TEACHING PRACTICE I

ENGLISH PEDASGOGY
UCSC

Javiera Bravo// Laura EspinozaMDD 1: CONTEXTUAL FACTORS ( versin

abreviada)

The teacher candidate collects data regarding the institutional and

classroom context, the characteristics of the students as a group and
its diversity, using this information to plan and teach.

1. Class group characteristics and their instructional implications:

There are 21 students in the section, but the whole group seldom attend to the
lesson we observe o Friday afternoon; thus, we work with a tiny group which is
same group of students that attend our tutorials. The group of students we are
working with consists of 9 students from English pedagogy in the UCSC. 33%
of the students in my group are male, while 67% are female, and their level of
English fluctuates between very elementary level and a2-b1 level. Eight of them
come from public school, while one comes from a private school. Regarding
their teachers, Mrs. Carolina Rojas is their head teacher, yet we are observing
Mr. Matt Sinclair class, which is focused on writing and reading, so when the
lesson is focused on reading, the materials that students use in that class are
the main book that is The Firework makers daughter and childrens books like
the elephant and the bad baby; and when the lesson is focused on writing,
students spend time in groups writing one of their projects that consists in a
play that they will have to perform at the end of the lesson. However, there are
more materials that they use in their different lessons of Competencia
comunicativa nivel inicial II, like The Straightforward book and workbook,
Oxford learners dictionary, CD-room and focus on grammar software for
autonomous work, despite of the elements that teachers use in the lesson like
visual aids based on Power point presentations, worksheets, flash cards, and so
on.
1.1. How these factors may impact my lessons: There are two main
factors that we think may significantly impact in our lessons. The first one is
that, from what we have observed, some of the students in our group prefer
to work alone while others have they teams formed with other students
which are not in my tutorials, due to which it may be difficult to make them
work in groups since they have shown reluctant to work with different
people in the classes that we have observed. The second factor we find
important to point out is that there is a really visible variation in the level of
proficiency in the students in our tutorials; hence what may be hard to
understand for some, can also be too easy for some others, which would
affect our lesson in terms of materials and topics, since we will have to
adapt the same lesson to different levels of proficiency.
2. Student characteristics and their instructional implications:
Student 1: Julio Galn: He is an 18 years old boy who has a high level of
proficiency. He does not take notes during the lesson, but he gives his opinion
spontaneously very often and his grammar is accurate. His bets skills are
speaking, reading, and listening; while his worst skill is writing. As his results
show, he did bad in writing, especially in his Use of English test, so apparently,
his grammar is better when he is speaking. We have heard him speak long
periods of time fluently and without making any grammar mistakes, and that is
why we concluded what it is said above.

Student 2: Paulina Alarcon. This is a female student who is 22 years old and she
seems to be very concentrated during classes since she takes a lot of notes
while the teacher is explaining. She rarely speaks in class, but she asks
questions about the content to her classmates and the teacher. Her best skill is
listening; however, her performance at English is poor since she failed in the
Use of English test, and in the reading and writing test, which shows that her
level of the language is still elementary. Furthermore, it can be added that she
has changed from degree before, and she stated that she does not know if she
is comfortable with English yet, because it is too difficult.

2.1 Description of students 1 first characteristic:

He is an 18 years old boy who has a high level of proficiency.
2.1.1 How this characteristic will impact my lesson:
He will probably be familiar with most of the topics we will cover during our
lessons so he will probably not have problems doing the activities, since he is an
accurate student.
2.2 Description of student 1 second characteristic:
He does not take notes during the lesson, but he gives his opinion spontaneously
very often and his grammar is accurate.
2.2.1 How this characteristic will impact my lesson:
He will probably answer the questions that will be asked during the
lesson, since he can speak fluently and accurately. Therefore, it will not
be motivating for the rest of the students to participate, since their level
is lower than Julios.
3. Physical aspects of the classroom and their instructional implications:
The classroom is in the first floor of the Bosco building and its seats are put in a
row. There are windows at the bottom of the room but since outside there is a
little hill very close there is no light to lit the room. There are a computer, a
data show, and a projector to aid the teacher to present the material.
3.1 Description of first physical aspect:
The classroom is in the first floor of the Bosco building and its seats are
put in a row.
3.1.1 How this aspect will impact my lesson:
The row of seats gives a traditional classroom environment, and the students will
probably sit in the final seats immediately instead of sitting at the front of the class.
Therefore, as teachers we will have to rearrange the seats in order to make students
sit closer to the front.
3.2 Description of second physical aspect:
There are windows at the bottom of the room but since outside there is a little hill very
close there is no light to lit the room.

3.2.1 How this aspect will impact my lesson:

This will affect students mood in a negative way towards learning since the room will
be dark and my tutorials take place at 4 in the afternoon.
4. Reflection on the importance of knowing about students and the context to
provide quality teaching.
It is important to be aware of the different characteristics of students and their context
because, as we observed, everybody has a different learning style and a different level
of English, so our teaching have to be adapted and personalized in order to fulfill their
needs and to make them learn the same target language through different ways. As
for us it is primordial getting to know the students preferences in terms of social
interactions, because even though we as teachers have authority within a classroom,
we have to respect our students as individuals and understand that they feel more
comfortable working with certain people rather that others; or the opposite, which is
sometimes working on their own. Finally, in order to provide quality teaching, Lessons
need to be dynamic and attractive for students so they feel comfortable. This includes
the teacher as an approachable individual inside their context.

versin abreviada MDD11 (reformulada por M. G Sanhueza 2016)

1 Adapted to the MDD standards and tasks from based the document Level II
Teacher Work Sample. University of Northern Iowa, Level 2 of the UNI Teacher
Education Professional Sequence.