Session
2n A – GROUP 1
2n A – GROUP 2
2n B – GROUP 1
2n B – GROUP 2
In general, their prior knowledge of the concepts was really low. It seems that they have never tackled these topics. At the beginning, they were very afraid because the questionnaire was difficult for them. They did not want to give it to me because they did not answer all the questions. According to the national curriculum, understanding oral messages related to routines and time without any visual support is content for medium cycle. Therefore, the starting point was really high for the standards. When I explained the rules for the following sessions, they were surprised. Students were used to certain routines and those changes made them feel insecure. Therefore, they had some doubts about how they could change the seats and they asked questions like these: - How will I remember where I have already sat?
1
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Can we repeat seat?
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How long will we be changing seats? Is it for the whole course?
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Why do we change the seat?
When they watched the video, the comprehension of the text with the pictures was really better than listening only to the voice. This is what I expected because, according to the national curriculum, it is one of the goals for initial cycle. Anyway, although they were in silence, they were not probably listening to the audio because they could understand it looking only at the pictures and they did not catch any word. When we translated the vocabulary into English, they repeated all the words in order to pronounce them correctly but it was difficult for them. In addition, they tried to guess some words following some patterns they already know. For example, they said ‘ESMORZING’ instead of ‘HAVE BREAKFAST’ and ‘GO CAS’ instead of ‘GO HOME’.
There were some problems with the audio. It was too fast for them but we found a solution. The group was very participative.
The group was very talkative and I had to be angry with some students.
There were some problems with the audio. It didn’t work properly but we found a solution. They stayed calm during these technological problems but some of them stood up.
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They did not remember the vocabulary but it was expected because it was only the second session. Moreover, when we asked for the name of each routine, it was easy to see their interest: some students were willing to participate and try some names but others were not. 2
In addition, it was difficult to work in pairs because they have different rhythms. Therefore, after cutting the cards, they started doing the classification individually and then, they helped their classmates. It has been a great idea in order to keep them working on the lexicon. Anyway, some students could not finish this task. Surprisingly, they did not know how to say ‘in the evening’ in Catalan. It is not a word they use normally. At the beginning, we finished the previous session correcting the classification all together. It is important to bear in mind that each group did a different one because they have different habits.
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The video about telling the time was very repetitive and they caught the idea easily. Moreover, they started repeating the phrases just after the video. This is a repetition activity because “the student repeats an utterance aloud as soon as he has heard it. He does this without looking at a printed text. The utterance must be brief enough to be retained by the ear.” (Richards & Rogers, 1986, p. 60) BE CAREFUL! They do not identify properly the time using a digital clock. They are now working on it in Catalan. Hence, it was difficult for them to write the time correctly in the worksheet. It is necessary to use the analogic clock in the following worksheets. --
They did not have enough time to do the worksheet with questions.
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They did not have enough time to do the worksheet with questions.
The first time they tried to follow the text was really difficult for them but during the second time they improved a lot. It has been a challenging activity and they all succeeded with the appropriate support from the teacher. At the end, they were very proud of themselves. They were not able to understand all the written words because they are not used to see long texts in English but they were able to recognize the key words that they were listening. 4
It was also a challenge for them to find all the times in the text. It was like a game. When they finished it, they could help their classmates. I told them that helping is not the same as saying the answer and they tried to imitate the teacher. There was not enough time to finish the activities planned. The timing of this session should be improved.
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This group have not had any We started finishing the previous session for a week and they did lesson because they did not have not remember very well how to time to do the worksheet with
tell the time in English. We had to questions. But, as there has been a do a short review before starting whole week between these two the session. sessions, they didn’t remember They have been very talkative and very well the content. they were scared when they saw the worksheet with so many sentences but then they were more motivated.
Therefore, I decided to finish leave that worksheet for the next day and start the new one where they do not need this knowledge.
This session has been added and the fourth session of the planning has been split into two. Concretely, in this session we completed the schedule grid in the blackboard. During this activity, I observed that: - They agreed on the times for each activity. Therefore, their routines are quite similar and they are able to reach agreements easily. - It seems that they love going to the blackboard and putting things with reusable adhesive. They like moving around the classroom and simulating that they are the teachers. 5
- They needed some help to tell the time in English so I put a clock on the blackboard. They still needed some kind of scaffold to create their own sentences.
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I gave each student some cards of times to look for the appropriate one.
Everyone was responsible for some cards. Therefore, they were paying attention.
Everyone was responsible for some cards. Anyway, some pupils were not paying attention all the time. They were very talkative.
- The worksheet to complete should be clearer for them to understand. Showing an example would be a good idea. Moreover, they did it very quickly because it was very repetitive and some steps had no sense. 6
- It seems that they did not cooperate with their couples because some of them finished before the others. It happened because the partner did not have necessary information for the other. - They needed some help to write correctly the words, even the numbers. We wanted a correct spelling of the words in order to make them aware of the differences between pronunciation and spelling in English.
- They liked the idea of looking for pictures on the computer. They respected the turns for doing it. They did not have enough time at the end of the class to practise their pronunciation.
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We had to do this session with the whole group during Arts and Crafts time. The teachers that usually do this subject with the students helped me. Rescheduling the planning is something you have to do when you work in a school thus teachers need to be flexible. All the worksheets were ordered on a table and they had to take one by one and it was not necessary to finish all of them. Therefore, they could control their own work. 7
Although the microphones worked, the computer didn’t record the voices. We had to change the tool for doing it. We used a video camera. After the experience with the other group, we were more organized. I It was difficult to record the students inside the classroom because they took two students outside the classroom while the others were doing could not work in silence. Therefore, we started to do it in the corridor. I some worksheets about the topics tackled. took two students outside while the others were doing the worksheets. - They were scared because they are not used to do exams. Actually, they do exams but they are not aware of them because the teacher says that they are simply worksheets. - Anyway, the results of the exam were good and they have improved a lot since the first day. Therefore, their progress has been successful, although they do not master the language tackled. - There was enough time to do the exam and they could continue with the worksheets of the previous day.
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- Because of the way to record voices, the final product was not prepared to be shown in this session. They will see it another day. This session took place a day after the previous one thus they had the content recently in mind. Although there has been almost a week after the last session, they studied a lot for this test and they remembered almost everything.
They were concentrated and they were focused on the tasks. Some of them doubted on some questions but then they succeeded. They tried to help their classmates during the exam, although I said they couldn’t do it.
