Week 4: Grammar - The animals

"Children have an amazing ability to absorb the new" and if teachers use the creativity and the proper tools to do it, the learning process will be outstanding.
I could confirm this assumption during the performance of Rebe, Ariana and Federico's class.

It was a nice way to  present grammar to children even though young learners have received a grammar class before. To be honest, the teachers delivered an amazing class. They didn't commit the errors that I did in my first performance. I was impressed the way how the group presented the topic to children, but we are going to discuss it in a detail way how the class was delivered.

What I loved 

• I like the fact that most of the teachers (from other groups) are greeting children one by one. And this was the case of this group. One day, I was wondering about "what is the purpose of greeting students one by one?" So, I decided to clarify my doubts and search on the internet about it. One web page caught my attention because it says that whenever we as teachers take time from the class to greet our students, we are showing them that we care about them not just in an academic way, but personally as well, and this interest that we project to our students motivates them to do better in class. Thus, this was one aspect from the class that I did like.
• It was good to see that Rebeca made emphasis on the pronunciation of three words. There was a time (at the beginning to be specific) when Rebeca started to ask about the animals that children learnt in the previous class. I know that students felt too excited that they started to pronounce the animals in the way they considered was the best. So, what Rebeca did was to correct them by making emphasis on the appropiate pronunciation throughout repetition. I think that if we as teachers enhance those little details from early stages, young learners will perform greatly in advanced levels.
• I consider an outstanding way to present the grammar topic. In a nutshell, Rebeca did an excellent job. I liked the way she introduced the topic: "they are", "it is." To be sincere, I was expecting the way she was going to explain that grammar pattern. I loved how she made emphasis on the difference between "they are", "it is" because she used colorful charts to catch children's attention. I could see that pupils were very concentrated at the time she was explaining, and I guess it was because she was very confident at that time and due to the type of realia she used.
• Ariana made good monitoring while children were completing the worksheet. I liked to see how she was checking while children were doing the second activity because she explained to some of them the difference of the usage of the grammar pattern. Children seemed to understand the way Ariana explained to them. I liked to see how she monitored because she insisted and clarified any doubt children asked to her.
• The worksheet was a real worksheet. I found it very easy to understand and creative as well. From I could see, I assume that children didn't have any trouble to complete each statement.
• I liked when Federico gave a sticker to the students that finished the activity. I consider that by doing this children can feel encouraged and enthusiastic along the class; they love when an adult gives a reward or a compliment to them and this is the case of it. It is nice because if they don't want to do the activity sometimes you can control them through this.
• Federico projected a different attitude in comparison of the first class. Of course I know that being at the front of the class is not easy. Nervousness and other factors affect us a lot while we perform. However, I could see a different attitude in Federico in this ocassion. He seemed friendlier with the students.

What I didn't like

• I made the same mistake as Rebeca. Whenever I wanted to check if students got the idea, I asked them "Do you understand?" At the beginning I didn't know that it is not allow to ask children that type of question, but when the professor made me that observation I decided to make some research on the internet about feasible phrases to use. I am going to leave the link of the web page of those phrases that we as teachers can use in order to avoid "Do you understand?" http://www.scotsenglish.edu.au/ways-say-do-you-understand  
• I think that the group had to model how the activities went. Rebeca and Ariana didn't do it. The first time was when Rebeca asked children to paste on the board some pictures that she gave to them. I saw that at the beginning children didn't understand, and I guess that Rebeca noticed it because she explained it one more time. It would have been better if she gave to them an example of how they had to do it. The same Ariana. Children didn't understand at all the first practice activity. They didn't know what to do. I am for sure that if she had given to them a clear example, children would had performed greatly the activity because they are very clever.
• The group had to take control of those children who talk a lot. A nice way could be to use the stoplight behavior chart or maybe change from the desk those who talk a lot. I know that it could sound hard but if we don't change that behavior, they will do the same in the rest of the classes.
• I didn't like when children made fun of Federico's drawings. I know that sometimes we need to improvise when we don't have the appropiate material, but we have to be very careful especially with children because they can take advantage of the situation. I think that in that case Federico had to bring some drawings made by him at home to avoid that situation in the classroom and just to show to the students how they had to do theirs.
• In a PPP lesson students have to produce orally what they learnt in the class; however, I couldn't see that. I was expecting that part of the class, unfortunately I couldn't see it. I think that there are plenty of activities that children could do with that topic, but nothing is perfect and you missed that part. Do not worry, it happened to me.
• In the wrap-up activity was more for a vocabulary class because children just mentioned the name of the animals. They didn't use the grammar pattern they learnt. I was thinking about how you can change that game and adapt to your main topic. Maybe if the group had introduced the questions "what are they?" "what is it?" in the presentation stage, you would had used those questions in the memory game for children to answer using the grammar patterns they learnt previously. In that case, the activity would had worked perfectly to summarize the class.

What I will do in my future classes

• To try to take control of those kids that talk a lot.
• To take the class as a reference on how to teach grammar for young learners.
• to make emphasis on the production stage and adap it in a real-life situation.