E-Portfolio for English Teaching Practicum 1

This center is located in the Clot d'Aragó area. It has a schedule from Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 14:00 and from 16:00 to 21:00 as well as this set of possible courses:

The center has a total of 7 classrooms (equipped with digital whiteboards), two computer rooms (equipped with digital whiteboards and numerous computers with Office packages), one audiovisual room (consisting of a small studio photography set and a modest radio set) and a conversation room (adequately decorated with comfortable chairs and sofas). Students use Google Classroom as a Virtual Classroom for various subjects, where they find homework, extra content and study materials, they also have an internal email address for urgent notifications and some teaching materials.

The figure of the teacher in this school is relatively similar to primary and secondary schools, since they tend to teach more than one subject. In our case we find that the English teachers also teach Catalan and Spanish depending on the group in question. They stand out for having a very understanding, open and professional attitude that is reflected in the enthusiastic attitude of many students. There are 14 teachers in total. The school is directed by Xavier Iñíguez, with the Head of Studies Teresa Lladó and the secretary Albert Granollers

A large majority of students at this centre have learning problems: some have learning or behavioural disorders, while others have negative social and academic backgrounds.

This internship report is written in English when the class is so, while the rest of the subjects are written in Catalan.

Opinion of Week 1: We were amazed by the multidisciplinary and understanding faculty with the student's academic situation. We felt very welcome and invited to participate or interact with the students during the classes. Furthermore, we felt very comfortable helping with subjects other than English and were given very useful advice on dealing with students with academic or emotional difficulties. We were exposed to more traditional teaching styles and others that focused on student production as a way of learning, we also understood the strengths and weaknesses of each methodology as well as how each teacher puts a part of themselves into the subject.

Opinion of Week 2: This week I have noticed some errors that I consider more than correct and natural in me as I don't come from a teaching job sector: I have to simplify my English in order to make myself better understood at lower levels, I also have to do a general review of grammar rules to be able to lead a class safely (Parrott and Thornbury have already made me notice some improvement in a short time). This week we have intervened more in class during the exercises, started correcting some exams and also directing certain activities in class (mostly QUASI questions and some vocabulary exposure). We have also interacted with the school's radio and audiovisual set.

Opinion of Week 3: Our duties have remained the same as in week 2 and the teaching staff has continued to actively involve us in classes to the point of starting to generate teacher-student relationships with some students who have already started to ask questions with much more confidence and seriousness, already treating us as if we were real teachers. The teachers and students have expressed their gratitude to us as well as we have expressed it to them. Our subject proposal has been received with approval and satisfaction by the teaching staff. We have felt very welcome and very well looked after, we are very eager to return in February.

What is the learning activity about? The main topic is my work as a session drummer and what it consists of.

What did I want the students to learn and learn to do? I wanted students to learn about musical instruments, musical occupations (adding the suffixes -er or -ist to instruments), different musical situations (practice, casting, rehearsal, and performance), drum parts, and basic musical genres.

Why did I choose this activity and this particular excerpt? I chose this activity thanks to the teacher's advice about the students' passion for music. We chose to emphasize vocabulary, since they already knew a lot about music. This excerpt shows how participatory they were without losing attention and learning familiar vocabulary.

I would like to focus my attention on how I make the students confirm the spelling of words that I know they would not be sure of writing or speaking with (microphone, drums, bass, cello…), while giving an easy-to-understand speech. I also try to review some false friends they may have when it comes to musical vocabulary (battery instead of drums, drumsticks in the singular, practice instead of rehearsal, musical genders instead of genres).

My analysis leads me to say that I was very happy to receive certain questions that showed the musical knowledge and oral English production of some students. I felt understood by them and noticed satisfaction as they took notes on the new vocabulary.

My question now is: Will I be able to create this learning and interest environment with other subjects and different students?

Our teaching unit consists of an in-depth study of vocabulary and grammar focused on the concept of going on a trip. To better familiarize students, we have decided to make this unit directly related to the trip that will be made to Budapest at the end of the course. Our proposal will include the use of the audiovisual room for the recording of podcasts based on a writing assessment. The final assessment will consist of an oral role-playing game in which students will have to face possible travel situations randomly and in groups.

Oral and written regulation:To work with students who, apart from a low level of English, have moderate learning problems, it is necessary to communicate English in a very basic way and constantly allude to the meanings in Catalan or Spanish. We must understand that imposing English in the classroom or communicating in a way that is too expert will make the class go slower and lose enthusiasm. At the same time, we cannot let the student get used to always resorting to their mother tongue, so we must emphasize when it is useful and profitable to use the mother tongue.

Patience, comprehension and be constructive: It is extremely important to focus on the process and improvement of the student, not on the level they have or the grade they present in the tests they have taken. We must demonstrate a patient and understanding attitude towards errors or learning problems so that the student does not feel frustrated. A vitally important element in this regard is Feedback: constructive feedback that emphasizes progress beyond the result keeps the student motivated and in harmony with the difficulties they may have, exploring the contents further and seeking their own study methodologies.

Use of gamification and audiovisual: Teachers use Youtube songs with Lyrics to encourage correct pronunciation and greater vocabulary. Many topics are reviewed in class using applications such as Kahoot or Gimkit. Some vocabulary topics are explained together with a video or podcast on which students must work. This type of digital challenge has positive effects on students by getting out of the usual classroom routine, representing a more fun way to learn and evaluate themselves. Likewise, this must be accompanied by traditional techniques useful for grammar and memorization of sentence structures or vocabulary.

Multidisciplinarity: By having this itinerant figure between subjects, the teaching staff has asked us to participate in various activities outside the English subject. This has certainly tested us when it comes to answering students' questions and making interventions in class in favour of the syllabus. We feel that we could not obtain this competence so easily in other centres, and we are very grateful to have been able to see how we develop as teachers in other subjects.

Socialization and contact: Seeing the proximity of the teachers to the students, we have also been making warm and close services and interventions. The students talk about their day to day and relate it to the subjects, generating good relationships and contacts allows them to feel more comfortable in the classroom, participate more and give more importance to what is being taught. The teachers also share experiences and experiences in the classroom relating it to the syllabus. This symbiosis creates classroom environments full of energy, communication and camaraderie.