Observing in local classrooms

On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, I had the opportunity to visit two more schools to observe a few English classes. The first school was in a rural community on the outskirts of El Sauce known as Rio Grande. The teacher greeted me in English and was eager to have me as a guest in his classroom. The first class I observed was taking a quiz on a verb tense they had learned previously. Many of them struggled with the directions and understanding what to do. The kids were free to leave when the quiz was finished, and the teacher marked them. Unfortunately, his English was not the greatest, and he was marking some of them incorrectly. 

Afterwards, the students had physical education, and Javier and I played volleyball with them. Their net was a single rope tied between two trees, and the teacher asked me to help him explain the rules of volleyball as he did not know them. It was a close match, but my team pulled through in the end for a win. The kids were very well-coordinated and athletic - not to mention very competitive. They also allowed kicking the ball up as an option (being big soccer players). 

During the second class I visited, the class was learning about using the word "too" vs "very." The teacher asked me to help explain it, so I facilitated the lesson as he watched. He had a guide to teach the material, but as I mentioned before, his English was not very strong, so he struggled teaching it to the kids. Later, I would find out that this is very common amongst English teachers in the schools (especially the rural ones). This teacher actually had better English language skills than many others that attended my workshop. 

On Tuesday night, I taught my first English class to a group of adults in the community. The regular teacher, Sean, was back home in the United States for a few weeks, so I took over the class for the week. It was a level 2/3 class with a wide range of abilities. The focus of the class is on speaking, and there are many presentations. The Enlace group designed a workbook for each of the 3 levels including grammar, vocabulary, and readings for the students to memorize. I found that many of them could memorize the information well but then had trouble applying it in conversation or their presentations. I incorporated a game into the lesson where the students practiced identifying various comparative adjectives as well as a conversation about the role of women in their country. 

During the spare time I had left, I was working on developing my presentation for the workshops I would be teaching later that week. The more experience I got observing in classrooms and seeing how English is taught, the better I could design the activities for the teachers to use in their classrooms. Every evening, I also had the opportunity to practice my Spanish with my host family as I listened to Sara and Juan Carlos tell me all about Nicaraguan culture, history, and traditions after dinner. Sara is a doctor who has a private practice and pharmacy, and she is a great cook!  Juan Carlos has a degree in sustainable agriculture and is taking over as coordinator of the Enlace Project. I also developed a bond with their son, Jose Carlos, who is currently in 6th grade. He enjoyed telling me all about what he was learning in school, asking me questions about what life was like in America, and showing me fun video games he plays. He is a very bright young boy who attended a Math Olympiads competition in the capital, Managua, on Monday and will be competing in some sort of speaking competition next week. Maria Gabriela, their teenage daughter, loves American music, especially One Direction, and hanging out with her friends. Juan Carlos, Maria Gabriela, and Jose Carlos all take English classes in the city of Leon on Saturdays. They enjoyed practicing their English with me and learning new words as well. It was a great opportunity for us to learn from one another!

On Wednesday of last week, I headed to Jonathan Gonzalez Institute, a high school in El Sauce, to observe two different teachers. The first one spoke English well and had a great rapport with the students. I could tell he had clear expectations and used humor with them to get them interested in learning the language. I got to see 3 different classes and talk to some of the kids as they were working. After heading home for lunch, I went back to observe another two classes by a different teacher. She enjoyed having me talk to the kids in English and tell them all about why I was there. She spoke English fairly well, but we still needed Javier to do some translating! Most of what I observed in the classrooms I was in was direct instruction of grammar skills on the whiteboard, students copying sentences into their journals, and some independent practice if time. In general, about 50-60% of the kids completed their homework, and fewer than that were willing to participate in class. To me, the biggest area for improvement is to have the kids speaking more English (even if it's just repeating vocabulary words or sentences) as they didn't seem to be doing much of that. It was more listening and writing. This was a focus of my workshop with the teachers - along with using dynamic activities to get the kids interested in learning the language more. Some were internally motivated and engaged, but most were not.

I headed back to the office for a few hours to work on finalizing everything for the workshop. Then, I had English class again, where I spent some time teaching the difference between auxiliary verbs such as "must," "can," "might," etc. I enjoyed listening to the students' presentations they had prepared.