Metacognitive

Report

Name: Valeria Torres Pérez

Subject: Seminario y Práctica Profesional

Professor: Patricio Pino

Date: June 26th, 2015

INTRODUCTION

Following the patterns of the subject Seminario y Práctica Profesional at

Universidad Santo Tomás, on the next lines we will explain how the practicum
process was during the first semester of 2015, linking it with the knowledge
acquired on Seminario about metacognition and the process of thinking about our
own thinking.

The process of thinking about our own practicum process and about our
personal experiences is called metacognition. Gómes (2002) said that the
reflective practice must be present every day in the life of a teacher as something
new and dynamic, because the teachers do not teach to learn, but learn to teach
their students with all the situations that happen within the classroom (p.66). This
metacognition process is very important for the student-teachers that are building,
creating and identifying their own identity in the English classroom in order to
improve those aspects that the person is not confident with and to start believing in
the power that the teachers have within the society in order to improve the
educational system of the country.

This report will explain the metacognition process that was carried out
during my practicum experience at Campvs College, a private school located in
Providencia. This internship started on March 11 th and finished on in July 3rd of the
present year. This institution teaches from Playgroup to 12 th grade, and English is
very important in each of the levels.

In my case, I taught to Pre-Kindergarden, Kindergarden and 12 th graders,

with two classes each, A and B. In Pre-Kinder and Kinder, I was the workshop
teacher, i.e. a class of an hour per week where children had to learn English
phonics through different songs and repetition, and basic commands in the
language, such as sit down, listen, repeat, draw, look, among others. On the other
hand, in 12th grade I had a tutor teacher and I was the student-teacher. I had to
follow the plan of the tutor but at the same time, I could create my own activities or
change its plan a little bit. The students had three pedagogical hours of English per

17
week (135 minutes) and there was a lower number of students per class: 19
students in 12th A and 22 students in 12 th B. Among 12th grade, there were some
differences regarding their level of English: some students were advanced, the
majority was intermediate (upper or lower) and some of them had a basic level.
What is more, some of these students passed the First Certificate in English and
some of them had studied or travelled abroad to countries such as Russia, The
United States, England, etc.

Finally, to reflect in upon our own teaching experiences is not to measure

the degree of success or failure of the process, but according to Gómes (2002) it is
to evaluate teachers’ engagement with this option (p.64). For that reason, in this
report I will be telling my experiences within the classroom, the new methodologies
that I learned and some aspects that as a new teacher I need to improve in the
future. Those aspects mentioned before, will be linked with three main domains of
metacognition: strategies (classroom management, timing, feedback, etc.), person
(motivation, activities, empathy, etc.) and tasks (real-life contents, group work,
practice, etc.).

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CONCEPT MAP

Set the time for activities

The importance of giving
feedback at the end of the
STRATEGIES class
To give real life experiences
Asking questions to specific
students to make them
participate

To believe in students’
capacities pushing them
harder
Self-awareness of the
PERSON activities
Engaging pre-activities and
real stories of the teacher
Empathy towards students’
extra-activities

The importance of teaching

real-life contents
To catch students’ attention
through new methodologies
TASK The importance of practicing
the different tasks in class
Group work to share and to
respect each other’s
opinions

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 A. PRACTICUM EXPERIENCES

During my practicum experience, I was immersed in a completely different

reality in comparison with the one that I was used to. Not only because I was in a
private school in one of the best districts to live in Santiago, but for the level of
English of the students and the quality of the education in this place. At the
beginning I had the feeling and the thought, that the students there would be a little
bit close-minded because of its culture and background, or maybe they would be
disrespectful with the teachers and their classmates. It was the opposite. The
learners in this school were respectful, they were aware about their future and very
nice people. They were conscious that they will go to the university and they will
achieve the goals in life because of their own effort and not because they have
money. They had their families’ support and the school was always helping them
giving advice about different Universities they can go to or what to study. For this
reason, I can say that education cannot be changed if teachers and students do
not have the support of the families that are very important in any educational
institution. Offer & Church (1991) quoted in Papalia (2009) stated that more
confident adolescents, have strong and solid relationships with their parents that
support their efforts of independence, giving them a safe place when they are
under emotional pressure (p.530). Parents need to know that they have to tell and
to teach their kids to be the best version of themselves and reach what they want
to achieve, and the teachers can be the link to help in this relationships or even an
extra support when needed.

The second aspect that I must mention is the fact that I learned that classes
can be done in English. At University, our teachers are always teaching us that it is
possible to teach language in this way but I did not believe completely until I
arrived there. On the other hand, it is true that my students were in their last year of
high school and they learned everything beforehand, but anyway, they were
accepting new challenges, maybe with some critiques at first, but they could speak
English in every class, practicing a lot the different skills, leaving outside their fears
and worries. Krashen quoted in Brown (2007), claimed that the best acquisition will

17
occur in environments where anxiety is low and defensiveness absent, i.e. the
“affective filter” is low (p.295). In the same line, I always heard that it is better to
have six or more pedagogical hours of English per week, but in Campvs College
was not in this way: students from 12 th grade had three pedagogical hours per
week. It is not important to have more hours of English, but quality in the class. The
input that my students have received during their school years has been the key of
students’ learning. Brown (2007) stated that in the English classes parental input is
replaced by teacher input that must be meaningful, simulating the parents’ role as it
is to the first language (p.78).

The third characteristic that I learned is that classes do not have to be based
on grammar in order to make our students learn a new language. As I was taught
during my classes, it is better to teach with a meaningful theme for the learners.
According to Ur (2009) the learner is immediately engageding with language that
expresses meanings in context, and these may be seen as more interesting and
clearly relevant for communicative purposes (p.90). For example, I wanted my
students to learn the conditional would, so I based my class on the topic called
money, playing a game called Would you rather?, where students were asked to
think beyond their reality and express their opinions about the different questions,
answering them using the structure I would rather. Here, we can see that it is not
impossible to go beyond our grammar contents, the teachers just need to go out of
their comfort zone, taking risks when preparing new material to change the
learners’ perspective of the English language.

Another important feature that I must highlight, is the fact that teachers can
have a wonderful class prepared, but the school can have something else
prepared for the entire school. Harmer (2006) said that this is important, because
however well we have prepared, the chances are that things will not go exactly to
plan. Unexpected events happen in lessons and part of a teacher’s skill is to
decide what the response should be when they do (p.24). For instance, I had to
change the plan of my classes because the students had to do an extra activity
during my time to the rest of the school or the institution had a special act for

17
important days such as the May 21 st or the day of the book. I learned that I have to
be flexible in terms of time and extra activities, because learning does not only
occur inside a classroom, but sharing and experiencing new experiences.

“In other words, teachers need to be able to ‘think on their feet’ and act
quickly and decisively at various points in the lesson. When students see that they
can do this, their confidence in their teachers is greatly enhanced” (Harmer, 2006,
p.25). Finally, teachers need to be flexible when a specific student had a problem
or they want to talk about something else without losing the control of the
classroom. I learned that I needed to be stricter in terms of time and instructions,
but also that I could speak with the learners about different topics to make our
relationship closer, and then trying to make them focus on the task.

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 B. STRENGTHS

Teaching English to 12th graders helped me to be aware of my very own

strengths within the classroom and about the relationship with my students.

First, I can say that because we, I and my students, did not have a huge
difference regarding our ages, I could easily relate certain topics and songs known
by them to use them as a new technique in my classes. During several timesOn
several occasions, learners were singing songs related with a phrase that I said,
but I used that song in my favor, singing it in front of them and relating it with my
lesson. Their reactions were different; some of them laugh, some were surprised
and some learners were shocked. In this way I could have more control of the
classroom, making them know that I know some of their tastes and preferences.
About the topics that I chose, I can say that they were extremely related to their
age and interests. Piaget, quoted by Papalia (2009) stated that adolescents are in
a stage called formal reasoning; Even though the neurological development of
teenagers have has been increasing to allow formal reasoning, they just can reach
it with the appropriate stimulation of the environment (p.491). For this reason, I told
them a personal story about myself when I was their age, I make made them think
about their future and the reality of Chile when talking about money and making
them feel fear when listening or talking about a personal story about ghosts or
paranormal events. Students need a safe and attractive learning environment in
order to understand why they are learning and also to know that learning is not
boring but useful.

Second, my use and knowledge regarding technological devices helped me

a lot when creating a different activity avoiding the use of the notebook or the book
that the learners found boring at a certain point and my ability when facing the
problems that I had where some students did not have internet or they could not
find certain application for their mobiles. I let them use their mobiles phones to
make them participate actively within the classroom, looking for a certain word or
meaning, to use a QR code and their mobiles with internet connection to find
certain clues, to project and to listen to authentic and funny videos to catch their

17
attention, to show the instructions using emoticons, among others. Kukulska-
Hulme and Traxler (2005) quoted in Makoe (2010) said that one of the most
significant attributes of mobile technologies is their ability to support situated
learning. This is significant in the learning process because the student needs to
be active in learning interaction in collaboration with the teacher and peers (p.252).
I think that in this way I could do my classes differently to the rest of the teachers,
because I was not just projecting contents in the whiteboard but making them be
participants in their own learning process. Spratt, Pulverness & Williams (2005)
stated that it is very important to avoid doing the same activities in the same order
in different lessons because the teacher can vary the pace, interaction pattern,
skill, level of difficulty content, mood, and finally, exciting or calming activities
(p.98).

Another important part of my process was giving feedback. I learned that I

have the ability of telling my students immediately what to improve or delete from
their written work, and to motivate my learners telling them that they can do better
when speaking. I noticed that when checking some written work, I gave them direct
feedback on spelling or grammar, but I also wrote lots of comments, stating that
their piece of writing was good but maybe they should write in certain way or
change some sentences. But, when giving this work to them, I used to tell them
more things, good or bad, about their writing. In this way I knew that students could
be aware of their mistakes but also, be aware of the good things they did and do
not feel disappointeding because they could only see direct corrections on
grammar. According to Harmer (2006), written correction is a powerful visual
statement of the fact that their written English is terrible. Most students find it very
dispiriting if they get a piece of written work back and it is covered in red ink,
underlinings and crossings-out (p.120).

To conclude, I can say that I have the ability of integrating the different four
skills when preparing a lesson because I was aware of the different learning styles
that students had when learning a foreign language, because, as Moon (2005)
stated, classes are likely to contain children with different abilities, different styles

17
of learning and with different attitudes to English (p.163). For instance, sometimes
the main activity was reading an extensive text, but I mixed it with listening, where
students listened to the audio and read at the same time in order to follow certain
rhythm and to notice the pronunciation of certain words. Similarly, I made them
write something specific on their notebooks to check it later, but I also made them
speak about the topic before or/and after writing something on their notebook, in
order to give more context to the activity. Lewis (2010) said that each student
brings a unique mix of learning styles to the language classroom. It is a huge
challenge for teachers to identify these learning styles and design activities which
appeal to the class as a whole and yet take into account the individual needs of
each student (p.86).

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 C. WEAKNESSES AND ASPECTS OF FOR IMPROVEMENT

During my practicum experience and my reflection on that, I learned a lot of

new things that I know I have to improve to do meaningful classes for my learners
and for myself in the future. Gómes (2002) said that The training of the reflective
educators emerges from their own necessity to review and think again about their
pedagogical practicum, to question themselves about the dimension of their own
knowledge and prepare oneself to learn, day after day, that the reality within the
classroom is unique and, for this reason, it asks to specific glances of the whole,
because this is the way that the men build themselves integrating their contexts,
reflecting upon it (p. 60).

The first aspect has to do with timing. During my classes, I forgot this aspect
and my tutor teacher told me several times about the importance of it. I was
conscious about this at the beginning of the class, but when teaching, I completely
forgot about it. For example, it is important to set several minutes to each activity of
the class to have the control of it, but it is also important to make students aware of
this, in order to clarify them that we, as teachers, have everything planned
beforehand, and to keep the learners focused on the task.

Another important aspect that I dealt with was related with classroom
management, specifically to make them be quite quiet during some activities. I did
not have problems with hearing them talking about different things such as sports,
music or their personal stories if they were working. The problem was when I had
to teach again or to give some information again, because it was pretty difficult to
make them focus their attention on me. I know that teachers learn different
techniques during their working years, so I know that I have to work in on this
aspect and try new methodologies from books or made by myself. As Harmer
(2006) stated, if we want to manage classrooms effectively, we have to be able to
handle a range of variables: how classroom space is organized, whether the
students are working on their own or in groups, classroom time, how we appear to
the students, how we use our voice, being able to deal with difficult situations,
among others important aspects (p.34).

17
 Furthermore, I need to learn to keep in mind the closure of the class.
According to Harmer (2006), it helps if we provide some kind of closure: a
summary of what has happened or a prediction of what will take place in the next
lesson. It is much better to round the lesson off successfully, giving the students
some idea of what they will be doing next, and create enthusiasm for it so that they
come to their next lesson with a positive attitude (p.40). In several classes I noticed
that I just left the room with students’ notebooks and I did not tell them the main
objective of the class. My feeling was that the students felt that my class was not
relevant because they could not see the purpose of it. Also, my tutor teacher told
me the importance of closing the class, and I agreed with him. I need to find a
strategy to remember to do this very important step in my future classes.

Finally, as I said before, I learned that it is possible to do classes based on

real-life situations because learners can learn more and they can find a meaningful
purpose in the lesson. But, I also know, that I have to develop this methodology so
as to change little by little the way Chilean learners are learning only grammar
without content. I want to learn how I can improve this not only for my classes but
for my future students.

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REFERENCES

Brown, H. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching (5th ed.). White

Plains, NY: Pearson Longman.

Gómes, P. (2002). El educador reflexivo: notas para la orientación de sus

prácticas docentes. Educar 30. Pp.57-67.

Harmer, J. (2006). The Practice of English Language Teaching. (3rd ed.) Longman.

Lewis, G. (2010). Bringing technology into the classroom. Oxford University

Press.

Makoe, M. (2010). Exploring the Use of MXit: A Cell-Phone Social Network to

Facilitate Learning in Distance Education. Open Learning, 25(3), 251-257.

Mayer, R. (2009). Multimedia Learning. (2nd. ed.) Cambridge University Press

McKay, H., & Tom, A. (2013). Teaching adult second language learners.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ministerio de Educación. (2014). Idioma Extranjero Inglés. In Bases Curriculares 7°

Básico a 2° Medio. (pp. 237-287).

Moon, J. (2005) Children Learning English. Macmillan Publishers Limited 2000.

Papalia, D. (2009). Psicología del desarrollo de la infancia y la adolescencia.

(11th. ed.) México: Mc Graw Hill.

Spratt M., Pulverness A. & Williams M. (2005). The TKT Teaching Knowledge Test
Course. Cambridge University Press.

Ur, P. (2009). A course in language teaching: Practice and theory. Cambridge

[England: Cambridge University Press.

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 APPENDICES

Metacognitive Logbook

Student’s Name: Valeria Torres School: Campvs College

Class: IV°A Tutor’s Name: Manuel Acevedo

Setting Activity Person Task Strategy Reflections

Date: Purpose: Students: Pre: Look for 5 I told students In general, I
April - To Some of new idioms to sit down felt pretty
8th, understand them were using their and listen to good leading
2015 what an idiom not paying mobile phones. me. the class, but
is. attention but I think I need
Time: - To it was quite While: Write I monitored to be more
10:45 understand the simple to the meaning of their idioms proactive and
– meaning of make them the idioms. helping them motivate
12:25 different idioms listen to me. to learn the them even
in English. Post: Write a meaning. more.
- To use in real Tutor: My “situation”
life situations professor according to I walked
some idioms. told me that each idiom. around the
I need to class helping
Procedure: push them a them with
- Students little bit more their grammar
have to look for because or improving
5 new idioms in they are their
English, write kind of lazy. “situations”.
their meaning
in English and
create a
situation, which
describes with
details the
context, the
place and
some
characters in
order to
understand the
idioms.
Date: Purpose: Teacher: Pre: Tell I helped I felt pretty
April - To practice I forgot to students that students good leading
8th, students’ tell them at they have to when writing the class, but
2015 speaking skill the create a mini- and practicing I think I need
by representing beginning play using the their play in to be more
Time: a play using that they idioms. order to proactive and
10:25 five idioms. had to improve their motivate
– create a While: Share writing and them even

17
13:10 Procedure: mini-play. opinions with their more.
- Students I was their pronunciation.
have to create waiting to classmates I have to
a role-play tell them while writing I told them “5- push them a
using the five about the the play. 3-2 minutes little bit
idioms and play, but my to finish” to harder
perform it in tutor told Post: Present stop their because they
front of the them first it in front of the work. need to feel
class. about this. I class. the pressure.
felt a little bit A couple of
worried times I had to
because I say “silence
should have please” but it
told them was not
this before. difficult.

Students: I told them

Their that they did a
reaction to great job, that
the activity I had a really
was “aaaa good time
miss”. and that
The majority some of them
was excited had really
about it good acting
because skills.
they were
acting and
speaking in
English
imagining
different
situations
really funny
for them.
Date: Purpose: Teacher: Pre: Play an I said “listen I need to
April - To read the I got their audio with to your learn a new
29th, story “The attention but different classmates, strategy to
2015 Terror of Blue I lost them sounds from this is make them
John Gap” by easily. different horror interesting” to be quite and
Time: Sir Arthur movies. catch their pay attention.
11:40 Conan Doyle Students: attention.
– from the book Students While: Ask
12:25 “Horror Stories” talked too students what
much when were their
Procedure: they have to experiences
- Students will share their when listening
be introduced experiences. to the audio.
to the world of
horror stories Some of Post: Share
by talking them did not personal

17
 about personal participate experiences
experiences that much. regarding
about paranormal
paranormal They were events.
situations. speaking in
Spanish.
Date: Purpose: Students: Pre: To listen I ask for I think it was
May - To read the It seemed to/ read (at the silence a a very
6th, story “The that they same time) the couple of complete
2015 Terror of Blue were bored story “The times class,
John Gap” by at the Terror of Blue because they because I
Time: Sir Arthur beginning of John Gap”. were talking achieved the
11:45 Conan Doyle the class, too much. objective of
– from the book because While: Discuss make them
13:10 “Horror Stories” they could some I gave them listen/read
not comprehension time to the book
Procedure: understand questions as a download any during the
- Students are the story whole class. app related class,
going to because of with the QR because in
understand the its complex Post: To put in code. this way they
story through vocabulary. order some have not
listening and They were statements Students excuses to
reading the saying that it using their were using not read the
story at the was difficult mobile phones. their mobile book.
same time, and the phones.
answering audio was Again, I need
some boring. I had some more
questions But during questions techniques to
about each the question written before make them
chapter to time, they in order to focus on the
clarify some were ask them activity.
aspects and participating when reading.
put it order and noticing I’m improving
some that they my
statements were classroom
from the book. learning the management,
plot of the stating the
book. At the rules in a
end, they clear way.
understood
the story
and they
wanted to
know the
end of the
story.

Students
were talking
or doing
other things

17
 (eating
bread) but
they were
paying
attention.

Sometimes
they were
too noisy.

They loved
the game
with their
mobile
phones, and
the group
that won
was very
happy about
it.
Date: Purpose: Students: Pre: To give Telling them a I think they
May - To write an They were the instructions “secret” understood
13th, informative pretty with the help of regarding everything
2015. script about relaxed, so a PPT. some aspects regarding the
some historical some of of the grade. video and
Time: places and them were While: Choose their places.
10:15 building of not paying groups and Letting them
– Santiago, attention. places. free to I need to be
11:30 Chile. choose the stricter with
Later, they Post: To star place they them.
Procedure: were writing the wanted.
- Students will enthusiasm script for the I need to plan
know the when video. an activity for
formal aspects choosing the me while they
of the video place. are working
they have to to don’t seem
create, and Teacher: I like doing
they will was a little nothing.
choose their bit relaxed
teams and because my
places, to start tutor was
writing the not inside
script for their the room,
videos. and the
instructions
were not
difficult to
explain.

Tutor
teacher: He

17
 was not in
the
classroom
when I
explained
some things,
so he said
all over
again
Date: Purpose: Students: Pre: To tell a Telling them a I was really
May - To give All of them personal story real personal happy at the
23th, strong and where to the students story when end of the
2015. solid listening to about meeting the teacher class,
arguments the teacher the teacher’s was their age. because the
Time: about the goals and her favorite band. students
10:15 they want to adventure. To be very could listen to
– achieve in life. While: Read enthusiastic me and be
13:10 They were the instruction when telling motivated not
Procedure: asking more and formal the story. just in class
- Students will questions in aspects from with my story,
be aware of the order to the To show real but with their
importance of know more. compendium pictures. lives.
achieving our that students
dreams in our They did have. To motivate The only
life being comments them that we thing that I
honest and such as Post: To write can make forgot was to
thankful with “Voy a llorar! a competition dreams come telling them
their life writing ; No, que entry on their true. to speak
a competition bonito!; notebooks to more in
entry. Miss, deliver them at To give them English that
¿puede the end of the points if their in Spanish.
poner un class. entry was the They were
video de best one. participating
ellos?” so much that
I didn’t
Tutor: My realize that
professor they should
was be speaking
interested in English.
as well,
listening to
be very
carefully.

Teacher: I
forgot to
make them
participate
more with
my story,
asking them

17
 about a
similar
situation on
their lives.
Date: Purpose: Students: Pre: To explain I explain I tried to
June - To put into At the some quick around 3 make this
3rd, practice the beginning of tips that will times the content more
2015 different tips the class help students game interesting for
about the Use some of to perform because they them creating
Time: of English item them said better in that couldn’t get it.
a game,
10:45 in order to “Miss, can item. Also, I gave because it is
– learn the we sleep?” them more not easy to
13:10 different uses because While: To play time to teach the use
of the words they were a game in answer. At of English. I
and sentences. tired. groups where the beginning think I could
students have I said 5, later
have
Procedure: They though to answer 10, and at theexplained the
- Students that the some of the end 20 instructions in
have to game was questions of seconds to a different
practice the difficult the Use of answer. way, because
item of Use of because English item students
English they couldn’t with a limited Regarding the were
because it was get the time of 20 last activity shocked at
going to instructions seconds. with their the
appear on their very well. book, I told beginning.
final test. Post: To work them that it
Later, they with several was important I knew that
were pretty exercises from to do the activity
interesting their book exercises in with the book
and about the use order to have was not fun,
frustrated, of English item. better results but I had to
but they on the test. do it because
were having my tutor-
a great time. teacher told
me to do so.
One student
said about Anyway, I
the activity think
with the students
book “Miss, could get the
que fome su main idea of
actividad.” the item
because their
Teacher: scores in
I knew that their final test
the activity were good.
with the
book was
not funny,
but I had to
do it.

17
Date: Purpose: Students: Pre: To explain I asked I think that it
June - To talk about There were them a directly about was a really
10th, the topic of 8 students in situation where their opinion, good activity
2015 money and the the a man sold his in order to for that week
role of it giving classroom girlfriend for a make them because
Time: strong out of 19. huge amount talk. learners were
10:45 arguments to Some of of money. overwhelmed
– support their them were I played the with tests in
13:10 ideas. recording a While: To play villain in the the different
video for this a game called “would you subjects, so I
Procedure: class. “would you rather game” wanted to
- To discuss rather” where telling them make them
the topic of The learners had to things like talk in a
money and students choose one “You cannot relaxed way,
how important that stayed option and give live with love; which we
is for our lives. in the argument but you can could do.
classroom about it. make more
were tired money in this Another
and they Post: To divide way; you can important
wanted to the class in buy people” point was the
go. “social classes” so in this way number of
and discuss they were students. I
They what they answering me prepare this
participated would do with back. class for the
a lot, $210.000 and total of them,
because $8.000.000 I divide them but with only
they could according to into social 8 of them, the
speak more each social classes and I activities
each time. class. make them were carried
act like if they out very fast.
They said belonged to Leaving time
that this that class. to make the
activity students rest
could have a little bit.
been more
entertaining I liked the
with the rest activity and I
of the class. know that my
students
Teacher: loved it too.
I explain
them the
situation and
I asked
them directly
about it and
what their
thoughts
were about
this
situation.

17
I told them
different
things
during the
“would you
rather…”
activity, to
make them
think more
about their
lives and to
give me
more
reasons.

17
17