Literary didactic unit!

I have almost finished the implementation of my didactic unit! I cannot believe that! It seems impossible and I feel I’ll miss teaching these students! Nevertheless, I will continue in the Secondary School for some more days and I’ll finish it at all in the end of December.

I’ll start by summarising a bit the different sessions we did according to my didactic unit:

Second session: FRANKENSTEIN Last Tuesday we worked on Frankenstein. It was interesting because the monster is a character that is usually known by everybody; however, I feel that my students were able to know much more things about this work and could enter into it in a different way.
Firstly, the team that was in charge of ‘Frankenstein’ went to the blackboard and exposed the brief summary that I had given them the very first day, to the rest of the classroom. Then, we read a letter that Victor Frankenstein had supposedly sent to Elizabeth. I showed them how to write a proper letter, and having the students divided into groups, they wrote a letter following some funny instructions they were given. Indeed, there were four main letters to write that were related to each other, however students didn’t know that. In the end, I asked them to give me back the letters or to finish them at home for homework.
Actually, there was something special in this very first implementation of my didactic unit. I went to the Secondary School both in the morning and in the afternoon, because the students were divided and had ‘hora b’. As a consequence, I applied the same activity in the afternoon with the other half of the class and I did the same; however, I changed some things that I thought that could be improved. In fact, I think it was positive, because the experience in the morning allowed me to think about it and modify some things that could be applied differently, and maybe better.

Third session: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Last Wednesday we dealt with ‘Pride and Prejudice’. Indeed, I was a bit afraid of this novel because it is about love and there are some prejudices about these kinds of books. Nevertheless, I tried to do my best and I tried to show them that it is not just a love story, however, there are many other cultural things implied in it.
The first ten minutes, the team which was responsible of it appeared in front of the classroom and told to the others the brief summary of the story. Afterwards, I explained them that it was a novel which was published throughout the Victorian era. Therefore, in order to make it accessible and participative, I gave each student a picture and while I was following a poster I had in the blackboard about the Victorian era, they had to come to the blackboard and stick the picture if it was something that people ‘used to do’ in that period or something that people ‘didn’t use to do’. In fact, the activity was related to love, marriage and appearance/clothing issues.
Afterwards, we did an activity using ‘shopping’ vocabulary and discussing whether people in the eighteenth century used or didn’t use to do specific things or buy in specific shops. In the end, we listened to a love song, and having the whole students divided into the four established teams, they had to order the pieces of paper that the song was cut in.
To sum up, I was really impressed and happy this day. It was an hour in which all students were there and I think it was a successful lesson. Actually, my tutor said that students were really nice and she was surprised and happy for the collaboration of everybody and due to the effort that was put into it.

Fourth session: OLIVER TWIST
On Monday it was Oliver Twist’s time. Most of the students knew the main character; however not all of them knew the story. Therefore, the first ten minutes of the classroom the team in charge of it went in front of everybody and exposed the brief summary of the whole novel. Indeed, we had a discussion on how was London perceived in the eighteenth century and how people and children lived in that period. It was interesting and I really enjoyed being able to have, at least, five minutes of open discussion in which some of the students were not embarrassed at all and exposed their own experiences of travelling to London; and who agreed or disagreed on some things I explained them (such as the fact that children had to work as adults or live in workhouses).
Then, the main activity this day was a listening. To start with, I gave each student an orange card in case they were lost. Therefore, I could see whether they were following or not my instructions, the listening or the lesson in general. We agreed that they would be bringing the orange cards every day from now on.
I asked them to listen carefully and complete the missing places that were provided in a map. In fact, the listening was a conversation between Oliver and a woman in the middle of the street of London talking about directions, as Oliver was lost. Afterwards, there was another listening in which Oliver told his own experience after having arrived to his destination: the market. He said some things about his life in London, his feelings and a problem he faced up with and which was solved successfully. Then, students had to answer some clear and short questions with a partner.
For the last ten minutes, we did a speaking activity using expressions such as ‘I agree’ or ‘I don’t agree’ through the using of the orange cards (if they agreed they raised the card; if they didn’t agree they didn’t do anything) while I exposed some questionable affirmations. Then, students gave their opinion such as: ‘I agree because…’ or ‘I don’t agree…’

Fifth session: HARRY POTTER Finally, we dealt with Harry Potter and the series of books of J.K Rowling. It was really interesting because students had almost all read a novel or seen a film of Harry Potter. Therefore, they felt much more involved within the activities.
Indeed, we started the lesson by having the Harry Potter team in front of the classroom telling a brief summary of the story. Then, we did an ICT activity which was related to Harry Potter. Students were in ‘hora b’, so consequently, there were just half of them. Thus, I asked them to work in pairs and they worked on a treasure hunt I did in the computers lab.
I really enjoyed this lesson despite being at the beginning a bit afraid of it. I didn’t really know how it would work because I had some doubts according to the material I put in the treasure hunt, the level and so on. Nevertheless, I think it was successful and both me and the students enjoyed the activity a lot.


That’s it! My didactic unit has almost been implemented and done and I’m up to the end of this trip!

My first week teaching the didactic unit!

The truth is that I am really happy and satisfied with the going on of my experience!!
I must say that during last weekend I was really nervous thinking of the way that my didactic unit would work. Nevertheless, I was really excited while creating the materials for the implementation of my unit. Maybe, first of all, because I am working with literature and I really love this topic. And secondly, because I noticed that I really enjoy designing and creating the activities (in spite of the amount of hours I have been thinking and working with it!).

The first thing I did was to think about the objectives I wanted to reach at the end of it. My first idea was a ‘Trip through Literature’; however, I needed to find something accessible for the students I was going to teach. They are young teenagers who may feel (or not) interest for literature, and who may think (or not) that English is important in their lives. To start with, I thought that the main objectives to transmit during the implementation of the didactic unit were:

- to speak about literature
- to be able to tell a story
- to value or appreciate the activity of reading
- to understand the language as a key for the own cultural identity

Afterwards, I kind of planned the six different sessions I had in order to implement the didactic unit, by establishing each day for a specific and different purpose. Moreover, each day was going to approach a different literary work that I thought that was adequate. In addition, I set up the basic competences including them through the different content I was going to teach, which was: the past continuous tense; some new vocabulary related to shops; the discourse of giving directions; and the structure of letters.
I planned some classroom rules I wanted to apply within the days I would be working with students and I made a clear and practical outline of the variety of formats and strategies I would apply in every session. Furthermore, I set up a proper and similar timing for each day, so that students could feel that we were doing something such as a project, in which each day had a clear relationship with the following one; and that lessons were organized not by chance, unless due to a specific purpose.
Finally, I decided on the different materials I was going to need and I started working on the creation of the didactic unit. Just to summarize the whole didactic unit, I was going to work with my students dealing with ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Oliver Twist’ and ‘Harry Potter’.

On the very first day, I introduced my students the PROJECT we were going to deal with altogether. I brought some books into the classroom and I asked them whether they liked or not literature, and which their initial thoughts about it were. Then, I showed them an oral presentation which exposed the rules and the working that I would be implementing on those days. Afterwards, I divided them into four different TEAMS (each group would be dealing with a specific literary work) and each team would be responsible to tell and deal with that work in a deeper way.

Consequently, I gave each team summaries of the books they were going to work with, and they had to order the pieces of paper that were disorganized. In the end, we made a ‘Quiz’ altogether which stressed the main elements of each book and which gave to the whole classroom some basic ideas of the four literary works we were going study.
I finally thought that they really enjoyed it. At the beginning, I was somehow nervous and afraid of their reaction, but at the precise moment I was in the ‘stage’ of the classroom, being the teacher, I really felt comfortable and I started working on the whole things I had already prepared.

I must say I was really happy at the end, and the motivation and cooperation of the students helped me a lot!

Many things, many thoughts!

This week has been a bit special because, due to personal matters, our tutor has not been able to come to the Secondary School for two days, therefore, we could just deal with our Practicum for one day. Nevertheless, I have worked (and I am still working) a lot with my Didactic Unit which will start next Monday! I am a bit nervous but I am really excited as I am enjoying while working in it. I will deal with literature with some specific literary works. The truth is that I really enjoy this topic (I am studying it right now!) and I hope that my students feel motivation and interest towards the huge and sometimes boring word of LITERATURE. I will try to make them feel that reading is something great and that there are many different approaches to it… It is not just about boring staff… There’s a huge world of wonderful things within it!

As I was saying, we went to the Secondary School for one day: Wednesday. As we couldn’t implement our ‘prepared’ activities on the previous days, our tutor asked us to do the whole Wednesday 3rd of ESO lesson. It was eight o’clock in the morning and students were really quiet. Me and my CAP mate started by checking a translation exercise that students had for homework. Afterwards, we did some exercises that the teacher asked us to do and finally we could work on the activities we had prepared. To begin with, we did an oral activity, in which we revised some vocabulary related to feelings: we exposed some unfinished sentences showing a specific feeling and students had to guess the adjective we were referring to. Then, we divided them into different groups and we gave them a cut short story (using past simple tense). They had to order it and think of a possible ending. I think that students enjoyed it and the class was successfully finished.

Afterwards, we attended a ‘Comissió de Disciplina’ meeting. I was shocked because I wasn’t aware of the importance it has and the huge amount of work it requires. Indeed, I also thought that it is really important to have a proper team and to be able to work cooperatively with colleagues. Being a teacher is not just about teaching and working in front of students. There is an enormous world of ‘extra’ organizational issues that must be dealt with. Our tutor told us that the centre had divided teachers into different ‘commissions’ and we could go to the ‘discipline’ one.
They met to an appropriate small room as they were five different people. There was the head teacher, the head of studies, a technician of social integration and two teachers. In this case, the commission was in charge of all ESO ‘Incidence sheets’ (Fulls d’Incidència). They had almost sixty papers and they had to take different decisions according to each specific situation and student. One of the teachers was in charge of ordering and organizing the sheets that were already computerized, while the others had to read each paper and consider the consequences on each case. Then, the head of studies signed each sheet and the head teacher introduced all the information in a computer in order to have everything organized.
They talked about every single case, and I was surprised for some things that were said in there. There were different levels of problems. For example, there were some behavioural problems, such as a student who hit another one due to racial differences; or some drugs problems, such as a student who took something and had to go to the hospital; or much more soft ones, such as students who arrived late at lessons or who just didn’t attend them.
I somehow panicked because in my opinion it is really difficult to judge an action and consider a proper consequence. Every single student is a person with a specific background, family, life, attitude… and I am sure it is not easy to label each problem into a specific box. Each case is singular, and it makes the work difficult and serious. As a consequence, I think that the commission is a great organizational team which must be taken seriously and which has an important function into the educational system of the Secondary School.

Finally, we went to a tutorial session with a 4th of ESO class, with another teacher due to the fact that our tutor wasn’t a tutor this year. I really wanted to see how it would work, because my memories from tutorial sessions when I studied in the Secondary School were good. However, I was so impressed and surprised according to the behaviour of the students and the strategies that the teacher used. First of all, there was a student, the representative of the class, who started shouting at her classmates. I was shocked because I thought she was being so rude and impolite. Moreover, the rest of the class was speaking and nobody listened to her. After some minutes, she said that there were going to be some special events for Christmas and she talked about the ‘Parlament Verd’ (It is a kind of movement involved within the Secondary School which promotes some ecological activities, such as the use of the same books for students one year and another year. In the sense that they don’t write in the books, so consequently, next year, new students are able to work with those used books).
Some time later, the teacher announced two different activities that she wanted to do with the class. Indeed, she told them a story about people who just shouted each other, therefore, their ‘hearts’ were separated. It was a nice and reflexive story; however, most of the students didn’t pay attention and were absolutely ‘out’ of it. Afterwards, the teacher asked them to write down in a sheet of paper things that made them angry, such as: ‘I don’t like when my mother complains because of my clothes…’ Nevertheless, I think that among those students and the teacher there was no respect and the activity was somehow lost... I felt so sad and I really thought that if I had been there being the teacher, I would have had a real frustration and disappointment.

To sum up, in spite of the fact that we have just been one day in the Secondary School this week, it has been a really intense one. Furthermore, I am looking forward to starting my didactic unit next week… Let’s see…!

Time is running, running, running!

Well, this week has been pretty different… because we started participating in the classroom! We moved from being at the end of the classroom, sitting, observing and writing (being the AUDIENCE), to the ‘teacher’s stage’. Perspectives have changed, so maybe now I feel much more involved within teaching. Actually, I am really happy, because I didn’t know how would I feel, and the surprise is that I really enjoyed being in front of the students dealing with activities that me and my CAP mate had already prepared.

To start with, during this week we have gone to IES Lluis de Peguera for three days. On Tuesday, we had a 4th of ESO lesson and a 3rd of ESO one. We began with students from 4th of ESO and we (me and my CAP mate) had to do some exercises from the student’s book related to ‘housework’. Indeed, we did so; however, we created an extra communicative activity that we implemented which was related to the unit’s vocabulary. In fact it was great, as students cooperated and participated with us with no problems and showing great interest.
Afterwards, we had a short break and we dealt with 3rd of ESO students. They were from ‘our’ group, the one that would be taught by us, and we were really excited. In fact, in that hour we only had half of the students (it was ‘b hour’). We started checking a dialogue they had already done with the teacher on a previous session, and afterwards, it was OUR moment to approach the situation and start a communicative activity we had prepared. It was an activity related to holidays, and we wrote in the blackboard three different columns with names of countries, capitals and attractions. Then, they firstly had to discuss in pairs what they thought about the relationships between those names. And finally, after some minutes, we matched the different names with their own correspondent. We also showed them some pictures, and they were really amazed and interested in that. It helped us to know a bit more about the students of the class: we could listen to them; see how they worked in groups and in pairs; and finally, see that they were really nice and motivated to participate in our activities. We finally asked them to create their own dialogue about holidays with one of the places exposed in the blackboard and perform it on the following day. It was a great day and I felt I was really motivated to work with that group.

On Wednesday, we went to the Secondary School in order to be with the whole 3rd of ESO (B) class, which was OUR WHOLE classroom. All the 28 students were in the classroom waiting for the results of the exams… They were somehow nervous and really conscious on what they were supposed to do. It was the first exam and it was important for them, so they were all quiet and listening to the teacher. She finally gave the exams and they were half of the classroom correcting and checking the mistakes. Some of the students were really quiet and paying attention; some were talking quietly with their partner asking for things related to the exam; and some of them were bored. I think that depending on their understanding of the contents assessed in the exam, they acquired a different attitude.
An important thing I noticed was that the classroom was organized in a nice way, having the tables and chairs ordered; with no papers in the floor; and with a cleaned blackboard. I think that the whole space influenced on their behaviour, apart from the fact that it was eight o’clock in the morning.
Afterwards, we had a tutorial session with our tutor and she exposed us some important issues. Firstly, she assessed our participation in the lessons: it was really useful and important. She commented on some ‘problems’ we couldn’t notice, such as a behavioural one in which a student was whistling and we didn’t even notice that; however, she also pointed out the ‘positive things’. She said she was really happy and that the learning process was bilateral, in the sense that both of us (me and my CAP mate) were learning, and that she was also learning from us.
Moreover, she explained us some important information about the didactic unit, putting emphasis on the objectives, the timing, the material needed and the grouping. And finally, she gave us the ‘Memòria del Centre’ and the ‘Curricular Project’. She asked us to look it carefully and she said that we should pay attention to the different commissions that were working on the centre, which is something new and optional, that this particular centre has implemented, and in which teachers are divided into commissions in order to work cooperatively with the different members of the team. Furthermore, she also talked about the PELE (Pla Experimental de Llengües Estrangeres).

On Friday, we had two more classes ‘to teach’ and participate with. First of all, we went to a 1st of Batxillerat group and we dealt with the present perfect. It was somehow complicated, because me and my CAP mate hadn’t had much time in order to prepare it… however, in the end it worked and we did a good activity. Finally, we went to a 4th of ESO class and that was it!

Another week over! Time is running, running, running!

My second week!!

Things are running quickly and we are already at the beginning of our ‘teaching trip’. It impresses me how perceptions change when we enter into classrooms. I feel it is really important to observe, and I am learning a lot with my tutor, who seems so confident and well-prepared when exposing her lessons.
I have been a bit frustrated according to the distribution of tables and chairs within the whole classroom. I really think that it is important to maintain some visual order in order to let lessons be much more ‘understanding’. At least for me it is much easier to have a clear idea in my mind when my surrounding is also clear and tidy.

Well, to start with, this week has been full of different and new experiences.
On Monday, we had an observation class with 4rth of ESO students (4rth C). It was ‘b hour’ so there were only half of the students in it. Esperança firstly introduced us so that students could know why we were there.
The lesson was divided into three main parts. At the beginning they corrected a listening activity that they had previously done. Students went to the blackboard and answered the questions. It was really interesting because everybody helped each other: there was real cooperation between students and it was useful for the correction of the exercises.
Afterwards, the teacher gave them some photocopies and explained us that this particular group was a bit lost with the level being provided in the book. Therefore, she and another teacher decided to do photocopies apart (from other sources) for two months, in order to review all the concepts and be able to start properly with the student’s book that was theoretically provided for that group. Finally, they did a communicative activity in which the teacher orally provided some situations and they had to guess the feeling or adjective that matched.
To sum up, I think that this was a really respectful group and which cooperated a lot. Nevertheless, there was a problem with one of the students who was speaking all the time and who was finally moved into another table. Apart from that, the organization and climate of the classroom were really positive and successful.

Secondly, we went to OUR class. We knew the students that would be involved with our learning experience: 3rd B ESO students. The truth is that they all were really nice and the first impression was absolutely positive.
This was a really enjoyable and new class. Students watched a video and had to deal with it. The video was related to an expedition; therefore, there was an excursion exposed where some students told their own experiences according to it. It was interesting and they liked it.
Then, after the ten minutes’ video, the teacher asked them to go to the blackboard and copy there some ‘complex’ or ‘curious’ vocabulary words from the video. Afterwards, they translated these words into Catalan and they did some exercises from the student’s book, which were specifically related to the video.
I found great the fact that every activity had a beginning and an ending, and I think that it is really important for students. As Esperança told us, it is really important to finish things, as then activities acquire much more sense.
Moreover, there was a lot of interaction and it was a different kind of class, far apart from the ones we had seen before. Later on, we went to another class, to a 3rd C lesson, in which there were not many students and they had to prepare a dialogue and perform it in front of the other students. It was a pair work activity, so they helped each other. Indeed, if they had any misunderstanding, after having exposed the whole dialogue, they would translate it into Catalan with the teacher’s help.

On Wednesday we had a tutorial session with Esperança, and it was really helpful because we could ask her our doubts or feelings and she exposed us some important things that needed to be reminded. She talked about our didactic units; the importance of timing and she also gave us information about the ‘Equips docents’or ‘guàrdies’. Moreover, we went to ‘Aula d’acollida’ and they explained us its functioning. I was really impressed for many different things. Firstly, they explained us that they did Social Science, Catalan and Natural Science in there, all in Catalan and in order to learn the language. They had different resources such as computers or different materials like communicative activities and so on. The teacher said that there are only students from 1st to 4th of ESO and the one who is in charge of it told us that as students begin to learn the language, they are moved into their ‘real’ classes. I was amazed because she was not a specialist, in the sense that if I finally work in a Secondary School, maybe I have to teach those lessons, and I think that dealing with students with no linguistic approach to Catalan culture and reality, might be really difficult and I really think that there should be a professional dealing with that. Nevertheless, I thought that she was really involved into everything and that she was living that experience as something great.

Finally, on Friday we had our last lesson and we could participate in it! It was great because we didn’t expect it and the final feeling was of real joy. In fact, we were in a 1st of ‘Batxillerat’ lesson, in which students were performing some dialogues in front of the classroom, according to an activity called ‘Getting to know you’. It was an interactive and communicative activity, in which students, who were divided in pairs, asked each other questions and answered them. Finally, me and my CAP mate listened and assessed a group, while the teacher was assessing other groups. And I really enjoyed it because we were much closer to the students and we could figure out the beginning of our teaching lessons!
In the end of the class, all the students sat down and the teacher and both of us sat in front of the students in order to discuss some topics, such as boys and girls’ different behaviour and attitude towards life in general. It was funny and, in spite of being a bit nervous, I enjoyed it a lot.

That’s all for now!