Improvement Plan 2nd Semester

IMPROVEMENT PLAN
Practice V
Student: Cristofer Ramirez

Miss Cecilia Schuster
November, 2021
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Table of Contents:
Introduction 2
A) Context 3
A.1 Description of the English Club 3
A.3. How did we come up with the problem? 3
B) Theoretical Support 6
1. What is Student engagement? 6
2. What is Critical Thinking? 6
3. Why is Critical Thinking important in EFL? 7
4. What to do to develop Critical Thinking in EFL? 8
5. What ICT resources can I use to develop Critical Thinking in the class? 9
C) Plan of Action 10
C.1 Objectives: 10
C.2 Research Methodology: 10
C.3 Design: 10
C.4 Strategies: 11
C.5 Resources: 11
C.6 Time: 11
C.7 Resources: 12
C.8 Assessments tools: 12
D) Evaluation & Analysis of results 14
D.1 Evaluation 14
D.1.1. How did I apply the strategies? 14
D.1.2. What happened during the application of the strategies? 15
D.2 Analysis 16
D.2.1. What were the results? 16
D.2.2. Do the results fit with the theory? 17
Conclusion 18
References: 19
Annexes 20
Learning and reflecting journals first semester 21
Learning and reflecting journals second semester 35
1
Introduction
During this semester, I worked with the English Club of Universidad Católica
de Temuco. The club has 14 students in total, who belong to two different schools.
My classmates and I did one class per week, taking turns in order to teach a class.
During the succession of lesson, I discovered an aspect that needs to be improved
which is related with the standard C3, according to the Performance standards for
initial teacher training (MINEDUC, 2001). For this reason, I will firstly describe the
context of my class, which is relevant to contextualize the reason why I came up with
this issue stimulating the students’ participation and a plan of action to improve it.
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A) Context
A.1 Description of the English Club
The English Club at Universidad Católica is an initiative to potency students

who have motivation and interests towards learning English. It is formed by two
schools, one is located in Imperial and the other in Temuco, and their dependency
is subsidized. In total, I taught 14 students between first and third high, meaning that
their ages go from 14 to 16 years old.
According to Piaget (1998), the students should be in the formal operational

stage of cognitive development, which is the last stage that covers from 11 years old
until adulthood. This means they must be in the process of developing skills such
as: logical thought, deductive reasoning and systematic planning. Also, they answer
systematically or deductively the rhetorical situations stated by the teacher. Due to
this, it is important to mention that Piaget states that people not always achieve
stages at the age related to them since each person has different ways and pace to
achieve a stage, for this reason depends on the personal development. This explains
why I was able to identify only some of the key characteristics of this stage, such as
abstract thinking which is shown in the way they can guess or infer the meaning of
a word based solely on what they can see, and the way they can recall previous
knowledge to help answer questions.
A.3. How did we come up with the problem?
The attendance to each class was very good in average, however the
participation during the class was also not the best, since they would not participate
voluntarily nor activate their camera. This situation would often create insecurity
about whether they were or not paying attention, and the silence when something
was being asked would make me feel anxious. I realized that would not matter what
questions were being asked, the students would not participate in the prior
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knowledge activation, contextualization nor in the comprehension questions after a
receptive skill.
This situation was extremely uncomfortable for me as a teacher, nevertheless

it drove me to analyze the situation and notice that even if the material was
motivating, well created and adapted enough, I was not making the students think
beyond. This issue is related to the aspect C3 on the National Standards (MINEDUC,
2001), which involves student stimulation so they could give more than a simple
answer during the activities, by using strategies destined to engage the student and
make them think beyond their comfort zone. I identify this as a problem since
according to Richardson & Newby (2006), Cognitive engagement influences the
amount and kind of effort the students expend on classroom tasks and it reflects into
a motivated behavior, which it could not be contemplated on their responses to the
activities, where there was mainly pure silence. From my perspective about the
problem, the students’ engagement is tightly related to motivation, which according
to Harmer (2007) is the desire to achieve a goal that can come from an external or
an internal factor. This concept has been previously perceived in the students’
answers on the diagnostic test, where they explained that some of them wanted to
learn because they enjoyed the language, or because they wanted to travel
someday.
In view of the lack of response from their end, which contradicted their
reasons for coming to the English Club, I can tell that the problem I am facing
here is worrisome, not only because of the way I feel the situation but also because
Ur (2012) mentions that teachers, particularly teaching adolescent learners within
the education system of a non-English speaking country, have a crucial role to play
increasing motivation to learn. Taking into consideration, the dilemma can be
defined as a lack of ability from the teacher in order to engage the student in the
online classroom, since in words of Groccia (2018), the ability of instructors to
engage learners on three levels: doing, feeling, and thinking, will contribute to
educational experiences that lead to higher level learning, retention, and satisfaction.
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Speaking from my personal experience, I strongly believe this issue was
originated due to the context we are living in. I did not feel prepared enough to teach
online, not because I lack training, but due to the uncertainty of teaching online,
always expecting something to stop working, whether it is an app, a web tool, the
internet connection, or even the fear of the students not connecting to the class. I
understand that these students are coming as volunteers and that we cannot compel
them to do difficult things since that can cut the motivation they have. At the
beginning, when I had the opportunity to observe my classmates teach first, I thought
they were shy and did not have the confidence yet to express themselves, but this
changed when it was my turn to teach. I felt extremely anxious, nervous and even
disappointed at a certain point because I did not understand why the silence, why
they would not turn on their cameras nor give a longer answer besides “yes” or
“clear”. It was then when I thought that I was not giving them enough chances to
answer, or that the questions were not open enough. Now, I realized that the matter
was on my side, and that I was not pushing them to think further. For this reason,
and in order to improve this, I came up with the following research question: How
can I engage my students online to think further?
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B) Theoretical Support
To develop a plan, it must first understand the point where the interest of our students
to participate in classes comes from, to contribute ideas, thoughts, comments, and
seek solutions to problems that they may face. This is why I will first begin by
understanding the idea of Engagement, and then what I hope to develop, which is
Critical Thinking.
1. What is Student engagement?
According to Carini, Kuh & Klein (2006) Student engagement is generally

considered to be among the better predictors of learning and personal development.
The premise is deceptively simple, perhaps self-evident: The more students’ study
or practice a subject, the more they tend to learn about it and be interested in it.
As we can notice, this concept is closely related to motivation. If there is no

motivation, there is no engagement. The very act of being engaged also adds to the
foundation of skills and dispositions that is essential to live a productive and
satisfying life after college (Carini, Kuh & Klein, 2006)
In the words of Richardson & Newby (2006), when developing online courses
instructors and designers need to take into account the characteristics of a
population, such as program focus area, age of the learner, and amount of prior
online experience, in order to achieve from the base, the engagement of the
students. From this, teachers have to be prepared to foresee future adaptations so
as to fit the material delivered to the class profile.
2. What is Critical Thinking?
Once considering the aforementioned aspects, we can begin to unite

engagement with an important aspect I want to develop in this Improvement Plan. It
is Critical Thinking itself, and the importance that it has in the classroom.
First, it is important to understand what critical thinking means. Critical

thinking is understood as a mental and rational activity that involves different
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processes: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and
creating, among others (Leal & Gómez, 2016). Facione (2007) provides a fuller
vision of critical thinking by clarifying that it is “about how you approach problems,
questions, or issues. It is the best way we know of to get to the truth” (p. 10) in
common situations of real life. This last definition shows that students are thinking
beings who do not accept everything that is said or given to them, and that they have
the ability to question and research on their own to find an answer. In this case, they
are no longer passive actors in their learning process, but rather active entities in
their entirety.
3. Why is Critical Thinking important in EFL?
There are multiple reasons for helping EFL learners improve their critical
thinking. For Leal & Gómez (2016) there are four reasons where first, they become
better readers and critics of what they read in English. Second, critical thinking can
improve learners’ productive abilities when they have to give their opinions and
arguments in the foreign language. Third, being a critical thinker is an advantage to
be successful, not only in academic contexts, but also when solving real life tasks.
Fourth, learning a foreign language implies using language within communicative
contexts in which learners can think critically in order to achieve communicative
goals.
Thinking critically will also help students to create strong arguments of their
own (for example, in assignments). This means that they will be able to present and
justify any claims they make based on the evidence they have evaluated (The Open
University, 2008, p.8)
Finally, as a summary:
Developing critical thinking skills will allow students to develop more reasoned
arguments for their assignments, projects and examination questions. They
will be able to use and draw on evidence to justify their own arguments and
ideas. In addition, they will be able to synthesise their own thoughts, the
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thoughts of differing theorists/researchers and those of the course materials
authors. (The Open University, 2008, p.8)
4. What to do to develop Critical Thinking in EFL?
Nowadays, as teachers, in order to accomplish the critical thinking of the

student, we need to be aware of the new methodologies and material available to
achieve it. For this reason, it is important to create material in order to fulfill the
learning necessities our students might have. The materials can represent a source
of motivation for students when these materials change the dynamics of the class
routines (González, 2006).
Due to this, students’ cognitive engagement, as a construct, allows us to go

beyond the anecdotes and course grades to gain knowledge about how students “go
about learning” while taking into account their unique individual experiences that
shape them and their learning. For instance, activities would need to be related to
the topic of interests of the students, or the context they might face when traveling.
This is called Authentic material, which according to Tomlinson (2012) is material
that comes from a daily basis. This type of material can increase the motivation of
the students since the teacher can foster their self-image as successful language
learners and ensure that classroom activities are interesting (Ur, 2012). This also
fulfills the purpose of the communicative approach The communicative approach,
since it stresses the significance of language function instead of the form (Harmer,
2007). It is extremely important for the students to have a clear development of the
skills through the lesson in order to not just to develop critical thinking, but also to
develop and practice the language. Harmer (2007) purposes two different strategies
to develop the receptive skills:
Firstly, the Top-down strategy, where the reader or listener gets a general
view of the reading or listening by absorbing the overall. Secondly, the Bottom-up
strategy, where the reader or listener focuses on individual words and phrases to
achieve understanding of the whole picture. Harmer (2007) states that without a
good understanding of a reasonable portion in the development of the receptive
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skills, the learning process towards the production will cause confusion and for the
students to tremble at the moment of speaking or writing.
On the other hand, a teacher can always use questioning to open the dialogue
with a group of students. In this case quality questioning, in Walsh & Sattes (2017)
words, should promote student-to-student dialogue, cause reflection on practice and
require teachers and students to assume new roles and responsibilities.
5. What ICT resources can I use to develop Critical Thinking in the class?
Taking into consideration the online reality we are living due to the pandemic,
online learning environments are no longer enough to compare these types of
learning experiences to traditional, face-to-face classroom environments
(Richardson & Newby, 2006). The use of ICTs needs to be conscious about which
one suits your students the best, and how these will help them to develop their
knowledge and communicative skills, which are necessary for second language
learning. Richards & Renandya (2002) say that beginners need structured material
already provided by textbooks but thanks to how globalized the world is, the web
provides teachers with an extra resource to reinforce the learning process.
Online tools that enhance participation of the student, without making the
student feel under the loop are very good options, always taking into account the
activities, expected outcomes, and instructional practices of domain areas, and work
specifically with those in mind as courses are developed (Richardson & Newby,
2006). For instance, the Padlet tool, which allows the tutor to create different
activities that can be sent to the student with private access, is a good option to write
comments, ideas, explain a situation, or discuss. On the other hand, to develop
critical thinking when speaking, a video call through Meet, Zoom, or any other
platform that meets the objective of making a call, can be the most suitable resource
to share ideas orally.
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C) Plan of Action
After having identified the problem present in my lessons and

implementations, and having established a theoretical framework that supports the
importance of finding a solution to the established problem, an action plan must be
created to guide the process of improvement to the aforementioned problem
C.1 Objectives:
1. To reflect on my performance as a teacher, generating spaces and creating

lessons that lead students to develop critical thinking.
2. To evaluate the strategies chosen for this improvement plan
C.2 Research Methodology:

For this research work, the qualitative research method has been considered.
The qualitative research method is based on the social sciences. Regarding

this, Guerrero (2016) states that qualitative research focuses on understanding and
deepening the phenomena, analyzing from the point of view of the participants in
their environment and in relation to the aspects that surround them.
C.3 Design:
For this research, the case study was used as the research design. According
to López (2013) the case study is the empirical investigation of a phenomenon about
which you want to learn within its real everyday context and it is especially useful
when the limits or edges between phenomena and context are not entirely evident.
According to the types of case study that can be used in an investigation,

there are the instrumental, the collective and the single case. The instrumental case
type plays a supporting role by facilitating the understanding of something. The case
may be characteristic of others, and it is chosen insofar as it contributes something
to the understanding of what is being investigated.
Finally, the instrumental case study is chosen because it allows to verify or

improve theories and not just the simple fact of knowing the case studied.
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C.4 Strategies:
1. To identify students’ interest through an interest survey, in order to implement
topics where they feel comfortable talking about.
2. To use real-world scenarios in order to increase rigor, relevance, and critical
thinking. This strategy follows the previous one.
3. To include in the lessons different engagement techniques such as using
analogies, promoting interactions among students, asking open-ended
questions, allowing reflection time, allowing for thinking practice (Joseph,
2019).
4. To create a checklist with criteria that will help me see if the lesson plans
include engagement techniques that allow the development of critical
thinking.
C.5 Resources:
As in every class, I will need:
● Human resources: Students and Teacher.

● Material resources: Computers, internet, microphones, cameras, Power
Point, digitals platforms (Wordwall, Google Form, Padlet, etc.)
On the other hand, taking into account the planning process and depending the
activities, we might use:
● The planning checklist, the interest survey, ppts.
C.6 Time:
The strategies will be applied during the second semester, in the implementations to
be done, and in the following order:
1. The application of the interest survey will be applied among the first two
weeks of the semester, so as to have already a clear position about the
students’ interests.
2. The second strategy will be applied at the moment of the planning in every
one of the implementations during the semester.
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3. The third strategy will be applied in every lesson in those activities where the
students have to share their opinions and answer based on critical thinking
(Contextualization, activation of prior knowledge, reading and listening
comprehension, metacognition).
4. The checklist will be used at the moment of the planning for every
implementation, the same as strategy number 2.
C.7 Resources:
As in every class, I will need:
● Human resources: Students and Teacher.

● Material resources: Computers, internet, microphones, cameras, Power
Point, digitals platforms (Wordwall, Google Form, Padlet, etc.)
On the other hand, taking into account the planning process and depending the
activities, we might use:
● The planning checklist, the interest survey, ppts.
C.8 Assessments tools:
The following assessment tools were designed to guide the implementation

process of the aforementioned strategies. This time there are 3 assessment tools
considered. The first is a checklist for the guide teacher, so that she can evaluate
my performance. The second is a self-assessment checklist, which will allow me to
personally assess whether I have met the objectives proposed by myself. And finally
the Journal Reflections. This instrument will allow me to keep a record of everything
that will happen during the implementations, giving a guided look but based on self-
criticism. This will be crucial to understand and reflect on my performance and the
implementation of the strategies.
1. Checklist for the guide teacher.
Criteria Accomplished Not Accomplished

The strategies were evidenced in the steps of the lesson
plan.
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The strategies were successfully implemented.
The teacher candidate invited students to think and act
independently, even at the risk of making mistakes.
The teacher candidate managed to get critical thinking from
his students.
3. Self-assessment checklist.
Criteria Accomplished Not Accomplished

I could implement the strategies presented.
The activities and questions created for the lesson allow
students to develop their ideas clearly.
The activities where critical thinking from the students was
needed were developed successfully.
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D) Evaluation & Analysis of results
D.1 Evaluation
D.1.1. How did I apply the strategies?
As I mentioned earlier, last semester I ran into the problem that I was unable
to bring my students into deep critical thinking. That is why I set out as an objective
to improve engagement techniques in order to encourage critical thinking in
the students about the learning process.
The first strategy that I proposed was to create and implement an interest’s
survey for the students, so that I could know their likes, the topics they wanted to
address and in which they feel comfortable speaking and expressing their ideas.
To my advantage, when implementing my strategies, the lead teacher

decided to implement an interest survey, for the same purpose. This helped me a lot
when creating my second lesson, in which I would apply my strategies. Because of
that, I chose a suitable topic for my students, based on their opinions, and I could
apply the second strategy as well.
While creating my lessons, I took care to carry out the third strategy. Within
the planning, I tried to generate important instances to create discussions, small
debates, and personal reflections. This could be possible thanks to the open
questions, allowing interaction between the students, and giving the necessary time
to speak and reflect on the questions. I think time was an important ally when
implementing the strategies.
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D.1.2. What happened during the application of the strategies?
As a basis, it was very important to connect the objective of my improvement

plan with the learning objective of the lessons. In this case, the attitudinal aspect or
content of the lesson was developing critical thinking. This gave me the game or
guide to design the lesson.
Firstly, when implementing, I started with the interest survey. This yielded
results on the interests of the students and helped to choose the topics, material,
and content for the class. Undoubtedly, this demonstrates the tremendous
importance of considering the minds of our students when creating and
implementing a class, as well stated by the indicators of criterion A-1 of the Teaching
Performance Standards (MINEDUC, 2001)
Having implemented content, materials, and a topic that they wanted to

address themselves, made this strategy (interest survey) make sense. Otherwise, I
would get nothing just by knowing what the students wanted, without making it
available to them through the lesson.
Second, the third strategy proposed was to generate open spaces, through
open questions, place for interactions, etc., so that the objective of getting critical
thinking from the students was evident. On this point, I was greatly surprised. The
students made the most of each space given to share opinions and thoughts. This,
as I already mentioned, even generated small debates between their opinions, using
vocabulary related to the lesson, different grammatical forms, and with an exquisite
coherence. This scenario led me to think about the importance of generating spaces
to develop critical thinking in the class, where relevant topics predominate according
to the likes of the students, since they not only apply what they think, but also the
knowledge they have about English language.
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Finally, having obtained this tremendous participation from the students,
where their critical thinking on different topics was developed in an excellent way, I
can now finalize the last strategy that consisted of a Checklist to evaluate my
performance at the time of preparing my lesson, in which I had to generate suitable
spaces to develop critical thinking. In this way, this strategy (checklist) could be
tackled positively.
D.2 Analysis
D.2.1. What were the results?
Although the results are completely qualitative, where beyond a comment on

my part giving faith that the objective was achieved, it may be more than necessary,
I wanted to express them in a graph (see Figure 1) where you can see the time that
was invested in developing critical thinking during the two lessons of this semester.
CRITICAL THINKING
10:48
9:36
TIME INVESTED
8:24
7:12
6:00
4:48
3:36
2:24
LESSON 1
1:12
0:00 LESSON 2
LESSON STEPS
Figure 1: “Time invested for developing Critical Thinking
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As can be seen in the graph, finally in each of the steps of the lesson there was
space and time to develop critical thinking, although it is necessary to emphasize
that the part that was most developed was at the time of preparing the final product.
In Lesson 1 the final product was to hold a debate, which clearly opens up spaces
to expand on comments, ideas, thoughts, etc. In Lesson 2, they had to create a
poster, which, as evidenced by the graphic, took longer. Perhaps at first glance it
can be inferred that it took more time because the poster had to be made. However,
this activity was designed so that students could develop aspects of critical thinking
such as inferring, self-regulation, open mind and problem solving. So, this does take
more time and fully reaches the objective.
D.2.2. Do the results fit with the theory?
According to the results obtained after the implementation of the strategies, I can
assure you that much of the theory presented in this Improvement Plan was
adequate and correct. For example, the quote I used from González (2006)
mentioned the importance of creating material focused on the needs of our students.
This helps to generate motivating environments that can seriously change the
dynamics of the class, generating greater student participation.
This type of material can increase the motivation of the students since the teacher
can foster their self-image as successful language learners and ensure that
classroom activities are interesting (Ur, 2012).
Another important aspect was that the lesson had a clear structure, and the tasks
for comprehension (reading and listening) were adequate, creating a good
environment for the production of both lessons. Harmer (2007) states that without a
good understanding of a reasonable portion in the development of the receptive
skills, the learning process towards the production will cause confusion and for the
students to tremble at the moment of speak or write.
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Conclusion
I must admit that this is the first time that an improvement plan has made so much
sense and gives me tangible results, of which I can say that a good job has its results.
The importance that everything in our lessons and implementations (both explicitly
and implicitly) go hand in hand, forces us to carry out a conscious work from
beginning to end, taking into consideration such important aspects as the contents,
materials, tasks, and our students.
I think that I used to take critical thinking very lightly, and I saw it as something
automatic that did not need instances or suitable times for its development. But the
pandemic context in which we are, and having to connect through a screen where
students keep their cameras turned off, and without prompt questions they do not
respond, led me to take this important aspect seriously.
Now, focused on what I learned from this process, in addition to acquiring a variety
of theory for my knowledge, I also learned to plan lessons designed for my students,
where they are the main elements to develop it effectively. As the Standards
(MINEDUC, 2001) say, teaching is not arbitrary.
From now on, I must worry about promoting spaces so that my students can develop
in all areas. Where they can share their ideas, their opinions, always based on
respect. But this will help me generate meaningful learning in them. That is my goal.
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References:
Carini, R. M., Kuh, G. D., & Klein, S. P. (2006). Student Engagement and Student
Learning: Testing the Linkages. Research in Higher Education, 47(1), 1–32.
Facione, P. A. (2007). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. Millbrae, CA:
California Academic Press. Retrieved on April 5thfrom:
www.insightassessment. com/pdf_files/what&why2007.pdf
González, A. (2006). Acerca de la capacitación en el uso de los materiales en la

formación para la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera: Algunas
reflexiones. Profile Issues on Teachers' Professional Development, 111-116.
Guerrero, M. (2016). La investigación cualitativa. INNOVA Research Journal, 1(2),

1-9.
Groccia, J. E. (2018). What Is Student Engagement? New Directions for Teaching

and Learning, Wiley Online Library (154), 11–20.
Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. England: Pearson

Education Limited.
Joseph, M. (2019, October 2nd). Strategies to increase critical thinking skills in

students. Teach Better. https://www.teachbetter.com/blog/strategies-to-
increase-critical-thinking-skills-in-students/
Leal Hernández, Mariela, & Gómez Rodríguez, Luis Fernando (2016). Encouraging
Critical Thinking Development in an EFL Classroom through Urban Legends.
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ISSN: 0123-4870. Available in:
https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=345943442010
López González, Wilmer Orlando (2013). El estudio de casos: una vertiente para la
investigación educativa. Educere, 17(56),139-144.[fecha de Consulta 23 de
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Noviembre de 2021]. ISSN: 1316-4910. Disponible en:
https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=35630150004
Mineduc. (2001). Estándares de desempeño para la formación inicial de docentes.

Santiago: División de Educación Superior.
Piaget, J. (1998). Introducción a Piaget: Pensamiento, Aprendizaje y Enseñanza.

México: Longman, S.A.
Richardson, J. C., & Newby, T. (2006). The Role of Students’ Cognitive Engagement
in Online Learning. American Journal of Distance Education, 20(1), 23–37.
Richards, J.,& Renandya, W. (2002). Methodology in Language Teaching: An

Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge University Press.
https://books.google.cl/books?id=VxnGXusQlI8C
Tomlinson, B. (2012). Materials Development for Language learning and Teaching.

Language Teaching, 143-179.
Ur, P. (2012). A course in English language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge

university press.
Walsh, J. & Sattes, B. (2017). Quality questioning research - based practice to

engage every learner. California: Corwin
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Annexes
1. Learning and reflecting journals first semester
Entry: 1 Date: 19/03 (Week 1)
Reflect about your practice last year, answer the following questions:
1 What did you like the most about your practice last year? Why? (clases implementadas)
- Last year's classes were a challenge for everyone; students, teachers, practitioners. I
personally enjoyed the experience of being able to teach through technology. Today there
are a huge number of resources that help the development of the class, making it more
didactic, captivating, entertaining and motivating for both students and teachers. Specifically,
students are even more connected than we are with digital platforms.
While face-to-face classes help us deliver even more personalized instruction, through digital
resources we can create a new teaching experience for our students.
From a slightly more social-emotional point of view, I felt that this modality gives those
introverted students the opportunity to participate more, since it was not 100% necessary to
turn on the camera, so they did not feel uncomfortable. Perhaps this explanation sounds
strange from the point of view that the simulations were carried out with classmates from the
same program. But the point is that I know them, and I know how they developed in face-to-
face classes, and how they did it now. This difference was noticed in their interventions and
participation.
2 What didn’t you like about your practice last year? Why? (clases implementadas)
- Something that I did not like was the little interaction that I was able to have with the students.
Although, through technological resources, it is possible to make an attractive class for
students, the fact of not being able to see how they work, monitor their learning, give
feedback, when necessary, leaves a great gap in the objective of the class. Here we realize
the importance of the teacher's roles in the classroom. The teacher/student interaction is very
important during the teaching/learning process, and in the conditions that we find ourselves
in, it is much more noticeable.
3 What did you learn at your practice? (clases implementadas)

- I learned about the integration of multimodal and interactive teaching resources. By this I
mean textual, graphic, audiovisual and interactive media in the online context. Although I
personally have management of the use of technological resources, I had to learn to use
them in the educational context (teaching / learning process).
4 What did you learn in Practice and Didactics classes last year? (clases Universidad)
- Within what I still keep in mind, I learned more deeply about special educational needs and
their relationship with the teaching of English as a second language, how to identify them,
how to adapt the learning outcomes for students with SEN and how to deliver instructions.
Another content I learned was how to teach vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. During
this semester I also learned how to use technology to make content more accessible to
English language learners (which was quite useful, given the current context). Also, I learned
about how to assess language, types of tests, the characteristics of a good testing, and how
to achieve positive washback.
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5 What do you like to learn this year? (clases que implementan/ clases Universidad)
- Personally, I feel that I still have to learn more about assessment instruments. While it's
something I saw last year, I still make mistakes creating them.
Entry: 2
Reflect about the contents seen this week in the classes of Práctica IV y Didáctica III, answer
the following questions:
1 What did I learn this week?

- This week the teacher started with “Lesson Aims”. The first topic was Objectives. The mean
(this means what the students are going to do/achieve in this lesson), how we have to create
them (reasonable, attainable, they have to be reached for our students, and measured.
- I learned what types of objectives exist as well. There are “Learning Outcomes”, “Objectives”,
and “Contents”.
2 How did I learn it?
- Objectives have always been a “problem” for me. What I have learned about them is just
because of practice. Through mistakes I’ve realized where my weakness was and how to
create them. And obviously because of theory. My last Improvement Plan was about how to
properly create Learning Outcomes.
3 What didn’t I learn? Why?
- One thing I have to learn is to write these objectives in the most specific way, not redundant,
not too long, and put in the right words that help to make these objectives clear.
4 What am I going to do to learn what I didn’t learn?
- Take up reading and documents about Learning Outcomes seen during the past year.
Practice writing them, not only for the lesson, but as a way to improve my skill to create them.
5 What else do I expect to learn about the content of this week?
- I’m not completely clear about Contents (conceptual, procedural, attitudinal), so reinforcing
this topic particularly would be beneficial to me, in order to get the idea completely.
6 What is the use in learning the content of this week?
- The objectives are the basis of the lesson, the foundation. Without clear and consistent goals,
our lesson will not make sense or reach the product we hope for.
7 How am I going to use the content of this week?
- Since we are already creating the first lesson of this semester, this content takes the initial
step to create it. Its use is practically mandatory to be able to work on our lesson.
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Entry: 3 Date: 29/03 (week 3)

- During this class we continued learning about Lesson Aims, but this time focus on
“Sequencing”. I learned this is the way in which the steps of the lesson happen, how they will
happen and the transition of the activities during the lesson. Also, Sequencing includes even
the right time when certain activities will be done. It should have relation or should support
the learning objectives of the lesson. I learned the elements that a lesson used to have in it
(warm-up, introduction, activation of prior knowledge, etc.). These elements, according to the
sequence the lesson must have, have to be included in certain moments or stages of the
development lesson. In this class, I learned particularly about the Stage n°1 which has to be
with the Presentation and Engagement activities. The most suitable presentation and
engagement should include a warm-up activity, introduction to the class topic and activation
of prior knowledge. The importance of this stage is tremendous, because it works as a “hook”
(I love this word) to the students, catching their attention to what the lesson is going to be
about, and we start to teach the content their brains will have been already activated.

- I learned through the teacher's explanation and by Jeremy Harmer’s book “The Practice of
English Language Teaching”. In this book, specifically chapter 22 explain about Planning
Lessons and Planning a sequence of lessons.

- Scaffolding strategies. I didn’t remember about this term, maybe it was seen during last year,
but I couldn´t bring it to my mind.

- I’m going to look for texts or info about this term, look for examples, and how to relate them
with the lesson planning.

- I would like to learn more about activation of prior knowledge activities. I think if I can get the
prior knowledge of my students in an effective way, the rest of the lesson will be a piece of
cake, because they are going to feel familiar with the content of the work.
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- How we start the lesson is a very important part. How we engage our students, how we
introduce them to the topic of the lesson will be helpful for the lesson development. Our
students will know what the lesson is going to be about.

- We are already creating our first lesson. This step is going to be present in the sequence of
it. It is going to be used practically right now. I will have to consider engagement and
presentation activities to make my students feel connected with the topic of the lesson from
the very beginning.

- This week we continue with Stage n°2 in the Lesson Aims series. This time the teacher talked
about Study – Input. Within this stage we can find Key, Reading and Listening. This stage is
the lesson core, and as I already mentioned it can be a reading or a listening activity (or even
both). The main characteristic of this part is to work for an analysis or study. It should have a
link with the previous activity (engagement activity). But before this part it is important to
prepare our students. The teacher can provide keywords, key structure, pronunciation and
give students a strategy for reading/listening activity. It can be very useful for students and
teachers.
In this stage are Comprehension and Practice Tasks. In this part the main purpose is to check
comprehension and provide scaffolding when necessary.
- After this, the teacher provided us with Reading Strategies such as: using prior knowledge or
previewing, predicting, summarizing, questioning, making inferences, visualizing.
- Continuing, I learned some facts about listening, also the importance of listening in language
learners. For example, they need it to obtain information, to understand, for enjoyment, to
learn, and to communicate. I learned some reasons why it is hard in English (listening), and
how to improve this in our students. For example, by modeling listening strategies, and by
providing active listening practice. Some strategies can be Top-Down strategies (predicting,
listening for main ideas, taking notes), and Bottom-Up (listening for specific info and
recognizing word sounds.
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- Finally, the teacher gave us some tips for helping our students become active listeners, based
on the strategies mentioned before.

- I learned it thanks to the teacher, her explanation, and by rereading the PPT she uploaded
to the platform. Also, this topic was seen during last semester in Didactic, so I already had
an idea of what it was about.

- The scaffolding strategies I can use in this activity. As in the last class, I still have to restudy
this topic, what they are and how to use them.

- I already looked for info about this specific topic since I had the same problem last week. I’ve
been reading and checking some examples. I have to continue learning about this, because
I see it is within every activity.

- One thing that got me was the idea of using Graphic Organizers. I’ve never used them but
when the teacher showed that part, I thought they could be very useful to help students to
organize the ideas of a text and understand what it is about. So, I expect to learn this resource
a bit more in order to apply this in my lesson.

- When entering the main parts of our lesson, reading or listening are topics that are going to
be present always, so we have to know how to approach them. The strategies seen in this
week are very useful when creating the lesson in order that our students can comprehend
what the text is about.
- The strategies and info learned in this week can be used as part of the lesson, or to work
specifically reading or listening. I have to use this content yes or yes during the lesson
planning process.
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- This week we continued with Stage n°3 in the Lesson Aims series. This time the teacher
talked about Practice-Output. Within this phase can be found the Reinforcement, Writing and
Speaking. This phase allows the students to use freely what they learned in the study phase
and practices it in different contexts. In other words, this phase gives the students the chance
to explore the language by themselves. An important aspect to keep in mind in the process
of this phase is to provide scaffolding and feedback in every step developed. This can be
achieved in a freer way than other phases. For example, using games, class discussions,
free writing tasks and communication activities.
- After that, the teacher explained Scaffolding Strategy. It is an instructional technique that
provides the support and structure necessary for students to learn new information or
complete assigned tasks in a successful way. Also, it helps the students to become more
independent.
Some ways to apply scaffolding are Modeling (prompting and thinking out loud), use of the
Internet, guiding the students with a discussion (leading questions), and group work (by
pairing advanced learners with developing ones). But, in addition to this, it is important that
the teacher has knowledge about content, students, learning theory, and repertoire of
strategies and tools.
There are two types of Scaffolding, Programmatic and Responsive. Firstly, in the
Programmatic Scaffolding the activities are designed and planned for providing scaffolding
to the students. This includes models, graphic organizers, visuals and realia, verbal prompts,
use of L1, activating knowledge.
Secondly, the Responsive Scaffolding is a direct scaffolding provided while the learner is
developing the task. This includes Open Ended Questions (how will you…? What happened
after…? Can you tell me…? etc.)
- Then, the teacher finished explaining the last Stage. It was Metacognition (warm down). This
stage is where the recap of the main points of the lesson takes place. This stage is good for
developing something lighter in order to sum up what was learned.
- In this class, the teacher showed us a video about Metacognitive. This video said that a good
metacognitive strategy can help the students to acquire, retain, and transfer new content. But
this process takes time, effort, practice, and an awareness of the need. Also, it said that
studies have shown that giving students practice with metacognitive strategies can improve
how well the students transfer knowledge to new contexts.
- Some of the metacognitive strategies that the video presented involves Planning and goal-
settings, Continual monitoring of one’s progress by identifying what you know and what you
don´t know, and then adapting as necessary. The benefits of metacognition come from using
strategies like Self-questioning, Annotated drawings, Concept mapping, Checklists, and
Reciprocal teaching, etc.
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to the platform. On the other hand, the video she presented was a very useful way to
understand the content. I enjoyed it and I could get the idea clearly.

- I don’t think I didn’t learn anything, but I know I need more practice. It is because I couldn’t
apply scaffolding strategies in a suitable way in my lesson.

- I’m going to follow the information and content provided by the teacher when creating my
new lesson, in order to face this problem in the practice.

- I think Metacognition was the content that captivated me. It is very interesting how we can
develop this stage in our lessons. I would like to know more strategies and how to make them
effective in a short-time lesson.

- These stages come to finish the steps of a lesson. They are very important when creating
our lessons. The product and the metacognition we can get from our students will
demonstrate how effective our lesson was.
- When creating my new lesson. In the last one I created I didn’t take into consideration all
these contents (steps), so I made several mistakes. But now I understand most of them and
they need to be applied in the next one.

- This week, we learned about Assessment, Scoring, and Evaluation. Within the content, we
saw their definitions, differences, and types. According to the definitions, we learned that
Evaluation is a process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting information about teaching
and learning in order to make informed decisions that enhance student achievement and the
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success of educational programs. Assessment is that part of the evaluation that includes the
collection and analysis of information about the student learning. And finally Scoring is the
procedure of assigning a numerical value to an assessment task.
- Within the types of Assessment, we find summative (for performance assessment), formal
(quizzes, tests, essays, lab reports, etc.), formative (for performance enhancement), informal
(active questioning during and at end of the class), traditional (tests, quizzes, homework, lab
reports, teacher), alternative (PBL's, presentations, essays, book reviews, peers / groups
tasks). On the other hand, the Evaluation types are Criterion-referenced evaluation where
students' performance is assessed against a set of predetermined standards, and Norm-
referenced evaluation where students' performance is assessed in relation to the other
students' performance.

to the platform. Also, this topic was seen during last semester in Didactic, so I already had
an idea of what it was about.

- Validity and Reliability. I could not get the exact idea of these terms; I still have some
questions.

- I am going to rewrite the ppt provided by the teacher, and as I am an audiovisual learner, I
will look for a video that explains this content.

- I think it would be useful (at least for me) to go deep with Assessment Concerns. It is a content
I would like to reinforce.

- How we assess our students is very important. Their learning cannot be assessed lightly and
we must choose the best type of assessment tool to understand their learning process and
what we must reinforce, accurately and appropriately.
- This is a very important and essential content in the teaching-learning process of our
students. The best way to implement this content is in practice, during the planning of our
lessons and the implementation itself.
Entry: 7 Date: 07/05
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- This week we begin the Assessing Language series. The first was Assessing Reading. It is
the most essential skill for success in all educational contexts, and remains a skill of
paramount importance as we create assessments of general language ability. The
assessment of reading ability does not end with the measurement of comprehension.
- The genres of Reading out there are Academic reading, Job-related reading, and Personal
reading. There are macro skills for reading and microskills for reading. There are also
different types of reading: Perceptive, Selective, Interactive, Extensive.
- When designing an Assessment Task for a Perceptive reading there is a set of tasks that are
fundamental and basic: recognition of alphabetic symbols, capitalized and lowercase letters,
punctuation, words and grapheme phoneme corresponds. This is implying that the learner is
in the early stages of becoming "literate". When designing for a Selective reading it focuses
on formal aspects of language (lexical, grammatical and a few discourse features). On the
other hand, it includes what many incorrectly think of as testing “vocabulary and grammar”.
When designing for an Interactive reading the tasks at this level have a combination of form-
focused and meaning-focused objectives but with more emphasis on meaning. It implies a
little more focus on top-down processing than on bottom-up. Finally, when designing an
assessment task for extensive reading, it involves somewhat longer texts. Journal articles,
technical reports, longer essays, short stories and books fall into this category. Reading of
this type of discourse almost always involves a focus on meaning using mostly top-down
processing, with only occasional use of targeted bottom-up strategy.

to the platform. On the other hand, I learned more about this content thanks to the chapters
that I had to read to do the assignments related to Assessing Reading.

- More than something I haven't learned; I feel like I need to reinforce some things like micro
and macro kills.

- Rewrite the ppt, watch the recording of that class specifically.
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- How to select the proper reading task in order to get a deep participation of my students
during the class.

- Reading is one of the receptive skills that is little used or that is worked very poorly. Knowing
how to design an assessment task for this skill can change the way in which our students
perceive reading and how to work on its correct understanding.
- During the planning of my lesson. When I choose the right text, the comprehension activities,
and how to assess that comprehension.
In the weeks of your implementations

Questions
a. What learning objective(s) does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include?
Why does it include these learning objectives? Are these learning outcomes appropriate for
students? Support your answer.
- “After listening to an audio about how to spot fake news and reading the script of the audio,
the students create a poster with a short text warning about how to spot fake news using wh-
questions and present tenses. Then, present it orally to the class while showing respect and
critical thinking”. Specifically, it is a Learning Outcome, because it states what the learner will
be able to do upon completing the learning activity. And it is completely focused on students.
It is appropriate because as I already mentioned, it is focused on the students, it is an
achievable goal for their level.
b. What contents does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does
it include these contents? Are these contents appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- Conceptual: present tenses, wh-questions and vocabulary about fake news
- Procedural: Writing a poster warning about falling into fake news and present it orally
- Attitudinal: Developing caution about fake news and critical thinking
- The contents chosen are according to the national curriculum, although in this instance they
were not adequate for the type of activity that was developed.
c. What tasks does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does it
include these tasks? Are these tasks appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- Reading, listening, writing, and speaking tasks. It is important that students can develop the
four skills, so creating tasks for each of them will help us to work comprehension and apply
what they have learned.
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d. What resources does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does
it include these resources? Are these resources appropriate for students? Support your
answer.
- This lesson included a written and a listening text to develop listening and reading
comprehension. To make these activities more interactive, we worked through various
platforms such as Wordwall, Padlet and Google form. For the productive skills the students
worked on a powerpoint template where they created a poster, and due to this opportunity,
due to time, they were unable to present orally.
e. What kind of classroom arrangement does the lesson plan design / lesson plan
implementation include? Why does it include this classroom arrangement? Is this classroom
arrangement appropriate for students? Support your answer.
f. What kind(s) of assessment tasks and tools does the lesson plan design / lesson plan
implementation include? Why does it include these assessment tasks and tools? Are these
assessment tasks and tools appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- On this occasion, two types of Assessment tools were created, Rubric and Process Checklist.
- The rubric was to evaluate the productive skills (writing and speaking), and the process
checklist to evaluate the development of the input activities and control the participation of
the students.
g. How do you manage/consider diversity in your teaching performance? Support your answer.
- I have always tried to make an inclusive class, under an environment of respect. Both men
and women have the same capacities and conditions to respond and develop the activities
that the class demands.
h. How can you support SEN (Special Educational Needs) in the classroom?
- During this lesson the text they had to read was the same one they had to listen to. This gave
the visually and hearing-impaired students the opportunity to carry out the activities without
problems. In terms of production, it was similar. Since they had to create a poster, for those
with hyperactivity it was an activity where they could put their energy into the creativity that
the task required of them (to name a few).
i. How would you describe teacher-student interaction in your teaching performance? Is this
teacher-student interaction appropriate?
- I have always managed to create a bond between the students and myself, based on respect,
trust and tolerance. This leads me to respect their spaces, their times, their attitudes and in
the same way manage the class.
- I try to be a very active teacher during class, so that students feel that there is motivation on
my part, and so they can also feel part of the class at all times.
j. What strengths does your teaching practice show in terms of the process of designing and
implementing the lesson plan? Specify some evidence.
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- As this is the first planning of the semester, I feel that it was not the best. Until the last moment
I had to correct many things. Based on that, there are few strengths that I can identify. But
the one that comes to mind the most is the ability I have to overcome conditions. Although
the lesson plan was not quite good, I was able to carry out a good class, with shortcomings,
but manageable.
k. What weaknesses does your teaching practice show in terms of the process of designing and
- As I said before, there were many things that kept me lower than up. I planned this first lesson
with a colleague, and I admit that I could not connect with what she wanted to achieve or
capture in the lesson. She had her ideas and I had mine, and I felt like she didn't make sense
of what she was doing. I think that played against me a lot, and I finally had to save the lesson
anyway.
l. Taking into account the weaknesses in your teaching practice, what action/s will you
implement in the upcoming future? Based on theory, support the suggested action/s.
- Design the lesson myself, taking into account the requirements of the national curriculum,
and the prior knowledge of my students, since for the other lesson I will know a little more
about them.
In the weeks of your implementations

Questions
a. What learning objective(s) does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include?
Why does it include these learning objectives? Are these learning outcomes appropriate for
students? Support your answer.
- “After listening to an audio about things people like to do at the weekend and reading the
script of the audio, the students write their likes in a collaborative Chat using verb pattern
(verb+ -ing). Then, they participate in an oral dynamic with their classmates while developing
collaborative work and respectful thinking”. Specifically, it is a Learning Outcome, because it
states what the learner will be able to do upon completing the learning activity. And it is
completely focused on students. It is appropriate because as I already mentioned, it is
focused on the students, it is an achievable goal for their level.
b. What contents does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does
it include these contents? Are these contents appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- Conceptual: Verb patterns (verb+ -ing), vocabulary about hobbies and sports
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- Procedural: Writing a short paragraph with activities (hobbies and sports) people like to do
on the weekend. Collaborative speaking sharing activities (hobbies and sports) people like
to do at the weekend.
- Attitudinal: Developing collaborative work and respect for others' likes.
- The fact that they express their tastes about activities that they carry out in their free time,
leads them to share and in the same way generates an atmosphere of respect for the opinion
of the other.
- The verb pattern that was taught in this lesson is very useful to express what we like. That is
why I chose it, and it was the best decision to develop the production tasks.
c. What tasks does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does it
include these tasks? Are these tasks appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- They wrote their likes in a collaborative Chat using verb pattern (verb + -ing). Then, they
participated in an oral dynamic with their classmates. Both activities were developed very
effectively, with the participation of all students. Where they could apply the contents seen
during the class. On this occasion, they were able to develop the speaking task.
d. What resources does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does
it include these resources? Are these resources appropriate for students? Support your
answer.
- This lesson included a written and a listening text to develop listening and reading
comprehension, which were very useful for the development of the lesson and the productive
tasks. This is because the texts included all the contents that were taught in the class,
allowing the students to associate what they read and heard with what they had to do in the
production. To make these activities more interactive, we worked through various platforms
such as Wordwall, Padlet and Google form. For productive skills the students worked on a
padlet where they wrote a short paragraph, and for speaking they just had to turn on their
microphones.
e. What kind of classroom arrangement does the lesson plan design / lesson plan
implementation include? Why does it include this classroom arrangement? Is this classroom
arrangement appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- The rubric was to evaluate the productive skills (writing and speaking), and the process
checklist to evaluate the development of the input activities and control the participation of
the students. It was appropriate because the students were able to know that they would be
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evaluated and that their product was not only for doing something, but that something more
was expected of it.
g. How do you manage/consider diversity in your teaching performance? Support your answer.
- I have always tried to make an inclusive class, under an environment of respect. Both men
and women have the same capacities and conditions to respond and develop the activities
that the class demands.
- During this lesson the text they had to read was the same one they had to listen to. This gave
the visually and hearing-impaired students the opportunity to carry out the activities without
problems.
i. How would you describe teacher-student interaction in your teaching performance? Is this
teacher-student interaction appropriate?
- I have always managed to create a bond between the students and myself, based on respect,
trust and tolerance. This leads me to respect their spaces, their times, their attitudes and in
the same way manage the class.
- I try to be a very active teacher during class, so that students feel that there is motivation on
my part, and so they can also feel part of the class at all times.
- Unlike the previous lesson, this one I planned alone. This gave me the freedom to choose
the material, to think about what I wanted my students to achieve and do. Finally, I was able
to carry out the class comfortably, calmly, without the pressure of knowing if they would
understand or not. So, the strength that I identify is that in an environment where I have full
control, I can develop a good class.
- Perhaps a weakness is that sometimes I speak very fast (perhaps because of the emotion
of the moment), and this leads me to want to reiterate the information I give because I think
the students did not understand. Although that is still beneficial for them, since I can recheck
their understanding.
l. Taking into account the weaknesses in your teaching practice, what action/s will you
implement in the upcoming future? Based on theory, support the suggested action/s.
- The language, the rhythm and the tone with which I speak must be managed in a more
appropriate way, so that the students can understand the instructions and activities that I give
them during the class.
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2. Learning and reflecting journals second semester
Entry Number: 1 (Lesson 4) Date: _05-10-2021_ (day, month, year)
Reflective journal questions
a. What learning objective(s) does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why
does it include these learning objectives? Are these learning outcomes appropriate for students?
Support your answer.
- The learning objective was: After watching a video called “BookWars: E-books vs. Printed Books”
and reading the script, the students simulate an oral debate in groups using comparatives, words to
express opinion and vocabulary related to Books while developing collaborative work and respectful
thinking. Because it is a learning objective that allows us to work more than one skill, in turn it allows
us to make a final product, and also to work attitudinal aspects. It is appropriate because it is a clear
objective, and from the beginning the students will know what will be worked in the class, what they
will have to do, and how they will do it. In addition, the content to be worked on is related to the
interests of the students.
b. What contents does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does it
include these contents? Are these contents appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- As conceptual contents, the lesson includes comparatives, words to express opinion and vocabulary
related to Books. As procedural, it includes an oral debate. Finally, as attitudinal, it includes
developing collaborative work and respectful thinking. As this lesson was focused on generating a
final product, it was important to consider that the content to be worked on had a complete relationship
with the product. This allows students to make sense of it from the start. Finally, these contents are
appropriate for students because they are according to their level. In addition, specifically the
attitudinal, it allows them to develop important aspects such as respect, participation, and even critical
thinking.
c. What tasks does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does it include
these tasks? Are these tasks appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- Reading, listening, and speaking tasks. It is important that students can develop different skills, so
creating tasks for each of them will help us to work comprehension and apply what they have learned.
On this occasion, they listened to a video and read a text related to the content (made explicit in the
learning outcome), and developed comprehension tasks for each one. Then they participated in an
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oral debate with their classmates. All the activities were developed very effectively, with the
participation of all students, where they could apply the contents seen during the class.
d. What resources does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does it
include these resources? Are these resources appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- This lesson included a written and a listening text to develop listening and reading comprehension,
which were very useful for the development of the lesson and the productive task. This is because
the texts included all the contents that were taught in the class, allowing the students to associate
what they read and heard with what they had to do in the production. To make these activities more
interactive, we worked through various platforms such as Wordwall, Padlet and Google form. For the
productive skill the students had to speak so they just had to turn on their microphone.
e. What kind of classroom management does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation
include? Why does it include this classroom management? Is this classroom management
appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- As classroom management, in this lesson I focused a lot on the Offering Praise aspect. When it is
sincere and references specific examples of effort or accomplishment, praise can inspire the class,
improve a student’s self-esteem, reinforce rules and values I want to see during the class.
- The rubric was to evaluate the productive skill (speaking), and the process checklist to evaluate
the development of the input activities and control the participation of the students. It was appropriate
because the students were able to know that they would be assessed and that their product was not
only for doing something, but that something more was expected of it.
g. How do you manage / consider diversity in your teaching performance? Support your answer.
- I have always tried to make an inclusive class, under an environment of respect. Both men and
women have the same capacities and conditions to respond and develop the activities that the class
demands.
- During this lesson the text they had to read was the same one they had to listen to. This gave the
visually and hearing-impaired students the opportunity to carry out the activities without problems.
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i. How would you describe teacher-student interaction in your teaching performance? Is this teacher-
student interaction appropriate?
- I have always managed to create a bond between the students and myself, based on respect, trust
and tolerance. This leads me to respect their spaces, their times, their attitudes and in the same way
manage the class. I try to be a very active teacher during class, so that students feel that there is
motivation on my part, and so they can also feel part of the class at all times.
- I think that a strength that I find when designing my lesson is that I can find the right content to work
in class. This is reflected in the fact that before, there was always something to correct in that regard,
however today, the feedback I receive is only for small details. Also, I was able to carry out the class
comfortably, calmly, without the pressure of knowing if they would understand or not. So, the strength
that I identify is that in an environment where I have full control, I can develop a good class.
- According to last semester, my weakness was the speed with which I used to speak during class.
But today is something that has improved a lot. Now, a weakness that I could notice in this
implementation was the failure to encourage critical thinking in the students. I was left with that desire
to listen to them more, to expand when speaking. This was evidenced in the activation of previous
knowledge and in the comprehension task. I think that the lack of open questions, and also not giving
the chance to share more ideas, was a reason why this happened.
l. Taking into account the weaknesses in your teaching practice, what action/s will you implement in
the upcoming future? Based on theory, support the suggested action/s.
- I believe that providing spaces within the class so that students can contribute with ideas, comment,
respond openly, are the steps that I need to take in the next implementation. I consider this aspect
because Leal & Gómez (2016) establish that:
There are multiple reasons for helping efl learners improve their critical thinking. First, they become
better readers and critics of what they read in English. Second, critical thinking can improve learners’
writing and speaking abilities when they have to give their opinions and arguments in the foreign
language. Third, being a critical thinker is an advantage to be successful, not only in academic
contexts, but also when solving real life tasks. Fourth, learning a foreign language implies using
language within communicative contexts in which learners can think critically in order to achieve
communicative goals. (p.140)
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Entry Number: 2 (Lesson 8) Date: _02-11-2021__ (day, month, year)
Reflective journal questions
a. What learning objective(s) does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why
does it include these learning objectives? Are these learning outcomes appropriate for students?
Support your answer.
- This time, the learning objective was: After listening to a part of an audio called “Tips from Tik Tok
Every Marketer Has to Learn” and reading the script, the students create individually an Instagram
Story (poster) on Canvas about a topic they like to promote (new music, new movie, product, etc.),
using imperative form (affirmative and negative), and vocabulary related to social medias while
developing critical thinking and creativity. It is very important that students work on more than one
skill, and in turn can associate one with the other. In this case, I could have opted for a final product
based on Speaking, but I preferred Writing because it is something that is not developed regularly
(this thesis is part of my research project in Seminary). In the same way, in the attitudinal, I pointed
the learning objective to the problem evidenced in my Improvement Plan, in order to solve it, or find
a solution.
b. What contents does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does it
include these contents? Are these contents appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- As conceptual contents, the lesson includes imperative form and vocabulary about social media. As
procedural, it includes creating an Instagram story (poster) on Canva. Finally, as attitudinal, it includes
developing critical thinking and creativity. As this lesson was focused on generating a final product, it
was important to consider that the content to be worked on had a complete relationship with the
product. This allows students to make sense of it from the start. Additionally, these contents are at
their level, also the topic worked was very familiar to them, and because of that it was easy for them
to work on it and create the final product. Finally, the final product is completely connected to the
attitudinal content. This time, it allows the students to develop aspects of critical thinking such as
inferring, self-regulation, open mind and problem solving.
c. What tasks does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does it include
these tasks? Are these tasks appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- Reading, listening, and writing tasks. It is important that students can develop different skills, so
creating tasks for each of them will help us to work comprehension and apply what they have learned.
On this occasion, they listened to a video and read a text related to the content (made explicit in the
learning outcome), and developed comprehension tasks for each one. Then they created a writing
15
poster individually, emphasizing autonomous work. All the activities were developed very effectively,
with the participation of all students, where they could apply the contents seen during the class.
d. What resources does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation include? Why does it
include these resources? Are these resources appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- This lesson included a written and a listening text to develop listening and reading comprehension,
which were very useful for the development of the lesson and the productive task. This is because
the texts included all the contents that were taught in the class (imperative forms, and tips for creating
the final product), allowing the students to associate what they read and heard with what they had to
do in the production. To make these activities more interactive, we worked through various platforms
such as Wordwall, Google form and Canva. For the productive skill the students had to create a
poster (writing) so they used Canva platform, which includes an assortment of tools for working.
e. What kind of classroom management does the lesson plan design / lesson plan implementation
include? Why does it include this classroom management? Is this classroom management
appropriate for students? Support your answer.
- As classroom management, in this lesson I focused a lot on the Offering Praise aspect. When it is
sincere and references specific examples of effort or accomplishment, praise can inspire the class,
improve a student’s self-esteem, reinforce rules and values I want to see during the class.
- The rubric was to evaluate the productive skill (writing), and the process checklist to evaluate
the development of the input activities and control the participation of the students. It was appropriate
because the students were able to know that they would be assessed and that their product was not
only for doing something, but that something more was expected of it.
g. How do you manage / consider diversity in your teaching performance? Support your answer.
- I have always tried to make an inclusive class, under an environment of respect. Both men and
women have the same capacities and conditions to respond and develop the activities that the class
demands.
- During this lesson the text they had to read was the same one they had to listen to. This gave the
visually and hearing-impaired students the opportunity to carry out the activities without problems.
15
i. How would you describe teacher-student interaction in your teaching performance? Is this teacher-
student interaction appropriate?
- I have always managed to create a bond between the students and myself, based on respect, trust
and tolerance. This leads me to respect their spaces, their times, their attitudes and in the same way
manage the class. I try to be a very active teacher during class, so that students feel that there is
motivation on my part, and so they can also feel part of the class at all times.
- I think that a strength that I find when designing my lesson is that I can find the right content to work
in class. This is reflected in the fact that before, there was always something to correct in that regard,
however today, the feedback I receive is only for small details. Also, I was able to carry out the class
comfortably, calmly, without the pressure of knowing if they would understand or not. So, the first
strength that I identify with is that in an environment where I have full control, I can develop a good
class. Second, I was able to get my students to think more than normal, thanks to open-ended
questions and the activities I designed. Further developing the critical thinking in which I was failing
in previous lessons. Watching the recording of the class, this was even more apparent, and I was
extremely surprised.
- According to the last lesson, my weakness was the lack of critical thinking I used to get from my
students. Now, a weakness that I identified while designing the lesson was the few feedback and
scaffolding interventions that I incorporated into it. I had completely forgotten. Although, I think I would
have applied it unconsciously at the time of implementation, it is very important to add it as evidence
in the written lesson, since it is my guide at all times, it is very helpful to have it written as a constant
reminder.
l. Taking into account the weaknesses in your teaching practice, what action/s will you implement in
the upcoming future? Based on theory, support the suggested action/s.
It is a student's right to receive constructive feedback to guide them during their learning process. It
will be very necessary to review my future lessons more than once, in order to find every point where
feedback and scaffolding can be implemented. This is well explained by Reitbauer et al. (2013)
Feedback can be provided in different formats. It may be more formalised, when based on
the results of a diagnostic test, or it may be more spontaneous, taking the form of
observations on a piece of writing or an instance of oral production. Feedback may come
from instructors or from peers (as in peer reviewing), and can be negative or positive. (p.9)
15
ESTA ES LA PAUTA DE EVALUACIÓN DE ESTE SEMESTRE
Score
Score Description
Excellent 4 The dimension to be evaluated is fully accomplished
Above Average 3 The dimension to be evaluated is accomplished.
Average 2 The dimension to be evaluated is acceptable
Below Average 1 The dimension to be evaluated is not yet accomplished.

Criteria
Introduction (2 pages)
It states basic elements that make up the subject, including the central concepts of the discipline.
The problem is relevant and is properly justified.
The background of the problem is relevant and clear, makes explicit the context the project deals exclusively with, and it is supported
by the information collected through the diagnostic of reality.
The background of the problem is supported by quality sources and/or previous research that accounts for an adequate and updated
literature review (at least seven references are cited and, at least, three of these references correspond to studies or research
associated with the problem).
It includes the subject of the improvement project, supported by an exhaustive review of specialized literature.
The relevant constructs of the project are clearly and well conceptualized.
The author's own elaboration of the writing prevails, with textual citations when appropriate, reflecting an analysis of the subject
matter
At least three references to indexed articles and seven books are included. 60% of them are updated (last 5 years)
Action Plan (2 pages)
The objective is presented in a clear way and is consistent with the problem.
The tasks/strategies are supported by the theoretical framework and are appropriate considering the proposed objective.
The proposed assessment tool/s is/are consistent with the proposed objective.
The allocated time corresponds with the implementation, reflection and the re-designing of the action plan.
Evaluation (4 pages)
The findings of the project are provided in a complete, ordered way in coherence with the proposed objective.
Graphs, tables or other graphic organizers support the presentation of the project results.
The results are appropriately analyzed according to the stated objective.
15
A reflective/critical discussion of the project results is included.
Conclusion (1 page)
The conclusions presented are consistent with the objective of the project.
The conclusions summarize the main results of the project
The conclusions show a personal reflection on the pedagogical practice of the research teacher
Formal Aspects
It includes a complete list of references, cited in alphabetical order and in accordance with APA 7.0 standards, with total coherence
between the sources used and referenced.
The writing considers grammar rules and spelling aspects. It also shows an adequate organization using formal vocabulary.
It includes appendices which are referenced in the main text.
The presentation corresponds to a neat academic work, which respects formal aspects, including cover, index, correctly numbered
pages, normal margins (2.5 and 3), font size (12), and 1.5 spacing.
Partial Scores: 70.5
Total Score: 4.7
15

Improvement Plan 2nd Semester

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Improvement Plan 2nd Semester

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IMPROVEMENT PLAN

Student: Cristofer Ramirez

A.1 Description of the English Club 3

A.3. How did we come up with the problem? 3

1. What is Student engagement? 6

2. What is Critical Thinking? 6

3. Why is Critical Thinking important in EFL? 7

4. What to do to develop Critical Thinking in EFL? 8

C.2 Research Methodology: 10

C.8 Assessments tools: 12

D) Evaluation & Analysis of results 14

D.1.1. How did I apply the strategies? 14

D.1.2. What happened during the application of the strategies? 15

D.2.1. What were the results? 16

D.2.2. Do the results fit with the theory? 17

Learning and reflecting journals first semester 21

Learning and reflecting journals second semester 35

A.1 Description of the English Club

The English Club at Universidad Católica is an initiative to potency students

According to Piaget (1998), the students should be in the formal operational

A.3. How did we come up with the problem?

This situation was extremely uncomfortable for me as a teacher, nevertheless

1. What is Student engagement?

According to Carini, Kuh & Klein (2006) Student engagement is generally

As we can notice, this concept is closely related to motivation. If there is no

2. What is Critical Thinking?

Once considering the aforementioned aspects, we can begin to unite

First, it is important to understand what critical thinking means. Critical

3. Why is Critical Thinking important in EFL?

4. What to do to develop Critical Thinking in EFL?

Nowadays, as teachers, in order to accomplish the critical thinking of the

Due to this, students’ cognitive engagement, as a construct, allows us to go

After having identified the problem present in my lessons and

1. To reflect on my performance as a teacher, generating spaces and creating

C.2 Research Methodology:

The qualitative research method is based on the social sciences. Regarding

According to the types of case study that can be used in an investigation,

Finally, the instrumental case study is chosen because it allows to verify or

● Human resources: Students and Teacher.

● The planning checklist, the interest survey, ppts.

● Human resources: Students and Teacher.

● The planning checklist, the interest survey, ppts.

C.8 Assessments tools:

The following assessment tools were designed to guide the implementation

1. Checklist for the guide teacher.

Criteria Accomplished Not Accomplished

Criteria Accomplished Not Accomplished

To my advantage, when implementing my strategies, the lead teacher

As a basis, it was very important to connect the objective of my improvement

Having implemented content, materials, and a topic that they wanted to

Although the results are completely qualitative, where beyond a comment on

Figure 1: “Time invested for developing Critical Thinking

D.2.2. Do the results fit with the theory?

González, A. (2006). Acerca de la capacitación en el uso de los materiales en la

Guerrero, M. (2016). La investigación cualitativa. INNOVA Research Journal, 1(2),

Groccia, J. E. (2018). What Is Student Engagement? New Directions for Teaching

Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. England: Pearson

Joseph, M. (2019, October 2nd). Strategies to increase critical thinking skills in

Mineduc. (2001). Estándares de desempeño para la formación inicial de docentes.

Piaget, J. (1998). Introducción a Piaget: Pensamiento, Aprendizaje y Enseñanza.

Richards, J.,& Renandya, W. (2002). Methodology in Language Teaching: An

Tomlinson, B. (2012). Materials Development for Language learning and Teaching.

Ur, P. (2012). A course in English language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge