Secondary level

The Institution:

In the "Escuela de Educación Técnica" No. 283 " Doña Ramona Sastre de Casado ", in 

which the School of Secondary Education Oriented Art works (Audiovisual Arts), is collectively and traditionally known  under the name of "Escuela Técnica " and is a public institution 

from Casilda, Santa Fe .

Thanks to the work of the "Cooperadora", the contribution of families and the sale of various products and "cenas-baile", the classrooms are equipped with fans and heaters; and every year, desks and walls are reconditioned, making them look flawless.

I hope that my practice will take place within the framework of the educational needs of the school, maintaining an attitude of respect and commitment to the local teacher's requirements.

Here there is a description of teenagers and the way they learn, and also a brief description of the two particular groups I worked with: 1st Year and 3rd Year:

Valdez diagnostico de grupo - nivel secundario from IvonTPD2015

These are the lessons I planned to work with 1st Year:

Tpd valdez-year 1-lesson plan secondary 1 from IvonTPD2015

Year 1 lesson plan secondary 2 from IvonTPD2015

Tpd valdez-year 1-lesson plan secondary 3 from IvonTPD2015

Tpd valdez-year 1-lesson plan secondary 4 from IvonTPD2015

And these are the lessons I planned to work with 3rd Year:

Tpd valdez-lesson plan 1 secondary from IvonTPD2015

Tpd valdez-lesson plan 2 secondary from IvonTPD2015

Tpd valdez-lesson plan 3 secondary from IvonTPD2015

Tpd valdez-year 3-lesson plan 4 secondary from IvonTPD2015

And these are the journals:

Valdez year 1 - secondary journal from Ivon Juani Spiller

Valdez year 3 - secondary journal from Ivon Juani Spiller

Personal evaluation about this period:

This third level of my practicum, I worked with two different groups of students: 1^st year and 3^rd year, both of them from the same school.

In this report, I will evaluate my own practicum through thinking about it retrospectively in order to revisit it from a different perspective, and I hope to gain a deeper understanding of it in order to know my weaknesses and strengths.

I will recall the original aims in order to check whether they were reached or not, and I will also try to remember how significant activities were for the students. Furthermore, I will try to be aware not only of other’s points of view but also of my emotions and feelings about this teaching experience.

All  in all, in this personal evaluation I present doubts, problems, and other outcomes which appeared during the teaching experience process and how they were solved (or not), because the intention of this self-assessment is to get to know how this experience could help me to improve.

Thinking back about this experience from a different point of view; and asking myself about the original aims, activities and resources used and their significance for the learners; I can say that basing the lessons on the Communicative approach and organizing them thought the PPP procedure was suitable for these teenagers. They were able to communicate in the target language (in their own way, bearing in mind their level of English), and the organization helped them move from working in a controlled way to working in a less controlled way. Although it was difficult for them to work on their own (I had to walk the classroom a lot and help them individually, other way they wouldn’t work); as time went by, they got some independence from me. The choice of the topic was also a good choice mostly in the 3^rd year since talking about their feelings was very interesting for those teenagers.

Thinking forward and reflecting about my performance, If I had the chance to develop this practice again, I wouldn’t change anything from the lesson plan I made for 3^rd year, but I would make some changes in the ones I made for 1^st year. I think that I could first ask the students to complete a questionnaire in order to collect some information about them and their interests. Therefore, my future pedagogical decisions would be different because, although this time the topic had been set by the local teacher, maybe I would have been able to add a new twist to it and present much more interesting activities to the students.

Thinking inward and trying to be aware of my emotions during my practicum in the secondary, I can say that I felt quite confident the whole time since I’ve already worked with teenagers. However, it was my first time with the Communicative Approch at this level, then it was still a challenge. It was more difficult with 1st year since these children have only had English lessons for a year, so they were the more reluctant to listen to the target language. At first, they asked for translation all the time, which made me feel a bit frustrated. But as time went by, they started getting used to it.

Lastly, thinking outward and reflecting on the world around us, I  think that a different approach to the English language teaching and learning than a grammar-focused one can be used. The problem is that public schools from Santa Fe have English lessons for only 6 years (from 7th grade forward), therefore, there is little time of exposure and it’s very hard for students from public schools to get used to listening to the language. It’s not the same with private schools and institutes, which sets a deeper and deeper gap between individuals. I think that public schools should have the same amount of English lessons as private schools so that everyone can really have access to the same educational level.

In conclusion, I think that more exposure to the target language is needed in public schools, in order to make students really aware of the importance of learning a second language.

Nevertheless, this experience in the secondary level was enriching and satisfactory. And it was also very useful since it made me notice some characteristics of teenagers which I haven’t before such as the real importance of taking into account their interests in order to make lessons enjoyable for them and for me.