DIDACTICA ESPECIAL I Y OBSERVACION DEL PROCESO DE ENSEANZA-APRENDIZAJE

LOOKING AT LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS

PROFESOR: PROFESOR JEFE

DOCTOR OMAR VILLARREAL

DE TRABAJOS PRACTICOS: LICENCIADO GABRIEL ROJO

ALUMNO: EVELYN YAMAZATO CURSO: 1693 OCTUBRE 2012

THE LANGUAGE OF QUESTIONS

OBSERVATION

This observation took place in 5th grade. Students age was between 10 and 11 years old. As soon as the teacher came into the class she started making questions. They were very short, simple questions which had the following style: -Yes/No questions. -Short answering style. -Display questions (requesting information already known to the questioner). -Referential questions (requesting new information)

T: - What day is it today? S: - Its Monday! T: - Whats the weather like today? S: - Its sunny! T: - Mariana, what is your favorite color? S: - Violet T: - Marcos, is this your pencil? (grabbing a pencil from her desk) S: - No, it isnt T: - Ari, listen to me. Have you got short hair? S: - eeh... T: -Have you got short hair? S: - E hmmshortehhno I T: - Are you sure you dont have short hair? Or long hair like me? S: - No! Short hair! T: - Ari? Have you got? S: - Yes, I have short hair T: - Lucas, can you swim? ( moving her arms)

S: - Yes, I can T: - Marcos, can you fly? ( waving her arms) S: - T: - Have you got wings? Can you fly? S: - No, no, I cant! T: - He cant fly. He isnt superman. He doesnt have super powers! ( Everybody laughs)

The teacher made these questions to introduce the topic: Simple Present Tense, which they had already been working on. This was revision and reinforcement of the verb tense and vocabulary. She started with simple questions and then she made them more difficult with Simple Present questions (stage of the lesson). The teacher handed out a photocopy with exercises using the Simple Present. She wrote on the blackboard the uses of the auxiliaries:

I YOU WE THEY DO

HE SHE IT DOES

T: - Martn, do you come to school every day? S: - Yes, I do. T: - Fer, do you play the piano? S: - No, I dont. T: - With Simple Present we talk about ROUTINES. What are routines? S: - T: - For example: I always get up at seven oclock. GET UP. Evelyn GETS UP at six oclock. What time do you get up, Lucas?

S: - I gets up T: - I GET UP (pointing to the blackboard) S: - I GET UP at seven oclock T: - Lisa, what time do you get up in the morning? S: - Qu? T: - WHAT TIME do you get up in the morning? S: - T: - At seven oclock, at eight o clock S: - At half-past, no, a quarter to seven T: - Very good. Ok. What time do you go to bed? ( she got her hands together as if she wanted to pray and placed them on one side of her face while she leaned her head on them) Achu? S: - A quarter. S2: - A qu hora te levants? T: - Dont translate! She knows, Achu, what time do you go to bed? a quarter? S: - A quarter past nine. T: - Ok. Cami, what time do you go to bed? S: - T: - You dont remember You dont know S: - I dont know T: - Early or late? S: - Late.

LANGUAGE

The pattern that emerged from these questions was that the teacher wanted to reinforce the verb tense taught, revise and learn new vocabulary. But she searched for short, simple answers, focusing on the topic. She was considering the challenge it represented for the students to answer these questions, due to in their previous years (3rd and 4th grade), their English language level acquired was very poor; as a consequence, there was an important a lack of knowledge and the teacher needed to start in a lower level of teaching in 5th year. Considering that the teacher never spoke in Spanish,( she became their teacher this year, the students were not used to this kind of learning), they could cope with what she was requesting, asking, saying ,through movements with her hands, arms and vocabulary she made herself clear. The correlation and the response elicited was impeded because the students might need some more grammar and vocabulary revision. The teacher followed a teaching planning but the knowledge of the students might not be enough for the completion of the topic.

THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

OBSERVATION TASK 1 THE ENVIRONMENT This observation took place in 7th grade. The students age was between 12 and 13 years old. The room was situated in the second floor of the building. It was a large room with three windows facing the street on one side and one big window facing the corridor in the opposite wall, I considered this factor very important for the students safety and the possibility of the school staff to observe the on-going of the class if necessary. This also allowed natural daylight in the classroom and the sense of an open space which did not represent an impediment to students to focus on the class subjects (this means that if there was an event occurring in the corridor, students werent aware of it). There was an unusual disposition of the benches. Each student had a bench for themselves and, as the size of the room allowed it, they were spread along the room in an irregular form.

ROOM DIAGRAM

board

board

door

window

teacher's bench

F STREET

window

CORRIDOR F F F M M M F F F F F

window

window

Evelyn

The room had an attractive visual, it was a tidy light-blue room, it had a comfortable temperature and the students and teachers voice could be heard correctly (good acoustic). Sometimes the teacher and students voice overlapped and the teacher needed to raise her voice, but she generally used loud voice in a gentle manner. At the beginning of the class the teacher asked the students to perform the special class that they had to prepare for that day as homework. It consisted of talking about their favorite star and they were divided into different groups. One group of two students participated. They gave the lesson at the front of the class to their mates, placing a chart on one of the three boards, with pictures about their favorite singer star. The students read the information they had collected, they didnt study it by heart. During the lesson the schoolmates paid a lot of attention to what the students were saying, they were not distracted at all and this caught my attention, because they were all quiet and focused on the lesson showing a great sense of respect for their mates. The fact of the size and disposition of the benches in the room did not affect the students attention to the lesson; they werent talking or distracted doing other activities (writing, talking, etc.). The natural lighting in the classroom was really good so it wasnt necessary to turn on the lights. This factor gave a warmer temperature and view to the room. From my own point of view, the large of the room allowed the students place their benches in the way that best suited to them, giving the students the freedom to move and feel comfortable, sharing the lesson in different ways with their mates (some learners were in the middle of two mates, some others were sitting opposite from each other, a few preferred being alone). This factor and the ones mentioned before (acoustic, lightning,

temperature, etc) allowed the students to feel more comfortable and thus the willingness to paying more attention and concentration to the lesson.

TASK 2 STUDENTS CONCENTRATION IN THE LESSON After the oral lesson, the teacher handed out a photocopy to the students, the exercise consisted in reading comprehension. Four students had to read some statements and then they should fill in the blanks. I concentrated on Micaela, a student girl who was sitting alone at the front of the class. While her four mates were reading out loud from the photocopy she started organizing her folder, completing some papers, writing; she looked boring, yawned, she didnt pay attention to what the other students were reading. When the schoolmates finished reading the teacher started to ask them to fill in the exercise, so Micaela left whatever she was doing and started doing the exercise; then she participated saying in a loud voice some of the missing words; she paid attention to what the teacher explained about some prepositions and copied what the teacher wrote on the blackboard. Micaela kept doing the exercise and finished it. Once all students had ending the exercise they corrected it and started with a second exercise. As the students were reading and asking what the exercise was about, Micaela was glueing the photocopy and writing with different colors on her folder. When the teacher began doing the exercise on the blackboard Micaela stopped and copied what the teacher was writing and sometimes she answered what the teacher asked. During the observation the external factors I could observe were that Micaela didnt pay attention to the class when her mates were reading, talking, making suggestions or asking questions and she kept doing activities she considered important, which were related to her learning (folder, sheets, colored titles, pasting, etc). But the fact that she stopped to listen to her teacher whenever the teacher spoke, it was evidence that Micaela was aware of what was happening in the classroom all the time, despite the fact that she kept on doing different things instead of doing what her mates were doing at that moment. What motivated Micaela to get involved in other activities was that her mates were talking ( about the topic, which doesnt mean that she wasnt paying attention, she might be listening as well) and what she considered that was important for her to pay particular attention was what the teacher was saying, asking and teaching.

PHYSICAL FACTORS

TEACHER BEHAVIOUR

COMMENTS

Large room Room size that made it comfortable Lighting, daylight

Supportive Emphasizing achievements Approval

Possibility to dispose benches in different ways Freedom of movement the possibility of students to choose thus feeling more independent The special attention of students to their mates when they were giving oral lesson

Calls by name

Smiles and nods

What I noticed in this classroom was that students werent distracted, they paid a lot of attention to their mates during the oral lesson; they were quiet and silent. They gave support to the students who were in front of the class, they behaved with respect, it was a comforting experience. The teacher argued this was a very special classroom and she enjoyed a lot teaching these students. It is important for students when teachers speak and explain them the importance of the relationship among them (student-student/teacher-student) and what they are expected to achieve during the year. I observed that the teacher behave with good manners and enthusiastic mood, nodding, helping, approving and supporting. As a pattern, if the students couldnt cope with the topic she would make use of the blackboard and they should copy what she explained. All the exercises were taken from photocopies, they wouldnt use a book. I consider that each teacher has his/her own teaching style and this might be the one which best works for him/her to get the students achieve their subjects.

THE LEARNER AS DOER

OBSERVATION This observation took place in 7th grade. The students age was between 12 and 13 years old. The teacher made a revision of the Simple Past Tense. What she prioritized was the oral answering and the students pronunciation. The lesson was given within the third and fourth hour of the school timetable. As the teacher started explaining the activity it was evident that the students were tired, some of them laid on their table benches as if they were resting, some others looked bored, the previous subject they had attended was language (it took two hours and they had just had a five minutes break) and this might be the reason of their tiredness. The teacher then, changed the dynamic of the lesson. Instead of doing the exercise of the photocopy they were given, she suggested playing a game, which consisted in completing the exercise on the blackboard with the correct verb. The students showed enthusiastic and they enjoyed this activity very much, most of all writing on the board. The following chart shows how the lesson was developed and its aim related to the cognitive, affective and physical activities.

WHAT LEARNERS DO

WHAT THIS INVOLVES

TEACHER'S PURPOSE

COMMENT

They remember this subject was taught by the teacher Answer together

Checking their notes

Revision of the Past Tense Participation of the class New vocabulary involved. Refer to phonetics That the students get involved in the lesson. Motivation. The students' interest in answering . Writing. Interaction

COGNITIVE

Repetition Refer to vocabulary, use of new words Pronunciation That the students apply their knowledge through competition and fun.

COGNITIVE COGNITIVE COGNITIVE COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE PHYSICAL

They are divided into two groups. Students write on the blackboard. They have to complete an exercise with the correct verb in the correct tense and spelling.

Consult each other

Acting in front of the class. Willingness to participate. Feeling important. Sharing information, what they know, expressing their thoughts

Feeling comfortable. That the student feel confident in the classroom. Moving around. Cooperation. Relationship. Commitment.

PHYSICAL AFFECTIVE

COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE

As we can see, this activity was the most valuable for the learners because they could participate, they felt really happy when they guessed the word and could go to the front of the class to write on the board, they could show their abilities and knowledge. The game motivated them a lot and changed their behavior and spirits. In this case, the teacher needed to change what she had planned and as a result it was an accurate decision, she could do the activity successfully and all the students participated in it. Sometimes it is necessary to cater for the learners own preferred learning methodology to achieve the subjects aim. Certain circumstances should be considered during the lesson as in this special situation in which the learners needed to be encouraged to continue with their school-day learning. At any other time learners should pay attention to the teachers own teaching methodology. This should be taken into account by the teacher when she makes an evaluation of her own methods concerning th e students performance during the lessons.

GIVING INSTRUCTIONS

OBSERVATION

This observation took place in 1st grade. The students age was between 6 and 7 years old. The students and the teacher communicated mainly using songs. As the children were too young, it was necessary to keep them doing things constantly, because they lost their attention to the task within a few minutes. There was a welcome song, then a song whose intention was that the learners be quiet and in silence. The first activity was to follow sit down and stand up instructions. Then the teacher asked the students what they would like to sing; they sang two songs; as they approached to the end of the songs they increased the speed of the rhythm and this was enjoyable for them. During the lesson the teacher included a lot of physical activities which consisted in oral instructions to move their bodies, legs, arms and jumping. The pattern that appeared was to make use of songs to remain in silence, to be quiet, to say the days of the week and what the weather was like, to get the students attention, to get them involved in an activity. These kinds of songs were very well known by the learners. They were aware of what the teacher wanted; she was always reinforcing the spoken language with mimics,

movements of her hands and fingers; through drawings on the blackboard and pictures, cards. The teachers vocabulary was reduced to the students English language level. When giving instructions she pointed to specific places, pictures to make the students understand what she meant; a lot of visual support was provided to accompany what she was saying and asking for. E.g.: The teacher handed out a photocopy with exercises. The students had to color some pictures, she explained the activity: -The GUITAR is red, PAINT it red (She pointed to the picture where the guitar was and made movements with her hands as if she was painting, she repeated the instruction twice). For this activity the students needed to use their notebooks, the teacher had them in her shelf, and she asked two of the students to distribute them among the other students. Doing this took more time than the activity itself. While the teacher was dealing with the books, students started to spread around the classroom, to play with each other, some of them run. Once she had finished, she used a loud tone of voice, and counted up to 5; as the students werent totally quiet, she threatened them to write their names on the blackboard, she counted up to 5 again and everybody was in their seats and in silence.

PHASE OF LESSON Sit down, stand up

ISTRUCTIONS Students should sing. Clapp their hands. Move their bodies as the song said. Sing faster esch time. Opening and shutting legs and arms. Jumping. Using legs. "- Complete the toys" Look at both pictures and complete. "- Paint the guitar red"

Open- Shut

In front of - behind Vocabulary Observation Painting

During the lesson there were a lot of instructions given. This might be related to the students age; who need a lot of activities to keep their attention on the tasks. Physical and cognitive activities were held together; students responded successfully to their demands. The teacher was always positioned at the front of the class, she made great use of her

voice, singing and giving orders, repeating exercises explanations and vocabulary. She was monitoring students understanding all the time due to the language level of the class. Students wouldnt need to be explained the overall nature of the task, they arent able to understand it. I believe they are too young to be separated in groups and work together, they would only consider their independent thoughts. There should be a plan to follow during the lesson, but the order shouldnt alter the result of the task. The teacher might use physical activities at the beginning of the class to calm the students excitement, we must consider they are very active and it is difficult for them to remain quiet in a specific place during a long period of time. Scripted instructions seem rather dictatorial. Gower and Walters comment (1988:37). The way you give instructions indicates the way you exercise control and your attitude to the groupgenerally students, even adults, would not appreciate you trying to be more polite. It would be time-wasting and slow things down and would involve you in more complicated language than they can readily understand. My view is that teachers should be given the opportunity to give her classes according to what she considers it is best as a methodology for her students and herself, always following a plan to achieve, but she should be given the freedom to create her own teaching organization.

The level of the language used when teaching shouldnt be too much restricted and below the level to what is to be taught, because, as Gower and Walters argue: learners usually understand at a higher level than they speak or write. In this observation students understood what their teacher was saying, she never spoke in Spanish and they are learning at the same time from their first language, they are learnig to learn for the first time in their lives from an institution. If this is achievable for young children, it should be the same for all the learners levels.

ATTENDING TO THE LEARNER

OBSERVATION

This observation took place in 3rd grade. The students age was between 8 and 9 years old. In this observation some patterns emerged the same as in first grade (the same teacher attended 1st and 3rd grade); the teacher made use of songs during the class to follow a sequence of how to behave(welcome, silence, quiet, vocabulary: days, weather). The teacher started asking questions about food and she used to pay more attention to some students in particular, they were attended more often than others. They were three boys; two of them ( Fabrizio and Agustin) were students who knew English language, they understood everything the teacher said; the third student (Patricio) was attention demanding, he wouldnt remain in his bench, he tended to stand up and walk near the teacher, he was sat next to the teachers desk. Fabrizio and Agustn answered the teachers questions all the time, they didnt allow the rest of the class participate actively, the teacher didnt prevent them from answering everything, she kept asking more questions and didnt realize a few students just took part in the exercise. Moreover, she stood near the boys benches; she wasnt positioned at the front of the class. This made that Patricio stood up and walk near her with the excuse of answering or showing her anything.

As I was positioned at the back of the room I could see that many students didnt talk, they just watch the teacher standing in the mid-right of the classroom, talking. The girl sitting next to me used to answer in a soft voice, many of her mates raised their hands, others raised their hands answering the question automatically but the teacher didnt make eye contact with many of them, she was really distracted in what Patricio was doing, she called his attention too many times. The students started to talk or doing something different from the activity.

The teacher clapped her hands looking to everybody and asked for silence. This time she stood at the front of the class and began with the second activity. The teacher wrote on the blackboard. The topic was Possessive Pronouns: HIS/ HER. She used pink and light blue chalks for the words and drawings (a boy/ a girl) to differentiate both and to make them recognizable. She used songs and rhymes to make them learn the concepts. The students had to complete the blanks of an exercise using his/her. She called different students by their names to say the correct word for each sentence. She nodded when the answer was correct: Very good!, she looked at the students, she made eye contact; students sitting at the front got more attention this time, they were encouraged to answer. Despite students sitting at the back of the classroom didnt get much attention, most of them tried to participate.

ROOM DIAGRAM

board

board

door

window

teacher's bench F M AGUSTIN M F M window

STREET

PATRICIO

CORRIDOR

window

FABRIZIO

window

1234-

Students attended by the teacher most of the time. Students attended by the teacher in activity 2. Students attended by the teacher in activity 3. Students who were not attended most of the class.

The factor attention in this case was really important, it was evident that the teacher couldnt attend the total of the class, she tended to focus on a specific, reduce group of students in each activity. This caused the distraction of some of the students or the frustration of some others (they wanted to answer but they werent listened).

Attending to the learners might be an issue if a class is crowded with too many students, but the teacher should take some measures to keep the whole class paying attention and participating. This 3rd grade had students who wanted to be part of the class but the teacher wasnt able to be aware of, in this occasion. It is very important to cater for

learners the attention and support to be aware of their knowledge, to give them confidence, to make them feel their opinions and thoughts are taken into account, mostly because they are learning, they need to be prepared to participate, to be listened and that this wont be a problem in future events (at school, university, in life) because they think it would be useless to talk, answer or giving an opinion.

THE BOARD AS RESOURCE

OBSERVATION

This observation took place in 3rd grade. The students age was between 8 and 9 years old. The teacher made use of the board as a resource to explain different concepts and to make notes of the importance of certain topics, which would remain in the blackboard as a reference. She used it to teaching vocabulary and grammar. She was the only one who wrote on the board. While she was writing on the board, students got distracted and started talking. She wrote in italics the date, the weather, and the vocabulary. The grammar was written in capital letters. Her handwriting was completely legible and comprehensible. Sometimes she made differences between female or male by drawing with pink or lightblue chalks (his/her). To explain the meaning of some words she draw colorful pictures so she didnt need to translate into Spanish. There were three boards on the wall. The first on the left of the classroom was used to write down the names of the students who were absent, notifications and those students that the teacher called their attention (bad behavior). The board in the centre was used to write the date, the weather, and the main topic of the lesson, the explanations remained written during the lesson. The third board was used to write the vocabulary, new words, to check the exercises; this one was constantly cleaned and written for checking and writing new and already known vocabulary. The following charts are a representation of the blackboards and their different uses.

1st

2nd

3rd

Santa Teresita festival. September 28th.

ALVARO NATALIA JUAN MARIANA JAVIER

Today is Thursday, September 20th. It's sunny and cold. / " I LIKE" X " I DON'T LIKE"

Bananas / Chocolates / ice- cream X pasta X

Using the blackboard is really important to teach, to explain the students the main topic of the subject and also to have a reference when an activity is taking place to check if the answer is correct through the examples or explanations written on it. It s useful for spelling,

vocabulary, developing the activities and teaching in general. It is important to be brief while writing on the blackboard because too much time doing it would be an opportunity for the learners to get distracted and lose the interest and the fluency of the lesson. The blackboard is a tool that the students use to copy the explanation of the task given in its correct grammar and spelling to have a source of research to study whenever they would need it.

THE BLACKBOARD AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS

Santa Teresita Festival. September 28th. Alvaro Natalia Juan Mariana Javier

THE BLACKBOARD AT THE MIDDLE OF THE CLASS

Santa Teresita Festival. September 28th. Alvaro Natalia Juan Mariana Javier Today is Thursday, September 20th. It's sunny and cold. / " I LIKE" X " I DON'T LIKE"

THE BLACKBOARD AT THE END OF THE CLASS

Santa Teresita Festival. September 28th. Alvaro Natalia Juan Mariana Javier Today is Thursday, September 20th.It's sunny and cold. / " I LIKE" X " I DON'T LIKE" HIS HER YES, I DO NO,I DON'T spaguetti - pasta SOPHIE pizza cake apple