Informes

Carolina Romero Abarca

Teaching Practicum
Englisg Pedagogy
2009
OBSERVATION STAGE

Task 1: The School and Learning Environment

Name of student: Carolina Romero Abarca

Name of School: Liceo Barón

Number of students: 23

Date: September 29th Class: NM1

Briefly and objectively describe the following aspects:

1. The school:

Describe the general background of the school including the physical location, organisation,
student population, philosophy and educational and behavioural policies.

Liceo Baron is located in Cerro Baron in Valparaiso. It is a municipal high school which
contains students from a very low social class (around 550 students).
Besides, the 1st and 2nd grades have five classes, from letter “A “ to letter “E”. Students are
selected for their classes according to their ages; for example , 1 st grade “A” has the
youngest students who are around fourteen years old and the 1st grade “E” has the oldest
ones who are around fifteen and sixteen years old. The classes “E” are considered by the
teachers as the worst classes in the school due to the fact that the students who belong to
them have academic performance problems .These grades have the same curriculum than
other municipal high schools.
In the cases of the higher grades ( 3rd and 4th ), there are not discrimination against the
students in terms of academic performance. In this stage they are allowed to study technical
careers. These careers are preferred by men; so, the school has mostly men in terms of
population.
The students do not have to take a special test to enter this high school; so, there is not
selection because the main principle of it is: everybody has to receive a good Education.
Moreover, this school is concerned about the students' future since when they finish their
courses of study , they are already prepared for facing working life.
About behavioural policies, there are rules that everybody has to respect; for this reason,
there are not many behaviour problems among the students.

2. The classroom

Describe the atmosphere of the room and the levels of engagement in the room. Make notes
on seating, sight lines, space, air, light, whiteboard, equipment, etc.

In this school each teacher has his own classroom; so, students have to move for every
subject.
In the case of this classroom:
First of all, it has enough space for all the students because the distribution of the tables is
good,it means that the students are sitting in groups of four people, for this reason it is easily
to observe all the students in the classroom.
Second, air and light are good due to the fact that the classroom has big windows at the back
of it.
Last, the classroom has : a big whiteboard; around fifteen English- Spanish and Spanish-
English dictionaries in order students can look up a word when they want; some books of the
ministry of education in the case students do not bring to the class their own books (which is
very common); many posters which contain topics related to fruit, hand tools, and irregular
verbs.

3. The activities & resources

a) Make notes on the kind of activities used, the nature of student involvement, balance of
student doing things and teacher doing things

The class has a teacher-centered approach, where students just pay attention and do the
exercises; so, the class is very traditional. The teacher speaks most of the time in Spanish
because the English level of the students is very low. In general, students do not participate in
the class at all.
In the case of the kind of activities used, the teacher often uses photocopies where he types a
short text of a topic and then he asks some questions related to it ; for example, the activity
that I could observe was like this:
He gave the students a photocopy about countable and uncountable nouns. In this activity
there was a short paragraph about a guy who had a grocery list; so, he had to buy a lettuce,
tomatoes, a bottle of water, etc. Then, the teacher typed some questions where students had
to use “How many” or “How much” at the beginning of the questions. Finally they had to write
the answers of these questions.
If we compare balance of student doing things and the teacher doing things, I can say that the
teacher is the person who does most of the work due to the fact that he explains the topics,
gives examples, gives exercises and clarifies some doubts; as I said before, the students just
listen to the teacher and do the activities required by the teacher.

b) Describe the resources used and the materials available within the school. How are
the resources used in the classroom?

The school has many materials available for teachers and students :
_ Photocopies (teachers can get them in colour and black and white).
_Two computer classrooms (which the teachers and the students can use without problems if
they ask for them previously).
_A classroom with a data projector (teachers have to ask for it previously).
_Dictionaries (these are available in the same classroom where the students have classes).

These are mainly the materials available within the school; however, the teacher only takes
advantages of photocopies (as I have observed) to make his classes. He does not use the
computer classroom for teaching , he only uses them for typing the activities for the students.
In the case of the projector, the teacher told me that he does not use it because he does not
have enough time to make presentations.
Just few students use the computer classroom to do some homework but they do not use for
English subject. Moreover, most of them do not use the dictionaries available in the classroom
since they prefer asking the meaning of a word to the teacher (they are so lazy).

For these reason just few resources are used for teaching purposes; moreover, it is a pity that
the teacher does not take advantages of the computers and the projector for doing his
classes since they can very motivating for students .

Task 2: Student´s learning

In this second observation task, you should focus on the things that help to create conditions
for effective learning and on the aspects that play a part in preventing learning.

1. The learners
How motivated are the learners? Why? To what extent are they taking part in their own
learning? To what extent are they expecting the teacher to do the work for them?

Most of the students are not motivated at all because they just do not like English since they
are not interested in the topics that the teacher uses for teaching ; however, the main reason
is that they think that English is useless .This situation have been observed for me due to the
fact that most of them do not pay attention to the teacher when he is explaining something. In
fact , some students sitting at the back of the classroom are listening to music or talking while
the teacher is checking an activity. This situation is awful since they do not make an effort for
learning . For example, when they want to know the meaning of a word, they just ask it to the
teacher instead of looking up it in the dictionaries; so when the teacher does not the meaning
of it , they just stay on their chairs without knowing that word.
According to the question related to what extent they are expecting the teacher to do the work
for them, I have not observed if they have told the teacher about what he can do for doing the
classes more entertaining.
My point of view of this, is that the 1st E is not interested at all in the English class and the
other subjects since they do not appreciate Education ; they just go to the school because
they have to do it , they do not think that it is important for their future. This is really easy to
observe because we have to know that all these students are taking the first grade of high
school for second or third time and it is not due to learning problems , it is due to the fact that
they are not interested in learning.

2. Behaviour during classroom activities

Describe the ways students are encouraged to participate in activities. Are there any
particular strategies for managing issues and motivating students? Are there any
students with special needs?

First of all we have to know: as I said before, the students are sitting in groups of four people.
The students next to the whiteboard (around 8 of 23 students) have a lot of participation in
the classroom ; it means that they always are doing the activities and they are very quiet
when the teacher is explaining a topic. For this reason, they have a better behaviour than
their classmates who are very noisy and disrespectful with each other. Second,around
sixteen students attend the class frequently; so, many tables are empty at the back of the
classroom.
And last, while the teacher is explaining something, many students are talking, listening to
music, laughing, or drawing. So, the teacher loses patience , especially with those students
who are talking or laughing , and he orders them to move at the back of the classroom. For
this reason, it is easily to find all the time around four students sitting alone in the empty
tables. The problem is that the teacher only teaches to those students who are sitting next to
the whiteboard , he forgets the students sitting at the back completely. Because of this, they
start attracting attention of their classmates, so it produces a mess in the classroom.

Now that we know this information , I can say:

For the teacher it is really difficult to encourage all the students to participate in the classroom
because he does not pay attention to those students who are making troubles in the
classroom. It is really sad to see that his class is for few students.
I have not observed the ways that the teacher uses for encouraging the students to
participate in the class; for the contrary, I have observed that many students do not participate
in the class because they are doing something else and the teacher does not do anything for
changing this situation.
However, there are two students who have a lot of participation in the class because they not
only do the exercises but also when the teacher asks something they can answer it. This is
because they have a better level of English than their classmates; in fact, the teacher told me
that they can be good monitors. Nevertheless, these students are not highly motivated for
participating in the classes, I think that teacher should say at least “good job” when they
answer a question correctly. The only thing that the teacher does is telling them off all the time
without congratulating when some students deserve it.

3. Discuss the learning styles and levels of English in the classroom.

Observation scale High Mediu Low Not
m Observe
d
Observations clear & well informed x

Demonstrates understanding of social and x

educational factors
Objective & factual information x

Evidence of active search of information x

Use of English expression clear x

As I said before, the English level of the students is very low because when the teacher
speaks in English most of them do not understand. This situation can be easily observed; for
example when the teacher asks a student a question in English, the students just say “yes”
and the question has nothing to do with this answer. Nonetheless, as I said before there are
two outstanding students in the classroom who have a better level of English. This is because
they have more understanding of that language since they can associate the words very
easily. The strategy that the teacher uses to get this result is the following: In order that the
students acquire the meaning of a word , he describes it using body language , English and
then Spanish (if they do not understand any English word). For example, the word “lettuce”,
the teacher would say: “it is a green vegetable that you can buy at the supermarket, es un
vegetal verde que puedes comprar en el supermercado; so, some of the students can get the
meaning easily. The teacher uses this way to teach the meaning of a word and to give
orders. In this last case, students sometimes do not need the teacher says the sentence in
Spanish because they have already got the meaning of it ; for instance: close the door , put it
away, please come in, etc. However, the teacher only speaks in Spanish when he explains a
topic (I think it could be very difficult for the students to understand if he only spoke in English
the whole class). On the other hand, the teacher always makes a review of the previous
class using visual strategies like diagrams on the board; so, it is even easier to associate the
words or phrases.
TEAM TEACHING STAGE

Name of student: Carolina Romero Abarca

Name of School: Liceo Baron

Date: September 30th

Task Nº1: Collaboration activities

For the following questions describe as accurately as you can how you have collaborated in
school assigned:

3. What kind of activity did you perform the first time you were asked for help?
How long did it take?
The first day that I attended the class I was asked to create an activity to review the use of
“How much” or “How many” according to uncountable or countable nouns. He suggested me
to write a short text of a topic and then make some questions about it.
Here there is a summary of the activity:

When Daddy Yankee plays a concert , he makes a list of demands for his dressing room:
*12 bottles of mineral water * a jar of instant coffee
* a bowl of fresh fruit *a tin of caviar

According to Daddy's list, answer the following questions:

1- ________ vanilla ice-cream does Daddy demand?

________________________________

2- ________ white candles does he demand?

________________________________
3- ________ white wine does he need?
__________________________

I added some vocabulary because the teacher suggested me to use this kind of help (he
always adds vocabulary in his activities). Afterwards, I sent him the activity by e-mail .
The day that the teacher did the activity, it took him around 90 minutes because:
First of all, he had to make a review of the use of “How much” and “How many” since most of
the students still did not know the meaning of these phrases; so , he had to explain them
again. Then , he read the activity and gave the meaning of every noun . To do this , he gave
descriptions of these words in English and if students still did not get the meaning of them, he
repeated these sentences in Spanish. This part of the work took him around 40 minutes. So,
the rest of the time (50 minutes) students were doing the exercises.
This activity was done the second day that I started attending the class.

4. What were the students doing before you started helping out?
The students were doing a very similar activity where a guy had to buy some things at the
supermarket; then they had to answer the questions related to the text. This activity had the
same format as my activity. First of all, a text, questions where students had to use “How
many” or “How much” ,and then they had to answer these questions. Besides, the teacher
added vocabulary. This activity was done the first day that I started attending the class in
order to observe it.

5. How did the students react? Describe the atmosphere of the room and the levels
of engagement in the room.
The students were not surprise for the activity, they were more interested in knowing me
because the teacher never introduced me to the class . In fact, he told me that they all were
more noisy due to the fact that I was present in the class.
This situation happened every time that I attended the class until the day that the teacher
decided to introduce me (this was the previous class that I was supposed to start teaching).

6. What other assignments were asked you to do? How often?

After doing the activity about Daddy Yankee' s demands I asked the teacher about what I
could do for helping out. He asked me to do a pre-test . He gave me some suggestions about
the exercises that I could do. He was doing this pre-test around 3 classes since many things
happened in the school ;for instance, a bomb alert . So, the students were not concentrated
on the activity.
The next class , the teacher gave a test. Afterwards, I was asked to prepare the oral test,
where I had to make flashcards . Then, I was supposed to start teaching.

7. Were you asked to prepare any kind of special audio visual material learning
material for the students? Were they used? How effective were they?

I was never asked to prepare any audio visual material learning; in fact, the teacher does not
use very often this kind of material.

Task 2: Lesson Planning

Answer the following questions and explain how you planned the learning activities for your
students. Be as precise as you can.

1. How did you get the information for planning the lessons for your students?

First of all , I observed the class and I decided to do activities where all students can
participate . Then , the teacher gave me the conceptual contents of the units for planning the
lessons. However, it was really difficult to collect material for my classes due to the fact that
the book of the ministry of Education is very advanced for these students; so, I had to create
my own activities.

2. Did your guide teacher give you any suggestions for planning?

No, he did not. He just gave me the annual plans and that was all.

3. How long did it take to you to prepare learning material for your first lesson?

I took me around three days because I prepared learning material not only for the first class
but also for the next two classes . I was looking for audio visual material ; however, I decided
to create a guide which contains exercises about Present Simple.
For my first class I am going to do an activity where all students have to participate, for doing
this I am going to ask them to make groups of four people. Then, I will give them some pieces
of paper that contain sentences ; for example , we wash our hands everyday. So, they have to
perform this sentences through gestures. Afterwards, I will say the sentences in English but
using different pronouns . The purpose is that they can recognize the final endings in the verb
in third singular person .
As you can see, thinking about this activity did not take a lot of time but creating the
complementary guide.
Práctica Profesional
Pedagogía en Inglés
2009.

Formato de reuniones de Padres y Apoderados

I. Datos Generales:

4. Nombre del Establecimiento Educacional: Liceo Barón

5. Curso: 1º E
6. Profesor jefe: José Castro
7. Profesor en Práctica: Carolina Romero Abarca
8. Fecha: 7 Octubre
9. Hora (inicio y término): 19:05- 20:00

10. Tabla de la reunión:

_ Becas Financiamiento Compartido: El profesor expuso el horario y los documentos
requeridos para la postulación a estos beneficios.
_ Calendario Pruebas: Estas están referidas a las pruebas de nivel que serán en
Noviembre.

Estos fueron los temas que el profesor anotó en la pizarra para ser tratados; sin embargo, él
se refirió principalmente a los siguientes:

_Paro de profesores: El profesor leyó un documento el cual se refería a las causas del paro
nacional; sin embargo, el estableciendo no se adhería a esta causa.
_ Asistencia: El profesor explicó claramente que el porcentaje mínimo de asistencia es de
85%. Es por eso que hay padres que deben tomar medidas, ya que sus hijos tienen un
porcentaje inferior a lo permitido , por lo que estarían reprobando el 1er año de enseñanza
media. De hecho, el profesor destaca que del curso asistieron tan solo 17 de 23 alumnos
como promedio en la semana.
_Problemas de comportamiento: El profesor se refirió a los alumnos condicionales del
curso (10), de las suspensiones , y de específicamente un caso que ocurrió la semana
pasada en que 4 alumnos arrojaron manzanas a un autobús. Afortunadamente no hubo
penas que lamentar ; sin embargo el profesor preguntó que hubiese pasado si esto se
hubiese transformado en un accidente.
_Entrega de notas: este fue sin lugar a dudas el tema que convocó a la reunión.

Conducción de la reunión por parte del profesor jefe:

El profesor tuvo una conducción bastante buena .Cuando él exponía los temas, lo hacía muy
calmado y dándoles una perspectiva valórica; es decir, el uso que les podemos dar a estos
temas para mejorar nuestra forma de ser. Por ejemplo el asunto relativo a los alumnos que
lanzaron manzanas a un bus.

Intervenciones de los apoderados (presidente de curso, secretario (a), tesorero (a):

Cabe mencionar, que en el curso no existe una directiva (presidente, secretario, etc.)
Clima de la reunión (participación de los apoderados, situaciones inesperadas, manejo
del tiempo, atmósfera de la reunión, etc.):
Esta reunió fue bastante tranquila y relativamente corta (duró menos de una hora). Sólo
asistieron 10 apoderados.
El profesor nunca fue interrumpido por los apoderados . Estos sólo hicieron preguntas
relativas a asistencia, notas, y comportamiento de sus hijos; ellos fueron muy respetuosos. Al
final de la reunión algunos de ellos se quedaron para conversar con el profesor sobre temas
más personales.

Tratamiento de los OFT del nivel en la reunión:

Estos se enfocaron al trabajo de los padres a estar más preocupados del rendimiento escolar
y del comportamiento de sus hijos, ya que como mencioné anteriormente hay 10 alumnos
condicionales. Además, en el curso ocurren peleas ; de hecho, hay dos estudiantes que
fueron amenazados por sus propios compañeros. Por esta razón el profesor decide hablar al
final de la reunión con cada uno de los apoderados para tratar de lograr una solución junto
con ellos.
Práctica Profesional
Pedagogía en Inglés
2009.

Formato de reuniones de Profesores

I. Datos Generales:

8. Nombre del Establecimiento Educacional: Liceo Técnico Porfesional Barón

9. Profesor en Práctica: Carolina Romero Abarca
10. Fecha:7 Octubre
11. Tabla de la reunión:
_ Lectura del acta del Consejo de profesores pasado.
_ Paro nacional
_ Temas a tratar en las reuniones de apoderados (Tema principal)
_ Feria costumbrista.
12. Hora (inicio y término): 14: 15- 16:30

II. Instrucciones:

11. Comente sus impresiones de la reunión. Puede referirse a:

1. Aquellos temas que estaban en Tabla y no fueron tratados.

Los temas no fueron anotados en la pizarra; sin embargo todos ellos fueron
tratados detalladamente.

La reunión empieza cuando la inspectora saluda a los asistentes y lee el acta del
consejo de la semana anterior. Posteriormente la directora se refiere al paro
nacional , al cual el liceo no se había adhirido. Sin embargo, ella les da toda la
información referida a las razones de este (deuda histórica y bono SAE). Esta
información sería entregada a los padres de los alumnos en la reunión de
apoderados.
Luego se da lugar para tratar los asuntos pertinentes a las reuniones de
apoderados (sin dudas este es el asunto más importante de la reunión).Los temas
expustos fueron los siguientes:

_Becas de financiamiento compartido: la directora habló detalladamente sobre

todos los horarios y documentos requeridos para la postulación a dichos
beneficios.

_ Calendario de Pruebas: la directora de referio a las pruebas de nivel de algunas

asignaturas que serían principalmente en Noviembre.

_ Entrega de notas: la directora hace entrega de los informes de notas a cada

profesor. Además ella aclara algunas dudas relacionadas al promedio mínimo para
aprobar el año escolar , en el caso de alumnos que estarían reprobando las
asignaturas de matemáticas o lenguaje y comunicación.
 _Asistencia a clases: la jefa de UTP toma la palabra diciendo que en la última
semana el porcentaje de asistencia había bajado considerablemente . Es por esto
que ella habla con los profesores jefes para que traten este tema con los
apoderados , ya que muchos de ellos no están al tanto de esta situación . Ella deja
en claro que el porcentaje mínimo de asistencia es de un 85%.

Para finalizar la directora les recuerda a los profesores la fecha de la feria

costumbrista (7 de Noviembre) y les pide propuestas para dicho evento.

2. Modalidad de la reunión. ¿Quién la conduce?

La reunión fue conducida mayoritariamente por la directora del establecimiento; sin

embargo, algunas veces la inspectora y la jefa de UTP tomaron la palabra.

Modalidad de Intervención de los profesores.

La directora dió la oportunidad a muchos de los profesores para que dieran su
opinión frente a los últmos acontecimientos relacionados a el paro nacional de
profesores y feria costumbrista. Ellos participaron activamente en la reunión.

3. Clima de la reunión (frecuencia de participación de los profesores, situaciones

inesperadas, manejo del tiempo, atmósfera de la reunión, etc.)

El clima de la reunión estuvo muy tranquilo, no hubo problemas entre los

asistentes, todos podían expresar sus opiniones , los profesores estaban
realmente interesados en los temas del Consejo ya que serían casi los mismos
a tratar en las reuniones de apoderados . Pero creo que esta reunión fue muy
extensa (más de dos horas) en la que pudieron haberse tratado los temas de
una forma más breve.

4. Varios (aspectos y /o comentarios en torno a temas educativos generales, tanto

a nivel del establecimiento como nivel regional educacional)

Como mencioné anteriormente, en la reunión se habló del paro nacional de profesores al

cual , la región de valparaíso no se había adherido; sin embargo muchos de los profesores
se sentían muy preocupados por dicha situación , ya que a muchos de ellos les afectan los
temas de la deuda histórica y el bono SAE y sentían que se aproximaba una movilización
más grande que afectaría a todo el país.
Otro asunto que llamó mi atención, fue el relacionado a que en el liceo existen algunos casos
de “Bullying”. Estos son jóvenes que han sido amenazados de muerte en el caso de que
delataran a alumnos implicados en una pelea. En este sentido, los profesores se
comprometieron a tomar carta en el asunto ya que es un tema silencioso, del cual no nos
damos cuenta y generalmente termina muy mal. Por esta razón se hace imprescindible tratar
temas referidos al respeto y a la tolerancia en el consejo de curso, ya que se ha visto
últimamente que el comportamiento de los alumnos ha dejado mucho que desear . Además
es muy importante que los apoderados conozcan esta situación, ya que algunos de ellos no
se imaginan que sus propios hijos puedan estar involucrados en estos asuntos.
Formato de Consejo de Curso y Orientación

I. Datos Generales:

12. Nombre del Establecimiento Educacional: Liceo Técnico Profesional Barón

13. Curso: 1ºE
14. Profesor jefe: José Castro
15. Profesor en Práctica: Carolina Romero Abarca
16. Fecha: 23 de Noviembre
17. Hora (inicio y término) : 8:10 – 9:45

II.- Desarrollo del consejo de curso

13. Tema de Orientación:

El tema más importante tratado por el profesor fue el de la asistencia. Él les dijo
que debían hacer una carta de apelación adjuntando los certificados médicos;
además, les señaló que no debían seguir faltando a clases ya que muchos de
ellos están bajo el porcentaje mínimo de asistencia que es de un 85% (hay
alumnos que tienen 78%). Asimismo, el profesor nombra a dos alumnos que
están en peligro de repitencia. Él les dice que deben esforzarse ya que no
estudian para las pruebas y ni siquiera hacen las tareas encomendadas por los
profesores ; por esto, les aconseja que hablen con estos para que les den la
oportunidad de hacer trabajos para subir las notas. Junto con esto, les recuerda
que se aproximan las fechas de las pruebas de nivel que equivalen a un 30%
del promedio, estas son obligatorias y están en el reglamento del
establecimiento. Por esta razón, les recalca que deben estudiar para mantener
o subir el promedio (si es posible).
Por otra parte, el profesor les informa que ese mismo día en la tarde se reunirán
todos los profesores de la quinta región para lograr un acuerdo para paralizar
las clases el día 25 de Noviembre.
Finalmente, él les dice que siguen teniendo problemas con las profesoras,
especialmente con la de física. Es por esto, que les pide respeto y colaboración
para lograr un ambiente grato en las clases.

14. OFT cubierto:

El profesor les inculca el valor de la responsabilidad en asistir a las clases, hacer
tareas y trabajos pertinentes, y estudiar para las pruebas. Además del respeto
para con todos los integrantes del establecimiento, para así poder terminar el
año escolar de la mejor forma posible.

15. Tabla del Consejo de Curso:

_Asistencia de los alumnos
_Alumnos en peligro de repitencia
_Pruebas de nivel
_Reunión de los profesores de la quinta región para lograr acuerdo de paralizar las
clases el día miércoles 25 de Noviembre.
_Problemas con algunas profesoras.