Magisterio – Inglés - Andalucía
CASO 21 You are teaching at a school situated in a very low class district on the outskirts of the town. Taking into account that most of your pupils’ parents cann cannot ot even even pay pay for for thei theirr book books, s, how how woul would d you you mana manage ge to prod produc uce e the the necessary materials for your students? Describe how you would handle working with special needs students confronted with the lack of materials.
INTRODUCTION: To begin with, it can be said that a school is a microsystem in which what is aroun around d is reflec reflected ted.. Theref Therefore ore,, the econom economic ic situat situation ion,, expect expectati ations ons and values of the pupils influence on it. ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION: As we can can obse observ rve, e, in this this prac practi tica call case case we are are talk talkin ing g abou aboutt a “Comp “Compens ensato atory ry Educa Educatio tion n Schoo School” l” and and hence, hence, about about studen students ts with with speci special al needs due to sociocultural factors. SOLUTION: A solution for what the case establishes could be the following ideas: 1) It is impos impossib sible le that the teacher teacher prepar prepares es all the materia materiall to be used used in the class of their own, so that the students must collaborate with him/her. And, what can the pupils do? If we take into account that the pupils enjoy mak making ing arts arts and and craf crafts ts,, it woul would d be a good good idea idea that that they they make ake flashcards, posters, masks, puppets, etc. 2) The The child childre ren n could could work work in groups groups to save save mater materia iall sinc since e ther there e is not many resources available. 3) The teacher teacher should should work jointly jointly with the arts arts and crafts crafts teacher teacher and thus, thus, the pupils will not waste time in the English class, preparing the material, and they will have it ready to be used before hand. 4) He may may also also bring bring real real and auth authen entic tic mater materia iall such such as clot clothe hes, s, toys toys,, maps, and so on, to the class.
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Magisterio – Inglés - Andalucía
5) The students could make comics, stories, newspapers, jokes, magazines and organize a class library that works through a “borrowing system”. 6) The teacher should arrange “working corners” in which they can find worksheets with graded activities, games, tapes for listening or even dispose of a computer. 7) Obviously, the resources will have self-access and they will use them in a cooperative way as there is not idea of property about the material. ADVANTAGES: I would like to conclude mentioning some advantages that we can come across in such situations. They will be described as follows: 1) As our curriculum establishes a learner-centred approach, this is one of the best ways to know about our pupils’ interest and characteristics. 2) The children will have an active role and thus, they will feel more motivated and involved in the classroom activities. 3) The pupils choose material adapted to their knowledge and develop their autonomy. 4) They acquire collaborative and cooperative attitudes. 5) The students find out the pleasure for reading (extensive reading). 6) Finally, they encourage their imagination and creativity.
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Magisterio – Inglés - Andalucía
CASO 22 Which criteria would you follow to choose a coursebook for the third cycle of P.E.? As a way of introduction, we can say that choosing a coursebook is extremely difficult, as we cannot get a good picture of the suitability of a book till we have been working through it for some time. However, we may assess the material before introduce it into the classroom. According to Nunan, any coursebook evaluation form should be based on the following criteria: 1) The coursebook makes clear the link between the classroom and the wider word. 2) 3) 4) 5)
The coursebook foster independent learning. The coursebook focuses our pupil on their learning process. The coursebook is readily available. The coursebook accords with our pupils’ needs.
6) The coursebook can be used at more than one level of difficulty. 7) The pedagogical objectives of the material are clear. Apart from this, we must take into account factors such as if the price of the material is suitable for our pupils, the availability of tapes and workbooks, or whether the lay-out design is attractive for them since they need visual backup for most presentations of new vocabulary. Together with this and as far as the activities are concerned, we must check that they are balanced, i.e. Not only there should be a substantial amount of aural language input, but also a wide variety of communicative activity, giving always more importance to receptive skill to productive ones as the introduction of our decree stress. In terms of the language, we have to bear in mind whether it is presented in realistic contexts and is related to our pupils’ interests, and of course, if the progression is adequate for the cognitive stage of development of our children. We will also analyse whether the topics included in the coursebook match up to our students’ personality, backgrounds and needs.
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Magisterio – Inglés - Andalucía
Finally, we need to consider if the coursebook give enough guidance, not only for us, but for our pupils, and whether the material sets up clear explanation of how to be used, in order to take the maximum advantage out of it. To sum up, it is very important that the textbook is clear for our children, easy to follow and have well-defined objectives that the whole class can understand.
Bibliography: Nunan, D. – “The learner – Centred curriculum”. C.U.P. Cambridge, 1988.
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Magisterio – Inglés - Andalucía
CASO PRÁCTICO Nº 8
At the end of the third cycle of P.E., the class is dealing with a text on environmental issues and recycling. Describe two pre-reading activities.
On the one hand, this practical case is related to general objective number one for the foreign language curriculum for Andalusia. This aim, concretely establishes that students should be able to understand written texts using the information both global (skimming) and specific (scanning) which these texts transmit with a specific purpose. On the other hand, I could say that in the pre-reading activities the students prepare themselves for the task and familiarise themselves with the topic, make use of their own experience and knowledge, use strategies like guessing what the text is about, discuss opinions and ideas, etc. It is important that the children bear in mind that they can know about the passage by looking at the title, illustrations, lay-out, and so on. Then, the pre-reading activities that I have designed consist in the followings: 1) A preliminary discussion: the students look at
pictures of the
environment. Later, the teacher encourages the whole class to make a discussion suggesting ideas such as, how can we protect the environment? or how can we make the school more environmentallyfriendly?. Finally, he write on the blackboard the students’ solutions. 2) Compare the pictures: The pupils compare two illustration. The first one show an environment without pollution and the second one an environment with pollution. They check the differences and give reasons why the second one is polluted.
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Magisterio – Inglés - Andalucía
En Segundo Ciclo de Educación Primaria de una escuela rural, nos encontramos con un 50% de alumnos motivados y otro 50% no motivado. Diagnosticar la situación y aportar soluciones. The teacher must first carry out a detailed research both collective and individual on the class to determine the causes, circumstances and problems existent in the group and to deal with them in the most efficient way. After having reached a conclusion, he/she will make use of the right means and methodology in order to get them more motivated. For this purpose, he/she will elaborate, from the methodological point of view, didactic units aimed, for example, at topics that learners can find interesting and close to their lives such as life in school, their friends, the work they do in the fields, their parents, the arrival of a foreign person to the village, animals,… We must try many activities in which the students feel really involved, in which they feel participant and protagonist of their own learning and find reasons to assume conscious and unconsciously the importance of a foreign language in their own lives.
En un aula de 2º Ciclo de Educación Primaria intentamos llevar a cabo un ejercicio de roleplay basado en una escena de un día de compras, que ellos han visto en su libro y escuchado en una cassette. Cuando dos alumnos comienzan su particular diálogo vemos que, tras la pregunta del primero, el segundo no ha entendido y contesta con otra frase que no tiene nada que ver con lo preguntado. Tras otro nuevo intento, sucede lo mismo. Determinar las posibles causas y soluciones. A possible reason is the change in the way to pronounce the pupil has experimented. He has gone through something original like the tape, through the teacher (whom he is accustomed to) and through his partner that speaks with the difficulties of a total beginner. The change in pronunciation and the fact of having been the focus of attention may have made him get blurred and blocked and thus we get a nervous and incorrect answer or response. Another reason may be that the student has learned the answers mechanically in the same order that he listened to them and that his partner has not made the questions in that order. As a consequence, questions and answers have nothing to do with one another and so they fail to get a good comprehension. He is more worried about memorizing without a logical sense than understanding what he is told. The solution could be that the teacher gets his place/role in the dialogue and perform slowly what he must have done and also make use of gestures and hands to to express the things or
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Magisterio – Inglés - Andalucía
feelings (disagreement, agreement, surprise,…) inside the context; if he uses something visual like body language the student will understand better.
Cómo afrontaría la evaluación de una clase de Inglés en tercer Ciclo de Primaria, teniendo en cuenta que hay un número de alumnos que muestran lentitud y otros que son muy rápidos en la realización de actividades. In any case, the teacher must know that each student develops his own learning process, some faster and some slower and we have to respect each student as an individual inside a collectivity without forgetting the whole class, which at the same time follows another working pace, and the objectives we must reach at the end. The teacher will elaborate activities and tasks trying always that everybody gets to them and to the minimum needed in spite of all the difficulties he/she can find in this purpose. In no circumstance can the teacher forget any student either fast or slow, either more intelligent or less. Finally, if the teacher considers it important, he/she will make curricular adaptations for that minority he thinks convenient or for special cases inside the class that need a concrete help. In order to make an evaluation of a group like this, with slow and fast individuals, first we must balance the situation without prejudicing any one, that is, the ones that can go further must be allowed to do it and those who go more slowly must be paid attention, too. For example, the teacher should always have at hand extra-work for those pupils who f inish very soon. This work may be a self-correction although revised by the teacher. Another possibility, for the slow ones, is to find an extra moment out of the class to do that work he couldn’t finish before. A third possibility is that the fastest learners help those with difficulties and work together, this way the element of social interaction and friendship will be fostered.
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