Lesson 3: The body

First Part

Teachers: Marlene and Isaac

In the first part of the lesson teachers had to presents six new vocabulary words related to the body such as head, hands, legs, arm (short and long). The grammar part was “has.”  At the beginning of the lesson the students were not participating, they were like shy. They were just listening and touching their body parts as the teachers did, but they were not producing what the teacher wanted.  One of the most interesting and funny activities was in the production stage. Children got some pieces of modeling clay in order to make a body. It was very interesting to see that students made each part (head, hands, legs, and arms) as the teacher modeled it. Children were having fun because they like to play with modeling clay, also they were laughing when they saw the body of each other as you can see in picture 1.

Picture 1. Children doing bodies with modeling clay

 

The job teachers did was very good even though they had some mistakes regarding to instructions. Also, the speech speed was too fast considering that children are beginner second learners of English. In some activities children did not understand what they had to do; as a result, they got confused.  Despite of the fact that there were some mistakes, at the end of the lesson its objective was achieved because children could touch the body part they were asked to by themselves.

 

Second Part

Teachers: Konny and Orlando

 

The second part of the lesson teacher consisted on teachers presenting the new vocabulary words which were fingers, teeth, toes, feet, and tail. Besides, teachers had to present a grammar part of the simple present which was she doesn’t have, he doesn’t have, and it doesn’t have.  One of the activities we liked was a story teachers created. It was about a poor dog that got lost and found a ugly girl, and then bit her toes. It was really awesome to see that children were fascinated, and it seemed that they were imagining the story because of the material teacher used as shown in picture 2.

Picture 2. Children listening the story

Something that really called our attention was the fact that according to the schedule used to see what topics we had to teach, in the second part of the lesson, teachers had to present  the following vocabulary words fingers, teeth, toes, feet, and tail; also, she doesn’t have, he doesn’t have, and it doesn’t have. In our opinion teachers presented the new words in a good way using excellent activities; however, because they introduce other words such as shoulders, ears, mouth, etc (which was something good), they neglected the main words. Also, in our opinion children needed more practice time because they were only doing what teacher did, for example, one activity in which the teacher sang a song children had to touch the body part she mentioned (as you can see in picture 3), and children did it because they saw the body part the teacher was touching. Therefore, we would have liked to see children doing it by themselves. We think that the teacher could have sung  without touching her body  parts, so that children would have shown what they really had acquired (if they made a mistake, it meant that they had not internalized the new words yet).

Picture 3. Children touching the body parts teacher touched

 

  Finally, teachers did a good performance regarding to time management, instructions, and classroom management; however, we could see that children did not produce as they were expected to do it because we saw that in the production stage not all children were able to raise the flashcard they were asked to. As a result, we come up with a question, as teachers, what is the most important thing, to have a good performance or to see that children acquire and are able to produce what teachers have taught? It is evident that there must be a balance in both of them but what really matters is the improvement children have in the foreign language. In general, we liked the songs, the production activity the teachers developed, and their performance.