Universidad Austral de Chile

Instituto de Lingüística y Literatura

Collaboration Practicum
Prof. Jeanette Rivera & Prof. Verónica Varela

PRACTICUM JOURNAL

Name: Monserrat Guarda Montiel

Total score: 130 pts. Awarded score:

Part 1: Descriptions

Practicum Centre Description

The Centro de Idiomas of the Austral University of Chile, Isla Teja campus, is
one of the institutes part of the Filosofia y Humanidades faculty. It offers
native and foreign language courses such as English, Spanish, French,
Arabic, German, Chinese, and Japanese.

Up until the first semester of 2022, the Centro de Idiomas was located near
the faculty and parallel with the Linguistica literature institute. It consisted of
mostly teacher offices and two small classrooms, one inside the building and
one outside. However, during the second semester of 2022 it was relocated to
be in the new building of the Filosofia y Humanidades faculty. It still mostly
consists of teacher offices, but now also takes advantage of the new
classrooms inside the building.
Student Group Description

During the collaborative practice process, as a pre-service teacher I watched

and collaborated with two courses corresponding to English 2 of the Educacion
Parvularia major and English 4 of the Creacion Audiovisual major.

In the Creacion Audiovisual major (referred to as CreA from now on) there
were 21 students in the group observed, evenly distributed between female
and male presenting students. The course had an 80% of assistance required,
and it corresponds to the fourth year of the major. Students showed a high
level of English, not only in listening but also in speaking and writing. The
instructions were mostly given in English, with the most difficult or advanced
ones given in Spanish only when required.

The class started at 8:30, however barely half of the students arrived before
8:40, making the class progression slightly difficult since the teacher kept being
interrupted by students coming in late, sometimes not being able to do all
activities to respect the timing requirements. And although the students had a
high level of English, participation in class was not something easy to achieve
since most of them were shy or not interested in the course.

In the Educacion Parvularia major (referred to as EPAV from now on) there
were 24 students in the group observed, with the vast majority being female
presenting students. The course also had an 80% of assistance required and it
corresponds to the second year of the major. Students showed a lower level of
English, having trouble conjugating the simple tenses of present and past. The
teacher gave the instructions mostly in Spanish, and the students made
questions also in Spanish.

The class starts at 9:50, with most of the students being already in the room
before the hour, making the class go more smoothly since there were not
many interruptions. Even though students had a lower level of English, they
were not afraid of asking questions and were very participative in class, being
able to do all activities planned out.
 Part 2: Reflections

The Observation Process

For all my classes, I waited for the teacher to arrive with the rest of the students
inside the classroom. The first day with each major everyone thought we were just
other students, and it was only after the teacher explained to the class that we
were there as pre-service teachers that they started treating us differently.

The first day of my observation process was with CreA. They did a mock test since
they had a test on Thursday that week. Students remained very silent during the
whole class as they were focused on getting the answers right. If they had any
questions at all, the students asked in English. I worked together with another pre-
service teacher, and both of us did not interact with any of the students.

In comparison, my first day of the observation process with EPAV was completely
opposite. The class had to create sentences using question words. Once the
teacher gave the instructions in Spanish, the students immediately got into their
works and started talking between themselves, in Spanish also, but at least they
interacted quite a bit. I was supposed to only observe and take notes of their
interactions, but the students wanted to ask so many questions that I had to start
collaborating right away to help the teacher.

While the EPAV class treated us just as we were other in the classroom, asking for
help and guidance, the CreA class always seemed a little distant when interacting
with us. Mostly because, as we were in the same year of university, the “level of
respect” seemed a little blurry, though as the weeks progressed, they felt more
comfortable with treating us just like an y other teacher.
 The Collaboration Process

For the collaboration process, it went better in comparison with last semester. The
teacher talked to us before the class to let us know the room and the contents of the
day, and afterwards, we talked to sees how we felt and what we would do differently.
The whole process felt like true teamwork, as we were constantly giving each other
feedback on materials and contents.

Each week on Wednesday, we had a meeting with all the pre-service teachers along
with our guide teacher to go in depth on our weekly feedback, as well as to plan out
next week’s classes and materials. The teacher made us take little steps towards doing
the whole class by ourselves to ease us into the process and make us feel more
comfortable in the position of the teacher.

The Centro de Idiomas’s planning works in a way that makes every teacher collaborate
with one another; for each class there is a specific code (for example, CIDI-125), under
each code there is a team of teachers that have to do the same class. Because of this,
the whole team has to work on the planning and developing of materials for the class,
this is achieved through meeting where they discuss the planning of the semester and
what they will do for each class. If a teacher believes a certain activity can be done in a
better way, they are free to change the planning, as long as they keep the core of the
class intact and let know all the other teachers.

Because of this type of collaboration, the teacher made us do this meeting to do the
same as her colleagues, only in a smaller and less strict way. We had the experience of
this planning meeting without the pressure of having to give feedback to classes that
will be given to so many other majors. I felt like this made us be extremely organized
and help to calmed down our anxiety regarding the classes.
Your Lessons

As for my lesson, I had the luck of doing the class alongside another pre-service
teacher. We planned our lesson together and sent it to our guide teacher for feedback
and added some of her suggestions.

For our lesson, we decided to do the class with the CreA group on Tuesday at 8:30.
The reason for this being that they have an oral presentation at the end of the
semester as a final project, and they have not had a singular speaking class in the
whole year. So, along side my classmate, we designed a class exclusively directed
towards public speaking and the fears that come with an oral presentation. We
decided on the CreA group as we thought we felt more comfortable giving them more
exposure to English since they are shyer as a group, opposite to EPAV who are very
outgoing and have an easier time asking questions and presenting in public.

The students were unusually early, which allowed us to begin the class right away
without having to wait for more students to arrive, although some of them did arrive
later, but they were just a few students and did not interfere with the class progression.
We started off with a warm-up activity called “Sell me this”, in which they had to grab a
random object from a mystery box and describe all its good qualities in under 30
seconds. For this, we divided the class into two groups, with each of us overseeing a
group.

After this activity, we asked them to write out one of their fears regarding oral
presentations, which then they had to give to us. Then, we began the contents of the
class, which consisted in tips and vocabulary that could be used in their oral
presentations.

The main activity consisted in couples choose a controversial topic (“the Earth is flat”,
“Covid-19 is not real”, etc.) from the mystery box, which they had to present as the
truth for 2 minutes in front o their classmates. To finish the class, we gave them their
fears back randomly, which they read out to the whole class and confirm if they feel
more prepared for their presentation.
The students participated in class a whole lot more than we had anticipated or
expected, and for both activities we heard a lot of them laugh and have a good time,
which was ultimately our goal since we wanted to let them see how oral presentations
were not as much of a horrible experience as they had anticipated.

After the class, out teacher let us know that the class, which had to be replicated in
various other groups of various other majors was a total success, and that they had
received word of many students saying that the activities made them feel more at ease
with an oral presentation and that they had a lot of fun. Our teacher also let us know
that we had made her revaluate how she does many of her classes, opening the
possibility of making different types of activities.
 Part 3: Conclusions
I said it before during this journal, but I need to say it again: the experience from
this semester is completely different from the last one. Of course, the university
students doubled the age of my elementary school students, but I believe to be
something deeper than that.
I felt confident. I knew what I was doing, how to interact with the class, when to
speak in English or Spanish, what activities to plan out and what to expect from the
students. I felt how the way I carried myself through the university classroom was
more comfortable than school one, maybe because I was in my element in knew
the place like the back of my hand.
There is this tenderness and care that you must have with children, you are a
figure of authority to them, and you have to balance being approachable and kind
while also being respected. Harsh but soft, scary but kind. It makes me anxious to
think that I may be the cause a student hates the class for the rest of his life.
In university you kind of loose that, there is this sort of confidentially and
comradeship with the students that are very close to your age, that are having
classes and going through struggles that you remember all too well because it has
not been long since you went through the same. You can do many sorts of
activities and encourage them to get out of your comfort zone like you would your
younger sibling or a friend. I also already had experience being an assistant for two
years. I already knew what to do and how classes worked from the other side, so
that gave a great advantage.
Up until this practicum experience, I have been thinking of becoming a high school
teacher, small children had always scared me and felt like university would be
nearly impossible. After being an assistant, I grew less and less scared of
university classes from the side of the teacher and grew more and more distant
with the idea of teaching in a school.
I still want the school experience, to be in the classroom with children and know
what is like to actually be in charge of opening the doors to a million different
possibilities. But now I am almost certain that after this, I want to come to teach to
university, to help people reach the future they already have chosen.