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My social service was an opportunity to explore a field which I had never been involved before. It made me appreciate even more all the work that the administrative staff at a school has to conduct. I worked directly with the students’ tutor, who is the direct responsible of having school records in order, and with the school’s principal.

The development of my social service was not always smooth. Working on most the activities in the program was not a problem. What it was the most difficult was finding the time to actually conduct those activities that I had to conduct in my receiving institution. Sometimes the schedules did not coincide, and there was no opportunity to get together, the administrative staff and me. Anyway, we managed to put it together almost at due date.

In short, my social service showed that sometimes the students’ inappropriate behavior in an academic environment is allowed by the teachers’ decision making process and knowledge of the school rules. In other words, if teachers do not know exactly what the rules and consequences of not following them are, they might fail to make the best decision in terms of writing a report for the students’ bad behavior.  Also, there are occasions when teachers do not report a student, they prefer having a short informal chat with them to make them reflect on what they have done. Although this might improve rapport between students and teachers, there is no official register of the students’ inappropriate behavior. This can make implementing the schools’ rules more difficult because there is no registered evidence such as a report to justify any school measure.

There is too much to keep working on concerning the students’ behavior in academic environments. I consider this experience as the tip of the iceberg for me. I am sure that if I continued working on this matter, it would take me a long time to reach concrete conclusions concerning the reason why students sometimes behave in certain ways which do not seem to be the best. All in all, I feel this was an opportunity to look inside another part of my profession which can help me make better decisions when reporting a student. 

Activity 6: Joint Productive Activity.

Joint Productive Activity

A Joint Productive Activity can be an utterly enriching experience. It is rewarding seeing how the different stages of Joint Productive Activity are going forward and how the final project starts emerging after days and even weeks of work. This does not mean that the steps in Joint Productive Activities are neither always easy to follow nor satisfactory every time. What is important is to deal with the difficulties that arise during the Joint Productive Activity. It is important to observe what is happening and try to see why it is happening and suggest remedial measures. What I found challenging is that these remedial measures have to be generated at the moment of the occurrences. I believe that after all, our project had a good outcome.

I started working with my students on this Joint Productive Activity about two months ago, before I had even heard of such term. Our Joint Productive Activity is called ‘From concepts to the construction of knowledge’, and it is my entry to a teaching contest. This Joint Productive Activity was conducted by 40 students (two 12 years old, first grade, junior high school groups divided in: 1A, and 1B, 20 students each), and I. This represented a challenge because the lesson planning had to be carefully conducted. I estimate a 10-12 hour planning period from the beginning to the end of this Joint Productive Activity. This included organizing teams, looking for sources of information, adapting this information to the students level of English, distributing topics, planning collaborative learning activities for each of the teams, deciding which technology resource were going to be implemented, writing instructions, designing and adapting electronic worksheets and templates for the students, and introducing the students to the project: name, purpose, objective and the different steps.

This Joint Productive Activity basically consisted in the students writing a short academic essay. As the project name suggests From Concept to the Construction of Knowledge’, the students had to first find what the different parts of an academic essay are and their function: paragraphs (introduction, body, conclusion), topic sentences, supporting sentences, thesis statements, closing sentences, and what an academic essay is and its purpose. These topics were distributed in teams of four students and they were given prompt questions and worksheets which would lead them through the process of finding information. After the students having found the information related to their topics, they had to design an electronic presentation to tell the rest of their classmates what they had found out. The other students had to take notes about these presentations so that at the end everybody had everything. After this, I provided the students with feedback to correct any information and clear any doubts.

The following stage in this Joint Productive Activity was the most challenging. When we had finished explaining the different parts in an academic essay, I distributed some sample essays for the students to identify its different parts. After the corresponding feedback, they had to put into practice what they have seen in theory (‘From concepts to the construction of knowledge’). Here is where everything started to be much more interesting.

The students had to show how much they had understood by writing a short academic essay on their own. To begin with, the different subjects that the students have during their first grade in junior high school were distributed among the teams. In other words, each teams had to write and academic essay about different subjects: mathematics, biology, literature, social studies, Spanish and geography (this also required the students to translate from Spanish to English). Once they had their designated subject, they began by implementing different techniques, which we had worked on before this Joint Productive Activity such as scanning, skimming, underlining, paraphrasing and summarizing (these last two techniques were implemented while writing the essay). After the students having their information, I explained what is and outline and how it is used to organized the information in it.

The following step was typing their outline and first academic essay draft. It was not easy for the students to think of topic sentences and closing sentences, the most difficult was thinking of a thesis statement. Yet, we continued working until they finally finish their outline and first draft. After this, they exchange their outlines and first draft with a different team for peer feedback. They had to focus on the structure of the essays: paragraphing, topic sentences, supporting sentences, closing and thesis statements. Subsequently, they had to exchange the essays back and analyze the feedback provided by their peers. Afterwards, they had to make the changes they considered necessary, this would be their second draft. I would check the students’ second draft, and they would make the corresponding correction, this would be their final academic essays, and the end of their Joint Productive Activity.

The most frequent difficulties we experienced during this Joint Productive Activity were technical difficulties. Many time the students had Internet connections problems, which keep them from retrieving the information they needed in the first stages of their project (different parts of the essays, for example). Fortunately, we had books which contained enough information to solve this problem. Another difficulty was finding multimedia classrooms for their presentations. I had to negotiate with different teachers who had booked these multimedia classrooms. There were satisfactory arrangements with these teachers most of the times. Besides this, I feel that this Joint Productive Activity was conducted satisfactorily.

Lesson Plan

General Phases	Specific Phases	Prompt questions to generate reflection	Sessions	Expected learning
Preparation	I.            Questions to get started (Begining of the project)	1.        What is a paragraph? 2.        What is an introduction? 3.        What are body paragraphs? 4.        What is a conclusion? 5.        What is a topic sentence? 6.        What is a supporting sentence? 7.        What is a thesis statement? 8.        What is a closing sentence? 9.        What is an academic essay?	This project was distributed in 60 sessions along the 4th partial corresponding to the students’ junior high school education during the current school year.	·          Students will be able to explain what the different parts of an academic essay are. ·          Students will be able to work collaboratively to develop a digital presentation. ·          Students will be able to write an academic essay.
	II.            ¿What do we know about it?	This section is to be completed in class. The students discuss the questions and their ideas are written on the board after the discussion. A matrix is a good chart to do this.
	III.            ¿What do we want to know about it?	This is also filled in by the students. Their suggestions are written on the board.
Development	IV.            Let´s organize the work	1.        The students are distributed in 5 teams of four (two boys and two girls when possible) 2.        The students are given the topics (corresponding to the prompt questions in the phase I) ·          Team 1: paragraphs (introduction, conclusion) ·          Team 2: topic sentences ·          Team 3: supporting sentences ·          Team 4: closing sentences ·          Team 5: Supporting paragraphs ·          Team 6: Expository essays
	V.            Let´s get to work	1.        Students search information related to the topics (material selected and adapted by the teachers) 2.        Students design electronic presentations to shoe and tell the class about their topics. Students take notes about the presentations. 3.        Students are provided with feedback. Students correct/complement their notes. 4.        Based on the information the students have, they are given sample essays to identify the different parts. Feedback is provided by the teacher. 5.        Students choose a subject from the ones they have at school. 6.        Students work on a section in one of the units in their text books. 7.        Students organize the information from their textbooks in an outline to get ready to start writing their first draft. 8.        Students type their first draft. 9.        Students exchange drafts and peer feedback each others drafts. 10.     Students type their second draft based on their classmates’ suggestions. 11.     Students turn their second draft in so that they are checked by the teacher. 12.     The third correction is the final academic essay.
Communication	VI.            These are our answers.	In this stage, the final essays are shared in teams. Students are encouraged to provide feedback base don the academic essay structure (sentences, paragraphs)
	VII.            What did we learn? What else can we learn? (end of the project)	This is filled in class. The students’ ideas are written on the board.

Students' first draft with peer feedback

Students' second draft with teachers' feedback

Students' presentation sample

Outline

Science

Math

Activity 5_Partner Professional Dialogue

Partner Professional Dialogue

By Sergio Méndez

The Five Standards for Effective Teaching is a term which I had never heard before or at least in such fancy words. As I was working in the activity for this unit I realized that the Five Standards for Effective Teaching has to do to what I usually do in class, which is integrating students and teachers by generating opportunities for dialogue. Despite of the fact that my activity is a listening exercise, it provided integration between the students and me. Discussing this exercise with a colleague provided me with feedback which is useful in case I use this activity again.

My activity aimed at developing my students listening comprehension skills. It might look like there is no too much dialogue in this sort of exercise, but this dialogue took place in the pre and post stages of the activity. Still, there was more dialogue between the teacher and students than among students. This means that the joint production was generated while I and the students were producing together in a whole class activity. My major participation was designing, enacting, pressing, assisting in the activity, and providing feedback for the activity.

This listening exercise (Predicting Bingo) required the students to predict, based on the title (The Earth Without Humans), what the future would be like without the intervention of humans. Based on this, they had to draw a tic tac toe grid in their notebooks in which they had to write a topic-related word in each of the spaces in the grid that they thought it would be mentioned in the recording. While listening, they had to cross out the words the recording mentioned and that they had in their grid. The students who crossed three words in line, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, were the winners. This listening exercise was contextualized in the students’ previous knowledge by integrating their previous knowledge from home, school or community with the current activity.

There are some modifications that can be carried out in order to include additional opportunities for students-students dialogue in this listening exercise. For instance, students can discuss in pairs or trios how the future without humans would be like before listening to the track and write their predicted vocabulary in their grids. Another additional opportunity would be after the listening exercise. Students could use the vocabulary in their grids to talk about the lesson topic with a different classmate. All in all, this listening exercise was useful for students to practice their listening skills. This listening activity was appropriate to the students’ level of English, and also provided them with the opportunity to work on their listening skills more intensely since they had to identify specific vocabulary (their predicted vocabulary) in the track.

The comments provided by my colleague generated ideas which suggested changes in order to improve my class. These suggestions were directed to the post stage of the class. After having students checked the words they cross out in their tic tac toe grid, they could have used them either to have a speaking activity (talk about the future without humans), or a writing exercise (write some sentences or a short paragraph with the words in the tic tac toe grid).

To come to the point, I believe that this activity promoted a good joint product. The students and I worked together to achieve an objective: develop the students’ listening skills. Besides the class, what I liked of this peer observation is that teachers can be greatly benefited from receiving comments and suggestions for remedial work for future classes.

Classroom Observation

Lesson Plan

Pre-listening

Video/sound track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikkYkc1E-WM

Pre-listening Menu:

1. Use prompt questions to introduce the topic, elicit vocabulary and get the students’ attention.

                      I.        What would the future be like without humans?

                    II.        What changes would there be?

                   III.        What would cities look like?

2. Prediction bingo: Ask students to draw a 9 square grid and predict 9 words that might be included in the recording – example o the board.

While-listening

While-listening Menu:

1. Students listen to the recording and cross out the words mentioned in the recording that match their 9 square grid items.

Post-listening

Post-listening Menu:

After listening to the recording, the students’ predicted words are checked in class.

Video

Activity 4_Situated Learning

Situated Learning_Reflection

A First Look into Situated Learning

By Sergio Méndez

The implementation of traditional teaching methods might cloud the view of other factors that influence the learning processes. It is important to consider different perspectives concerning learning, which can be beneficial for learners and educators. Enhancing social relationships in learning communities can improve the way knowledge and skills are enhanced by the learners. The situated learning theory provides an insight into what these advantages might be and what it is required in order to achieve social learning.

According to Smith (1999), learning is not only acquiring structures or models as part of the learning process. Learners have to participate in different social structures that are based on certain schemes. These structures are found in social interactions which lead to social learning. Smith refers to such interactions as participation in a community of practice. A community of practice is a learning environment where students can gain knowledge of something new by observing the older members’ behavior and interacting with them.

In addition, Smith (1999) suggests that people in a social environment learn by observing others’ behavior. The social interactions also provide individuals with cognitive processes by observing and interacting with older members in a group. These interactions and cognitive processes allow learners perceive consequences of others’ actions. These social interactions function not only as an indicative of what can be performed in certain situations, but also as a guide for the newcomers in a group of how to act and what the possible consequences of these actions might be.

Furthermore, Smith (1999) states that there are some disadvantages individual learning. He argues that individual learning can become arduous and dangerous. In other words, individual learning is self-centered with little or no social learning benefits.  Nevertheless, he adds, that observation of human behavior is the key to decode the information transmitted in such behaviors and build new behaviors which would guide further actions.

Smith (1999) explains that combining remembering and participating is a key behavioral aspect for enhancing social learning. He defines this combination as rehearsal. He describes this rehearsal as the self regulating measure of one’s behavior. In this process, individuals observe their own behavior and compare it to their own cognitive representation in order to prepare themselves for being part of a larger group. With this, Smith (1999) recognizes that learning goes beyond the bare acquisition of knowledge. It is a process of social participation, and its development is extensively influenced by the nature of such social interaction.

Smith (1999) believes that being involved in learning societies is unavoidable for learners. He notes that full participation of newcomer learners in social cultural practices of a community improves their knowledge and skills. Smith (1999) suggests that legitimate peripheral participation allows the opportunity to bring together the new and the old members in a community. He states that activities, identities, artifacts, and communities of knowledge and practice are reinforced by peripheral participation. In accordance with Smith (1999), becoming a full participant in a social-cultural practice engages the learners’ intentions to learn and improves their knowledgeable skills.

So as to be full member in a learning community, Smith (1999) estimates that there are some factors which determine this process. Among these factors are the learners’ identity, their ability to speak, act and improvise in such way that contributes for the community wellbeing. This conveys a full commitment in the process to form a social learning community from both new and old members. The heart of this process is to develop ways to learn, evolve and renew the relations among the social group members and strengthen the relation person-learning.

Smith (2003, 2009), provides a view into the grounds for situated learning. He claims that there are two main assertions concerning this topic. The first states that abstract, general, or knowledge out of context is meaningless. The second suggests that knowledge and learning are located in communities of practice. However, there are some aspects which seem to contradict Smith’s perspective.

For instance, the possibility of learning occurring separate to a specific context or life situation can take place. This does not necessarily mean that neither knowledge nor skill is neither acquired nor or developed. Concerning the second assertion, there is the possibility of a learning community being fragile in terms of relationships among its members. This would discourage the attempts of partaking and contributing in the learning community members. In this case, knowledge is diminished as consequence of the poor interactions among the members in the learning community.

As for how situated learning can potentially benefit my receiving institution and my social service, I agree with Smith (2003, 2009). Social interactions are inherent to a better learning process. As in the process suggested previously, I believe that I am in the position of newcomer trying its way into the social group already established in the academic-administrative department in my receiving institution. Consequently, the relation between both parts has to be strengthened by participating in this social interaction. The outcome of this relation can benefit both parts, I as a social server and an observer of the situation studied in my receiving institution in terms of data collecting and analysis, and the institution by providing it with some suggestions for remedial work concerning the issue which is being dealt.

Reference:

Smith, M. K. (1999) 'The social/situational orientation to learning', the encyclopedia of informal education, Retrieved from www.infed.org/biblio/learning-social.htm, Last updated: December 01, 2011.

Smith, M. K. (2003, 2009) 'Communities of practice', the encyclopedia of informal education, Retrieved from www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm

Further developments

Good evening Ms. Giles and peers,

I have started collecting data related to my SS topic. I have also found that there seems to be two diffrent points of view concerning the way students behave at school and the consequences of this conduct. However, this came out in an iformal conversation with one of my colaborator for my SS at my receiving institution. 

This has provided me with the oportunuty to conduct some interviews and surveys with teachers and authorities in order to reach a better understanding of what is going on. I shall be able to begin with interviews and surveys as soon as I have the principal's authoritation and the teachers' as well.

The information obtained from these interview and surveys might help fill in the gaps between teachers and authorities cencernign the students' behavior and provide possible adjustments to the school's rules.

I will post any other developments.

Thank you for reading.

Sergio

Section 2: Planning a Project_Activity 4: Developing an Action Plan.

ACTION PLAN

 

Statement of Goal(s) and Objectives:

Goal: Analyze the students’ behaviour in the school environment. Objectives: Identify “High Risk” behaviour Provide attendance and punctuality data Provide suspension/expulsion rate

IMPLEMENTATION				EVALUATION
What needs to be done?	By whom?	When?	What resources (human and material) are needed?	What evidence indicates progress?	How and when will that evidence be collected?
Step 1 Collect students’ behaviour reports.	Social server	At the end of the each week	Human resources:  ØSenior high school prefect Ø  Senior high school co-principal Ø  Teachers Materials: Ø  School’s records Ø  Teachers’ records	Ø  Administrative and teaching staff records	How: Ø  By studying the data provided by the school administration and teachers When: Ø  At the end of the each week
Step 2 Gather information (attendance and punctuality) from the school administration and teachers	Social server	At the end of the each week	Human resources: Ø  Senior high school prefect Ø  Senior high school co-principal Ø  Teachers Materials: Ø  School’s students’  records	Ø  Figures based on the school and teachers’ records	How: Ø  By studying the data provided by the school administration and teachers When: Ø  At the end of the each week
Step 3 Gather information (suspension and expulsion) from the school administration	Social server	At the end of the each week	Human resources: Ø  Senior high school prefect Ø  Senior high school co-principal Ø  Teachers Materials: Ø  School’s students’  records Ø  Teachers’ records	Ø  Administrative and teaching staff records	How: Ø  By studying the data provided by the school administration and teachers When: Ø  At the end of each week

The core of my project is the students’ behavior in the school climate. I decided to collect data at the end of each week related to the areas of ‘students’ behavior reports’, ‘suspension and expulsion rate’ and ‘attendance and punctuality rate’. I considered a weekly basis because there are several groups with several students, and also different classes and teachers in my receiving institution. This might generate enough data to process. As for the human resources and materials, I believe that there will not be mayor difficulties. Documents such as attendance lists, from teachers, and the office records of behavior reports, and suspension and expulsion shall not be difficult to retrieve. 

I infer that this project has to do a lot with statistics. It occurs to me that the data generated might highlight some areas for consideration in certain rules concerning attendance and behavior. Still, I shall not allow my perspective to influence the data. Let us see what the data itself has to show.

Thank you for reading. I look forward to reading yours comments.

Yours,

Sergio