Today's practice was more tiresome than last time, as I checked the students' homework, and some of them hadn't worked on it, like they were supposed to. They still have problems with the variations of using the third person in simple present sentences (adding the "s" to verbs), the use of auxiliars for making questions and changing "have" to "has", also with the third person. The class wasn't about that, but I had to take some time to explain those doubts.
The topic was "modals". Most of the students were able to use them correctly, the problem is that there were cases in which they could use more than one modal, but in general, they managed to deal with the possibilities, and which modal was more suitable, according to each sentence.
Unexpectedly, I got a better grade, I think it was because I followed the teacher's suggestion, to put more effort in monitoring the students while they were working. This group is more responsive and talkative when working. They like free practice.
The only con is that some of them still don't have their books or don't bring them to class, which is unfortunate. Because of this reason, one girl spent some time on her blackberry. Since the homework was from the book, she remained passive during the time I was checking that. However, she did take part in the speaking practice, and paired up for one book activity, despite not being very active...
Obviously, there is always a small group of people who seem a little careless, but I focused on the ones who were asking questions, developing the activities, the ones interested in learning.
In the end, the teacher commented that it is important to correct their pronunciation, which I will take into account. I suppose it feels kind of awkward correcting students, as one probably doesn't feel with enough or as much authority, as the tutor, who's in charge of the group. Anyway, I'll do my best to effectively correct, in a proper manner next time I teach for my practice.
As I had already been warned, students tried to test me, fortunately, and thanks to taking into account teacher Alex's wise advices, I was able to respond satisfactorily. It felt easier than the basic group, because I didn't have to take so much time explaining directions.
I haven't gotten the feedback page yet, but I guess I didn't do so bad. Students liked the warmup, despite having decided not to go with either from the lesson plan, as they were all kinesthetic activities.
The group had written, oral and listening practice. Luckily, I mainly had free activities, as the grammar part had been covered. However, as I referred to, in the beginning, I was put on the spot, as a girl started asking "Why?", even though I had already explained verbally (and my tutor too, in prior classes). Thus, I also used the board to give a more detailed explanation on why there are cases in which "used to" & "would" cannot be used.
I was surprised to see that there was an uncommon verb in a sentence from the book: "When I was a child, I used to cycle to school every morning". So, in that particular case, I had never seen that verb used that way before. I inferred that it was related to biking (bicycle). I'm not sure if it's partially informal or just not widely used.
The whole class worked on all of the activities and participated when checking the answers from the exercises. In conclusion, the first experience went better than expected, and was rather positive. I felt as though the group accepted me faster than the previous one. Hopefully, it'll continue to be that way...
Today I had my last practice with the Basic group. The whole experience was different each time. Partially, it's a shame that just when you start getting accostumed to a group, then it's over.
Anyway, my main focus for the class was on making students have more speaking practice. The warm-up did not work as effectively as expected, because I didn't adapt it to what they had been focusing on.
Other than that, students liked talking about celebrities, as they knew pop culture facts. The key is getting pictures from people who are currently popular, especially with teenagers. It was satisfying to see that even students who don't usually participate much, took part in the activity. A couple of them actually did more than what I asked for, so that shows their eagerness to express themselves.
Pair activities worked better than individual practice. Students came up with questions, original sentences and descriptions. It was nice to have more teacher-student & student/student interaction. I did not have to teach grammar this week, which was certainly an advantage.
I hope I'll be able to improve and continue to get acceptable results, in future practices. I got plenty of advice from my tutor, classmates (including teacher Alex), so thanks for your comments and attention.
