Primary

1. Final Reflection
Primary Practicum Period
Thinking Back
The original aim of this project was to experience pedagogically with students at
the primary level, apply the most of the strategies learnt in previous years for
this kind of teaching context and try todo the best in every class.
During this period the use of proper resources and different material became
positive and productive in a lesson. The material was coherent and well
organized focused on the topic: ‘Pets’ and inside this topic was descriptions. I
developed the material taking into account the students’ age and what could be
interesting and funny for them but respecting the main theme. Also I tried to
involve a variety of resources such as videos, songs, game boards (Bingo),
images, readings, listening, etc. I consider that in the most of lessons the
students could practice the four macro abilities (listen – speak – write read) so I
tried to develop the classes bearing in mind what the students need.
This material was highly significant for students. Not only they enjoyed it, but
also they improved their language through the material and as a result it
affected positively their motivation. The students demonstrated all the time
their enthusiasm and interest to participate; so I realized that the material and
the lesson itself was working properly and they were understanding what I
proposed in every class using the language in context.
From my point of view the most challenging factor in this experience was
introduced the use of structures. In general the students understood the
questions but they only answered using isolated vocabulary, so as my head
teachers marked to me, I repeated the structures ‘it’s / it has got…’ when the
students said the isolated vocabulary.
The use of different visual materials such as flashcards and pictures and
different activities from the book that they used allowed students to learn and
compare the second language with their environment. Another important
challenge was introducing the use of target language into the classroom, they
didn’t have a greeting routine in English with ‘hello’ and ‘bye bye’; in spite of the
fact that the teacher spoke English during the whole class, she didn’t use so
much extra material apart from the book. However, the results were really
positives, the students could incorporate it to their routine and they adapted to
this change correctly.
During this experience, I learnt that:

2.  Students learn correctly if they feel confident and feel that there is a
relation with the teacher. From the beginning they showed me affect and
even the child who misbehaviour paid close attention and he participated
actively in every class. The head teacher, Romina, told me that she was
very happy for that situation.
 Competition games or board games are really interesting resource to
students enjoy the class and learn playing. During some classes I made
competitions and they loved them! And when I wrote the points on the
board they felt active and confident to participate. They enjoyed so much.
 Provide a specific context and engage situation for learning has a great
importance. Although we studied that during the whole career, I applied
during this experience (also in kinder) and I realized its importance to
introduce to students to every activity that they will develop during the
class to guide them to develop everyone.
Thinking Forward
If I had the chance to develop this practice again I would encourage students to
use more structures and repeat them as many times as they need to incorporate
in the speaking. Another factor I would have finished some activities which I
considered important to develop; I could not finish because there were some
situations that happened in some classes and that is why I decided not to give
them to students.
In addition I would like to change the material and make the reading cards
bigger for the whole class, because the children who were at the last table could
not read correctly. Also I would like use projector for the videos and some
images, but as the projector room was full all the classes (in spite of asking with
time) I decided to sit the children in circle and watch the video from the
computer.
From this experience I take into account the teachers’ feedback related with the
activities or in some cases with the pronunciation, so what I did was to practise
the most difficult words in my house before every class and try tocontrol my
nerves tonot confuse the prepositions at the moment of speaking. So thanks to
that, I worked in some weaknesses that appeared during the classes and could
improve them.
I consider that every group is different so they have different necessities. I think
this experience gave me some tools to develop every class and know what
strategies could become useful.
Thinking Inward
This experience was meaningful because I felt confident as teacher and I
realized that if I use different resources to take the students attention, strategies

3. according to their necessities, they will learn in a correct way. It is very
frustrating when we finish a class and we feel as the students could not develop
the activity or the class did not what we expected.
Personally, I love primary level. However I know that as future teacher, I have
to experiment with different levels, groups, etc. this is the most grateful period;
where the students have their first approach with the second language, so all the
material, resources that teacher uses will be important and necessary to
encourage to students to incorporate the language. That is why I loved looking
for material, videos and games to motivate to children and always, I imagine
students playing or participating and I motivated myself.
I am completely happy with this experience, I recognize that I have to improve
several aspects in the classroom, but we never stop learning and I take every
feedback in a positive way. So I finished this period of the best way and with the
conviction that I gave my best in every class.