Blog 11 Teaching kids at KTP

Hello, everyone ✌

For this new entry, I will discuss about what I consider one of the most challenging parts at teaching at the CCA teaching kids. For this entry, first, I will explain what it means to teaching kids at the CCA. Second, I will describe some activities and recommendations when teaching kids at the CCA. Third, I will give some insights about how I would teach teens, having in mind kids activities and what I could do in case I taught kids. Finally, I will reflect on what I consider to be the challenges for my to teach kids and if I consider myself ready to overcome them in order to fulfill the minimun requirements of the CCA KTP program for kids.

The guiding questions for this entry are:

What strategies, techniques, or ideas from the session on teaching kids could be adapted to your own classes with teens or pre-teens? Give one specific example.

What challenges or differences do you notice between teaching kids and teaching teens/pre-teens, and how can the insights from the session help you address those differences?

Teaching kids at the CCA

Kids are one of the main targets of the CCA. This population, which ranges ages from 5/6 to 9 and starts at the level A1, represents one of the most difficult challenges when it comes to teaching at the KTP program. As being kids, they are not only developing their basic English skills, but adquiring their L1 and other fine motor skills, such as controling their hands for writing. Likewise, children's brain is in pretty "absorbing", yet primitive state. They can easily learn, but they are still developing attention and responsive skills, so keep their attention to class can be a real challenge.

Recommendations:

Some recomendations when giving class to children include: use activities that involve movement to make transitions and grab attention. For example, you can make then dance, repeat hand gestures and use attention grabers. Likewise, it is important to keep them entertained. Use movement, pitch changes and tone variations. They can be real lifesavers when regaining the attention of children. Another important recommendation is to avoid use metalanguage when explaining grammar or vocabulary topics. For instance, instead fo saying the verb to be for the third person is "is". The teacher could use a marionette and practice verb to by acting: Hi, I'm marionette, you are Petito and she is? Finally, it is important for teachers to master the art of patience, resilience and creativity. Children are pretty reactive to how you interact with them. It is important to have a calm, yet contagious voice, to know how recast instructions, and to make activities that appeal to children's imagination and limits.

Is it diferent to teach kids to teach teens?

Yes. It all parts from the fact that Children's and teen's brain function differently. On one hand, teens tend catch instructions more easily. They don't require a high dose of stimulation and they have more control of their motor skills. Nonetheless, they are more reactive to emotions and want to start to be more independent to make their own choices. On the other hand, kids are more reactive as their primary functions are developing and their pre-frontal cortex, which is in charge of self-regulation, is slowy starting to develop. Moreover, they need to receive simple, yet easy to understand, instructions. They can also easily frustrate and manifestate strong emotions. Finally, they are almost all the time active and need constant attention and approvation from teachers.

After this you could say that the teaching kids and teens is complety different, but in reality there are some strategies that can be adapted to teach English to teens. For example, activities that come from the Total Phisycal Response (TPR) method, like the ones kids use movement to learn verbs or vocabulary, can be adapted to teaching teens. In my case, I could teach vocabulary by making students mimic the actions. If the vocabulary is related to apologize, I can make them act as if they were apologizing.

Another posible connection can be the use of pairing and grouping strategies. In the midweek training, we were paired by making animal sounds. I personally consider that it could be reused for my students to practice pronunciation. I could make them say minimal pairs and they will have to find the student that says the same word. 

Reflection: Do I feel ready to teach kids?

Being compelty honest, not to really. I like kids and I really enjoy seeing them be happy while learning. Nevertheless, I conder it to be pretty challenging task for me, specially because it requieres a lot of performative skills that use a lot of energy and movement. I personally like to be more relaxed and assertive when communicating. Likewise, I feel that it could limit what I want my students to do. I'm a real fan of interaction, creation and debating. I feel that teens like debate a lot and it bring a lot of fresh and intersting perspectives to the class. Also, teens are easier to control to make them follow instructions, and with the right they will for sure participate. Its, true that they may act from time to time like not willing to do anything, but with the correct words and assertiveness you can make them participate.

For now, teaching teens is my cup of tea and I really want to continue to do it next semmester as an official teacher at the CCA. However, I understand that if the program requieres me to teach kids, I will give all my effort to try to adapt my style of teaching to them.

Blog 10 Language cycle and communicative moments

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For this new entry, I will discuss about two of the most crucial moments during the development of a class at the CCA: the language cycle, as the process of guiding students to learn/reinforce inductively a new grammar/vocabulary topic, and the communicative moments, as the spaces for students to produce language for developing their speaking skills. First, I will explain what is the language cycle and its function during a class. Second, I will describe how comunicative moments work throughout the class and their key aspects. Third, I will describe how both of these processes were seen during my classes. Finally, I will reflect on the importance of these two moments for the students' learning process, as part of the inductive approach of language learning at the CCA.

The guiding questions for this entry are:

How did I guide my learners through the stages of the language cycle (exposure, noticing, practice, and production), and which stage might need more support next time?”

During the class, when did genuine communication happen, and how can I create more opportunities for learners to use the language meaningfully?

What is the language cycle?

The language cycle is process in which new grammar and/or new vocabulary contents are introduced as part of the class content. The language cycle aims for students to learn inductively throughout a series of 4 steps that guide students thourgh their learning process. The language cycle is divided in exposure, noticing, practicing and production. 

1. Exposure: in this stage the new topic is introduced to students. It intends to be the first input in which students will start to see the grammar topic in context. Some posibilities include videos, songs, listenings or readings, but they have to be both authentic and comprehensible for students.
2. Noticing: in this stage students start to analyze and build their own rules. This step is the most important step as students are infering from the input they recieve to create their own rules and patterns. Teachers have to ensure understanding by strategies like deduction, comparison, and grammar charts. This step has to be student-centered and teachers most avoid being the ones who give the rules.
3. Practice: In this stage occurs the process of correction and confirmation that the student has adquire and can properly use the new grammar/vocabulary topic. This phase is directly connected to the production stage as they both share 3 moments when students are continually practicing: controlled, semi-controlled and free practice.
4. Controlled practice: it focuses on the linguistic criteria to check the full understanding of the student. These exercises include filling the blanks or fixed sentences. For example, teachers can use exercises from the textbooks or use a Kahoot activity.
5. Semi-controlled practice: its focus is still on the lingistic criteria, but its a little bit freer. For instance, students can be given prompts or already make sentences for a conversation and then they continue. This step is meant to function as a bridge between the controlled practice and the free practice.
6. Free practice: it is related to the production stage and its intended for students to use language freely focusing more on fluency, rather than accuracy. This part can be used as a communicative moment, but students need to be given a clear instruction and criteria, have a meaningful outcome and the activities must be interactive and fun. Some free practice strategies include impromptu conversations, debates and role plays.

What are the communicative moments?

The communicative moments are moments, at least 3 per class, in which students interact for developing their speaking and communicative skills. These are directly related to the communicative goal of the class. It is important to have clear criteria, clear instructions, and enough input for students to interact with each other. Teachers can use conversation models, prompts, conversation expressions and questions. This moments con occur in any moment of the class: warm up, global skills, learning moment, free practice or even for the project.

A good communication exercise has into account 3 core aspects: complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF). Complexity has to do with how challenging the activity is for the students. For example, the teacher could ask for using a specific tense, use a specific vocab, or invite students to debate a position they don't fully agree with. Accuracy is when the communication activity aims to work on a specific grammar topic in a suprasegmental level. These include filling the blanks or follow conversations models. Finally, fluency is related to the delivery of the student. It is not focus on how fast or appropietly speaks, but how can communicate and interact with occasional interferences that don't affect mutual intelligibility. 

Some other recommendations and tips are:

• Help students find the balance between accuracy and fluency.​
• Have students recycle the language they have learned. ​
• Be mindful about your students’ population.​
• Give them enough opportunities to speak and vary students.​
• Vary the patterns of interaction.​
• Use the resources we have (platform, videos, and other tech tools). ​
• Provide conversation models (upgraded, challenging, with room to personalize and expand)​

How are both language cycle and communicative moments seen at the CCA?

Communicative moments:

This saturday, I was in charge of the communicative moments, so I decided that I will do all 3 in 3 different moments of the class: warm up, global skills (in TB1 1.3), free practice, and project (in TB1 1.1).

In the case of TB1 1.3, the topic was: around the world, so, for the communication activities, I wanted my students to practice not only communication but also their critical thinking on culture. The first activity was a game of What Am I? country edition. Each student had to ask questions using vocabulary related to countries like is my country in Europe? or Is my country wealthy? And they had 1 minute to guess. The next activity was a discussion in pairs to define culture and stereotypes, they also saw a video about stereotypes and shared their insights with the class. Finally, for the free practice, they debated in pairs. I showed them 2 videos and randomly they had to defend video 1, which was a video to attract tourists to Colombia made by the government, or video 2, which was a comical video about some of the most common stereotypes/problems in regions around Colombia. 

In the case of TB1 1.1, the topic was movies. For the first activity the played find someone who, and they had to ask questions using past simple and past continous, which was the new grammar topic of the class. Then, the free practice and project were combine into one activity in which students in groups had to create their own movie as a insume for the next part of the project. They had to discuss, reach agreements and then present the plot of the movie using simple past and past continous.

I think that both courses enjoyed the activities and even my team teacher congratulated for my activities.

Language cycle:

Although this week I wasn't in charge of the language cycle, I was given an oustanding display of it by my team teacher.

I want to concentrate in TB1 1.1, because in TB1 1.3 there was no new grammar topic, just vocabulary.

In TB1 1.1, for the exposure, the teacher presented a text with some sentences highlighted in different colors and then she invited the students to think and answer: what where those sentences?, what would the mean?, what each color mean?. Then, the teacher used a flipped learning strategy and the student form two groups. Each group had to explain what was simple past and the other what was past continuos. The teacher acted like she was a student and asked questions for students to answer. The controlled practice was with a kahoot. The semi-controlled practice was done with some exercises of the book and, finally, I was in charge of the free practice.

Honestly, I want to really highlight the performance of my team teacher as it helped to understand how can I make student-centered activities for them to start infer the rules of a new grammar topic. I remember the previous class she told me that my language cycle in the analyze was teacher centered and I really didn't know how to do it, as all my life I have been taught that way.

Reflection:

I believe that both language cycle and communicative moments are crucial in the CCA's curriculum. Not only because they are both of the most complex and biggest activities inside the class, but they are the heart of the distintic way colombo teaches to students: make students the center of learning. I know that I still have many aspects to improve in the area of the language cycle, but thanks to my team teacher, I see things more clearly. Likewise, I'm pretty comfortable with my performance on the communicative moments and I feel they are one of my strongest points in my teaching practice. Both of this experiences where really meaningful for me and I hope to keep improving them in future moments of my practicum in this last track of the semester.

Blog 9 Quiz 1 at the CCA

Hello, everyone ✌

For this new entry, I’ll write about one of the most important moments at the CCA: the midterm quiz, or Quiz 1. First, I’ll explain what Quiz 1 is, including its role, organization, and purpose for students. I’ll also describe the preparation process and the importance of checking the quiz beforehand to give students enough review to perform properly during the exam. Finally, I’ll give my thoughs on the exam and the whole process including the review, organization and overall procedures.

The guiding questions for this entry are:

Did you check the quizzes before delivering them?

What is the purpose of having a review activity before administering the quizzes?

What procedures did you observe during the administration of the quizzes?

Quiz 1 at the CCA: purpose and procedures

Quiz 1 evaluates the knowledge students have acquired during the first half of their KTP semestral course. Its main goal is to check students’ overall progress in terms of the topics they’ve been learning. It also helps teachers determine whether students meet the level requirements at that point in the course, since all courses of the same level are evaluated using the same exam. This is because teachers don’t create the exams, but the evaluating committee does.

Even though teachers don’t design the exams, they are still responsible for giving students enough input to prepare. In my case, my team teacher handles the review in two moments. First, she gives students an infographic with useful links to help them prepare outside of class. This includes resources for reading, listening, grammar, and vocabulary. The second moment happens in class, where she organizes different activities to help students get ready for the exam. For example, she started with a reading activity to help students practice scanning skills and grasp the main ideas of paragraphs. Then, she moved on to grammar activities focused on will/going for TB1 1.1 and modal verbs for TB1 1.1.

After the review, the quiz moment arrives. The quizzes are organized by junior teachers, who take into account the floor of the classrooms and level of the exams. The teacher receives the quiz about 10 minutes before the exam time from SP and signs to confirm they received all the copies. The exams aren’t just handed out to students, as there is a set of steps teachers must follow. First, students pack up their things and help form 3 to 4 rows of chairs at the front of the classroom. Then, the teacher organizes them in alphabetical order by last name, and the exam begins.

The exam is designed to be completed in one hour and follows this structure:

1) Students write their name and the teacher’s name.

2) Students do the first section which is listening. Students listen to the audio only twice.

3) After that, they continue at their own pace with the rest of the exam, which includes reading, grammar, vocabulary, and writing.

During the exam, students can ask questions, but teachers cannot answer anything that directly gives away an answer. They can help with vocabulary or give hints.

Once a student finishes, they must remain seated and cannot use any devices or leave the classroom until the full hour has passed.

When the exam ends, the teacher collects the copies in order, and the class is over.

Teachers grade the quizzes over the weekend so students can receive their grades on Monday. In class, students review their exams, ask for feedback, and then return them to the teacher. The exams are stored in a container as part of the Colombos archives.

What did I do in this whole process? What are my thoughts?

As a practitioner, I was in charge of several aspects related to the review and monitoring of the exam. First, I helped create the infographics for TB1 1.1. I also reviewed the exams beforehand to understand what students were being evaluated on and anticipate possible questions. On the day of the class, I led part of the review focused on reading strategies. Finally, I supported students during the exam by giving hints and helping with vocabulary.

Personally, I think the process is very well thought out and follows a clear set of steps to ensure the exam is completed correctly and on time. The review is extremely helpful, and students receive constant input to practice and refresh the topics covered throughout the course. When I'm in charge of the exams, I will make sure to follow all the steps.

I also plan to implement some ideas I discussed with my team teacher. For example, I’m considering setting up a timer so students can keep track of the remaining time during the exam. Another idea is to bring books for those who finish early, so they can stay engaged while waiting for the rest of the class to finish.

Blog 8: Global Skills Activity (GSA)

Hello, everyone ✌

For this new entry, I will describe one of the most important characteristics in the CCA class curriculum: Global Skills Activity (GSA). Firstly, I will write about what GSA is and its role in the CCA curriculum. Secondly, I will describe how these activities are represented on a daily basis inside a class and their purpose. Thirdly, I will select two global skills and explain why I would like to strengthen them in my TB1 1.1 and TB1 1.3 classes. Finally, I will reflect on the importance of these activities not as a simple addition to class planning, but as a differentiating factor of the CCA that seeks not only to teach English, but also to develop 21st-century skills for the personal growth of its students.

The guiding questions for this entry are:

How are global skills evident in class?

Which global skill would you like to strengthen in your groups?

What are Global Skills?

Global skills are part of the learning process at the CCA. They can be defined as those abilities that are learned and then continue to be developed as a lifelong learning process. They go beyond the classroom and have a pivotal impact on the student’s life. At the CCA, it is important to boost and reinforce these skills continually as part of the personal and academic growth of the students. This reinforcement has to be done according to the needs of the class, the curriculum, and the population (students). Likewise, these skills must be updated and provided wisely by the teacher, as they are in charge of planning and modeling the activity, while involving students constantly.

There are various global skills for teachers to choose from for their classes. However, at the CCA, some of the most relevant for KTP students include:

• Communication and Collaboration: These abilities are related to the expression of ideas, active listening, and assertive communication within different contexts and audiences. They include teamwork, negotiation, conflict resolution, and building trust to achieve common goals.
• Creativity and Critical Thinking: These abilities are related to the capacity to generate original ideas, explore multiple solutions, and approach challenges with imagination. They involve analyzing information, questioning assumptions, and solving problems in innovative and logical ways.
• Intercultural Competence and Citizenship: These abilities include understanding, respecting, and engaging with people from diverse cultural ad social backgrounds. They allow students to create cultural awareness based on openness, tolerance, and empathy, as well as acting responsibly as global citizens by contributing positively to communities and society.
• Emotional Self-regulation and Wellbeing: These abilities aim at the recognition, management, and expression of emotions in healthy and responsible ways. They involve coping with stress and unpleasant emotions, showing resilience, practicing self-care, and maintaining balance in personal, social, and academic/professional life.
• Digital Literacies: These abilities are related to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to use digital tools effectively and responsibly. They cover information literacy, online communication, content creation, critical evaluation of digital sources, and awareness of digital safety, ethics, and identity.

How are GS evident in my classes?

My team teacher is always looking to include global skills in our classes. She likes to call them superpowers as a way to reinforce the impact they would have on students’ lifelong learning process. This Saturday, the global skills for TB1 1.1 were communication and digital literacy. The teacher made these goals evident from the reading of objectives, and they were developed throughout the class. On one hand, for communication skills, I was in charge of the language cycle, so for the free practice I promoted communication by inviting students to share their favorite/least favorite movie and explain to their classmates why they liked or disliked it. In this way, I wanted to help my students express their ideas and practice active listening. On the other hand, regarding digital literacy, the teacher arranged a mediation called Pandora’s Box, which focused on the prosumer role and the invitation to become active users in digital settings, addressing the control and regulation of potentially harmful content.

Regarding TB1 1.3, the global skills were critical thinking, communication, and digital literacy. The latter was the same as the mediation for TB1 1.1. Nonetheless, this class also included another global skill: critical thinking, combined with communication. In this case, critical thinking was developed throughout the session in the language cycle as part of the context and practice. The topic for that day was “things that make us feel embarrassed and how we would react to them.” I included activities for students to think critically about possible scenarios and communicate their insights and solutions. For instance, in one activity students had to imagine a situation that made or would make them feel embarrassed. Then, they shared their situations and explained to their classmates why they would feel embarrassed and what they would do in that situation. In the end, students were able to express their ideas and find possible solutions based on the context of their situations, while also working on their emotional intelligence and responses to embarrassment.

What skills would I include in my classes?

I believe that all skills are equally important and serve multiple purposes in the students’ lives. However, two skills that I want to boost in my courses are emotional self-regulation and wellbeing, and creativity and critical thinking. I consider these skills crucial when developing interpersonal and intrapersonal competences regarding self-image, motivation, resilience, and learning from errors. I believe that these skills are a big part of the learning process, as they are not only part of global skills but also part of how students receive feedback in the assessment cycle, interact with others in communicative moments, and plan strategies to constantly improve from their mistakes.

In my case, as part of my intervention requirement from the university, I am planning to boost these skills through Growth Mindset Interactions (GMI) in exercises where students develop their communicative competences while learning new strategies related to resilience, personal growth, and SMART goal setting.

Reflection:

Honestly, I believe that global skills play a pivotal role in the learning process of students inside and outside classroom settings. These skills represent not only a differentiating factor in the CCA’s English teaching approach but also benefit students by not only acquiring English as a foreign language, but doing so while creating beneficial skills for their growth and development in different social settings. Every skill is equally important, and as teachers, we must seek the wellbeing of our students through all the activities and classes we design during our time at the CCA.

Blog 7: Feedback and track of progress

Hello everyone ✌

For this new entry, I will reflect on one of the most important steps when assessing the performance of a student: the feedback and tracking of students’ progression during class. First, I will write about what feedback is and its role when tracking the progress of students. Then, I will describe how my team teacher tracks the progress of students and gives them feedback. Finally, I will reflect on the importance of giving meaningful and appropriate feedback for students to keep their progress throughout the development of the course.

The guiding questions for this entry are:

How does the teacher collect evidence on students' performance?

How is feedback performed in class?

Feedback and tracking students progression:

Feedback can be defined as the return of helpful information or criticism to someone as a result of their performance on a task or activity. In the area of English teaching, feedback is an essential part of the learning process, as it helps students acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses in a specific area or skill they are learning. It gives students crucial information on how their progress is seen and evaluated, allowing them to continue progressing to achieve the final goal of the course.

Feedback is not just a matter of saying what you saw, but it involves important steps to follow so students can understand what they are being evaluated on, how they are being evaluated, and how to interpret the results. First, the teacher needs to provide specific criteria for students to understand the communicative and linguistic requirements of the task. Second, there has to be a tool for evaluating (SWOT, TAG, OREO, Checklist, Exit ticket), and the tool needs to be both useful for teachers and easy to understand for students. Third, it is important to take into account what type of feedback the student and teacher need, as there are different variations (peer assessment, self-assessment, group discussion, teacher assessment). Finally, the most important part is the action plan. Students need to be provided with a possible route to follow so they can improve and overcome their weaknesses for future evaluations. At the CCA, some strategies to give feedback include OREO (Opinion, Reason, Evidence, Opinion), TAG (Talk about something you like, Ask a question, and Give a suggestion), and Exit tickets. In the end, it comes down to the teacher choosing what kind of feedback is the most suitable for the purposes of the course and for fostering students’ improvement.

How does my Team teacher give feedback and track the students' progrestion in class?

Feedback plays an important role in both of my courses, and my team teacher is constantly giving feedback to students in different ways. In previous classes, she used TAG, Exit tickets, and peer assessment, and always provided clear criteria so students were aware of what they were being evaluated on. For example, in TB1 1.1, during the free practice communication activity, the teacher asked students to talk in pairs about an event in their lives. She gave specific criteria for students to prepare and carry out the activity. Although it was a free practice and the teacher was not meant to overcorrect students, at the end of the activity she reviewed the criteria and asked students if they had followed it or not. Besides this, she also did another activity in which students created their own timeline and had to present it to other students using specific criteria. Finally, the teacher gave students an action plan at the end of the class to practice the grammar topic of the day: need to and be allowed to.

       

In the case of TB1 1.3, the teacher was also clear with her feedback and criteria when assessing students’ activities. For example, in the semi-controlled practice, she asked students to create predictions using the structure If I + present simple … I will + complement. The teacher evaluated whether students used this structure correctly when talking about predictions. At the end of the class, she used an Exit ticket as a form of self-evaluation of students’ understanding of the lesson, using emojis and asking them to give reasons for how they felt. Finally, as in TB1 1.1, the teacher created an action plan for students to practice the grammar topic of the course: the first conditional.

What about me?

In my case, in the last class I worked on some assessment activities for the teachers’ tasks. One example of the assessment activities I planned was a checklist for TB1 1.3 in the written project input. I planned a peer assessment in which students would evaluate their classmates’ school profiles based on each input given up to that moment. Likewise, the checklist included a section where students had to mention one thing they liked and one thing their peer could improve. I believe this assessment rubric fulfills all the requirements to be considered a good feedback tool for students. It provides clear criteria, is likely appealing to students, asks them to provide examples and check their delivery, and offers possible ways of giving feedback through functional phrases.

Reflection:

Feedback is an essential part of the learning process for students. It allows them to understand how they are being evaluated and what the expected outcome is when they complete an activity. Likewise, it helps students recognize where they are and what skills they can still improve. Finally, feedback is not just about telling students what they are good or bad at. It is about allowing them to be part of their own learning process by giving them specific criteria for evaluation and crucial information about their progress so they don’t feel lost or alone in their learning journey.