Journal entry 1

The objective of the lesson was to try to help the students to retrieve some vocabulary and identify new one related to adjectives and parts of the body based on people from other cultures and countries. I think the objectives were met because most of the students got the main vocabulary we worked and used it in difference ways. The students went throughout the vocabulary exercises with some correctness on how to associate and use adjectives and parts of the body to highlight personal differences or common characteristics among different people. In order to accomplish this goal, I think the use of different materials like a video projector; computer, pictures and videos helped a lot to get students motivated and engaged with the topic. Besides, the variety of activities like describe people around the world and with different cultures improved the motivation of the learners towards speaking and writing. Also, during the lesson the students had to move in order to work in groups, in pairs and individually, as a result the students didn’t get bored or stressed about doing the same kind of activities. Even though the lesson allowed students to talk, had fun with the description of different people and shared information with the teacher, more classroom management was necessary. I said this because while watching the pictures and videos some students got advantage of the situation for being mean with others and as a teacher, I have to foresee these kinds of problems in order to be prepare and have some tools beforehand.

Another thing that I have to foresee is the time. I could not do the lesson completely because there was a change in the schedule time, so I had to improvise some things in order to fit the lesson in the time given. As a reflection, I have to say that I need to have extra plans or ideas prepared in case these extra ordinary events happen. Even though my lesson was planned based on my knowledge and experience, I realized that there is always something which may slip your mind and threat you with destroy your lesson. That is why reflecting and writing about these kinds of problems help you for being prepare the next time.

Finally, I think the best parts of my lesson were the anticipatory set and the activity to activate previous knowledge were good because they were carry out through electronic devices and these mechanisms increase students motivation and interaction. Besides, the use of technology with interactive resources are more appealing to the students and allow teachers to present their ideas or work in many different ways, helping students to focus on the objectives of the lesson while having some kind of fun. Then, presenting the topic in this way helped me to catch students’ attention and kept them motivated. The worst part of my lesson was the way I handled the time, I need to improve this process. Then, if I have to change something to this lesson would be the way to introduce the scanning activity through different pre-activities like showing an example of the activity or to carry out a shorter version of the activity first in order to make the students more aware of what they were supposed to do by themselves.