Intervention point

My intervention point: The use of first language to give basic instructions.

Entry one: “Likewise, I noticed that teacher used Spanish to give instructions, commands and give examples to her students”. 

Entry three: “Of course, there are things to improve, such as speaking English to the students rather than in Spanish, but… this is what makes us good teachers”.

 

Entry four: “Nonetheless, there are some things that could be improved, such as the language itself. Despite having organized activities, the teacher spoke to them most of the time in Spanish; even to give commands such as “sit down or silence”.

 Intervention:

To solve this problem I would come up with the following course of action. In that sense, I have exposed three different stages:

a). Functional use of L2:

-Readings about: the importance of teaching good English.

-Lesson planning focuses on giving instructions  

b). Strategic:

-Use the English expressions they already now.

-Have at hand some useful expressions.

-Rehearsing: How to give instructions for different purposes:

1. What to say when students are performing an activity.

2. What to say if teacher needs their attention.

3. What to say if students are not behaving well.

c). Awareness rising:

-Negotiating with them, some steps to follow when teaching a lesson.
-Readings about: the importance of teaching good English.

Instruments:

The instruments that I will use to make the interventions are:

         - Interviews

         - Surveys
   -Class observation

   -Questionnaires

An example to guide the main purpose of my intervention, the interview may include the following questions:

   1.    What are the expressions that you usually use in your English class?

   2.    How do you feel when using second language expressions?

   3.    Do your students comprehend the instructions you give to them?

Exploring my own beliefs!

a). My assumptions

1. In English teaching being a resourceful person is mandatory.

“According to the activities, these were varied and gave a fresh notion of the vocabulary that was related to personal information” (Journal entry 1).

“To engage students in the recognition and pronunciation of family members, the teacher used a puppet called “miquín”. She made a dialogue with him, asking and giving information for the family members”. (Journal entry 2)

“When she was trying to project some slides on the board, lights went out. Immediately, the teacher continued with the next activity, she had previously prepared. Everything seemed to be connected and students were very attentive”. (Journal entry 2)

2. In English teaching practice, monitoring is required to guide our students’ tasks.

“When students were working on some pieces of cardboard the teacher was carefully monitoring her students work”. (Journal entry 1)

“Besides, the teacher emphasized pronunciation and he was monitoring each group work. Moreover, Instructions for performing the activities were very clear”. (Journal entry 4)

“I observed that the teacher was at her students’ side, helping them with the pronunciation of words and phrases”. (Journal 3)

3. Teachers should provide students’ feedback when necessary.

“When students were working on some pieces of cardboard the teacher was carefully monitoring her students work”. (Journal entry 1)

“…teacher is constantly giving feedback to her students. I think that constant accompaniment helps students to redirect their tasks”. (Journal entry 3)

“What is more, this teacher is open-minded because when we give her feedback she is always attentive and she looks for solutions and strategies to improve her teaching practice”. (Journal entry 3)

4. The practice of teaching enables teachers to carry out a well-organized lesson plan.

“In my view, this class was organized because all the activities were previously planned”. (Journal entry 1)

“…teacher had a plan B when electricity went out. She controlled the situation and continued her class normally”. (Journal entry 2)

“Class preparation had a significant impact on the class development. The teacher prepared a variety of activities. Besides, the length of these activities was to five or ten minutes maximum”. (Journal entry 2)

“Through this observation we can reflect on the importance of planning and connecting our students in every activity we do in our lessons”. (Mauro’s comment, journal entry 2) 

5.  English learning involves students’ and teachers’ motivation.

“Our purpose as teachers is to guide them when necessary and also provide them with motivation and inspiration”. (Teaching beliefs)

“A teacher who is not motivated to learn every day is an obsolete person”. (Conceptualizing teaching acts)

“Students were highly motivated to participate”. (Journal entry 3)

“Bearing in mind Solis’ ideas, teachers should strive to draw the students’ attention in a motivating and interesting way”. (Journal entry 4)

“Nonetheless, I had great influence in learning English because my teacher was good at it and she motivated me to be better every day”. (Autobiography)

“On the whole, learners can learn through experiences because they are motivated to reach their personal projects (goals)”. (My teaching metaphor).

b). Sources from my beliefs!

To start with, I have taken these assumptions mainly from my experience not only as a teacher but also as an observer. The former, because when I teach a lesson, I always try to do my best such us accompanied my students and motivate them to learn. Nonetheless, I have noticed that being resourceful is a key issue when teaching. If something does not work, you have to prepare plan A, B, C, and so on. The latter, as an outsider I realized that teachers that were observed, try to implement many activities and strategies. For sure, these beliefs come from practice. Moreover, this is the result of teachers’ creativity and commitment.

Another source that I think it has been really useful, is theory. Generally, theory supports teachers when applying knowledge into practice. In this vein, theory and practice become important to develop good learning environments. I could take as an example the reflective teaching module. Here, there are many things that we do not consider when teaching a lesson. That is why, many researchers have made important contributions helping us to improve our practice.

c). Facing challenges!

First of all, I think I should be more aware of my students’ needs. I will apply different strategies that can help my students’ education. In this sense, they will probably be motivated to learn. Furthermore, I will bring them some appealing material in which they can participate actively. Needless to say, lesson planning is really important when you are going to a classroom. For this reason, I will try to be prepared every class and plan anticipated problems or activities. Indeed, challenges appear every time, so we have to face them every day. We as teachers are artists! So… let’s make artistic works!

Journal entry # 4

Date: October 1^st, 2015

Elementary English class observation

Topic: Greetings and personal information

This time I had had the opportunity to observe another English class but with a different teacher. This is due to our research proposal. Our main emphasis is to observe how teachers apply a lesson plan and the skills they can develop during this process.

To begin with, I have to address that this teacher has to teach unitary school. That means that he is responsible to manage pre-school to fifth graders. With reference to this, what I observed in this session is that teacher started his class greeting his students in English. Also, there was variety in the activities presented. As a result, students were completely engaged in every task.  Besides, the teacher emphasized pronunciation and he was monitoring each group work. Moreover, Instructions for performing the activities were very clear.

Nonetheless, there are some things that could be improved, such as the language itself. Despite having organized activities, the teacher spoke to them most of the time in Spanish; even to give commands such as “sit down or silence”.  In my personal view, I think it is important to have at least a list of words or expressions that we are going to use in the classroom and use them with our students.

I think that we as teachers should provide our students the chance to hear phrases in English. Maybe, what is needed here is to plan a little bit more. According to Solis (2007), “to prepare an effective English lesson and to organize a surprise party, both the teacher and the host or hostess have to pay careful attention to the same variables if they want the activity to be a success”. Bearing in mind Solis’ ideas, teachers should strive to draw the students’ attention in a motivating and interesting way. For sure, we have some difficulties when teaching a lesson but there are some essential things that we have to take into consideration.

Likewise, as Zingir (2013) says, “anticipatory reflection is crucially important for teaching and it includes all sorts of preparation prior to teaching such as organizing the content, selecting materials and teaching strategies, and preparing instruction according to the needs of a particular group of learners”. In this sense, teachers should be prepared before teaching a class. All of these reflections help us to our class organization and provide an appropriate knowledge according to the needs that arise in the classroom.

References:Solis, M. (2007). Reliable and practical guidelines for planning an effective English lesson. Taken from: Revista de filología y lingüística de la Universidad de Costa Rica, ISSN 0377-628X, Vol. 33, Nº. 2, 2007 , págs. 227-241.

Zıngır, A. (2013). Am I planning well? Teacher trainees' voices on lesson planning. Taken from:  Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 ( 2013 ) 1409 – 1413. 3rd World Conference on Learning, Teaching and Educational Leadership (WCLTA-2012).