On Wednesday we began Chapter three. As it was my first day teaching I began by telling the students a bit more about myself and my background. We also had a discussion around the question: why study Spanish? Many of the students expressed how they wanted to learn Spanish, to travel, get better jobs, talk to their friends and family etc. Overall, I think the discussion helped the students to gain a better understanding of the relevance of Spanish to their lives, which is a really important means of increasing their engagement in the class.
We then began our discussion of Mexico, which was greatly facilitated by many of the students who have spent time there on family trips. We talked a bit about the differences between Mexico and the States and also watched a film about the products, people, culture and indigenous communities of Mexico.
Today we did a number of activities to prepare students for the film that the textbook provides to introduce the chapter. For homework the students did an activity with a reading in their books that summarizes the video and today in class we read the dialogue in groups to practice pronunciation. We also worked a lot with the vocabulary of the first section, which has to do with classes and sequences.
Overall, I felt that the class went more smoothly today than yesterday. Hopefully things will continue to improve as I get more experience.
Students also turned in their first reflections today. (I am having students write reflections throughout the unit, in order to learn more about them and what they are taking away from the class). I really enjoyed reading these and was impressed and pleasantly surprised by what they came up with. As this is a new thing for the students, some are still a bit confused as to exactly what is expected of them, but hopefully they will become more comfortable as I continue to provide them with feedback.
Tomorrow we will begin to talk about class schedules and hopefully spend a lot of time doing partner conversational activities.
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