Reflections

Here, we are going to see the reflections I have made during the time of the training, which lasted four weeks. There was a reflection made for each first and second week, and one for the last two weeks.

FIRST WEEK

Something new I learned in the first week of training was about the Communicative Language Teaching approach, and the efficacy it can have, based on the fact that it is mainly focused in learning through interaction between students.

One activity I had never seen was the one that consisted of making groups of three people, give different texts to these groups and then have them interact with people from different groups to share the text and the understanding each participant had about it. I think it was fun and can be very effective in the classroom. These are called Jigsaw activities.

There is a moment I remember, and it is important to me because: there was an activity in which we were supposed to place each part of the speech (noun, verb, adverb, etc.) below the corresponding category; in this activity I realized how much I did not know about these, in opposition to the level of self-confidence I had before the activity/exercise. It made me see I definitely need to study it more.

About the 12 Principles of Brown, I can say they are very effective when it comes to teaching language to other people, because they have to do not only with the effort of the teacher/facilitator for the students to learn, but also the participation and collaboration of the student, and makes sense since actually what he learns might depend more on him than the teacher.

These principles are: automaticity, meaningful learning, anticipated reward, intrinsic motivation, strategic investment, language ego, self-confidence, risk-taking, language culture connection, native language effect, interlanguage and communicative competence. Out of these 12, there are some I like the most and are: meaningful learning, intrinsic motivation, self-confidence, risk-taking, and communicative competence; in my opinion, these are the ones that have to do more with the student and what they can do if they want to learn, although all of them are important.

SECOND WEEK

On the second week, we talked about the memory systems, which are considered to be three. They are:

- Perceptual memory (6-10 secs)

- Work memory (1-2 hours)

- Long term memory (permanent)

We also talked about the channels or means of learning and efficiency, and how each of them contributes to our learning of new content.

It was said that after a week, we tend to remember things in the following way:

10% of all the information we read.

20% listening.

Seeing, 30%.

Seeing and listening makes 50%.

Explaining it, we remember 70%.

Discovering, processing and organizing, doing, 90%.

By knowing this, we can determine which method we use at any given moment, be it for ourselves, or to help other people learn something; meaning, as teachers. I would say it would be a good thing to observe these processes in ourselves so we can have personal evidence.

Also, we discussed about TRANSFER, which is a cognitive process where a learner's efficiency of one skill in one context enables them to apply the same knowledge in a different context, say, by "transferring" knowledge to a totally different area of life/study.

METACOGNITION

It comes from the word 'meta', which means "beyond". Then metacognition refers to the process of being conscious of our own cognitive processes; knowing that we know something. But also, there are different types of metacognition, and they are meta-memory, meta-attention, meta-comprehension, and meta-thinking.

We also learned about MIND-MAPPING, which is a strategy that allows us to develop and organize ideas regarding a common topic; giving them structure.

We discussed the use of metaphors and similes when teaching. Metaphors, in a way, compares, but through a direct statement (ie., "life is a surprise"). While similes compares, stating the similarities between one thing and another (ie., life is LIKE a garden full of random events). These can help students understand new concepts by associating them with other things.

Also about the students' prior-knowledge, so we can "make the invisible, visible." Checking knowledge the student already had so he can better grasp new knowledge.

Synthesis, types of activities (controlled and free activities); also mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice; expected types of classroom performance (no overt response, reactive, responsive, selective, extensive, interactive); we had the chance to see the types of classes based on personalities (situational classes, communicative classes, grammar-based classes); we saw the process of loop input and experiential learning, which consists of concrete experience (having an experience), reflective observation (reviewing or reflecting about it), abstract conceptualisation (learning from the experience), active experimentation (trying out what we have learned); mixed ability group dictation; affective and cognitive cognition; zones of regulation based on colors (for activities); we talked about learning style theories (right and left brain, multiple intelligence, VAKT).

When selecting or designing an activity, there are aspects which need to be considered, and some of these are:

- We need to know activities are not games.

- They have an input.

- Every activity needs to have an expected outcome.

- They must be designed or adapted in a way that does not make students feel exposed when participating.

- It can be useful to take into consideration the zones of regulation.

MY FAVORITE ACTIVITY of the ones we did that week was one which consisted of the students making pairs; with their partner, each one of them drawing a monster, a strange creature, and then trying to describe this monster to the partner so he can draw it by listening. This activity allowed me not only to put into practice my descriptive abilities, but also the ability to create new things by listening and identifying the most important aspects of the things being listened to. The following mind map is the one I made about this activity:

IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING ACTIVITIES SOCIALLY RELEVANT AND SAFE

By keeping our activities socially relevant and safe, we can make sure that the students not only learn how to communicate with others, but also see that there are different ideas and points of view from theirs, which means they expand in a way, this encourages respect, gives chance to link knowledge with meaningful/practical things, and by feeling safe they can open up more to the experience, resulting in greater understanding.

IMPORTANCE OF TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Transfer of learning can be important since it allows us to grasp the aspects of new content by using memories of things that are related; here, association of new information received is linked with information we already have in our memory, in our 'experience archive'. I think an example of this can be seen in an activity we did, in which students in pair where given a piece of paper with different categories so they can fill it in with the first letter of their favorite thing (related to the category; for example, sport), and then the partner needs to guess which one it is. In this activity, we dive into our own likes and passions, we use what we know about the topics given in each category, practicing transmission or expression of these things on a paper, and then we are learning to imagine, associate, and/or consider multiple things parting from a starting point (the category and the letter) while trying to guess.

THIRD AND FOURTH WEEK

Among the things we saw in the past two weeks, was the theory of multiple intelligence, we saw that different people have different ways of learning, which is very important we it comes to teaching/learning; we also had the chance to see about class management and the things that a teacher should do or avoid with his students, as well as strategically arranging the seats in the classroom; also, we talked about the importance of carefully selecting media for a lesson, since they are the means by which new content is being transferred to Ss; the importance and steps to lesson planning; the importance of an environment which is conducive to learning; key aspects and advice for performing activities with the students.

Lesson planning is an important part of teaching, since without it not only the lesson being taught would lack structure, but also the class as a whole might become a mess and get students confused, so not planning a lesson can also result in the teacher losing their students’ trust in what they are doing.

To create a lesson plan, we first need to have objectives, meaning, what we want or need to achieve regarding the lesson being learned by the students; then we need to determine what are the steps we are going to follow in order to achieve the objective(s); moreover, we need assessments so that we can see if the students are learning what the T intended to, or in other words, to see if the objectives are being achieved; and another important aspect is timing: we need to make sure that all activities and content go in accordance with the time that we have available. Also, SMARTA is a very effective framework for lesson planning, and it consists in the objectives being Specific ones, that the outcomes and objectives are Measurable, Achievable, Relevant for the students, Time-bound since there is generally a time limit, and that the lesson and its activities are Adjustable.

Direct and Indirect Approaches

Using the Direct Approach of teaching a lesson, the teacher gives clear and direct instructions for the students to follow; the teacher is directing the learning process and it is clear what the objective of the lesson is; the teacher here is an organizer and guide. While in the Direct Approach, the teacher uses different activities to indirectly teach concepts/content to students; in this approach the students are actively interacting and with this interaction learning takes place, and the teacher is just a facilitator of the whole process.

My Favorite Teaching Approach

Eclectic Approach is my favorite one, since it does not limit the teacher to one specific type of activities or techniques, but instead the teacher uses different activities (from different approaches) depending on specific needs, like the lesson being taught and/or the group students we are working with. For me it is a very versatile approach, that in a sense, appreciates all approaches as having useful techniques.

Frameworks

PDP (Pre-teaching, During activity, Post-activity): this framework, as its name indicates, focuses on first teaching key vocabulary and information about a topic before it is taught, so that they can better follow and understand the activity; in the During stage, students will be involved in different tasks that will help them understand the content and its purpose; and finally, in the Post stage, we identify what the students will be doing with what was learned, in other words, how they can apply it to real situations.

ECRIF stands for Encounter, Clarify, Remember, Internalize, Fluently use. “The key to the ECRIF framework is the focus on the learning process that students go through as they work with the target skill or knowledge rather than what the teacher is doing during the lesson.” says ecrif.com website. It also says it can be used for planning a lesson or to assess the progress of the Ss through a lesson.

ONE-DAY REFLECTION

Oct 23rd

"We basically spent the day talking about different topics, like types of classroom performance, mind maps, types of activities, and others. And also, we did the exposition of the rules (simulation) for students. We learned about Controlled and Free Practice; Mechanical, Meaningful and Communicative types of practices. These topics, in my opinion, give us a better understanding about what to expect from a classroom based on students behaviors; tools like mind-mapping can be useful to everyone, not only students; knowing about the activities and ways to do them allows us more ways to adjust the lessons to the students.