SEGUNDA OBSERVACIÓN INGLÉS SECUNDARIA (SEGOVIA)

Jessica Church (IES Sierra de Ayllón) nos cuenta cómo marcha su experiencia dentro del programa de observación. Su compañera experta Raquel Calleja (CEO La Sierra) y ella, han hecho un tándem estupendo, tal y como se desprende de sus palabras:

You can see me on the left, totally absorbed while trying to win Quizziz...

What a fun way to get the students (and any onlooker) absolutely focused on reviewing contents.  Raquel has obviously used the website before, and provided the students with paper to work on (some of the questions were quite difficult, and required multiple responses!) and was ready to answer any questions that they had while logging onto the website.    

What I found REALLY useful was all of the follow-up, once the activity was done.  Quizziz provides you with "game highlights", which includes 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, but more importantly shows you the "toughest questions", the question that the students took longest to respond to, and interesting facts.  Raquel had also printed off a full copy of all of the questions for her students to take home, which I thought was a great way to highlight the important of the activity, and the contents that we reviewed.  

Additionally, you can download the results (Raquel immediately saved them to her pendrive) AND you can include standards!  It's awesome.  And the students kept saying "vamos a hacer otro, no, teacher?", "tienes que hacerlo una vez más...." which means that they had as good of a time as I did.

In the same class period we also did speaking pair work, which is the exact same format that they'll be working with on the exam.  

 

 

I liked the variety of contents that were being reviewed, as well as the different types of activities that they were asked to complete.  Raquel had a pair model the activity to the other students, then modeled with an individual student, and when some students had some remaining doubts gave a quick explanation in Spanish--I liked it that she offered them 4 or 5 explanations in English before switching over to Spanish.  Sometimes I'm not as patient!

I also appreciated overhearing her say "If we don't know a word, we try to find a synonym....." and saw students helping each other when they were completing their sentences.  It definitely felt like a team effort!

For the 1º ESO group that we had later in the morning (after the rosquillas...) 

We started with a running dictation, which the students were extremely excited about.  Raquel asked the P.E. teacher if she could use the gym, which meant that we had plenty of space for the desks and tables and students to enjoy the activity without slamming into each other. ....

I have used running dictation before in-class, but I haven't this year, so it was fun to get excited about using it again.  I also liked that Raquel had a specific worksheet for them to use to fill in the sentences.  I also liked to see how flexible she was at different times.  For example, when she told them to get into pairs, several students asked if they could be in a group of three.  I know myself, and I would have said no!  But Raquel allowed them to, and I was reminded that we don't always have to be so strict about certain random rules that we invent.  

After the running dictation we did a Dictogloss/How many words in a minute, which was another new activity for me.... here's the worksheet, if you've never seen one: 

 

Honestly, being with Raquel just makes me want to get my students excited about learning.  And the great thing is that the fun is so structured that they don't even realize all the work that they're doing!  (We teachers really are quite tricky....).

I have to agree with other people who have participated in the forum.... I'm just disappointed that I only have one visit left!

Thank you to Raquel, and thank you CFPI for this great opportunity.