Assignment 1:

There is no lasting, deep learning without motivation. Nor can

we learn without memory. Learning, in a way, is memorizing.
We have more and more evidence that emotions regulate
learning, which have a direct influence on both cognitive
processes and executive functions of self-regulation. You only
learn what you want to learn, what you love.

So, with these ideas in mind, I always try to make my classes

memorable, but things haven´t always been like that. If we had
the DeLorean and we could travel back in time, we would go to
the year 1999. Monday morning, 25 students, 4 th form,
elementary level, struggling lower class community state
school in the outskirts of the Province of Buenos Aires. No
books, no photocopies, no tech from any sort, just some
chalks and a worn-out blackboard. In that context I would write
extremely long grammar explanations, drawing charts and
mind maps… I would talk and talk for ages, and eventually,
every once and then, one or two questions to check
understanding. I guess that in a way I was just repeating with
my own students the methods my pedagogy and didactics
professors would use at university lectures, the traditional
Grammar-
Translation approach.

Reducing teachers ‘talk has been one my first challenges

when I started teaching K12 students. Giving endless lectures
obtrudes learning since it leaves no room for students to
actively work, to take management over their learning, they
will forget all about it on the next day, and what is worse they
won´t be able to do something with that learning in the future
neither. But that student- passive, teacher-centered class was
not only my own, as I shared classes with other teachers all
classrooms (no matter the subject) would look the same, and I
remember heads and principals praising that! Because as far
as I know, behind every teacher’s operational framework there
is a collective supporting it. Of course, I didn´t know it back
then.
 Assignment 2:

In this case, I can think about a reading comprehension activity I

usually do with my Psychology students.

Before the meeting: I conduct a survey using for example

SurveyMonkey or a Google form about different aspects of the reading
I would like them to reflect upon.

During the meeting session:

Warm up: I recover the survey to introduce and pre teach new
vocabulary. After a few minutes, results are shared and discussed;
students provide insights about what they expect to read in the text.

Development: Once this first stage is done, I arrange students in

groups using “ the sugus candy color matching technique”, for reading
and answering deep comprehension questions ( in the questionnaire
they have to remember, know, identify, analyze and evaluate). As the
final activity, students create mind maps using for that drawings and
words. Maps are pasted on the board or showed from the screens, and
each group explains the main ideas of the text using the graphic
organizers as guides. They also use the help of the rubric for oral
presentations I shared in the last activity.

Exit ticket: I prepare a simple thinking routine - traffic lights. Students

open a link to a form that looks life a traffic light where they should
write in the green area something they are sure about, in the yellow
area, something they think they know a bit but needs reinforcement, in
the red color something they think they didn´t quite catch.

Following Wright (2015) some of the components of Active learning I

can identify in this class could be:

 The development of a learning environment before the class

what will give students the chance to familiarize with the coming
content, creating equal opportunities that will eventually
increment class active participation during the live session.
 Students will also have the chance to identify previous ideas,
contrast them against the new information, create analogies with
the other subjects they are taking.
 They engage
in collaborative action by creating and presenting a graphic organizer.
 Students gain autonomy and manage their own learning.
 Students have a degree of choice and freedom to express ideas by different
means.