CEP 800 Reflection

Description:

I taught 6^th grade students the names of the planets and ordinal numbers. They previously learned about the verb Estar, so I am integrating it into the lesson as well.  The day before I look pictures of the students so I could “put them” on the planets. The lesson begins by watching a short YouTube video, in Spanish, that is of a dog in a rocket ship and he travels through the universe to the different planets, in order. He gives random information about the planets and I stop the video to ask the students which planet he was at and the ordinal number. We then watch it the whole was through. Then I pass out a worksheet that has each planet and a line for who is on the planet and a line for which planet it is. I have visuals of planets with the students on it. I model sentences using the verb Estar and the ordinal numbers. The students complete the worksheet and write which planet they are on and its ordinal number. To end the lesson, we go over the worksheet and learn a mnemonic device. Originally I was going to have the students create their own video that was similar to the YouTube video that they saw. I decided against this because it would take a lot of time, they already learned names of the planets and the ordinal number very well and I wasn’t going to take time to complete everything.

Narrative:

I taught this lesson to one of the sections of 6^th grade students that I have at the new LTS substitute job I am at. The district starts Spanish in Kindergarten, so much of the students have had Spanish since then.  The lesson went very well and I was able to teach it completely in Spanish.  I asked one of the other Spanish teachers if she could observe me lesson and give me feedback.  The students really enjoyed the video and they weren’t distracted by any of the “fun facts”, but the native speaker did speak fast, so I think they were paying more attention to the information that they knew. The students really enjoyed seeing the pictures of themselves on the planets. Some of the students were getting distracted by this, so I went through and said who was on each planet quickly, in Spanish. I did most of the first planet for the students; modeling the correct sentence structure and having the students repeat me. I asked the students for help for the second planet and they did the rest of the planets on their own. Some pictures have only one student, so I could have them use a different subject pronoun. They also had to write which planet they were on and its ordinal number, so they were able to use multiple subject pronouns.  We went over the worksheet and then I taught the students a mnemonic device, in Spanish, to remember the order of the planets. The mnemonic device was Mi Vecino Educa Muchos Jóvenes Sobre Un Nuevo Planeto. The teacher that observed me really liked the lesson. She liked that I incorporated the video and visuals of the planets and the students. She was impressed that I was able to teach the lesson completely in Spanish. The only criticism that she had was that I could have students come up to the board and write their answers, instead of them telling me their answers while I wrote them on the board. Overall, I think the lesson went very well.  Here are two pictures that I took:

Reflection:

The students learned the names of the planets, in Spanish, how to use Estar with different subject pronouns to describe someone’s physical location and the ordinal numbers. The assumption was that the students remembered the conjugations for the different subject pronouns, which they did, and that they would be able to understand a lesson entirely in Spanish.  The affordance of the information is that it went together very well for this specific lesson. Another affordance was that the content is not difficult, so I could teach the lesson in Spanish. The constraint about this information is that the curriculum is content-based so there are not too many activities that you can do, while incorporating the different grammar and vocabulary concepts of the unit. Another constraint is that they do not have a very extensive vocabulary, so they missed a lot of the information in the video. Learning takes place through modeling and direct instruction. The students were able to receive the presentation, structured practice, guided practice, independent practice and assessment/conclusion.

My lesson was intended to supplement the existing curriculum. Different learners were taken into account because they received input through video, speaking (auditory learners) as well as through the many visuals (visual learners). Students were also working with partners, the class and independently.  In order for the students and the lesson to be successful, the students needed to know the names of the planets in Spanish, the conjugations of Estar and the ordinal numbers, in Spanish. The demands placed on the teacher was to deliver a lesson, in Spanish, at a level that they would understand and I would be able to use circumlocution to get around words that they may not know.  I assessed the students by having them tell me their answers and I wrote them on the board. I also collected the work.

Technology played the role of opening up my lesson. I selected an engaging video, in Spanish, for the students to watch that was age appropriate. The advantages of the technology were that the students were engaged from the beginning, they were excited for the lesson and they enjoyed watching a video, in Spanish, and seeing how much they understood. The disadvantages were that the students did not understand all of the video. The technology helped to show the students what they would be learning as well as grabbed their attention.  The students did not use technology during the lesson because I decided that they were not going to make their own videos. The students were able to watch the YouTube video and connect that video to content of learning the planets. They were also able to understand supplemental information, like Marte es el planeta rojo (Mars is the red planet).