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.