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 6^th , 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.