Infographic
A reflection on my teaching practice
The above image shows an info graphic on my reflections after implementing my teaching unit. This was on the topic of explorers and adventurers for 3rd grade of primary education. The main aspects I have worked with my students are: navigational tools used by adventurers and its utility nowadays (such as: the compass and the map), and secondly, to identify key events in history by doing a research on the most significant explorers. This teaching sequence was implemented in two classes of 17 students each one.
Students have been highly engaged in all activities and always willing to participate when I asked questions. In general, children wanted to share their ideas, not only with the teacher but also among them. Most of the times, I started the sessions asking what we had done in the previous one, to see what they remembered and what might need to be worked deeper. This was very helpful to keep track on the learning of students and also useful for them to know what we were working on. From my point of view, this strategy worked perfectly and students in the last session could still remember what they done in the first session. I believe that revising the most important concepts constantly helped them to get the big picture of the whole topic.
Furthermore, regarding the activities, I tried to give the chance to all children to participate and be able to complete them. To do so, I adapted some materials to make sure it was accessible for everyone. The biggest issue with these students was the writing skills and the command with the language (some newcomers in the classroom with no difficulties to understand or communicate using English). When completing a worksheet, I gave them different options to answer a question and wrote the key words in the white board so they could copy them. Also, paring them with other students worked well as they could help each other.
English is the vehicular language of the school and also in the classroom. Therefore, the main language used to communicate with the teacher and among peers was English. Even the students with difficulties understanding the language did an effort to use it. In class discussions I used both closed and open questions to give the chance to everyone to say what they thought. This worked perfectly and immediately saw the results when the two girls who hardly speak English answered simple questions with “yes” or “no”, and when giving directions used “north”, “south”, “east” and “west”. In my opinion, I was able to overcome this challenge and everyone was able to participate in an oral discussion. Moreover, Russian and Spanish were also present in the classroom. Russian was used to translate and communicate with one of the newcomer students with no command of English. On the other hand, Spanish was used for students whose home language is also Spanish. In this case, I had to ask them to change to English or take away Dojo Points (this is a rule of the school).
In addition, one of the biggest challenges I had with this group was the behaviour of students and for them to follow instructions. This is a general trend with all the teachers in the school; however, the consequences are significant: it slows down the group and it is difficult to do all the work one must get through in a session. Not knowing the class group on the first session was a huge challenge as I had no idea how the group worked. However, having the chance to implement this teaching sequence in two groups has given me a clearly view on the differences among them. It was difficult to make sure that both classes worked the same contents as one worked much faster and finished the work earlier (what caught me by surprise on the first session). Due to this, there was also a time issue difficult to control, especially in the last session. With one group I had time to go through everything we had worked on and debate on the topic. On the other hand, the other group had difficulties to finish the posters on time. Having to manage these differences between both groups and working with a challenging group has helped me develop my classroom management skills and has taught me to be prepared and have extra work for early finishers.
Moreover, another aspect I would like to improve is group work. In the second session I tried to work in groups giving each student a task but it was a big chaos and most of the students did not accomplish the objectives. They constantly argued and fought because of the work, incapable of working together towards the same outcome. Due to this, I changed the activities and started working in pairs. I could clearly see major improvements with this, students were on task and they got the work done. I also added an individual part in all sessions to make sure everyone paid attention to what they were doing. These two changes were the key to the success of the teaching sequence. However, now I still feel like I have failed with this part of the implementation because I wanted students to work cooperatively in groups. The changes I made were mainly taking into account the characteristics of the class group and trying to make what was best for them. I believe that for students to work autonomously in groups a lot of work has to be done previously, and this was what I lacked. Therefore, starting to work with pairs and setting the base of cooperative working has been an important change which has really improved the results of the teaching sequence.
In general, both classes had difficulties to follow instructions. I had to guide them step by step in all activities and even go over these during the lesson. As I have said above with group work, I also believe that for students to become more autonomous when working is a matter of time and constant work. I started by giving them instructions but without using examples and I immediately saw some of my students lost. During the implementation, I started writing the instructions step by step in the white board and going over every single part of the work with them. Also, together with the students we created a clear example on the white board or using a projector so that everyone knew what they were doing. The only session I did not show an example was with the poster because I wanted them to be as creative as possible. The ideas they came up with were absolutely fantastic and the results are outstanding.
Regarding the final results of the teaching sequence, from my point of view, I believe children accomplished the objectives I had set. However, I think a lot more reflection on the topic could have been done but due to a lack of time this was not possible. Also, students are not used to think and reflect on different topics so it was a challenge to get them thinking. I really tried by asking them questions in almost the end of all sessions but still I feel a lot more work on this aspect could have been done with more time.
All in all, the experience of planning a teaching sequence and being able to implement it helped me develop my teaching skills why applying all the things I have learnt during this teaching degree. It has been a wonderful experience which I am certainly looking forward to repeat.
Students have been highly engaged in all activities and always willing to participate when I asked questions. In general, children wanted to share their ideas, not only with the teacher but also among them. Most of the times, I started the sessions asking what we had done in the previous one, to see what they remembered and what might need to be worked deeper. This was very helpful to keep track on the learning of students and also useful for them to know what we were working on. From my point of view, this strategy worked perfectly and students in the last session could still remember what they done in the first session. I believe that revising the most important concepts constantly helped them to get the big picture of the whole topic.
Furthermore, regarding the activities, I tried to give the chance to all children to participate and be able to complete them. To do so, I adapted some materials to make sure it was accessible for everyone. The biggest issue with these students was the writing skills and the command with the language (some newcomers in the classroom with no difficulties to understand or communicate using English). When completing a worksheet, I gave them different options to answer a question and wrote the key words in the white board so they could copy them. Also, paring them with other students worked well as they could help each other.
English is the vehicular language of the school and also in the classroom. Therefore, the main language used to communicate with the teacher and among peers was English. Even the students with difficulties understanding the language did an effort to use it. In class discussions I used both closed and open questions to give the chance to everyone to say what they thought. This worked perfectly and immediately saw the results when the two girls who hardly speak English answered simple questions with “yes” or “no”, and when giving directions used “north”, “south”, “east” and “west”. In my opinion, I was able to overcome this challenge and everyone was able to participate in an oral discussion. Moreover, Russian and Spanish were also present in the classroom. Russian was used to translate and communicate with one of the newcomer students with no command of English. On the other hand, Spanish was used for students whose home language is also Spanish. In this case, I had to ask them to change to English or take away Dojo Points (this is a rule of the school).
In addition, one of the biggest challenges I had with this group was the behaviour of students and for them to follow instructions. This is a general trend with all the teachers in the school; however, the consequences are significant: it slows down the group and it is difficult to do all the work one must get through in a session. Not knowing the class group on the first session was a huge challenge as I had no idea how the group worked. However, having the chance to implement this teaching sequence in two groups has given me a clearly view on the differences among them. It was difficult to make sure that both classes worked the same contents as one worked much faster and finished the work earlier (what caught me by surprise on the first session). Due to this, there was also a time issue difficult to control, especially in the last session. With one group I had time to go through everything we had worked on and debate on the topic. On the other hand, the other group had difficulties to finish the posters on time. Having to manage these differences between both groups and working with a challenging group has helped me develop my classroom management skills and has taught me to be prepared and have extra work for early finishers.
Moreover, another aspect I would like to improve is group work. In the second session I tried to work in groups giving each student a task but it was a big chaos and most of the students did not accomplish the objectives. They constantly argued and fought because of the work, incapable of working together towards the same outcome. Due to this, I changed the activities and started working in pairs. I could clearly see major improvements with this, students were on task and they got the work done. I also added an individual part in all sessions to make sure everyone paid attention to what they were doing. These two changes were the key to the success of the teaching sequence. However, now I still feel like I have failed with this part of the implementation because I wanted students to work cooperatively in groups. The changes I made were mainly taking into account the characteristics of the class group and trying to make what was best for them. I believe that for students to work autonomously in groups a lot of work has to be done previously, and this was what I lacked. Therefore, starting to work with pairs and setting the base of cooperative working has been an important change which has really improved the results of the teaching sequence.
In general, both classes had difficulties to follow instructions. I had to guide them step by step in all activities and even go over these during the lesson. As I have said above with group work, I also believe that for students to become more autonomous when working is a matter of time and constant work. I started by giving them instructions but without using examples and I immediately saw some of my students lost. During the implementation, I started writing the instructions step by step in the white board and going over every single part of the work with them. Also, together with the students we created a clear example on the white board or using a projector so that everyone knew what they were doing. The only session I did not show an example was with the poster because I wanted them to be as creative as possible. The ideas they came up with were absolutely fantastic and the results are outstanding.
Regarding the final results of the teaching sequence, from my point of view, I believe children accomplished the objectives I had set. However, I think a lot more reflection on the topic could have been done but due to a lack of time this was not possible. Also, students are not used to think and reflect on different topics so it was a challenge to get them thinking. I really tried by asking them questions in almost the end of all sessions but still I feel a lot more work on this aspect could have been done with more time.
All in all, the experience of planning a teaching sequence and being able to implement it helped me develop my teaching skills why applying all the things I have learnt during this teaching degree. It has been a wonderful experience which I am certainly looking forward to repeat.