Summary

My teaching practice at KULSBJERG SKOLE Fall 2013

Kulsbjerg Skole is a regular Danish school located in Stensved, a satellite town of Vordingborg in South Zealand with 1,545 inhabitants (2013). The school holds a total of 929 students, of which 93 belong to the 8th grade, and are divided into 4 groups (a, b, c and d): Language&culture, Body&Movement, Science&Mathematics. The fourth group is called a special group, who are pupils with different problems that prevent them yet from engaging in regular classes.

The official language taught is Danish, but they used to combinate it with English at the English classes. Most of the students were born in Denmark, and all of them speak and understand Danish at the same level, unlike the English language which is their second language. For that reason 8^th grade class has been divided into 3 groups according to their level or difficulties on learning it (being on hold 1 pupils with an English level above the average, on hold 2 pupils that match with 7^th/8^th grade level, and hold 3 the ones that find English language quite difficult to learn).

Inasmuch as it is not an International School, we attended only to observe English classes and their teacher Per Larsen.

TEACHER COMPETENCES

Intercultural competence is the ability to communicate effectively with people of other cultures.

Good - The teacher we were observing during our teaching practice had the ability to communicate within all the different cultures present in the class. He did not make any distinction, treating all equally. Additionally, he left no room for misunderstandings, demonstrating this way his ability to communicate with all of them. But he did not promote actively the communication between different cultures or give enough opportunities for pupils to share their multicultural experiences whenever a topic is discussed, which I think is missing on his competences.

Interpersonal competence: shows good leadership. He/she creates a friendly and cooperative atmosphere and stimulates and achieves open intercultural and international communication.

Poor - Honestly I did not see him taking any action in particular for stimulating an intercultural communication or even showing good leadership. He did not create a friendly and cooperative atmosphere, he remained just neutral. I think he lacked skills to create an environment where students feel more motivated about the activities that were being carried out in the classroom. Basically, he was explaining the activities, answering the questions, and promoting teamwork. Personally, I think it is very important that in addition to a good organization at the institutional level, the teacher has to achieve the goal of stimulating and promoting interest on the subject.

Pedagogical competence: stimulate children's socio-emotional and moral development. Safe environment, appreciation, respect, belonging, responsibility.

Very Good - I think the teacher was concerned about this competence. He creates a physical and emotionally safe environment, where pupils have plenty of confidence to communicate their issues related to the class. In general, the school promotes respect, appreciation, and responsibility among pupils though verbal messages and relating it to each activity.

We had the pleasure of witnessing one of his teaching strategies consistent in helping some of his students, who were afraid of public speaking, to lose the fear gradually. We were not at the school enough time to observe the results, but he was convinced about his method is effective and the best way to do it. My group and I had explained this particular case in the section "The study case: fear of public speaking".

Subject knowledge & methodological competence: must help children to acquire the necessary cultural and international baggage, which each citizen in the international society needs to be a full member of society. The powerful learning environment, motivation, accommodation, active local&global citizen, independence/autonomy.

Very Good - The materials used in class are copied from different textbooks for each pupil and activities from a website which they had access through iPads provided at the school. He was very focus on the content knowledge, being absolutely not creative in that regard. I do not know if the curricular knowledge were being carried out. The only information we have though is that they were following the Danish curriculum. The topics were usually related to cultural and political issues that allowed pupils to understand the current world and create their own opinions on actual and current social issues while learning to communicate in different contexts becomes successfully achieved.

The methodology used by the teacher was didactic when he considered necessary to highlight an explanation about new aspects or remain them others. But most of the time he promoted experiential learning by putting in practice their speaking proficiency having a short conversation with them or between their peers. He always engages the pupils in group work learning and not individually. Motivation among the students is based on the division of a class from the same grade into groups according to the level of English, adapting the activities employed in the class, and the promotion of positive verbal messages. That division allows responding to the needs of each pupil making sure that none of them are left behind their peers or those trying to ”catch up” make the others keep on hold. Consequently, motivation is kept and since the group is more reduced allow to the teacher a more individual assessment.

Organizational competence: must create a well-organized, neat and task-orientated international and intercultural atmosphere in the classroom.

Excellent - I did not have the opportunity to observe deeper on the internal organization, but it did look very well-organized and prepare every class. He was taking over of his group always bearing in mind that it is the one with the lowest level of English and adapting beforehand his explanations and annotations according to it.

Competency for collaborating with colleagues: must be competent in collaborating with his/her colleagues.

Very Good - I did not have the opportunity to attend to one of their meetings, and even if I could I would not have been able to understand it. So I can not talk specifically about whether the teacher of the class we were observing had the competency collaborating with his colleagues or in which level. But I had some conversations with other teachers about it, and they told me that the communication in the school between the teachers is very fluent, clear and efficient. They sit down weekly to talk about general and specific problems, find a solution together and make a plan specifying which task should be performed each of them (if necessary).

Competency for collaborating with the working environment: must keep in touch with the children's parents and use of resources.

Excellent - Trips to the zoo, to the museum, to the botanic, seeing relevant theater plays, break time at the nearby park, or going to observe and learn about different jobs in real life, are some of the activities that the school organizes in order to complete their education.

The teacher participates together with his pupils on different curricular and extracurricular activities such as The Running Club of the town. He has plenty of meetings with the parents with whom keeps communication constantly. But I can not confirm whether he has the skills to carry out properly the communication with them.

Competency for reflection and development: must permanently work on his/her personal and professional development.

Good - The teacher is constantly thinking about how he can make it better for his pupils to achieve the goals in an efficient way. But he did not talk about his personal daily development to improve as a teacher.

Linguistic observation

Teaching Experience Fall 2013

Questions	Classroom observations
Which is the primary language used in an English class? Are students allowed to use their native language, on what occasions, how often?	The primary language used in the hold 3 of 8th grade was Danish. They were combining both English and Danish at English classes. All the activities are explained first in English and after in Danish. They do not have any special rule about talking in one language or another.
What activities are included in teaching language and how physical space is used?	The activities carried out are extracted from a textbook, and consist on translating sentences from English into Danish and vice versa, filling gaps with missing words in a text, or talk about a specific topic, among others. They also prepare activities that take 3 or 4 days in a row all related to a topic and practise comprehension and communication in the following order: reading (by reading a text), written (by answering questions related to the text), listening (by listening to the teacher, who explains and talk about the chosen topic, sometimes using a powerpoint presentation), and speaking (by making group works that have to prepare a presentation for the rest of the class). They use different physical spaces: two classrooms and the corridor, which they are allowed to use freely. Only one of the classrooms is used to gather all pupils to carry out the listening activity.
Are all of the students engaged in language teaching activities? How is the teacher checking for understanding?	Most students are actively involved in language teaching activities, despite the difficulties many of them have in learning English. The teacher asks questions and keeps constantly conversations with students in English (or danish) to check that the students did understand the topic and the aim of the activity.
How often teaching is organized in group work, classroom discussion or discourse?	Teaching is always organized in group work to carry out each activity, and discussions often involve the whole classroom guided by the teacher.
How feedback is given, how reinforcement of positive behavior is carried out, how errors are corrected?	Feedback is given at the time, by correcting errors while pupils talk in the class, or by checking what they have written. Positive behavior is rewarded with positive words and encouragement. The teacher does not correct every single error, but only the basic ones according to the needs of every pupil and his or her English level and proficiency.
	The teacher
What language acquisition theories or perspectives supporter is him?	I think he supports behavior theory when makes an activity consisting on practice the same thing over and over and teach them how to pronounce a word (memorization and mimicking), and give them feedback through positive words (positive reinforcement). And also uses innatist theory being aware that the children are capable to self-learn innately, by guiding them on how and why and not just what to learn. And he definitely believes in sociocultural theories while making sure that parents, caregivers, peers, and culture are some of the elements that must work together fluently.
Which model (didactic or experiential) does him find more productive in language acquisition and why?	They mix both models and believe that the didactic part is just a guideline to complete what is lacking in the experiential model. Most of the time the pupils are given a text and they must work on it themselves in work groups and practice with their peers using speaking and written language. The didactic model is used to guide them in pronunciation and listening.
How, how much and how often does he plan his lessons?	He makes together with his coworkers overall planning once a month, and prepare his lessons once in a week, and review them when necessary.

	The pupils
Do they feel comfortable speaking English? What is the hardest part of language acquisition?	They do not feel comfortable speaking English, inasmuch as they feel insecure about their level and capability of learning. They think that is difficult to understand and especially talk fluently.
Do they understand English is a global language? How does it affect or motivate their acquisition?	They understand the meaning of English as a global language, due to it was one of the topics used to carry out one of the activities in the class, as teachers choose current topics to also teach them to formulate personal opinions and understanding on current issues. Some of the pupils feel motivated about the opportunity to communicate with many people from other cultures and countries, but it is not a widespread motivation, due to they find their learning too complicated and a bit out of reach to reach enough level to communicate fluently.
Do they have homework? How do they feel about it?	They do have homework sometimes, but most activities are held during school hours, having enough time to complete them, or else getting stretched to the next lesson. When they have homework the do not like it, as they find many difficulties to complete the tasks without someone who helps them to answer some questions.