Nursery School

Here is our nursery school lesson plan :D

Lesson Plan

Metacognition

Ways to Foster Metacognition:

1. Activate background knowledge
2. Discuss learning with students
3. Have students identify their type of intelligence
4. Give students tools to construct their own learning
5. Control and regulate activities

Prezi Presentation Homework:

1. Automaticity - the ability to do things unconsciously, usually related with repetition. It's done over time and becomes something easy to do, which represents that the activity was learned.
b.  Cognitive Load - excessive amount of content given to the students, which results in the brain working harder to process all the information given.

2. How do we develop automaticity?
-  We can use drilling techniques which can help make learning more permanent.

3. Create an example of how teachers can change the amount of "extraneous cognitive load" on an assignment.
- Applying strategies or aids that help to explain the content clearly without adding additional information that is not relevant to the students. One example is the use of material or resources, in other words the use of images or videos to explain a certain content that results in a meaningful learning experience.

4) When have you felt that you had a "full" cognitive load?
In classes where we have to read lot of texts that have lots of information that is not relevant.
For example in a text with 20 pages of content only 7 are useful.

Glogster & Webquest

Glogster

Lesson Plan
Tutorial
Task


Webquest

Webquest
Lesson Plan

Catedra I

Here is our Catedra I. Click here to see it :)

Grammar Activity

This is the modified grammar activity shown in class.

Grammar ppt

Lesson Plans and Activities

Lesson Plan (Landlady)

Lesson Plan (Pronunctiation)

Lesson Plan (Grammar)

Activity (Grammar)

 Listening Lesson Plan (Basica)

Listening Activity (Basica)

Listening Lesson Plan (Media)

Listening Activity (Media)

Activity

We presented an activity today and I must admit I wasn't very happy with the result. I know that we are capable of doing much more and better than we did today. I know my buddy Nicolas did well, he had the voice and the ability to control a class. As for myself, I have many weaknesses that I must begin working on, such as:

1. Nerves: My nerves have been a problem in my life ever since I was a child, for some reason I just seem to crumble under pressure, which I believe is my biggest obstacle in becoming a good teacher.

2. Tone: I seem to have a weak voice, I haven't had the chance to hear it yet, but I know I have a low voice which seems to indicate a lack of confidence. Without it, the students could eat us alive if they choose to.

3. Modulation: Another nerve related weakness, although it seems to pop out in calm situations as well. I must learn to speak properly, this is a problem for me in both English and Spanish, so I must seek some help right away if I want to be understood.

4. Concentration: Under pressure I seem to lose my focus and seem to drift off and give an answer randomly without thinking or going off topic.

5. Confidence: I know I have the ability to be a great teacher, we all have that ability, the problem is that the moment I stand in front of a classroom, my confidence disappears.

6. Awareness: As a teacher I have to be aware of the entire classroom, I seem to focus only on the students that want to learn and seem to ignore the others who don't care. This also applies to conduct as well.

7. Control: As teachers we have to be in control of the classroom, we can't let the students take over, if we allow them to do that then we aren't doing our jobs. I need to have a bit of a "mean streak" to control the students. I feel as though I'm too nice.

In conclusion, I was very disappointed with my performance, I was even very angry with myself because I know I'm capable of doing much better, there are no excuses for what happened, but I know I must improve. I have some experience as a teacher so I must use that to show everyone that I'm capable of doing this.

I have the language, I just need the attitude.

I don't want to be one of the bunch, I want to be the best, period.

Supplementary Materials

Other than the coursebook we can use supplementary materials to increase the student's learning. Supplementary materials include the following:

1. Flashcards: These are used to increase the student's learning in a visual way, it helps them associate words with pictures.

2. Blogs: Blogs are used for students to express their opinion and explain what they have learned in their own words.

3. Online Games: Some online games can be used to teach English in a fun way that will keep the students motivated, such as word searches and crosswords.

4. Webquest: an inquiry-oriented lesson in which students work on a problem solving activity using online resources.

5. Glogster:  Similiar to a blog, but more dynamic and entertaining, in which students make a poster instead of a blog based on a topic, where they can use videos, pictures, etc.

Coursebook

Coursebook analysis: 8º Travelers

1. Objectives explicitly laid out in an introduction, and implemented in the material. (7.0)

They are shown at the beginning of the book and at the start of each unit

2. Approach educationally and socially acceptable to target community. (6.0)

It’s acceptable because it’s a Chilean book and it contains lots of material related to Chile, so it’s nothing different to the reality of the students.

3. Clear attractive layout; print easy to read. (6.0)

The print is pretty readable; the layout is ok, nothing spectacular, but also not too bad.

4. Appropriate visual materials available. (7.0)

It contains lots of pictures and visual exercises for the students to do.

5. Interesting topics and tasks. (6.0)

This book was published last year, so the topics are of current events, which capture the attention of the students a bit better.

6. Varied topics and tasks, so as to provide for different learner levels, learning styles, interests, etc. (7.0)

It has different topics in each unit that are related to their lives and includes activities that strengthen the four basic skills.

7. Clear instructions. (7.0)

I see clear instructions for the teachers; it’s very detailed in that sense. As for the students, the instructions are basic but clear and right to the point.

8. Systematic coverage of syllabus. (7.0)

It covers the syllabus because it provides a suggested year planning and all the objectives of each unit.

9. Content clearly organized and graded. (5.0)

It’s not organized according to difficulty, but based on a general topic, in which the content lies inside of it.

10. Periodic review and test sections. (6.0)

I wasn’t able to find a periodic review of the material, but I did find various “mini tests” in each unit.

11. Plenty of authentic language. (7.0)

This book contains plenty of authentic language, it includes various sayings and types of informal conversations.

12. Good pronunciation explanation and practice. (6.0)

There isn’t much explanation, but there is a lot of practice. It includes activities of repetition and dialogue.

13. Good vocabulary explanation and practice. (7.0)

It includes various examples of vocabulary in the units, showing the translation in Spanish and giving lots of exercises.

14. Good grammar presentation and practice. (5.0)

It focuses more on listening and vocabulary activities, leaving grammar a bit behind. There are grammar activities, just not as many.

15. Fluency practice in all four skills. (7.0)

It has activities based on all four skills; it even shows the objectives of them in the beginning of the unit.

16. Encourages learners to develop own learning strategies and to become independent in their learning. (6.0)

I believe the book accomplishes this, I can’t be 100% sure, because it depends on the student as well. But, it looks pretty entertaining and motivating, and not as dull as Headway.

17. Adequate guidance for the teacher, not too heavy preparation load. (7.0)

It’s extremely adequate; it has the objectives of each units, various exercises and even suggested planning for the year.

18. Audio cassettes. (7.0)

Since we are in the 21st century, can we say audio CD’s?

19. Readily available locally. (5.0)

I wasn’t able to find a downloadable version online, but since it’s a book used by the ministry of education, I believe it should be given out for free.

Syllabus

A syllabus is public document which serves as a general outline of a particular course. It's basically a list that is ordered by date and general topic. Some basic components and characteristics of the syllabus are:

1. Time Schedule: It can be based on the content to be reviewed from class to class or a specific test date.

2. Materials: This refers to the materials that will be used in the course, such as required or optional books.

3. Evaluation Breakdown: We can see what the grading system is composed of, for example the number of tests and the amount of weight each one has to come up with the final grade.

4. Objectives: It should specify what the student should be able to accomplish at the end of the semester.

5. Policies: Rules that are explained in case of an absence or any other situation that the student could face during the semester.

6. Basic Information: In this category we can include information about the institution and teacher contact information.

There are 10 different types of syllabuses.

1. Grammatical - deals with grammatical structures.
2. Lexical - lists lexical items.
3. Grammatical-lexical - a mixture of the grammatical and lexical syllabuses.
4. Situational - deal with real-life situations.
5. Topic-based - are based on different topics.
6. Notional - language concepts and vocabulary.
7. Functional-notional - deal with things we can do with language.
8. Mixed - mixture of the previous syllabuses.
9. Procedural - specifies learning tasks.
10. Process - is modified over time.

Testing Techniques

Most and Least Favorite Testing Techniques

I believe the most effective testing technique depends on the level of the student, so i'll just assume that he is at an intermediate level. I believe the monologue is the best testing ability because it evaluates the student's grammatical, lexical and oral skills at the same time. If a student can pass this test, which I believe is the most difficult, he's ready to move on to the next level.

I'm not really a huge fan of dictation because I don't believe that it can clearly show the level of a student, I don't see it as a reliable test, it's kind of subjective.

This is a basic opinion of what I believe is the best and worst testing techniques, but there are many factors involved such as the student's level, the type of ability we're trying to evaluate and the goal of the student have a big influence.

Other testing techniques

1. Reading Comprehension - this is a frequently used strategy in which the student has to read and analyze a text in order to answer some questions afterwards. These questions can include multiple choice, true or false or questions and answers, which are mentioned in the book, but an innovative evaluation technique would be putting some events from the text in order.

2. Visual Analysis - the students could observe a movie trailer or a very short sequence of a television series and analyze what happened, find some adjectives in a conversation, look for certain objects that could be vocabulary words, etc.

3. Listening Activities - this is very similar to reading comprehension, but with the difference that instead of strengthening the student's reading ability, we strengthen their listening skills.

Instructions

We would present this activity to the students in the following matter:

1. Ok students, today we’re going to play a game.
2. I’m going to show you some pictures
3. I’ll show you the picture from a different view
4. You have to try to guess what the picture is
5. If you don’t know what it is, say I don’t know or I have no idea or try it at least
6. Then I will show you the picture of the object and we can compare answers
7. For example, what is this?
8.

9. (Students) It’s a _______________
10. (Show picture)
11.

12. It’s a bottle


As we explain the activity we can catch the students attention by saying that we're playing a game, which depending on the age level, can grasp the attention of any child. We can see perception while we explain what we're going to do, we try to make it as detailed as possible, and we check their understanding through the example that we have made.

Presentations and Explanations

This unit was based on how teachers can affect a student's motivation by how he or she presents the lessons. As we know, the students have to be motivated if they want to have a better chance of learning, and the teacher could play a major role in that. For example, we can have a highly motivated student who is being taught by an extremely boring teacher, as a consequence the student's motivation can be affected by this. How could this be?

It's believed that there are three stages of a presentation that must be accomplished by the teacher, which are the following:

1. Attention: The title pretty much explains it, the first objective is for the teacher to grab the student's attention. The teacher has to make sure that they are concentrated only on them and not goofing off or wandering around. There are various strategies to achieve this, but I won't get into much detail.

2. Perception: In this stage, the student processes the information that the teacher is giving, the teacher has to make sure he repeats the information and gives it out in a way to make it comprehensible to the students.

3. Understanding: This final stage is one of the most important in which the contents that the teacher handed out must be related to the student's previous knowledge. It's where we make sure that the student has effectively learned the content and it just hasn't come in through one ear and out the other.

Analyzing these steps I remembered a presentation I did in General Linguistics last semester in which unconsciously, these three steps were present. With my partner we grabbed the attention of our students by hitting each other with our notebooks, then we achieved perception by repeating the information we had just given briefly, and we checked understanding by giving the students a few questions based on the sketch.

This will really help me in my teaching future....present because I can try to apply these three steps to my lessons, it won't be easy but I love challenges.

Survey Results

I surveyed 7 classmates, with most of the results coming back pretty similar. There were plenty of "agree" and "most agree" on topics related with how teachers should treat students and having control of the classroom. Most of the "disagree" and "most disagree" came in categories that dealt with having students take control of the classroom and using corporal punishment on the students.

Based on the results of the survey, I can conclude that most of my classmates believe that a good teacher cares a lot about his or her students, treats them with respect and sees them not only as students, but as human beings. It also reflects that the students, as future teachers view the teaching environment differently than most traditional teachers, they don't agree with corporal punishment and view the learning process as a team instead of it only being based on the teacher.

It seems as though we are a different generation of teachers whose goal is to change the way teaching is done and make it as interesting and fun to the students as possible. We have to teach students, but we also have to prepare human beings for life after they graduate from high school. We have an extra chip on our shoulder as future teachers, because we are the ones who have to eduacte and mold the future of our country. It's a huge responsibility, but we know we can do it.

If he can do it, we can do it. xD

2 ?´s

1. How important do you think motivation is for success in language learning, compared to, for example, language aptitude?

In my opinion, I believe that motivation is very important for language learning, in fact it might be the most important aspect of learning anything in general. A student can have all the aptitude in the world for learning new languages, playing a guitar, etc. but if he or she isn't motivated to do so, it will be very hard for them to learn anything. I can compare it to cleaning the house, we all have the capability to do so, but if we're not motivated then the task won't be done.

2. The urge to engage in learning activity for its own sake (intrinsic motivation) is distinguishable from the urge to learn for the sake of some external reward (extrinsic motivation). Do you think there is any difference between children and adults in the degree of influence of these two kinds of motivation?

I believe there's a difference. Different people are motivated in different ways, depending on the goal they have, let it be learning something useful or just getting good grades. Although it's more common for children to have extrinsic motivation because of the rewards they obtain because of good grades, etc. and adults to have intrinsic motivation because they view learning as more of a necessity than a reward. There could be exceptions, but in school , the main goal is to get good grades, pass the course and obtain some kind of reward from our parents.

Instrument

Well, we had to make a questionnaire reflecting the student's levels of motivation, ambition and self esteem. It took me a while to figure it out, so here we go.

 1. Do you like to study?                                                                              

o  Yes       o No 

2. Have you set any goals for this year?          

o  Yes       o No

3. I worry about what people say to me         

o  Yes       o No

4. You want to be somebody in life.  

o  Yes       o No

5. I am happy with myself        

o  Yes       o No

6. Do you tend to slow down after achieving success?  

o  Yes       o No

7. Would you give up going to a party to study for a test?  

o  Yes       o No

8. You have many friends

o  Yes       o No
     

9. I enjoy competition 

o  Never      o  Sometimes      o  Frequently      o  Always   

10. You know exactly what you want 

o  Never      o  Sometimes      o  Frequently      o  Always   

11. Do you panic when things don’t go your way?    

o  Never      o  Sometimes      o  Frequently      o  Always      

12. You accept yourself for who you are and not who you want to be   

o  Never      o  Sometimes      o  Frequently      o  Always     

13. Completing difficult tasks satisfies me 

o  Never      o  Sometimes      o  Frequently      o  Always  

14. You're afraid to face a crowd

o  Never      o  Sometimes      o  Frequently      o  Always 
15. You prefer to listen than to talk
o  Never      o  Sometimes      o  Frequently      o  Always 
16. You don't feel comfortable meeting new people
o  Never      o  Sometimes      o  Frequently      o  Always

Questions  2, 4, 8 and 10 deal with ambition.
Questions  1, 7, 9 and  13 deal with motivation.
Questions  3, 5, 11 and 12 deal with self esteem

Questions  8, 14, 15 and 16 deal with introvertion/extrovertion

I would evaluate this test using simple math, I have 4 different questions about each personality factor (self esteem, motivation, ambition and introertion/extrovertion).

The percentage of the first test would be obtained using a scale, for example, ambition has 3 questions, with a possibility of 50%, so if we get 2 answers that are positive and one negative, we would be 66.6% ambitious.

In the second test, we would use the same formula, except using 50%, we would substitute 75% for a never or always and a 25% for a sometimes or frequently, then we find the average. For example, we would use self esteem, which has 2 questions. We could answer always and sometimes, which gives me 100%, dividing it by 2, would make the student 50% ambitious.

Then, I would find the average of all the scores in a particular category and  come up with the final result.

I got a little carried away with the mathematics, but it's a subject I really miss from school. I put a lot of thought into this questionnaire, hope it turns out well. Getting ready for another busy weekend full of work, take care everybody.

Myers Briggs Test (check)

Your Type is
INFJ

Introverted	Intuitive	Feeling	Judging
Strength of the preferences %
78	12	38	22

You are:

The Protector......or the Counselor

I've been investigating my personality type on a couple of websites and they can't agree if I protect or council. What they do agree on are most of my personality traits, which are the following:

- Order: INFJ's like to have order in their lives, they stick to a system in which they organize themselves and they stick with the one that works best for them. Personally, I've tried over 40 different systems and I still can't find the right one, but I guess there's something I'm doing right....I'm not that messy.

- Feelings: INFJ's have some sort of "special feelings" towards things and certain situations, it's like we have some sort of psychic powers. It's true because I can identify the outcome of certain situations before they unfold, which actually is pretty cool.

- Feelings (Part 2): As INFJ's we care a lot about other people's feelings, which I believe is where we get the "Counselor" stereotype. I totally agree with this statement because I usually try to help people when they're feeling down or if I have to dissapoint someone, I usually try to do it without hurting their feelings. In simple words, I'm a sensitive guy.

- Perfectionism: The story of my life, I always strive for perfection and I won't stop until I reach it (which is going to be difficult because I'm never satisfied xD), but if I do something, I want to do it well, period.

- Anger: This surprised me a bit, being true that I'm a very laid back person I usually hold back my anger, but the day I boil over, it's going to be pretty intense because I'm going to have it all crumbled up on the inside, and I haven't gotten truly angry in a while, so....watch out children.

Teaching Analysis

As a future teacher I think my personality type fits in quite well, we are caring, which might help on the motivational side of the job, we are also perfectionists, striving for the perfect class and always looking for improvement. The order I think is also an important factor, if I can maintain myself organized, I can have a successful teaching career. Plus, being a teacher was also a recommended job for an INFJ.

I believe I must work on is on mental toughness, I tend to let myself down after some negative situations, this can also apply to being tough inside the classroom and earning respect from the students. I believe this is the most important area of improvement, because without earning respect from the students, it'll be very difficult to teach.

So, I'm an INFJ,

In other words.....

muajajajajajajajaja

Personality Factors (check)

Personality factors deal with how a student's personality can affect a student's learning process and overall performance. A student can be intellectually brilliant but if he is lacking confidence or motivation, he might not be able to live up to his full potential.

What I learned from this class, was that the different factors greatly affect a student's performance, such as motivation, self esteem, extrovertion and introvertion. Motivation is very important because it shows the student's desire to learn, if the student isn't motivated, it will be very difficult for him or her to learn. Self esteem has to do with a student's mental state in which he limits his capacities to learn, he can either put boundaries or expand his learning experience.

This is related to my future teaching experience because, as a teacher I have to figure out exactly the problem of a struggling child. Logically, we would blame his lack of intellectual ability when in reality there are factors based on motivation and self esteem that affect the child. I would try to diagnose the problem and then try to find a way to motivate or boost a student's confidence so he or she can get better grades and learn more efficiently.

Three concepts I would highlight would be:

1. Motivation - it's a very important factor because an unmotivated student won't be able to learn a new language, no matter how entertaining the class is. It's a factor that we as teachers have to try to increase.

2. Self esteem - another important concept that not only deals with the student, but also with the teacher, as I learned from first hand experience, a student has to believe in himself in order to succeed, if he is unable to do that, he will have an incredibly difficult time reaching his goals.

3. Introvertion and Extrovertion - this is also a very important concept because it's also very tricky, we can see an extroverted student and think he's intelligent and motivated while an introverted student can surprise us teachers with his skills. It's important to identify and judge correctly.

Second Language Acquisition

Well, I should have written this yesterday, but my mind was in another dimension and it's not back yet,  I have had lots of things running through my mind this week, so it's time to get organized.

I understood most of the class, due to the fact that it was related to our general linguistics course from last semester. Second language acquisition deals with people learning another language, whether it's conscious or unconscious. I also understood the various difficulties related with second language acquisition, such as age, boring textbooks and insufficient time and use of the second language.

This is connected to my future teaching experience because we are going to be teaching a second language, and we as teachers have to find a way to make English classes interesting and fun so the student could be interested in learning. The complications mentioned in class are very useful because we have a general view of why people don't learn English and we have to find a way to limit those complications and improve the students' learning experience.

The 3 concepts I would highlight would be the three different methods used in second language acquisition. Grammar translation, which is the "traditional" way of learning and focuses mostly on grammar and the teacher is seen as an expert. Audiolingual is the method that focuses mostly on listening and repetitive drills. Communicative approaches are based on interactions and focuses more on the student. These are the different ways that are used to teach a second language, and my objective is to find a way to mix all three of them to make learning more complete.

In conclusion, being my first class I understood most of the concepts that were explained and I feel as though it will be a good year.

Blogging

I guess I'm a blogger now, never expected to be doing this, so it's kind of odd. I just opened up my blog, still learning how to use it, but it will be ready sometime next week. I would fix it up during the weekend if only I didn't have to work. I'm looking forward to writing about all sorts of different topics. It's been a really weird week, so I got my mind running around all sorts of different places. I'm happy so I won't complain, time to make a change in my life and get ready for the future.

This is a new adventure in my life and I'm ready for all the challenges coming up.
Life's good.