Treasure Hunt on Key Competences: a reflection

This piece of work, written at the very beginning of the course, set the tone and really made me reflect on what teaching is all about. I had been involved in the teaching world for nearly fifteen years and been exposed to many styles of teaching, but seemed to have it drilled in to me that teaching at secondary school, and in other types of schools for that matter, involved getting through the course book to make sure students acquired all the necessary grammar that the curriculum required them to learn. I had never come across the term, “competences” and the ideas expressed in this piece of work opened up my eyes as to what the system actually requires teachers to do. Students should be taught the necessary competences, which can be acquired by completing or following a textbook, or not. The requirement to teach students the passive or the third conditional, simply because the curriculum said so, is a complete fallacy. Students need to be taught how to achieve certain tasks and they need to do so actively. Teaching, quite different to the Franco years, involves listening, being adaptable, being motivated and, most importantly, being aware of students` knowledge and needs. I also found the idea of a Treasure as quite novel and motivating.

The main functions of assessment: a reflection

Assessment has been one of the key areas of this subject. I have chosen to include this essay in the portfolio simply because it summarises the basic components of assessment, of which I knew very little about at the time, but I could have chosen any of the assignments from this module. However, I feel I have learnt a great deal about the importance that assessment has in teaching, an aspect to which I had paid little attention. I see now that assessment is king in teaching and our whole teaching unit and methodology is based on how we propose to assess our students, to make their time in our hands as productive as possible. Previously, I had planned my lessons according to what the textbook dictated, though I have never followed a textbook religiously, and then designed the final exam accordingly. I never took into account the need for formative assessment, perhaps I did so but I was unaware of it. I certainly did not give formative assessment such importance as it should have in the learning process. When I designed my unit of work for the Practicum, three areas of assessment (formative, summative and assessment to improve future teaching) took on an important role, and also altered the way in which I taught.

Comparative analysis of oral communication: a reflection    

                                    

This piece of work made me reflect a great deal on how I approach oral communication in my classes. I often used traditional activities, such as role-plays, which were simply based on some grammatical aspect that I had been working on in class. I gave very little importance to pre-communicative activities and, more worrying of all, whether the activities would be of any interest to the students. I realise now that for a communicative activity to be successful there must be groundwork done beforehand, and that they should be functional and meaningful and, above all, motivating for the students. I also learned that the importance of working on motor-skills and interactive skills. I feel the activity I proposed for this assignment included many of these elements. Although I have not had the opportunity to put it into practice I feel it would be very successful and productive in the classroom.

The activity commenced with showing various short sketches of British comedy that exposed teenage problems, very up-to-date and engaging. It then included a quiz show on typical teenage matters and progressed into the students elaborating role-plays on teenage conflicts. There were activities planned on intonation and other conversation elements such as gap-fillers. The idea was for the class to put together all of their role-plays and produce a whole play. The play would then be presented to other classes of the school. The activity includes many of the elements necessary for effective oral communication, I was very proud of the work. 

Teaching and testing writing: a reflection     

                                   

As a teacher, written communication is something I make my students work on considerably. I generally set them one composition a week, though from other modules of this subject, I realise that other activities may be done as homework. I found the reading I had to present to the class very interesting.

The article, amongst many things, reinforced the idea of seeing language in context and that writing had to be anchored to their original contexts for them to be learned successfully. It was very closely linked to Vygotsky’s principles of learning, which is supported by much of the material presented in this Master. The principle is based on the line of thinking that social interaction is fundamental in the process of cognitive development, a student has to be active and interactive to be able to learn. From my experience in the Practicum, this belief was not much adhered to, as many of the classes were teacher-orientated and the students were rather passive to say the least. From the article, I also learned about the importance of working within the student’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). A student will get frustrated if the tasks are either too easy or too difficult. I have reflected on this aspect and made some adjustments to my teaching.

Integrating vocabulary into the classroom: a reflection         

                              

A very simple but very reflective assignment. Very often we take for granted that everything we see in a textbook has been designed effectively for students. More often than not, we do not reflect on the activity in mind and how such an activity is perceived by the student. I did do in this assignment and thought about numerous ways of making vocabulary learning both fun and effective and real. Vocabulary is one of the areas that most affects a student’s ability to participate in class and thus other social environments.

I give vocabulary teaching a lot of importance. However, on reflection I spend more time on teaching grammatical aspects than I do vocabulary, and this assignment made me reflect on this aspect. The assignment also made me realise the importance of making the vocabulary as meaningful as possible to the students, whatever the area. Students need to feel the vocabulary and be able to relate it to their world and use it in order to be able to learn it properly. In addition, for students to learn vocabulary, it is not enough just to practice the items just once in the classroom. It is vital that everything is recycled as much as possible. As a teacher I am very guilty of covering vocabulary just the once and expect my students to learn it. I shall think differently now.

INS Rambla: a reflection  

                                      

As an extra activity, I have decided to include the assignment I carried out on creating a virtual school, INS Rambla. I have included this activity simply because it has been quite different from the rest of assignments and has given me an insight into the workings of an institute. I was completely oblivious before.

I realise that, although it has many rewards, being a headmaster or headmistress of a Spanish secondary school is no easy task. In addition to having to know all the decrees and laws that are forever changing in the education system, trying to provide students with the best possible education in the best possible environment is a real brainteaser. So many buttons pressed, so much fine tuning to an already delicate system often goes unnoticed among parents who complain about the opportunities of their beloved Tom and Sally. By carrying out this assignment, we had to put ourselves in the shoes of a headmaster and analyse every possibility in the running of the school to ensure that that is it well run and offers the best possible conditions to its school members. While people may beg to differ, a school is very much run like a company. It needs full cooperation among its staff who all have to work together for the benefit of every child, who is different in their own way but equally important.