3rd CLASS

This is my third class with intermediate I. this time I had to teach a quite broad topic; it was comparative adjectives. As you know, there are irregular adjectives and a series of rules that control the proper appliance of the adjectives when speaking or writing.

I started my class with a very fun and appealing warm up. As my class was about adjective, I had them make two lines facing each other; I dictated some adjectives and they had to construct a sentence per each adjective; it was an oral competence. Later, I engaged them in a reading activity and they had to determine how healthy they were by answering some questions. I tried to work fast with them and then I taught some of the rules for using adjectives in comparative form.

They paid careful attention and some of them asked some questions while I was explaining. I tried to explain from my knowledge because students come up with many questions.

I involved them in some practice; they had to fill in the blanks with the appropriate comparative form of the adjective provided. In this part, they asked about some irregular adjectives such as goo; well, they learned to solve an exercise but later I had them speak. They were asked to compare themselves to a relative using comparative adjective. They developed this activity in pairs. They enjoyed it.

My second class with intermediate English

Along this week I have been worried about many things I have to do but when the time to teach came, I tried to concentrate in my teaching. Today I had my second practice with this nice group. They are always enthusiastic about teaching.

I got ready to teach them about direct and indirect object. I had them develop a speaking activity as I think that they all need to practice English. The class was kind of uncertain because my tutor told me that he had already taught that topic but I had to be prepared for questions from them. He also asked me to teach about transitive and intransitive verbs which he had not taught. I assumed that students had clear understanding of direct and indirect object because he told me to engage them into practice, but when I explained the characteristic of transitive and transitive verbs, I got stuck a little because they seemed confused. What I did next is to resume what the teacher had taught the previous day.

The experience I had is that when two teachers explain a single topic, it necessary that the second is conscious about the points he must continue teaching.

The point is that I had to improvise some explanations but I used examples so they could understand properly. When I taught about both kinds of objects, I told them that a very easy way to identify them is by considering the following: an indirect object usually comes first and it refers to people whereas a direct object usually is placed after the indirect object and it refers to things.

Some students asked me to solve some exercises I had provided for them because they found them quit hard to solve. I did it using the board so all of them could see how to do it. When I finished explaining some points, some students asked me a couple of questions. For example, “if a sentence has only one object and it refers to people, it is indirect object since you told us that indirect objects refer only to people,” a student stated. The point is that if we only have one object, it must be direct object since indirect objects cannot exist without a direct object. Thank god I still remember something about grammar.

Students developed a couple of exercises in which they were identifying both direct and indirect object; I could notice that they did it well and this makes me feel good. As they shared the exercises solved, I recognized that they are very smart.

At the end I had them dance and compete seating on the musical chair. The ones that remained stood solved a problem orally. They did it great! They are a nice group.

My 5th practice!

I had my first experience with Intermediate English I. it is important to mention that I did my teaching practice with another group of intermediate English I and some of the things I noticed are the class environment is very different among the two groups. I really like the way those students are. They really respect the effort we do to teach. They are humble and that fact lets the practitioners develop our teaching skills. I was given the book and the topic I was going to teach, one day before, so I had to work at night in order to prepare a good class. The students welcomed me and I was really cheerful and enthusiastic and I tried to transmit that to the students. I had observed the class one day before and I had an insight about what it would be like to teach them.

The warm up was an activity in which they were divided into two groups and then they had a competition writing items they get when they go shopping. They were writing at a great speed but the only constrain I had was that since the group is large, they were concentrated near the board; I tried to have them all participate in the activity but they are 27 students and I could not have control of all of them. I tried to order them in a line but the class is not that big. Aver all, the activity was nice and they liked it. After that, introduced unit four; I had them discuss a couple of questions about the gifts they buy for their friends and they gave their opinion. I asked individual questions to the quieter students in order to make them speak.

I explain some grammar points in which I spend about six minutes; the time was meaningful because I solved many doubts about adverbs collocation. When I finished the grammar explanation, I involved them in oral practice. They were very enthusiastic and attentive to my class development. It was a great experience.