Yesterday, I had my third class with the English access course group, and it was the most wonderful experience I had ever had.
When planning my class, I did not know what to do because I just had to focus on the topic telling a story. I had a hardful time planning my class but the satisfaction I got at the end of the class was awesome.
The warm-up activity was about giving students a page where they had some pictures of very famous stories, so I asked do you know the name of the story for picture "a" for example, so students were trying to say the names of those stories in English. as second, I asked them to write the names of the stories under each picture. I helped them of course. In the same page, there were some descriptions about each story, so students were to write the tittle of the book next to each statement and they did well. I have them repeat the statements and then I asked which was the story, and they provided the name correcttly.
I gave an introduction by narrating the story about Cinderella, so base on this I develop the next activity which was to have students working in groups so they could help to order the stripes I gave them in a envelop. Those stripes had the story of Cinderella on them. One group formed the story first, so then I had them read the story.
My next activity and the most successful one was when I pasted the names of some stories around the classroom. I asked students to go to the story they knew. There I asked them to talk with the students who got in each story anything they knew about the story. At last, I elicit for information of the stories, I mean, I asked each group to narrate their story. This was great. I got surprised to see on how students did this activity. They narrated the story in a wonderful way.
I made some mistakes of course, but the fact on having students producing the language in the last activity was the most rewarding part for me. It was not just me who got surprised but also the teacher who was evaluating my class and a friend of mine who was recording it.
On Monday, I had my second class with these special students from the English access course. I said special because they are wonderfull on carrying out the activities. I got a little late because I had classes before and then I had to run to the rooms that are in the court, but I got there to do my job. I had planned a warm-up activity which at the last moment I did not do.. I change it and the new one worked really nice as students were eager and enthusiactics carrying out the activity.I developed some activities by using a song called "because you loved me" which was very useful for me as my topic was irregular verbs and it contains mane of them. While doing a fill in activity, I could notice some students were singing the song, so at the end I had them sing the song. I divided them into two groups, each of them were to sing a stanza each, and it worked nice. They really liked it. The only problem was that I took too much time on this, and it was marked in the feedback part. The activities I developed were to have students practice in an oral and written form the irregular verbs in the simple past form, so I planned activities for them to write the verbs, and then I had them say the verbs. There was another activity in which students were to say a sentences by using the verb I provided. They actually did it but in the feedback I was suggested to do it in a different way which I consider can be more benefitial for the teacher and for the students as well. This suggestion was to give students a verb, given them time to think and write the sentence, and at last to have them say their sentences..
Well, we have just started the second period and by now we are working with the new groups assigned. Today, I had my first contact with the students of the English access course. To start, I have to say that I got a little late to the classroom so that I could not have everything prepared as I always do. I could not write the date and the objective on the board, and it was mentioned in the feedback I was given by teacher Ovidio.
The warm-up activity was about to form the past form of the regular verbs I mentioned with the pieces of paper I gave students in a bag. They worked in groups and the activity worked very nice; students liked it at all. Then, I continued with another activity based on the previous exercise. Students were to write sentences with the verbs they formed previously. It was nice because from each group all students wrote at least one sentence or two in the paper I provided.
I carried out a conversation too. There was repetition before students practice it in pairs. Then when I asked them to practice it in pairs, they did it well. At the very beginning I though about having them practice the conversation by the onion ring way, but as the space is not that enough I had to do something else and it worked.
Generally, the group is very nice and they work in every single activity you ask them to work. It is great because you are not pussing or let´s say forcing students to do what they are supposed to. These students do it immediately.
There is just one thing more to say. As they are adolescents, they sometimes use a lot of the mother tongue (Spanish), so I was asked to push them to use more English.
