One more Blog Post (Field Notes)

Wednesday November 19th, 2018

Field Notes

Period 3A 9:05 -10:05 A.M.

Spanish I and II class (8th grade class).


Last week I did not get to see my project study group students since they were out on Wednesday November 14th, and Friday November 16th,

Today will be the last field notes taken for this class. Thursday we celebrate Thanksgiving so I will not get to see my 8th study group until next week. Finally my study group and I had a full class period after many missing days due to High School Presentations, Holidays, election day, and absenteeism.

I still have one more student interview to  conduct. I will try on Monday November 26 again. Hopefully student IR will come back to school.

Today my students came into class. They were all excited and happy because we have a 3-day week this week. Students like when we get days off.

Today my class was very small because we had our second beginning of the quarter assembly. So, I had a class of 3 students. My Spanish 2 students are reviewing AR ending verbs in the Present tense in Spanish. They already learned and practice with subject pronouns and how they play a vital role when conjugating any verb in Spanish.

They also collaborated together as ANL delivered a clear, engaging and meaningful lesson. EV was attentive, fully engaged, participated fully in the activity. JR the new student was a bit distant, but few minutes after joined the conversation. I began the lesson by asking them what they thought about the video? They responded by saying I liked it very much. I was able to sing along with Señor Jordan as he sang the song.

I told them I am glad you liked it. EV asked Señorita I liked the video, but I think the 3 of us can do a better job since we already know Spanish. I responded by saying, Yes, I like the idea. Why don’t you guys get together and create your own version of the AR verb endings video. They will present this video to the whole class once they finish it. I am excited to see this project unflod. Students will be responsible for the entire project creation. I will be monitoring the entire process.

Students immediately started to brainstorm ideas for their Ar-verb song. Students ANL, and EV thanked me for letting them choose the topic they wanted to learn/explore.

Student ANL and EV stated” when I have to do something I am not interested in , I do it because the teachers expect me to, but I do not feel like I want to do it”

“Thank you Ms. Arias for listening to us an for helping us be excited about participating in Spanish class”

Since I have the liberty of deciding what topics/theme I want to present, from now on I will present different topics/themes to the students and then we will decide how they will be expected to learn the information presented.

As a professional I now know that, imposing assignments to students, especially when they are not even interested in the topic will only drive them away. Allowing them to become part of the learning, to be owners of their learning will lead to success in the classroom.

Creating and improvising opportunities to involve students in the learning process allows them to become aware of how they learn and why certain skills benefit them. As a result, students are motivated and more likely to apply those skills when working independently. An included student becomes an invested student who is eager to learn.

Students will be able to produce more authentic work when they are given the opportunity to choose how they want to learn and how they want to learn it. When allowing students to choose what they want to learn we must make sure that the learning is measurable, attainable, meaningful to all students.

Teachers and students have to be able to approve the choies made together before the activity or project begins.