Today we had an exam on Chapter 3 and finished up Chapter 3.  The exam also entailed an oral portion in which I had to walk around the class and ask each student a question.  ie. "cuantos anos tienes..."  The questions were asked of each student to insure that each student was allowed a chance to speak. The test lasted about 30 minutes, and those students that finished early were asked to then start to review and write down all of the vocabulary for Chapter 4.  This new chapter starts takes place in Spain and has to do with 'ropas' and 'colores'.  It seems that most of the students are familiar with most colors and types of clothing so we will have to come up with some challenging exercises in order to challenge the different levels.  I am thinking that it would be a good idea to break the groups up on Wednesday in order to make sure that the more basic students have a chance to really review the new terms.   

Today I tried something new in class.  Since we have a two hour block period, I wanted to get some fun and interactive activities for the students and get them moving and not so sluggish.  I started out the class with a Simon Dice "Simon Says" activity.  That focused on the possessive pronouns and body parts, I found two online hangman games that offered a fun and interactive way to review and learn about numbers and the months and seasons.  The lesson plan went far more smoothly in my mind than any of the classes I've taught up do this date and the students seemed to enjoy the activity.  The activities were relevant to the material that we are currently covering and most of the students paid attention.  The down side of the activity with that many students had to wait a turn before they could speak or have a turn at the Promethean board.  Because we have so many students, some of the students drifted off into their own conversations instead of paying attention to the activity.  Overall, however the students were paying more attention and there was a higher level of engagement than other methods I have used in class.  It was also nice to mix up the activities and make some variety.  The white boards were the vehicle for the main activity in class and that was a translation that reviewed all the material learned in sections 3.1 and 3.2.

Today we went over the possessive pronouns "Mi, mis, tu, tus, nuestro(as), su, sus."  After reviewing the possessive pronouns I then handed out an exercise where the students were asked to cut up a sheet of paper with all of the possessive pronouns and a series of nouns and names of family members.  I then had a series of prepared phrases and they were then asked to create the phrases with the words.  We ran through a whole series of phrases using the possessive adjectives such as (Nuestros hijos son jovenes).  After about twenty minutes working with phrases from the exercise, we then moved on to a review of the interrogative words from the previous class and the "El Pregunton" song that we used on Monday.  The students knew that they were going to be given a mastery test on the interrogative words, and so after a quick review, they were given a 12 question mastery test.  I really like the format that Mrs. DaiZovi uses for mastery tests.  There is a test 'A' and a test 'B' format.  After taking the 'A' test they then exchange the test and it is graded by a peer.  After the peer grading those students with a perfect score are given a sticker.  Those that did not get a perfect score are allowed to take a second test 'B'.  Many students improve and get a perfect score and they are also given a sticker for mastery.  This gives great positive reinforcement to the students.  I am seeing the value of mastery testing because the students really are motivated to improve their scores.

After my second observation I was disappointed with the way the class turned out.  At first I was frustrated that my lesson plan and timing did not seem to go the way I had planned but after a few days of self-reflection I began to realize that I could learn a lot of valuable lessons from my experience.  Today I am happy to report that the lessons I learned from that experience were put into practice and I am happy to report that today's class went very well.  The main problem with the class that I taught for my second observation was that (1) I tried to tackle too much material and was not able to slow down and just focus on teachable moments.  (2) I  tried to shorten the musical echoing song too much and left 15 minutes at the end of class without any structured instruction.

In today's class we focused on a song called "El Preguntón" or "The Big Question."  This song did not use any visual slides and just focused on a song repeating all of the interrogative words.  The class had to fill in the blanks of the song as they listened.  We listened to the song three times and then went over the whole song together.  After they knew all the words, we sang the song together as a group and then divided the class up with the girls on one side and the boys on the other.  The girls then sang the calling part and the boys sang the response.  The whole class seemed to enjoy the call and response and were really starting to understand the interrogative words.  After a few rounds of call and response we moved to an exercise that has to do with all the interrogatives.  By moving slowly through these exercises I noted that I was able to fill all the time in the class and the students paid much better attention.