SIXTH READING

This week we had a reading called 'What is differentiated instruction?', by Carol Ann Tomlinson.

5 words

- Tailoring instruction

- Ongoing assessment

- Flexible grouping

- Master content

- Product assignment

3 main ideas

- Differentiate instruction is adapting to the differences that learners of a classroom can present  in regard to their readiness, interest, or learning profile.

- If a teacher varies his or her way of teaching so that all the pupils, no matter their differences, can learn as positively as possible, that teacher will be differentiating instruction.

- There are at least four classroom elements that can be differentiated: content, process, products and learning environment.

      

Have I seen differentiated instruction during the Practicum?

Yes, I have. In this school many projects are done, in which students can always make their own creations as long as they follow some guidelines. For instance, during the Practicum pupils of 3rd grade had to create a monster to practise the parts of the body. They could do it as they preferred, but they had to describe it as it was created. Therefore, the final products were very different.

Have I seen some critical event this week?

This week there has been the last English lesson for the students of 6th grade before going to the high school. Therefore, the teacher was really interested in knowing how they had felt during the year and if they thought that they had improved their English. She wanted them to express their opinions and feelings but, curiously enough, nobody spoke. She tried and encouraged them to participate, but none of them wanted to say anything. Finally, she told them that if they didn't want to say anything, they could go back to classroom, but the teacher felt sorry for that because she knew that it was their last time together and was very interested in the thoughts of her pupils. 

      

FIFTH READING

The reading of this week was called 'How dialogue with a teacher helps children learn', the 4th chapter of the book Dialogue and the Development of Children's Thinking, by N. Mercer and K. Littleton.

5 words

- Ground rules of conversation.

- Dialogic spells.

- Dialogic teaching.

- Communicative approach.

- Intermental Development Zone (IDZ).

3 main ideas

- Questions come naturally and necessarily in the interaction among teachers and students, although they can serve for many different functions, such as checking students' prior knowledge or understanding of the topic, as well as encouraging them to make contributions. These functions can only be judged in dialogic context. 

- In dialogic teaching teachers have the chance to encourage students to articulate, think about and modify their own understanding through extended dialogues in which both teachers and students participate.

- The contributions made by teachers in dialogic teaching include questions, repetitions, reformulations or 'reasoning words'. In the process of learning a good teacher is the intellectual guide of the students, encouraging them to 'take active and reflective roles in the development of their own understanding'.

1 idea that touches me

- In dialogic teaching children are demonstrated 'how effective collaboration can be an integral element of intellectual activity'. They are engaged in the discussion and have some influence on it. That means that all points of view are taken into account, so they are encouraged and motivated to keep on participating. Besides, a dialogue is built in order to achieve an aim, to understand something, so children realize that by speaking and exchanging points of view, they all can learn from each other. Therefore, students can take as an example the dialogue established among them and the teachers, in order to use it with their classmates in other group works.

Have I seen dialogic teaching during the Practicum?

The teacher usually encourages children to remember what they have done in order to introduce new contents, so she makes questions to elicit their prior knowledge. Unfortunately, due to the kind of exercises that students are doing in these days, there haven't been many chances to see dialogic teaching, as their work is more autonomous. Anyway, this school takes seriously the fact that children have to think and reflect upon their knowledge, so they do different activities in which students are the ones who speak and discuss among them to achieve an aim and learn together, such as projects, group activities or workshops. Actually, I have seen some of this activities, and in the progress of them pupils are the ones who speak, being the teacher a guide in case they need it.

Have I seen some critical event this week?

In the school the children of fourth grade wanted to play with videogames. They had an afternoon in which they could decide what they wanted to do, as long as it was approved by the school. When the teacher knew that the pupils really wanted to do that activity, she made an effort so that the school let them do that. They didn't refuse to it, so the other day they finally could play. It could be thought that it was not so educative, but in fact they were working all the time with values such as sharing and collaborating.

FOURTH READING

The reading of this week is called 'The Integrated Nature of CLIL: A Sociocultural Perspective', written by Josephine Moate, from the Jyväskylä University (Finland).

5 words

- Social nature of learning

- Sociocultural perspective

- Metatalk

- Exploratory talk

- Joint ownership

3 main ideas

- In CLIL talk is at the centre of the teaching - learning process, giving more chances to practice the target language as well as to work in a collaborative way and share knowledge.

- The sociocultural perspective supports the idea that knowledge that is constructed within and recognised by a community becomes part of the resources belonging to that community. Therefore, it refuses the idea that 'each learner 'discovers' knowledge as an individual'.

-Exploratory talk is promoted in CLIL lessons. It represents the collaborative nature of learning and it  highlights language as the tool for knowledge construction with reference to the subject as well as the language knowledge.

1 idea that touches me

'Through talking together, learners think together'. When children share their knowledge and ideas, they all can learn from each other and, by a mutual help, they can reach an educational aim together. CLIL supports children to talk and share, and therefore it promotes this collaborative learning.  

             

Have I seen CLIL during the Practicum?

Unfortunately, I haven't. I hadn't seen any CLIL in the first two weeks, so I talked with the teacher to know if they did it sometime, but she told me that by now the school doesn't incorporate CLIL lessons.

Have I seen some critical event this week?

In the school there are two lines of each course. The other day I went to see a lesson in which children of the last course in Preschool, from the two lines, were playing together. It was a lesson of psychomotor activity, and the children only had two rules: not to hurt anybody while playing and to try to interact with somebody from the other class. The aim was to know each other, because on the first year of Primary Education they will be mixed. The teacher let them play and observed how the interactions were going, in order to consider how the groups could be made. At the end, she asked each child, one by one, with who they had played or would like to play, because they also wanted to take into account their opinions.

THIRD READING

This week we had a reading called 'MARILLE - Promoting plurilingualism in the majority language classroom'.

5 words

- Plurilingualism

- Language/s of schooling

- Multilingual reality

- Intercultural understanding

- Developmental approach

3 main ideas

- Previously plurilingualism in the classrooms was seen as a problem, but it can actually be used as an approach among different cultures and identities that can be found in the own community. In fact, the school should reflect the nature of the community.

- When the different languages and dialects that the students know can be used in the classroom, plurinlingualism is promoted and therefore children can appreciate not only the main languages, but also the little-known ones.

- To promote plurilingualism in schools, all learners and all subjects have to be involved. Therefore the curriculum developers, the school itself and educators, among others, should consider giving support for this to happen. Besides, there should also be opportunities of working with different groups and individuals, so that students can develop skills to live in a diversity of communities. 

1 idea that touches me

'If all learners learn to enjoy the diversity of languages in their communities, to develop curiosity about them, and with this, respect and esteem for languages and those who are plurilingual, this will provide an environment in which learners can be proud of their own plurilingualism'. Languages are an approach to different cultures, and the promotion of their knowledge is a chance for understanding and appreciate other societies. It is a way of unify through the diversity.

                                   

Have I seen plurilingualism during the Practicum?

In fact, all the English lessons are only focused on the English language. The teacher always speaks in English, although the children are not pressured to answer in English, but they can speak in Catalan or Spanish to communicate themselves. So I haven't seen a promotion of plurilingualism in the classroom, although the other day something related happened.

In one of the classrooms there is a student that came last year from Russia. He is starting to speak Catalan and Spanish, but he seems to understand these languages. That day a student brought a book in which the story was written in different languages, being one of them Russian. The teacher then encouraged the Russian child to read the book and also asked him to say some words in his mother-tongue language, so that the other students could have an introduction to it. It was a little act in which another language, which was not the 'language of schooling', was promoted.

                             

Have I seen some critical event this week?

In the school different projects are done during the year. In this course the students of sixth grade are going to Menorca as the final trip, but it is not just about going there. In the school they are doing a project about this topic, completing different activities in a diversity of subjects to get to know better the place where they are going to go, so that they will arrive there prepared and able to move around the place. In fact, they are going to make some activities on their own, without following the teachers. So, although the teachers will be always observing, the thing is to encourage children to be autonomous. 

SECOND READING

The reading of this week was called 'Child-centered education', taken from the Köck Private Foundation. 

5 words

- Enjoyment

- Self - regulated learning

- Learning strategies

- Self - assessment

- Community

3 main ideas

- Children love to learn and they do so in many different ways (playing, through discovery...) and, as long as they have fun while learning, they will do it with enthusiasm.

- Child - centered education supports the self - educational process of the child, enabling him to develop his personality and competencies taking into account his needs and learning level.  

- Child - centered education focusses on the development of the children dealing with everyday problems and tasks, providing different areas and resources for them to experiment and establishing relationships among the whole school community. In the process, it emphasizes the assessment and reflection of the children on their learning.

1 idea that touches me

The fact that the learning methods are agreed between the adult and the child, and adapted to the requirements of this last one. It means that the focus is on children, and everything is done in order to promote their process of learning according to what they need. Therefore, is the school that adapts to children and not them the ones that have to adapt to the requirements of the school. In fact, having to follow those requirements can cause frustration to some children, since not everybody learns in the same way and at the same time. However, through child - centered education this is avoided.

Have I seen child - centered education during this Practicum?

Actually, this week I saw a moment in which the teacher was willing to change an activity because some children didn't want to do it. They were practising the parts of the house, and they were going to start with an interactive exercise in which they had to place different furniture along the house. Once the teacher explained it, some of the children started to make comments saying that they didn't like this kind of activity, so the teacher asked them if they didn't want to do it. In order to be fair, she made a voting with the kids to decide whether they would do it or not.

This attitude surprised me as it was not what I was used to see, but I found it positive. She was not avoiding the comments of the children, but taking into account their opinions, and she was willing to change the programme so that the students would learn the same contents but in a way that was motivating for them. Besides, she also considered that some children perhaps wanted to do that activity, so she took into account the decisions of everyone inside the classroom.

                                

Have I seen some critical event this week?

There was a moment that I found funny to explain, since it was unexpected. In the way of going inside the classroom, some children started to race. However, a teacher saw them and told them to stop. I thought that she would tell them not to do it anymore or that she would punish them being the last ones on the queue, because that is what I have seen most of the times. But she didn't. Instead, she told them to stay still there and say 'good morning' to everybody who crossed that corridor. It was something different that made them do an act that was nice for other people.   

FIRST READING

This weak we had to read a chapter from the book "A butxacades", written by Joan Todó. That chapter is mainly focused on a classroom and its members (the teacher and the pupils), but also on other people related to the school (teachers and families). After reading it, these are some of the things that I have found relevant:

 

                                                     

5 WORDS

Adapting and innovating: I think that the school has to adapt itself to the demands of the society, but with the time those demands change. That is why it is important to consider innovation, in order to offer children possibilities of developing themselves in their own society, dealing with the challenges that it can have. 

Preparing: Teaching is not only going to class; there has to be a preparation before in order to try to take the maximum profit of the lesson.

Talking: Children are learning, living and growing in the school, and teachers are a support in that time. They see how each child evolves, and exchanging views with the other teachers can be positive to check what the pupils need. However, communication is really important not only in regard to children, but also in all the school community. If its members are aware of the development of the school, they will be able to offer their thoughts and ideas as well as help to make it progress. 

Course: Teachers have to be always learning about new resources, strategies, methodologies. Whatever you learn in a course in regard to education can be sometime helpful for the school, children and their development.

3 IDEAS FROM THE TEXT

1. When a routine in class doesn't work, it may be good to try another thing. During the story the lesson always starts with a greeting from the teacher, as if it was a routine indicating that the class starts. But it doesn't seem to work.

2. It is not about finishing the contents and the tasks as quickly as possible. It is about doing it well, so that children can really make the learning.

3. When there is not an agreement among teachers in a school on how to teach, it is more difficult to progress. That happens in the story, where there isn't communication even among the teachers from the same subject.

1 IDEA THAT TOUCHED ME

The view that teachers only work when they are at school, so every day at 5 in the afternoon they are free and in Summer they have three months of holidays. However, many teachers use that time to keep on learning in regard to education, to prepare lessons or to work in the education field. The work of the teacher is not just going to class, but much more. And, above all, it is not an easy task, but requires commitment with what you do and constant effort to make it. 

                                                     

STATEMENT OF INTENT

This Practicum is a great chance to approach to the work of an English teacher and see one of the many ways of teaching a foreign language to children. It is not an easy task, as you have to consider their needs and motivations to take the maximum profit of the lesson. And I am aware of it but, unfortunately, I have only seen a few English lessons during previous Practicums and there is a lot to learn and discover.

Therefore, as I will have a continuous contact with the English class, in these weeks I hope to learn as much as possible from the teacher, the children, the lessons and the school itself; I will see many different interactions and I would like to take something from all of them. Besides, I will have contact with a specific methodology of teaching, so it is an opportunity to see how it works as well as how it can be applied to help children on their learning.

In order to take profit of this stay, I will do a task of observation, but also of interaction and participation. Thus, I will ask my doubts and offer my collaboration in whatever is needed. As I will be part of the class, I want to help, try, and learn from everything I have the chance to do. However, I would like to bring not only my disposition, but also transmit my motivation towards the language learning and teaching.

During these weeks I would like to learn as much as possible from the English educative environment to extend my knowledge of the teaching. That is why I am willing to observe, participate and make an effort in order to finish the Practicum with a very positive sensation.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE SCHOOL

Today there has been the first meeting in the school, and the current sensations after it are very positive. We have met with one of the teachers and she has been very kind and willing to tell us about the school. 

Firstly, she has started by explaining us about the story of the school; she has done that in order to make us understand how some educational beliefs and concepts have finally defined the characteristics of the school. When she has come to those characteristics, she has been giving us examples all the time to make her explanations more clear.

Once she has told us about their methodology of working and the many activities that the school organizes, something that has called my attention is the emphasis that she has given to the collaboration among different levels. Besides, they don't want to work with books, so they focus on other methodologies such as projects. I am excited to see how they work all the time without books, as I have never seen this methodology during the whole timetable.  

After the talk we have seen the facilities. They have not only classrooms for each level, but also for different subjects and activities (English, Science, Music, Expression or Cooking are some of them). The teacher has given much importance to the fact that children are always the protagonists. The school strongly believes in multiple intelligences, so children should have opportunities to create their own personality and be critic. In fact, one of the things that they work with is workshops, with which they can experiment. There are many different spaces and everything seems well organized. 

My first impression is that they are not only focused on teaching contents, but also on the values and development of the person's autonomy. They seem to do lots of different activities with children and, as they don't use books, I am curious to know with which contents they deal and how are they taught. It is going to be a good opportunity of discovering new things and learning, and I am excited to start.