A Case Study:

            This case was observed in the last school year, in 7^th grade section D. Before starting this English course, the teacher was more grammatical and strict in her form of evaluation, even though in the way that she treated her students. Her face was always serious and some rigorous; maybe those facts could influence in the learners behavior; even they could promote some challenging students into the class. Besides, the students just did what the teacher asked, but they did not have any interaction among them taking into consideration the language as a communicative tool. They just repeated and repeated all the structures given by the teacher without any conscious about that English is a way of communication. Even, they did not like to work in class; they always rejected to participate during the class and work together; is to say learners did not have a good attitude to learn English.

After starting the course and being applied some new strategies into the classroom, which were adapted from the course to the learners level, the teacher noticed a high difference in their attitudes toward the language, because they began to be more independent in terms of using it. They pronounced not so well but used more English in class, saying some words and phrases which were given at the beginning of the school year. In the same way, they began to communicate each other using a little bit more the language, maybe they were not conscious about the process of communication but they could exchange some phrases. It could be said that many of these learners could constructive their own knowledge themselves. In my own opinion, I think their process of learning was a little more effective than at the beginning of the first lapse.

At the end of the school year, they were more interested and motivated to the English language. They participated more actively in class; also there were times in which they asked for activities to do in class.   

            It is important to take conscious about that learners are not robots who just receive information; they are persons who think and feel. We as teachers must be aware and be clear in the way that they learn; otherwise teachers must not be repetitive, because young learners tend to bored quickly. By this, teachers should considerate the best strategies and techniques to be applied. They must be the most appropriate according to the levels of learners taking into account their kind of behavior.

2nd Task of assessment

­Task of assessment

            For this task of assessment, the type of test applied was Progress which according to its concept it is usually given during a course of study. So that, the teacher decided to design this type of test because it would help her to get information about how was the progress in learning based on the topic develop during sessions of class. In this case, the topic developed during these sessions was about Present and Past Simple Tense and the progress test was applied to the 4^th year …to a group of 30 students and the test was carried out in pairs in 45 minutes of class. On the other hand, the elements assessed into the test were reading and writing skills. Besides, the language aspects evaluated were content, grammar, spelling and vocabulary. Taking into account the basic principal of testing; the test was based on what the teacher taught during the class. Moreover, the first what the teacher assessed was to explain what the learners had to do into the test which contains four parts. At the first part, they had to apply the rules in some regular verbs to form the Past Simple form of each of them. In the Second part, the learners had to become into Past Simple Tense three sentences written in Present Simple. In the same way, they had to answer in affirmative and negative form four questions in Present Simple and at last; they had to formulate in written form, five sentences in Present Simple Tense taking into consideration five irregular verbs given.

            In relation to, how the session went during the application of the assessment procedure, the teacher gave the instructions at first time in the Second language acquisition (English) but then, she gave them in the mother tongue (Spanish) in order to a better comprehension of them. Despite of that, some learners had doubts when they tried to reply the different parts of the test, more specific at the second and fourth part of it. Even, a few students did not know how to formulate the sentences for the fourth part of the test because they indicated that they did not know how to write those sentences.

            According to the results obtained after applying the test, it is important to say that many of the students got good marks, but there were also many students who got bad marks either. It indicates that, not all the students maybe understood what they had to do in the test, but maybe they did not understand the content of the class or just they did not know what to do at the exam. Something wrong was that some of them did not bring the dictionary to the test, and maybe that was another reason for some their bad marks. In addition to this, I as the teacher consider that the test was based on only grammar points. So, it should had been more practical and functional rather than grammatical.

TEST:

Bolivariam Republic of Venezuela

Liceo “Cecilio Acosta”

Name:___________________________

4^th __________ Date:________________________

English First Test

(Present-Past Simple)

Part I: Apply the grammatical rule in the following regular verbs to form its past simple form. (3 pts)

a.- Live:______________________                       d.- Stay:____________________

b.- Look:______________________                     e.- Walk:____________________

c.- happen:_____________________                   f.- Start:____________________

Part II: Become the following sentences into Simple Past. (6 pts)

a.- Helen makes the dinner every day.

b.- The boys drink sodas in the night.

c.- The girl watches the movie on Saturdays.

Part III: Answer in affirmative and negative form these questions in Present Simple. (4 pts)

a.- Does Peter take a bus for the school?

b.- Do you sing while you taking a shower?

c.- Does Mary speak French in class?

d.- Do the students read the class today?

Part IV: Write five (5) sentences in Present Simple Tense using the following verbs (sleep, drive, buy, go, swim). (5 pts)

   

   

Marks:

Liceo "Cecilio Acosta"
4to año. Secc "C"
Apellido y Nombre	Nota obt.
Arguelles Eliannys	13
Cabrea Leonellys	17
Campos Darleannys	2
Chirinos Alejandro	10
Chirinos Junlietd	2
Chirinos Nokerlys	3
Colina Emili	15
Colina Rosmery	10
Darialelis Zavala	8
Diaz Victoria	15
Fraismary Acosta	7
Garcia Wilmara	13
Gonzalez Jorlaguer	10
Gonzalez Ricardo	6
Guanipa Edgardo	2
Guanipa Victor	16
Lopez Yoalian	14
Mora Maria	15
Morales Oswald	6
navarro Eudimar	3
Navarro Eudimar	13
navarro Oscarly	15
Olivera Alondra	14
Riera Douglas	18
Salas Damaris	13
Salazar Dayana	8
Sanchez Arianimar	13
Sanchez Yalimar	14
Valera Orlennys	15
Yancen Milexis	14

Second Record of Work

     To start this reflection task is mainly to specify that the strategy used in this activity was called Picture Method, which was applied to learners from 7^thgrade section D, who are between 12 to 13 years old and their proficiency level is beginners, in the Cecilio Acosta highschool. This activity was based on “Identifying People” as grammatical point; in which the teacher asked to learners to form a semi-circle in front of her. She would choose a learner without any specific order and she would show him/her a flash card about occupation and the rest of the students did not have to see the flash card showed to the classmate. Then, the partner had to represent the occupation on the flash card by mimics, without saying any word. So, the rest of the class had to guess the occupation represented by the student. The aim of this activity was to teach new vocabulary and the time established for this one was fifteen (15) minutes.

To continue the class, the teacher gave a brief explanation of the content using a chart, also recycling words that they had learnt in sessions before. For that, she used the whiteboard and markers. The strategy was developed in thirty (30) minutes, and its goal was to reinforce vocabulary as well as formulating sentences using the verb To Be.

     For finishing the session, there was applied another activity called Running Stations, in which learners had to form four groups of three people. At first, they had to select a runner, a listener and a writer. After, when they had selected the role for each one of every group, the runner should run toward a station and read the occupation flash card put in every station around the classroom, later he/she had to come back to the group to tell to the listener the word read in the station. At second time, the listener should say the word heard by the runner’s mouth to the writer and this one had to write it on a piece of paper. At the end of the activity, the three people had to write a sentence each one of them and finally they had to read the sentence created by them. In the same way, as in the sessions given before, this strategy had forty (40) minutes to be set, besides the aim of this was that learners practiced the listening, writing and oral skills.

     In this case, me as the teacher I consider that there was a huge difference in my classes taking into comparison among classes given some years ago, because I observed the students could participate more, they were active and motivated to the class, they were all almost involved in the development of the class.

     However, I consider that I still need to modify some aspect about my teaching practice that includes the time established for each activity it has to be more exactly, because I tend to lose time waiting for learners organize, moreover there are a few students who do not want to participate in the activities, besides I think the last activity applied (running stations) was so long for the time established.

First assessment.

Module I: How learners learn language, lesson planning, learning with technologies, teaching grammar and teaching vocabulary.

     In my own experience as an English teacher at Cecilio Acosta high school, I consider I have been doing it in a good way, but it could change to be better; because I am learning new techniques which will help me to improve my teaching practice.

    To start this reflection, it is necessary to remark that I have to change some ways to teach the language; is to say, the grammatical form. It is not the only form to teach it. There are many ways in which it could be taught. So that, since I have been participating in this course my thoughts have changed in a few. I have been more aware of the way in which learners learn language; I could refresh it is related to if it is conscious or unconscious, depending on that learning process must be adapted according to the level of the learners. In this case, my learners belong to 7^th grade, they are mixed ability and their proficiency level is lower to middle. By this, it is relevance to design an appropriate lesson plan which helps learners to catch in a better form the English language, even though a lesson plan helps teachers to be more responsible, to distribute the time, to organize the content and so on. Teachers should have in mind that “English is not a content subject; English is a tool to communicate”.

     In relation to this, I consider that in my own practice I took into account a lesson plan, but it was not taken in the right way, because I did not join the aim of any activity with the real needs of my students, so I just focused more on grammar than in the context that should be taught; by that, I could sometimes not achieve the activity goal.

     In the case of learning technologies, in spite of trying to work by using a simple mail activity last school year with my students, it was a really disaster! but this session was very interesting, beacuse I learnt some new strategies to be applied into my teaching practice. Nowadays, I could apply in class the "spellingcity" strategy to teach in my learners new vocabulary based on the "parts of the house" and this activity can be assigned for their homes, in order to they practice the listening and writing skills, then when the students come back to class they can interact each other about their experience in the activity.

    On the other hand, in teaching grammar is very important to keep in mind that it is not completely necessary the grammatical rules of a language to communicate. People ca communicate just by body movements, just telling a word or whatever depending on the context. Besides, I could active my background knowlegde over deductive and inductive methods, also there are many ways that can be used to teach future simple. Not only the auxiliary Will and Be Going to can express future.

     In the last session, teaching vocabulary, teachers must be awared of the amount of words should be taught in class, and contextualize the vocabulary according to the learners level, even though games can help to teach vocabulary adapting  it to the students characteristics. 

week 1 and 2. Reflections

TIPS:
The goal and activity should have the same sense, in orden to achieve the aim and students learning.
*By the end of the session, students will be able to pronounce in a right way the vocabular.