In general terms the implementation of the teaching unit went very well. I was able to develop the whole teaching unit with a lot more time than that I had planned making some modifications to some activities, adapting it to the situation (one day it was not possible to turn up the volume on the computer, there were not enough photocopies, an activity was not working, students were tired, they wanted to continue investigating, so I gave them extra time time and so on). Students were generally motivated from the beginning of the teaching unit although some children showed more interest in one type of activity than in others.

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I thought that I more or less knew how competent my students were in English. I took it for granted that they would know things like how to spell the colours in English but they some did not. I now know, that in the future I have to prepare language support although they may be basic concepts.

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After implementing the teaching sequence, some of the core competences, content and objectives were accomplished successfully whereas others required more time. The objectives that I should have worked more on were to distinguish the type of invertebrates and to work cooperatively. I saw that one class was not enough for the students to distinguish the different types of invertebrates and some students found it difficult to accept others’ ideas or to accept group decisions. This was not only my sensation but it was also born out by the results of the self and peer assessment rubric that students did at the end of the project. The children are very used to doing this type of rubrics, so they know how to do it. Therefore, I believe that it would be a very good idea to follow the evolution of every child with regards to this topic so as to make them aware of how they work and how they could improve. An activity/dynamic could be done so as to encourage dialogues, debates, etc in order to overcome these difficulties.

Nearly all the students accomplished the other objectives. Most of them were able to use the structures learnt in class, acquired invertebrates’ vocabulary, knew some characteristics of arthropods and were able to experiment with Crello.

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It has to be noted, however, that students were more motivated to create a poster with an innovative tool than to help the explorer. I was not able to create a connection between students and the explorer. I believe that it is because the avatar was a distant and unreal person for them. Although the website Voki is a very good online tool maybe it is not the best tool for this situation. I believe that the story I created, should have taken a different path. They would have needed a closer explorer.  Another reason why I would not use Voki again with 3rd graders is because it is very complicated to understand a person without images or visual explanations, although, in this case, they had the text and the language was adapted to their level.

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Another thing that I missed during the teaching sequence and that I believe affected students’ motivation was not finding out beforehand what they really wanted to know about invertebrates.  To motivate them more perhaps I should have asked them (when planning the teaching sequence) what their interests were, so as to plan it according to their answers.

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The teaching unit had an appropriate level of challenge for students, taking into account that the English level was varied. Except for some special cases, few of them had difficulties in doing the teaching sequence. In order for students to understand the topic better, for instance in the session where why invertebrates are important was introduced, an explanation could have been given before attempting the worksheet, instead of during the activity or after. It could be explained with a presentation using for example Prezi. With a presentation you can introduce the vocabulary and the different explanations easily (one image representing every one of the reasons why invertebrates are important). In this way, students with more English difficulties would have had the possibility to work more independently and understand it better.

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Another way to improve the technical datasheet could have been to give them the opportunity to design visual/schematic explanations using images. Another possibility would have been to let them do the technical datasheet as an oral explanation, making a recording.

In addition, another thing I learnt while doing the teaching sequence is that for young children it is better to do short dynamic activities than long dynamic activities because they get bored and they disconnect easily. So for the next time I will take this into account.  

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The activities carried out as planned but some of them had to be modified whilst being implemented. This includes, changes such as the number of people doing the activity. For instance, an activity that was planned to be done in groups worked out better in pairs so I decided to change it there and then. An example is the reading and worksheet of “Why invertebrates are important for humans?”. It was initially supposed to be done in groups but, in the end, it became a whole class activity because I realized that students would find it a little difficult to understand. They would have needed a more detailed explanation beforehand or have worked on the vocabulary in the text.  In addition, when explaining activities I should have been more precise, giving more examples so that the children did not get lost. For all of these reasons, I also believe that one strong point of mine, as a teacher, is that I was able to adapt and change any activity on the spur of the moment.

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In relation to the groups, they were very well-balanced, they functioned, and in this case the management strategies contributed to the fact. In the end I did not use Class dojo because it was too complicated to use so many strategies, so I decided to create a manual Class dojo instead of doing it online. I gave happy faces when the groups were working well, were speaking in English and were raising their hands to speak. It turned out to be one of the most useful motivational strategies of the teaching sequence. All the techniques used such as the traffic light technique, the “Class-class” strategy, the wheel decide, was very useful and the children loved them. Nonetheless, I realized that I have to be careful not to use so many classroom strategies in the same class and even more when they are new to them because they get too excited and also because it is too much for the teacher (a lot of things to do at the same time).

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I prepared the English language classroom management with great thought before each class. I thought of possible questions and answers and I checked how difficult words were pronounced. Nevertheless, I would say that I have to keep working on and improving my English.

However, one strong point of the teaching sequence was that students had many opportunities to talk. The language support that I designed worked very well and children loved it, but the only thing I found is that I could have explained the scaffolding more slowly and exemplify it more than one time with the whole class. As it was the first time they had used this type of language support, they did not know how it worked. At the beginning they had a few problems, but once they understood how it worked they asked for the scaffolding in every class to help them to speak in English. They were very enthusiastic and wanted to participate a lot.  For another teaching sequence I will add more scaffolding because during the class I realized that I had not thought about all the possible situations where students want to be able to speak in English.

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With regards to English I also have seen how difficult it is to deal with the different levels of English in a class. I thought I was doing my best and that some scaffolding was enough, but I discovered that although they work in groups, this is not the solution for those students who have difficulties. You have to go beyond that, for example give visual explanation and mind maps before reading the text, to make it easier for them to understand.

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One of the student’s favourite parts of the project was when they had to create the poster. They loved the online web because they felt like real designers, creating the poster they wanted. The children had very original ideas and at the end of the session they used perfectly the checklist I gave them perfectly well. It is also true that this could not have been done by me alone because you need a lot of time to prepare computers, connect them to the website and so on. In this case you need fast computers and a good internet connection, as well as, more than one class to do it (planned for one session). In addition, although I created the instructions to do it all together I saw that it did not work at all so for the other class I decided to change the dynamic and to explain first how the online website worked and then gave them the computers. Therefore, the objective of experimenting with an innovative tool was accomplished.

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With respect to the planned timing, if I compare it with the Practicum IV (previous practicum), there has been an improvement. Nonetheless, I need to keep working on this area because there were activities impossible to do in such a short time. For instance, 20 minutes for every technical datasheet and one class to create the poster with the website was clearly not enough and was made longer.

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Concerning assessment, while doing the teaching sequence I realized that students have to be conscious of what they are learning and what they do not know, giving them the opportunity to be the drivers of their own learning so as they can concentrate on what they have to learn. Hence, although in the teaching sequence there are opportunities for this (e.g. self and peer assessment rubric) assessment has to be more present. Therefore, to implement the teaching sequence I would create short activities, short routines such as some questions before leaving the class. With this students will be able to be more aware of what they know and what they do not know.

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Finally, with regards to the adaptability of activities, as has been said before, students did not find the activities difficult. They were able to work autonomously, which is a strong point of this teaching sequence.  In addition,  with Crello I discovered that having computers is a very good opportunity for those students who have more difficulties, so maybe I could give them the chance to choose whether they want to do some activities on paper or online.

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To sum up, some of the things I have learnt working with the middle students of Primary Education, is that you should never take anything for granted, that students can always talk more in English, that assessment is fundamental to children’s progress, that you will always have to change what you have planned and that in every situation your teaching sequence will be different.