Curricular Unit_1st Day

2nd December 2008... the month was challenging me... and I happy with that.

It took me hours and hours in front of the computer to introduce some effects into the slides I had designed on the Power Point I love that programme though, if I could I would always be there designing my unit... I've got a friend (who knows me a little) and he tells me that if I ever feel bad or disappointed I should go and use ppt, make some slides and then I'll be happy again. He's not exaggerating, that is true... I love so much these computing things... Maybe I should have studied something more closely related to computers...

Well, so, straight to the point. I wanted to start my Curricular Unit with a simple ppt. My unit is about Sports and about expressing your opinion about them (I like, I don't like) and also about getting to know some countries of the world. So, I thought it would be useful and very visual to start like this.

These effects were thought to play an important role -while they were looking at the pictures, they had to answer some questions I was asking them spontaneously and then when they had answered they could see the solutions on the same screen. I only did that some few times, because if not we couldn't have had time to do some other activities. Anyway, I had prepared one game which was planned to be done at the end of the class, but in the end we weren't able to do it, we ran out of time.

I had given them a worksheet at the beginning of the class that they had to be completing throughout the session. As there were a lot of blanks to be completed I asked them to do that by groups. As one slide was referring to one sport, each group had to specially concentrate on one slide. Then, at the end of the class (also) they would have to share their answers with the other groups and complete the blanks left.

As we later discussed, I think this was my mistake - the worksheet. First of all, I don't know what had happened, but there was not enough space to write everything required... And then, the task didn't finally come with the expected result because at the end of the session I practically ran out of voice and hardly could I hear some of the comments children were carrying out.

So, for next day I had to improve that worksheet (which they had to classify into the Vocabulary section of their portfolios) and next they would complete it with some more time and we would finally start with the activity which was planned for that day.

We were speaking English most of the time. However, to explain them the instructions at the very beginning I seemed a parrot because I kept repeating myself (like Educació per la Ciutadania teachers...) That is visible on the video. Anyway, I think most of them could understand me and when I imagined they wouldn't be able, I used some other mechanisms as repeating the word in a clearer way or explaining that or using synonims, etc. I tried to avoid using Catalan, although they addressed to the rest of the class in Catalan. (Well, that's normal too... I remember when I was their age, no one could say or understand a word in a "foreign language").

By the time the ppt had arrived to its end, children asked me if they could complete the other blanks... I think, since some of them are sooooooo organised and methodical, what they should do with the rest of sports and its blanks... We thought that, in the 5 minutes we had left we could revise and check what they had written and what they hadn't.

My impression was this, ok, the presentation had been useful, yes, they had been reading English, talking English, thinking in English, writing in English, pronouncing English... BUT the worksheet was not really clear (I'm attaching that later on) - they didn't have enough space to write the answers, the way of classifying the different classes of sports wasn't at all identifiable and,maybe another problem was that, although they had paid attention, they had also spoken a lot. Ok, it's also normal because we had had class at 11.40 (the time when they come from the break) and it's always a little bit more demanding to make them concentrate and well, it was the day of the week when they were 23. So, a power point presentation with so much people, at that time and with me...! mhm... But well, after all, I think they had been taking the most of the class... and that was noticeable on Thursday, because they knew remembered some of the vocabulary and I felt them motivated... so, it wasn't that bad. The first day is already gone! What about Thursday...? I can't wait...