Journal

1° class: 01/sept

- T establishes the objectives of the class on the board.

- T explains each objective

- T wants Ss to make a draft creating a conversation in pairs.

- T goes around the classroom monitoring Ss’ work and answering questions they have.

- T becomes part of each pair, interacting with Ss.

- Ss do not make an effort to try to establish a conversation in English.

- Ss do not look engaged in the activity.

- T checks the drafts in order to ask Ss to say them orally.

2° class: 08/sept

- No classes because T was ill.

3° class: 15/sept

- T writes the aim and task of the class on the board (the task is about “people we know”).

- T makes use of the L1 to be sure that the instructions are clear.

- My partner and I start giving Ss the worksheets to work on the task.

- Ss make a list of people they know, and then they create a dialogue about any person they admire.

- T uses CCQ’s

- T gives examples to do the task as predicting possible questions by Ss.

- My partner and I are able to monitor the class, answering questions to help Ss.

4° class: 22/sept

- T writes the topic of the class on the board: “describing people: appearance”.

- T starts asking Ss some questions in order to elicit some information.

- T writes on the board some key words according to the content.

- T projects images on the board about parts of the body to describe physical appearance.

5° class: 29/sept

- T asks questions to elicit info about Ss’ previous knowledge about the topic.

- T, my partner and I explain the meaning of “in law” to the class.

6° class: 06/oct

- T explains the topic of the class and the activities.

- T asks SS to work in pairs.

- Ss discuss among them about “what do you do?”

- T monitors their work

7° class: 13/oct

- T writes on the board the objective of the class

- Ss have to match and figure out endings related to jobs and occupations.

- T uses realia to explain vocabulary.

Tutorials observations

Javiera’s lessons

In her lessons, she looked very professional because it could be seemed very easily that she prepared her class before and all the materials to be used. Besides, students were able to understand what she was saying almost all the time, thus the use of the mother tongue was almost nothing. I consider this a very positive aspect, because she used other strategies avoiding talking in Spanish as much as possible. However, I realized the use of her voice as an aspect to be improved. She should have projected more her voice, taking into account that she will teach a big group of students when she becomes a teacher. Moreover, she needs to be more careful in her grammar, even more if she made elementary mistakes.

My lesson

The feedback that I received was very positive; nonetheless, there are aspects to be improved as well. I forgot the use of CCQ’s to check if students understood the instructions that I had said. Furthermore, I forgot to put the lights on, which could have been an obstacle for my students’ learning. On the other hand, how I projected my voice and my grammar were highlighted by my classmate. I consider that I did a really good job with the use of strategies, because I use realia in order to omit the use of Spanish immediately.

From my point of view, all the content that I have acquired from my methodology course has become in knowing how to apply that theory, which can mean the easiest part of the teaching process, because you have to only study them. Notwithstanding, the reality is more complex than that. You have to know what to select to be taught or not for your students, discriminate what will be useful for them, among others, and that “teacher skill” will become exact more and more just with experience, being inside the classroom and in contact with the student. It is very different when you plan a class without any context, you feel safe that everything will be under control because you already know what to do;

however, you do not know what could happen being inside the classroom, if your students will be able to do the tasks you have previously prepared, etc. That is why I think that the only way to become more proficient and know how to overcome unexpected circumstances is being inside the classroom and in different contexts.