A Beautiful Experience Teaching to Teenagers

First, I want to thank to God for this wonderful experience, my mentor teacher Lily Tobar for giving me the opportunity to be with her and for supporting me, Ss for participating in all the activities, Teacher Yanira for helping me to grow as a T. Here I share my beautiful experience teaching to teenagers.

The big challenge started on Saturday 3th, September. I spend 8 weeks with Ss. In the first day, I was nervous how my mentor teacher and my students could be. My tutor was Lily Tobar. When I saw her, my first impression was that she was serious and strict with Ss. On the contrary, she is creative, friendly, sweet and patient. Ss were talkative, noise, and friendly. We started in the module 9 and we had 20 Ss. This module was about reading when I heard that came to my mind it would be boring. Also, I thought it would be boring for Ss too because many of them do not like to read despite of that they showed interesting in reading. A month later, we were in module 10, we had 18 Ss. I believed, I would work with others Ss but the surprise was I worked with the same group of Ss and we continued with the same skill.

 Module 9 

For this course, I had many expectations to teach teenagers because I have experience to teach children but this experience was very different. According with the information about teenagers, they are rebels and also some of them look like children, they act immature. All the information that I read before match up with the teenager’s behavior. I could observe the three teenager’s development. For instance, they analyze the situation and they start to take matures decisions. In addition, they have the ability to communicate and make new friends.

I had the opportunity to be in front of Ss five times and I taught them two hours. Before the class, T Lily supported me in how could manage to Ss. Somethings that I like was how they reacted with the activities that I prepared for them. They liked to participate in all of them but sometimes they were talkative and distracted. The firs class was observation. T lily developed all the class, I observed that she did in a creative way, I took into account all the things for example: time management, the materials and the activities. The first time that I taught them, I was nervous but at the same time, I felt confident because as always I prepared my lesson with all activities and the material that I used.  Moreover, they payed attention to all the instructions that I gave them. They showed interesting in the new topic. Something that call my attention was the way that they always worked in groups with the same people for example, girls and boys; I decided to make different groups mixing both of them even though they did not like to work with different people. As a result, it was a good idea they made a good job. In the others classes, I felt better because I knew them. Those practicums were easy for me the way that I taught them. I noticed that they loved competition and they always worked well. In addition, they liked to practice speaking and writing skill. In one case, they created a perfume they were enthusiastic drawing it. They surprised me with the facility to draw and described it. I was happy because T Lily retook the activity for the oral evaluation. I could see at the end of each classes how tired they were, maybe that was the reason why they were distracted.

 They are good in different skills. I could see how fast they learn. At the end of each class, I felt satisfied with all the things that I did because students achieved the objective in each lesson.

Since first day, I felt accepted by my mentor T and Ss. I felt part of the group as if I had been since the first day of class with them. She was a good model for me because she is patient. When Ss did not understand something, she explained again with details or real example T Lily encouraged them to participate in all the activities and she always had a reward for them. In the first classes, I did not do it but I learned it from her. T developed the classes in an interesting way. When I was in front of Ss, she always observed the activities that I did and at the end of each class, she gave me feedback and advice. She said me “congratulation, you are creative in all the activities, I liked it” and I can say the same for her all the activities that she prepared, Ss enjoyed it. She was comprehensible; she gave me the time that I considered necessary for all the activities.

Module 10

Everything in life is good; the positive aspects help to motivate and the negative aspects help to improve. In this experience, the positive aspects were the opportunity to work with teenagers they helped us to continue growing up as a teacher, they learned from us and we learned from them. Also, we had the opportunity to observe how the mentor teachers developed the class with teenagers. Moreover, We have to prepared lessons and materials according with the level of students and the skill. I just find a negative aspect I could have the opportunity to work with other skill just with reading. However, I enjoyed and acquired knowledge. I will take into account all the suggestions that my mentor T did me for the next practicum “Teaching to Adult”. I feel proud as the result of this experience.

Thank You  

Class #6: Saturday 15th October, 2016

 Ss took a page to their notebook. They wrote a sentence about personal information. After that, they made an airplane. They threw it and the person who took it had to guess who wrote the sentence. One of the airplane said “I love music”, S guessed who wrote it.

T Lily presented the vocabulary. She gave a dice, Ss threw it, and the high number had the opportunity to choose a word and match the word with the definition.   

Ss practiced the vocabulary on page 106. They completed sentences using the vocabulary.  After, they compared with the person next to them and with the whole group.

Ss chose a word from the vocabulary and they created a sentence. They passed the dice for sharing the sentences.

T asked to Ss what kind flowers they knew in English. They mentioned rose and Jazmine.

Ss word on page 100. They scanned the text and predicted what the reading was about. Ss listened and read the text at the same time. Ss looked for new words.

After that Ss showed reading comprehension on page 104.  They chose the best answer for each question. Also, they compared the answer with their partners.

Ss read again, T asked to close the book. T threw the dice the S who got the highest number answered a question and they won points making by T. Ss got points.

The second reading was for me. The name of the Unit was “the power of perfume”

 I presented some pictures of perfumes. Ss told me if it was for woman or man, and what the smell were.

I presented the vocabulary with an interactive power Presentation. Ss made two groups. Group A chose a person to the group B. T asked the question relate to the vocabulary for example: A plan that shows how much money you have and how you will spend it. You would have the definition of? The possible answers were A. Bill B. Budget C. Bulletin D. Shipment Student answered the question and they had to say if it was your final answer. If they did not, they had three jokers phone a friend, poll the audience, and 50 / 50. Phone a friend was they could ask one person of the group to help them. With Poll the audience, had the group to vote on the answer. 50 / 50 the teacher could tell them which two are not answers.

I pasted the vocabulary’s words on the board. Ss made two lines. T read the definition and Ss swatted the word who matched with it.

I asked to Ss scanned the text. They did it. After they answered the question on page 107. The question said, “Why does the passage mention baseball Dereck Jeter?” they said because they had her own brand of perfume.

Ss read and listen the text at the same time. They showed reading comprehension on page 110. They compared with the person next to them and after, with whole group.

Ss created a specific question of pieces of paper. T read the questions to the contrary group. If they answered, they won a point.

Finally, Ss made groups of four. They created a new perfume. They drew it. Also, they invented the name, the brand and the smell. 

Class #5: Saturday Oct 1st, 2016

This was the last Saturday in the module 9. Ss were impatient because they had an exam. Also, they wanted to know if they passed the module.

The moment came I did the warm up and it was “Simon Says”. Ss made two groups and they chose a leader to each group. When I said a command. They had to do the action and the person who did it first got a point. The last thing that I said was “Simon says… bring a pairs of shoes” they did it; I thought that they were shy but the opposite they were optimistic in this activity. They enjoyed this activity.

My colleague Roxana had 1-hour class. She began asking Ss to open the book. Ss worked on page 9. They had to complete the information with the words in from the box.

T Roxy presented the vocabulary. She pasted different folders list from 1 to 20. Ss were dividing in two teams. Ten of them had words and the rest the definitions. Ss choose two different numbers if it matched they got a point. I liked this activity because they were concentrated. The problem was the spaces on the board to show clearly the word and the definition.  

After this activity, Ss worked on page 96. They practiced vocabulary. They completed the sentences with the words previously studied. They did not complete the activity because they took an exam. They were nervous.

When they came back to the classroom, they worked on page 92. They had to scan the text after they did it they read the complete text and in pairs, they wrote two sentences as summarize to each paragraph. Some of them did it, but the other were thinking on the exam.  

The second warm up did T lily. She wrote 3 sentences. Two of them were true and the other was F, Ss tried to guess it but in the first time was not possible, in the second time they guessed it. After, Ss wrote 3 sentences too, they had to asked to the class. They wanted to continue but the time was over.

Ss scanned the text and they looked for the words that they did not. T Roxy clarified the doubts. Ss read the text again but in this time for making sentences a summary to each paragraph.

Ss worked on page 24 they showed reading comprehension. They had to answers some question related to the reading and they chose the correct.

Ss made two sentences about the reading. Ss made two group. They made a debate, a person to each group had to read a sentences and the other group have to answer if it was true or false the group who answered well got a point. Some of them are distracted. They did not work because was the last class of the module 9. 

Note:

Class #4: Saturday Sept 24th, 2016

 This Saturday, I felt nervous because I was my turn to teach a class of 1 hour. I prepared my reading lesson Unit 5 B it was about the people who works deep under New York City.

T Lily prepared a warm up. T gave a piece of paper to each pair. Ss had to say the color that they saw even if they had the word with different color. At the beginning, Ss did not get the idea but when they started to practice they did it well.

In the pre stage, I asked Ss to open the book and looked the page 75. An S read the instruction. Ss looked a photo in page 76 and they guessed the information that they would read.

After, I presented the vocabulary; Ss matched the words with the definitions. We checked if it was ok. I ask to read the word with the definition to each students who pasted it. One of them was wrong and an S helped me to correct it. Ss practiced the pronunciation.

Ss worked on page 80. Ss completed the information with the vocabulary presented in the previous activity.

I gave to each students, this paper contained a number the Ss who had the same numbers worked together. Ss started to read the passage   “New York’s Underside”. They had to switch for reading each paragraph.

In the next activity, Ss created a new title for passage. a pair said "Dangerous job in a tunnel" I observed that they are creative for it because they did it quickly.

Ss worked in the book on page 78. Ss showed reading comprehension to answer questions.

After that, Ss made three specific questions about the reading. Ss made two circle one inside of the other. One of them walked and when I said stop the person who had in front asked and answered the questions.

In the last activity, Ss created a new job. They supposed that they do it. They explained why the job is dangerous.

T gave names of fruits to all Ss those were banana, strawberry and mangoes.  T told Ss a story suddenly T said “banana”. The last students who got up answered a question that the rest of the group asked him/her. I saw that some of them did not know what ask. I think give them key words to encourage. For example “Food” Do you like Salvadorian food?  They can create this type of question.

T Lily presented the vocabulary. She pasted the definitions and Ss had to match with the words. They checked if all of them were correct. After that, they practiced pronunciation.

In the next activity, T asked them what came to their mind when they listened the word “SEA” they said beach, sunny, fish, etc.

Ss did the exercises on page 84. Ss looked the photo and they answered T or F to each statement about the coral reefs.

Ss looked the title on page 84 they thought they would read about and checked it. Ss shared the answer with the whole group.

T played the reading. Ss checked the pronunciation. In addition, T asked for new words.

After that, Ss worked on page 88. They showed reading comprehension. They answered question relate to the reading. They shared all the answers with the group.

Finally, Ss had oral evaluation. They had not seem nervous. I think they were relax. They invented a place; they had to describe what it had inside and outside. Moreover, they drew the place. They had to use for vocabulary words.

Note:

Class #3: Saturday September 18, 2016

This Saturday was nice because teacher Lily gave the opportunity to do the warm up I felt nervous but at the same time, I was excited to do it. The moment came I greeting to students I asked how they were. Also, I asked if they were ready for the presentation and hey felt a little bit nervous about it.

 Students were dividing in three groups they made lines the last students in each line saw a word and s passed it by whispering to next person until it finally got the first S who wrote the word on the board. They wanted to win for this reason they did not pass the word by one by one they said it to the first person. For the second time they tried to pass the word one by one and the person who finished first had a point. I am surprised with them because they are creative. For this activity, I showed the word  “ ENSURE” but they did not pass it like this, they said advanced and S wrote “ADVANCED” it was funny but I tried to encourage to say the correct word. 

T presented the vocabulary. She gave the words and the definitions some Ss. The matched the word and the definitions. After that, they checked if it was ok. She corrected the pronunciation of the words.

Ss made two sentences using the vocabulary. T gave a ball. Ss passed it to find a volunteer to share a sentence. They did original sentences. One of the said    “This is a silent town” all of them laughed because they know that they are very talkative. T said that example was excellent.

The next activity was answer questions. They discussed three question from the book. It was relate of Cataphiles, they gave their opinion what they thought about it. T gave Ss two balls of different colors. The color blue meant ask question and the white ball meant answer the question. Ss passed it, one S asked and the other answered. This activity was good because nobody wanted the white ball; they were expecting to pass it. 

Ss worked in an activity from the book; they looked at the diagram of Paris. They matched the events with the date. Ss shared the answer. They felt confused I think because they did not pay attention to the dates for this reason they got confused but they did it well.

T gave some seconds Ss for scanning the reading. After that, T asked what they thought about it. Ss read all the reading and T asked if they had new words.

Ss worked on page 72. They chose the best answer to each question. They understood the passage because the majority of answer were ok. They showed good reading comprehension.

My colleague Roxana did the second warm up. She made three groups and lines. Ss passed a word but in this time letter by letter, Ss passed the letter drew on the back until form all the word. One of the group was disqualified because they said the complete word. 

Ss created three comprehension questions and a T or F question based on the previous reading. T gave money lies. Ss asked to other classmate to each Ss if they answered  Ok they paid to their classmates.

 T gave some minutes to prepare for the oral presentation. Some of them were  and were not nervous. Ss spoke for 3 minutes about strange things from a country. They had to use four vocabulary’s words. Ss tried to do the best and they did it. They surprised me the way that they expressed their ideas. 

Note: 

Class #2 : Saturday 10th September, 2016

T greeting to students. After, Ss made an activity; they made a circle. They had to throw the ball to other classmate. The S who throw the ball, he/she had to say one of those words “water, air or earth”. The person, who had the ball, she or he had to say an animal depend of the words for example (S1 threw the ball and said “Water”, S2 who had the ball said “Fish”). I really like this activity. They enjoyed it.

In the next activity, Ss received a paper with a question and they had to ask to other classmate. For example, s1 ask the question can you say “hello” in Spanish. The S2 answered the question and he/she said “hola”. This activity was good because they showed interested to answers and did it.

 My colleague and I helped T to past the words and the definitions on the board. T asked for a number from 1 to 16. The group who guessed, they had the possibility to match the word with the definition. Ss felt confused with the definitions of some words because the word “Something” (Sth) was abbreviated. I think is better to write all the word or explain before the meaning. In addition, they practiced the pronunciation.

 Ss worked in the activity from the book related with the vocabulary. I liked it because they did it. After, they compared with the person next to them. Also, they made 2 sentences in pairs using three vocabulary’s words and they wrote on the board. T checked if it was ok. Ss showed interested to use the new vocabulary that means how much they learned.

After the break, they played stop the bus. They worked in groups of four. T said a letter, for example, “s” they had to complete the categories using a word that start with the letter “s”. The group who had more points was the winner. I could see that Ss worked as a group and they tried to do it as fast as they could.

Ss worked in page 59. Ss read the instructions. They did the exercises and they shared answers. If someone had the wrong answer, her/ his classmates helped her/him.

They went to see presentations of the module 16. I could see that they were impressive for the way that the Ss of module 16 talked and English. This helped to motivate them.  

 They came back to the classroom and they listened an audio and read at the same time. Ss worked in page 62 they had to answers according with the previous reading. Ss passed the ball to find a victim. The person who had the ball shared the answers. Ss worked in the activity in pairs. The identified the main or supporting idea of the exercises and wrote “M” means main idea and “S” supporting idea. They felt enthusiastic for sharing the answers. They understood the activity.  

T enumerated each S with number 1 or 2. The number 1 was the “taxy” and number 2 the “driver”. The taxi closed the eyes and the driver had to guide the taxy. When T said green, they had to walk. If the T said red, they had to stop and if she said yellow, they had to change partners. They enjoyed it. Something that came to my mind while observing this activity was the noise. T controlled it and Ss were careful in it.  

Ss read the reading one more time and they closed the book. Then, Ss divided boys and girls. They played a board game.  They had to throw the dice. After, T asked a question if the Ss answered correctly, they advanced according with the number of the dice.  This activity was awesome because they practiced all that they have learned.

Note: In this class, something that I like is that Ss like to participate in all the activities. T encourage them to do a good job and when they have a question she help them in the better way. 

Class #1: Saturday 3rd September , 2016

Program: Saturday

Level: Module 9  

# of Ss: 20 

Book: Reading Explorer "Unit 1-6"

The first big day came; I was nervous because I did not meet my tutor and my colleague. At the same time, I felt excited to meet who were the students.  I am doing my second practicum in the module 9. In the first day, just fifteen came to class.

When we arrived to the classroom, students were speculating why we were there. I thought they would feel shy or afraid.  I was surprised because I saw that they felt comfortable. Our tutor teacher gave us the opportunity to introduce ourselves. I felt very comfortable with them.

At the beginning of the class, Ss made two groups girls and boys.  Some capitals and lowers letters were writing on the board. T said a capital letter. Ss had to touch and think a word with it. For example, T said letter “B” Ss touched the capital letter and said “Boy” the way that student reacted to this activity was good because they felt comfortable in each group. I would like to do this activity because they enjoyed it. However, I would modify some things. First, I would like to model it because I saw at the beginning they did not get the instructions and they were confused. I would like to mix the groups because I said before they felt comfortable and they did not socialize with the girls.

After this activity, T presented the vocabulary, she asked the winner to match the word with the definitions. I noticed that they reacted afraid I think it was because they did know the words after Ss tried to match it and they did it very well. After that, Ss practiced the pronunciation. This activity was good despite they did know the words they tried to do it. The only thing I saw was some Ss did not repeat the words to practice the pronunciation.

The next activity, T gave papers to each groups (girls and boys). They had to match the words with the synonyms. They did it very well. Ss checked the answers with the T. one of them was wrong and they tried to correct it.

T ask to Ss opened the book and worked in the page 51. This activity was about the match the words to definitions. After, Ss played “hot potatoes” to find a victim for sharing the answers.

Ss made sentences with the vocabulary. When Ss finished doing it, they wrote on the board, T asked them if it was ok. If one of the sentences was wrong, Ss helped to correct the sentence. When I observed this activity, I saw Ss motivated doing the sentences.

Ss moved to the next unit “Bride of the Sahara” T asked if they found information about it. Nobody did not found it. Then, Ss read the information from the book. I could see that the majority of Ss payed attention to the reading. T played an audio and Ss read at the same time T asked if they had new words and they had, she explained it.

 Ss moved to the exercise in page 56 they had to choose the best answers for each question. Before they shared to the all group, they shared with the person next to them they wrote a question and they had to answer. If the answer was wrong. They had talk for 30 second. The tried to do the best of them.

After the break, T divided the word in two and wrote the word “CONSTANTINOPLA” Ss worked in the same groups and they wrote a word with each letter. They enjoyed it.

In this activity, my colleague and I helped to T. I gave the words and she gave the definition to each students. Ss had to look for the definition, and they pasted on the board. Ss checked the vocabulary. T asked if they had any question. They were afraid because they did not the vocabulary. The word that they did not get the meaning was “Tent” but they tried to find it.

Ss discussed questions related to wedding and they gave good examples. One of them was “The boy does not see the girls with the dress before the wedding”. I like this kind of activity because Ss shared their own ideas.

Ss moved to read the text from the book in pairs taking turns. After, they read and listened the audio at the same time and they looked for a new vocabulary after they made exercises about reading comprehension. Ss passed a ball to find a victim for sharing the answers.

 T divided the class in two groups and make some questions but in this time they did not see the book and if they answered correct they had the opportunity to write X or 0. Ss like this kind of games.

Students wrote one sentences and in pairs, they asked to each other if someone did not know the answers. They had a punishment. They were motivated to do the best because they did not want a punishment.

Ss saw a video and they have to answer the activity from the book. They were focus on the video they answered correct the exercise.

Note: Something that I have learned in this class is Ss love competitions and they want to show how they have learned. T is a dynamic person and she always wants to do an interesting and funny class. I thought the class would be boring for them because they do not like reading, she tries to do it interesting for them. They show curious to learn more.  

Error Analysis Chart

The error analysis chart helped to identify different mistakes that I had in my entry. It helped me a lot because I could reflect about my mistakes how I wrote it and how I should write. As well, I can improve my writing skill. After doing this exercises, I felt more confident to put in practice all I have learned. I would like to do this exercise with my future students because I can evaluate the progress that they have in learning English but the most important thing is that they can correct by themselves. 

Don Bosco University                  School Languages                                                  Teaching Practicum II /2016

ERROR ANALYSIS CHART (spot the mistake in the sentence or phrase and highlight the correct and incorrect part )
I wrote…	I must have written …, because.
1.     I consider to myself helpful person,  2.      I decide to study it because I think 3.     I hope everything it will be ok 4.     in others cases 5.     They get shameful when somebody see the changes 6.     there are teenagers that know what going to happen 7.     may have the most difficulty with menstruation 8.     They have to explain before to come an adolescence 9.     Piaget describe the individual develop in four stage 10.      In addition, teenagers has more reasonable thinking 11.    It is the interaction that adolescence have with friends, family, community.  12.     Erick Erickson said that the adolescences should determine 13.   It means that many time, teenagers all the things that their peers do or say (drink, smoke and sex) to be accepted in the group. 14.  As teachers, we can be positive things in their life and have confident attitude 15.     we can use learning strategies actively engages students 16.  It help them to active the brain 17.   I thought that every teenagers changes 18.    are teenagers that know what going to happen with the teenager’s period	1.     I consider to myself a helpful person. (The article “a” is missing). 2.     I decided to study it because I think ( the verb “decide”  has to be in past tense) 3.     I hope everything will be ok ( the subject “IT” is not need) 4.     In other cases,  ( “others” must not be pluralized) 5.     They get shameful when somebody sees the changes (somebody is third person and for this reason, the verb “see” has to conjugate with “s”) 6.     there are teenagers that know what’s going to happen (the verb “ TO BE” is missing) 7.      may have the most difficulty with menstruation  “Research findings suggest that adolescent girls who are unprepared for the physical and emotional changes of puberty may have the most difficulty with menstruation.” (This quotation is textual from the book. Nevertheless, “difficulty can be in plural). 8.     They have to explain before beginning the adolescence. (The verb does not match with the idea). 9.     Piaget describes the individual development in four stages (the subject is third person and the verb has to be conjugated with “S”). 10.   In addition, teenagers has more reasonable thinking (the subject is plural). 11.    It is the interaction that adolescents have with friends, family and community (the word “adolescents” is misspelled). 12.   Erick Erickson said that the adolescents should determine (the word “adolescents” is misspelled) 13.    It means that many times, teenagers do all the things that their peers say (drink, smoke and sex) to be accepted in the group. (The order of the words is not ok). 14. As teachers, we    can be a positive influence in their life and have confident attitude the verb. (The idea is unclear). 15.       We can use learning strategies to engage students actively. (The adverb’s position is at the end.) 16.    It help them to activate the brain. (“Actively” is the adv.  and “activate” the verb). 17.    I thought that every teenager changes (“every” is singular and the noun teenagers is not pluralize). 18.   Are teenagers that know what´s going to happen with the teenager’s period (the verb “TO BE” is missing)