TEACHING UNIT REPORT

TEACHING UNIT INTRODUCTION AND IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS PER SESSION

How would your ideal house look like? is the question that vertebrates the whole teaching unit entitled My ideal house. It was supposed to be developed during two weeks, in a total of 8 lessons between one hour and one hour and a half in both classes of 5^th grade. The number of students was similar in both, 25 and 27 pupils. Consequently, group and individual activities prepared have not suffered big changes in organization terms.

About the implementation itself, it must be said that it has been carried out with two groups that had already been with me in Practicum IV’s implementation. This fact made easier the designing process of the unit, since I already knew them, their needs and strengths, as well as for their behaviour towards me. The fact that kids were excited and engaged from the very beginning helped when proposing the unit and the products they had to develop along it. However, the activities were designed to maintain this involvement. Indeed, the results are the evidences that children responded positively to the sequence. In general, all activities were developed without big obstacles and children seemed to enjoy them. About those activities that were a bit longer and normally tougher for kids, the fact of involving somehow aspects of their real lives such as family and house has helped a lot. Children created great writings about their family and houses and they used new vocabulary learnt, thanks to previous activities done and the scaffolding given. At the end, all kids could write about their families, describing at least two members, and about their favourite place in the house. What is more, the design of the house and the poster was a total success regarding students’ attitude. They were seriously engaged with the task and used iPads so as to design their houses and not for playing. Describing their houses in the poster was easier and faster than doing it with a random image since they already knew what to say and the names of the objects thanks to the work with the devices. Although sometimes it could seem that there was a lot of individual task, it was nice to see how students helped their partners when writing and how they designed together in pairs their houses. Along the implementation, the teaching sequence has been modified to adapt it to the needs and rhythm of the students. Below, it can be found a chart with the main changes of the teaching unit, so that a proper comparison can be made with the first design.

There are many factors to consider in this implementation. Consequently, there are many elements which are worthy to mention. Below, there are exposed the weaknesses and strengths of the teaching unit and the reflections about my teaching performance along the internship.

POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS OF THE TEACHING SEQUENCE

Timing is one of the most difficult elements to control and I have realized that the teaching sequence was too demanding for the number of sessions programmed. However, since the teacher asked me to skip two activities (the listening and the video record) to fit her planning for the term and some school inconveniences, I could reorganize the unit and use more time for more demanding activities. Regarding the digital tools used, one of the activities was based on the use of a free app for designing their houses. The app is very complete, full of vocabulary in English. Nevertheless, there were some problems when using it since it expired and eliminate the students’ creations, so they had to rebuild their houses again. Perhaps, it was because we were using the free option in case of paying, but of course I came up with a possible solution. Every 10 minutes, students screenshot their creations and, in case it was too late to start a new one, what we did was printing and drawing the rest of the house. That way, they could have a complete house for the next session. Finally, since I was not the teacher and my time was limited I couldn’t widen the teaching unit. Personally, considering I was the English teacher and not a student, an improvement or an extra could be giving more sessions to the topic and developing a project about it. I felt that students were engaged with the topic because it was related to their real lives. For this reason, a deeper work could have been done for example introducing the question ‘Why are houses different depending on the place?’. Finally, after implementing I realized that students have not evaluated themselves or their partners, which could be useful to emphasize on the most important contents. Summarizing, there are three aspects that could be improved:

1. Timing. The whole teaching sequence with all the activities will need more than 8 sessions.

2. Digital tools. A similar app with less problems should be found or consider doing the strategy used in the internship: screenshot, print and draw if necessary.

3. Developing a project. Doing a research about kinds of houses, types of families (values), etc. to be worked interdisciplinary: dimensions of the house (Maths), description (English), concepts of family (Social Sciences and Values), creation of a house (Art), …

4. Adding peer/self-assessment. Students could have evaluated their writing using a rubric or a checklist as well as their classmates’ videos (if we had done the activity).

STRENGTHS OF THE TEACHING SEQUENCE

As it has been mentioned, the balance of the teaching unit is very positive and the results support the statement. It is important to consider that, although students had previously gone through the topic, the level was also higher in the teaching unit. Students were demanded a higher level of the use of vocabulary and grammar structures. Teaching and learning a known subject area for the students was something positive, since pupils were committed trying to remember and refresh their previous knowledge. That could be observe in their participation in class, where some students that are not used to participate were volunteering to answer questions or giving explanations to the rest. Involving aspects of their real lives in the activities was actually a great idea because the level of engagement was high along the sequence and helped them have very clear the things to describe and how to do it, it was not an abstract and unknown group of people or place. Asking students to make writings about these and sharing with their classmates helped them to find the motivation. Writing is sometimes difficult and boring for children and in this case it was easy and they enjoyed. The use of technology, iPads, was a real strength of the sequence. Although the app was possibly not the best option, it was a nice way of fostering creativity and revising concepts (the app is in English). Children learnt to go through the app by themselves and discover new features. Finally, I think a good strategy was reviewing and introducing concepts through games. During the whole teaching sequence, students played different games to get all the necessary for developing the main activities that were used as assessment tools. It was very useful because they remembered the vocabulary easily. Finally, I am very proud of the classroom organization. They are used to sit in rows, but many times I asked them to be in groups. Even though they were doing individual tasks, the disposal of the class allowed students comment and help each other making activities more dynamic and profitable. All in all, the aspects to highlight of this teaching sequence are the following:

1. Known topic. Students had previous knowledge and were more confident.

2. Meaningful. Relating the activities to aspects of their lives increased motivation, commitment and gave them a purpose.

3. Using technology. Students enjoy using iPads at the same time they learn technologic skills.

4. Games. Students engagement is high and they practiced all the important concepts repeatedly.

5. Classroom organization. Allowing pupils share their ideas contributed to the proper development of the activities, increase self-seem of students and there was peer support.

REFLECTIONS OF MY TEACHING PERFORMANCE

I must say the implementation of this teaching unit has been easier than the previous one in Practicum IV in terms of confidence. Obviously, there were many aspects that worried me, such as the management of the class, timing, dealing with children with important difficulties, etc. Fortunately, I had to face some of these situations in both Practicums and I believe I have improved a lot, although I still need to keep on learning by experiencing teaching.

One of the most important challenges I consider when thinking about teaching is managing the class. I think it is a matter of time and confidence with the students what makes a teacher know the best strategies or techniques to keep a good environment in the class. Luckily, students were keen on learning and doing the things I proposed and, because of this excitement, in some activities the class was a bit decontrolled. For example, when doing dynamic activities such as games or using the iPads, pupils raised their voices more than usual and were very concentrated in what they were doing, what of course is not a problem if you know how to catch their attention. For me, it was sometimes difficult to do it because, although I asked them, they kept on playing or working. The good thing about these ‘extreme’ situations is that I found two resources that worked very well and that I decided to use along the teaching sequence:

1. When doing the writing race, I was moving around to tell each group individually when to change because otherwise they did not listen to me. By chance, I found a common hotel bell in the classroom and I decided to use it. Students reacted very well because they understood that when the bell rang they had to change their pieces of paper and images. It was very easy to follow with the activity after using it. Now I know, this is a must-have I need in my class.

2. When writing about their families, students were really excited because they were writing at the same time they asked their classmates about their pictures and the people on it. Sometimes, it was difficult to know if they were working or just chatting, to comment anything to help them in general, … One time, I needed to tell them something important but they were not paying attention at all, although I was asking them. So, as my last resource, I asked one student to get in front of the class and start clapping and jumping. One classmate saw him, went next to him and started doing the same. At the end, they all were clapping and when I said stop, they stopped. There was silence and I could tell them what I wanted. I used the same strategy another day in the other class and worked as well. For this reason, now I have one more thing to use that works for me.

Another difficult aspect of this teaching sequence was the timing and dealing with students working rhythms. Having two writings was a challenge because there were some students who finished very quick and others who needed more than one session. However, I found the way to give them the needed time, making the rest create glossaries of those words they wanted to remember and asking to make the draft of their ideal house. This way, each student was demanded according to its level. They all were occupied doing different things, but all were working on the same topic. Something I am proud of is my use of English in class. In the previous practicum, I realized I used too much their mother tongue and that was something I wanted to improve. In the video, it can be seen that I use English much more than Catalan or Spanish and that I ask and guide students so that they understand me. Although I must improve, I could observe how I motivated children to speak in English and how I tried to explain the same thing using different words but most of the time in that L2. However, there is something I need and I would like to change that is my body language. Sometimes, I felt I was not transmitting with my body, that I was too rigid. In the video, I could observe I was very static and I believe that perhaps it was led by the situation. Be it as it may, I believe I could improve a lot this skill to reach better students.

In conclusion, the implementation of this teaching sequence has helped me realize the strengths and weaknesses of my teaching but, at the same time, it has made me gain some confidence. As I mentioned, this teaching unit could be deeper developed and perhaps, when I have more experience, I can try using and expanding it. It offers many possibilities to work interdisciplinary and, applying some improvements commented, it could be a great sequence. After this practicum, I have some ideas about issues I would like to keep on working. For the moment, I think I will try to learn more about classroom management (especially in the English class) and ways to approach English with real purposes, giving a meaning to their learning because I had experience the advantages of doing it with this sequence, and it really works.