- Annex (optional): include copies of texts/handouts you will use – as part of the

procedural explanation or as separate annexes.

Exercise

After talking to the schoolteacher, write your lesson plan. Consult your
observation notes to see how problem-based approaches and interdisciplinary
perspectives may apply. If you are working with the textbook, check authors’
suggestions on task implementation. Consider how observations made during
this semester may help you adapt your design to the students’ needs.

Step 3 is the moment when you share your lesson plan with the supervising
schoolteacher for comments and approval. At this point, you should explain your
intentions for each of the designed tasks and listen to the teacher’s contributions.

Tip

Do not forget to ask about practical matters such as photocopying (Who does
it? Who pays for it? How does one ask for it?), equipment reservations (Does the
teacher need to do it? Is the equipment you need working) etc.

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You also need to ask about the presentation date and the protocol you will need to
observe. Some teachers prefer that interns start the class on their own, without any
previous notice, and others like to prepare their students for the occasion. Knowing these
details in advance will help you manage any anxiety.

Clear and thoughtful negotiation with your supervising teacher may turn your class
presentation into a relevant and pleasant learning opportunity. As discussed in Unit 1,
teachers are always developing new skills and reflecting upon their practices no matter
how experienced they are.

In this sense, your engagement as an intern is fundamental. We tend to see schoolteachers

as the ones who “already know” how to teach, but the teaching competence is always
developing. Research on internship practices has shown that supervising teachers are
also actively learning when coaching novice practitioners (REICHMAN, 2014).

MEDIA LIBRARY

Access your Media Library for Unit 4 and check the supplementary content selected
by your Professor on the topic School Teachers Learning with Interns – a study case.

In this topic, we have focused on your relationship with the schoolteacher you are observing
during the final class preparation steps. For Topic 2, our focus will be the relationship with
the students and its impacts on your solo teaching practice.

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Relationship issues: the group of students

In Topic 1, you prepared a lesson plan for you final class presentation and discussed it
with you supervising schoolteacher. Our focus was to shed some light on how the two of
you could work together in order to build a productive solo teaching experience.

While planning your class, you have probably considered your observations on students’
behavior, levels of proficiency and interests. However, being judged is always difficult
and solo teaching is a part of your evaluation as an intern.

Under such high exposure conditions, students’ demands may become less relevant to
you than supervisors’ expectations. In Topic 2, we will focus on your relationship with the
students, while preparing for the final class presentation.

Important

During their solo classes, some interns focus strictly on meeting their
supervisors’ expectations, even if university advisors decide their final grade.
Remember that your class is directed to the students. Therefore, all of the
previously discussed aspects should result in including students’ perspectives
and needs.

Research on classroom interaction shows a tendency of underestimating students’

autonomy and learning skills. British scholars Dick Allwright and Judith Hanks have
described students as “key developing practitioners” (2009, p. 2), changing the way we
understand their participation in class.

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 Know more

Normally, the term practitioner refers to acting professionals in a given field.

According to these authors, “by insisting on the term practitioner we want to
make it easier to see the learner’s role as importantly parallel to the role of the
people we already happily see as ‘practitioners’ – the teachers” (ALLWRIGHT;
HANKS, 2009, p. 2).

This shift indicates that teachers and students alike are learners when it comes to
language, classroom dynamics and the learning process itself. In the authors’ words:

[…] language professionals increasingly think of their work in terms of

their own development, but do not use the term as happily in relation
to learners. But why should we not consider learner development as a
viable and parallel concept? We want learners to develop as learners;
to become better at it, better able to enjoy and profit from the courses
we provide, and eventually both able and eager to carry on learning after
our courses are over […] we insist on the term key because we want to
convey the message that calling learners ‘developing practitioners’ is not
just a descriptive matter; it is a profoundly important professional matter.
Learners are key because they are the only people who can do their own
learning. They also have what is virtually a ‘right of veto’ over the teaching,
and perhaps over their own learning. (ALLWRIGHT; HANKS, 2009, p. 2)

Example

Including students’ perspectives when planning your class may not be so easy,
especially if we consider the different curriculum, material, and implementation
constraints applied to the process. Nonetheless, after carefully designing
a lesson with your supervising teacher, students can still choose to ignore it
(‘right of veto’) or redesign it (by not complying with the task rules you propose).

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Thinking about teachers, interns, and students as key developing learners allows us to
understand the classroom as community of practice, where contents, materials, and
pedagogic beliefs are under constant negotiation no matter who will officially respond for
the learning process.

Together with students from England, China, and Brazil, Allwright and Hanks developed
five propositions about learners that apply to students as well as to teachers and interns:

Know more

Five propositions on key developing learners (ALLWRIGHT; HANKS, 2009, p. 7)

Proposition 1: Learners are unique individuals who learn and develop best in
their own idiosyncratic ways.

Proposition 2: Learners are social beings who learn and develop best in a
mutually supportive environment.

Proposition 3: Learners are capable of taking learning seriously.

Proposition 4: Learners are capable of independent decision-making.

Proposition 5: Learners are capable of developing as practitioners of learning.

It may be easy to imagine these propositions applying to schoolteachers and teachers-in-

training. However, when we consider students as developing learners, propositions 3, 4,
and 5 are normally questioned.

Reflection time

Do you believe the students in the class where you are going to teach are able to
take learning seriously? Are they capable of independent decision-making? Do
you see them as people who are “learning how to learn”? Why (not)?

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By stating that students can take learning seriously, we understand that, even when
choosing not to participate in any class activity, they are aware of the decision they are
making and capable of analyzing what is best for their learning.

Example

Students may choose not to present oral versions of their texts, which would be
an important part of your class design — without their cooperation, your original
plan cannot move on. This decision may be based on different analyses:

a) They may need more time to prepare.

b) They may be shy.
c) They may consider the task irrelevant, understanding that they will never
need to produce a text like that “in real life” etc.

Students’ analyses may differ from yours — you may still feel that the task you propose
is the best course of action in order to develop a set of skills. The important point here
is not to underestimate their analyses and their understanding of what is best. Some
teachers might take any “activity veto” as a personal attack, especially under tense
circumstances.

Example

Harmless questions may sound confrontational if we feel insecure about our

role in class. Imagine that you have just explained something and a student
asks, “What is the use of that?” You might feel like he/she was going after you
personally and want to strike back with a harsh comment. In situations like that,
asking why-questions — for instance, “Why are you asking that?” — helps you gain
some perspective. The student in question might answer, “Because I thought
it might be used in narratives”, for example. By opening the communication
channel, you will avoid unnecessary confrontation.

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The previous example does not mean to suggest that students’ answers will always be
condoning with your class orientation. Even if students position themselves as actively
seeking to undermine your efforts, it is important to analyze why they feel the need to do
so, understanding that their view on the process is as valuable as yours.

Reflection time

Think about your own time as a student. Why did you (or your colleagues) engage
in class activities? What motivated you? What were your critical analyses on
teachers, their planning and the usefulness of each proposal?

It is the schoolteacher’s responsibility to manage the pedagogic process as a whole and

it will be your responsibility to do so when teaching your solo class. Nonetheless, this
management depends on the recognition of students’ autonomy in making their own
decisions about the process.

Exercise

Review the tasks in your final class lesson plan. Do they consider students’
autonomy? Do they allow for alterations, students’ suggestions and emerging
interests? Think about it from a student’s perspective. You may even talk to the
students about what you are planning to do. Adapt accordingly.

As previously discussed, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to teaching

preview learner-centered models in which students have a high level of participation
when it comes to content definition.

Even if this is not a possibility at the school where you are training, you can still leave
some space in your lesson plan for the adaptation of tasks on the spot.

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 Example

Imagine that your class on online news reports happens right after an important
soccer championship match. Students talk of nothing else and you can take
advantage of this topic to introduce the genre based on their own knowledge,
since they will probably have a lot to comment on the many different ways of
portraying teams, players, and losers.

Adaptations such as the one mentioned in the example can define a completely different
planning for your class, depending on your agreement with the schoolteacher and on your
immediate access to materials. In any case, English classes can be based on any theme
and the possibilities for adaptation, while preserving the original objectives, are close to
endless.

Example

The students of teacher Walewska Braga, from Escola Municipal Santo Tomás
de Aquino, were talking about the increasing number of pregnant teenagers at
their school and surroundings. They systematized their question in a puzzle “Why
do so many teenagers get pregnant in spite of having so much information?”
(ALLWRIGHT; HANKS, 2009, p. 213) and the teacher decided to work with this
interest during her English classes.

If you are training in a context where learner-centered lessons are implemented, you can
ask the students in your class group directly about their puzzles, interests and current
dilemmas. If that is not the case, you can always inspire in such practices to become
more flexible and open to students’ contributions.

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 MEDIA LIBRARY

Access your Media Library for Unit 4 and check the supplementary content selected
by your Professor on Exploratory Practice at School – a study case.

In Topic 3, we will set evaluation standards for your teaching and your general internship
experience. In order to do that, we will discuss the structure of feedback sessions and of
your final memorial report.

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Teaching, evaluating and learning opportu-
nities

In Topics 1 and 2, you have gathered information on how to design a basic lesson plan
for your final class presentation, discussing it with your supervising schoolteacher and
adapting it according to students’ contributions. The question remains:

How will you know that your class was good enough?

Deciding on what is “good enough” is a tricky movement per se. If you consider that
several belief systems are at stake, it is important to remember that assessing your class
is a complex task involving the schoolteacher, the students, your advisor and yourself.

In Topic 3, we will discuss how to organize this evaluative process, so that you can come
out of your internship experience with as many learning opportunities as possible.

Important

The final grade that will define if you have passed Supervised Internship III
comes from your professor at this subject (your academic advisor). However,
the intention of any internship process is to provide insight on real life activities.
Therefore, beyond any grading system, it is important that you collect and
reflect upon the feedback provided by all interested parts (including yourself —
what was your overall impression and how you felt).

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After teaching your solo class, you will need to discuss it with the supervising schoolteacher
in a feedback session. You can ask the teacher to schedule it in advance — even before
the class is taught. If time constraints prevent you from meeting, you can organize for
written/online feedback exchange.

Know more

Feedback sessions are common after microteaching and solo teaching

internship practices. They normally refer to the objectives established for the
class, discussing to which extent they were met. They can be more or less
formal (meeting-like or conversational). It is important that novice teachers
share their doubts during these sessions, in order to take advantage of their
colleagues’ experience.

Feedback is meant to be a learning opportunity for you, which means your engagement
in this interchange is fundamental. The more you ask about specific aspects of the class
the more the teacher will know how to contribute to your learning.

Tip

Do not be afraid to ask about specific tasks. Questions like “What did you think
about my oral production activity?” may generate vague responses such as “It
was very good. Don’t worry!” However, if you feel that you could have done more
or better, try to be clearer, as in “Would you have made them repeat? How many
times? What if they had done it in pairs?” etc.

It is also important not to close up if you feel that your supervising teacher comes from
a different pedagogic perspective. Even if his/her beliefs do not match yours, listening to
what an experienced teacher has to say will help you prepare for your future life at school,
no matter which advice you choose to follow.

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 Important

At the end of your presentation, you can also ask the students how they felt and
what they thought about your class. Some teachers (novice and experienced)
are afraid of opening this kind of communication with their students. However,
important insight on your work may rest on their perspectives.

Feedback provides invaluable information on how your teaching is being received. Do not
feel discouraged if you receive negative feedback — it is very difficult to evaluate the work
of another productively, but that does not necessarily mean that your class has failed.

It is also important to remember that your impressions on another’s point of view

may not be accurate. You may feel that the teacher and/or the students disliked your
performance — based on your appreciation of their behavior, facial expressions etc. — but
you will only truly learn from this process by trying to communicate openly.

MEDIA LIBRARY

Access your Media Library for Unit 4 and check the supplementary content selected
by your Professor on the topic Providing Feedback to Teachers.

After receiving feedback from the schoolteacher and the students (if possible), you will
need to self-assess. In order to do so, consider:

- Planning/Implementation: how were goal/objectives approached? Did you feel that

they were being met? How differently would you have planned your class in terms of goal
and objectives knowing what you know now? Were the materials adequate? Why (not)?
Were the tasks adequate? Why (not)? Was time management effective? Were the tasks
carried out according to your expectations of time?

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- Teacher’s role: what was easy for you to do? What was difficult? Which teaching skills
helped you during the class? Which teaching skills need to be further developed? How did
you feel? How do you evaluate your ideological positioning and your behavior? How do
you evaluate your relationship with the students? What do you mean to develop in terms
of teaching roles?

Important

If you had the opportunity of receiving objective feedback, you will probably
already have input to answer most of these questions by now. However, the
moment of self-assessment is of the utmost importance — it is a time when you
systematize everything that you have learned, validating your own pedagogical
beliefs.

Remember that, after each class you teach during your entire career, you will probably
be analyzing what worked and what you could have done differently. This is what being
a key developing practitioner really means. More than a matter of “making it right”, it is
a constant process of reflecting upon your practice and learning based on the most
recent experiences.

The last step in your evaluation process will be the presentation of your final paper for
Supervised Internship III — a memorial report. This report bases on the Exercise sections
you have been working with in this e-book. It is an opportunity of receiving feedback on
your observations and discussing them in association with the theory studied here.

Know more

A memorial is a narrative text accounting for experiences organized around a

given theme. Memorial reports add an objective description of the context in
which such experiences have taken place, as well as any document that can
help illustrating the author’s point of view. They can be written in the first person
singular (“I”).

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In order to facilitate the production of your memorial report, we will provide you with a
template including its main rhetorical movements. Use it as a base for your own writing.

Memorial report template

UNIVERSIDADE VEIGA DE ALMEIDA

SUPERVISED INTERNSHIP III – ENGLISH
STUDENT: …………………………………….
ACADEMIC ADVISOR: YOUR PROFESSOR’S NAME
INTERNSHIP SCHOOL: …………………………….
SUPERVISING SCHOOLTEACHER:…………………….

Introduction (10-15 lines)

Introduce your memorial by presenting the school, the teacher, the classes and your
experience in general terms. Select three key aspects among the observations you have
made during the Exercise practices in this e-book. Comment on how these aspects
influenced your final class preparation. Wrap up by indicating that you will further develop
these issues in the following sections.

Example

You decide that the three most relevant aspects are:

a) Classes are not focused on competence-based approaches.

b) Classes present lots of interdisciplinary opportunities that could be explored.
c) The supervising teacher wanted you to “follow the book” during your solo
class. Based on that, you will briefly explain how these issues ended up resulting
in your specific class preparation.

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Section one (10-15 lines)

This section is dedicated to the first key aspect you have selected. If it is interdisciplinarity,
you will discuss your observations related to this topic, commenting on the teacher’s
role, students’ roles and classroom dynamics. Do not forget to base your arguments and
understandings on one or more of the authors we have studied here, no matter what
aspect you choose to approach. The title of the section will depend on the aspect you
choose.

Section two (10-15 lines)

This section is dedicated to the second key aspect you have selected. It follows the same
writing guidelines applied to section one.

Section three (10-15 lines)

This section is dedicated to the third key aspect you have selected. It follows the same
writing guidelines applied to sections one and two.

Section four – Class preparation and presentation (10-15 lines)

Introduce your goal and objectives for your solo class presentation. Provide readers with a
summarized version of the tasks you have proposed (your complete lesson plan needs to
be included in the annexes). Write about your self-assessment on the day, answering the
questions provided in this topic for planning/implementation and teacher’s role. You may
add input received from the supervising teacher and the students.

Conclusion (5-10 lines)

Wrap up your memorial commenting on your learning process throughout this internship
journey. You can mention specific scenes/moments that became relevant. Do not forget
to mention your strengths as a teacher (discovered during this process) and skills you
mean to develop.

Annex

Include the full version of your lesson plan. You may choose to include only the final
approved version or display a portfolio of the different versions you have designed until

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the moment of your supervising teacher’s approval. The annex section may also include
any other material you find relevant as an illustration of your internship process (such as
photos, student exercises etc.).

Important

Take advantage of this memorial as an opportunity to express doubts you

may still have on the teaching practice. Since you will be receiving feedback
from your academic supervisor, it will be another way of opening up about your
experience.

In practice

When choosing the three key aspects that you will highlight in your memorial report,
try to remember which exercises were more challenging for you during this internship
experience. For instance, you may have found difficult to analyze if the classes you
were observing included the different types of spoken interaction proposed by
Brown (1994). In this case, you can review this theoretical framework and use the
opportunity presented by the writing activity to study it further.

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Summary of Unit 4

In Unit 4, you systematized your knowledge on the class group you have been observing in
order to prepare for your solo teaching presentation and write your final memorial report.
You have defined your responsibilities towards the supervising schoolteacher and the
students, understanding the importance of negotiating lesson plan design and pedagogic
belief systems. This knowledge will be of the utmost importance throughout your teaching
career, since reflecting upon your practice and sharing insights with the key practitioners
involved in the classroom routines is the only way of adapting to each school context.

Concept

Key developing practitioners take part on a given working community and

constantly develop new ways of performing their tasks based on their practical
experience and understandings. Within the classroom, both teachers and
students are key developing practitioners, responsible for the actual class
dynamics. Whenever their communication is fluid and open, feedback on
language, relationships and on the learning process itself provides them with a
mutually supportive environment.

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References

ALLWRIGHT, D; HANKS, J. The developing language learner – An introduction to

Exploratory Practice. Hampshire: Macmillan, 2009.

BEZERRA, I. C. R. M. Prática exploratória, espaços formativos e a educação crítica de

professores de Inglês: o olhar híbrido de uma professora formadora. Revista X, v. 2, UERJ,
2001. Available at: <https://revistas.ufpr.br/revistax/article/download/23015/17914>.
Accessed on: Apr. 1, 2019.

REICHMANN, C.L. A professora regente disse que aprendeu muito: a voz do outro e
o trabalho do professor iniciante no estágio. Raído, v. 8, n. 15, Dourados, 2014. Available
at: <http://ojs.ufgd.edu.br/index.php/Raido/article/download/3232/1779>. Accessed on:
Apr. 1, 2019.

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