DAY 27 6 DE JUNIO
My first intervention stage lesson. It was OK, nothing special, quite regular. While I thought they’d be interested in Elvis Presley, it turned out they became interested in Diana Ross and the Supremes. Stoooop in the name of love before you break my heart. The song theme and my simple questions generated a lot of debate. I should have taken advantage of that opportunity to ask them to discuss in pairs, but oh well, for some reason I let it pass. Shame on me
The table exercise wasn’t wow. What was positively challenging was the writing task: transforming the table into a text. I skipped an entire page of exercises for they didn’t seem to care much about Elvis The Pelvis.
Tomorrow we have the groupwork activity. Let’s see how that goes. I’ll try to finish everything next Mon, even the feedback session.
I’m changing my own planning at the very last minute, just like we said in the last meeting of the action stage. (see my printed planning and my own penned comments)
DAY 28 13 JUNE
Today’s mistake: entered the classroom with my teacher’s mind rather than my researcher’s mind and I forgot to switch on the recorder. I missed the recap section of my lesson where the stu provided a summary of the main things we had done previously.
I’d say it was a profitable lesson, it was way way less T-centred than the two others as this time they had to summarise, come up with a mindmap and present it to provide a brief account of each decade (50’s to 80’s) of rock music.
After the lesson I asked them to vote for topics for the second cycle:
Winning topic: Drugs (meh) took a photo of it.
DAY 29 14 JUNE
S delivered her first lesson on the Nazis. Stu were more asleep than usual so she had to provide scaffold all along. It was as t-centred as my first lessons. I don’t think she managed to make the stu interpret and analyse the sources as she was expecting though with reservations. It was a good thing that the sources activity was grouped into themes so that everybody had the chance to summarise and somehow offer an interpretation of the extract given.
They seemed to be interested in the two videos shown. The listening activities were achieved successfully. During the lesson S asked the stu to be quiet or pay attention and a couple of times she reminded them that she was doing this because they had wanted it. I don’t think they ever took up this ‘accusation’ (recording: 00.7-00.16, 00.24, )
On the minus side, A’s second lesson had to be cancelled for she called in sick. I don’t know whether she can wrap this up tomorrow and immediately after I can do the feedback session with the students.
On the plus side, I carried out the evaluation session with my stu. It was rich though as I had suspected only the leaders spoke. I’ll definitely do the survey to collect everybody’s opinions.
DAYS (it can’t be true, I don’t not how to count) 15-16 JUNE 2011
Mentalllllll, Intervention and Evaluation stages are overlapping because while I’m doing the evaluation with my stu, A is still at the intervention stage. The problem is not them of course, the problem is me because I want to have everything transcribed, coded and written up before God knows what.
Topics:
Year 1: Drugs
Year 2: Nazis
Year 3: TBC
DAY 17 JUNE 2011
Skype tutorial with Ema but…previously in my life I designed two slightly different surveys as I tailored them according to the group interviews. I then piloted them. Good. Ema said they were OK so now I’ve just made copies. Wait and see.
I told Ema, and this is an issue I’ll need to raise later, that my presence in a class which is not mine, I mean, where I don’t teach regularly is causing tension with the regular teacher. She uses the mainstream coursebook and follows the syllabus. I teach with my own materials now and then and now the students think I’m great and that their teacher is not great. She’s being criticised. It’s not her fault, it’s just that I have the time and it’s part of the CAR. This is a problem that may arise when a teacher re-.enters the site partially. Unless she begins to change her own practices even when she’s not one of my teacher-participants. Hmmm.
viernes, 17 de junio de 2011
jueves, 2 de junio de 2011
End of action stage
DAY 26 2 de Junio 2011
Today we carried out our last planning materials meeting. It was short, why? Because one of the teachers couldn’t develop anything and the other has preferred to wait until the last minute. In her words ‘my best lessons are the ones I don’t plan much in advance’. I’ve got to say she’s right. I made photocopies for her and for me about some source texts that we will use, we don’t know how but at least we already have them copied.
I shared my own reflections about my developing materials style, S did her part and I forgot or I don’t remember now about A. Thank goodness I have my iPod to record everything. If she didn’t say anything, I’ll ask her in the one-to-one post-observ interviews.
The intervention stages starts next Monday :)) which means I become a teacher again :))
Today we carried out our last planning materials meeting. It was short, why? Because one of the teachers couldn’t develop anything and the other has preferred to wait until the last minute. In her words ‘my best lessons are the ones I don’t plan much in advance’. I’ve got to say she’s right. I made photocopies for her and for me about some source texts that we will use, we don’t know how but at least we already have them copied.
I shared my own reflections about my developing materials style, S did her part and I forgot or I don’t remember now about A. Thank goodness I have my iPod to record everything. If she didn’t say anything, I’ll ask her in the one-to-one post-observ interviews.
The intervention stages starts next Monday :)) which means I become a teacher again :))
viernes, 27 de mayo de 2011
More planning
DAY 24-25 26-27 MAY 2011
It’s been almost a week since I last was in my PhD mode. The reason? The action stage in its planning materials stage suffered some complication due to national holidays which made it impossible for us to meet.
Yesterday we finally met again. Because I’ve got time at my disposal I was the only one with every thing ready so to speak. A ans S spent their limited time collecting, selecting sources and planning how they’d structure their lessons without any concrete activities to share. They said, however, that they’d bring sthg the following meeting. Working at home seems more beneficial for all of us. Although we shared what we had been doing, I did not receive much feedback about my activities. I didn’t encourage them to say much either. It was like I showed them what I’d do and that’s all.
What I feel is that because content is the key aspect here, A and don’t want to produce activities that become the usual language-oriented exercises. Perhaps they don’t want to plan anything in this sense or don’t want to feel in a straitjacket as a consequence of teaching following a coursebook for so long. Now that they have freedom, they want to have it all and do nothing so to speak.
As I was going through the transcription, I noticed that our lessons will be very different and maybe mine will be the most traditional. Then we’ll see what our students think and what feedback each of us gets.
It’s been almost a week since I last was in my PhD mode. The reason? The action stage in its planning materials stage suffered some complication due to national holidays which made it impossible for us to meet.
Yesterday we finally met again. Because I’ve got time at my disposal I was the only one with every thing ready so to speak. A ans S spent their limited time collecting, selecting sources and planning how they’d structure their lessons without any concrete activities to share. They said, however, that they’d bring sthg the following meeting. Working at home seems more beneficial for all of us. Although we shared what we had been doing, I did not receive much feedback about my activities. I didn’t encourage them to say much either. It was like I showed them what I’d do and that’s all.
What I feel is that because content is the key aspect here, A and don’t want to produce activities that become the usual language-oriented exercises. Perhaps they don’t want to plan anything in this sense or don’t want to feel in a straitjacket as a consequence of teaching following a coursebook for so long. Now that they have freedom, they want to have it all and do nothing so to speak.
As I was going through the transcription, I noticed that our lessons will be very different and maybe mine will be the most traditional. Then we’ll see what our students think and what feedback each of us gets.
viernes, 20 de mayo de 2011
AR with a personal advantage
DAY 22-23 19-20 May 2011
I’ve spent and enjoyed two days finding sources, selecting them, planning activities, calling Robert to provide me with more insights about American Rock. Of course all this is wonderful but it’s not real. I can personally do it because I’m almost doing this and that’s all. I’m a comfy position now, I don’t have to be running from one school to the next and spending my day marking exams. I’m at home sipping coffee, enjoying my place and working leisurely and if I want, I can devote a whole day to doing this only. Because Anahí’s lessons will be similar to mine, I won’t have any problems if we share the materials. It’s collaborative work. And if she ends up using my activities, so much the better as it’ll allow me to see how she uses them, how she introduces them, etc etc. A question: should I begin to change the scope of my study? (it may mean reanalysing my data or starting to get new data with new insights) I mean, should I widen the scope and think more about CLIL pedagogies rather than focusing only on materials? Hmmm, good question
I’ve spent and enjoyed two days finding sources, selecting them, planning activities, calling Robert to provide me with more insights about American Rock. Of course all this is wonderful but it’s not real. I can personally do it because I’m almost doing this and that’s all. I’m a comfy position now, I don’t have to be running from one school to the next and spending my day marking exams. I’m at home sipping coffee, enjoying my place and working leisurely and if I want, I can devote a whole day to doing this only. Because Anahí’s lessons will be similar to mine, I won’t have any problems if we share the materials. It’s collaborative work. And if she ends up using my activities, so much the better as it’ll allow me to see how she uses them, how she introduces them, etc etc. A question: should I begin to change the scope of my study? (it may mean reanalysing my data or starting to get new data with new insights) I mean, should I widen the scope and think more about CLIL pedagogies rather than focusing only on materials? Hmmm, good question
domingo, 15 de mayo de 2011
Some thoughts about my own role now
DAY 21 15 May
Back to my PhD mode. Today I managed to transcribe the first meeting in our action stage. I even did the basic categorising but now I need to wait until the end to produce sthg more tangible (and coherent).
As I was going thru it, I began to observe my let’s say selfish, extra-scientific interests in this CAR project. Because I want things to go right I went to the first meeting armed with sources: Wikipedia, articles from mazaines, print outs for everyone, videos. My role is input/sources provider which is fine as I’ve got more time than my colleagues to do this and to be honest we’ve usually worked this way, why shouldn’t I do it now? My second intervention was that all handouts and photocopies for our students will be paid by me as I want to make sure money so to speak is not an issue. This is NOT USUAL but I don’t care as long as we know it’s for a good cause and everyone’s happy with it.
Back to my PhD mode. Today I managed to transcribe the first meeting in our action stage. I even did the basic categorising but now I need to wait until the end to produce sthg more tangible (and coherent).
As I was going thru it, I began to observe my let’s say selfish, extra-scientific interests in this CAR project. Because I want things to go right I went to the first meeting armed with sources: Wikipedia, articles from mazaines, print outs for everyone, videos. My role is input/sources provider which is fine as I’ve got more time than my colleagues to do this and to be honest we’ve usually worked this way, why shouldn’t I do it now? My second intervention was that all handouts and photocopies for our students will be paid by me as I want to make sure money so to speak is not an issue. This is NOT USUAL but I don’t care as long as we know it’s for a good cause and everyone’s happy with it.
It's not easy
DAYS 17-19 9-11 MAY 2011
A little bit stuck with how to put into words my observations and six interviews. Ema came to the rescue though. The action stage has now begun. Lots of preparations as it’s our turn to produce materials.
Contrary to what I had planned, we asked each class to suggest topics. Mistake? The voting was spoken and probably because of peer pressure, voting was induced by popularity or conformity to the masses J) Next time? We’ll do real SECRET voting.
Year 1 chose…History of Music 50’ onwards, The Mayas.
Year 2 chose…History of Rock 50’onwards, Countries and Capitals, History of Football, content, texts, short videos, a song.
Year 3 chose…Nazis (in Argentina) and History of Rock, sthg interactive, stu can read before the lesson, short vids and texts, discussion, a little intro-explanation.
DAY 20 12 March
I need to keep this journal on a daily basis. I don’t wanna miss a thing. Anyway, today I sort of finished drafting the first two stages. Ongoing analysis is really helping me plan the coming stages and reflecting about where I want all this to go and how I can help my fellow teachers more.
Today we got together at the school. We felt that we need to develop the materials individually and then share our thingies for everyone’s considerations. We don’t think the school is a good place to actually produce the materials. We’ll work at home and then get together for a round-up of how we want to do them. I tried no to influence them, that is, I said that the materials could take any form, they could be a worksheet (my style) or like loose activities like the ones they developed.
We’ll try to teach with the materials between the second and third week of June before S leaves for England and I have to substitute her. Nice :S but it’s the least I could do when they are always so amazingly supportive and don’t get paid for all this extra time.
A little bit stuck with how to put into words my observations and six interviews. Ema came to the rescue though. The action stage has now begun. Lots of preparations as it’s our turn to produce materials.
Contrary to what I had planned, we asked each class to suggest topics. Mistake? The voting was spoken and probably because of peer pressure, voting was induced by popularity or conformity to the masses J) Next time? We’ll do real SECRET voting.
Year 1 chose…History of Music 50’ onwards, The Mayas.
Year 2 chose…History of Rock 50’onwards, Countries and Capitals, History of Football, content, texts, short videos, a song.
Year 3 chose…Nazis (in Argentina) and History of Rock, sthg interactive, stu can read before the lesson, short vids and texts, discussion, a little intro-explanation.
DAY 20 12 March
I need to keep this journal on a daily basis. I don’t wanna miss a thing. Anyway, today I sort of finished drafting the first two stages. Ongoing analysis is really helping me plan the coming stages and reflecting about where I want all this to go and how I can help my fellow teachers more.
Today we got together at the school. We felt that we need to develop the materials individually and then share our thingies for everyone’s considerations. We don’t think the school is a good place to actually produce the materials. We’ll work at home and then get together for a round-up of how we want to do them. I tried no to influence them, that is, I said that the materials could take any form, they could be a worksheet (my style) or like loose activities like the ones they developed.
We’ll try to teach with the materials between the second and third week of June before S leaves for England and I have to substitute her. Nice :S but it’s the least I could do when they are always so amazingly supportive and don’t get paid for all this extra time.
jueves, 12 de mayo de 2011
AR cycle 2 – Speaking skills lessons
Day 30-32, 9-11 May
It took slightly more time on day one because I needed to introduce the activity in the class and also the material that I had prepared for students. Everything went according to the plan except for the fact that a few students were not taking much interest in interviewing their peers as they didn’t want to evaluate their peer’s performance. I tried to motivate them by telling them that their peers will do the same the following day as there will be role reversal. Also, I managed to monitor students’ on-task behavior as I sat with different groups several times, but it was tiring. Although I was quiet satisfied with the way things went on the first and second day of the lesson. However, I do feel that implementing this kind of a plan needs close monitoring from the teacher’s end because in a way I had to monitor not only students’ on-task behavior, but had to encourage them to carefully mark the evaluation form as it will benefit their peers in improving their skills of appearing in interviews.
On the third day of the lesson, I asked the SS to review their reports on voluntary basis. With a little hesitation in the beginning, a few pairs raised their hands and shared their positive points. Since the classroom has no audio aid and I really wanted other SS to benefit from individual feedback, I decided to use the blackboard to see the positives and negatives of their classmates. Even the SS agreed to the idea so I made two columns on the board one each for positive and negative feedback. I kept writing the positives and negatives that the SS shared with the class and tried answering their queries based on the negative point each SS shared. Due to the time constraint some SS didn’t get a chance to share their feedback in the class so I asked them to see me after the class. Of course, these were only a few students. But I really enjoyed putting everything on board as it not only summed up the two-day lesson, but particularly helped the students sitting at the back. Unlike the previous cycle, the individual feedback in this cycle promoted whole class uptake of feedback.
My AR cycles end with today’s class. I’m left with just two more classes before the examinations begin after one week.
It took slightly more time on day one because I needed to introduce the activity in the class and also the material that I had prepared for students. Everything went according to the plan except for the fact that a few students were not taking much interest in interviewing their peers as they didn’t want to evaluate their peer’s performance. I tried to motivate them by telling them that their peers will do the same the following day as there will be role reversal. Also, I managed to monitor students’ on-task behavior as I sat with different groups several times, but it was tiring. Although I was quiet satisfied with the way things went on the first and second day of the lesson. However, I do feel that implementing this kind of a plan needs close monitoring from the teacher’s end because in a way I had to monitor not only students’ on-task behavior, but had to encourage them to carefully mark the evaluation form as it will benefit their peers in improving their skills of appearing in interviews.
On the third day of the lesson, I asked the SS to review their reports on voluntary basis. With a little hesitation in the beginning, a few pairs raised their hands and shared their positive points. Since the classroom has no audio aid and I really wanted other SS to benefit from individual feedback, I decided to use the blackboard to see the positives and negatives of their classmates. Even the SS agreed to the idea so I made two columns on the board one each for positive and negative feedback. I kept writing the positives and negatives that the SS shared with the class and tried answering their queries based on the negative point each SS shared. Due to the time constraint some SS didn’t get a chance to share their feedback in the class so I asked them to see me after the class. Of course, these were only a few students. But I really enjoyed putting everything on board as it not only summed up the two-day lesson, but particularly helped the students sitting at the back. Unlike the previous cycle, the individual feedback in this cycle promoted whole class uptake of feedback.
My AR cycles end with today’s class. I’m left with just two more classes before the examinations begin after one week.
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