2019). Teacher Assistant: Prof. Vanesa Cabral.

English Teaching Assistant Rebecca Vogt (Fulbright, 2019)

English Language Assistant Abigail Hartnell (British Council, 2019)

REGISTER:

TRAINEE TEACHER: Francisco Diego

SCHOOL: Escuela 180- 4th Year C

MENTOR TEACHER: Prof. Verónica Kant

DATE: October, 9th

TEACHER EDUCATOR: Vanesa Cabral

There are 20 students, they are all in their seats. Francisco asks them how they feel today
and he writes the date on the board. He asks them if they remember the previous
activity about “Pete the Cat”. He wants to know if they remember the story.

Activity 1:

Fill in the blanks. He gives the instructions and they start working. Suggestion: you must
check if everybody has the photocopy.

They complete the first blank together. The correct word is “Rocking”, he writes the
word on the board and he starts singing the song: “Pete is rocking in his school shoes”
He says: “do you remember? … I was rocking in my school shoes. Excellent idea”
Apparently, they enjoyed the story told the previous class enormously.

1
Then, he continues with the rest of the sentences, he prompts the answers with the help
of the book. The students start singing the song. While they are working, they sing the
tune gaily.

They are very interested in the activity. They enjoy working with activities related to the
book “Pete the Cat”

He gives one minute to finish the activity. Timing activities is great.

He has clear handwriting on the board.

When one student wants to ask a question, Francisco says “Raise your hand! Good
point! Besides teaching them English, he teaches them to take turns to speak.

He asks them if they have the material, while they are working. Well done!!

One student asks: “¿Cómo lo pego?” “No, you don´t have to paste it, no lo tienen que
pegar” Good decision to use L 1 here.

Then he says to them that they have to finish it as homework but it is not clear if they
have to finish the activity or if they have to paint it at home.

They moved the chairs and tables backwards to make space for the game. Suggestion:
next time, they can go to the backyard or the SUM. In the classroom, there is not much
room to play in.

Before starting the game, they revise the prepositions: in, on, under, behind. He uses
nice flashcards to foster their answers, they try to guess their meaning. At the same
time, he mimes the prepositions. Excellent! Suggestion: Be careful when you show the
picture, they were not visible, you put up the flashcard facing it too high to the ceiling, I
mean, the position was not right, it was not facing the audience.

One student goes out of the classroom, Lucila goes with her.

Activity 2

They are going to play “Simon says”. They are a bit noisy. He says the rhyme “1, 2, 3 eyes
on me” twice and they become silent.

2
Francisco says the instructions “Sit on your chair. Under the cover. Etc” They play the
game enthusiastically.

Activity 3

They have to complete where Pete is, you have to write the correct preposition: in, on,
under or behind. He asks them: ¿Qué está haciendo en la primera? “Pete is on the slide”
he says and he writes this example on the board.

The bell rings, so he tells them that they have to finish it at home. Francisco gives all of
them some colourful headbands, they are beautiful. All the children love them.

To sum up and to mention all the good points

Francisco has built his teacher´ stance. He teaches the lessons with self-confidence and
joy. It is evident that he does not care about the observation the educator teacher is
doing, he concentrates in the class and he creates a nice atmosphere where he develops
his lessons and makes all the young learners follow his instructions and enjoy the
learning process each lesson.

He stimulates oral participation and written productions, although it is guided

productions. He uses nice visual aids, appropriate for young learners.

He uses English and body language to explain the activities and to interact with them.

He uses the Communicative Language teaching approach most of the time. He changes
roles according to the situation, he guides them, monitors their performance, advises
them and controls their behaviour. He always keeps in mind timing the activities.

His voice is appropriate, it can be listened from the back well enough. He uses the board
to write the answers or examples he gives the students while he is explaining the
activities. His handwriting is perfect: clear, neat and big size (Picture 1).

As a pedagogical partner, I can observe that Francisco helps Lucila all the time. He is
alert during all the lesson to Lucila´s and students´ need. He is a good pedagogical
partner. Both of them work collaborately and form a good team.

Some aspects to be improved

3
In this lesson, I did not observe aspects that should be improved, because the class
developed in a friendly atmosphere, they respected each other and they worked very
well. Although, when Francisco was explaining one of the activities, three students
started playing with their hands. (see picture 2, please)

A question to reflect

How do you think that you can avoid this behaviour (see picture 2)? Could you intervene
in this situation? How? Is it possible to be on the alert all the time and with all the
students?

In this picture I can see that Tiziano, Benjamin and Bautista are playing with
their hands (Maybe they are practising a magic trick or playing with cards,
sometimes I tell them to stop doing that before classes start). I have to say that
they are excellent students, they hardly ever miss my classes and they always
cooperate with each other and so with the class in general (they always
participate when I ask to). Probably, my students play most frequently in my
classes than any other class they have during Wednesday. Why is that so? Well,
probably they are tired so I try to make my classes as fun and accessible to any
student, motivation becomes essential in my classes. Students have to feel
motivated; they need to be joyful and interested about the topics presented in
class.

What regards to this picture, I can easily intervene by telling them to stop and to
pay attention to the new topic I’m presenting in the class. Moreover, I can move
to a different activity if students do not like what I’m teaching (it becomes
necessary to have more activities than the planned for the lesson, as teachers
we never know at what pace will our students work and whether they will like our
activities or not)

I would say that it is really hard to be on the alert for every single student in
classes, that doesn’t mean that is not possible to do that, but our priority is to pay
attention to everyone. Every single student contributes to the future we are

4
building in society, our mission is to give the knowledge and tools needed for
students to help them.

Grade:9 (nine)

Prof. Vanesa Cabral

Picture 1

5
6
7
8
9