class 2

8:10 – the class begins. The teacher asks the students to hand in the homework they had to bring for that day. It consisted of sentences of their own connected with health or illnesses. Most of them hand it in and the teacher asks the ones who did not hand it in, to bring the homework for the following class. Then the teacher starts asking the students questions connected with their homework. She wants them to give her the symptoms of the flu and measles and then explains the symptoms of other illnesses. Then she speaks briefly about the problems of kids with bronquitis in tucuman.

8:15 – the students are going to read an extract from the book and then they are going to listen to the tape recorder play the same extract in order for them to check pronunciation. The activity consists of four paragraphs with different illnesses and its consequencies. Then they have to match headlines with the paragraphs. The teacher asks four students to read each parapragh and then asks the whole class what would be the headline for each one. They all participate and there are correct and incorrect answers.

The class slowly goes a bit out a control until the teacher tells them to be quiet.

8:25 – the students have to do the following excercise in which they have to fill in the chart by listening to the tape recorder once more. The listening is part of the reading section. Since there are some students who are disturbing the class, she asks them to complete the first line in the chart. One of them cannot answer properly and the teacher tries to help him. Then he finishes the idea. Then she goes on working with the resp of the class. Each one of the student has to complete the chart and share with the rest of the class.Most of the students participate. Sometimes the class gets noisy but the teacher succeeds in asking them to be quiet.   

8:32 – the teacher asks one student to read the instructions of the following excercise but he refuses to do so because he says he has wrong pronunciation. After the teacher tells him that everyone has wrong pronunciation from time to time (and feeling some preasure coming from the teacher) the student goes on to read. They go to the last part of the book where they rea dan extract that is going to be played on the tape recorder afterwards. The students work in pair and then share with the rest of the class. They have to complete another chart.

8:40 – then they go to the last part of the book where they have the gramar section in which it is explained the uses of the present perfect with yet, already and just. Then the teacher explains what has been read and the stundents began working in pairs in order to complete the activity. She interrupts the class in order to explain the instructions to a lost student.    

8:45 – the students have to do an excercise with compuond nouns. Then the whole class adds compounds they already know. Then the teacher explains a little bit about this topic  and in order to check understanding she asks each one the meaning of certain compounds. She does so especially with the naughty students who are disturbing the class. Some of them laugh at her and she seems increasingly annoyed.after a moment she succeeds in making them participate.

8:50 – the teacher explains in the blackboard the present perfect and gives examples. then she asks the one who are talking of something else to explain the present perfect. They do more or less correctly. 

8:53 – the class finishes with the teacher giving them homework in which they have to choose between yet and already within the sentences in order to make them correct.

In that day, the class was somehow out of control. The teacher in more than one occation had to interrupt the class in order to ask the naughty students to be quiet. The students most of the time showed disrespect for the authority of the teacher and even when the teacher was annoyed, they did not seem to feel any nervous. The worst was that when the teacher asked them to complete the activities, they did it almost correctly so I think they were somehow boring with the topic, may be because they already know a bit of it. I think that the teacher should bring extra material for the class for those students who seem boring. May be not being too attached to the book would be another solution. Perhaps she should give them interesting activities connected with health, something connected with their own environment.