Today was fine. It was a good foundation for the rest of the week. That being said, I feel kind of “meh” about it, like the pieces were all there but it never quite gelled.
Students: 6
Countries of Origin: El Salvador, South Korea, Dominican Republic
What surprised me:
- They were very chatty (in Spanish) today. Side conversations abounded. It was kind of like being back in St. Paul.
Today’s Objectives:
- SWBAT understand and use 10 activities vocabulary phrases related to getting in shape
- SWBAT construct the Simple Present (SiPr) with supports and examples
- SWBAT understand and use a few adverbs of frequency: always, usually, sometimes, hardly ever, and never.
What went well:
Overall it was a fine lesson. We succeeded at all the objectives, and none of the activities were baffling messes.
I noticed that they were confused about he/she/it needing an -s at the end. It’s because it wasn’t initially clear that “Emily” for example counts as “she.” They weren’t already familiar with noun, pronoun, and third-person singular, but I did manage to convey the concept. I also checked for understanding in a way that showed me they got it.
What I’d like to improve upon:
It was just “meh.” I let Vote With Your Feet go for too long. I knew I needed to step back out of the morning’s discussion and I didn’t do so early enough.
I felt that I was on a grammar tightrope because all of our vocabulary phrases are verb + gerund (i.e. go fishing, go running) and that was going to get Very confusing Very quickly if I started with SiPr with an “-ing” word in it. I seemed to have walked the tightrope well for Day 1.
Thoughts for Tomorrow:
More comparisons between Simple Present and Present Continuous. I need to review the listening tonight to see if it would be more appropriate for tomorrow or Wednesday. I also need to think very seriously about what I want them to be able to do with these vocabulary phrases – just understand them, or be able to write grammatically correct sentences with them?
