Personal reflection about Primary Practicum
- 1. • Taller de Práctica Docente – Aurelia Velázquez • Mandatory Assignment –Reflective Cycle (by David Kolb) • Student: Paula Pilotti Personal reflection: Primary practicum Living an experience in primary school as a trainee, taught me many important things. From the observation period, I could meet the group of students and realize about the context they were learning in. I observed a quiet classroom, with some extroverted students and some others who were quite introverted. The resources they have in the school were important for my lessons since they have got a projector and loudspeakers, necessary to arouse interest in the group, planning motivating activities. Their level of English is “beginner/starter” but as the teacher speaks English all the time, they were acclimated when I taught. Also, they have concrete tasks in order to follow a sequence in the lessons. So, it was easy to include new tasks using gestures and body language. When they were lost, helping them with gestures was useful. Some of the tasks I used were “Let´s watch a video, let´s play a game, let´s start working and let´s form groups”. After the first class, students were able to respect and understand each one, some of them repeated some words and others translate them into Spanish helping those who didn´t understand the task. There are six students that go to private institutes and they easily understand the tasks. As I said before, they guide the rest of the group with their active participation. My lessons were based on PPP and the Communicative Approach, using specific sequences, trying to include all the skills and learning styles, including videos, songs, posters, flashcards, group and individual activities. They enjoyed the activities I planned since they don´t usually work like this. I was happy to see the group motivated with my lessons. The observer made me feel comfortable and free to organize the material, she was enthusiastic with the way I developed my lessons and I think she could take advantage from them. She took some ideas from my practice since she found it
- 2. important the use of technology in the classroom. After each meeting, I came home and I reflected on my practice in order to improve my lesson plan for the next day taking into account the suggestions the teacher wrote in the return. That was an essential part in my practice since I could develop my lessons better little by little. Taking into account those things, I had more confidence which is a key factor when teaching. I organized all the material in advance, checking each detail. That organization made me feel relaxed and enjoy each moment with my students. After having a great experience, it is necessary to reflect the positive and negative aspects, or at least think about what I can do to improve my lessons. I take many important aspects from my practice like using L2 at all times. Anyway, I could consider some new strategies to exploit videos or songs like working with more questions or go deeper into them. Moreover, before getting students to do individual activities, it is necessary to explain them thoroughly. I think that those weak aspects can be improved with time. In my next period that is secondary, I should apply specific purposes in order to obtain as many advantages as possible from each activity or resource I use. We don´t have to forget that teaching effectively requires the designing of interesting and engaging activities taking advantage from every single material.