REFLECTION ABOUT MY READING CLASS

Erika Jordenn Gmez

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can
learn. Albert Einstein.

Thanks to the experience to teach to 16 students in the language center and after
analysing my performance as a future English teacher, my lesson plan and all the
activities that were carried out, I consider the lesson aims were achieved. Because
each of the stages in the lesson were thought and directed to provide students with
the needed tools (knowledge and mastery) to demonstrate their learning
attainments for the lesson through the production of a material on their own.

My class was simple but it was very enjoyable and significant for my students. It
begins with a pre- reading activities and warm-up where teacher pastes some
unknown words and pictures on the board and students are asked to match them.
Then, three covers are given to students. The teacher asks students to take a look
at each one and asks them about the previous ideas they have about each covers.
Then, students have to relate the words in the matching exercise with the covers.
Immediately, students are going to be divided into three groups which will be
assigned one cover for each one. Then, students are going to make predictions
just to look at the covers.

While students are reading, the teacher asks students to look for the characters,
physical appearance, the place in which the story happens and the main idea of
the text. While the teacher is going to draw a chart in the board with these four
aspects (Characters, physical appearance, place and the main idea about the
cover) .Finally, learners are going to fill the charts based on the information about
the comics. During the following part of the class, teacher is going to say a phrase
"The postman delivers a letter for someone who" ...... and teacher says a question
after that phrase. For instance, "The postman delivers a letter for someone who
knows why Bart and Milhouse were in the Jail? That question was pretty related
with the comics literally but the game consists not only about comics questions, it
also consists on personal questions related with the comics, related with violence,
bullying and other facts.

Finally, teacher gives students two pieces of paper, one with the list of previous
questions about personal issues and the other one a piece of paper in blank where
students have to choose and write their personal experience about that statement.
For the great majority of novice teachers and exclusively for me in this case, I
already understand these as my personal challenges and fears: fluency, accent,
creativity for new classes and activities, the way students will perceive my identity
as teacher and human beings, among others. Then, this is a relevant issue for me
because I am going to be the one who makes the decisions in the classroom. What
aforementioned is a fragment of a writing piece that I wrote days ago about my
teaching beliefs and fears. According to this, I must say that my professional aims
were achieved. Since not only I faced them but also I overcame them. One
example for this was I taught the whole class in English and I made myself clear
because students understood everything. However, I must be sensible and
recognize that I made some language mistakes but these mistakes make me
reflect to strengthen these weaknesses to be more prepared about vocabulary and
do not lose the authority since students could think that their teacher does not have
a good proficiency or level.

Additionally, I think that most of stages went well as I planned it, because each
stage had a clear purpose , discipline, the classroom setting, and teacher attitude
was a great factor to keep students motivated. For instance, the comics were a
great idea because students were identified with them; they could use reading
strategies like skimming and scanning to get information easily. Furthermore, it
was very appropriate to work by groups because it helps students to develop their
interpersonal abilities.

Despite most of stages went well, there was one that did not go as well as it could
have. The activity was Postman delivers a letter for someone who this activity
was good, but taking into account that it was the first time that I meet with those
students, probably they did not feel totally comfortable to share with me those
personal aspects. Nonetheless, students made a big effort to work in the activity
and the class flowed naturally.

Finally, there are some adjustments that I would like to work in my future lessons.
For instance, I would like to make students use more English while they are
speaking. However, teachers are very creative and innovative. That is why, in the
class I had to take decisions spontaneously to continue with good development of
the class when an activity is not working as I would like, here teachers strategies
play a relevant role to solve those unexpected problems. In this way, teachers
enhance their performance more and more based on their self-reflection.

The following are some possible solutions for the previous adjustments. I would
like to be more insistent with the students in order to they speak more in English
because they can do it. Also, I would be more careful when planning a class with
those personal facts because students collaborate with the activity freely but not in
public, that is why I decided that they wrote their experience instead of say it.
Lastly, attitude from the teacher would be more enthusiastic, aiming to keep
students interested on the explanation and be more appealing to them; however,
seriousness would also be a key part of the teachers behavior.