CONCLUSIONS

Before starting my reflection of the subject I think it is necessary to mention some previous ideas I had some months ago. Until now, my experience with English lessons in schools was basically a bunch of bored grammar activities that aren’t as meaningful as they should be. It is true that most of our classes had a lack of practice of all the skills. I sometimes wondered, as all teachers should do, how could I improve my teaching in the future doing meaningful lessons – because as Einstein said “Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.”

Now, after having studied this subject I can state that I have learned some strategies and I’m very glad to have been able to change my point of view regarding English lessons. I’m actually more motivated because I have many different tools to teach. For example, I have done a scrapbook with all the main contents of the subject all gathered together, I have discovered some online tools… among much more useful teaching ideas!  

Regarding the online tools, I have to recognize it was complicated for me at the beginning to understand how they work, but now I’m sure I have set up the most useful educational tools – not only for the present but also for the future. They allow us to share and organize information.  

If I had to point out something that I have really learnt, among many other things, I would choose the way to plan a unit project and the lessons. We have learnt how to do coherent lesson plans as well as meaningful activities practicing all the skills through different ways, looking at the group as different people who have different ways of learning, using as much as varied resources as we can, et. It is a good teaching practice.

To sum up, I believe it’s very difficult to realize  the impact this subject has had on me, but I have many evidences that show me it’s has been very useful. What I know is that it has given me the key to start being a better teacher, however, I know I have to improve my skills throughout my entire professional career. I’m willing to do that because teachers are who lead the education in order to form students that will lead the world.

 

 

My GLOGSTER: Making learning visible!

 

The final task of the subject ‘Didàctica de la llengua anglesa’ is to set up a Glogster called ‘Making Learning Visible: Assessment and the Home School Connection in The Primary English Child-Centered Classroom’.

 

I have made this in order to show most of the main contents that have been learnt during this course, mainly related to the role of the teacher and the student during the assessment in a child-centred classroom. The students have to be very active, self-reliant and empowered while teachers have to plan different levels in their lessons, different ways to work (in groups, individually, in pairs…) always taking into account their aim and assessing in any given point of the session. Some examples of how to make learning visible and the importance of the home-school connection are introduced in my poster. These ideas are gathered in a poster in a visual way.

 

To introduce the topic of the “key in assessment” I’ve done a circle diagram that shows the main concepts to take into account when planning each sessions’ assessment. From my point of view it is very important to give a feedback with evidence, and we can get it from many different ways. We have some useful resources and I’ve introduced some examples in my interactive poster.

 

Finally and with regard to the above explained, I’ve added a video that clearly explains what does “Home-school connection” mean, which is nowadays essential to get a better education with all the community involved.

 

Now, you just have to take a look at my Glogster:

 

http://lluisaqm.edu.glogster.com/making-learning-visible

 

 

ENGLISH BOOK, Comet

The title of this English book is: Comet. For 5th and 6th grade,
Editorial: SM
It is created under the idea of "Learning English trough factual texts" (content and literature)

It uses a methodology that approaches to language learing:

1. Experimental learning.

2. Communicative methodology.
TAVI: Text As a Vehicle For Information (in order to get information)
TALO: Text As a Language Object (to study the language)
The book contains fiction texts like: stories, dialogues, postcards… and non-fiction texts like: fact files, descriptions, instructions, emails, news, articles of science magazines, maps…

3. CLIL: through literature and content (stories and factual texts) CLIL pages instead of a CLIL book.
Some contents of CLIL are: social sciences, maths, natural science, etc…

The autors tried to make an attractive book for the pupils (even a good physical appealing), something enjoyable and from the real world and activities that allows the pupils to produce something to learn.

Here we han an example of an activity under the idea of “scaffolding”:

a. Animal poem (description):
First line 1 word: frog
Second line 2 words: green, small
Third line 3 words: jumping, eating, swimming
Fourth line 4 words: big eyes, long tongue
Fifth line 1 word: amphibian

Trough the most of the activities of the book teachers should… recognise the creations of their students, talk about the vocabulary, make them to read the answers aloud or work in groups, swap their work. It has to be necessary for them to realize why they must understand the vocabulary, for example, asking them to guess which animal have thought his classmate or make pears between the description and some pictures of animals, etc.

Estructure of the book:
Every unit has these parts:
- Introduction (to introduce the unit theme)
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- CLIL

STORYTELLING

BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR. WHAT DO YOU SEE?

After watching the video of the story "Brown Bear, Brown Bear. What do you see?" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M2TvyR3_XE), my group (called English Pitinghlish) have answered the following questions, related to the story and the storytelling. These are our answers:

1. Why is this an appropriate story to read with both preschool and primary children? Give at least three different reasons.

Because during the reading there are questions to predict the story, which is a method of motivating our students and making sure they are all listening. Moreover, because the story uses a technique of repetition to reassure that children understand what the book is asking for. In addition, the way in which it is written lets us exaggerate the key words by acting out and it is also helpful to guide the reading. And finally, it is appropriate because the fact that every animal and colour is repeated at the end of the story allows children to remember more easily what they have just learnt.

 

2. How would you use this story with your students? Think of two before reading activities, two during reading activities and two after reading activities that you could do with your students if you read this story in class.

 

Before reading:

These activities would be both related to aspects of the cover of the book. The first one would be asking questions to the pupils about the things they can see on the cover in order to illicit their previous knowledge. And the second activity would be encouraging the students to tell what they think that may happen in the book, just looking at its cover.

 

During reading: 

The activities thought to do during the reading try to motivate children to follow the story and to reassure that they are actually listening. The first one would be acting out the key words and encouraging the pupils to do it at the same time. And the second one would be asking questions about the content, to see if the children understand the vocabulary and the different colours in order to scaffold the comprehension of the story.

 

After reading: 
These two activites would be useful to check that the pupils have understood the content of the story and are able to use the words that they have learnt. The first one would be encouraging the group to remember the animals and their colours. Finally, the second activity would be asking them to draw an animal and paint it with a colour; then they could write a sentence or just tell what they have drawn following the structure of the story.

 

3. What age and grade would your students be?

 

They would probably be preschool children (3 to 5-year-old kids) or pupils from first grade of Primary Education (6 or 7-year-old kids).

 

4. What language objectives would you have for this story?

 

 

- To improve the English pronunciation.

- To learn more vocabulary related to animals and colours.

- To know the adjective order in a phrase.

- To introduce the W- questions. 

 

5. Find one other story written by either Eric Carle or Bill Martin Jr. that you could also use with your students. 

 

- The mixed up chamaleon, to practice with vocabulary related to animals and the colours.

- The very hungry caterpillar, to practice with vocabulary related to food, numbers and the days of the week.
- Polar bear, polar bear, what do you hear?, to practice with vocabulary related to animals and the sounds that they make.
- Today is monday, to practice with vocabulary related to food, the days of the week, and also to encourage memorizing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The teachers day, October 5th (UNESCO)

To celebrate that day I have written a letter to a teacher:

Dear Aina,

I’m writing to you to say thank you for giving me the pleasure of learning music. You will be wondering why I’m writing to you 8 years later… the reason is that the next October 5th is the “World teachers day” for the UNESCO and I thought that writing a letter to you was one of the best ways I could commemorate it.

Now that I’m studying a degree related to education I’m more critical about teaching methods and I realized that you are one of the best teachers I ever had in my life.

First of all I want to show my gratitude for your effort and dedication: you organized trips for us to learn, exchanges with people from other countries, we sang and play in the street. You also motivated me when I felt unable to do something, and many other things that nowadays I remember with affection. You were passionate and all your classes were meaningful and dynamic and that’s something that I definitely would like to achieve as a teacher.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to understand music and made me more sensitive. Without you, music today won’t be as important in my life as it is; something that allows me to connect myself with the world through such a beautiful way.

For all these reasons I wanted you to know how important has been your teaching to me. Now is when I realize that music is not only and art but also a way to share sensations with the world.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you very soon,

best regards,

Lluïsa.

The teacher I want to be

Introducing myself...

Hi,
my name is Lluïsa and, as this is my first post, I would like to introduce myself a little bit. I'm a Primary Education third-year student in the Universitat de Barcelona, but I'm from Mallorca, a beautiful island in the middle of the Mediterranian sea. I'm a very active and curious person and I really enjoy being outdoors.

                                  A view of Mallorca from the aeroplane going to Barcelona

To better explain my expectations related to this English subject... I want to point out how I was taught English since I was in preschool: it's clear that it wasn't very useful for me due to the lack of practice of the language and the boring lessons. So now I'm looking foward to learn some dynamic school supplies to teach English fostering its practice.

My group...
Is composed by four nice students apart from me. Their names are: Gemma, Ana, Nerea and Èrica. Our name is "English Pitinglish", an expression we have used throughout our lives to refer ourselves to the English subject. I think it will be a great experience to work with them!

From my point of view, an ideal English teacher would be the one who, among other aspects, knows English very well and also knows how to motivate their pupils in order to get a meaningful learning. It involves planning creative and participative lessons in very different environments. To sum up, that's the kind of teacher I would like to be, but there are still many, many things to learn!