At the beginnig of our fourth lesson, the teacher mentioned "MIXED ABILITY GROUPS" and the value of adapting our material and adjusting our procedures to that, I loved it!! The heterogeneous nature of any group of students is an undeniable feature which thoroughly pervades the pedagogical act. In my view, it is very interesting to challenge our FLEXIBILITY as teachers and reflect on how much we apply it not only in our practicum but also in our actual daily teaching practice in the classroom. The aspect I would not "change" but complement could be part of the audiovisual material: the videos on "The teacher in the classroom". I would absolutely keep the discussion and reflections on this issue (where, when and why teachers stand and sit in classrooms) but I would also add fragments of videos showing different Argentinian public school teaching contexts, which may range from 30-student classes (in first year) to 10-student classes (in the last year of secondary school), composed of pupils from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and "mixed ability groups" as well. In this way we could analyze how real contexts may impact on learning, planning, teaching, evaluating and marking.
Meli I was thinking exactly the same as we were watching the video. The situations are from very different teaching contexts with fewer students and groups which respond. More similar to a private institute rather than a state school! However, this is material that accompanies the bibliography I am using. It may give us ideas on how to do certain things. Then each of us will need to adapt them to our own teaching contexts. I don't know if I can get any videos from schools in our country. I will see if I can get anything. If we were in a face to face situation you could watch lessons. In this context it is rather difficult. Thanks for your comment.
An aspect that I enjoyed about the lesson was that we could apply the theory to real life situations that we will encounter in our teaching career. The implementation of a real Student´s book that is currently being used in many secondary schools allowed us to make more tangible all the ideas that were interchanged throughout the class. Especially, when it comes to TBL. It showed us that turning an activity into a task can be done quickly and easily.
An aspect I would like to work more is giving instruction. I like the videos showing the different situations and the activities that we did, but I personally feel that I would benefit from a little more of theory or a discussion on the aspect that we should do and avoid doing when delivering instructions. I agree with Melina that it would be really useful to add fragments of videos showing different Argentinian public school, but I understand that this material may not be available.
The aspect of the lesson I enjoyed the most was trying to turn activities into tasks. I know that there are many students' books that are great but lack real tasks, so I think it is great to practice how to adapt these activities in order for them to be more related to the real world and to have a meaningful goal.
One aspect of the lesson that I ejoyed too but that I would also like to work more on is the kind of situations written in the Lino (for example, when a student refuses to work,) and discuss ways in which we could manage these circumstances.
I really enjoyed turning activities from a real Student's book that is being used now into tasks. It was a great way of really seeing how much richer we can make a class with just a few changes. And I also enjoy the way you finish every lesson. I like how, through different online tools, we reflect, give an opinion or add more to what we have just seen during the lesson.
Ale Perez. I enjoyed the part of giving instruction of complex book activities. Sometimes, there are activities that may be interesting from a pedagogical point of view, but students may find it hard to understand what to do (especially beginners). I really liked hearing what my peers would say in these situations because they came up with ideas that I wouldn't have thought of. I cannot think of something I would change. I think the lesson was well organised, we (students) had multiple chances to express our opinion and the lesson also had a nice closure.
I agree with my peers. Especially when having to come up with the instructions for the exercises in the Students Book. More often than not, we take for granted how important giving clear, succinct instructions is at how problematic it could be for some students to follow us if we are not clear enough. Bringing awareness to this aspect of classroom management was really eye opening to me. I also found interesting having to come up with a task out of a regular activity offered by the book. It did not take us a lot of time to give it a context and to provide a more meaningful outcome from students.
I really enjoyed one of the first parts of the lesson, in which we were given certain difficult situations in the classroom and had to say what we would do and why. I liked that activity because it was a challenge, and it addressed issues that more often than not are not black and white (such as when a student refuses to do a certain activity). Another activity I found interesting was having to turn an activity from the Student's Book into a more meaningful task. It showed us how quickly it can be done, if one is willing to give it some thought. Also, the ideas we came up with for that activity would result in students producing so much more language and expressing many more ideas than if we did directly what the coursebook offers. As far as suggestions for change, it is really very difficult for me to come up with something I would have done differently. Maybe, as Meli said, it would be challenging to "observe" in videos , classrooms that are more similar to the environments we would work in, or read about them. I'm thinking of larger numbers of students and also some added difficulties like misbehaviour or large gaps in proficiency.
Reflections on last class How did you like preparing the video on instructions on Flipgrid? Did you find planning the sequence in pairs or small groups useful? Why/not?
At the beginnig of our fourth lesson, the teacher mentioned "MIXED ABILITY GROUPS" and the value of adapting our material and adjusting our procedures to that, I loved it!! The heterogeneous nature of any group of students is an undeniable feature which thoroughly pervades the pedagogical act. In my view, it is very interesting to challenge our FLEXIBILITY as teachers and reflect on how much we apply it not only in our practicum but also in our actual daily teaching practice in the classroom.
ResponderBorrarThe aspect I would not "change" but complement could be part of the audiovisual material: the videos on "The teacher in the classroom". I would absolutely keep the discussion and reflections on this issue (where, when and why teachers stand and sit in classrooms) but I would also add fragments of videos showing different Argentinian public school teaching contexts, which may range from 30-student classes (in first year) to 10-student classes (in the last year of secondary school), composed of pupils from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and "mixed ability groups" as well. In this way we could analyze how real contexts may impact on learning, planning, teaching, evaluating and marking.
Meli I was thinking exactly the same as we were watching the video. The situations are from very different teaching contexts with fewer students and groups which respond. More similar to a private institute rather than a state school! However, this is material that accompanies the bibliography I am using. It may give us ideas on how to do certain things. Then each of us will need to adapt them to our own teaching contexts. I don't know if I can get any videos from schools in our country. I will see if I can get anything. If we were in a face to face situation you could watch lessons. In this context it is rather difficult. Thanks for your comment.
ResponderBorrarThank you so much, Marisa!!
BorrarAn aspect that I enjoyed about the lesson was that we could apply the theory to real life situations that we will encounter in our teaching career. The implementation of a real Student´s book that is currently being used in many secondary schools allowed us to make more tangible all the ideas that were interchanged throughout the class. Especially, when it comes to TBL. It showed us that turning an activity into a task can be done quickly and easily.
ResponderBorrarAn aspect I would like to work more is giving instruction. I like the videos showing the different situations and the activities that we did, but I personally feel that I would benefit from a little more of theory or a discussion on the aspect that we should do and avoid doing when delivering instructions. I agree with Melina that it would be really useful to add fragments of videos showing different Argentinian public school, but I understand that this material may not be available.
The aspect of the lesson I enjoyed the most was trying to turn activities into tasks. I know that there are many students' books that are great but lack real tasks, so I think it is great to practice how to adapt these activities in order for them to be more related to the real world and to have a meaningful goal.
ResponderBorrarOne aspect of the lesson that I ejoyed too but that I would also like to work more on is the kind of situations written in the Lino (for example, when a student refuses to work,) and discuss ways in which we could manage these circumstances.
I really enjoyed turning activities from a real Student's book that is being used now into tasks. It was a great way of really seeing how much richer we can make a class with just a few changes.
ResponderBorrarAnd I also enjoy the way you finish every lesson. I like how, through different online tools, we reflect, give an opinion or add more to what we have just seen during the lesson.
I'm Marina, by the way. For some reason, my name did not appear today.
BorrarAle Perez.
ResponderBorrarI enjoyed the part of giving instruction of complex book activities. Sometimes, there are activities that may be interesting from a pedagogical point of view, but students may find it hard to understand what to do (especially beginners). I really liked hearing what my peers would say in these situations because they came up with ideas that I wouldn't have thought of.
I cannot think of something I would change. I think the lesson was well organised, we (students) had multiple chances to express our opinion and the lesson also had a nice closure.
I agree with my peers. Especially when having to come up with the instructions for the exercises in the Students Book. More often than not, we take for granted how important giving clear, succinct instructions is at how problematic it could be for some students to follow us if we are not clear enough. Bringing awareness to this aspect of classroom management was really eye opening to me. I also found interesting having to come up with a task out of a regular activity offered by the book. It did not take us a lot of time to give it a context and to provide a more meaningful outcome from students.
ResponderBorrarI really enjoyed one of the first parts of the lesson, in which we were given certain difficult situations in the classroom and had to say what we would do and why. I liked that activity because it was a challenge, and it addressed issues that more often than not are not black and white (such as when a student refuses to do a certain activity). Another activity I found interesting was having to turn an activity from the Student's Book into a more meaningful task. It showed us how quickly it can be done, if one is willing to give it some thought. Also, the ideas we came up with for that activity would result in students producing so much more language and expressing many more ideas than if we did directly what the coursebook offers.
ResponderBorrarAs far as suggestions for change, it is really very difficult for me to come up with something I would have done differently. Maybe, as Meli said, it would be challenging to "observe" in videos , classrooms that are more similar to the environments we would work in, or read about them. I'm thinking of larger numbers of students and also some added difficulties like misbehaviour or large gaps in proficiency.
(I'm Charo.)
Borrar