"Teaching through content", "Teaching throught social Interaction", Teaching with hight expectation"

I firmly believe that we, as a future teacher, should try to incorporate these 3 stretegies in every class we teach in order to create a better class environment and to help our students in their process of learning.
I think that with a little imagination, teachers can create fun lessons that integrate conversation skills and tasks with various content no matter what the contents are and what level the classes are. Through trial, error, and determination, I think that many of the basic conversation, games and activities that EFL teachers use can be adapted to fit the needs of content courses.

Teaching through content is a very good way to keep our students motivated and engaged in the activities we planned for them. And based on this principle I think that the best way to accomplish the goals of the class is to encourage students to work in groups so they share their insight and also with the idea that those student who learn faster help those who learn slower and give them feedback.

I would like to be able to apply these three principles in my future classes. I would try to use the most effective strategies that I am learning here to teach my students in order to they can reach their goals.

Problem solving and social interaction.

The activity we planned is about the Mapuches' culture. Students have to follow the following steps:

1st and 2nd step

What do you know about Mapuches’ culture?

Students have to work in groups of 6, the have to Brainstorm, Ideas about what they know.
They also have to write the most important idea in a cardboard and then explain it in front of the class

The teacher gives a brief description and introduction about Mapuches’ Culture; Hometown, Traditions, Food and clothing.
Teacher brings some visual aids. (mapuches’ jewelry )

Brainstorm about students own culture
Students have to work in groups of 6. They have to brainstorm, Ideas about what you know
They also have to write the most important idea in a cardboard and then explain it in front of the class.


3th and 4th

Once the students have shared their ideas, the classroom as a whole decides which the most important concepts about both cultures are. Then, students compare the positive and negative aspects of each culture.

5th step

Students have to work in group of five and create four questions for a Mapuche guest speaker that is coming to the class. The questions have to be created based on what was discussed in class. The interview will be recorder in order to be analyzed in class and shared with the other English classes to make debates and exposition of the Mapuches’ culture.

Learning Through Content

The topic that I chose to teach is about the simple present and the final S/ES

Students have to read a paragraph. Then complete the paragraph about Sam's life using "he" in place of "I". They will need to change the verbs.
Students will know that the present simple tense is used to describe daily activities.

SAM'S DAY:
I leave my apartment ast 8:00 every morning. I walk to the bus stop and catch the 8:10 bus. It takes me downtown. Then I transfer to another bus, and it takes me to my part-time job.I arrive at work at 8:50. I stay until 1:00, and then I leave for school. I attent classes until 5:00. I usually study in the library and try to finish my homework. Then I go home around 8:00. I have a long day.


Sam _leaves_ his apartment at 8:00. _He walks__ to the bus stop and _______________ the 8:10 bus. It takes him downtown. Then_________________to another bus, an it takes him to his part-time job. ___________________________at work at 8:50.__________________until 1:00, and then _____________________for school. _________________classes until 5:00. __________ usually _______________ in the library and ______________to finish his homework. Then ______________home around 8:00.______________a long day.



This example was taken from a grammar book.

Video

In the learning process children learn by association, associating words with things.

"Gina's social and psychological distance to Spanish language, culture and speakers"

1. Social Dominance. Whose social group is more dominant?
I think there is not a great social dominance because the both languages (english & spanish)have a great number of speakers, and they are spoken almost simultaneously.

2.Integration Pattern. How much do learners integrate, or do they do most things apart from the mainstream?
Gina's interaction with the target language can be greater, because there are a great amount of spanish speaker and she can interact with then every time she wants.


3. Enclosure. To what extent does learner's group have their own resources for interaction, such as church, publications, clubs?
There is not information about it.

4. Size. How large is the group?
There is no information about the size of the group.

5. Cohesiveness. How much does the group "stick together"?
The two groups interact each other daily and because of this the second language learner is exposed to the target language and culture many times.

6. Cultural Congruence. How are the cultural patterns and customs of the home culture and the target culture alike or different?
Cultural patterns and customs are totally different.

7. Attitude. What attitudes do the home and target cultural groups have toward one another?
I do not know if the differences are respected but I think that should be a respectful attitude between cultures, understanding differences with tolerance.

8. Intended lenght of residence. How long does the learner intend to stay in the new country?
the learner would be inmerse in the spanish setting just a quarter


Psychological Distance

1. Motivation. Does the learner want to learn the new language?
Gina is always telling us how motivated she is to learn Spanish .She is very willing to learn.

2. Attitude. How does the learner feel toward the target-culture group?
Gina shows a positive attitude toward the spanish speaking culture, she wants to learn Spanish in a short period of time.

3. Culture Shock. Is the learner suffering culture shock
There is no cultural schock at all.

School visit: Bridgeport and Brewster

This has been the most interesting experience that I have had in the United States related to the teaching-learning process maybe because I had the opportunity to get into the classroom and see how an English native speaker teacher teaches to children whose first language is not English. The majority of the students in these both schools come from Mexico but some were born here that why some of them speak English as fluently as a native speaker does but some of them do not.

The fact that caught my attention positively was the size of the class. In Chile there are at least forty five students per classroom and in these both schools the largest class was about twenty nine students or so. Another thing that caught my attention was the fact that every teacher has his/her own classroom and he/ she can decorate according to their students need. I really liked the classroom atmosphere in Bridgeport.

In relation with the second school we visited I did not like it at all because in spite of having a big percentage of Spanish speakers, there were NOT any Spanish speaker teachers. So, I think is pretty difficult for these kids to learn. The only thing I liked from Brewster was its mission in which it was said that “…provide a positive environment where all students reach their greatest academic achievement potential, become self-directed, life-long learners who are able to comprehend, reason and communicate effectively.

Cheer in a positive maner
Lead by example
Always display school pride
Show respect to all
Success through sportmanship

Knowing our students

Anonymous.
(Elementary English teacher)

What I would consider a really successful English learning would imply the development of the 4 abilities in an integrated way and the possibility of applying what students have learned in different contexts. This can be made by designing learning activities (to develop the 4 skills) around a topic of the students's interests. Success should be measured to the extent they can produce oral or written texts based on the information (content, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc) they have learned from the activities, and also from their capacity to understand written and oral texts they read or listen to and to react and give opinions about some issues.
A bad learning would the opposite of what I have outlined before, that is it would be one that is solely based on one component of the language, for example only grammar or a list of vocabulary words out of context, without incorporating activities through which they can create or produce texts (orally and in a written form). Activities which lead to memoristic learning is an example of bad learning.