My experience in teaching practicum with adolescents.

When I started my practicum, the first impression that I had from my students from the Plaza Mundo program at Don Bosco University was that they looked a little bit shy because they are in a basic level and I guess they thought I was going to talk in an advance way, but through the day they got more confident with me and I made an effort to be as clear as possible.

Also, they really like to talk and share the activities they do during the week, because as we know communication is very important in teenager but they are very obedient since the first time you advise them to paid attention they attend to the call.
Moreover, sometimes they came to classes very tired because they had a hard week, but my role it is to help them forget about it by making creative activities that they enjoy since those behaviors are common in teenagers due to the developing process. In addition, I proved that adolescents are not bad, they are just in a difficult stage in their life and we teachers have to understand them and set aside these difficulties.

Therefore, with the help of my mentor teacher I was present in almost all of the classes since the beginning (to be specific I taught six times with one hour class). Also, my mentor's support was very relevant for me since she tried to give me feedback each time that she had the opportunity and I can say that it helps me a lot to improve many things like: time management, pronunciation, to provide feedback to students and to be more confident. Besides, I really admire the way my mentor teacher Jasmin Gómez teaches her classes, because apart from just teaching the class she has the priority to teach to students manners and to respect each other and that it is one important aspect that I would like to implement in my classes.



In the other hand, the first time I presented my lesson was the second saturday of the practicums, for that reason I felt very shy and nervous since I did not know very well my students. Also, it was my first time teaching teens and I was afraid on how they were going to react. Then, when I finish my lesson I felt less nervous and a little bit happy because they showed me they had understood what I taught so at the end I was happy. Then, through the day I got more confident with them and we got an excellent communication.

Sadly, as it exist positive and negative aspects in life I have to list two negatives:
The first one it is that schedules were not flexibles because we did not have the option to choose them and in my case, I could not go saturday's evenings because of my French course, so I was asked to bring a letter with a permition in order to have a chance on saturday's mornings.
The second one, it is that sometimes we practitioners were given with misunderstandable information.

In contrast, I have many positive aspects but I'm going to list just five:
First, I gained more confident and experience when teaching.
Second, I corrected many words that I miss pronounce.
Third, I acquired more ablities when creating lesson plans and worksheets.
Fourth, I learned to control big groups of students and the class time.
Fifth, it was very nice to have the opportunity to practice with a real teenagers students group to develop more our capacity.

To conclude, for me this experience was phenomenal because I learned many important things with the help of my teacher Yanira Peña, my mentor teacher Jasmin Gómez and my students so I want to thanks them for all the support and the opportunity to improve myself.

Class 9. Observation- participation.

Saturday, October 29.

Today, I taught one hour grammar class and the topic was "First Conditional".

To begin the class, students were divided into two groups in order to play the game "following the letter". The first students had to write any word but the second one had to write a word that starts with the last letter of the previous one and so on.

After that students were introduced with the new topic " First Conditional", to describe possibilities (cause and result) for affirmative, negative sentences, interrogative and their answers.

Then, in pairs students wrote a creative sentence with "First conditional" and they explaned which was the condition part and result part and how to identify them. Moreover, students solved the exercises 2, 3 and 4 on their books and checked answers as well.


Also, students were given with a worksheet that contained exercises with "First conditional" and compared answers with their classmates.

To finish, in pairs students were assigned with a zodiac sing and they had to invent an horoscope by using the grammar structure. Then, they presented their horoscope to their classmates.

Class 8. Observation- participation.
Saturday, October 22nd.

This day teacher Jasmin decided not to assign me with any stage, so I only observed the class but I try to help teacher in small things, as monitoring and checking answer.

Well to start the class, teacher Jasmin devided the class into six groups and students had to present each rule of the previous topic that was "comparative and superlative" in order to review the last saturday's class.

Then, students were introduced with the topic "Future with will" for predictions and the corresponding structure for affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences. Also, students solved the grammar exercises on their books and checked answers with the whoke group.

To finish the class, students were asked to write two yes/no questions and two information questions in future by using "will". Then, students had to ask each other the questions that they wrote and after that they shared the infformation with the class.

Class 7. Observation- participation.

Saturday, October 15

As usual, today I was encharged with one hour grammar class and the topic for today was "can and could".

To start the class, students were introduced with the game "rabbit, wall and arrow". In groups, students played the game in order to brake the ice.

Then, students were provided with the grammar structure "Can and Could" for affirmative and negative sentences, as well as questions and the differences when using "can and could".

After that in groups students were given with some streaps of paper that contained words and they needed to form the sentences with "can and could" that were told. Moreover, they solved the exercises 1,2 and 3 on their books and we checked answers.


Also, students were provided with a worksheet with some exercises that they had to conplete by
themselves about the uses of "can and could". then students compared answers.

To conclude, students were asked to create in pairs a two minutes comversation about their abilities in sports by using the grammar structure.

To finish the class, studenta played the game "hot potato" and the student that had the ball said a sentences with "can and could".

Class 5. Observation-participation.
Saturday October 1st.

Today I was encharged with one hour class about grammar "simple past vs past continuous" and "past continuos questions".

To start, in groups students played the game pictionary but with verbs. They need it to draw in order to represent the verb and the group hat guessed more verbs won the dynamic.

Then, students were presented with the structure to form past continuous questios and their answers. Also, they were provided with the differences when using past continuos and simple past.

Moreover, students solved the exercises 2 and 3 on their book in order to put in practice what they had learned. Then, they compared answers with a classmate and with the class.

Also, students were provided with some questions that student A had to ask to student B by using past continuos and simple past. Students solved the exersises 4 and 5 on their books as well.

Furthermore, a small story was presented to the students and in pairs students had to continue the story and to create and ending by using past continuos and simple past. The, they shared their completed story with the class.

To finish, students created in pairs a two minutes comversation about the acitivities they did the last week by using past simple and past continuous.

To conclude, students were asked to say woman's or men's names starting with an specific letter. The student that did not answer, took a piece of paper with some question about the steucture of past continuos and the different with simple past.

Class 4, observaton-participation.

September 24, 2016

Today I was not encharged with any activity but as students had an oral evaluation teachers Yani and Jasmin adviced me to help her with giving feedback to the students.

To start, students were asked to make a line and they need it to order it by the first letter of their first name, but without speaking. Then, order the line aince the youngest till the oldest. Students know each other very well so they could do the activity perfectly.

Second, the topic for this day was "past continuous" affirmative and negative sentences. They were provided with the suitable grammar structure and examples.

Then, students read a text in order to complete some exercises on their books about personnal information by using past continuous. Also, students ere given with a worksheet that contained past continuos exercises.

To finish, students were asked to write a list with the activities they did or did not do during the last week.

Furthermore, in the oral evaluation students did in groups presentations about amazing stories that they imagined, they must use past continuous while telling the story. The, each students was provided with the suitable feedback by teacher Jasmin and me.

Class 3. Observation-participation.
September 17, 2016

Today I taught one hour class about vocabulary " preposition of movements".

To begin, students got in pairs and each student wrote the name of a famous persone, they pasted on their classmate forehead and the students had to guess the artist by giving or asking descriptions.

First, students were provided with nine preposition of movement: across, around, down, into,moff, over, through, under and up. Then, in groups students were given with blank pages were they had to write a meaning to each preposition and present it to their classmates. After that students were provided with the suitable meaning and pronunciation.

Second, in pairs students created a drawing that represented a preposition. Also, students presented their drawing to their classmate by a short explanation and examples about the preposition that they were assigned.

Third, students solve the exercise five on their book. Moreover, students played charades with the prepositions.

Fifth, students read the "Daredevils" quiz to solve the exersises an choose the correct prepositions that match with the phrase.

To conclude, students created a conversation about an sport hey had already practice or that hey would like to practice and explaned how the sport is done by using the prepositions of movement.

Class 2. Observation - Participation.

Saturday, September 10, 2016.

Today I was encharged to teach a reading class about "Meet the memory masters", where I include the following vocabulary : from memory, photographic memory, remember, memorize, recited and memory. Also, this was my first complete participation and I was very anxious about it.

To start,  the activity "Broken telephone" was presented and students were asked to stand up and make two groups in order to pass a message one by one until the last one get the message and they needed to write it on the board, and the group who had more points won.

Second, students were presented with six new vocabulary stated above, and in groups they disscused the words and what they think about them. After that students were given with strips of paper that contains the meaning of each word, and students had to match it.

Moreover, students were given with an small paragraph that they had to read and conclude what the text was about. Then, students share their thoughts with their classmates and read the completed text to complete the exercise three on their books.

Also, students took a flashcard related with the events presented in the text, and they had to pasted on the board according with the text order.

Furthermore, students were assigned with a question related to the memory and each student answered personally by using at least two new vocabulary previously presented.

To finish, students wrote a list of five tips to improve their memory to then share it with their classmates.

To conclude, students played the game "Hot potatoe" and the students who got the ball answered a question realted to the vocabulary.

Then, the teacher Jasmin introduced the grammar part that was related with the negative and interrogativa form with BE.

Class 1. First day!

Saturday, september 3, 2016.

Today was my first day in teaching practicum to adolescents and it was an excellent experience. I am with the plaza mundo program which is also placed at Don Bosco University and teenagers ages are around 15 to 17, they are starting to lear English but you can see their efford to learn. Moreover, my mentor teacher is Jasmin Gomez who is an extraordinary teacher and very loved by her students.

To start, students were  asked to stand up and make a circle where they were asked with the question "How do you feel today?" and they needed to answer with 3 moods (angry -_-, fine :), sad :( ). In my opinion, this activity was very useful to untroduce the new topic, since they were adjectives too.

The, some adjectives were introduced and students pasted on the board the images with the corresponding adjective. (Lonely, extreme, lucky, good, nauthy, cute, upset, scary, ashame, and nervous). Also, they solved the vocabulary excersises on their books.

Moreover, students were asked to make three lines and to pass a piece of paper in which they needed to wrire letter by letter until complete the sentences with an adjective that he teacher dictated. For me this was an innovative activity because students can work together without mess up, and to practice spelling.

Also, students listened to an audio in order to answer some questions in a worksheet. Furthermore, students got in pairs and were provided with a place and they had to perfom a role play with the differents feelings that are present in those places.

To conclude, I was asked to provide instructions about a worksheet realted to the topic past form of the verb "Be". Then, students went to the other classroom to asked questions about activities students did during the week to then write an small paragraph about it.

Error Analysis

The purpose of this activity was to help identify spelling mistakes that I made in my first  blog entry, and I do not want to make excuses but honestly I do not organize my time well, so that I need to write very fast and I can say that’s the problem, and I hope I can surpass it.

I wrote	I must have written
1- teaching adolescence	Teaching adolescents
2- 3we can make the different	We can make the different
3- Also, though these years I have had many teaching experiences that help me to gain more confident and	Also, through these years I have had many teaching experiences that help me to gain more confident
4- nowadays I commenced with	Nowadays I started with
5- Moreover, adolescent develop the primary sex characteristics	Moreover, adolescents develop their primary sex characteristics
6- high levels of profyenci	High levels of proficiency
7- try to make students' feel very secures and comfortables in the classrooms	Try to make students’ feel very secures and comfortable in the classroom
8- phychological development	Psychological development
9- phychological development	Psychological development
10- The adolescent becomes	The adolescents become
11- profyenci	Proficiency

 Moreover, these types of activities are very useful since we learn by making mistakes which it is more relevant. Also, it’s became a self learning because we see our mistakes and we search information in order to correct them.

In my opinion, I would like to apply this technique in a grammar class, so students can see which their lacks are and how they can improve them. Also, I think it is suitable for all the English levels.

Personal profile

My name is Vanesa Jovel and I am a majoring in English teaching at don Bosco University, El Salvador. I am in the fourth year of my major and in this blog you will see my new experience teaching adolescence as a future teacher. Well, I have been studying English since tree years ago and as a beginner it was very hard to me to study English without t any previous knowledge but I am very grateful with all the instructors that I have had through this years because without them I would not achieve it. Moreover, I decided to study teaching since I admire all teachers and their roles in students’ lives and their effort to encourage us to follow our dreams. However, I would like to be like those teachers who are meaningful for their students and I would like to make them know that they can achieve everything that they want even the life in our country is a little bit difficult 3we can make the different and for that reason I am proud of my career because besides everything is the most rewarding job that can exist.

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                                               Also, though these years I have had many teaching experiences that help me to gain more confident and techniques when teaching and planning a lesson. The first one was in my third year with the teacher Yanira de Canisalez, where I begin to teach kids but for me was kind of difficult because kids are very energetic and e as teacher need to catch their attention. Then, in the second semester of the same year I started to teach kids again but hits time with more acquired knowledge on how to deal with it. Therefore, nowadays I commenced with social service at a public school where I teach English to teenagers from 12 to 16 years and I can say that it is very difficult since they are not very submerged in the language but searching the suitable activities and ways to teach them we can do a good job.

Physical development in adolescent

I believed that puberty is the beginning of the physical development in teenagers which starts earlier in girls than in boys. Also, the process contemplated different physical aspects that make noticeable this stage in adolescent, this aspects are the developing females parts like breast and hips and in boys the growing of facial hair and other changes like higt, tone of voice and others.


 What I did not know that puberty is divided in to two stages, primary sex characteristic and secondary sex characteristics which are explained below. Moreover, I find out that all this process not only has to do with physical changes but with psychological changes as well.

According to Boundless.com “Puberty is the period of several years in which rapid physical growth and psychological changes occurs, culminating in sexual maturity”. This process tipically occurs at age 10 or 11 in females and at age 11 to 12 males, finishing this process at the age 15 to 16 females and 16 to 17 males and also changing teenagers’ height, weight, body composition and respiratory system. Also, during this time glands and sex glands mature this is known as adrenorche and gonadorche.

Moreover, adolescent develop the primary sex characteristics and secondary sex characteristics. Primary sex characteristics are the organs specifically needed for sexual reproduction and secondary sex characteristics are physical signs of sexual mature development of breast and hips in females, while in males includes facial hair and deepening of the voice, all these changes are mostly related with sexual development.




To conclude, we as teachers must try to make students' feel very secures and comfortables in the classrooms since, these changes sometimes are very hard for them, creating many insecurities that triggers lack of participation and will clearly affect students' academic development.

Cognitive and psychological development 

Personally, I was not aware that the cognitive and phychological development in adolescents happend at the same time with the pshysical developing but I knew that in the puberty period teenagers are becoming matures and also girls reach this stage earlier than boys but I did not know exactly in what age. All theseprocesses are expleined bellow.

To start,cognitive development means the growth of a child’s ability to think and reason. This process happens differently from ages 6 to 12, and ages 12 to 18.

Moreover, children ages 6 to 12 years old develop the ability to think in concrete ways. These are called concrete operations. These things are called concrete because they’re done around objects and events. This includes how to:

·         Combine (addition)

·         Separate (subtract or divide)

·         Order (alphabetize and sort)

·         Transform (change things such as 5 pennies=1 nickel) objects and actions.Then, the ages 12 to 18 is called adolescence. This age group does more complex thinking. This type of thinking is also known as formal logical operations and they include the ability to:

·         Do abstract thinking. This means thinking about possibilities.

·         Reason from known principles. This means forming own new ideas or questions.

·         Consider many points of view. This means to compare or debate ideas or opinions.

·         Think about the process of thinking. This means being aware of the act of thought processes.

Therefore, from ages 12 to 18, children grow in the way they think. They move from concrete thinking to formal logical operations. It’s important to note that:

·         Each child moves ahead at his or her own rate in ability to think in more complex ways.

·         Each child develops his or her own view of the world.

·         Some children may be able to use logical operations in schoolwork long before they can use them for personal problems.

·         When emotional issues come up, they can cause problems with a child’s ability to think in complex ways.

·         The ability to consider possibilities and facts may affect decision-making. This can occur in either positive or negative ways.

In the other hand, the pshychological development is stated in three distinct stages that can be identified in the psychological development of the adolescent, even though there is a great deal of overlap in the stages, and they may not occur during the age span indicated. During early adolescence (ages 11-13), development usually centers around developing a new self-image due to their physiological changes. Adolescents need to make use of their newly acquired skills of logical thinking and ability to make judgments rationally. When they reach the ages of fourteen and fifteen (the period known as mid-adolescence), adolescents strive to loosen their ties to their parents and their emotions and intellectual capacities increase. The adolescent becomes adventuresome, and experiments with different ideas. This plays an important role in finding one’s relations to oneself, groups, and opposite sex. During this time, the adolescent battles over his own set of values versus the set established by parents and other adult figures. The adolescent also begins to take on more control of educational and vocational pursuits and advantages. It is during this time that adolescents’ self-dependence and a sense of responsibility become apparent, along with their quest to contribute to society and find their place in it.

Besides, adolescents’ brain also remains under development during time. Adolescents often engaged increased risk-taking behaviors and experiences heightened emotions during puberty, this way be due to the fact that the frontal lobes of their brains which are responsible for judgment, impulse control, and planning are still maturing until early adulthood, ( Casey, Tottenham, Liston & Durston, 2005)

To conclude, Erikson’s theory demonstrates the importance of the educator’s role in helping children establish their identity upon reaching adolescence. The child must master academic skills in order to feel positive about him/herself, since it is necessary that students can realize that they are able to reach high levels of profyenci even if they are going through many changes in their lives.

Psychosocial changes

Adolescents carry with them a sense of who they are and what makes them different from everyone else. This sense of who an individual is and what makes him or her different from others is referred to as self-identity.  Then, adolescents cling to this identity and develop a sense that the identity is becoming more stable. Also, researchers have identified other components that also play a part in identity formation, such as identification by gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. A part of the task for adolescents is to discern the criteria for these possible identities, evaluate them, and decide whether and how to incorporate them into their personal sense of self.

Also, Sigmund Freud, Rogers and Harter [1961, 1980] began their inquiry about human nature with troubled personalities. Thus, Rogers believed that adolescents are the victims of conditional personal/positive regard meaning that love and praise are not given unless the adolescent conforms to parental or social standards. The result, says Rogers, is that the adolescent’s self – esteem is lowered, through the individual’s experience with the world, a self emerges.

To summarize, the feeling of acceptation is the most common in adolescent since they do not want to be different and judged by others, so I could say that a suitable technique that we as teachers can use is the desuggestopedia method because it is based on the creation of a comfortable environment where students can develop their skills in a soft way and by each other without being rude.

References

Boundless. “Physical Development in Adolescence.” Boundless Psychology. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 18 Aug. 2016 

from https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-

textbook/human-development-14/adolescence-73/physical-development-in-adolescence-

282-12817/

American Academy of Pediatrics. "Adolescent Psychosocial, Social, and Cognitive Development". Volum 34, 2016. http://pedsinreview.aappublications.org/content/34/8/354?sso=1&sso_redirect_count=1&nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token