Reflections

FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY
I would describe the type of teaching that goes on in my practicum experience as semi task-based and very communicative in its methodology. I think of task-based teaching as a series of many tasks, such as first writing sentences, then reading them aloud, then making a drawing, etc. I would say that Mrs. Collins sometimes employs that method: just yesterday the students did a similar tasks, but it seems to me that task-based has more lomg-term steps. I would say that her preferred teaching methodology is mainly communicative. Although there are many grammar-based activities that are completed, almost all have some speaking component to them where communication is emphasized. For example, at the beginning of class with the completion of the bell ringers, the students are asked to read aloud their sentences and occasionaly formulate a question which another student would answer. An example:

One student has completed a setence aout what he did this weekend.
"First I went to the church. Next I went to the party. Then I went home."
Another student would ask "____, what did you do this weekend?"  or a similar question and the student would answer.

I would say that the communicative method is one that is deemed extremely important by Mrs. Collins.

FOCUS ON STUDENT INTERACTION

The students in my basic class talk frequently, most often in Spanish, about things that happen in the classroom and occasionally outside things. This is the same for the student-teacher interaction. Although English is emphasized, the teacher sometimes uses Spanish so they are still able to use their native language. It is clear to me that Mrs. Collins does not want them to rely on Spanish because often when they respond to something in Spanish, she states that she doesn't understand and that they need to speak English. I think that this is very effective because she is not forbidding the use of their native language completely but encouraging English is academic prospects as well.

FOCUS ON SPACE

For the basic class, the space is perfect. There are only three students and all sit in the front row so that they are close to the board. They are also able and encoraged to move around the room: the reading library in back, the table and chairs in the back, the smartboard at the front, and even the teacher's desk and computer to do different things. The space also works well for the intermediate clsass and the co-taught math class. Although there are more students (about 10-15), they are still able to effectively utilize the classroom resources when needed.

Soething that I thought was interesting that I encountered in my practicum experience this week was a student speaking Spanish that I did not previously know spoke Spanish. I do not think that she is Hispanic, so I'm not sure if she maybe grew up in an environment where Spanish was spoken or if she picked some up after hearing so much spoken in the classroom. Another instance that I found amusing was when I was so used to speaking Spanish to the Spanish speakers in the class that I accidentally spoke in Spanish to a student who didn't speak the language and she told me, emphasizing the I, "I don't speak Spanish,"