During the lesson I had the opportunity to write down every activity they did. I have classified all of the activities as "cognitive activities", as you can see in the following picture.
As a whole, I believe there was a prominence of cognitive activities. It probably has to do with the fact that, as I mentioned before, the teacher's main purpose was to do a revision before the following week's exam. She seemed to be focused exclusively on the grammar and vocabulary.
Nonetheless, given that the children had to produce a writing activity about themselves, we could say there was an affective element going around. For what I observed, most of the children were very active and involved in the activity. They rarely stopped to chat with their classmates.
It was very difficult for me to see which one was the most valuable activity for the learners. But I could see that they deeply enjoy doing activities that had to do with themselves, as these are more "contextualized". At least in this observation I could see they felt more motivated with that activity in particular.
It wasn't really surprising for me to see that they were all working at their own pace with the same topic and exercises. Most of the time they worked individually, though sometimes they stopped to chat to their mates about their results and compare them.
In general, I think that even today most of lessons are based on cognitive activities when in fact it should be the other way around. For example, I find that when children speak about their feelings, personal dislikes and likes, opinions or experiences they tend to feel more motivated as they interact and share with others. Since affective activities are "true-to-life scenarios", we should try to use them because honestly sometimes I feel that teachers pay extra attention only to grammar and spelling. Sometimes it seems that all that matters is how much grammar and vocabulary you know, how well you follow the task or the marks at the end of the year.
As a future teacher I would like to develop my skills in creating that affective aspect of my teaching.
Nonetheless, given that the children had to produce a writing activity about themselves, we could say there was an affective element going around. For what I observed, most of the children were very active and involved in the activity. They rarely stopped to chat with their classmates.
It was very difficult for me to see which one was the most valuable activity for the learners. But I could see that they deeply enjoy doing activities that had to do with themselves, as these are more "contextualized". At least in this observation I could see they felt more motivated with that activity in particular.
It wasn't really surprising for me to see that they were all working at their own pace with the same topic and exercises. Most of the time they worked individually, though sometimes they stopped to chat to their mates about their results and compare them.
In general, I think that even today most of lessons are based on cognitive activities when in fact it should be the other way around. For example, I find that when children speak about their feelings, personal dislikes and likes, opinions or experiences they tend to feel more motivated as they interact and share with others. Since affective activities are "true-to-life scenarios", we should try to use them because honestly sometimes I feel that teachers pay extra attention only to grammar and spelling. Sometimes it seems that all that matters is how much grammar and vocabulary you know, how well you follow the task or the marks at the end of the year.
As a future teacher I would like to develop my skills in creating that affective aspect of my teaching.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario