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).