How to Teach Computing

This second learning diary was prepared for another MOOC

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Creative use of Tablets in Schools

This is the learning diary which I prepared for the MOOC.

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Argentinian Sins in the classroom

It might be that teacher's concern at the very beginning of the year is mainly Behaviour. It could also be the fact that we wish to settle the way we should work for the rest of the year. Now that I come to think of it, it could also be that I have been too influenced by the teachers my students had before. Whatever the reason is, I feel terribly worried about my student's behaviour. 

I've read a thousand articles about dealing with disruptive students and behavioural issues in the classroom. The truth is that I couldn't come with any definite conclusion or solution to the problem as many English webpages come with recipe-like ideas which may prove useful for foreign students. But my Argentinian students' of English have the Argentinian gifts of talking without listening to the person they are talking to, interrupting when it is somebody else's turn to talk, making unnecessary “funny” comments which disturbs the rhythm of the class, just to mention the most noticeable ones.

Thus, as it is an innate characteristic which comes with them and is activated once they receive their Argentinian ID, most of my students share this quality. I have a minimum of 19 students who talk at the same time, who interrupt, who ‘share’ unnecessary. What could be done when the majority of students behave similarly, when they feel that this kind of behaviour is the expected one for their ages in the XXI century?

I have tried a variety of feelings to ‘share’ with them, like emoticons in whatsapp. I’ve been happy that we had the challenge, confident that we could improve, disturbed that I couldn’t notice any change, angry because they didn’t react to my ‘speeches’ and sad because last Wednesday I realised I lacked the most important issue: trust. Every time I talk to them o even threaten them I, myself, don’t believe a word of what I am saying, how on earth can I transmit it to my students. Unfortunately, I am an Argentinian teacher of English who doesn’t trust the system any longer.

Next issue: how to 'kick the board' and do something for these Argies, both teachers and students...

21st century skills - Final Reflection

5th forms project have been designed and developed to enhance some of the skills necessary for a 21st century learner.

- Summarizing skills: when dealing with summarizing skills, students worked really hard reading webpages, books and cards which had information about the different projects. They read paragraphs and they had to obtain the main ideas, summarizing them in one or two sentences. Then, they created collaborative presentations with the information they gathered. They also designed mind maps which helped them study.

- Logical & Creative thinking: in our first project Helping Hands students analysed the situation of children in different parts of the world, they connected the place where they lived with their needs. They also read about children's rights and the extent to which they are respected or not around the world. They created a comparative chart collaboratively and they drew conclusions regarding this issue. During Green Helping Hands project students analysed the impact our actions have had on the environment. They investigated about energy & environmental issues. For this they had to find reliable sources, select relevant information, summarize the ideas and show them in a creative way. 

- Communicative skills: during assemblies students trained their skills for communication. They were asked to share their ideas and thoughts about the topics both fluently and accurately. They were given different functions which helped them develop their ideas further as well as specific vocabulary to be more precise when they expressed their beliefs. Besides students had various situations in which they made informal presentations during the projects.

They also developed their communicative skills in writing when they created different pieces of work such as comics, stories, descriptions, presentations, reports.

During the videocalls, students faced the challenge of communicating with both native and non-native speakers from different parts of the world, sometimes with unknown accent or with technological difficulties, but always achieving a successful exchange of messages.

- Reflective thinking (reflective moments): All of our projects contributed to the development of reflective skills as students used their knowledge of the world, their feelings and their perceptions to consider the different themes we worked with. Not only did they reflect upon their social commitment to people in need or the environment, but also about the role of ancient civilizations in shaping our culture and heritage. Furthermore, during the project The Time Machine they also implemented a journal in which they reflected upon their learning and the process carried out in the lesson. 

- Bringing the world into the classroom: 5th form students have connected with different classes from around the world, both synchronically and asynchronously. They have enjoyed learning about other cultures, sharing their interests and guessing the locations while developing geographic skills. They also used social media to report what was going on in real time, they used online browsers and maps to locate geographical features and monuments, as well as books, encyclopaedias and atlas.

- Collaborating with other teachers? (bilingual projects / cross cultural content / global themes) 

Even though it has not been agreed on during the teacher’s meeting, we worked on a bilingual content when we studied Ancient Greeks. We profited from the fact that students studied Greek myths and legends in Spanish at the beginning of the year, in order to build in knowledge regarding this ancient civilization. 

As far as cross cultural content is concerned, we have already mentioned that each of our projects dealt with topics that bridged gaps and expanded students’ view of the world.

5th form Projects took into account global themes such as children's rights, the environment, pollution, poverty etc; which aimed at raising social awareness and building global citizenship. 

Evidence of Reflection Class III

Finally, I delivered a second class to put all the concepts in bilingual education together, my reflections....

It has been an effective lesson as I could notice students’ active involvement and desire to speak. Most of them raised their hands and asked their own questions as the video we watched offered ideas and inquiries as well as fun. During the lesson there was a slight change in the sequence of plan. The language focus was carried out before expected as a couple of students noticed that the sentences they were given to read had “two verbs, one in the present and the other like in the past” (student’ sic). The previous day we worked on the changes a fictional city suffered and students described the way it looked in the past and the way it is nowadays. So, when the lesson began I reminded students of the two cities and asked them the following question: “In your opinion, what has happened? (making reference to a space left between the two pictures). Later, every time a student shared a “human action” I asked him/her if it was performed in the past and if we stopped doing it or if we continued doing it. Finally, I elicited from students the fact that there are actions that we did in the past but still have an effect in the present. Students participated actively because they felt they discovered how to use and frame this new item of language.

As far as formative assessment to monitor learners’ progress is concerned, several aspects were considered so as to engage students in an active participation and productive language skills. Each student was given the time to read the slips of paper, match them and think of the consequences individually. I have two students who feel threatened when they have to speak in front of the class, so they generally write what they are planning to say before exposing themselves and their ideas. Besides, different interaction patterns were used so that students could think on their own but also enrich their beliefs with their partners’ ideas in order to build up the information together. For example, after watching the video, students were given some minutes to think of some questions individually. After that, they discussed their thoughts in small groups and finally they shared their ideas as a whole class. They thought individually, they discussed in small groups and finally they shared to the classroom. In the end, traffic lights were used so that students evaluated their own understanding of the topic. Through this self-evaluation technique I could gather information regarding the student’s feelings in relation to the language item. Most of them agreed that the content was not difficult but that they needed more time and activities to process it since they felt like “yellow”. Only two students demanded a new explanation because they couldn’t grasp the idea of the lesson and other seven students gave “green light” to the lesson because they felt confident enough to use present perfect to talk about human impact on the environment.

Having participated in this course offered me a range of new possibilities to explore in the bilingual classroom. Even though I have been teaching for 10 years I always find I have got new things to learn. I have been using learning targets and success criteria for a few years and this course has strengthened the idea that they are crucial for students’ betterment since they clearly show them what they are expected to do, say and how to reach the desire outcome. This year I have also started working with the four C’s and they provide my lessons with a variety of tasks and skills which make them more meaningful. I have slightly developed my understanding of the triptych, I found the use of it interesting and hard at the same time as I had never heard of it before. I generally have a functional language routine at the beginning of the lessons and sometimes it is not related to the tasks of the day or it relates back to the previous day’s activities. Yet, if I think of it as the language for, it might be useful as I give students the chance to use an item of language accurately which is contextualised. I still think I need to continue being trained as there are things I could not grasp in these three months and which are crucial such as language through. As I have not sufficiently developed my ability to implement language through in my lesson plan, I consider I need to investigate more about it. Having read about essential questions and the revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy, I realise I both are useful to plan my lessons so I consider I need to keep them  at hand to make sure I include activities that cater for these cognitive demands.

Evidence of Reflection Class II

When I participated in the course of Teaching Bilingual Education I delivered a lesson taking into consideration the theory analysed in class. Here I share my reflection on that lesson.

I consider that the lesson was effective in terms of students understanding of content. The most significant aspect which helped students understand the information better was the activation of prior knowledge. As Petty (2006) claims, “to make progress in ‘understanding’ means linking to prior knowledge”. Because there were so many instances in which students worked on content, it was easier for them to comprehend how to use it in the main tasks. First of all, the video gave them an idea on the topic and offered them more information about water. Then, the use of pictures and labels triggered students’ knowledge of vocabulary which was known or stored somewhere in their minds. Together, they worked out the lexical items they needed for the lesson. Besides, they had to think of the links of those concepts to the topic in question. After all these interventions, students were ready to tackle the texts without difficulties and to use the data included to understand maps, which also gave them more information to build their own conclusions and hypotheses. I think that the lesson run smoothly because there had been enough activation of prior knowledge and scaffolding so that students could work out the text autonomously. Mehisto, Frigols & Marsh (2008) consider that we need to anchor the information into our prior knowledge in order to move it into our long-term memory so that it can be recalled at a later time.

However, I think that time constrains have been an issue in this first lesson I was observed. I was so concerned about giving students opportunities to access prior knowledge that there were many questions students asked and time was not enough. Then I had to rush through language, so content and language focus had not been properly balanced. This understanding is essential to me as a practitioner because I think that next lesson needs to have fewer activities, but more effective ones so that there is no need to activate knowledge with three different tasks and there is more time to dedicate to the comprehension and production of language. Because I was not yet confident about the lesson format I couldn’t handle timing properly. I will now need to organize the activities coherently, bearing in mind time sequences so that I can work on both content and language simultaneously, since content and language acquisition go “hand in hand”. (Mehisto, Frigols & Marsh). This could be important to students because it could have a better impact on their learning of both content and language progressively and systematically, in a meaningful way.

Another aspect I would like to improve for the next lesson is the kind of questions I ask students during the lesson. I noticed that most of the questions I pose are questions that guide, questions that lead and, in a smaller degree, questions that hook. Yet, I did not include enough essential questions, which are open-ended, thought provoking and intellectually engaging (Mc Tighe & Wiggins). Acquiring this skill is significant for me as a practitioner since essential questions aim at stimulating thought, provoking inquiry, sparking more questions, thus, demanding for higher order thinking skills. Because I am not yet confident about this topic, I will need to plan thoroughly the type of questions that might be asked to trigger students understanding.

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