Teaching practice at the School of Architecture

Dear Pat and Irina, I attach my reflections on the class we gave last Friday at
the Architecture School.

My reflections
Hi Pat and Irina, here you have my reflections on the class we gave last Friday at the
Architecture School:
* My strengths:
- I felt really self-confident most of the time. I felt I could teach and explain the topics to
the students and that they could understand my explanations.
- I am quite organized and schematic, so these qualities helped me to carry out the
teaching practice in a consistent and well-organized way.
* My weaknesses:
- Sometimes I am over-protected with my students, in the sense that when I monitor
round while they are working on a task, I need to be really sure they are doing well and
then I realized that the student may feel uncomfortable if I am snooping what they are
doing at that moment.
* What I would do in the same way is the form I planned the class, the same order of
activities and the same kind of instructions. I would also use again the pictures I showed
to students about the different architectural elements and I would also repeat what I did
at the end of the class, that is, to give each student a little present to thank them for
their attention and participation during the class, I think it is a good way for them to feel
valued and motivated.
* What I would change is the way I checked understanding after I explained the Passive
Voice. I think students understood properly this new grammar item, but I am not sure if
the way I used to check understanding was the most appropriate one.
* In my opinion, the objectives were successfully fulfilled. I can assure this since I
noticed how students worked on the activities. Although they had some doubts and
questions to make, when they understood their errors, they continued working
appropriately.
* The class did turn out the way we had planned; especially because we knew the
students and we knew in advance that they were going to work properly and participate
actively.

* Regarding the experience of team teaching, I felt OK and comfortable. My classmate

is a good friend of mine and it is the first time we give a class together. I believe the
main problem is that we have quite different personalities: she is very anxious and
speaks very loudly; and students are more used to their teacher who is quieter and
more relaxed. What I noticed is that she was very repetitive in what she said (especially
when giving instructions); I do not know if I did the same in my explanations.
* About the students work, I can say they worked very well in a dynamic way and with
concern, and they showed interest in doing the activities during the whole class. They
participated actively and paid attention to every and each word we said.
* With respect to time management, I think I did it well in my instructions when I said to
students that they had 10 minutes to finish an exercise or task in particular. When I was
monitoring round and I noticed it was not enough, I gave them 5 extra minutes for them
to be able to finish the activity.
* Final reflection: I really liked this experience and it made me think about my career as
an English teacher. I have been teaching for 4 years at a car company and I loved
teaching Business English, so I feel passionate for ESP, especially Business, Medical
and Technical English teaching. So, after giving this class, I am sure that, when I
graduate, I will look for a job in one of these Schools at University. It is really interesting
and exciting to make a research on the different fields and learn new vocabulary and
expressions related to a specific area (business, medicine or technical). But it is more
gratifying to teach ESP and to see how university students learn and get successful
results even when you are not an expertise in the field.

Dear Ivanna,
Thank you for your reflection,
Can you also reflect on the following?
-What do you mean being "over- protected?
-You mentioned you would change the way you had checked
understanding after explaining the passive voice... How would you do it in
a different way?
-What is your learning outcome?
Best,
Irina and Pat

Hi Irina and Pat.

Here you have my answers:
- When I say "over-protected" I mean that, after I assign an activity to do in
the classroom, I need to monitor round to see if students are doing well, I know
that this is necessary, but sometimes when a student makes a mistake, I need
to tell her/him they are doing wrong and explain them what is the error and
how to correct it. In other words, I dont wait until the moment of checking
with the whole class for that student to realize about that mistake.
- To check understanding, I know we can not ask the students if they
understood, because of course they would say "yes". I know I didnt do this
during the class, but I asked them "ok?" ...and of course they answered "yes".
Maybe I should have asked one or two of them to explain the idea in their own
words, or maybe I should have written on the board some more examples in
Passive Voice for them to see the new grammar item in more examples.
Fortunately, students understood the topic, but maybe I should have checked
understanding in some other ways, as the ones I mentioned before.
- My learning outcome: I learnt how to give a class in Spanish. It was a little
difficult for me, since all the time I felt the need to speak in English but I
knew I could not do it. I also learnt about the contents of the Unit they are
studying: "Art Deco style". It was amazing to have studied and searched about
this topic before I gave the class.
Thanks.

Dear Ivanna,
We've read your answer to the extra questions posed for you to reflect .
You've done a very thorough job . Just one tiny language detail : you can
say that you "overprotected your students " or that you "felt you

overprotected them / or were being over-protective" , NOT that you "were

overprotected" ,
All the best
Irina and Pat

Dear Irina and Pat,

Oh yes, you are right!
Thanks a lot for your feedback.

Dear Ivanna,
Thank you very much!!
Find attached a file with some feedback on the class you taught.
Would you please reflect on our it and send us comments?
All the best,
Irina and Pat

ESP Observation Criteria

ESP Field:.ARCHITECTURE
Students: AMARANTO- DIAZ Ivanna
Date of the tutorial : Wed 9th september
Class: Friday 11th September

Aspect

Student:

Student:

Ivanna Diaz

Damaris Amaranto

Comments for both

students

Class Plan:

The plan was not presented.

*Objectives

Modifications Suggested: in the order of activities, in the

presentation of passive voice , addition of pre-while and
post reading tasks on the texts included in the tasksheet
for focus on passive voice ( which follow TALO).

*Activities
*Timing
*Groupings
* Materials/
adaptations
/additions

Also suggested: to teach one portion of the class each.

Another suggestion: to REHEARSE the class as if it was
a presentation.

*Questions/
suggestions at
tutorial

Class:

Giving
instructions/
explanations.
-Use of
language and
metalanguage

Instructions were
not complete in
some exercises.
The use of
language and
metalanguage
was good.
The explanation
about passive
voice could be
improved.

Good, in general.
Once students were
told they had one
minute to do the task,
and in fact students
were actually given
fifteen minutes.
The use of language
and metalanguage
was good.
The difference
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between active
/passive verbs should
have been clarified for
the exercise. Students
did not know what
active meant.

- Answering
questions:
TRANSITIONS
between
activities

-Dealing with
Materials

Same /different
sequence

Students were asked

to look for the
meaning of numbers
written on the board,
and they were told
that all of them were
dates. It was not the
case because one
made reference to the
number of stories
(18).

Both could answer

all the questions
students asked.
Transitions in some
cases were not
appropriate.For
example: As
regards the last
activity students
were told that at
that moment they
were going to
confirm predictions
(but there was no
activity carried out
for them to actually
predict content).

-Materials were
provided by the
teacher in charge.
-The activities were
carried out in the
order suggested.

adaptations /
additions

Pre-while and post

reading activities
could be improved.
As regards the first
text, a pre-reading
task was carried
out: questions to
activate previous
knowledge. Whilereading tasks were
only related to
connectors and
passive voice
(probably the
previous class
something else had
been done).

In relation to the
second text: no
pre-reading
activities were
carried out.
Students were only
asked to skim the
text. Again, whilereading activities
were only related
to active/passive
verbs. There were
no further activities.

As for the last text,

the only task
students performed
as a closing task
was to skim the
text to explain its
main ideas.In fact ,
this could be
considered to be
part of the while
reading stage.

-Techniques for -Presentation

The idea of reviewing
the words was a good
starting /
Asking students to one.
Closing the
recall from the
session
previous class
was good.

-Time
Management

Some activities
took long. They
were given too
much time in the
rubrics.For
example, students
were given more
than fifteen
minutes to look for
three ideas. Most

Students were not

given time to think
about answers in one
of the
activities.Students
were asked to scan
the second text to look
for dates (not all of
them were dates), but

The way the

closing tasks were
implemented was
not very effective.
Students did not
apply or relate the
information read in
the text/texts to
their knowledge at
any point in the
class.

A more effective
way of rounding off
could have been
used. The class
lacked an actual
closing task.

or all students had

finished and were
actually waiting
for some time to
check.

Voice in gral ok,

Other aspects / but not that loud
at times.
comments

they did not have time

to actually carry out
the task. It was
done/checked at the
same time.

Voice: loud enough

Calling students by
their names and
making them
participate was
good.

Reference to the
list of topics written
on the board could
have been made at
the end. In this way
you would have
really made full use
of the blackboard
menu as a
feedback /round off
tool

Explicit reference
to their glossary
could have been
useful for
students..

The pictures about

the buildings could
have been
exploited more

Questions for
reflection

Think about the strengths and weaknesses in relation to the

class, and in relation to yourselves as ESP practitioners.

-What would you do in a different way/ in the same way

you did if you taught the class again?

-Were the objectives fulfilled?

-Did the class turn out the way you had planned?

-Reflect about the experience of team-teaching.

Comments on
the reflections
written

The reflection was Most of the questions

complete and
were answered (first
further questions report).
were answered.

Mark

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Another example: In order to move from one activity into another one students were
asked: Estamos con este tema? , which I consider rather informal for the context.
Another transition used: ahora vamos a ver la forma gramatical de hoy (this one
seemed to be introducing a deductive explanation of the passive).

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