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TRABAJO FIN DE MASTER: Modalidad A "The What and the How: Meaningful Learning Facilitators" Máster Universitario en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idiomas, Artísticas y Deportivas Especialidad Idiomas: Inglés Beatriz Blasco Otín Tutora: Mª Mar Azcona Montoliu Academic Year: 2013/2014 Table of contents Introduction 3 The what and the how: definition and context. 5 The Learning Unit: The teaching process. 6 Practicum II and III: The learning process. 11 Reflecting on my teaching experience 16  Reflective teaching 16  The affective filter 18  Mixed levels 18 Future proposals 21 Conclusions 24 Works cited 26 Attachments  The Learning Unit  Practicum II  Practicum III  One-minute papers (placement period) 3 Introduction Teaching and learning processes have been central to most scholarly writing and debates on the planning of effecting teaching. Even if there are many contextual factors, far beyond a teacher’s reach, that must be taken into account when analyzing students’ learning experiences, the way in which teaching and learning are carried out will always be a crucial part of a process in which teachers and students are, without a doubt, the most important participants. As we know, Aragón is not below the Spanish average in terms of academic failure. This should be taken as a clear signal that the teaching-learning processes should be revised and changed. This paper attempts to provide a general overview of the way in which a second language is usually taught within the current educational system. I will describe the learning and teaching process that I encountered at Antonio Machado School and I will look into its consequences. I will also provide a critical reflection on the issue based on the essential literature on second language acquisition and teaching practices in general. The experiences and data this paper will be based on have been gathered during my placement at Antonio Machado School in the academic year 201314. In any learning-teaching situation and context, both agreement and reciprocal interaction between teachers and learners are necessary for the process to result in meaningful learning. Teachers must bear in mind not only what they teach but also how they do it. While the ‘what’ stands for contents, objectives or competences that students are supposed to acquire and also includes methodology and evaluation, the ‘how’ stands for reflection on practices and classroom observation. Perhaps, these two last elements are the most valuable tools not only for the teachers, since they are able to react to students’ needs and interests, but also for students since they are being taken into account at all times. Therefore, one may notice that these are the two main factors that link teachers and students in the process as they are increasingly relevant to both of them. But, which of these two factors is the most important? Which is the most relevant for the teaching-learning process? Does the ‘what’ deserve more emphasis than the ‘how’? Is it the other way around? In this paper I will explore the relevance and implications of the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ both from teachers’ and students’ perspectives. 4 My main purpose is to analyse the “what” and the “how”, that is, the contents delivered and the way in which they are delivered. As I will try to demonstrate, the ‘how’ is the most relevant for students to reach their maximum potential whereas the ‘what’ means a mere transmission of knowledge. To support these ideas, the two projects that I have chosen are the Learning Unit and the observation tasks related to the Practicum II and III. These partner projects are in direct connection to the topic in this paper in the following way: the Learning Unit is related to the ‘what’ since it deals with the curriculum established by current legislations for secondary education, that is, what is supposed to be taught, whereas the observation tasks carried out in the Practicum II and III are related to the ‘how’, as they take into account real situations, real students and real classes. Both essays will be used to explore the differences between what a teacher is supposed to cover in the classroom and what a teacher actually has to do when entering a classroom. I am aware that the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ are not as easily separated as they may look from the description given above. Any Learning Unit also includes methodology and, therefore, a Learning Unit is not the exclusive domain of the ‘what’ but also partakes of the ‘how’. The reason why I am separating them for the purposes of this essay is because I attempt to demonstrate the ways in which the ‘how’, that is, classroom observation and reflection on teaching practices, may change parts of the ‘what’, as in the case of contents or methodology. That is, the Learning Unit, which supposedly covers all the elements in the teaching-learning process, may be altered after the classroom observation and reflection practices carried out in Practicum II and Practicum III. This is the specific way in which the ‘how’ will be understood in the context of this paper. As authors such as Cochran-Smith (1993), Hedge (2000) and Horwitz (2008) have pointed out, teachers are always in need of new ideas to be developed in language classrooms, which is why they draw on research from a variety of fields and apply it to the teaching practice. In the end, the more effective the teacher’s practice is, the more engagement and motivation students show. With this aim in mind and drawing from my own experience at the Antonio Machado School, I will look into what is already being done and what is not being put into practice yet in second language classrooms. I will finish with a critical reflection on what I consider the ultimate goal of education: the implementation of both effective and engaging teaching-learning processes that enhance learners’ personal and academic development. 5 The ‘what’ and the ‘how’: Definition and context. ‘It is possible to have a brain and not have a mind, a brain is inherited; a mind is developed.’ (Feuerstein in Payne, 2002: 4) The main purpose of this section is to provide a definition of what is usually understood by the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ and see the focus shift from the one to the other and its consequences and implications. The ‘WHAT’ is the first thing teachers need to think about when they approach any teaching/learning process. This is the stage when teachers take decisions on what to ask students to do and carefully plan a unit that will be implemented for several sessions in the classroom. This is the moment in which teachers start thinking about the topic that students are going to work on and the way in which these students are supposed to follow the plan. Teachers establish contents, state the objectives to be achieved, the competences to be fulfilled, the methodology that will be followed, and design a specific system of evaluation. They usually have to plan units of work or even complete year plans according to what current legislations promulgate. The ‘HOW’, on the other hand, refers to the teachers’ management to meet the needs of students while the plan is being implemented. It focuses on the benefits of education, that is, different ways and paths that teachers can choose to approach any topic or concept and therefore the variety of learning practices that this teaching range offers the students. In other words, the ‘how’ shows the great variety of possibilities that teachers can offer and students can benefit from in the process of acquisition. It also demonstrates how the features of the ‘what’ can be accomplished. According to Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s view (1993), the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ may also refer to knowledge. These two authors distinguish between knowledge-forpractice and knowledge-in-practice. Knowledge-for-practice corresponds to the ‘what’. It refers to what institutions and current legislations dictate, that is, subject matter content, instructional strategies and effective classroom practices. On the other hand, knowledge-in-practice deals with the kind of knowledge experienced through actual classroom contact with learners. It pays attention to particularities in everyday schools and classrooms. As Cochran-Smith and Lytle say, in second language education, 6 questions concerning knowledge-for-practice have dominated the field historically: which particular instructional practices produce and promote language development/competence/proficiency? Only recently we have begun to address the questions raised by a focus on knowledge-in-practice. What do effective teachers and learners do that promotes successful language development? What unique experiences and interactions take place that foster successful language learning outcomes? It is relevant to consider that it is only at this stage when there is some interplay among context, teacher and learners and when all the participants in the process profit from these experiences. At this point, it is important to think about our own placement experiences. Are we giving more emphasis to the ‘what’ or to the ‘how’? What are institutions and teachers after? Do we want students to pass a course or do we want them to learn? Are teachers making too much use of what they are supposed to teach instead of thinking about the teaching/learning process? Sometimes it can be difficult to apply these abstract concepts to the way real work is done. However, that does not mean we should not try. Analyses and reflections on how to change this thinking will not be simple, but they are worth the effort. Doing so can mean the difference between success and failure for our students. The Learning Unit: The Teaching Process. In this essay, the ‘what’ will refer to the Learning Unit that I designed for and implemented at Antonio Machado School in Zaragoza. It is a state-funded private school located on Carretera de Logroño on the outskirts of Zaragoza. The school is characterized for being open-minded and flexible in terms of ideology. The school manifesto promotes respectfulness and tolerance among the students as well as participation. Dialogue is used as the basis to achieve all these aims. The ideology of the school is reflected on the students’ attitude and behaviour, which made my whole experience at the school a very rewarding one. The Learning Unit (see Appendix I) is about “Superstitions” since that was the topic of Unit Seven in the students’ course book. It was designed for a group of twentysix students on their first year of secondary education (E.S.O.). In the group there was a disabled boy. He had psychomotor problems and he had to use a walking frame. He had serious difficulties in writing and also in reading and that is the reason why he could not 7 follow the lessons appropriately. The level of English of the group was fairly homogenous even if there were four students whose level of English was below average because they came from different schools and had not had the time to catch up with the rest yet. As the Learning Unit was implemented during the Practicum II, I had enough time during the Practicum I to observe and account for how this group of students was used to work and how the class and the lessons were generally delivered. They mainly followed the course book, doing vocabulary exercises, some listening or writing tasks and some grammar activities that were not integrated in the context of the units. Speaking was not practiced at all within the lessons since students worked on that while preparing Trinity oral exams outside the classroom, mainly at break time. Because of the teacher’s too much reliance on the course book, students were quite used to working with it. The teacher explained the exercises to be done, one at a time, and the students did them. Writing exercises were often done at home as part of the homework, which also included grammar exercises. In general terms, this way of teaching looked to me very traditional and teacher-centered. There was no choice to work on real life situations. Students were just given the topic and did the activities provided by the book. However, most of them worked well and seemed to be satisfied with this way of learning a foreign language. They also felt comfortable with the teacher. I will analyze some of the implications of this sense of comfort afterwards. Does this teaching-learning process follow the dictates of the Education Curriculum in Aragón? Is the topic relevant and close to the students’ experience and interests? Is the topic (“Superstitions”) one that truly boosts to perform real life situations, that is, events or circumstances that students may encounter any time they need to make use of the second language? Not really. The topic is relevant from a cultural point of view since it allows students to compare Spanish superstitions with those of other countries, but it is one that students will probably not use in a daily conversation when travelling abroad or interacting with English peers. In this sense, the potential of the topic for “real life situations” is scarce (since we do not go around talking about superstitions on a daily basis). Thus, is this the right topic for the communicative approach? These were the kind of questions that I asked myself when I started designing my Learning Unit. It was really hard to make of it a daily topic but, since I could not change it, I tried to make it as much real and communicative as I could within the realm of possibility in a class that, as I said above, was very much used to 8 working in a traditional, teacherand textbook-centered way. As will be seen below, I also tried to highlight the cross-cultural possibilities offered by the topic. Firstly, I consciously considered what theorists and scholars within the field of teaching and learning a second language had pointed out. With regard to the different skills that have to be practiced in the classroom, I considered what Ellis (2003) pointed out when approaching to the task-based syllabus. Choosing task-based syllabus allowed me to practice a different skill in the main task in each lesson in the unit of work. Moreover, it also favored to work on some others during the pre-task and post-task stages to introduce, complete or expand the topic that the lesson deals with. In this way, students could be motivated, see a purpose for learning, use language as a tool and finally reflect on the task and notice learning. Hence, skills were worked in an integrated way. In the case of the reading skill, I thoroughly followed Nuttal’s (1996) suggestions. As he points out, students must make sense of a text by developing some reading strategies such as inference, reorganization of information, personal and evaluative responses to the text, etc. Scanning and skimming are also some quick and useful strategies to be carried out when facing a reading activity. In this sense, I strongly believe that students carefully analyze and approach the text by means of those strategies in order to understand the meaning of the text as a whole instead of just focusing on giving some specific data included in the text in some evident and maybe demotivating questions. If the students find the text interesting and challenging, they are more likely to succeed. As this group of students was very interested in foreign cultures and meeting people from other countries due to their involvement in the Comenius program, I brought to the classroom a reading entitled Visiting Japan. The text offers interesting information about some aspects and superstitions of Japanese culture and, at the same time, it introduces students to the use of modal verbs. The post-task, as we will see below, is a writing activity. With regard to the listening skill, Richards (2008) proposed the idea of practicing listening sub-skills by using top-down and bottom-up strategies so that students analyze pieces of oral texts in detail. These were very advantageous strategies to get the general meaning and also the detailed information of a recording or a video, 9 paying attention to most relevant ideas in a text and also to small features of pronunciation or key words to develop from the context of the listening. Working on those skills, students deal with the text in a realistic way, since there are many real life situations in which one has to understand a general idea of a lecture, a specific word from a conversation or a key instruction to keep on moving and interacting with people. The listening that I chose for the class was “Superstitions around the world”, a recording about superstitions from different countries and cultures. Moreover, it also contained modal verbs and could address the cultural key competence. Referring to the writing skill, all of the writing tasks that students did in this unit of work were guided and done in the classroom. I found it more appropriate this way because it allows the teacher to follow the process and interact with the students, whereas when only the final product is presented, the process cannot be evaluated. The ultimate goal was that students could find a purpose in the task, not simply writing for the sake of writing in English. While the text explained above for the reading task provides modals of obligation and students have to infer the meaning, the post task asks students to write an informal e-mail message to a friend that is about to visit Japan. Since they are supposed to be giving advice to their friend, they unconsciously use the modal verb ‘should’ in context. The group of students also had to do two speaking activities, an oral presentation about a foreign superstition where I focused on speaking as performance, emphasizing that the way in which the information should be presented must be clear, organized and accurate. The second speaking activity focused on speaking as interaction and transaction and on the importance of making oneself understood. As Richards (2008) suggested when talking about teaching speaking, speaking can be practiced from a range of possibilities (performance, transaction or interaction). For this reason, students went through two different kinds of speaking activities since they could account for different ways of talking as they can be useful for students’ future use of oral skills in English. The teaching of vocabulary mainly occurred during the pre-task activities so that students could have a general overview of what the task was going to be about and they could make use of this new vocabulary to develop the main task. In the first lesson, for 16 Learning Unit in this essay, we as teachers should teach in context, providing the learner with enough tools to keep on learning outside the classroom and taking into consideration that society is changing faster than ever. As Rogers (1983: 120) pointed out, the only person who is educated is the person who has learned how to learn, the person who has learned how to adapt and change; the person who has realized that no knowledge is secure, that only the process of seeking knowledge gives a basis for security. Emphasis is placed on the process rather than on static knowledge. The thing is that if legislations and laws get outdated, course books stop being acceptable and we teachers are forced to follow these lines, the process of adaptation, that is, the ‘how’ is jeopardized by the books’ emphasis on static knowledge (structures and rules). If this happens, teachers have to adapt and reflect on the ‘how’. The problem lays in the limited flexibility that schools and the whole educational community provide the teachers in relation to this issue. Reflecting on my teaching experience Reflective teaching As Bailey, Curtis and Nunan (2001) have argued, thinking retrospectively about all the stages of the teaching/learning process is also a crucial part of the process itself. “Reflective teaching” encourages and is based on self-awareness, self-observation and reflexive thought about what happens in the classroom. It is a search for alternatives, for any possible variation that the teacher infers can contribute to learners’ improvement. Obviously, these alternatives have to take into account the real context of the classroom. Any planned topic or task in a Learning Unit must be put into its specific context, which requires a general sense of “flexibility” that has to be applied to the group as a whole and even to the institution itself. Reflective teaching allowed me to reflect and try to solve some of the unexpected problems that came up during my specific teaching experience at Antonio Machado School. In many of my classes I asked students to work in pairs or in groups without taking into account that these groups or pairs were always the same. As I did not want to disturb the flow of the class, I never asked them to change places. As a result, and due to the specific needs of the disabled student in the group when doing this 17 pair/group work, the students who had to work with him started to resent it. While all students treated the student with disability with respect and were friendly towards him, I soon realised that those doing pair or group work with him were finding his specific learning needs slightly cumbersome. While trying to avoid chaos and disruption in class (since I did not want to rearrange the students) I had created an uncomfortable and, somehow, demotivating learning situation for some students. Upon reflection, I thought of the possibility of arranging the students randomly every time they had to work in pairs or groups so that everybody could have the opportunity to work with him. This way they could all experiment the difference and the challenge that dealing with a disability entails, an attitudinal learning activity that I had never thought of before. In this way, I reflected upon a specific classroom problem that affected the whole context in which I was teaching and also upon my own practice, since I faced a problem that I had to remedy. Bailey, Curtis & Nunan (2001) have distinguished two different types of reflection when teaching. Reflection-on-action takes place before and after our teaching. It covers steps such as planning, preparation and evaluation of our teaching process. Somehow, the process is very much within our control. However, reflection-in-action takes place during our teaching. It is an on-line decision-making. It happens as we are teaching. As I explained above, not all the activities and especially the timing went according to the way I had planned them. This is because teaching and learning are interactive, not everything can be planned in advanced, and any teaching/learning process should allow the teacher the flexibility necessary to react and respond to unexpected issues. Reflective teaching seems to me a basic part of any teaching/learning process. If the teacher assesses and observes not only his/her own process and performance but also the attitude of the students, the importance of the environment, and the unexpected issues that may come up in any specific learning environment, the process of teaching and, even more importantly, the process of learning will be more likely to succeed. The concept of reflective teaching has to be not only part of the methodology carried out in the classroom but part of every single action that can be changed to get any kind of improvement. Reflection involves both affective and cognitive aspects. Whereas affection takes into account the environment and the students’ mood and attitude, 18 cognition relies on teachers and students’ performance, that is, on the actual process of learning and acquisition. Thus, reflecting upon these two perspectives the teaching work will be more rewarding, our efforts more successful and students will benefit of the progress. The affective filter Another key factor in second language acquisition and consequently relevant to the English classroom is Krashen’s (1977) concept of the affective filter. For Krashen, the affective filter is a crucial part of learners’ acquisition of a second language. Learners with positive attitudes and high levels of self-confidence can have a low filter that facilitates their learning of the L2. Students with high anxiety levels and negative attitudes, on the contrary, are prone to have a high filter that may block their learning process. Feeling at easy in the classroom enhances and facilitates second language learning processes. High levels of anxiety, disruptions or drastic changes may affect their efficiency of the teaching/learning process. All these elements should be borne in mind before approaching any teaching/learning situation. Getting closer to one’s students, making them and even oneself feel comfortable, confident and engaged in the process are the first steps to think about carefully before starting to plan and implement any new concept. Teaching is complex but so is learning. We, as teachers, have the opportunity to improve and change things that we may consider are done wrongly and looking into literature as well as incorporating personal teaching/learning experiences will surely provide us with successful results. Mixed levels As I have mentioned when explaining the context in which my Learning Unit was implemented, the classroom where I put into practice my teaching presented mixed levels. My goal during the placement was to come up with a solution on how to deal with this heterogeneity. The key to the problem came to me when I started to reflect carefully on the issue. By bearing in mind the two factors mentioned above (reflective teaching and the affective filter), I started to reflect upon the possibility of changing the way of teaching and also the way of learning so that the process became more 19 meaningful for everybody in the classroom. In this way, I would also manage to lower the affective filter, something that would help students’ learning process. As I have said, the group of 26 students had different levels of linguistic competence in English. Even if I had seen them in class in my observation classes, I was not aware of that until I started working with them directly. Mixed levels are a given in most second language classes at high school level but I had not thought about that when I was preparing my Learning Unit. Besides, as one of the students in my group was disabled, my way of reacting to that was to adapt my lessons in-action, trying to make them even more interactive so that everyone, including this student, could share his or her impressions. For instance, the disabled boy was almost unable to write and read. Writing and reading activities had to be adapted for him. The best manner to do them was orally. For instance, in the writing activity that was mentioned above (the one in which they had to write down a dialogue in pairs), the person with whom this specific student was working had to note down both parts of the conversation since his partner could not do it. However, after having implemented the Learning Unit, I thought that these differentiated learners were the most highlighting aspect in this classroom and deserved the teacher’s best practices. For that, I started to look into the concept of both differentiated learning and differentiated instruction, since both parts become crucial by the time one gets closer to the issue. Differentiated learning is the way of enabling and stimulating each student to realise his/her full intellectual and practical potential. This does not only mean to help the least able students since all of them deserve equal access to differentiated learning. Teachers must recognize the diversity of the academic backgrounds and empower students of all abilities to reach their maximum potential. On the other hand, differentiated instruction occurs when teachers reach out to an individual or small group to vary their teaching in order to create the best learning experience. Perhaps the most appropriate technique to incorporate these differences is by making use of cooperative learning in the classroom. In that way, teachers are able to differentiate learners depending on their needs and teachers themselves can adapt to every single situation, and take a specific role if required. Spencer Kagan (1989) defined cooperative learning 20 as a teaching arrangement that refers to small, heterogeneous groups of students working together to achieve a common goal. Its basic components are positive interdependence, individual accountability, equal participation and simultaneous interaction. Hence, cooperative learning allows students to create bonds, to rely on others’ perspectives and knowledge but also to work individually and take the initiative. Furthermore, interaction takes place at the same time so students are more likely to participate. They may feel more motivated as they see themselves in charge of accomplishing the role that they have been assigned. This view helps students to collaborate and challenge themselves as well as recognize and appreciate their peers’ diverse competences and experiences. As one may notice, cooperative learning could be the most appropriate tool for teachers to attend learners’ special needs since it allows for a very propitious kind of classroom management. To achieve differentiated instruction and differentiated learning, the teacher may consider several factors such as space, level, language, materials… In terms of space, teachers must make sure that students’ allocation in the classroom is the right one (consider disabilities, corners, etc.). They also have to make sure that language is accessible and easy to follow for all of them as instructions will be more valid in this way. Apart from that, materials are even more useful because, from a collaborative point of view, teachers must bear in mind which role is the appropriate one for each student. Thus, activities are a good mean to notice that the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ are mixed in a single piece of work. Cooperative learning allows teachers to focus on structure, that is, how the classroom, students and any other variables are arranged but also on content. Cooperative learning allows both the teacher and the students to interact among themselves and also to interact with the curriculum. In short, cooperative learning is a technique to be implemented by teachers when they face any students’ need and notice that the flow of the classroom is not working as they expected. Therefore, cooperative learning is a solution to improve the ‘how’ and make the most of these students. The choice of cooperative learning in the EFL classroom may prompt students to see the communicative purpose of the language, obtain a better input, a higher amount of output and of interaction. It can also help lower the affective filter. That means, as has been explained above, that the students are more likely to acquire the language when they feel comfortable, relaxed, and confident. The use of cooperative learning provides this kind of atmosphere in the classroom. 21 Future proposals The ‘what’ and the ‘how’ define a great part of the teaching and learning process since they bring about contents and objectives as well as different methodologies, different types of evaluation, and what it is even more important, a considerable amount of reflection that undoubtedly entails adaptations that are so needed when teachers confront a heterogeneous group of students. Some other factors that may affect the teaching and learning process could be the place and the time when this process takes place. But still, the ‘where’ and the ‘when’ can be encompassed by the ‘how’ as they can also be seen as variables that may be adapted, if necessary, during the teaching and learning process. However, there is a third main component that shapes the whole process and that teachers should always bear in mind as well: the ‘why’. Undoubtedly, the ‘why’ could also be accomplished by the ‘how’ as the starting point for the ‘how’ to be developed, that is, the ‘why’ can also be seen as the reason that teachers find in order to start establishing action points, those things that do not work in the classroom. This way, all the components, the ‘what’, the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ would work in an integrated way so that the process of teaching and learning becomes profitable for all the members involved. In spite of the fact that the ‘why’ integrates the process in this view, in this paper, it will be more relevant for future implications. Thus, the ‘why’ will be analyzed as the concluding point that teachers will go through once the process of teaching and learning has been carried out. The three elements that have been analyzed and reflected upon in this essay concurrently take place at the learning stage. The teaching practice has been closely related to these three variables but it has to be considered that students are connected to them too. Whereas teachers think of several possibilities taking into account what, how and why they teach, students also wonder what, how and why something has to be learnt. From my point of view, these three components of the process become more abstract for them as they are receiving the information and not actually performing it. Information is there to be taught and also to be learnt. Teachers’ position in the process in this sense is a relatively comfortable one. They already have an idea of what to teach, how and why before the teaching and learning process starts (even if, as has been mentioned above, the actual implementation of the “what” and the “how” require a lot of flexibility and adaptability on teachers’ part. Students, however, receive this 22 information all of a sudden and have to start doing a considerable mental effort to relate, understand and learn. In other words, it is crucial that teachers reflect upon these three elements (what, how and why) before, meanwhile and after the process, bearing in mind that students are not at the same position as they are and, therefore, an extra effort must be made so that learners feel confident towards the subject and overcome possible problems during the process. Apart from the reflective teaching concept that is so crucial throughout a teacher’s career, I would also want to point out other future components that could be useful to incorporate in our future classes so that students can make the most of their process of learning. In order for the learners to experience a meaningful learning, teachers should attempt to work with topics and information that learners perceive as interesting and to provide students with immediate and appropriate feedback. These are the components that students really appreciate, those that allow them to enjoy, learn and improve the use of the second language. Besides, teachers should consider the principle of multiple responses from the part of the students as in this way learners are being given several opportunities to find the outcome that they are really looking for. This process is known as recycling since it allows students to offer different responses until they achieve success. It is important to bear in mind as teachers that in many occasions, students’ reach to meaningful learning is just a matter of time. Clearly, previous teaching practice is quite helpful for the students to acquire the language but there are also some others that somehow prepare learners to start learning. I would want to explain these practices briefly and take them as part of the framework that I want to bear in mind in my future teaching career. On the one hand, I have observed that students learn more and better during the first ten or fifteen minutes of a lesson. This is the principle of primacy, or primacy effect, that Denise E. Murray and Mary Ann Christison (2011) refer to. People tend to remember best the information that comes first. What one hears or sees at first, creates a strong impression that is hard to forget. In opposition (or in combination) with this, there is also the recency effect, which defends that some students remember concepts or explanations given the very last minutes of a class. In this way, they are more likely to remember those items of the language that have been explained at the end. The last practice tackles intensity, that is, the more students get involved in the classroom, the more information they retain. 23 A good way to plan lessons taking into account these two cognitive processes could be to leave for the beginning and the end of each lesson what they consider that has to be primarily learnt by the students so that the process of learning and acquisition becomes meaningful. It would be a new way of rearranging lessons in which teachers should reflect on this “puzzle” that is carried out during the process of planning. In my personal teaching practice, I would change the lessons in the following way: - Lessons in my learning unit start with the pre-task at the beginning of each lesson and finish with the post-task at the end. - For the learning to be more meaningful, I would leave what I pre-teach for the end of a lesson so that students easily remember what we are going to be dealing with (recency effect). Then the following lesson would start with the main task (primacy effect). Finally, the post task that would include reinforcement and expand as it is supposed to be a posttask, but it would also include something new that relates the next day main task for the very beginning of the lesson. The process will be the same, following task-based syllabus and embracing all the components that teaching and learning a second language require but reorganizing the way in which it is delivered. Moreover, another key element to consider as future intentions is the amount of realism that a teacher can bring to the classroom. From my point of view, working with real material is key in order to provide learners with both motivating and real life situations. Demonstrations, interaction, role-plays, interesting texts, and opportunities to collaborate with classmates will be really helpful to increase learning. Since a language classroom provides us with an “open window” to other cultures, this is an element that also should be made the most of. Cultural manifestations include a wide range of topics (from literature, music and visual arts to fashion, eating habits and sports) and, therefore, the interests of our learners can be easily catered for in a second language classroom. Apart from these proposals, there is another factor to be considered within the process of teaching and learning. As was mentioned above, the ‘how’ is the part of the teaching/learning process that allows teachers to react to the context, adapt their 24 materials and implement changes when things do not work as planned in a second language classroom. As we know, a lot of methods and approaches have been created to deal with the teaching of a second language, from translation and the audio-lingual ones to the communicative approach. It seems that everybody wants to find the “magic formula” to the teaching and learning of second languages but, somehow, all methods have failed at some point. As Kumaravadivelu (2006) has claimed, the time has come to think of a post-method pedagogy. Kumaravadivelu’s proposal supports the role of the teacher as “expert” and highlights teachers’ ability to think of alternatives and possibilities. If teachers choose a specific activity it will be considered correct and appropriate as long as they are aware of other possibilities in case of trouble. With this view in mind, it is possible to observe that Kumaravadivelu’s proposal is not far from my own findings, reflections and conclusions in this essay. Therefore, reflection, adaptability to context and practice over the teaching of form are apparently the strengths that lead teachers to success. The ‘how’ becomes increasingly important so that learning actually exists regardless of ‘what’ is supposed to be taught, and teachers’ experience and expertise become key and reliable parts of the process. Conclusion This Master Degree and my personal experience at the Antonio Machado School have provided me with a solid theoretical and practical framework for my future teaching career. Even if I had been a student (and a second language learner) for most of my life, I had very little idea about the strategies that a teacher has to plan and implement in order for students to benefit from an efficient second language learning experience. I had never thought about the circumstances that can hinder students’ learning of a second language, least of all think about the ways in which these circumstances could be tackled and, ideally, solved. As I am writing these lines, I cannot help but reflect on how much my view of what teaching is about has changed since last October. As I was taking the different modules I became more and more familiar with teaching and learning processes, old and new methods, different types of evaluation and a variety of teaching practices. At the same time, I was able to experience first hand the implementation of what I considered a fairly traditional and somehow old-fashioned approach to teaching and learning that did not really comply with many of the basic 25 principles and theories dealt with in the modules of the Master. As a future teacher, I feel now the obligation to start reflecting on those issues that, in my future teaching career, may allow me to correct, change or improve those things that I think do not work at the present moment. It seems evident that Aragonese English classrooms are failing in the way a foreign language is taught, regardless of what the legal framework prescribes. If teachers are able to detect that something is not working as it should be and they start analyzing and reflecting on the parts of the teaching-learning process that fail, they will have the opportunity to change current practices into more meaningful ones. Perhaps it is not a matter of changing or correcting non-effective practices but of using reflection on those practices as an excuse to keep on improving the process in a world that is constantly changing. I think it is the time to leave behind those teaching and learning styles that do not favor to students real learning and acquisition. Adaptation will immediately come up after a period of reflection, and maybe this is the key to success. To achieve this, teachers should explore and make use of those elements within their reach, such as the planning of a unit of work or the way in which they usually deliver their lessons. Once teachers have analyzed their practices, they have to try to come up with solutions to be implemented in the classrooms and see in this way if they are the right ones for the students and the environment in which these solutions are being put into practice. This paper is structured around this process. It starts with a description of what has been carried out in the classroom and it then moves on to the reflection on the process trying to come up with possible solutions for future practices. My personal exploration of the ‘what’, the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of my teaching experience are the backbone of this paper. As a future teacher I now feel more confident because I know which questions I have to ask myself before starting any teaching-learning process. I also know that I have to take into account and to cater for the needs and specificities of my students. And more importantly, I can also be critical of my own teaching practice by reflecting on it throughout the whole process. As a result, I seem to find myself with more questions than real answers. But the questions are enticing and, therefore, the road ahead is a long and exciting one. 5 questions to be answered by means of a reading. Thus, they are given the opportunity to reflect on their learning process, to know what they understand and what they do not and to start working on their weaknesses. All these competences are in direct connection with the information treatment, the digital competence that enables students to interact, search, and make use of real and functional communicative contexts. This unit will allow students to use ICTs at the time they have to prepare some sort of oral presentations, do some web searches or use the Intranet to read a short story. In the school Antonio Machado, there exists an incredible emphasis on that since students are constantly in contact with students from other countries of the Comenius programme and sharing at the same time a common language, English. As this unit deals with superstitions, it attempts to make students conscious about what they are often surrounded by: TV series, films, books, legends… and make them aware that not everything is believable. Apart from that, the students’ experience of working together with a disabled person in class will also contribute to the social and civic competence and will be taken into account during the evaluation process by the teacher. The contribution to the cultural competence will be covered again by means of the introduction of the American writer, Edgar Allan Poe. He will be introduced as a superstitious writer. In addition to this, they will also be asked to prepare an oral presentation in groups and each of them will have to bring to the classroom a well-known superstition from a foreign country. - Contribution to competences in the foreign language: This unit specially covers the interpersonal competence as students are required to be in contact with other cultures and respect different habits, beliefs and opinions but also the pragmatic competence by developing the discursive competence, to prepare, organize and deliver speeches. (Oral presentations about foreign superstitions). Procedural and intercultural competences are already integrated in this process. II. OBJECTIVES 6 - To understand general and specific information from oral texts whose topics are related to superstitions and presented in the most interesting way for the students - To produce continuous, adequate and comprehensible speech by using appropriate strategies and about topics that are in relation to the students’ are somehow in control. - To participate in classroom activities and discussions, sharing opinions and giving reasons about superstitious events by means of using linguistic strategies that ensure communication. - To show initiative, interest, autonomy and participate in the learning process. - To identify the general idea of a written text and also relevant specific information. Topics and subtopics are connected with the students’ interest always bearing in mind that superstitions is the main topic. - To write short compositions by using basic elements of cohesion and adjusting to basic rules of orthography and punctuation. - To integrate in the learning process the use of ICTs. - To show interest in the language and its culture. They have to be aware of the personal enrichment that learning a foreign language facilitates. III. CONTENTS - Understanding of typical oral messages that take place in the common development of the lesson such as instructions, interactions or explanations. - Understanding of general and specific information from oral texts in different formats, addressing superstitious events. - Brief and comprehensible oral production about topics of their interest. - Use and development of basic strategies to maintain a conversation and overcome difficulties while discussing any topic in the classroom. - Understanding and identification of general and specific information about superstitions around the world from authentic texts of different kinds always according to the students’ age, interests and experience. - Use of reading strategies such as guessing the main idea in a text, inferring meaning through context, comparing words from similar languages, etc. 7 - Composition of short piece of writing that responds to students’ concern. Use of different cohesive devices and attention to the different stages in a writing activity: plan, structure and revise. In this unit students will write a short composition about a story review in an organized way. - Expressing obligation, prohibition and advice through the use of modal verbs. - Describing peoples’ feelings and any thing or situation with ed/ing adjectives. - Interest in handing in the homework as shiny as possible. - Understanding and use of common expressions about superstitious events that relate to the topic of the unit. - Exploitation of any learning opportunity that takes place in teaching-learning process as well as participation in the evaluation process. - Reflection of the way of learning and of the necessities that each student has to aim at the achievement of stated goals. - Being aware of other cultures’ attitudes towards superstitions. IV. METHODOLOGY While the learning unit provides a framework, learning ultimately depends on the interaction between the teacher and the learners in the classroom and on the teaching approaches, activities, materials and procedures employed by the instructor. Thus, As the Aragonese Curriculum establishes, methodology must focus on a global perspective rather than on a linear one. Thus, it will offer the student to develop the competences in an integrated way The development of the communicative competence will require a very active participation and students will be provided with strategies, which promote their interpretation of ideas. Authentic materials will be preferred to achieve the objectives but there will be also pre-designed materials. All the activities regard to context in the sense that context comes first and it has to be a flexible methodology to be adapted when a specific situation arises. The teacher will keep the idea of reflective teaching by Bailey, Curtis & Nunan (2001). Reflection will be done through daily observation. That is the key tool to readapt lessons according to what any participant in the teaching-learning process needs. 8 At times, this unit of work also addresses to multiple intelligences since students are asked to complete an activity or exercise by inferring what they have to complete from some pictures. (See the listening activity Superstitions around the world.) Lessons revolve all of them around a main topic that is Superstitions. Then each lesson deals with a specific sub-topic that aim at being shocking and motivating for the students. Activities in this learning unit are designed around a main task. Each lesson has at the same time its pre-task and post-task activities that somehow introduce, complete, reinforce or expand the main task. Skills are worked in an integrated way so that students are able to go through some of them in the same lesson. There will be two reading tasks in which students, according to Nuttal (1996) will practice inference, reorganization of information; students will also answer personal responses. Scanning and skimming will be some quick and useful strategies to be carried out so that they are full of resources to face a reading or a short piece of text. There will also have to do two speaking activities, an oral presentation about a foreign superstition where the teacher will focus on speaking as performance, since the way in which the information should be presented must be clear, organized and accurate. The second speaking activity will focus on speaking as interaction and transaction and on the importance of being understood. Most of the writings that students do in this unit of work are guided and done in the classroom time. I find it more appropriate since the teacher can follow the process, interact…whereas if only the product is presented, we as teachers will have not many clues to give a mark. In listening activities, students are programmed specially to practise top down and bottom up strategies so that they analyse pieces of oral texts in detail). As Richards (2008) pointed out these were very advantageous strategies to get the general and also the details of a recording or a video. Grammar and vocabulary are learnt and revised in use, within the context of the whole unit of work: superstitions and going through different formats: oral and written. These main tasks also have as a central purpose to integrate other curricular areas as it could be the case of doing a caligrama or travelling to other cultures and get closer to geography. By doing the portfolio that they have to submit at the end of the unit of work, students will be asked to reflect autonomously on their own about the process of learning and also teaching. In addition to this, collaborative work and group work will be promoted almost at all times since there are many different kinds of students and that could be the solution to reach 9 to their maximum potential as it is easier for a teacher to provide differentiated instruction as well. V. EVALUATION CRITERIA At the end of the lesson students will be able: - To understand general and specific information from oral texts whose topics are related to superstitions and presented in the most interesting way for the students - To produce continuous, adequate and comprehensible speech by using appropriate strategies and about topics that are in relation to the students’ are somehow in control. - To participate in classroom activities and discussions, sharing opinions and giving reasons about superstitious events by means of using linguistic strategies that ensure communication. - To show initiative, interest, autonomy and participate in the learning process. - To identify the general idea of a written text and also relevant specific information. Topics and subtopics are connected with the students’ interest always bearing in mind that superstitions is the main topic. - To write short compositions by using basic elements of cohesion and adjusting to basic rules of orthography and punctuation. - To integrate in the learning process the use of ICTs. - To show interest in the language and its culture. They have to be aware of the personal enrichment that learning a foreign language facilitates. VI. EVALUATION TOOLS In each lesson, the teacher will gather information by means of classroom observation. The teacher daily makes use of anecdotal records that are written down on post-it-notes. Apart from that, the teacher will be provided with some kind of feedback at the end of each lesson since students are required to complete one-minute papers in which they have to answer some questions about the lesson that day. Thus, the teacher will check understanding and will also discover aspects that should be revised. These two are not going to be part of the 10 final mark; this is just information for the teacher and also for the students, as they can be warned by the teacher at some point. Moreover, as there is some kind of differentiation among students and group work is carried out many times, one-minute papers are a good opportunity for students to ask, claim or just show understanding. The final mark will be obtained by mixing different tools. See the chart below: PERFORMANCE (SPEAKING ACTIVITY) PORTFOLIO TEST ACTIVE PARTICIPATION AND INTEREST 20% -15% by the teacher - 5% by the students (peer-assessment) 50% 15% 15% The speaking activity will be evaluated in terms of performance and taking into account accuracy and fluency due to the teacher’s previous focus on speaking interaction some units before. The portfolio will carry most of the percentage since it is seen as a useful tool not only for the teacher to check that everything is done but also for the student to observe himself and reflect on his process of learning. It is easier for them to see what aspects they should work on and in which ones they are already successful. The portfolio will be split up into two sections: - 30%: interest in handing in work carefully I. Interest in handing in work carefully. II. Check if SS have included, revised and corrected all the activities proposed by the teacher. III. Evaluate SS progress. IV. Any additional information that the student may want to attach. 11 - 20%: SS own reflection on their needs. They will all have to write a section addressing to the following questions: I. What have I learnt? II. What do you like about this unit? What do you dislike? Give reasons. III. Do you have any difficulties? IV. When you are reading, listening, speaking or writing and suddenly a word or something that you do not understand come across, what do you do? According to Genesee & Upshur (1996), responses to these sorts of questions provide teachers with insights about students’ learning strategies that can promote understanding of student achievement and progress. They can serve as the basis for individualizing instruction or for modifying instructional plans according to all students’ needs. As time sometimes lacks, this is a good opportunity for both teachers and learners to be in contact. The test will cover grammatical points. The justification of having included it as part of the final mark is mainly because students in this classroom are so used to be assessed following this process that they become confused any time one wants to change a little bit the mechanics of an activity. The teacher expects from this test that students show understanding on modal verbs and are able to produce and use them in a real life situation. (see attachment) Active participation and interest will be marked after the teacher collects notes through classroom observation and will be given special emphasis during discussions, sharing of viewpoints and opinions of any topic all along the lessons. VII. DIFFERENTIATION There is a student with special needs in the classroom. He only attends some of the lessons as he is usually doing other activities out of the classroom to reinforce his basic knowledge. He has experimented changes both in terms of contents and objectives. He is unable to read and write properly so most of the activities have to be adapted for him when he attends lessons. Even though students in the classroom are not mature enough to understand why that happens, they always try to help and take care of him. At the same time, the teacher is in charge of making sure that tasks are being done well and that the student is able to participate 12 and interact as the others do. As the teacher is aware of the difficulty for the students to work with him, she is constantly promoting respectfulness and tolerance. There are some other four students that present some difficulties by the time they learn the English language mainly because they come from other schools that do not share the same level of English or maybe the same way of teaching than before. Since it is their first year at Antonio Machado, they have to take time to catch up. As there are differentiated learners the teacher in the classroom also tries to differentiate instructions. That is the reason why collaborative learning or group work is present almost in all the lessons. In this learning unit, collaborative work is seen as a useful tool to reach to the maximum potential of each kind of student. VIII. LESSON PLANS Lesson 1: What I know about superstitions. Time and date: Grade: 1ºA Unit of work: Believe it or not 24/03 13-13:50 Number of students: 26 Title of the lesson: What I know about superstitions Learning objectives: - To develop some communicative strategies to explain one of the superstitions learnt in the lesson - To understand general and specific information to infer the meaning of the superstitions presented on a video and classify them into good or bad luck. - To develop writing strategies to keep on a conversation about a specific superstitious event learnt during the lesson. Learning outcomes: At the end of the lesson students will be able to: - Infer the meaning of the video Don’t scare so as to provide a title for the unit. - Produce a short oral explanation to show acquisition of new vocabulary about different superstitions (break a mirror, step on cracks…) and some communicative resources such as body language or reformulation - Write a dialogue to describe a specific experience that attaches to a concrete superstition (i.e. pick a fourleafed clover) and set it in a specific context, saying with whom, when and where this 13 experience took place. Activities: - Pre-task: warm-up activity. Work out what the topic of the unit is about by means of watching a short video on Don’t Scare. - The T asks students: What does this video suggest to you? First, provide the title for our new unit of work. Note down superstitions in the video. Finally, attach them to good or bad luck. - Speaking jigsaw. Pre-teach key vocabulary which deals with superstitious situations. First, the teacher lists some new verbs and makes sure that the students know their meaning in the following superstitious situations (break a mirror, drop a glass, put shoes on a table, sweep the house on Friday, hug a baby, wish for money, dream about a storm, pick a four-leafed clover, carry a lucky charm, step on a crack, kiss the ground, sneeze many times and scratch your nose). SS are given card games in different colours (red, blue, green and yellow) to build up superstitious events or situations. Each superstitious situation is split into two different cards (the verb goes in one card and the rest of the statement on the other) and has to be in the same colour so that students find a partner who completes the full statement (superstition). - Task. Speaking. TABOO BODY: Once the students have found a pair, they have to sit down together and change the class arrangement. Now students sit down in circles, still with the same pair. Pairs are given a number from 1 to 13. “You work in the following way: pair number 2 explains and mimic pair 1’s superstition, pair number 3 explains pair 2’s superstition and so on. To explain and mimic you can not use words from the situation given’. The rest of the students have to guess which superstition is being explained / performed. In this way, students go through different superstitions. Students are given a minute to think how to explain and how to perform before the activity starts. - Post-task. Short piece of writing. Students come back to their seats but still remain in pairs. They are given a different superstition from another pair in the classroom. Now, taking into account this superstition, they have to imagine that it is a chat, that is, a conversation. They have to outline ideas and create a short dialogue without speaking a word. The conversation must revolve around Time: 7’ 8’ 6’ Procedure: - SS watch, list and classify information from the video. - SS write down a title for the unit. - T-S interaction and class discussion. - T’s introduction of new vocabulary. She mimics, gives examples, synonyms, she uses verbs in context so that students infer meanings. - i.e I broke the window throwing a stone. - SS interaction. SS infer meaning and find a pair. T’s explanation. New classroom arrangement, this time in circle so that students perform the superstitions in the middle. SS explain, mimic and even draw for the Materials: -Internet whiteboard and worksheet Cards 14 the superstition given. They have to exchange the piece of paper each time they want to take part of the conversation. The writing will be guided in the sense that students have to attach to these questions: who, when and where and start from this prompt: You look confused…is everything ok? Tell me what has happened to you. 15 12’ rest to guess the superstition. - T’s explanation. T models how to do the activity by choosing a student. - SS guess / infer how the conversation is going on to make sense of it. Worksheet Worksheet Evaluation of the learning and teaching process: The teacher evaluates the process by means of classroom observation. (personal notes) - Have I managed to control the classroom? Yes, because they felt curious all the time about what was going on. They feel comfortable when they are free to perform or express themselves. - Have students got engaged with the activity? Do they feel curious about/interested in the topic? At first, they seemed sceptical but little by little they have been feeling more and more intrigued. Has there been a good teacher-student interaction? More or less. At times they got confused about the superstitious situations and were all the time asking and wondering why that could happen. That is why, at times interaction became chaotic. However, that also meant for me that they got engaged. - Have I made myself clear when giving instructions and explaining activities? Not enough. This is something to be improved. The teacher also passes along one-minute papers that students have to fill in and give back to the teacher. Differentiation: As the disabled boy has attended class today, the writing conversation has been adapted to him. He has worked in pairs too but he has done the activity orally while the other student copied what he was saying. Assessment and feedback: While doing speaking activities and classroom interaction, the teacher will only correct just in case communication among students is in trouble. Speaking activity will be evaluated as transaction and interaction, the purpose is to be understood. They will have to hand in the writing activity and the teacher will provide them with feedback afterwards. Feedback will be provided through indirect correction, for instance, underlining mistakes without saying the correction. Thus, the teacher fosters revision and reflection of L2. SS have to keep all their worksheets for the final portfolio that they have to hand in at the end of the unit. Action points: - Clearer explanations. Students often get lost Homework: 21 are people from different origins it seems advisable to get to know any culture so that interaction among countries becomes easier. Indeed, we are living in the 21st century and most of us enjoy travelling, don’t we? Thus, to make the most of our trips, let’s discover something else about some cultures.’ The T introduces the activity by saying “How did you find the fact of getting closer to other cultures? Can you remember any superstition that the video dealt with? Do you think that we are all different? Do you find interesting this fact? Why?” SS activate previous knowledge on the video by listing some or the superstitions they remember. - Worksheet. Listening Task. - Bingo! Exercise two. As in the previous lesson students did not listen to the video to get information but they already know what it is about, now SS do exercise one in the worksheet and predict the information they are about to listen by watching the video without sound. Then they listen to it again and cross out the words they have written if they are mentioned in the video. - SS listen again to the recording and try to extract some general and specific information. Exercise three. - In this worksheet there is also grammar teaching. The T provides SS some sentences from the video which contain modal verbs and they have to compare them and work out a rule for the modal verb MUST. (exercises four and five) - Oral presentations. The T starts explaining what the lesson is going to be about. “It is time to go around the world and meet new people, new cultures and new superstitions. You are going to come in front of the class and present the superstition to your classmates. Remember to cover all the points that I advised you to do and that presentations are 3 minutes long. While you are listening to your mates, you have to take some notes of each presentation and come up with a question you may ask to them. This is individual work for the moment. Good luck!” - Post-Task: T explains what follows this activity. Each S has collected some notes from all the presentations. Now, they join together in groups again. Each 4’ 4’ 6’ 5’ 20’ lesson. T-SS interaction T-SS interaction T-SS interaction SS note down what they listen. Computer and internet connection. Whiteboard and spotlight. Worksheet 22 member in the group shares the information collected and compares it among the rest of the members in the group. Each group has to be able to note down the most important details of another group’s presentation in a piece of paper decorated and written by them. At the end of the lesson, SS have to incorporate their pieces of writing to a huge mural that play school students had already prepared and entitled: I LOVE MY WORLD. 8’ SS work individually. T-SS interaction Groups present superstitions one by one. T controls the time and orders when it is the time to change groups. T warns SS to pay attention and write down relevant information as well as a question they will ask to establish some kind of interaction since there is a follow up activity that relates to these oral presentations. SS collect all the information and create a summary. They also have to create a symbol that represents this superstition that is being explained. Incorporate the different superstitions to the mural. It will remain at the classroom for the rest of the unit. T congratulates SS for the work done. Worksheet Some blank pieces of paper Colour pencils Mural Evaluation of the learning and teaching process: The T gathers information from classroom observation (personal notes): - Have I managed to control the classroom? Most of the time. There were times with the post task activity in which the classroom seemed more chaotic than it used to be. Cooperative work was required and students became noisier because of that and also because of the time. It was almost the last session for them in the day. - Have students got engaged with the activity? Do they feel curious about/interested in the topic? Yes. Most of them, even though the sound in the listening activity was not very good. Moreover, some of them have asked for scary movie or novels to read in their free time. - Have I made myself clear when giving instructions and explaining activities? Students know what they have to do in each exercise but they still feel uncomfortable with this way of teaching. 23 SS have to fill in a one-minute paper and give it back to the teacher. Assessment and feedback: - The T will extract information from participation in class while interaction and discussion of different topics takes place. - The T will mark behaviour as positive or negative by means of observation when students are doing the writing activity in groups and the mural. - The T will mark the oral presentations. The main focus will be on structure and organization of the speech and also accuracy and fluency since this speaking activity focuses on performance sub-skill. SS will also have a mark thanks to peer-assessment. SS will have to evaluate their classmates performance by filling a peer-assessment sheet. (see attachments) Action points: T should be careful about the kind of activities that she chooses to do depending on the schedule. That is, students are more relaxed early in the morning than last hours in the afternoon. She has to anticipate to it or change activities if she thinks that cooperative learning is not going to work at this time. T had thought to work on songs or tales that dealt with superstitions. As they have asked to watch or read on that, T changes the next two lessons according to their interest and introduces Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Black Cat. Homework: None Lesson 5: Edgar Allan Poe, a superstitious writer. Time and date: Grade: 1ºA Unit of work: Believe it or not 01/04 13-13:50 Number of students: 26 Title of the lesson: E.A. Poe. A superstitious writer Learning objectives: - To appreciate and show interest in knowing about writers and plays of English speaking countries as it is the case of Poe’s The Black Cat - To write a brief text by using some writing strategies as cohesion and a proper structure to tell a story appropriately. - To infer the emotion that a short text produces by paying attention to different intonation. - To interact, discuss and share a personal experience by using –ed / -ing adjectives. Learning outcomes: At the end of the lesson students will be able to: -Write a short text about a story review on The Black Cat by using appropriate cohesive strategies and a proper structure. - Use two kinds of adjectives (-ed/-ing) to describe both what people feel towards the story and things/events/situations that take place 24 in this story. (The Black Cat) - Recognize an emotion or feeling depending on the intonation given to the short composition on The Black Cat. - Appreciate and feel curious about knowing more on the writer and the story they are dealing with. Activities: - Pre-task: T starts the lesson reading a short text: “I am going to read aloud a short but gripping extract of a short story. It is maybe unknown for you and so the author. But just try to enjoy it, characterize, describe, give opinions…and if possible, guess the name story and the author!” - If students do not come up with the title and the writer, the teacher says it and tells a little on that. “Poe is an American writer. He used to write short stories dealing with horror and superstitions. The Black Cat is a perfect example. What does it happen when you see a black cat? - Writing task. The teacher plays a video which perfectly summarises The Black Cat’s plot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_JKe EnOvto. Students still do not know about the story. The activity’s aim is to build up some sort of story in the students’ mind. Then, they have to create a piece of writing from what this video has suggested to them. That is, the video would be used to brainstorm their minds. SS work at the same time on exercise 2 of the worksheet and put pictures in order. The video is just a sequence of images supported by sound. Characters do not talk in it. - T revises vocabulary suggested to make sure they know the meaning. - SS write individually. Teacher’s talk: “Remember that it is going to be a short written text. Use a proper structure to introduce, develop and conclude the story and also those writing strategies to link ideas.” - Teaching grammar and supra segmental features. Once the compositions have been made by the SS, the teacher introduces a new activity: “Now, we are going to listen to three compositions. Are there any volunteers to read his or her Time: 7’ 6’ 4’ 12’ Procedure: T-S interaction. T’s reading of the extract. SS’ deductions T’s talk T-SS interaction T plays the video. SS put pictures in order T gives synonyms, gives an example using the word, asks students to infer meaning by analysing the words, etc. SS work individually and T plays the video more times if it is necessary. Materials: Short extract (Worksheet) Internet connection, computer, whiteboard and speakers. 25 writing aloud? Please, come to the blackboard. The rest, pay attention while listening and circle the adjectives that most fit with the speaker’s feeling and therefore with the story itself’. Volunteers will be ordered to intonate the short piece of writing into different ways, showing a feeling each time. (frightened, thrilled, surprised) While three SS will read the compositions aloud and the rest of the SS will circle the emotion in a different colour each time. - SS have to come up with some sort of rule for –ed / -ing adjectives. “You are now describing your compositions and also what you feel towards them. You may have noticed that to describe something we use different kinds of adjectives. Which ones are we using? How do they end? Why? Can you work out any rule?” - Sharing of ideas. SS have to talk about a recent experience. SS work in pairs to both: 1. Describe the situation 2. Describe a feeling. They will make use of a diagram to guide the activity. See worksheet. 9’ 6’ T’s talk. SS’ reading of some On the compositions SS circle adjectives that for them most describe the story and what they feel.T makes pairs randomly so that students work with different people each time. SS complete the chart and interact with the partner.SS interaction Worksheet Worksheet Worksheet Worksheet Differentiation: As the student is going to attend the next session, instead of reading the text, he will be asked to listen to a recording on youtube. It is about someone telling the story. He will also participate in the performance and will have to bring to the classroom some information about Poe’s life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDWK9r5cm70 (The Black Cat) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-387NMCR6w (about Edgar Allan Poe) Evaluation of the learning and teaching process: Teacher gathers information from classroom observation (personal notes): - Have I managed to control the classroom? Yes, almost at all times. The only thing is that they start talking all the time when the T changes the activity. I think they make the most of the lesson when activities take longer. Too many different activities provoke some kind of confusion on them. - Have students got engaged with the activities? Do they feel curious about/interested in the topic? Has there been a good teacher-student interaction? Interaction is easy in this classroom mainly because they are very participative and most of them are very good at speaking activities. They even feel enthusiastic to know more about the author and the story that has been presented today. - Have I made myself clear when giving instructions and explaining activities? Again, grammatical concepts are hard to explain in this way because this is not the way they are used to do it. They are not trained to infer or deduce. Often, the T gives the rule and they practice afterwards. SS will complete the one-minute paper and give it back to the teacher. The same rubric will be used for 26 the writing activity. Assessment and feedback: - The T will mainly assess interest and participation that students show all along the lesson. - The writing activity will be included in the portfolio. Action points: As students look very enthusiastic and it seems that they want to know more about the story, what really happens in it, the T decides to expand on it the next lesson due to the fact that the Book’s Day (23rd April) is coming. Homework: T asks SS to read Edgar Allan Poe’s short story: The Black Cat. Deadline: Monday 31st. It is an adapted version from Penguin Readers (see attachments). The T uploads it upon Intranet and it is rapidly available for SS to work at home. T asks students to remember a passage of the story (something that shocked them, something which was surprising to them…). T makes groups. Each member in the group has to pay attention to a different character in the story and try to infer through the reading and author’s portrayal of each character, his attitude and personality. T asks students to do a web search on Poe’s life and work. T asks for relevant information. Lesson 6: The Black Cat. Getting closer! Time and date: Grade: 1ºA Unit of work: Believe it or not 02/04 13-13:50 Number of students: 26 Title of the lesson: The Black Cat. Getting closer! Learning objectives: - To inferthe meaning of some words that appear in The Black Cat by using their own communicative strategies or regarding to the words in context. - To produce a fluent and understandable speech and adapt it to the character they are performing in the play The Black Cat. - To integrate artistic knowledge (crosscurricular activity) into literature doing a caligrama. - To show interest in cultural issues as it is the case of well-known English language Learning outcomes: At the end of the unit students will be able to: - Explain the meaning of some new words from the reading The Black Cat by using any linguistic resource, except for a dictionary. - Represent a short story, speak fluently and according to the role they have been assigned. - Do a ‘caligrama’ and integrate it in the story they have just read. - Fill in a slide in which SS get closer to 27 writers and plays. As a teacher objective, this lesson is thought to increase the use of the L2. Realia and students’ personal interest on the topic are used as a tool to achieve it. the author and the story they are learning. Activities: - T brings to the classroom 5 ropes, 5 axes (toy), 5 empty bottles of wine, 13 policeman caps and 5 black cats made in wood. T remains quiet listening to the SS comments on that. Then T asks: “Do you know what’s going on today? It’s time for you to enjoy, perform and WORK! Have you all read the short story? Did you find it interesting? Were you surprised/confused at some points? Give me an adjective that for you most fits to the story.” T shows on the screen a quotation about Poe’s writing to prompt SS comment on the story. - To revise the plot of the story, the T has prepared a slide in which she includes some pictures that summarize the whole story. Using them, SS have to come up with a quick summary. - As students were asked yesterday to do a web search on Edgar Allan Poe, T collects all the information today. T has prepared a PPT that students have to fill in and work on it. T has prepared a slide entitled Edgar Allan Poe with a picture of him in it. T completes it as SS say aloud something new about Poe’s life and work. - Pre-teaching vocabulary of the story: The T prepares a slide in which there are some pictures that describe the vocabulary to be studied. There are also sentences taken from the text in which these words are used. SS have to match them “You are going to see some sentences with words highlighted in bold. You will also watch some pictures that correspond to these words. Try to match them by inferring their meaning in context.” - Theatre time starts! “We are going to work in groups. Please, pay attention to what the steps in the activity are about. You work in groups of 5 and there will also be a group of 6. With these items, you are going to reproduce the story and do a short performance. You have 5’ to prepare it. Then, each group will perform the story for the rest. Time for the actual Time: 3’ 3’ 3’ 4’ 5’ 2’ Procedure: T’s observation. T-SS interaction. T prompts SS to talk about the story, to increase motivation and engagement using a quotation. SS interaction. T-SS interaction. T lists information that SS have brought to class. SS work in pairs and Materials: PPT Computer, whiteboard, PPT. PPT Computer, whiteboard, PPT. Ropes, caps, bottles, cats in wood and axes. Props and students at stage. Oscar award, 28 performance will be 3’. At the end, SS and T will vote to choose the best performance. The winner will receive an award. Come on!” - “Time is over! Let’s become actors and actresses! You are going to perform the story. Remember it is 3 minutes long, no more!” - SS’ performance. - T takes the votes and counts them. “The award is coming... are you nervous?” T plays the soundtrack that is used every year in the Oscar’s ceremony. Meanwhile, T says “and the Oscar goes to…i.e group 4! Congratulations!” SS will receive a small Oscar’s toy/award. - SS create a superstitious corner in which they include the previous mural, some props used in The Black Cat’s performance and the Oscar award. - Post task. T asks students to think of the passage they liked the most. “You have to think of the passage I told you yesterday. Go back to the text, find it there and copy the quotation on the top of this blank paper. What you are going to do next is a CALIGRAMA. Do you know what it is?” T explains in case students do not know. “A ‘Caligrama’ is a drawing done by using the quotation that you have chosen. The quotation, the actual handwriting is the tool to construct the shape of the drawing. The drawing must be what the quotation suggests to you.” The T gives an example and shows some pictures for them to clarify. - SS do the caligrama on their own. - SS add ‘caligramas’ to the superstitious corner. 15’ 2’ 2’ 10’ match vocabulary with pictures. T makes the groups so that each group has the different characters in the story. T shares out the props to the different groups. T switches lights off and lowers the blinds so that the atmosphere suits perfectly with the story. T walks around to check that English is the language used at all times. The arrangement of the classroom changes to a U shape so that each group performs in the middle and looks more like a theatre. SS arrange a superstitious corner. They organize the tables as usual and come back to their seats. SS write down the quotation/passage they have selected for the caligrama activity. SS fill in the chart with words in the computer, speakers and Oscar’s ceremony soundtrack. Worksheet Word document with pictures illustrating some examples of a ‘caligrama’ 29 quotation to be conscious of what the it is is about. Evaluation of the learning and teaching process: The T gathers information about the process by classroom observation (personal notes) - Have I managed to control the classroom? Yes, even though they got excited when I created a new and dark atmosphere in the classroom. - Have students got engaged with the activity? Do they feel curious about/interested in the topic? Has there been a good teacher-student interaction? Students now feel satisfied because they know about the story and also about the writer. They found the activity entertaining. - Have I made myself clear when giving instructions and explaining activities? The most abstract activity was the caligrama. It was hard for them to understand these instructions in English but they managed to understand it when I showed them some pictures on the whiteboard. Students fill in the one-minute paper and give it back to the teacher. Even though they are good at oral skills, they often speak in Spanish when they do not know how to express themselves in English. The aim was that ‘realia’ encouraged everybody to use the L1, that somehow, ‘realia’ increased motivation and engagement to leave apart the mother tongue. The activity has been a success, students were surprised as they learnt in a different way and the use of the target language, at least, increased. Assessment and feedback: T will provide them with feedback after the performances. (Based on originality, fluency, accuracy and interest). SS will have to make a short comment on the lesson, giving their opinion, highlighting strong and weak points. They have to include it in the portfolio. Action points: Performance activity has taken too long. T must anticipate to that and plan activities taking into account the timing. Homework: None. IX. CONCLUSIONS This learning unit has been really meaningful for me in the end. Planning is hard work as one has to take into account lots of elements and aspects to cover every single necessity that may arise in the classroom. Implementing what one has planned is grateful but at the same time confusing, that is, you enter a new classroom, with 26 new students, a new unit of work for them, new instructions, new activities, new evaluation tools… The point that I want to 30 reach to is that no matter what you plan if you do not know the classroom you are about to teach. Yes, it is extremely important to know all these reading, writing, listening, grammar, speaking… strategies but also to adapt, reflect and improve any situation during the development of the classroom. To prepare successful tasks the teacher must have revised all these ideas so that a new generation of teaching comes and starts changing things. 37 - goddess: ______________________________________________________________________ - stay away: _____________________________________________________________________ o How have you deduced the meaning? Write down your own strategies. 4. Now, have a look at the text. - find a superstition that deals with a day of the week: - find an explanation given by the Romans. - in exactly 60 seconds, match superstitions to facts in the sheet above. - What will happen to your spirit if a mirror breaks? - According to Egyptians, what levels of life can we inhabit if we are alive? - After having read the text, is it possible for you to believe in superstitions? - Now, come up with a question that your classmates can answer after having read the text. Write it down. 5. There are several examples of situations or events in the text that express obligation and prohibition. Please, note down an example of each. Then, give these sentences to your partner so that he corrects them if there are any mistakes. ____________________________________ _______________________________________ 6. After reading. Did you know that combining two of these superstitions we obtain a new one? Can you name it? _________________________________ • Discuss in groups of 3. - Is that superstition known in your country? 38 - What does it consist of? - Do you attach it to good or bad luck? why? - Have you ever had a remarkable experience with that superstition? - Can you come up with some rules to be followed so as to avoid bad luck in that specific day? 1. 2. 3. LESSON 3 Reading activity: VISITING JAPAN Exercise 1. a) Sharing opinions. Just having a look to the title of the text and taking into account what the whole unit of work is about, try to outline some ideas and notions that come to your mind when thinking of Asian countries. What do you know about this culture? Try to think of someone who comes from these places, some customs… 1. ______________________ 2. ______________________ 3. ______________________ 4. ______________________ 5. ______________________ b) Class discussion. Think about the following questions. Do you like travelling and discover new cultures? Do you think superstitions are the same all over the world? Do you know any other foreign superstition? Where does it come from? What is it about? Exercise 2. - Read the text below. 39 Japan is a wonderful country to visit and you can do many things there. But before you visit Japan, you should learn about its culture. Let’s start with shoes. Visitors to people’s houses, restaurants and many public buildings have to take off their shoes and leave them outside. This keeps buildings clean, as shoes can carry a lot of dirt on them. Also, according to Japanese superstition, a person wearing street shoes mustn’t bring the problems of the outside world into a house. This is because the Japanese people believe that to be happy at home, people must forget about the outside world. Don’t worry – tourists don’t have to carry house shoes around with them, because Japanese hosts usually give their guests special house shoes. But the Japanese have often got smaller feet than people from Europe, and when I was in Japan, my host couldn’t find house shoes to fit me. Fortunately, it was summer and I could walk around in my socks! - Answer the following questions 1. What is the text about? _____________________________________________ 2. What clothes do Japanese people have to take off? _______________________ 3. A German boy travels to Japan. He is invited to have dinner by a Japanese family. Can he wear Japanese shoes which perfectly fit him?________________ 4. Was it a problem that the writer couldn’t wear shoes as a host?______________ 5. Do you think it is worth it to know some rules when travelling abroad?________ Why?___________________________________________________________ 6. How does the writer show obligation, necessity, advice…?_________________ Exercise 3. Turn these sentences into the opposite meaning. - People mustn’t bring the problems of the outside. - They must forget about the outside world. 40 Can you guess what the speaker’s intention is for each of these sentences? - _________________________ - _________________________ Your best friend is going on holidays to Japan next Easter time. Write him to give some advice on what to do there according to this culture. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ Practice on pronunciation. Which word is pronounced? CAN / CANNOT / CAN’T SHOULDN’T / SHOULD / SHOULD NOT MUSTN’T / MUST NOT COULD / COULDN’T / COULD NOT Try to say them aloud within a sentence: - You can’t do anything there. - Shoes mustn’t bring the problems of the outside. - You shouldn’t learn about its culture. Exercise 4. Listening. SUPERSTITIONS AROUND THE WORLD.  You are going to watch and listen to a video in which a sequence of superstitions is presented. Try to get the pattern that the speaker uses to present each superstition and organize the discourse. You may do this, for example, by outlining information: 41 1st 2nd 3rd - - - - - - - - -  HOMEWORK: web search. In groups of 4/5, you must work on the following points: - Look for information on a foreign superstition. - Using the pattern above, organize this information to prepare an oral presentation. - You may use cards, a power point presentation or anything that can help you while performing the activity in class. LESSON 4 DO YOU WANT TO GO AROUND WITH ME? 42 1. Class discussion. How did you find the fact of getting closer to other cultures? Do you think that we are all different? Do you find this fact interesting? Why? Do you remember the video that we just watched yesterday? Can you remember some of the superstitions that the video dealt with? Make a list: - ________________________________ - ________________________________ - ________________________________ - ________________________________ - ________________________________ 2. Bingo time! Step 1: You are going to watch the video without sound. The only thing you have is a sequence of images. Draw a grid with eight boxes and write there eight different words that you think the speaker in the video may mention. Step 2: Now, you are going to watch the video with sound. Anytime you hear any word that you have written in your grid, cross it out. If you get all the words crossed, say aloud BINGO! 3. Answer the following questions: What is the general idea in the video? ____________________________________________________________________ Can you name the countries that the speaker mentions in the video? ____________________________________________________________________ Imagine that a Chinese boy sweeps the house in January 2nd. Will it bring him good or bad luck? ____________________________________________________________ Which superstition relates to a part of the body? ____________________________________________________________________ 43 Even if the speaker does not give an opinion on the topic explicitly, can you write some sort of conclusion according to what he says? ____________________________________________________________________ 4. That is what the speaker in the video says at some point: - This superstition must be a tradition in Central America. - There must be a lot of dirt before New Year’s Eve in China. VS - In Central American countries, you must cut your baby’s nails before he is one year old. - Chinese people must sweep the house before New Year’s Eve. Can you see any difference between these pair of sentences that refer to the same superstition? Write it down. 5. From these superstitions that you have just heard on, try to deduce some information and note it down. - In ancient Britain… _____________________________________________________ - In Latin American countries… ____________________________________________ 6. Oral presentations. Each group has three minutes to present the superstition. The rest of the groups: - have to come up with a question during the listening. - have to note down information from each presentation. - will have to compare notes at the end of the each presentation and compose a single piece of writing in which you explain the superstition as a whole. 44 LESSON 5 -Writing task-  Short text to be read aloud: You are not going to believe this story. But it is a true story, as true as I sit here writing it — as true as I will die in the morning. Yes, this story ends with my end, with my death tomorrow. I have always been a kind and loving person — everyone will tell you this. They will also tell you that I have always loved animals more than anything. When I was a little boy, my family always had many different animals round the house. As I grew up, I spent most of my time with them, giving them their food and cleaning them. (…) I remember that night very well. I came home late, full of drink again. I could not understand why Pluto was not pleased to see me. The cat was staying away from me. My Pluto did not want to come near me! I caught him and picked him up, holding him strongly. He was afraid of me and bit my hand. Suddenly, I was not myself any more. Someone else was in my body: someone evil, and mad with drink! I took my knife from my pocket, held the poor animal by his neck and cut out one of his eyes. 45  The next story is Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat. It is a video that perfectly summarises its plot but there is no talk in it, just images and sound. Then, have a look to the following pictures and decide the correct order. Write the appropriate number beside each picture.  Now write the story of The Black Cat. Remember to organize your story into sections which may contain: - the setting - Later events - early events - End - You may also want to write a short conclusion or opinion on the story. - The vocabulary below may help you to develop the story: o Commit a crime o Corpse o Axe o Atmosphere o Attack o Hit o Get drunk 46  As some students read their writings aloud, circle the picture that most describes the story itself for you: A) IT IS SURPRISING B) IT IS FRIGHTENING C) IT IS BORING 53 PEER-ASSESSMENT (Oral presentations) Presentation 1: 1. Have you managed to recognize the pattern that the group has used to present the superstition? __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ 2. Have you been able to follow the presentation easily? YES / NO 3. Write down the general idea. What is the superstition about? ___________________________________________________________________ 4. Have the students supported the speech by using any other material (PPT, cards, pictures…)? __________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ 5. Write down any idea, comment, image…that has been shocking to you. - - - 54 RUBRIC (SPEAKING ACTIVITY: oral presentations) OUTSTANDING VERY GOOD GOOD PASSED FAILED Students present the superstition in a complex way. It is clear, organized and well designed. It is original. Students can describe complex subjects (abstract in this case) integrating sub.topics Students can present detailed descriptions about the superstitions. Students can connect sentences so that they become more complex. Students present the superstitions using very simple sentences Pattern organization is perfectly clear. Pattern and organization is clear enough and flows smoothly. Pattern and organization is quite good. Pattern and organization is slightly confused. The pattern and organization of the presentation is not clear Students control all the material worked on during this lesson and previous ones and they are able to integrate it Students include many expressions and uses of modal verbsStudents include some expressions about superstitions learnt through the unit and some other modal verbs. Students include some words learnt through the unit and a modal verb. Students have not included vocabulary on the unit and any kind of modal verb. Students’ speech is perfect in terms of accuracy and fluency. Students do not commit almost any mistake. Fluency is almost perfect. Students commit some mistakes and are fluent. The presentation flows smoothly Students do not commit serious mistakes but fluency fails at times when they take turns to speak. Students are not accurate and fluent. To many pauses. 1 Attachment II (Practicum II) PRACTICUM II Reflecting on my teaching Profesora: Mª José Rodríguez Maimón BEATRIZ BLASCO OTÍN Master en Profesorado de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato: Inglés 2013/2014 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 3 The use of the mother tongue 4 Giving instructions 7 Conclusion 10 References 11 Attachments 12 3 When we teach, we do not just teach the content. We teach students the content. These are very similar statements but the meaning is considerably different. In fact, this is what teaching aims at. Students have a very important role within the process of teachinglearning and every single action that the teacher carries out should take into account their needs and interests. Teaching is a complex activity that often requires us as instructors to perform several tasks and goals at the same time and flexibly for the students’ benefit. Before having the opportunity to teach, one may wonder: how am I going to do? How do I present this activity? Will it be successful? How do I assess my students? Will these instructions be enough? When and how do I provide feedback? In order for the teaching to be as effective as possible, teachers should bear in mind all these questions and be ready to adapt or change any situation in the classroom. That is why reflective teaching (Finney, 2002) is so important. Even though there are two kinds of reflection (on-action / in-action) and that it is may be more successful to be able to change or readapt lessons as quick as possible, it is also advantageous for a beginner teacher to observe and reflect after his or her first performance. To note down every teaching strategy, how it has been carried out and how it has affected to the development of the lesson is a useful starting point to analyse not only the teacher’s current limitations but also his or her strengths. Reflection on what one does could be the best way to achieve effectiveness wherever we teach. I did my teaching placement with students from 1st year of secondary education. They were 26 students and generally they had a good level of English, especially at oral skills. The group was really interactive but mostly in those topics that they were interested in. At first, the unit of work that I was asked to plan did not seem to be very engaging for 12 or 13 year old students. The topic dealt with superstitions. Thus, I had to think carefully how I was going to deliver it and how my students could feel motivated and engaged. That is why I previously came up with ideas that could fit the topic that I had to cover and fit at the same time my students’ interest. As they are very fond of reading, I thought of the possibility of planning a lesson about Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Black Cat. I gradually felt more confident and I prepared the whole learning unit thoroughly in advance. Even if I tried to present an interesting and motivating unit, problems arose and I tried to deal with them or at least to account for those points that I need to work on. 4 The information collected by means of a recording of the entire session is attached at the end of this paper. There is an observation chart that provides an overview of the full session and implementation and two other more specific ones which deal with giving instructions and the use of the mother tongue, as these are two aspects that I consider especially relevant to work on and improve. (See attachments). THE USE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE It seems that there have always been discussions whether the fact of using the mother tongue while teaching a foreign language, in this particular case while teaching English language, is appropriate or adequate for the students learning or not. Teachers often wonder to what extent they should use the L1 in the classroom by the time they deliver a lesson and surely they are already aware of such a controversial topic because in the end, what should be attempted is to achieve as much understanding and learning as possible. That is the reason why many questions arise and teachers’ decision becomes crucial: is it useful to use the mother tongue? Sometimes? Never? For what purposes? It was Nuttal (1996) who pointed out the distinction between understanding and production in use of the L1, that is, it is not the same to use the L1 or the L2 depending on what the goals are. For instance, speaking and reading are not the same skill and also they do not ask students for the same kind of things, they are not focused on the same goals. That means, while speaking focuses on the production of the L2 (students have to speak each other in the target language, which is the purpose of any speaking activity), reading focuses more on understanding. The thing is that in a reading activity, the student can not keep on doing the activity because he is really troubled by the text, and the text is what it is, he can not change it, he can not change its words so that he makes it easier. Thus, a rapid understanding is needed (translation) so that he can keep on producing and learning. Nuttal supports this viewpoint by saying that “the inability to express themselves (students) in the target language necessarily limits both the kind and the quality of the responses students give. It is quite possible that students who are permitted to use their L1 in responding will explore the text more accurately and thoroughly than those who are restricted to target language responses”. However, in a speaking activity the student will 5 be more able to overcome the situation even if he does not know specific words. As he is producing language, the student can change structures, vocabulary (by providing synonyms, antonyms) as long as he is able to maintain the meaning. It seems just a matter or priority, that is, the teacher should be aware of what is primarily needed in the classroom. Apart from that, there is often a special use of the mother tongue for clarification. Both teachers and students use it when interaction among them seems to be in trouble. An evidence of that is the chart observation filled in during the lesson with students of 1st of ESO (see attachments). With regard to teachers, they usually tend to use it at the beginning of a lesson in order to give instructions, explain meanings of words, and explain complex ideas or even difficult grammar points (Afzal, 2013). In this way, the L1 use would mainly be for clarification aims once the teacher has already explained what he or she wanted and still notices that students seem confused. In connection to these thoughts, L1 would serve as ‘a supporting and facilitating role in the classroom’ (Tang, 2002). Another approach which is in favour of the use of L1 in the classroom is the existence of differentiated students. Differentiation does not only include disabled students or students with high capacities but also learners who learn better depending on the kind of intelligence. That means that if a teacher, for instance, is giving instructions to perform a task, and there is someone who can not get the explanation once it has been repeated several times, the communicative situation starts failing. Hence, what is the best solution to this problem? Perhaps some students do understand the mechanics of the task, others need a different explanation, others need a translation and even other students need a translation and an explanation by using the L1 so that the flow of the lesson keeps on and on and consequent activities take place smoothly. In addition to this, and as a counter-argument of a previous idea in this essay, even if students present different intelligences or they do not share the same rhythm when learning a new language, the teacher somehow must encourage these students to feel motivated to learn, acquire and produce it since the learning process does not end within the four walls of the classroom (Finney, 2002). In this way, teachers should promote autonomous learning and useful tools and strategies so that students keep on learning and feel curious about the target 6 language. That will not probably happen if the teacher just provides a direct translation, there will not be anything remaining to be learnt after that. Moreover, what current legislations and the communicative approach suggest is that the whole English subject must revolve around the use of the L2, its practice, interaction and acquisition. Thus, if students are all the time exposed to input, it will be easier for them to acquire the language. It seems that there is not a better option whether to use or not the L1 but the truth is that teachers deal with different classrooms and groups of students everyday and the conclusion could be that they should adapt to the students’ needs and interests at all times so that the process of teaching-learning is not in trouble. Thus, the four examples in the chart when students made use of the mother tongue would be solved in this way:  Students’ utterances in the mother tongue will be corrected by the teacher. At this moment, the teacher encourages students to make an effort and try to express themselves using the L2  When the students’ speech is understandable, the teacher will congratulate the students and will provide them with feedback to work on accuracy or word choice, for example.  The teacher will never make use of the mother tongue except for those situations in which the flow of the lesson is in trouble, when students really need it and there is no other way to solve the communicative situation.  With this lesson on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat, the teacher will try to increase the use of the L2 by means of using an alternative method: realia. Realia consists of bringing to the classroom all kind of props or any other material that makes activities in the lesson real for the students. In this way, students can feel more motivated and engaged towards the target language and they can see the purpose of learning it. To improve this lesson and also the next session, the teacher will do the following: - Instead of doing the writing activity, students will perform the story by using the props that the teacher brings to the classroom: 5 empty bottles of wine, 5 rapes, 5 policeman 7 caps, 5 axes (toys) and 5 black cats made in wood. In groups, students will have to perform a character in the story. - The teacher will also lower down the blinds and turn off the light so that the atmosphere in the classroom becomes darker and more appropriate for a horror story. - The teacher will play soundtracks from suspense films. GIVING INSTRUCTIONS Giving instructions was one of my weaknesses when delivering lessons during my placement. At the end of each session, my tutor always reminded me to improve that part since students always started asking for clarification after having explained the activities. That may be sounds obvious, that a teacher is going to explain an activity and everybody will understand and start working on it. But things are not always as we plan. Actually, giving instructions requires the teacher to make a considerable effort if she wants to achieve entire effectiveness in the process of teaching-learning. For students to learn, they need to have ideas as clear as possible so that they can practice and acquire the goals that the teacher has previously planned. According to (Wajnryb 2005), a key time in the lesson is the transition time between one activity and the other. These periods require clear instructions for the teacher to the students if the lesson is to flow smoothly and effectively. For this reason, it is very important to state clear task objectives from the very beginning. This will involve both what to include and exclude, what is really valuable and effective. In this way, if each activity is presented together with its objectives, students may realise that they are being asked to do different things or exercises and will notice in this way that there has been a shift. Moreover, by the time the teacher wants to begin with the explanation of an activity, she or he has to make sure that there exists eye-contact with the students and that they are in silence and concentrated on what they are about to do. To achieve that, the teacher may make use of a silence signal which could be something like calling-response. For instance, students all must know that when the teacher says aloud CLASS, they have to answer YES and that this means they have to be quiet because something new is coming. In terms of language use, it might be more advantageous to make use of the target language as simple and easy as possible. That means, for example, to use a lower level of 8 words and expressions than the actual task demands to do. In this way, understanding of what students have to do become easy and quick and they have a lot of time left to prepare and work on the activity. In addition to what I have previously suggested, there is a special need of clarity in instructions if we take into account that students in the classroom are all different. Thus, the teacher also has to bear in mind that a differentiated instruction may be needed at some points when presenting a new activity. Teacher should take into consideration all the difficulties that students may encounter and try to provide a solution in advance, when planning the lesson. According to (Bruner, 1999), the teacher may consider the fact of using different means: - Linguistic means such as talk and print. - Visual aids such as charts, diagrams, pictures or figures. - Physical means as demonstration, performance or pantomime. Furthermore, tasks must have a sense of ending so that students notice that the activity is almost finished. Here the teacher could provide them with some sort of summary or just ask questions to check if they have completed the task. Apart from these factors, I would also expand this area by having a look to two more actions that relate each other and with which the teacher can think of other possibilities to improve explanations. The first new factor deals with teacher-student interaction while students are doing the task. Even if the teacher gives successful instructions at the beginning of the task and also signalling appropriately when a new activity starts, there is some time left in between while students work on their own. This is a good opportunity for the teacher to interact with students individually and a good way to check understanding at the same time. Teacher can solve doubts rapidly and students keep on working smoothly. Besides, if the teacher notices that the same question is being asked several times by different pupils, he or she has the opportunity to explain it in another way, give more examples on something or just change the mechanics. These actions are closely related to the fact that the teacher should stay in close proximity to the targeted student, that is, he should be observing, interacting, walking around. The teacher should also seem herself attentive and receptive. 15 Never Students asking each other: ¿tú sabes lo que es ‘gripping’? Teacher orders student to talk in English even if they speak each other. Never Two or three students talking: ‘esta usa todo el rato ‘for instance’…que significa eso? Teacher listens to that while writing on the blackboard and turns to the students to clarify. Never ¿Qué ha dicho? ¿que hay que hacer un writing? Pero…¿de qué? Teacher notices that they have not understood the instructions. Teacher asks students to ask for a new explanation in English. Never Student: ‘sorry I don’t understand. We have to make the writing…pero…I don’t… I…no entiendo los pasos que hay que hacer o como dices tú.’ Teacher encourages student to keep on asking in English. At the end, the teacher finishes the sentence for him, to illustrate how to do it. Your reflection 1) Draw up guidelines for yourself about the use of the mother tongue by the teacher in the language classroom. 2) How would you react to students’ use of the mother tongue? Note: observation task adapted from Somogyi-Tóth, K. (2012). Observation Tasks: A workbook for student teachers http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/File/ttj_plus/Observation%20Tasks.pdf OBSERVATION TASK 1. Giving instructions BACKGROUND Instructions must be kept as simple, short and clear as possible. A clear voice, appropriate body language, good eye contact, and the use of visual aids all help instruction-giving. In addition, Scrivener (1994) proposes the following steps for giving clearer instructions: "Don't say things that are visible or obvious. (eg: I'm giving you a piece of paper.) 16 Don't give instructions that they don't need to know at this point. Separate instructions from other chit-chat. Create a silence beforehand. Make eye-contact with as many students as possible; find an authoritative tone and make sure they are listening before you start. Use silence and gestures to pace the instructions and clarify their meaning. Demonstrate rather than explain wherever possible. Check that they have all understood what to do - don't assume that everyone will automatically understand what you have said. Getting one or two students to tell you what they are going to do is one very simple way of doing this." Scrivener, J. 1994. Learning Teaching: A guidebook for English language teachers. Oxford: Heinemann. TASK 1) Observe the instructions the teacher gives during the lesson and complete the table (following page). For each skill, observe whether the teacher used it and decide how successfully it was achieved. 2) Evaluate the instruction-giving that you observed. Answer the following questions: In your opinion, which elements make instructions successful? Which elements make instructions less successful? What are the most important factors for you personally when giving instructions? What will you incorporate into your own teaching after doing this observation task? Note: observation task taken from Somogyi-Tóth, K. (2012). Observation Tasks: A workbook for student teachers http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/File/ttj_plus/Observation%20Tasks.pdf 17 Prácticum II: Especialidad lengua extranjera (inglés) Observing how the teacher gives instructions: Day: 1st April Class: 1st Secondary Education INSTRUCTION-GIVING SKILLS Signalling start of activity (creating a silence) Use of simple language Use of short sentences Logic and clarity Use of target language Eye-contact Body language, gesture Repeating instruction in a different way Use of visual aids Demonstration rather than explanation USED? Not always Not always Almost always Often Always These were areas observed by the tutor. Good enough. Tried many times. DISCUSSION POINTS As timing is one of the hardest factors to deal with and plan exactly, I had to be quick to do all the activities programmed. Shifts from one activity to another were as quick as possible. I often realised that students were shocked with expressions such as ‘for instance’ ‘do you get the idea’ instead of saying ‘do you understand’? But after having listened to the recording I realised that I spent too much time explaining a task in the same way and not allowing students to interact with me. Activities followed a logical pattern. However, they did not always understand the mechanics, at least, at first. And this was something that students found difficult as they couldn’t follow instructions vey well. The only thing she pointed out was the voice. It resulted monotonous at times. But not successfully achieved. (writing task) 18 Checking understanding Signalling end of activity Rarely Idem (use of visuals) Just twice Not always. I realised that giving examples and modelling may help for the students’ understanding. I could have asked some students to explain a task to check if they have got the idea after my explanation. Maybe I had to provide some sort of conclusion or some expressions like ‘done!’ or ‘well done, that’s all!’ -Writing task-  Short text to be read aloud: GIVING INSTRUCTIONS: - CLASS! – YES! - We are starting our new lesson. The first thing we are going to do is… - You are going to listen a short text. The teacher shows the piece of paper. - I am going to read it aloud. Teacher tries to maintain eye-contact with a lot of students. - You have to understand the general idea. - Try to guess the story and the author that this short belongs to. - Do you all understand what you have to do in this activity? - Please, Marcos, tell us what we have to do. You are not going to believe this story. But it is a true story, as true as I sit here writing it — as true as I will die in the morning. Yes, this story ends with my end, with my death tomorrow. 19 I have always been a kind and loving person — everyone will tell you this. They will also tell you that I have always loved animals more than anything. When I was a little boy, my family always had many different animals round the house. As I grew up, I spent most of my time with them, giving them their food and cleaning them. (…) I remember that night very well. I came home late, full of drink again. I could not understand why Pluto was not pleased to see me. The cat was staying away from me. My Pluto did not want to come near me! I caught him and picked him up, holding him strongly. He was afraid of me and bit my hand. Suddenly, I was not myself any more. Someone else was in my body: someone evil, and mad with drink! I took my knife from my pocket, held the poor animal by his neck and cut out one of his eyes. - can you guess where this text comes from? - Teacher-student interaction. - Well done! You have come up with the author! - As you know by now that Edgar Allan Poe is our superstitious writer, let’s move to next activity, I hope you will enjoy it! - (CREATING SILENCE)  The next story is Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat. It is a video that perfectly summarises its plot but there is no talk in it, just images and sound. Then, have a look to 20 the following pictures and decide the correct order. Write the appropriate number beside each picture. GIVING INSTRUCTIONS: - Now, our new activity! This is a writing activity where you have to compose a short piece of writing. - You are going to watch a video. There is no talk in it, just sound and images. - You have to imagine what the story is about by watching the sequence of images and listening to its music. - Before start writing. These images you see below summarize the story as well. According to what you watch and to these pictures, put them in order. Write numbers from 1 to 4. - Have you understood? Are there any questions before starting? (CREATING PAUSE) GIVING INSTRUCTIONS: - Now that you have a clear idea of the story is about, let’s write a story review. - Imagine that you want to tell the story to a friend. - Teacher maintains eye-contact and walks around the classroom. 21 - The teacher shows this worksheet on the white screen too so that it becomes more visual. - Tell your friend what the story is about. Use a correct structure. To do this, remember to separate you text into paragraphs. You use each paragraph to organize what you want to tell. - For example, you start talking about the setting, the place where the story happens. Then you want to talk about the man and what he does… - In the exercise below, you’ve got some vocabulary words to be used if you need them. Is there any problem with them, with their meaning? - At the end of the writing you may also include your opinion or what you think about the story. For example, if you find it scary, surprising, thrilling… - Do you all understand what we have to do? Are there any doubt? Is the writing task clear? Laura, can you explain to your classmates what the writing is about and the steps to be followed? Please ask me if there are any doubts, I will be walking around and having a look to your writings. - You’ve got the clock running on the screen for 12 minutes. Come on!  Now write the story of The Black Cat. Remember to organize your story into sections which may contain: - the setting - Later events - early events - End - You may also want to write a short conclusion or opinion on the story. - The vocabulary below may help you to develop the story: o Commit a crime o Corpse o Axe o Atmosphere o Attack o Hit o Get drunk - CLASS!- YES! - We only have two minutes left. Be ready to hand in your compositions as you finish them. - Alarm rings. Time is over! Please hand in the writing tasks. 22 THE BLACK CAT _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________  As some students read their writings aloud, circle the picture that most describes the story itself for you: A) IT IS SURPRISING B) ____________________ 23 C) ____________________ D) _____________________ GIVING INSTRUCTIONS: - Teacher uses her silence signal to start the activity. - The teacher warns students to listen carefully as they have to circle what they think or feel in the following exercise. - The exercise is visual enough for them to guess what they have to do. - Make sure that you answer the last questions in the exercise.  As students read their writings aloud, circle the picture that most describes what you feel towards the short story. 24 A) I FEEL SURPRISED B) _________________ C) _________________ D) _________________ 5 3. When a lesson emphasizes understanding concepts, then a concept development structure should be used. (Three-step Interview, Think-PairShare, and Team Word-Webbing.) 4. Multifunctional structures are used for students getting to know each other better, mastering information, and understanding concepts. (Roundtable, Inside-Outside Circle, Partners, Jigsaw, and Co-op Co-op.). These somehow cover all main tenets about the cooperative learning. Activities for the different structures that at the same time attach different skills would be the following: 1. CORNER Each student moves to a corner of the room representing a teacher-determined alternative. Students discuss within corners, and then listen to paraphrase ideas from other students in different corners. Example: the teacher wants students to talk and interact. This is a speaking activity. She does this activity after having read a movie or after having watched a film. The teacher also wants students to focus on a grammar point which is –ed/-ing adjectives. The teacher asks: do you remember Scary Movie III? Those who found the film interesting go to corner 1. Those who found the film entertaining go to corner 2. Those who felt frightened go to corner 3. And those who felt thrilled go to corner 4. Students have to make a rapid decision and place themselves in the corner according to their own opinion. They also have to give reasons and tell the rest of the class why they think or feel like that and try to find counter-arguments to convince others to come to their corner. Each group corner as a whole has to find the strategies to convince the others. This activity sees alternative hypotheses, values, and problem-solving approaches. It also promotes the fact of knowing and respecting different points of view and meeting classmates. 6 2. COLOR CODED, Co-op CARDS Students memorize facts using a flash card game. The game is structured so that there is a maximum probability of success at each step, moving from short-term to long-term memory. Scoring is based on improvement. Example: this activity may be useful to learn vocabulary. The teacher may vary the flash cards by including in them words in different colours, pictures or even allowing students to perform or mimic to guess the meaning of a word or expression. The teacher may focus on vocabulary to describe emotions and situations (-ed/-ing adjectives. The academic and social functions of this activity would be memorizing facts, praising and helping, since students score points in group and the group which gets more points is the winner. 3. THINK PAIR SHARE Students think to themselves on a topic provided by the teacher. Then, they then pair up with another student to discuss it. Finally, they share their thoughts with the class. Example: the teacher gives the students a statement. Recycling takes long time as a housework but it is a good habit for the sake of the environment. That could be attached to develop writing strategies and also speaking practice. Students write down ideas, make a mind map, draw pictures, think of material to be recycled… on their own. Then they share ideas with a partner. Finally, the teacher randomly asks some students to come to the front of the classroom to start doing a debate. The teacher also allows the rest of the class to participate and come up with new arguments. This activity perfectly promotes the fact of generating and revising hypotheses, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, and application. It also promotes participation, involvement. 4. JIGSAW 7 Each student on the team becomes an “expert” on one topic by working with members from other teams assigned the corresponding expert topic. Upon returning to their teams, each one, in turn, teaches the group. Students are all assessed on all aspects of the topic. Example: the teacher may present this activity attaching both the reading and the listening skills. For instance, focusing on listening, the teacher gives each group a text about different topics (ways of saving the environment, social networks, UK is beautiful and the advantages of learning a foreign language). A member in each group is in charge of read the text to other mates. The rest of the members in the group have to walk around the groups in order to get information from every topic. When time is over, the teacher orders the students to come back to their seats and teach their group about the topics. The handing work that the teacher may ask to the students would be a piece of writing, a set of drawings, a caligrama, a power point presentation… Students could be assessed depending on the information they collect and on the originality of the work handed in. This activity covers learning strategies such as acquisition and presentation of new material, review, informed debate, interdependence, status equalization. After having tried any of the cooperative learning techniques, teacher may want to make of the observation chart that will help them to prove whether that methodology is advantageous in the classroom or not. In short, it is evident that there are a lot of resources that can assist all kinds of students and that can integrate all kinds of knowledge and intelligences. Since the main aim for a teacher is to come to be conscious of whatever need the students present, cooperative work seems to be a useful tool to deliver a lesson that involves so many differentiated learners. It is equally important to differentiate instruction as to differentiate learning. Thus, the process of teaching-learning becomes effective and advantageous for any member in it. 8 WORKS CITED Assinder, S et. al. 2007. Differentiated Learning. A report of a forum for invited participants sponsored by the Centre for Bioscience, Higher Education Academy. University of Leeds. Cassady, J. C., Neumeister, K. L. S., Adams, C. A., Dixon, F. A., Pierce, R. L. (2004). The Differentiated Classroom Observation Scale, Roeper Review, 26, 139-146. Cooperative Learning Center. (2000) The Cooperative Learning Center at the University of Minnesota. Kagan, S. 1989. The Structural Approach to cooperative learning. Educational learning. Richards, J.C. 1990. The Language Teaching Matrix. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tomlinson, C. A. (August, 2000). Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. 9 ATTACHMENTS OBSERVATION CHART (during the lesson) Pre-observation interview: - Is there any differentiated learning in the classroom? Yes. There is a disabled student and four others who need some kind of adaptations. - Are materials for all of them the same? Yes, except for the exams. Some exercises are adapted, especially grammar exercises. - Do you give instructions to all of them in the same way? Yes, I try to paraphrase or give several examples when I introduce a new activity but yes, it is the same for all of them. When timing allows me to stop focusing on the disabled student I often come to his desk to see if he understands. - Do students often work in groups? They rarely work in groups mainly because these kinds of tasks take much more time than individual ones that we can quickly correct and move on to other activities. - Do you feel comfortable in the way you usually teach? Yes, at all times. - Do you think your students feel engaged with the subject? I am not sure. Some of them are very good at languages and they enjoy learning English, but some others do it because it is compulsory for them. I think they find it hard and they get demotivated at times. Classroom observation: 10 LESSON 1 LESSON 2 LESSON 3 Students’ engagement They get bored and some of them confused and stressed as they are not able to understand exercises very well. Some of them get bored; others do not follow explanations and do not know how to do. Feel more motivated when they change places or have to write on the blackboard while correcting the reading. Some students haven’t done the reading activity as homework. Pace of instruction The teacher quickly moves from one grammar exercise to another since it is a preparation for the exam. The lesson flows smoothly The flow of the lesson gets worse when students correct the reading activity since they have had some mistakes the teacher did not expect. Cognitive activity Repetition of similar exercises, understanding, remember. Understanding, create. Checking, remember and apply. Learning director (who makes decisions about the learning activities) Teacher directs all learning Teacher directs all learning The teacher directs all learning Individual work The whole class Most of the time. Most of time Pair work No Short dialogue No Group work No No No Variety of materials other than the standard text In this lesson, they only use the course book to revise the whole unit. Quiz on the Internet (projected). Listening activity and short piece of writing. The reading activity is to be done at home. White screen with a list of words to be remembered. Reading activity. Grammar sentences to apply the rules of modal verbs. Activities present various levels of challenge Activities are most of them the same (grammar and vocabulary). Fill in the gaps, choose the appropriate verb, match pictures with expressions) Not at all. Students are fed up with the course book. List of words is challenging as students compete among them. Teacher allows for a wide range of product alternatives (e.g., oral visual, kinesthetic, musical, written, spatial, creative, practical, etc.) In today’s lesson, both written and visual (as the teacher often uses the digital book projected in the white board. In today’s lesson, students practice listening and do the quiz to get to know them. Just written format and visual exercises on the screen. Reflection: Since the only thing that the teacher does not promote is group work and the fact of handing pieces of work collaboratively, the main focus on this paper will be on cooperative learning and collaborative work as a useful tool to avoid or reduce differentiation in the 11 classroom. Cooperative learning will be seen as something advantageous and helpful for students at all levels. OBSERVATION TASK (collaborative work) 1=Never/rarely 2=sometimes 3=almost always 4=always How useful cooperative learning was for your students? Were different grouping arrangements employed? Were they effective? Were students engaged enough with the activities? Were students more motivated? 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 12 Did all the students show respect and interest? Did they achieve the goals that you had previously planned? Has cooperative learning been beneficial for the flow of the lesson? In cooperative learning, has the teacher always made the decisions about the activities? Has cooperative learning increased the use of the mother tongue in the classroom? Students enjoy socializing with their friends and also the educational learning they receive. Is it generally worth it? Can you now affirm that cooperative learning is a means to achieve goals? 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 ATTACHMENT IV (one-minute papers/placement period) 2