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This is a blog especially dedicated to Teaching Practicum I: Children

Through the course of study of the Teaching Practicum, I’ve been able to see how children from ages 4 to 8 learn in El Salvador, as compared to how theory tells us children these ages in general should learn. All around, I think that taking this course has been a great experience not only for me, but also for my classmates, and even for the children. Through this blog, I outline some of the activities that I liked the most from each of the lessons taught by my classmates and I. At the end, I also provide some of my final thoughts on my experience teaching children, as well as I provide a brief description of how the children progressed in their learning of a second language, English.

Lesson 1: The Numbers

July 13^th, 2012

Teachers: Magaly Pacheco, Mauricio López, Carlos Melara.

The first lesson, I believe, was one of the most important ones for some reasons. For one thing, it is during this stage in which children (at least some of them) would be introduced to the English language for the first time. Furthermore, some of them would probably be introduced to certain teaching methods which they had very likely not encountered during their past learning experiences, that is, those who came from the public schools system. During this lesson, the children were able to start learning through a variety of styles that not all children had had the opportunity to experience. For example, the classroom was especially decorated according to that day’s lesson, and a handful of other resources were also used, such as video-music. As the lesson was developed, we were able to discover that some of the children already possessed some knowledge of the language, which is good, but also put into disadvantage the others who did not. For example, there were some children who had never been exposed to an English class, such as the case of Adriana and Hector, who probably felt “stuck” in one or another moment of the lesson.

The two activities that called my attention from this lesson are:

·         The teachers made use of audio and video for singing a song. I think that the idea behind this activity was really good. It provided students the opportunity to have not only aural, or visual input separately, but to have a combination of both, at the time that it induced students to start practicing and internalizing the numbers from 1 to 10. Nevertheless, I also believe that this activity could have been somewhat frustrating for some students as not all of them were able to produce the numbers (for instance, Hector), at the time that there were some other students who already mastered the numbers both in Spanish as well as in English.

·         When students played a game in which they had to pass some kind of really eye-catchy hat. I liked this activity because of the fact that it is revolutionary in the sense that the teachers could have easily used the simple “hot potato” routine. But that would have been a little boring and discouraging for students due to the small size and unattractiveness that the so called hot potato would represent for children this age. On the other hand, the hat that was used would help students pay attention because of its appropriate size for children this age, apart from being something very unconventional and thus interesting for them.

Lesson 2: The Colors

July 20^th, 2012

Teachers: Iris Erroa, Juan Campos, Gabriel Cubías.

For this lesson, there were some things which had changed significantly compared to the previous one. By now, all the children had already gotten to more or less experience an English class in an interactive way. For instance, I can tell that the little girl, Adriana, was feeling unbelievably enthusiastic about English now that she had been in the classroom with the other kids. Also, the children had already managed to identify some of their peers so that most of them (except probably at some times for Hector) would not feel shy at all. Two activities that called my attention were:

·         Besides the two other famously successful activities used in this class, I also liked the one in which students were to look at some color flashcards pasted on the boards, then they had to turn backwards for not seeing which one flashcard the teacher took off the board. Then, they had to say what the missing color was. I particularly consider this activity to have been a success since this was like one of the activities in which we could appreciate that children do not need too long instructions or lots of teacher talking time. Instead, what they find really helpful is to see some modeling first, and then be provided the opportunity to do it. Children were really engaged in this activity because the instructions “turn around” were fairly easy for them to follow.

·         The other activity I just loved in this lesson is when the students were given some little color balls from which they would be asked to pick a specific color and throw it into an attractive looking basket. This activity was a total success as all of the children were able to identify the colors they were being told, and demonstrated their comprehension by actual performance.  This activity was a very good example of TPR.

Lesson 3: The Fruits

July 27^th, 2012

Teachers: Fatima, Pilar, Karla, & Lily

This lesson was, in my opinion, one of the most successful ones out of the whole bunch. I believe that there are many reasons for that. One of them is the more than obvious use of a really varied array of materials, going from all the decoration to the use of actual fruits for students to see and feel. By this time, I think that students were progressing a whole lot more than they had previously done. Two activities that called my attention from this lesson are:

• When the teachers selected one child, then they blindfolded his eyes and he sat down on a chair. Then, one by one, they gave him fruits such as pineapple, apple, orange, etc. and he had to guess what the fruit was by touching it. I find this activity very interesting since it makes use of realia, which is something that I think students appreciate as they showed when doing the activity. It activates their senses, and helps them internalize the vocabulary by making connections to something real that they already know.
• The activity in which the teachers took students outside of the classroom. Students task was to make two lines, the first two in front of the line had to pick some fruits and then run towards the place in which the other teachers were holding some kind of basket. The reason why I liked this activity is because it provided students the opportunity to, first, recognize the fruit, and second, to show their comprehension by getting involved in physical activity as they had to run from one place to another one.

Lesson 4: The Animals

August 10^th, 2012

Teachers: Orlando, Konny, Marleny, & Isaac

For this lesson, students had really managed to get most of the instructions the teachers gave them, especially because the teachers were always modeling things for them, which is something perfect. Most students really showed that they had already learned many things. The two activities that called my attention where:

·         The activity in which all students were given a drawing of some animals. On the board, there was a poster which had some silhouettes from each of the animals that were being taught that day. Then, students had to stand up, find the silhouette that matched the animal they had, and paste that animal on the silhouette. This activity was very amusing for students, and I think it was particularly successful since even those who had been observed to be struggling were able to do the task, for instance, Hector.

• Another activity that I really enjoyed from this lesson is the productive activity that children did. Here, children were given a page in which there was the figure of an animal and some modeling clay. So, the point is that using the drawing they had, they had to follow its lines by pasting the modeling clay in them. I would say that most students really loved this activity because it allowed them to use their creativity.

Lesson 5: Clothes & Accessories

August 17^th, 2012

Teachers: Josue, Heinar, Andres & Ronald

I’m so sorry, but for this lesson, I could not be on time. I arrived when the class was just about to finish, so I wouldn’t be able to comment on this lesson.

Lesson 6: The Family

August 17^th, 2012

Teacher: Juan (me!)

For this lesson, I was able to see how much students had advanced in terms of their English, and even their willingness to participate in the activities taking place during class time. The two activities that I enjoyed the most are the following:

·         The first activity that I liked from this lesson is when the kids had to solve the puzzle. I would argue that children simply love putting together the pieces from the puzzles. Furthermore, I think that the outcome of this activity somehow challenges the theoretical view that children this age cannot work in groups since the three kids who participated in this class did an excellent job working together.

·         Also, I liked the activity in which the kids were given a piece of paper glued to a stick on which they were presented some faces of people who were either male or female. But the faces were not complete, and students’ task was to complete the faces on their own; and so they did. They were able to continue drawing until they got it.

Now, as a conclusion, I think I should point out the following:

There are times (often times) when people who are asked about teaching children would automatically go and say “NO.” It seems that most people appear not to like working with children. They would generally present a list of excuses not to work with children, such as: It’s too complicated. They misbehave. They do not pay attention, etc. However, I now believe that it does not have to do with those things just as much as it has to do with the teachers and their attitude. In other words, what I’m trying to say is that odds are that children from ages 5 to 8 years old have not had very good experiences through their short school life, and thus, can sometimes exhibit such types of behavior as some people point out. Nevertheless, one should ask “Why?” The answer to that question is very broad, but there are still some generals that we as teachers should be aware of. For example, I have to say that most of the lack of motivation on part of teachers to work with children comes from the fact that, sometimes, teachers are either not informed (they have probably not studied theory about children thoroughly enough) or they are simply misinformed, that is, they have only “heard that,” “heard about this and that” but have not actually had the experience of working with children.

In this way, I would say that one has to be especially careful with what decisions one takes, what methods one applies to class time, and what activities one implements for children. We should take into account the possible challenges that all of these can pose at the time of working with children, and not do the things just because. One has to be wondering “what’s the principle behind this, what we are doing in class?”

Regarding my personal experience with the children we worked in our practicum, I can conclude that most children did a much greater job than I could, myself, have imagined. That is, despite of the fact that there were times when we, the teachers, did some things that we should not have done. But even like that, I strongly believe that our lessons were a success, and more importantly, our students were able to succeed at the end. We were able to appreciate how there were some of them who might have been struggling with some of the content we saw in class in their own native language, Spanish. But for the most part, they were able to learn a lot, they were able to cope with most everything we asked them to do, provided that they had the tools and help they needed. For instance, I think that one of the figures that best demonstrates students’ progress is Hector, who at the beginning struggled to participate in class, even for the slightest moment, but who, by the end of the lessons, was able to fulfill the goals we wanted them to achieve.