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Trainee’s Self-Assessment

Period: Primary

Ludmila Ruiz Díaz

Introduction

My purpose for this particular reflection is to build up a bigger picture of my experience teaching in the 5th Grade and also to expand what I have documented in the journals as I was going through my practice.

I have had some experience working with learners within this age group, 10 to 11 year-olds; however it is always recommendable to review some literature in order to be better prepared, so I had a look again to the bibliography we had worked with during Didactics I/II and I also looked for helpful strategies on line.

Fortunately, the group of learners was wonderful. There were not many students, only twenty, and most of them could follow the lessons with no major inconveniences. This allowed me to be a little bit daring than I would allow myself in a similar situation; some turned out to be great and exceeded my expectations, others; as expected, would need fine tuning.

All in all, as any teaching experience I have lived through, I felt delighted to work with these learners. I believe I am adding positive and supportive knowledge for my future and I sincerely hope these students have taken the best part of these lessons with them as well.

Thinking Back

Before starting with my practice with this group, I had the opportunity to observe three different English lessons. During these observations, the objective was to know the students, their level of knowledge, their dynamics as a group and the rapport with their English teacher. I also paid attention to integration of skills; how the teacher linked the activities and how students responded to them.

The fact that they have only two 40-minute lesson per week caught my attention since private schools usually offer 40 or 80 minutes more than this time amount. Anyway, students understood classroom language very well and carried the activities out without major problems. Most of them had the material necessary for the lessons; the course book of choice was New Treetops 4, OUP. For those students who did not count on the material, the teacher would bring photocopies of the parts to deal with in each particular lesson.

Their classroom was rather small, with only one window through which they received natural light. The walls were practically bare; there were not posters stuck on them or students’ productions shown. Consequently, I considered the learning environment could do better than this and be perhaps more appealing and motivating for the learners.

From the conversations the L2 teacher and I held, the level of the group was beginners and also there were some false beginners; the latter having had English lessons in previous years and the former had had less input since they came from other institutions, mainly from estate schools, where they lacked L2 as a subject. Consequently, as I was told by the teacher, every year they need to level up the course making the advance a difficult task. However, I could notice the little knowledge they had was quite sound.

Other features of the group I could spot were, among others, the lack of speaking activities. In general, the L2 teacher balanced the macro skills but speaking was left aside. As a result, the learners’ pronunciation was very poor and whenever they needed to read out loud or speak they felt very self-conscious and reluctant to participate. I determined this could be an area I should work on during my practice; building up their confidence and making them participate more actively and meaningfully.

As far as syllabus was concerned, the school had a ‘follow the book’ policy. I was not supplied with any annual or monthly plan either by the institution or the L2 teacher. In order to work, I was given the book and was told to carry on with the following lessons. The topic students were working with was Schools, so I thought it was most appropriate to keep working with that and then, I would continue with People.

I spent a great amount of time thinking of a suitable context to work with the topics. The course book has a great context based on medieval characters but students were not keen on it or perhaps it was not used properly. Finally, I decided to sort to Harry Potter as a context because he goes to a special school, with extraordinary subjects and children love his stories. Moreover, it would also bridge the gap between School and People because we would start describing physical appearance and the book and film characters would be great for the task.

Fortunately, students welcomed Harry Potter very willingly. They could share personal information about their favourite subjects when we built a bar chart of the class’s favourite subjects; through praising and reassurance they were able to come to the front of the classroom and say ‘My favourite subject is…’, they could also have a short conversation with their partners when they carried out ‘Find someone who’. These activities were very controlled but students contributed willingly and, as far as I noticed, gave them a sense of achievement. Additionally, I believe learners also benefited from the activities where they had to match physical description to specific pictures since this was the previous step for them to write their own description about their favourite celebrity. This particular task was very exciting for them; I strongly believe it was

because they were asked to bring to the class some significant information about themselves and share it with everyone.

My learning experience was also significant. First of all, I confirmed that trial and error are not the evil; that is, my first lesson was not as successful and I had expected but I could take it as a way to know the students better and look for an alternative path that would lead me to a better approach to engage students in the learning of L2.Many of the activities proposed, if not all of them, exceeded my expectations. This is not because I underestimated the learners but because I had the impression I was asking too much of them considering their level of English, this is why I felt more daring as a teacher, and perhaps I was being too strict or inflexible. This was the biggest and most valuable lesson, I believe, because not only did the students cope with every activity but also they showed me, and hopefully themselves, what they were capable of when they learned actively and significantly.

Thinking Forward

I am really happy with the work we have done with 5th Grade. I believe the outcome I perceived in such a short time was successful, even though there were instances when the timing was not right because the learners needed more time to carry them out.

There were activities I had planned that were left out of the plans I presented, for instance I would have liked to work with stories. At the time, I did not feel sure about working with narratives because I thought they needed more input. I do not regret this decision; however, I sincerely believe including these could have been extremely beneficial and engaging for the students. I would also have liked to include more listening activities; these students lacked L2 input in this aspect and that is one of the reasons they were not able to pronounce certain words accurately. Most of the listening they received was my speech so I made an extra effort to use L2 most of the class during each lesson and have everyone repeat new words for them to practice.

Regarding oral work, I reckon these students enjoyed contributing during the class and I could see many of them felt more relaxed towards the last classes when I provided them with oral activities. Even though they had serious pronunciation mistakes, they were willing to practice saying the words and chunks of language. Praising was a key factor, as I mentioned before, as a means to reassure them and make them feel they had accomplished some improvement.

I enjoy working with learners this age, in general. I see myself dealing with primary schools students in the future; these learners in particular were very affectionate and grateful. I believe these traits also made me feel more motivated to give my best; I wanted to plan memorable lessons where they could appreciate the use of the language significantly and for the most part, I think I accomplished this mission.

Thinking Inward

Personally, I believe the most meaningful moments I lived during this period were the ones related to helping students accomplish oral skills. I do not mean that they are now disinhibited and speaking fluently but I think I could help them feel a little more relaxed and secure when speaking.

These students welcome me very affectionately. From the first observation, I could notice their curiosity about my personality and personal life. They always received me cheerfully and my lessons were more enjoyable thanks to their predisposition to learn; they have now a place in my heart since this is a time I will never forget, they made my practicum easier and I am grateful for that.

To be honest, I was not keen on the context – Harry Potter – I chose to work with, I had to do some research and learn about him in order to design a coherent link between topics. I did not want to

provide them with unreliable information because they might notice instantly. Nonetheless, they were so excited with this character that all this thinking and planning around Harry Potter was totally worthy. This is a great lesson to me; I reckon most teachers like to work comfortably and sometimes we do not take into account what students really like or are interested in and just do what is most convenient and easy for us. So the effort paid off and was valued by the learners, even though they never knew I was not interested in magicians and special subjects.

Thinking Outward

During the time this period lasted, I felt much more comfortable than I had in Kindergarten. Surely, this was due to the fact that I had some previous experience working with older students; however, these particular learners were the ones who marked the pace and who I had in mind when planning my lessons.

At the beginning, I was not very confident because I had been given a course book and nothing else. I realised the range of possibilities was endless but at the same time overwhelming. My first lesson was not very engaging but it seized the opportunity to come back with a more interesting proposal and I was successful.

Regarding aspects that needed improving, I believe timing is at the top of the list. As during the lessons I had observed students were really passive, I had to fine tune timing lesson per lesson until I was able to plan and include meaningful activities they could perform in a 40 minute time frame. Even in the last lessons I could notice I needed to hurry them up or could not complete correcting everybody.

The L2 teacher helped me immensely. She provided important information about the course and the students; she assisted me when correcting students’ production and helped me feel comfortable. She made some suggestions after my lessons that I took into account when planning; I valued her viewpoint because she knew these learners more than I did.

Hopefully, I have had a positive impact on this group’s learning experience. The evidence tells me this is so; paying attention to my tutor’s suggestions, listening to the L2 teacher’s advice and working to make these students’ learning experience engaging have proven to be key to a successful practice.

Personal Conclusions

There is no much I can add regarding how wonderful this experience was to me. I know teaching is a never ending learning experience and that is the magic of it; there is always something or someone new, you can never get bored!

Even though I spent hours planning and thinking about contexts, I felt the effort was valued by everyone; the students, their L2 teacher and my tutor. I am aware that this is an evaluation instance and each plan feels like a final exam; nevertheless, I reckon this does not mean I only need to please the one who marks me but also, most importantly, the learners.

To conclude, I would like to mention once again I felt contained and motivated during all lessons. The learners were a delight to work with, and each lesson was a landmark during the whole practice.