Teaching training journal_1st lesson

PART ONE: ENGLISH ORIENTATION GROUP.
The group was suppose to be around 22 students. In the class only 15. They are studying a Bachelor of Social Service.  All girls from age 20 until 48. Different backgrounds and expectations. English level B1-B2.

I decide to give to the lesson an informal approach in order to create a relaxed learning enviroment. Making jokes and stimulate their creativity was part of it.
We worked on:
- getting to know each other with a creative working activity.
- expectation on language learning and on this course.
- pronunciations of some difficult phonems.
- basic vocavulary of their working enviroment.
- interpersonal comunication. 

The learning outcomes from the day were:
 -pronounce the words naturally and clearly > activities: brainstorming on area of working of Bachelor of Social Welfare studies in English. How do you write or pronounce the difficult words? what is the different between words like "to live" and "to leave"(for example). Differences from American accent and a British accent. Using of the web dictonary licenced by the school.
- reflection on difficult phonems >  We watched together to introduce the theme of pronunciation this video: How to buy an hamburger (Steve Martin). We together reflected about some difficult sounds. Group work: how to pronounce a toungue twister. The group working goal was to let the students feel relaxed and safe to speak English without stress.
- working on interpersonal comunication and thinking what is the best way to learn a language.

I will use also Fronter as learning platform: through that I will give homeworks and answer the questions from the students.

Activities in details for the learning outcomes:
- Ice breaking: individually and in plenum introduce yourself with name symbols for each letter.
- Take a side. 4 statements on language learning.  (move in the class helps to keep the enhancement in learning higher)
- Brain storming-group work: what are the areas where would you like to go to work and why?
- Stop and watch: look the video from you tube and concentrate to the pronunciation.
- Individual work (with me as facilitator): review of the phonetic alphabet and the difficult words.
- in plenum: listen to the different accents (American and British) > use of the internet dictonary.
- group work: exercise with a toungue twister and as a group read aloud to the class.

My plan was to get to know each other, work on pronunciation and understand what is thier level of English.
I think that I could develop the pronunciation exercises giving them practical example in real situation how to improve their pronunciation (maybe role game?)

PART TWO: OBSERVING THE SWEDISH GROUP.

What kind of clients for the future Bachelor of Social Service and Nursing

·         Which group did I observe? Swedish group of Bachelor of Social Service, Nursing and Diak

·         When and where did this happen? on 15.1.13 from11:30-14 in Diaconia University of Applied Science

·         What particular features was I observing? I was observing the first lesson. Introducing each other was done in pair and then in front of the class. Teacher went straigh to the point: how to ask in swedish basic informations such as: name, last names, and other personal information that students might need toask at the phone.

the ice breaking activity of the Swedish class

Which observational methods did I use? I sat in a corner and took some pictures everynow and then. I took some copy material provided by the tutor and I filled my observation checklist.
I focused on: timing, activities presented, introduction and wram up of the lesson, questioning from the teacher and the students.