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segunda-feira, 8 de setembro de 2014

Abstract

The theme discussed here "An organizing process of the first period" is necessary to understand the literacy development throughout the educational history of the country, scanning its path until nowadays, reflecting about literacy practice in schools and why students reach the final years of elementary school without the desired results: reading and writing properly. It is also necessary to discuss the importance of family involvement in the education process, as well as to reflect on what has caused the distance between families and schools and vice versa. Another important point is the educational policies implemented by the government as well as the proper training of education professionals, mainly in regard to literacy. Finally it presents a cut of the municipal schools in Sátiro Dias city, the place where the research was done, taking into account that the education system should be guided by the principles of equality, freedom and the preparation of the citizens for the full exercise of citizenship, considering that the reading and writing development is the basic conditions to achieve these principles. Keywords: Reading - Writing - Literacy

quinta-feira, 15 de maio de 2014

Plano de aula

ESTADO DA BAHIA SISTEMA MUNICIPAL DE ENSINO SECRETARIA MUNICIPAL DE EDUCAÇÃO COLÉGIO WILSON DAMIÃO CRUZ DIAS PLANO DE CURSO Instituição COLÉGIO WILSON DAMIÃO CRUZ DIAS Curso Ensino Fundamental Com. Curricular Língua Inglesa Carga Horária 20 aulas semanais Ano Letivo 2014 E. Fundamental De 5º a 8º ano Livro didático ALIVE - Língua estrangeira moderna - Inglês Professor Pedro Samuel de Moura Torres 1. Justificativa Como atualmente a demanda por uma segunda língua está cada vez mais necessária e requerida, nesse caso o Inglês sendo o idioma de hegemonia e ascensão social, econômica, dentre vários outros aspectos, faz-se importante que a mesma seja estimulada, apresentada e ensinada a fim de abrir-lhes caminhos intelectuais, profissionais, sociais e econômicos. Desse modo, impulsionando-os a se adaptarem a um mundo cada vez mais globalizado e americanizado. 2. Objetivos gerais Alfabetizar os alunos em uma segunda língua. Apresentar os aspectos básicos da língua inglesa. Motivar o interesse dos alunos ao idioma apresentado, Estimular a participação dos alunos em dinâmicas e recursos audiovisuais os quais fomentem a apreciação e o interesse em conhecer a segunda língua. Conscientizá-los sobre a importância de se aprender o inglês nos dias de hoje. 3. Objetivos específicos Emergir os alunos no novo idioma apresentando-lhes os aspectos mais básicos da língua, instigando-os a utilizarem na pratica e na oralidade tudo que lhes vem sendo apresentado. Imergir o aluno num mundo linguístico inusitado produzindo-lhes e fornecendo-lhes inputs necessários para abrir-lhes a mente a fim de compreender pouco a pouco o idioma apresentado. Desenvolver a apreciação e a simpatia dos alunos pelo idioma através de vídeos educativos com desenhos animados que prendam a sua atenção para que dessa maneira, a língua estrangeira quebre as barreiras e fronteiras da aparente dificuldade de compreensão, para que eles percebam que é possível aprender e entender uma nova língua. Desenvolver táticas e estratégias mais viáveis de se aprender um idioma. 4. Conteúdos I UNIDADE Por que o inglês é importante hoje em dia, Estrangeirismo, Introdução aos aspectos básicos da língua inglesa: Apresentando-se, O alfabeto em inglês, Saudações cotidianas, As cores, Os números de 1 a 100, Os dias da semana, As estações do ano, Os meses do ano, Os animais. II UNIDADE Continuação com outros aspectos básicos da língua inglesa: Os países, As nacionalidades, As profissões: quem sou eu, Pronomes pessoais, O verbo to be, A forma contrata do verbo "to be", Pronomes possessivos, Perguntando o número do telefone. III UNIDADE Alguns verbos mais usados no inglês, Frases e perguntas usadas na sala de aula em inglês, vocabulários específicos: de sala de aula, de casa, de membros da família, de comida, de frutas etc. IV UNIDADE Pronomes demonstrativos em inglês, Advérbios, As horas, Rotinas: acordar, almoçar, dormir, etc, As partes do corpo humano, vocabulários específicos: Os esportes, Os Jogos, As artes, etc. 5. Procedimentos metodológicos O professor apresenta-lhes o conteúdo programado do livro didático de uma maneira elucidativa, contextualizada e simplificada. O mais lúdico possível, o professor estimula-lhes a sempre por em pratica tudo o que lhes foi passado na oralidade e na escrita. Utiliza-se táticas de ensino que facilitem a memorização e a acomodação dos conteúdos linguísticos. 6. Recursos didáticos Seguir o livro quando possível trazendo o lúdico e a criatividade para a sala de aula através de dinâmicas, músicas, vídeos e filmes que permitam a motivação de participarem e utilizarem o conteúdo oferecido. Apropria-se dos recursos audiovisuais para estimula-los reinforçando para acomodar o que foi visto. 7. Avaliação Avaliações serão em maior parte individuais, porém em dupla apenas na oralidade onde o estudante é conduzido a aplicar o que aprendeu com outro colega. Atividades realizadas durante as aulas e corrigidas no caderno. Oralidade e participação do aluno durante as aulas. Prova escrita onde o aluno testa todo o conhecimento acumulado durante a unidade. 8. Referências bibliográficas MENEZES, Vera; TAVARES, Kátia; BRAGA, Junia, Franco, Claudio. ALIVE - Língua estrangeira moderna - Inglês. São Paulo, Anzol, 2012. ____, National Curriculum Parameters – Secondary Education. Disponível em: .ww.englisch-hifen.de. Acessado em 22 de Março de 2014. ____, Letra de música: Somewhere over the rainbow (Norah Jones). Disponível em: Acessado em 1 de abril de 2014.

quinta-feira, 6 de março de 2014

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS


In these two semesters of Estágio I and II, we have been regarding the importance to teach learner-centered classes, which was constantly stressed not just by the Professor Fernanda Mota as also by all the authors mentioned in this final report. As they claim that the aim of education is the students, thus, teachers have to be aware that the classes should be prepared for them. Teachers should center on the students’ needs, motivations and interests, not on their own personal ones.  

In his book The Second Language Teaching & Learning, Approaches, David Nunan put into words some of his definitions about the traditional model (behaviorism) and the experiential model (constructivism), in which behaviorism works only with the transmission of knowledge giving the absolute authority to the educator engendering a passive role to learners and so, it is totally teacher-centered. While in a constructivist viewpoint, the teacher is a facilitator in the students' learning process; he is directed to take into consideration students’ needs where he cares about helping learners to develop their autonomy enabling them to participate and transform their knowledge, generating competent students to achieve the success in his learning skills, self-inquiry, social and communication skills, and thus, it is entirely learner-centered.  

 David Nunan also tackles the deductive and the inductive approaches, in which, the deductive one is quite similar to the behaviorist point of view, with respect to the approach more centered on the teacher’s shoulders and to its traditional way to pass the knowledge without any autonomous ideology. Whereas the inductive one resembles to the constructivist perspective for it focuses on students’ skills and needs, where they are taken to learn through observation and inferences, and therefore, directing the responsibility of the learning process more to the students.

 From all the theories that I have seen throughout this course following Fernanda Mota’s advices and instructions trying to put it all into practice in the period of teaching practice at the public school Henriqueta Martins Catharino, I have to confess that even though it was a very short period of time for us to experiment as teachers, to apply everything that we have been taught and for not having had any experience in teaching previously, I could feel that I was able to overcome all the anxieties that crashed me and that with much of dedication and great efforts, I could prepare excellent classes and perform them successfully within my conditions. And in spite of many obstacles I had to face with students' dropouts, absenteeism and lack of assiduity, I could surpass all of them, resorting to flexibility in order to accommodate and adapt the contents so that students could be able to follow them. 

 In this teaching experience, I also learned how to reconcile approaches, methods and skills, where I could teach students the grammar contents as well as using the language with the function of communication. I also made great effort to teach the four language abilities: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, and besides all that, I had to refer to my pedagogic creativity which helped me a lot to teach more interesting, ludic and creative classes appealing to students’ attention which allowed the classes to be more learner-centered reinforcing the principles of the constructivism.

I should admit that I have much more to learn as a teacher day after day and that it was a very short time for us to develop all that, but even so, it was a very profitable and efficient experience for me to widen the perspective about education, to develop my teaching skills and to learn about teachers’ duty and position. I should say that I am quite happy to discover that I could be able to overcome all the barriers that teachers unexpectedly may face in their teaching progression concerning the hard public school system, so, having a feeling of accomplishment for having fulfilled the duty. The expectations that frustrated me were because of some students who ignored to attend classes, the ones who neglected the importance to learn English and because of their lack of assiduity and declining school attendance. As for the rest, it was a really fruitful and enriching experience.

 

UNIT PACKET


In almost all my lesson plans, I struggled to prepare more learner-centered classes making great effort to employ the inductive approach rather than the deductive. Proceeding according to many of the theories we learned throughout the course, I was really determined to follow them for I thought it was the great opportunity to apply everything we saw theoretically. For that reason, I did not lose the time, I idealized all the excellence that was passed to us, and with a daring courage, I risked everything to test if it could indeed work in a context that was not propitious and favorable at all to all that pedagogic language teaching theories, such as in Brazilian Public School.
 

I may say that almost everything that I planned had its way to be accomplished without mentioning the fortuitous circumstances that used to assault me daily, such as: students who missed the classes frequently, students who never studied at home and never did their homework activities, students who missed the classes and arrived the next day without seeing the previous content and then I had to review over and over again. Because of all those obstacles, I developed a useful sense of flexibility that challenged me every day and that helped me to widen teaching perspective, and in spite of all that, I could apply many of the theories whenever I had the chance to be with them in real classes. Thus I would say that in most of my classes, the basic structure of the plan that I planned I could apply, yet, I had to make a few changes. With respect to fitting all the class stages with the timing, in the first classes I had some problems, but in the third week onwards, I learned how to manage that as I started to perform all the stages I planned in due time. 
 

As most of the classes were planned to be learner-centered where I made enormous effort to work with the inductive approach as I was always aware to elicit and enable students to infer the meaning by themselves. But of course, unavoidably in some circumstances, I had to mix with the deductive approach for it would be impossible to give a lesson without some direct explanations, where the teacher explains directly rather than eliciting students to infer by themselves.
 

The classes were varied in the sense that I focused on many aspects of teaching, given that I had the brief chance to work with reading texts, with grammar content, with listening and speaking skills and hence I tried to work with as many methods and approaches as possible. The methods I most used in class focused on Communicative Language Learning, constructivism and inductive teaching; for the grammar content and for all the other skills and aspects of the language worked in class, I could mingle The Communicative Language Learning with the constructivism, in view of the fact that I focused on the communication function acting more like a counselor and facilitator rather than an authoritarian leader,

 
I also applied The Natural approach whereby I tried to provide some inputs when I uttered and wrote sentences inviting them to participate in the class dynamic. I mixed features of The Grammar translation method with The Direct method for I used the target language as much as possible working with vocabulary and grammar and also with The Audio-lingual method since I focused on the pronunciation as well. 

 

 

FIFTH CLASS OBSERVATION


 

The AVALI exam of the 1st and 2nd grade of humanities and natural sciences began at 08:30 where there were only five students. The teacher joked with a student by telling him that she knew who his girlfriend was and that if she knew about his behavior, she probably would beat him. A student asked questions about the exam, the teacher explained and then the class became silent for a big while; students seemed to be really concentrated in that. 
 

In the middle of the exam, by having an opportunity, I asked a student if they enjoy learning English and I found out a student who liked it and could communicate somehow in English with me. But the problem that appeared in my mind was that I should work with a method that would engage everyone not just this singular one. He told me he got in touch with the language by playing games, he also answered me "in English" that he liked to play soccer. He also told me that he would probably study Letras when he finishes the High School. That was a good but inappropriate opportunity to interact with them for they were answering their exam, but I could be in advance a little bit aware of some of their likings.         

quarta-feira, 5 de março de 2014

FOURTH CLASS OBSERVATION


We entered the class at about 08:20 AM, six students sat in their places and the teacher started explaining all the process to answer the Portuguese, composition and mathematics exams. It took approximately fifteen minutes for the students to ask questions and discuss with the teacher about how to answer properly in the chart of the exam. Thus, they started to answer the exam at around 08:30 AM when the class became totally silent. At 08:45 AM the principal came in the class and paused their exam to clarify any doubt they might have about the process to answer the exam. All of a sudden, the teacher started complaining with a student because he was talking to one of his classmate as if he was doing that in order to show off because there was somebody else in the class.  

A student still with doubts called up the teacher in order to help him understand the answering process better. Another pupil started to talk to his classmate and the teacher started to complain asking him to get back in his place. The first student finished his exam at about 09:25 AM and he already wanted to leave the room, but the teacher told him that they were allowed to leave only in the right time, so he kept waiting there for a while. Two students finished the exam together and left the room but one of them has not done the composition. A girl handed the exam without having done the composition and the teacher tried to motivate her to do it but she merely left the room. Two more students left the room at 9:40 AM. The one before the last student handed the exam and the teacher checked if her answers were ok and the last one handed the exam at 9:50 AM when the teacher noticed the student had not written her name properly in capital letters.

THIRD CLASS OBSERVATION


For the mathematics' exam with the teacher Emanuel students from the 2nd A and B were joined in the same room at 08:04 AM. The exams started at 08:07 AM; with an anxious and uneasy atmosphere students were very agitated and they started joking around saying they needed desperately to cheat on the test for they did not remember anything they had studied. Most of them did not show any empathy with the test as if they ignored the content presented in the exam.

Some students discussed with each other uninterested and indifferent as if they were not prepared for the exam and they did not care about it. Most of them seemed lost and totally unprepared. The first student to hand in the test in blank left the room at 08:15 AM; it started as domino effect and soon another student also gave it up at 08:17 AM. The third student left soon at 08:19 AM. The class became silent a little when suddenly a student looked at me and asked me which subject I would teach, I answered him that I would teach English and then he made fun saying that unfortunately I would not be able to help him in that hard situation and then a girl said jokingly that for me to have achieved the English I must had passed through Math as well and that probably I could help them.

Some students looked at a girl who appeared to be really involved with the exam and started to ask for her help aloud. Another student handed the exam in blank at 08:26 and just after one more student found courage to give it up as well leaving the room together. Other students just left one minute after. Two more students left the room together at 08:28 and other two more at 08:29 and then eight more students started leaving and handing the exam. With about six students still trying to answer the exam, I saw a girl counting on her fingers and trying to look at her classmate’s exam, this same girl gave it up and left the room at about 8:30, subsequently another student gave it up too. All at once, two girls who had already handed the exam came back to the class and started asking their teacher to give their exam back so that they could answer something they had remembered, but the teacher did not allow it. Another student handed the exam at 08:33 and another at 08:34. The next-to-last student handed the exam at 8:37 and finally the last one handed it at 08:38.    

 

SECOND CLASS OBSERVATION


Since I arrived late that day, I did not take much note about it and I could register just that the chemistry exam finished at about 08:50 and almost all the students were still doing it. I could realize that in comparison to mathematics, in other exams, students behaved less anxiously and were more involved in the test; they usually make less noise and they do it properly. The Mentor teacher Leli explained to us that there are differences in students behavior in the days of exam according to the subject. The exam that most make them anxious is usually math and we could realize that indeed they act very differently at each day of test. After the exam finished, we went to the teachers’ room and Mentor teacher Leli started talking to us (me and four more students-teachers from Estágio II) about students’ behavior and how we should approach the methods with them. She told us that we better assess them just with written activities because participation and oral assessment are quite subjective since there is nothing to be proved in it while the written activities is something that is marked and then it can be evidenced.

She also told us that we are supposed to make the same final exam with the classmate that took the same grade and hence we should make the plans with contents in line with our classmates '. I asked her some questions about bringing to them tasks that I could stimulate them to create and speak sentences, she answered me that I could try it for I am here for experiment, but in support of what she already know about them with her own experience it would be really difficult, it can succeed or not, but chances are too rare. We started asking her the best methodologies we can use and she explained to us that we had better teach them in a more superficial and traditional way, not going too deep for they will find it odd or boring, so we better show things superficially and practically. 

She told us also that whenever we are going to teach them a grammar topic, we should at first explain the structure in Portuguese in order to make them visualize the syntax and grammar aspects that they do not know even in Portuguese. For example: as I asked her how I could teach them the "Relative pronouns", she told me that I should show them what is a "Relative pronouns" using first the Portuguese language in order to clarify their mind how "Relative pronouns" plays in the language, that they are necessary to reunite two pieces of information that talk about the same subject and so on; she also told me that we had better teach some of the easiest "Relative pronouns", not all of them such as "whose" for instance, and if by the way I show them the relative pronoun "whose" I should work on it on the very surface.

terça-feira, 4 de março de 2014

FIRST CLASS OBSERVATION


The Mentor teacher Zuleide, known as Leli was very punctual, she entered the room at exactly 11:00 o'clock. She greeted all the students who were at first about three or five and were all seated separately and far from the center of the room. As she greeted them, I was searching for a suitable place to sit. Then, she asked all the students to come closer to the centre in front of her since they were seated all separately. As she started asking about their weekend,  some of the other students begun to enter the room. When most of them  had arrived, she introduced me to them by telling them playfully that she was already too old and for that reason she was about to be retiring and therefore I was going to be her substitute, I was going to be their new teacher. All of them looked at me and greeted me; one of the boys sent me a funny kiss that I got a little bit embarrassed, but I took it as if it was a teen's joke.

A very talkative and smart girl looked at me and said "Good luck! They say we're the best class they have here!" I can not deny that it has arisen some anxiety in me, for I was not sure if it was an irony or a fact. But anyway, I tried to remain optimistic and deep inside I was eager to know if they enjoy learning English. The Mentor teacher Leli started to write on the board some sentences using the verb tense "Past perfect". And after she finished it, she began to explain how we form it [the subject + verb (to have) in the past "had" + the main verb in the past participle].

She explained to them that in the case of the regular verbs, they just have to put the "ed" at the end while in the case of the irregular verbs as they have already received a chart with all of them and thus the students just need to search for it and check it in their chart. She also explained to them how and when to apply this verb tense by showing them that it is used to express an action that had happened in the past just before another action occurred, so the sentence should have more than just one period. She explained to them the affirmative and the negative form as well, by showing them the right place for the negation "not" and its contraction form "hadn't". Almost in the end of the class, the Mentor teacher Leli made a quick review about the "Tag questions" explaining to them that when the sentence is affirmative, the tag question should be in the negative and vice versa.

When the class finished, we talked a little bit about that class which she explained to me that they are not assiduous and that I would face problems such as having just few students or none in occasional days. She told me that they usually do not bring their books and that I should apply some written activities as a way to control their participation. I asked her about the possibility to stimulate them to learn how to speak the language with pair oral activities, she answered me that they were not used to it and that they would probably find that odd.

That made me rethink about what we have been learning throughout Estágio's subjects; like after she had described all that reality I thought that it would be a big challenge to apply everything we have been taught. I have been idealizing a way to stimulate them to pronounce the words properly and make sentences in English to use the language with the function of communication, however, I felt somehow challenged with that obstacle the Mentor teacher Leli has subtly warned me. But she told me that I'm free to use the approaches and methods I feel at ease since we are there to experiment.     

 

OBSERVATIONS


 

At the beginning of the semester, the Professor tutor Fernanda Mota proposed us to teach in a public school offering us two choices: Manoel Novaes or Henriqueta Catharino and as my criteria to choose was according to the time that would fit with other disciplines I take at UFBA and according to the small period I stay in Salvador, I ended up taking the school Henriqueta Martins Catharino with the Mentor teacher Zuleide Ribeiro Pereira Batista in the class 2nd A in the morning shift, which, according to the Mentor teacher Leli, was a class not meant to be available for the teaching practice because of the recurrent students' dropouts.

The school environment was from a typical public school with lots of frenetic and energetic teenagers making noises, joking around and talking. The classrooms were somehow large, in some classes, students fulfilled all the desks, while in others, there were just a few students distributed randomly. Their behavior was so energetic that frightened the visitors unaccustomed to that context. Even so, they seemed to be respectful to the teachers. The teacher’s attitude seemed to be of a natural authority with a certain distance but in class they seemed to act more accessible to the students’ needs.

All though I could observe just a real class in this school, because I arrived in a week of exams and from what I could analyze in this single real class, the teacher seemed to work very traditionally with no space for the revolutionary theories we have learnt at UFBA. Besides that, she worked with no contextualization, no interaction in the target language and no meaningfulness based on the usage of the grammar topic. 

LITERATURE REVIEW


A short review of the book "Techniques and principles in language teaching" by Diana Larsen-Freeman (2000), where, according to the author, the actions are the techniques and the thoughts are the principles since she conceives the term "Language teaching method" as a coherent set of links between actions and thoughts in the procedure of teaching a foreign language.

Therefore, she tries to bring out thoughts that guide someone's action as a teacher which one may not be conscious about and she also demonstrates how to put those theories into action. According to the author, all the methodological theories she wrote in the book were based on her own experience in teaching the methods/approaches course at the School for International training.

In this book, the author describes some of the main methods used in the language pedagogy that contributes enormously to amplify the perspective in teaching a second language, such as: Grammar-translation method, Community language learning, Total physical response, Suggestopedia, The silent way, The natural approach, The direct method and The audio-lingual method.

A brief inspection in the book Learner-centered English Language Education by David Nunan reveals some of his useful theories in teaching a second language which are the deductive and inductive approaches. According to the author David Nunan, the deductive approach is more traditional and teacher-centered and it is based on the open explanations displayed by the teacher while the inductive is learner-centered and the teacher’s role is to conduct students to get the idea through inferences.

Both the deductive and inductive approaches are unavoidably necessary when it comes to teaching in a public school and for the inductive one is even more revolutionary and indispensable in order to break the traditional approach and allow the classes to be more learner-centered and thus arousing some autonomy in the students' learning process.

Just like the learner-centered and constructivism assumptions, the National Curriculum Parameters also conceive education as a means of constructing autonomous people who are able to think, reflect, act and transform their surroundings for better. For the National Curriculum Parameters, education is a tool of social transformation with humanistic conceptions where students should be prepared not just for the academic matters but they should also be taught how to find their places in society. It concerns about creating people aware of their position in the world trying to cover all the human needs.

New direct and indirect influential texts and media that served to set up this work will be also included in this final report: "No Books and 150 Students" by Kim Hughes, where the author demonstrates that it is possible to teach efficient classes in a context with few resources. "To teach Standard English or World Englishes? A balanced approach to instruction" by Thomas S. C. Farrell and Sonia Martin, the authors discuss about the differences of the English language around the world trying to break the linguistic and cultural bias, he raise awareness that there is not the ideal English but rather many cultural and linguistic diversity that should be respected as well. The movie Freedom writers by Richard LaGravenese, contributed to show that the craft of teaching goes beyond the curriculum contents where the teacher acted as a transformer of students' perspectives and lives for better.

"Learner-centered English Language Education" by David Nunan, which he defends that the function of education is to enable students to learn and it is devoted to the students needs. The book "TESOL" by Kumaravadivelu, which he shows weak points about authenticity, acceptability and adaptability in CLT. "Second Language Teaching & Learning" by David Nunan, which he demonstrates the distinction between an humanistic tradition (behaviorism) and the experiential model (constructivism). "Classroom management" by Marilyn Lewis which she talks about the two motivations in the class: the intrinsic and the extrinsic one. "The ELT Curriculum: A flexible model for a changing world" by Denise Finney, which she approaches the models of curriculum focusing mainly on the constructivism principles, where the classes must be learner-centered for students autonomy and focus on the function of the communication.

 

INTRODUCTION


The main purpose of this work is to reflect on the theories and practices developed throughout Estágio Supervisionado em Língua Inglesa II, being based also on the background constructed in the course LET B28/29- Estágio Supervisionado em Língua Inglesa I and II, some of the pedagogic theories that were analyzed through our observation and applied in our practice in classes.

This final report displays the main movements of the theories I learned and my practices as a trainee teacher in the public school Henriqueta Martins Catharino, all that I learned in practice since I was inexperienced. It also shows some contributions of the researches and readings I did about the methods to apply in class and it reveals all the creativity I had to appeal on my own, which I learned how to develop.      

After the introduction, this final report also contains five observation sheets in which I reported on the classes I observed at the public school Henriqueta Martins Catharino with the Mentor teacher Zuleide Ribeiro Pereira Batista in the group 2nd A grade that soon I was going to teach all by myself. Even though, in my observations, I just had one day of real lesson, since the others were just exams that I most observed, those observations contributed immensely for me to engage with students and to grasp some notions about the pedagogies and methods I should use with them. I started to pay attention to their needs and began to reflect on them.

It also encloses all the lessons plans that I taught during a period of more than just one month which was constituted by only ten days of classes and two days for the final exam. As a result of the strike we had last semester, the trainee period was shortened. It displays all the activities that were applied in class and some homework activities as well as all the classes reports which detail many aspects of my first experience as a teacher, such as the methods and approaches I had in mind as I tried to apply always willing to keep the class more learner-centered with the constructivism, inductive and communicative language teaching educational perspectives.

It also presents the Professor feedbacks about my classes as she went there two times to observe my performance as a teacher, analyzing and contributing with her appraisals and recommendations. It reports all the movements of the classes, everything that happened there, the students’ responses to my approaches, the way that classes were conducted, our relationships, our communication, our empathies, the warm-ups, the creativity I had to discover in my pedagogic potentiality, the flexibility I had to develop, the results, students participation, all my efforts to be understood and to get their attention and so on.     

I may be sincere that at the beginning of the semester I was somehow very anxious if by any chance I would get a difficult class to handle, because of my lack of experience and my intrinsic need of perfection, but in the end, everything just fitted properly for me. And just as the Mentor teacher Leli has told me previously, they were a great class regarding their respect, obedience and solicitude. On the other hand, they were not assiduous at all, which made it really difficult to keep on following the contents; they missed the classes many times in which in most of the cases I had few students in a group that have more than ten students. But even so, the days they were in class, I really enjoyed their accessibility to participate in all the activities I proposed.

In the beginning of the classes, I was also in doubt about the contents I should teach, I asked for the Mentor teacher's suggestions and she told me that I could teach anything from that specific unit in the book which was too large for just one month of classes. Thus, I tried to reach a consensus with my classmate Jefferson as we decided to use some main texts and grammar topics from the school book that was borrowed to us trainee teachers.

In spite of all difficulties that I had at the beginning, I should say that it was indeed a fruitful experience for me, for I could apply many theories I had learned in Estágio Supervisionado em Língua Inglesa I and II, and therefore, I could understand what it feels like to be a teacher, how the teacher should prepare the lessons, manage things in class, be flexible at all the time, develop activities and exercises that would be suitable and helpful for their occasion and so on.     

 

 

segunda-feira, 3 de março de 2014

TWELTH AND LAST CLASS REPORT (FINAL EXAM)


I arrived in the school at 7:40 but I could apply the exam just at 8:20 because Jefferson needed to make copies of the exam. So, I entered the classroom and the two girls were already there waiting for me; I greeted and organized them and explained the procedures to answer the exam. We started the exam at 8:25 AM. For the text interpretation, I told them that if they did not understand the sentences in English, they could ask me to translate it, as I did with most of them, but the text I was not supposed to translate for I had already asked them to read it previously. They told me the text was very hard to understand as they had read it at home, but I imagined that it would be viable because, at home, they were free to resort to many resources to understand that text.

The class remained in silence for a while but occasionally a student used to inquire me about the personal pronoun as she was confusing all of them; she thought "she, he and it" were first person and "I" was third person, but I explained her several times for she was asking me repeatedly about that. But finally she silenced and the class got back to peace. They finished the exam at 8:50 and I told them that I could not give the results that day, because they should come again next week for their teacher Leli would give their results. Alone in the room, I corrected the exams and I was really satisfied with the results, they were very good with text interpretation and a student surprised me amazingly for she demonstrated my methodology had worked well and also because she has shown that she studied hard and learned everything, she got 9.0 and the other one got 7.25. I am very glad with the final results. 

 

 

 

ELEVENTH CLASS REPORT (FINAL EXAM REVIEW)


           I arrived in the school at about 8:00 o’clock AM, I went to the teacher’s room where I found Andressa there and I asked her about the teacher Leli, she told me she was waiting for her too. Since Leli was taking too long to arrive in the teacher room, I decided to ask some other teacher about her, he told me she was in the office room. I went to the office room and then I found the teacher Leli with Rafaela who was still putting students' grades in the class diary. Then, I asked her if my students had come that day, she asked me to go there and verify as I went to my classroom. When I entered the class, there were many noisy students from Jefferson’s class, in the middle of them I saw just a student of mine, another student was missing and someone told me she was out of the class.

I called the only one student to get closer as I sat near her and asked about the absent student as she confirmed she was outside. Then I said I would not wait for her as I started the review just with her. Jefferson's students were making much noise and then politely I asked them to leave the room because of their noise and they obeyed me leaving us in silence. I told her to take note of the grammar topics with the corresponding pages in the book; I handed out the review activity and I started reviewing each one of the four topic, eliciting her to remind them as I had all her emergent doubts cleared up. I realized that in an exclusive direct relation to just a single student, they usually feel more comfortable to ask about their doubts and they participate more, engage more, we perceive their doubts and thus they learn much more.

As she had some more doubts about Tag questions, I helped her to understand its usage, which for affirmative sentences, negative tag questions, and for negative sentence, affirmative tag questions. I elicited her to realize that we have to use the same auxiliary verb of the sentence with the same verb tense, if the first sentence start with the auxiliary verb to be, the tag questions should also use the verb to be and so on. In the middle of the class, at about 9:10 AM, the other student entered the room as I looked at her seriously, but I called her to get closer to us. She came and I asked her to wait until I finish the review with the student.
I reviewed everything with the first student and I read the dialog with her, then she left the room. As for this late student, I explained her that since she had arrived very late, I would be very fast with her. I handed out the activity and I started reviewing each one of the topics but in a very brief way, fortunately she showed to have some domain in the topics I was presenting. I asked her to study hard and I told the pages in the book for her to study those topics as well. Then I asked her to read the dialog, she read it with my direction helping her to understand and to realize the grammar topic usage and then we left the room at about 10:30 AM. Although the time was very short to review four grammar topics, I was very practical and objective with taking this little time to review everything and students contributed for they have reminded and clarified their doubts in a short time

TENTH CLASS REPORT (EXAM)


I arrived in the school at about 7:50 AM and I went to the teacher’s room where I found some of my classmates there. We talked about the exams and so on; then I saw Jefferson and we were instructed to apply the exam at the same room, but since his students were already busy, we decided to apply it in our own classes. Hence, I entered in the classroom at approximately 8:20 AM and there were almost all the students that have appeared already in the class except for a student who had totally disappeared. Someone of her colleagues told me she was dating outside the class and then I thought "Oh God! I know she is already destined for the summer school exam, but at least she should have come for this exam."  I started to organize the class separating all the students and after that, I handed out the exam.

I read everything explaining the procedures to answer it and they got started at about 8:30 AM. They were all very silent and I noticed that most of them who did not come to classes had troubles with answering it. Some of them came to me to ask about the last question which I explained again that they should create a sentence using the indefinite pronoun some, any, no/none and another sentence with its compound forms. I had worked with these pronouns always contextualizing them, bringing them through texts, songs, sentences, dialogs and so on, but even so, they seemed to have problems with it. I started to try to make them remember some songs name which had this pronoun when finally they all remembered some of them.

The first one to leave, even though he used to come to class in the first days, but he stopped coming when I began to teach this content, he had not done the activities which were worth points, he handed the exam and I could see he was not successful in it. When I started to correct it, I saw he had not studied it even if I have asked him to study through the slip of paper with the grammar explanation and activities that I gave to him. He took a grade of 4.0, yet when I analyzed his previous grade, I got surprised for he just needed two points to pass. When all of them finished the exam, I started to correct it as I told them to wait that I would give their grade and the final result soon.

The ones who did the activities throughout the class got better grades than the ones who did not; and for those who did not, I measure the exam as if it was worth 10 points. I got surprised by one student who just came on the first and on the last day, and even so, he took a better grade than many who came regularly. When I asked him about it, he told me he had studied through the slips of paper activity I gave him on the last class. Since I imagined that in the following days students would not come, I decided to give their results and exams that same day. When I finished the corrections, I started to tell their grades and I advised a student who needs to do the final exam in the summer school that our next meeting would be on January 6th , 2014. I asked her to tell the absent student that she also needs to do this exam. I thanked all of them, said goodbye and left the room.  

I'm satisfied because most of them had passed the year, even the ones who never came to my classes. For the one who took a good grade attending just one class with just one activity, I'm happy too, for he has showed that he was an autodidactic student, learning everything just following the written activity I gave him, which portrays the underpinnings of the learner-centered and constructivism ideals that is the autonomy in the learning process. I also realized that the two ones who were to do the final exam were the ones who had missed previous units grades, so it was impossible for them to pass even if they took a ten grade.

 

 

 

 

 

NINTH CLASS REPORT


I arrived in the school at about 10:00 o’clock and I went to the teacher’s room where I saw a teacher who teaches there before me and I asked him since he had already taught there if I could teach there earlier. He told there were few students and I should hurry up because they were leaving. I went to the classroom straight away. However, when I entered the room, there was nobody, so I decided to go after them around the school when I found a student who had been in the class just in the first day for he considered himself already passed the year. I asked him to come into the class and I asked about the others; he told me he would go to the class and he went to call one of his classmate who was somewhere in the school. I went to the classroom in order to wait for them to come in.

I started to clean the board and prepare the materials that I was about to use. When they came in, they sat in front of me and I began to call the roll. I greeted them and I started to show some of the compound forms on the board eliciting them to understand their meaning. Then I explained about the game we were to play. With the ideas of the Content-based instruction approach in mind, I wrote the name of the game "Guess who is the famous" on the board and elicited them to understand the name. I asked who wanted to be the first to come to the front of the class with his back against the board. A student volunteered himself and I explained the game's dynamic by telling that since there were just two students in the class they would have five chances to guess who the famous is and that if they get it right at the first clue sentence, they would win five candies, and at each miss attempt, they would lose a candy, so if they guess it right just in the last chance they would win just a candy and if they miss all the chances they would win no candy.

When they saw the candies in the box, their eyes seemed to shine as they acted really ardently to play the game. Then, longing for playful purposes with contextualization and constructivist principles, I started the game by writing the name of a famous on the board where just the other student could see it and I gave to the first volunteered student a paper with the sentence written with the compound forms of the indefinite pronouns describing attributes of the celebrities. I read the sentence and then I asked him to read it and with no translation he should guess who it was. Since this first student rarely came to classes, he had some difficulties at guessing it at first for he knew just three or four words of the sentence, but I kept helping him by giving clues just in English until he finally got it right at the third time, so he won just two candies at this first round. The second student is the one that is talented with English and he got it at the first chance and he won five candies. We kept playing rounding the two of them until the candies finished and I had to create another sentence clue since all the ones I had done were already used. The talented student got many candies for he was really able to interpret the sentences giving the answers right away.

They adored this game, but I do not know if it was for the cognitive purposes or because of the candies. This game was really motivating since they truly made huge efforts to improve their cognitive English schema which I could notice they started to recall every English word they had inside their minds. Since this warm-up took too much time, I hurried to start with the song I had planned. When I wrote the song’s name on the board, the talented student became so happy for he said he already knew that and that he loved that song so much. I answered: cool! Then I got it right! Thus, I elicited them to understand the song meaning "Somewhere I belong", I helped them to pronounce it and I asked what are the words they think they may find in the song. He told me it is probably about a guy who is constantly searching for a place where he can feel better, where he finds a sense of belonging. I was really amazed for he already knew the song idea.

The other student told us that he did not like Rock and Roll songs, when the talented one who adores this genre, teasingly started to call his classmate a fag because he just enjoyed pagode ones. I displayed the song vocabulary on the board eliciting them to understand the meaning, then I handed the lyrics out and played the song as they started to fill it. Since they were not sure if it was OK, I had to play it four times until they felt secure about it. I invited them to sing it, just me and the one who likes that genre sang the song. In the end of the class, I asked about the compound forms and the song main idea, they showed they were really fast learners as they answered me properly. I advised them to study those indefinite pronouns and its compounds forms for the exam. For homework, I asked them to answer questions 1 to 4 to page number 130. This class was great as well, even if I had used the traditional behaviorism model for I have motivated all the students to participate with external reward strategies, but it worked anyway, even if apparently the real purpose of learning seemed as secondary goal.               

 

EIGHTH CLASS REPORT

 

As most students were leaving school before 11:00 o’clock because of their other classes which were ending earlier than usual, I decided to arrive earlier, so I arrived in the school at 10:00 o’clock and went directly to the classroom to verify if there was anybody there. When I entered the room, there were four girl students. I greeted them and I told we should start that time so that they could be free to leave earlier. I asked them why they have not come last class which I was very disappointed for their negligence; they answered someone told them there would be no class that day as they took opportunity to run off earlier. I was quite sure they would come that day for I thought I had motivated them about the song we would work with.

But anyway, I started doing a brief review about the grammar content they have seen and for my despair, they acted as if they did not remembered in spite of all the efforts and elucidations I had done. I felt further frustrated about that, as if it were not enough but as I started to evoke their memories it all started to be recognized again. I reminded them of the rules for the indefinite pronoun usage and I started to show its compound forms on the board eliciting them to understand how they are formed, what they mean and that they are applied according to the same rules of the indefinite pronoun. I asked their homeworks and explained that it will be graded; they told me they have not done it yet and asked me to hand in the next class. That day there was just a girl who had not come last class and she came to ask me the homework and the activity; I handed it out to her and begged her to bring it next class for it will be part of their grade.

For the song activity I wrote the title on the board, I elicited them to understand it and then I asked the words they expect to hear in the song. Since I elicited them to come into the conclusion that the song addresses the fidelity and loyalty, they mentioned some words like friendship, companionship and trust. I praised them for their craftiness in getting the idea very fast and in predicting it with logic arguments. Then I started to write on the board the song vocabulary as I made efforts to make them get the idea without translation.

Following the inductive approach, I elicited them to understand each main vocabulary, they were very good at it for I had very few challenges to make them understand. I helped them regarding the pronunciation as I read the lyrics in order to enable them to understand what they were about to listen. I handed out the "I'm with you" lyrics and told them that while they were listening to the song they should fill in the blanks with the words they hear which were some of the compound forms indefinite pronouns we had just seen. I explained to them about a broken rule usage that is in the song as they understood that in songs it is normal to break syntax and grammar rules in order to keep the rhymes, timing and harmony.

I played the song "I'm with you" by Avril Lavigne and students listened to it three times and even so they had problems with filling it, probably because of the huge noise out there; thus I had to read again the lyrics so that they could hear the missing pronouns as they filled it. When they finished, I invited them to sing and when I played that again I could hear just my own voice, they felt no self-confidence at singing it at all, all though they told me that song was really beautiful which it seemed they were enjoying the class artistic atmosphere.

After that, I asked them of what they have understood about the compound form, they told me it should be used as well as according to the indefinite pronoun rules they have learned in the previous class. Then, I asked about the themes we can find in the song and we discussed the fidelity and devotion that is necessary to keep any relationship going right, and for homework, I asked them to do the exercise on page number 121 to 123.    

Although the noise was so annoying, the class was also very productive because the song motivated students to be engaged with the class. So, I just would have changed the noise that was impeding for a better communication and it would have allowed them to hear the words of the song. And as I struggle to perform the class just as I planned, always following the class scheme in the agenda,  I taught a great class even with all these obstacles within the conditions I had.   

 

 

SEVENTH CLASS REPORT (THE DAY OF THE DEFAULT)


 
I went to the school at 10:00 o’clock when I saw Diogo and Rafaela there and as soon as I went to the school office to get the attendance book, the Principal told me that day would be no class and that the teacher Lelli tried to call me to tell me but she could not communicate with me. I told Diogo and Rafaela about that, explaining that I had tried to call the Professor Fernanda but she did not answer it, when Diogo told me he would send a message explaining that for me, since my cell phone plan does not allow me to send messages but just to call.

I thanked Diogo, and even so, I went to the class to check if anybody was there. I waited until 11:15 AM, then when I left the room I saw some students of other classes and asked them about my students. They told me they were playing soccer in the gymnasium of sports. I decided to go there to verify; when I arrived there, I saw no girl but many of the boys were playing soccer dressed like women. I decided to leave there really frustrated for having planned a lesson and for being neglected by not being notified about that, making me spend the time.

 

SIXTH CLASS REPORT (THE CHALLENGING AND PRODUCTIVE DAY)


 

As the teacher Leli called me to ask me if I could go to class earlier than usual since students were there without class, just waiting for the English class, we started the class at about 10:00 o’clock. There were four girls in the classroom, the ones that almost never come to class. They were all sitting in front of me but I should have asked them to get closer in a circle. As I started the class, the two professors entered the room and sat behind the class and as expected, it shook all my nerves. Then I greeted all the students and willing to apply the constructivist and communicative approaches, I tried my best to lead them through the construction of knowledge as I started the warm-up inviting them to play the game "guess what is inside the box".

With aspirations to keep the class learner-centered, I showed the box to them and explained how to play the game as I wrote on the board the question with the answers available for them to infer how to use the indefinite pronoun "Some, any and no/none" by notifying that they needed to ask me using that sentence in English. With the inductive teaching method in mind, I attempted to make them infer how we use this pronoun by asking: is this sentence affirmative, negative or interrogative? As they answered me properly; and then I elicited them to understand how and in which occasions the indefinite pronoun should be used but at first in general rules.

With the perspective of the approach Task-based language teaching, I started the game encouraging them to ask me using the written sentences by helping them with the correct pronunciation, which I handled to make them use the target language in a meaningful task. I began to give clues about some of the objects I had in the box speaking in the target language as I tried to make them infer the clues by using mimics, giving clues like relating words to the object, just speaking in English, drawing the object on the board or even giving clues sentences in Portuguese, as I avoided to the maximum any direct translation, and thanks to God they were all very successful since the students were really able to understand very fast all of them.

Following the constructivism principle about contextualization and situational topics, whenever they got the idea, I conducted them to ask me using the written interrogative sentence on the board as it was a great way to keep them using the indefinite pronoun. When they asked me, I answered with the affirmative or negative sentences by eliciting them to understand the sentences: for positive answers I answered positively showing the object to them and with negative responses I answered with one of the three written possible negative answers to apply the indefinite pronoun.

This experiment task in associating the language to a simulating real situation was really meaningful and I got success in all my attempts. As I finished with the general rules to apply the indefinite pronoun, I started to elicit them to understand that those rules had some exceptions, when I handed out the slips of paper illustrating all those details. Then I asked someone to read, and as nobody took initiative, I started to read the paper illustrating all the exceptions, and at each new exception, I elicited them to understand through examples that were in the paper and also through examples that I gave spontaneously.


When it finished, I started to write some vocabulary for the following task to enable students to understand it better. I did my best to enable them to understand the vocabulary and the result was very successful but the only problem is that there was just one or two participative students, while the other two kept more silent and I forgot to engage these others. As I finished with the vocabulary display, with behaviorism and communicative aspirations, I asked them to do another task which was to perform a role-play through a contextual dialog where all those taught rules were applied. As there were three characters in the dialog and since there were just four students in the class I had the insight to call the teacher Leli to perform the "waiter" character with one group while I performed it in the other group. 

They did it very well with my guidance helping them to pronounce properly and understand the text. In the wrap-up, I asked them about the rules they have learned and I got really satisfied when I realized they understood all I had taught. For homework, I handed out the activity for them to apply the indefinite pronouns with all the rules they had seen. I really enjoyed this class for I conducted them to understand, not just showing rules but rather eliciting them toward the construction of knowledge as I struggled to apply many teaching useful approaches and methods. The class was indeed a success, I just needed to foster everyone’s participation, for I tended to interact with the most responsive students.  







 

FIFTH CLASS REPORT (THE DAY OF ENGLISH AS THE TARGET LANGUAGE)


             I entered the room at exactly 11:00 o’clock and there was nobody in class, I started preparing the material as I waited for someone to come in. As the time was going by I went after them in order to find someone out of the class and then I found a student and I asked him to come in. He said to me only himself had came that day and I told him we would have class anyway. I greeted him in English and realizing his potential for the language, I decided to speak most English than Portuguese. He just loved it and made efforts to communicate as well. He was the most interested student in English in the class but even so he hardly comes to classes. And since he had not came in the last lessons, I could not make the warm-up as I had planned by asking about the latter subjects we worked. I had to leave out the first stage of the plan as I took the time to warn him about his missing classes and that I did not have any of his homework even though I knew he was a great English student. And since he had not read the text about sanitation I asked him to do it because it will be in the final exam.

I reflected I should work that day just with the song and when I told him about the song he became so enthusiastic. Then, beginning with pre-reading activities, I wrote on the board the song's name asking him if he knew already that song and if he understood its name. He told me it was familiar, but he was not quite sure about it as he answered he just knew the word "rainbow". He guessed something like "Onde sobre o arco-íris", I told him not exactly, then I made him deduce by asking him "what does the word "where" means?" he knew it and then I took him to conclude by himself the meaning of "some + where"; after understanding it, he could deduce the whole title. I was amazed by his potential to associate and deduce very fast with just one simple elucidation. I asked him what words he may find in this song, I even asked in English and in most cases he could understand it properly, he said to me some sentences like a beautiful and colorful place, a quiet and nice place to go. I was also surprised by his talent to feel the song with just the title as he told me he was very good at literature and he enjoys interpreting texts.

So, I started to write on the board the most challenging words of the song by making him deduce the meaning of them with just a simple clue. The word "clouds" I drew it on the board and he immediately remembered it, the word "lullaby" I sang a Brazilian lullaby song and he got the idea right away. "Bluebirds", he could understood it without my interventions, for the word "melt", I asked him: "what does happen if we put an ice under the sun?" He got it so fast and then I continued doing that with other words as he was very good at getting the meaning of all of them. After showing him the most challenging words, I explained to him the while-activities: when he listens to the song at the first time, he should draw any image that comes in his mind, he should feel the song as I told him that it was to stimulate his ability of imagination. At the second time there was another while activity, he should fill in the blanks with the missing words.

I played the song for the first time as he started drawing, he was so enthusiastically doing that. After that, he showed me the picture with a big rainbow, full of birds, and many other impressions he could sense. He drew it like a dreamful and idealized place as he demonstrated he could feel the song quite rightly. Finally, I handed out the lyric, I played the song for the second time as he filled it very efficiently. Unfortunately, there was no time for us to sing it and in the wrap-up, we started discussing the main idea of the song.

He demonstrated he was really a great interpreter, since he argued: "but teacher, this world described in this song is an utopia, it is like a dream world, there's not such a thing for real." And I told him that the main idea was about an idealistic person who dreams about an ideal and nice place where everything is perfect, where there's no wars, no troubles and that it is there somewhere over the rainbow. It shows a person dissatisfied with the reality that puts his faith on the horizon of the rainbow. I explained to him that most artists have idealistic veins which they appear to be always idealizing and trying to bring it into songs.

I noticed he was really amazed and engaged in our dialog. We finished and I asked him to read the page number 119 as homework. He told me he was to study English Letras for it is so attractive to him; he showed to have potential for literature and artistic inclinations. It was the most fruitful and pleasant class that I ever taught. I thought about working with songs every day since it was really appealing for students to pay attention and engage. He was so fascinated at analyzing and listening to the song. With this activity we worked the four abilities reading, writing, speaking and listening since he put his ears in tune with the song and furthermore with reflections, imaginations and so on. Thus, I want to work with songs in all the coming Fridays.