The institution
I did my kindergarten residence in "Jardín de infantes José Manuel Estrada", in the city of Punta Alta, in the province of Buenos Aires. This institution is characterized of teaching under the precepts of the Catholic church and the love of the staff.
There are three classrooms for students of 3, 4 and 5 years old. Besides the normal curriculum for kindergarten, this school provides further education in art, English, P.E and Religious education to the three levels.
My students were 4 and the classroom was called "Lunitas". They were 27 angels under the care of teacher Romina and the English teacher Tiara.
I was happy to go to the kindergarten every single class because the whole staff and the children waited for me with their arms wide open.
A beautiful experience!!
The observation period
Date: Monday 13th April
Lesson number: Observation class nº1
I arrived to the institution and everyone welcomed me, the teachres, the janitor and the headmistress. The English teacher was already expecting me and the regular teacher opened the classroom door to let us in. She explains to the students my role there.
As the class starts, I noticed that students are sitting down in 4 tables of 5 or 6 students each. Today, there are 9 girls and 12 boys.
The English teacher started the class with the “Hello song”. Students sang and danced along.The teacher uses flashcards to introduce colours and they played a game: the teacher asked ”What colour is it?” and the students who answered.The game finished when the have been through all the colours. Then, they counted the flashcards( from 1 to 10) in choral repetition. As soon as this finished, one student collects the flashcards.
The teacher uses the “head and shoulders, knees and toes” to move from one activity to another.
At the middle of the class, the teacher played a song for students to relax at their tables.
Finally, they sang the goodbye song in the same manner they sang the “Hello” one.The teacher played the “Goodbye song” one more time but she asked students to relax heir tables again. The regular teacher came into the classroom to say goodbye to us and continue with student regular activities
Notes:
- Students go to the toilet with the regular teacher
- they are really noisy and some of them really naughty
- The teacher turns off the lights every time she wants students to be silent
- The teacher resorts to spanish when students do not understand questions
- Whenever students behave badly, they are invited to sit on the “Thinking chair”(They do the same with their regular teacher)
- Students asked all the time what Iwas doing there, even though the regular teacher and the English teacher explained to them.
Date: Wednesday 15th April
Lesson number:Obeservation class nº 2
I arrived to the institution and the whole staff welcomed me. The English teacher and me knocked on the classroom´s door and Romina, the regular teacher opened the door. She asked the students to behave well with the English teachers ( she referred to Tiara, the English teacher, and me).
The English teacher began the class with the “Hello” song, they sang and danced. They played “Touch something red….blue…”. the teacher played the flashcard game again. Now students are familiarized with it, so they knew what they were expected to do. They counted the flashcards and one of them collected then and gave them to the teacher. The teacher presented numbers from 1 to 10 with flashcards and asked them “What number is it?”. students answer the number, even though the teacher tried to introduce “It is…”
They sang the “goodbye song”.
Notes:
- Students still ask why I am there
- They behaved really badly this time, even worst that the previous class
- The regular teacher spoke with the whole class due to their disruptive behaviour.
The Classes
I taught from April 20th to May the 4th to a group of 27 students. They were 19 boys and 12 girls of 4, who have had English the previous kindergarten year. Students sat in small tables in groups of 4/5 students. The English teacher´s name is Tiara, who helped and assessed me during this time.
This lessons were designed under the Communicative approach and I used the PPP method to organize the activities. Even though I tried to stick as much as possible to the use of English as a primary communicative vehicle, I mimed, demonstrate and use another´ students progress. I only use L1 to comfort students who felt anxious about different class situations ( the fight each other, someone did not lend the glue to another, they did not share the material in the activity and got angry, among others), so they felt frustrated and cried. I approached to them, I sat by their side and I used Spanish to make them feel better and hug them to show my affection and concern in their problems.
As regards teaching strategies, I tried to use English for instructions as much as I could miming, showing and beginning the word so they could discover it and finished it. Singing and TPR activities were used to practice the new content and we played flashcard games to revise it. Classes were students-centered, only in instances where students did not understood what to do I resorted to teacher-centered interaction.
I worked with songs, TPR activities and flashcards were always a success. They were engaging and fostered students responses in English. even though the activity might result a bit noisy, the communicative outcome and students´answers were a success through the use of these materials. I introduced vocabulary with realia as well with the help of a teddy bear called "Bobby Bear" (Students loved him!!) Also, we enjoyed craft activites and role play performances.
As a conclussion, I would like to share with you that this was the most challenging experience I have ever had as I have never taught very young learners. I left the institution with loads of love from the children and enriching experience. I believe that students learnt the content in context, with motivating activities that produced elementary communicative outcomes.
I am delighted with this experience and encourages me to keep on learning and doing research on how to teach in kindergarten level.
Lesson nº 1
Correccion kindergarten journal checked from Cynthiaestebo
Final Assessment Report Kindergarten Practicum
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