Practicum Reflection

Wednesday, March 21th, 2012

Identifying these methods

Practical work:

Describe the setting of your last practicum.

Consider:

-Type of school: particular subvencionado

-Number of students per classroom: 32 students in 8vo.

 -Number of hours a week: 3 pedagogical hours

 -Textbook: 

They use the text Travelers 8°. This book was given by the government, but for what I observed, the never used it. They only opened the book to see the tense of some verbs, that list was in the end of the book.

-Approach: I am not sure of this topic, because the teacher never used a book, to guide the class. When I asked her, what you are going to pass tomorrow?, she answered me: present perfect. That´s all, without a theme to teach that verb tense.

 -Design: the only activities that I could see were create a dialogue in pair that was the only time I heard the student talk in English. The teacher talks in Spanish all the class except for the “good morning” and “good bye”. And when the students had dudes, the teacher only answered in Spanish.

 -Students' and teacher's motivation/roles: For what I observed, neither the teacher nor the students have motivation. Because the students didn´t know why they should study English, so they were happy if they got a 4. They said that they don´t need more, and for that reason they didn´t study. And what caught my attention was that every time I get in the class, the teacher came into the classes with a wrong physical attitude. Like she already lost the battle and the students felt that. I understand why the teacher was so tired, I talked to her about our personal lives, and she told me that she has 2 kids. So I guess that is the reason why she was so tired.

-Assessment (tests, instruments): The tests that the teacher used was only, complete the sentence, and translate some easy sentences, and choose the best alternative.

-Use of technology: they don´t have access to computers. So they don´t have a close relationship with technology.

 *What design would you propose to improve the English subject in that school?

I think the teacher should make a personal commitment. If she tries to talk maybe 50 per cent in English in every class to start, the student should feel the change and they would feel more motivated to learn how to answer and talk to the teacher. I think they would feel curious at the same time, when they really heard English in an English class.