GAMES

In this subject we have learnt that the best way to teach English is trought different methodologies. 

Different resources in class make the pupils have fun.

If pupils know that they are going to enjoy, they will be happy to learn.

With games, we can do everything in our class. You do not need to prepare complex activities to learn something.

If you prepare short activities that take the students out of the traditional methodologies, it will help your students to learn in a better way.

Some examples are for instance telling stories, where they will improve some skills, listening in this case. And it is an incredible tool if you use a good entonation, because it will atract them.

Other simple thing are for instance rhymes, reading rhymes is okey. But pupils have lots of creativity, so they can create a short one and they will enjoy doing it.

Listening to songs. It is a good method to relax them when they are stressed after the break for example. If you play music on the internet, while they are doing some activities, it will relax them. As a prize of a good job is a good tool to motivate them. Or for instance, listening to music trying to guess a blank. Or listening a song trying to understand what it says.

All this simple things will change the way of our classes. And it is important to help students to learn in a better way. 

FLIPPED CLASSROOM

I would like to talk about this method because in class we have been debating it.

It is a classroom where students are introduced to content at home and the they practice working throught it at school.

For instance, the teacher can make a video of an specific content. Pupils will watch it at home and then in class they practice about what they have learnt previously.

So, it creates independant students, because it increases the opportunity for personalization and more precise guiding of learning. In the flipped classroom model, students practice under the guidance of the teacher, while accessing content on their own.

It is a self - sufficient learning, because pupils learn what they watch at home. The problem comes when they do not understand the content. So it can be solved in class, because if they have some doubts at home, in class we will solve it, that is better than in a first place when they do not know anything about a topic.

Other important thing is that the knowledge is not conditioning our students, because they will do it relaxed at home and there is not any distraction. So they will understand better what they have to learn.

I think it is a good method for primary education because it motivates pupils to learn better the content. It is because it is a differetn method, and for that reason, students will be motivated to learn more and more. 

RUBRICS

What is a rubric? A rubric for assessment, usually in the form of a matrix or grid, is a tool used to interpret and grade students' work against criteria and standards. Rubrics are sometimes called "criteria sheets", "grading schemes", or "scoring guides". Rubricscan be designed for any content domain.

So, as you can see this is a solution for the previous post. It is a way to change the assessment in our English class. That is because you can do a rubric for whatever you want. For example, you can create a rubruic for each skill, or for each unit, or for each content. 

A rubric can help ypu to change your mind about doing exams, beacause for that reason for instance, you can do with your students a lot of activities, and if you only assess them with the rubric of each activity, you do not need any assessment tool to do it. 

I have created some rubrics along all my degree, but for this subject as a way to practise with an example I made a rubric to assess a debate- That is an interactive activity where all students can practice speaking and I do not need to sit down them in a chair to talk on English. With my rubric with numbers 1 to 5 I can check if they are able to mantein a conversation in English in a good way. 

ASSESSMENT

To talk about this topic we have developed some debates where we have spoken abpout our opinion. An it is that exams are not necessary in Primary Education to certificate the level of English of a chlid.

For instance, we have spoken too about the fear that pupils feel with the mark of the exam that they obtain. It happens too because of the parents, because they want all the time the best marks for their children. But it is not necessary. 

I believe that with some activities we can do with our pupils, we can check how are they in our subject. But marks are not important as I have said previously. But in my practise period I have ckeched that parents are all the time worried about the marks their children obtain. 

So as you can see it is so difficult to change the way of assessment, because people do not agree with different methods, as parents, So I think we can introduce other kinds of assessment little by little to concern people taht exams are nor necessary to pass a subject. 

ONLINE RESOURCES

In this subject we have learnt a lot of different online resources taht will help us in our future class. 

Symbaloo has been one of this resources. It is an online platform where you can distribute a lot of different parts. It help students to find the things they have to use in a subject. For instance in English you can do some parts. One part could be for searching information, like word reference or something to find meaning of words. Other part could be the things they have to use to study, like an online notebook with the differetn unit. And other part could be resources with online activities like kahoot, educaplay or something like that. 

Other resources are for instance kahoot, where you can do some questions to your students and they have to solve it in some seconds using their computers. I have created for this subject one with the topic ''Healthy food'' and it so easy to prepare and pupils will enjoy a lot.

Other resources we have done is for instance educaplay, an online platform where you can create different activities with the topic yo choose. In my case I have created an activity where pupils will review the weather. It was an activity where thwy have to relate the word with the image because it was for students of the first course. 

And we have practised with more resources, because the professor was all the time showing us how motivate pupils an how to be different as the right now teachers. 

ASSISTANCE TO A CONFERENCE

The class was invited to a conference to listen to some teacher that have been working in a foreing country. One of them was in United States. 

Their topics were so interesting because thay have motivated us to wo working to a differetn country. In first place bacause we are going to improve our level of English that i very important for our future as English teachers. And in the other hand because it will open our mind, firstly because we are going to stay so far from home, and secondly because we are going to learn a lot of new methos of education depending on the country we go. 

From my point of view, this kind of things help us to change our way of thinking. Because we probably do not know this kind of opportunities. 

In my opinion, I would like to do this, because I believe that it is an incredible experience for our job. I want to do something similar next year, but not as a teacher, otherwise a volunteer in an association abroad. It will help me to improve my level of English and to know how is life abroad. 

CEFR AND PEL

FIrst of all I would like to give a definition of CEFR. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is an international standard for describing language ability. It describes language ability on a six-point scale, from A1 for beginners, up to C2 for those who have mastered a language. This makes it easy for anyone involved in language teaching and testing, such as teachers or learners, to see the level of different qualifications. It also means that employers and educational institutions can easily compare our qualifications to other exams in their country.

For that reason, in class we have been talking about our level according to the CEFR, and I have discovered that I have abilities in two levels. In some cases or in some skill I am a proficient student, but in others, I have a B2 level. 

It is so effective because it help us to know what are the abilities we are in or the abilities we would have to improve to obtain a good level of English that is very important four our future as teachers. 

The other topic we have been talking about is the PEL. It means European Portfolio of Languages. It is so useful because you enter in the website and you can fill the gaps with the abilities, skills and common thing you do or that you have done to study and improve a language. For instance in this case, English. At the end you can download a PDF document with all your different information.