didactica especial i y observacion del proceso de ense_anza

7/30/2019 Didactica Especial i y Observacion Del Proceso de Ense_anza

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DIDACTICA ESPECIAL I Y OBSERVACION DEL

PROCESO DE ENSEANZA-APRENDIZAJE

LOOKING AT LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS

PROFESOR: DOCTOR OMAR VILLARREAL

PROFESOR JEFE

DE TRABAJOS PRACTICOS: LICENCIADO GABRIEL ROJO

ALUMNO: EVELYN YAMAZATO

CURSO: 1693

OCTUBRE 2012


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THE LANGUAGE OF QUESTIONS

OBSERVATION

This observation took place in 5

th

grade. Students age was between 10 and 11 years old.As soon as the teacher came into the class she started making questions. They were veryshort, simple questions which had the following style:

-Yes/No questions.

-Short answering style.

-Display questions (requesting information already known to the questioner).

-Referential questions (requesting new information)

T: - What day is it today?

S: - Its Monday!

T: - Whats the weather like today?

S: - Its sunny!

T: - Mariana, what is your favorite color?

S: - Violet

T: - Marcos, is this your pencil? (grabbing a pencil from her desk)

S: - No, it isnt

T: - Ari, listen to me. Have you got short hair?

S: - eeh...

T: -Have you got short hair?

S: - E hmmshortehhno I

T: -Are you sure you dont have short hair? Orlong hair like me?

S: - No! Short hair!

T: -Ari? Have you got?

S: - Yes, I have short hair

T: - Lucas, can you swim? ( moving her arms)


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S: - Yes, I can

T: - Marcos, can you fly? ( waving her arms)

S: -

T: - Have you got wings? Can you fly?

S: - No, no, I cant!T: - He cant fly. He isnt superman. He doesnt have super powers!

( Everybody laughs)

The teacher made these questions to introduce the topic: Simple Present Tense, whichthey had already been working on. This was revision and reinforcement of the verb tenseand vocabulary. She started with simple questions and then she made them more difficultwith Simple Present questions (stage of the lesson).

The teacher handed out a photocopy with exercises using the Simple Present.

She wrote on the blackboard the uses of the auxiliaries:

I HE

YOU DO SHE DOES

WE ITTHEY

T: - Martn, do you come to school every day?

S: - Yes, I do.

T: - Fer, do you play the piano?

S: - No, I dont.

T: - With Simple Present we talk about ROUTINES. What are routines?

S: -

T: - For example: I always get up at seven oclock. GET UP.

Evelyn GETS UP at six oclock.

What time do you get up, Lucas?


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S: - I gets up

T: - I GET UP (pointing to the blackboard)

S: - I GET UP at seven oclock

T: - Lisa, what time do you get up in the morning?

S: - Qu?T: - WHAT TIME do you get up in the morning?

S: -

T: -At seven oclock, at eight o clock

S: - At half-past, no, a quarter to seven

T: - Very good. Ok.

What time do you go to bed? ( she got her hands together as if she wanted to pray andplaced them on one side of her face while she leaned her head on them)

Achu?

S: - A quarter.

S2: - A qu hora te levants?

T: - Dont translate! She knows, Achu, what time do you go to bed? a quarter?

S: - A quarter past nine.

T: - Ok. Cami, what time do you go to bed?

S: -

T: - You dont remember You dont know

S: - I dont know

T: - Early or late?

S: - Late.


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LANGUAGE

The pattern that emerged from these questions was that the teacher wanted to reinforcethe verb tense taught, revise and learn new vocabulary. But she searched for short, simple

answers, focusing on the topic. She was considering the challenge it represented for thestudents to answer these questions, due to in their previous years (3rd and 4th grade), theirEnglish language level acquired was very poor; as a consequence, there was an importanta lack of knowledge and the teacher needed to start in a lower level of teaching in 5 th year.

Considering that the teacher never spoke in Spanish,( she became their teacher this year,the students were not used to this kind of learning), they could cope with what she wasrequesting, asking, saying ,through movements with her hands, arms and vocabulary shemade herself clear.

The correlation and the response elicited was impeded because the students might needsome more grammar and vocabulary revision. The teacher followed a teaching planningbut the knowledge of the students might not be enough for the completion of the topic.


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THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

OBSERVATION

TASK 1

THE ENVIRONMENT

This observation took place in 7th grade. The students age was between 12 and 13 yearsold. The room was situated in the second floor of the building. It was a large room withthree windows facing the street on one side and one big window facing the corridor in theopposite wall, I considered this factor very important for the students safety and thepossibility of the school staff to observe the on-going of the class if necessary. This alsoallowed natural daylight in the classroom and the sense of an open space which did notrepresent an impediment to students to focus on the class subjects (this means that if therewas an event occurring in the corridor, students werent aware of it).

There was an unusual disposition of the benches. Each student had a bench forthemselves and, as the size of the room allowed it, they were spread along the room in anirregular form.

ROOM DIAGRAM


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The room had an attractive visual, it was a tidy light-blue room, it had a comfortabletemperature and the students and teachers voice could be heard correctly (goodacoustic). Sometimes the teacher and students voice overlapped and the teacher neededto raise her voice, but she generally used loud voice in a gentle manner.

At the beginning of the class the teacher asked the students to perform the special class

that they had to prepare for that day as homework. It consisted of talking about theirfavorite star and they were divided into different groups.

One group of two students participated. They gave the lesson at the front of the class totheir mates, placing a chart on one of the three boards, with pictures about their favoritesinger star. The students read the information they had collected, they didnt study it byheart. During the lesson the schoolmates paid a lot of attention to what the students weresaying, they were not distracted at all and this caught my attention, because they were allquiet and focused on the lesson showing a great sense of respect for their mates. The factof the size and disposition of the benches in the room did not affect the students attention

to the lesson; they werent talking or distracted doing other activities (writing, talking, etc.).

The natural lighting in the classroom was really good so it wasnt necessary to turn on thelights. This factor gave a warmer temperature and view to the room.

From my own point of view, the large of the room allowed the students place their benchesin the way that best suited to them, giving the students the freedom to move and feelcomfortable, sharing the lesson in different ways with their mates (some learners were inthe middle of two mates, some others were sitting opposite from each other, a fewpreferred being alone). This factor and the ones mentioned before (acoustic, lightning,

board board

door

window teacher's

bench

F F F M window

STREET CORRIDOR

window F F

F F

M M M F F F F

window

Evelyn


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temperature, etc) allowed the students to feel more comfortable and thus the willingness topaying more attention and concentration to the lesson.

TASK 2

STUDENTS CONCENTRATION IN THE LESSON

After the oral lesson, the teacher handed out a photocopy to the students, the exerciseconsisted in reading comprehension. Four students had to read some statements and thenthey should fill in the blanks.

I concentrated on Micaela, a student girl who was sitting alone at the front of the class.While her four mates were readingout loud from the photocopy she started organizing herfolder, completing some papers, writing; she looked boring, yawned, she didnt pay

attention to what the other students were reading. When the schoolmates finished readingthe teacher started to ask them to fill in the exercise, so Micaela left whatever she was

doing and started doing the exercise; then she participated saying in a loud voice some ofthe missing words; she paid attention to what the teacher explained about someprepositions and copied what the teacher wrote on the blackboard.

Micaela kept doing the exercise and finished it. Once all students had ending the exercisethey corrected it and started with a second exercise.

As the students were reading and asking what the exercise was about, Micaela wasglueing the photocopy and writing with different colors on her folder. When the teacherbegan doing the exercise on the blackboard Micaela stopped and copied what the teacherwas writing and sometimes she answered what the teacher asked.

During the observation the external factors I could observe were that Micaela didnt payattention to the class when her mates were reading, talking, making suggestions or askingquestions and she kept doing activities she considered important, which were related to herlearning (folder, sheets, colored titles, pasting, etc).

But the fact that she stopped to listen to her teacher whenever the teacher spoke, it wasevidence that Micaela was aware of what was happening in the classroom all the time,despite the fact that she kept on doing different things instead of doing what her mateswere doing at that moment. What motivated Micaela to get involved in other activities was

that her mates were talking ( about the topic, which doesnt mean that she wasnt payingattention, she might be listening as well) and what she considered that was important forher to pay particular attention was what the teacher was saying, asking and teaching.

A B C


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PHYSICAL FACTORS TEACHER BEHAVIOUR COMMENTS

Large room Supportive Possibility to dispose benches in different ways

Room size that made it

comfortable

Emphasizing

achievements

Freedom of movement the possibility of students

to choose thus feeling more independent

Lighting, daylight ApprovalThe special attention of students to their mates

when they were giving oral lesson

Calls by name

Smiles and nods

What I noticed in this classroom was that students werent distracted, they paid a lot ofattention to their mates during the oral lesson; they were quiet and silent. They gavesupport to the students who were in front of the class, they behaved with respect, it was acomforting experience. The teacher argued this was a very special classroom and sheenjoyed a lot teaching these students.

It is important for students when teachers speak and explain them the importance of therelationship among them (student-student/teacher-student) and what they are expected toachieve during the year. I observed that the teacher behave with good manners andenthusiastic mood, nodding, helping, approving and supporting. As a pattern, if thestudents couldnt cope with the topic she would make use of the blackboard and theyshould copy what she explained. All the exercises were taken from photocopies, theywouldnt use a book.

I consider that each teacher has his/her own teaching style and this might be the one whichbest works for him/her to get the students achieve their subjects.


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THE LEARNER AS DOER

OBSERVATION

This observation took place in 7thgrade. The students age was between 12 and 13 yearsold. The teacher made a revision of the Simple Past Tense.

What she prioritized was the oral answering and the students pronunciation. The lesson

was given within the third and fourth hour of the school timetable. As the teacher startedexplaining the activity it was evident that the students were tired, some of them laid on theirtable benches as if they were resting, some others looked bored, the previous subject theyhad attended was language (it took two hours and they had just had a five minutes break)and this might be the reason of their tiredness. The teacher then, changed the dynamic ofthe lesson. Instead of doing the exercise of the photocopy they were given, she suggestedplaying a game, which consisted in completing the exercise on the blackboard with thecorrect verb. The students showed enthusiastic and they enjoyed this activity very much,

most of all writing on the board.

The following chart shows how the lesson was developed and its aim related to thecognitive, affective and physical activities.

WHAT LEARNERS DO WHAT THIS INVOLVES TEACHER'S PURPOSE COMMENT


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They remember this

subject was taught by

the teacher

Checking their notes Revision of the Past

Tense

COGNITIVE

Answer together Repetition Participation of the

class

COGNITIVE

Refer to vocabulary,

use of new words

New vocabulary

involved.

COGNITIVE

Pronunciation Refer to phonetics COGNITIVE

They are divided intotwo groups.

Students write on the

blackboard. They

have to complete an

exercise with the

correct verb in the

correct tense and

spelling.

That the studentsapply their knowledge

through competition

and fun.

That the students getinvolved in the lesson.

Motivation.

The students' interest

in answering .

Writing.

Interaction

COGNITIVEAFFECTIVE

PHYSICAL

Acting in front of the

class.

Willingness toparticipate.

Feeling important.

Feeling comfortable.

That the student feel

confident in theclassroom.

Moving around.

PHYSICAL

AFFECTIVE

Consult each other Sharing information,

what they know,

expressing their

thoughts

Cooperation.

Relationship.

Commitment.

COGNITIVE

AFFECTIVE

As we can see, this activity was the most valuable for the learners because they couldparticipate, they felt really happy when they guessed the word and could go to the front ofthe class to write on the board, they could show their abilities and knowledge. The gamemotivated them a lot and changed their behavior and spirits.

In this case, the teacher needed to change what she had planned and as a result it was anaccurate decision, she could do the activity successfully and all the students participated init.

Sometimes it is necessary to cater for the learners own preferred learning methodology to

achieve the subjects aim. Certain circumstances should be considered during the lesson

as in this special situation in which the learners needed to be encouraged to continue withtheir school-day learning. At any other time learners should pay attention to the teachersown teaching methodology. This should be taken into account by the teacher when she

makes an evaluation of her own methods concerning the students performance during thelessons.


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GIVING INSTRUCTIONS

OBSERVATION

This observation took place in 1stgrade. The students age was between 6 and 7years old. The students and the teacher communicated mainly using songs.

As the children were too young, it was necessary to keep them doing thingsconstantly, because they lost their attention to the task within a few minutes.

There was a welcome song, then a song whose intention was that the learners be

quiet and in silence. The first activity was to follow sit down and stand up instructions. Thenthe teacher asked the students what they would like to sing; they sang two songs; as theyapproached to the end of the songs they increased the speed of the rhythm and this wasenjoyable for them. During the lesson the teacher included a lot of physical activities whichconsisted in oral instructions to move their bodies, legs, arms and jumping. The pattern thatappeared was to make use of songs to remain in silence, to be quiet, to say the days of theweek and what the weather was like, to get the students attention, to get them involved in

an activity. These kinds of songs were very well known by the learners. They were awareof what the teacher wanted; she was always reinforcing the spoken language with mimics,


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movements of her hands and fingers; through drawings on the blackboard and pictures,cards.

The teachers vocabulary was reduced to the students English language level.When giving instructions she pointed to specific places, pictures to make the studentsunderstand what she meant; a lot of visual support was provided to accompany what shewas saying and asking for.

E.g.:

The teacher handed out a photocopy with exercises. The students had to color somepictures, she explained the activity:

-The GUITAR is red, PAINT it red

(She pointed to the picture where the guitar was and made movements with her hands as ifshe was painting, she repeated the instruction twice).

For this activity the students needed to use their notebooks, the teacher had them in

her shelf, and she asked two of the students to distribute them among the other students.Doing this took more time than the activity itself. While the teacher was dealing with thebooks, students started to spread around the classroom, to play with each other, some ofthem run. Once she had finished, she used a loud tone of voice, and counted up to 5; asthe students werent totally quiet, she threatened them to write their names on theblackboard, she counted up to 5 again and everybody was in their seats and in silence.

PHASE OF LESSON ISTRUCTIONS

Sit down, stand up Students should sing.

Clapp their hands.

Move their bodies as the

song said.

Sing faster esch time.

Open- Shut Opening and shutting

legs and arms.

Jumping.

In front of - behind Using legs.

Vocabulary "- Complete the toys"Observation Look at both pictures

and complete.

Painting "- Paint the guitar red"

During the lesson there were a lot of instructions given. This might be related to thestudents age; who need a lot of activities to keep their attention on the tasks. Physical and

cognitive activities were held together; students responded successfully to their demands.The teacher was always positioned at the front of the class, she made great use of her


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voice, singing and giving orders, repeating exercises explanations and vocabulary. Shewas monitoring students understanding all the time due to the language level of the class.

Students wouldnt need to be explained the overall nature of the task, they arent

able to understand it. I believe they are too young to be separated in groups and worktogether, they would only consider their independent thoughts. There should be a plan tofollow during the lesson, but the order shouldnt alter the result of the task. The teacher

might use physical activities at the beginning of the class to calm the students excitement,we must consider they are very active and it is difficult for them to remain quiet in a specificplace during a long period of time.

Scripted instructions seem rather dictatorial. Gower and Walters comment(1988:37). The way you give instructions indicates the way you exercise control and your

attitude to the groupgenerally students, even adults, would not appreciate you trying to

be more polite. It would be time-wasting and slow things down and would involve you inmore complicated language than they can readily understand. My view is that teachersshould be given the opportunity to give her classes according to what she considers it is

best as a methodology for her students and herself, always following a plan to achieve, butshe should be given the freedom to create her own teaching organization.

The level of the language used when teaching shouldnt be too much restricted andbelow the level to what is to be taught, because, as Gower and Walters argue: learners

usually understand at a higher level than they speak or write. In this observation students

understood what their teacher was saying, she never spoke in Spanish and they are

learning at the same time from their first language, they are learnig to learn for the first timein their lives from an institution. If this is achievable for young children, it should be thesame for all the learners levels.


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ATTENDING TO THE LEARNER

OBSERVATION

This observation took place in 3rd grade. The students age was between 8 and 9years old. In this observation some patterns emerged the same as in first grade (the sameteacher attended 1st and 3rd grade); the teacher made use of songs during the class tofollow a sequence of how to behave(welcome, silence, quiet, vocabulary: days, weather).

The teacher started asking questions about food and she used to pay more attentionto some students in particular, they were attended more often than others. They were threeboys; two of them ( Fabrizio and Agustin) were students who knew English language, theyunderstood everything the teacher said; the third student (Patricio) was attentiondemanding, he wouldnt remain in his bench, he tended to stand up and walk near theteacher, he was sat next to the teachers desk.

Fabrizio and Agustn answered the teachers questions all the time, they didnt allowthe rest of the class participate actively, the teacher didnt prevent them from answering

everything, she kept asking more questions and didnt realize a few students just took part

in the exercise. Moreover, she stood near the boysbenches; she wasnt positioned at thefront of the class. This made that Patricio stood up and walk near her with the excuse ofanswering or showing her anything.


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As I was positioned at the back of the room I could see that many students didnt

talk, they just watch the teacher standing in the mid-right of the classroom, talking. The girlsitting next to me used to answer in a soft voice, many of her mates raised their hands,others raised their hands answering the question automatically but the teacher didnt makeeye contact with many of them, she was really distracted in what Patricio was doing, shecalled his attention too many times. The students started to talk or doing somethingdifferent from the activity.

The teacher clapped her hands looking to everybody and asked for silence. Thistime she stood at the front of the class and began with the second activity. The teacherwrote on the blackboard. The topic was Possessive Pronouns: HIS/ HER. She used pinkand light blue chalks for the words and drawings (a boy/ a girl) to differentiate both and tomake them recognizable. She used songs and rhymes to make them learn the concepts.The students had to complete the blanks of an exercise using his/her. She called differentstudents by their names to say the correct word for each sentence. She nodded when the

answer was correct: Very good!, she looked at the students, she made eye contact;students sitting at the front got more attention this time, they were encouraged to answer.Despite students sitting at the back of the classroom didnt get much attention, most of

them tried to participate.

ROOM DIAGRAM


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1- Students attended by the teacher most of the time.2- Students attended by the teacher in activity 2.3- Students attended by the teacher in activity 3.4- Students who were not attended most of the class.

The factor attention in this case was really important, it was evident that the teachercouldnt attend the total of the class, she tended to focus on a specific, reduce group ofstudents in each activity. This caused the distraction of some of the students or thefrustration of some others (they wanted to answer but they werent listened).

Attending to the learners might be an issue if a class is crowded with too manystudents, but the teacher should take some measures to keep the whole class payingattention and participating. This 3rd grade had students who wanted to be part of the classbut the teacher wasnt able to be aware of, in this occasion. It is very important to cater for

board board

door

window teacher's

bench

F M AGUSTIN M F M window

STREET PATRICIO CORRIDOR

window M F FABRIZIO M F M

F

M F M F F

window F

M F M F M F


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learners the attention and support to be aware of their knowledge, to give them confidence,to make them feel their opinions and thoughts are taken into account, mostly because theyare learning, they need to be prepared to participate, to be listened and that this wont be a

problem in future events (at school, university, in life) because they think it would beuseless to talk, answer or giving an opinion.

THE BOARD AS RESOURCE


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OBSERVATION

This observation took place in 3rdgrade. The students age was between 8 and 9years old. The teacher made use of the board as a resource to explain different conceptsand to make notes of the importance of certain topics, which would remain in theblackboard as a reference. She used it to teaching vocabulary and grammar. She was the

only one who wrote on the board. While she was writing on the board, students gotdistracted and started talking.

She wrote in italics the date, the weather, and the vocabulary. The grammar waswritten in capital letters. Her handwriting was completely legible and comprehensible.Sometimes she made differences between female or male by drawing with pink or light-blue chalks (his/her). To explain the meaning of some words she draw colorful pictures soshe didnt need to translate into Spanish.

There were three boards on the wall. The first on the left of the classroom was used

to write down the names of the students who were absent, notifications and those studentsthat the teacher called their attention (bad behavior). The board in the centre was used towrite the date, the weather, and the main topic of the lesson, the explanations remainedwritten during the lesson. The third board was used to write the vocabulary, new words, tocheck the exercises; this one was constantly cleaned and written for checking and writingnew and already known vocabulary. The following charts are a representation of theblackboards and their different uses.

1st 2nd 3rd

Using the blackboard is really important to teach, to explain the students the main topic ofthe subject and also to have a reference when an activity is taking place to check if theanswer is correct through the examples or explanations written on it. Its useful for spelling,

Santa Teresita festival.

September 28th.ALVARO

NATALIA

JUAN

MARIANA

JAVIER

Today is Thursday, September 20th.

It's sunny and cold./ "ILIKE"

X"IDON'TLIKE"

Bananas /

Chocolates /ice- cream Xpasta X


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vocabulary, developing the activities and teaching in general. It is important to be briefwhile writing on the blackboard because too much time doing it would be an opportunity forthe learners to get distracted and lose the interest and the fluency of the lesson. Theblackboard is a tool that the students use to copy the explanation of the task given in itscorrect grammar and spelling to have a source of research to study whenever they wouldneed it.

THE BLACKBOARD AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS

THE BLACKBOARD AT THE MIDDLE OF THE CLASS

Santa Teresita Festival. September

28th.

Alvaro

Natalia

Juan

Mariana

Javier

Today is Thursday, September 20th. It'ssunny and cold.

/ "ILIKE"

X"IDON'TLIKE"

THE BLACKBOARD AT THE END OF THE CLASS

Santa Teresita Festival.

September 28th.

Alvaro

Natalia

Juan

Mariana

Javier

Santa Teresita Festival.

September 28th.

Alvaro

Natalia

JuanMariana

Javier

Today is Thursday, September 20th.It'ssunny and cold./ "ILIKE"

X"IDON'TLIKE"

HIS

HER

YES,IDO

NO,IDON'T

spaguetti - pastaSOPHIE

pizza cakeapple

didactica especial i y observacion del proceso de ense_anza

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