This week is being quite different from the previous ones.
Firstly, I learnt the stories for the two pre-primary grades, HH4 (Don’t cry) and HH5 (The hamster), and I have started performing them in class. The first I did was the hamster, and it was alright, although I had a few mistakes; I didn’t know that this time I had to say the dialogues in such a way that students would be able to repeat them after me, so I didn’t leave enough space for them to talk, and when the little boy went to the pet shop to buy the hamster, I forgot to play the part when he pays for it! Other than that, it was ok.
The next day I told the HH4 story, and this time I did leave time for them to repeat the dialogues, although they didn’t repeat much. They were quite engaged and followed the story with interest, so I was happy. I also did the finger puppet dialogues we usually so as an opening and closing routine for each lesson, but I do those quite often, so that wasn’t much of a novelty. I also went to an HH4 group that I had never been with before to tell them the story, invited by my supervisor in the school, which was great. She told me that stories come out better as you practise, and she was absolutely right.
Since I was feeling more confident and freer to take active part, I proposed to my supervisor (the one that teaches only in pre-primary) to change slightly the opening puppet dialogue where a child asks for permission to go to the toilet. As we have done it so far, the student wants a wee, but since the hamster’s story has introduced the concept of poo (the hamster poos around the house), we changed the dialogue so the student would say he/she wants to poo.
Secondly, yesterday I took over my supervisor in the HH4 lesson, as she had to go out. I found out just in the morning that I would be doing the lesson on my own, so there wasn’t time for any preparation, but it was ok. I just needed to do the opening and closing rituals, which I know by heart by now, and run an activity where children had to draw the heads of the two characters of the story, cut them, fold them and glue them to make two puppets. They did similar puppets in the previous story, so they knew pretty much what to do.
As usual, the most difficult part was to manage the group. I took advantage of them being peacefully sitting in a circle when I arrived, as their “regular” teacher was still around, and I started straight away with the opening ritual. I find that leaving no time for children to be idle while they are sitting in the circle is a good idea, because otherwise they start to look for something to do which seems interesting to them, and that usually goes against the teacher’s interest. After the opening finger puppet dialogue, I introduced the activity, and I am happy of the way I did that too, as I got a couple of them to produce some output as well, so it was ok. I did make a mistake, though: I didn’t stress that they had to draw the heads first, then fold the paper, then cut, and then glue. As a result, when I gave out the printed sheet to each student and they went to their desks, some of them started cutting first, and once they were concentrated on their activity it was hard for me to get their attention and explain that it was drawing first, and cutting afterwards. I should have made sure that all instructions were given before handing out the sheets. It wasn’t that bad, because it didn’t really matter that much if they cut them first, as we were going to have time to finish them that day, but it is something to bear in mind for the next time. Giving clear instructions seems very easy and straightforward, but it isn’t, for me at least.
Another little problem that arose during the lesson, which was entirely caused by my lack of good planning, was that some children finished much earlier than others making their puppets, and I had no other activity to offer them. I couldn’t ask them to sit in the circle still for another ten minutes while others finished, so I let them wander in the classroom. They engaged in very positive activities, such as taking the puzzles out and doing them, but when the rest finished and I wanted them to sit back in the circle to do the closing routine, of course, they didn’t want to, and I don’t blame them. Nothing too bad happened; just one little girl who got angry and refused to sit with the rest of us for the closing finger puppet dialogue. It didn’t worry me, because she does very well, so not taking part in the puppet dialogue once was not going to harm her at all, but it made me think about the incident afterwards.
I would need to have an alternative activity to offer to children who finish activities early, so they have something else to do. Then again, I thought that it would be a good idea to take advantage of the skills of those who finish first to teach their peers, so that was something that I could do the next time. My supervisor has just told me that that is something she does, as well as playing the song that goes along with the story and asking them to dance freely while they listen to it.
So, those were the main learnings that I got out of yesterday’s experience.
Finally, I came to the conclusion that it was the right moment to change my schedule. When I first started the school placement, I had in mind to change the schedule after Christmas, so I could concentrate on some grades only, and take more active part in the lessons. Seeing that I am taking more active part in the pre-primary lessons now, I have proposed to both of my school supervisors to stop attending the 1st and 2nd primary classes, and concentrate on the two pre-primary grades, plus primary 4th. That way, I will be able to take part in the same lesson with different groups of pre-primary, so I can watch how my supervisor does it and then do it myself with another group. They have both accepted, so from next week on, I will start with the new timetable.
I also plan on asking my pre-primary supervisor to let me lead all the lessons in the two HH4 and HH5 groups that I have been following since the beginning. It is much easier to lead the pre-primary lessons than the primary lessons without knowing the lesson-plan in depth, because their structure is much simpler and stays the same from one unit to the next, while primary lessons are more diverse in their contents, and I couldn’t take over the teacher without very thorough explanations beforehand, for which we have no time, unfortunately.
Well, since I have gone long enough for this week, I will leave the topic I want to build upon for next week.
iruzkinik ez:
Argitaratu iruzkina