Ripoto

Table of content :

· Acknowledgement

· Dedication

· Introduction

· The Observation Phase

· The teaching experience

1. The alternate phase

2. The full-Time phase

3. Some encountered pedagogical problems with experts suggestions

· Conclusion

· bibliography

· Appendices

I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor Mrs. Bouguebs Radia for her continuous support, guidance, and encouragement.

I would like also to convey my special thanks to my training teacher Mrs. Debbache Sabah for her infinite help, assistance and mentoring.

I would like to dedicate this modest work to:

Memory my UNFORGETABL ever, my GRANDMOTHER, she prayed for my success from the first day I entered the school till the last day of her life….

My PARENTS and their non-lasting encouragement through my whole study path…and All my family.

My older brother “Saleh” who was all, a father, a mother, and the whole world to me, he was the reason of what I become ever… thanks a lot brother…

My best Friend “Zahoua Ben Hebbadj” for her non-lasting support and encouragement in all my years in the ENSC…

My friends Fariza, Lamine, Zaki, Hamza, Walid, Adel Bouchama, Radhouane, for all their helpful pieces of advice, support, and guidance…

My classmates Ahlem, Wafaa, Fati, bouchera, Yousra, and Leila…..

My friends who left the ENSC Zoubeyr, Aissa, Messoud Lagraa, Soufiane, Ahmed, Bilel Churfi, Amirouche, and Nasro and for all their help.

To all my other friends: Khaled, Kheiro, Adel Rachrach, Amine, Djalel, Djimi, and Fouzi…..

My sincere gratitude to my Surpervisor “Mme Bouguebs Radia” and my Training teacher “Mme Debbache Sabah”…..

My ENSC teachers; Mme Bouguebs, Mme Ben Yahia, Mme koussa, Mr Nouioua, Mr Djamaa, Mr Boudarsa, Mr Smiha, Mr Boughrarra, Mr Agabou, Mr ferrani, Ms Benhamlaoui, Mr Azoui, and Mme Touati Wissem...

And All who made a little difference through my study path……… Thank you All.

Introduction

The ENSC, a specialized educational institution, attempts to prepare competent teachers through a theoretical instruction of four to five years and, ultimately, ends with a practical training. This latter is meant to help the trainees get gradually accustomed to the environment of teaching and learning. It is an opportunity for ENS' students to put all their theoretical knowledge about the field of education into practice. Following the instructions that are given by their tutors and training teachers, the trainees are supposed to go through a careful process of acquiring the teaching skills effectively. The training period is made up of three major phases: the Observation, the Alternate, and the Full-time Training Phases.

The first step we, trainees, have to undergo is the general observation. The host school is to be visited for the first time for the sole purpose of gathering information about it. Unfortunately, some rather unpleasant events happened in the morning of our first Monday in the school. Mainly, this was because the school was on strike. Despite the fact that our first impression about the host school was negative, teachers were happily welcoming us. Nevertheless, we were given some hope to face the difficulties.

The school we were directed to was “les Frères Lekhal” secondary school in Zayadia, Constantine that was inaugurated in 1990.It is composed of one huge block and a small block. The main block is made up of two floors. It is composed of twenty-four (24) classrooms, a computing room, six (6) laboratories, and a library. The small block includes the administration and an amphitheater. However, there is no refectory, and no sport hall. In addition, the playground is so risky for pupils to play in. (see appendix n^o1)

Concerning the staff, the school has the headmaster, the deputy head, the general supervisor, and all the administration representatives. There are fifty-one (51) teachers, thirty-four (34) of whom are women, and four of them are English teachers. Regarding the number of pupils, there are 715, 470 of whom are girls. During our brief time in the school, we noticed that discipline is handled with difficulties; the rate of absences among both students and teachers is medium (see appendix n^o1).

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."(Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, with Annotations, 1841-1844)

The Practical Training is one of the marvelous experiments that the teachers' training school of Constantine offers us as fifth year students. This report is to shed light on the main three phases of our training experience. First, the Observation phase is devoted to the analysis of the observation grid, which includes the warm-up, classroom management and interaction, and lesson presentation (see appendix n^o2). Moreover, The Alternate phase and the full-time phase are of vital opportunity for the trainees to engage with the teaching experience and put in practice all the theoretical knowledge we hold from the previous phase. The last part of this report, however, some encountered pedagogical problems with their relevant suggestions according to some experts are to be highlighted.

the Observation Phase

Observation Phase is the first step in our training. It lasts for about four weeks. This phase is made up of two kinds of observation, general observation and classroom observation. The Observation phase, as trainees, is just like a warm up that paves the way to become familiar with the real atmosphere of our future job. To facilitate and guide our observation, we have been provided with an observation grid (see appendix n :…). This last, covers all aspects of the classroom: the warm-up, classroom interaction, lesson presentation and evaluation of the teaching process.

On one hand, the general observation helps us to be familiar with the environment into which we will be integrated during the training period. It consists of observing pupils, teachers, human resources, and the available educational staff. On the other hand, the specific Observation allows the trainees to focus their attention on particular aspects of the teaching/learning process, such as classroom interactions, learning strategies, different teaching techniques used by the training teacher, and different evaluation procedures.

1. Analysis of the observation grid:

1.1 Warm-up:

Every lesson starts with warm up. The "Warm up" or "Breaking the ice" is an activity done by the teacher to prepare learners psychologically to be fully involved in the lesson and highly motivated. The time allocated for it is from five to ten minutes. The warm – up activity takes different forms; it can be a game, a video, a song, or a picture. In his book How to Teach English (1998, p.25), Harmer explained that the teacher should engage pupils emotionally with the lesson so that to arise their interests, therefore, warming them up. He added that different activities and materials can be used to engage students. These include games, music, discussions, stimulating pictures, dramatic stories, and amusing anecdotes. A warm up can be also a revision of the previous lesson.

Our training teacher attracts her pupils’ attention using different ways, such as greeting them saying "Good morning" or "Good afternoon," asking them to take their seats or shouting trying to calm them down. Moreover, our training teacher warms up her pupils’ usually through a revision or a reminder of the previous lesson, asking general questions that guide them to collect enough information about the lesson, and giving real situation examples that motivate the learners to participate and give their own examples.

1.2 Interaction and motivation

It has been argued that in order for the lesson to be successful, learners should be motivated. For that, classroom motivation takes place when the teacher encourages his/her leaners, makes them ready to participate and to interact by giving them examples they are acquainted with. Our training teacher presents learners with a newspaper advice column in which a leaner asks a psychologist for help to solve her problem. As teenagers, learners like the idea because most of them like to discuss their problems with someone who does not know them, in order to avoid embarrassment. Our training teacher gives freedom to all learners to discuss their opinions about the topic. She deals with negative behaviours in a cold blood and calm, for example when someone does something wrong she asks him/her to share what he/she has with the class. Moreover, sometimes she frightens them by giving bad marks.

2. Lesson Presentation:

Lesson Presentation is the second step in the lesson's progress. A lesson is "a type of organized social event that occurs in virtually all cultures. A lesson in different places may vary in topic, time, place, atmosphere, methodology and materials; but they all, essentially, are concerned with learning as their main objective, involve the participation of learner(s) and teacher(s), and are limited and pre-scheduled as regards time, place and membership." (Ur, 1996, p.213)

Lesson Presentation, which takes more time than the warm up, is related to the way the teacher presents and implements the different tasks and activities related to his/her lesson. After warming up his learners, the teacher uses different ways to introduce the new topic. Harmer (2001) points that the main role for teachers to perform is that of organizing students to do a diversity of activities; this often involves giving the students information, telling them how they are going to do the activity. Accordingly, our training teacher uses a diversity of activities and enhances learners’ comprehension, explains clearly for her pupils the instructions, and gives examples related to learners’ interests in order to engage them more in the activities.

Thus, a teacher is required to establish a good atmosphere or learning context to present the lesson appropriately by keeping teacher/learner interaction alive. During my observation, I have noticed that the training teacher moves smoothly and gradually from what is simple to what is complex and from what is familiar to what is unfamiliar. This seemed to facilitate learner's understanding of the lesson; she gives real situation examples to make them understand the lesson easily.

Moreover, our training teacher always stimulates her pupils to enrich the lesson with different techniques. For instance, she asks her pupils to read the questions before they answer. She sometimes helps them, in answering questions, by giving some clues. She also asks them to give their opinions, such as when she asks, “Is journalism important?” Dictionary is a compulsory tool for each pupil because pupils are always asked to look for the difficult words by themselves.

The teacher, while presenting his/her lesson, makes use of pedagogical materials that are helpful and necessary for the success of the teaching-learning situation. Concerning our training teacher, she focuses on the textbook but not blindly, rather she uses extra sources and brings new tasks, keeping the same objectives; our training teacher provides the pupils with a printed-paper about a newspaper interview that serves the lesson objectives. She also makes a good use of the blackboard.

3. Evaluation of the teaching process:

One of the important roles of the teacher is evaluating the information acquired by learners since learning without constant assessment would be fruitless. The teacher should assess to what extent the objectives of the lesson have been achieved. After finishing the presentation of the lesson, the teacher may use different ways to check pupils’ understanding. This may take the form of feedback where learners’ mistakes are corrected so that they will be avoided next times. Self-assessment and peer-to-peer assessment are effective ways that enable pupils to reinforce what is true, and get rid of what is wrong. When asking questions, our training teacher helps pupils to evaluate their answers by saying for instance: “are you sure”, “only this!” In addition, the teacher may direct questions to other pupils saying: “what do you think…? What about you…?” Moreover, checking from time to time by saying: have you understood?

To check learners’ assimilation, the training teacher gives them tasks and different activities. By doing so, she makes sure they have grasped the lesson taught. She also gives them homework to assess their understanding. In fact, assessing learners' progress should never be abandoned. This has been clearly stated by Harmer (2001) that "good teacher managers need to assess how well their students are progressing. This can be done through a variety of measures including homework assignments, speaking activities, and frequent small progress tests. Good teachers keep a record of their students’ achievements to see when teaching and learning has or has not been successful".(p.22)

To sum up, the Observation Phase is really a very important and helpful step in the practical training, through which we discover different secrets of the teaching-learning process. This phase is useful to introduce and initiate us, as trainees, to our profession. In addition, it permits us to be in a direct contact with the classroom atmosphere. Within the classroom atmosphere, we learn many things and benefit from the experience of the training teacher.

The teaching experience

This section’s aim is not only testing the information and techniques acquired during the observation phase but also putting the trainees in a direct contact with a real teaching context including; the preparation of the pedagogical cards, the arrangement of the required materials, and finally the organization of the teaching procedure. I chose these lessons for two simple reasons; first it was my first contact with real teaching experience after tiring years of study. Moreover, it was that day I studied for, it was my first step for my future career. The second one was my final presentation, which was an unforgettable day. Especially when I finished the lesson, I wished them success and a happy holiday, they applause for me and wished a good luck to me and to all my colleagues.

1. The Alternate Phase:

The second stage of the practical training is the Alternate Phase. It aims at embarking the trainees in the field of teaching. This phase helps the trainees to get rid of fear, hesitation, and shyness by gradually involving them in the learning tasks before reaching the full-time phase. Hence, the trainees prepare teaching cards and present lessons under the supervision of the training teacher and sometimes the tutor.

Our teaching experience begins with that phase. Unfortunately, we, trainees, were not lucky because of the strike, and each one of us presents just once in that phase. However, it was a good start for us to get rid from hesitation and stress.

My first and only lesson in the Alternate phase was with first year literature class, which is a very noisy and lazy class. Yet, on that day, they came just nine girls. Even the lesson was not that difficult, which was about teaching listening and speaking skills (see the appendix n^o3), learners were sleepy, and there was no participation. I felt myself talking Chinese with the exception of two or three pupils who were participating and following the lesson enjoyably. Thus, I lose my motivation mainly because I did not succeed to make them all participate that was due to time management problem. The lesson was about tests and exams stress. For the warm up I showed them pictures in order to anticipate what the lesson would be about. At first, they found some difficulties but later they recognized what the topic was about. To realize that, I helped them by asking some questions and giving some clues, such as “what you don’t like most in study”, “why do you get bad marks in the exams”...etc.

I started my lesson presentation by reading an advice column from the textbook (see appendix n^o4), in which a student asks a psychologist to help her better her marks and avoid this stress and fear before having any test or exam. Trainees and I together discussed the difficult words together, and explained the content of this advice column. Thereafter, I wrote the first activity on the board. I provided them with four comprehension questions. When they answered, their answers were right in term of content and wrong in term of grammar.

The second task was a fill in the gaps activity. I chose a passage from the text and took out the words that had relation with the lesson. I read once, and then I gave them the task papers. After that they were asked to listen carefully again and then complete with the missing words. The task was better than the first one; they were motivated to do the activity. The rest of the lesson was continued by my colleague, and was about teaching reading and writing skills.

My teaching experience in the alternate phase was an opportunity for me to get more familiar with my future job and to remedy the deficiencies I expected to display; even it was just one lesson. On one hand, it was shocking because of the strike that ruins our chance to benefit the maximum from this phase. I was not motivated because just nine of thirty learners come who were not interested at all. On the other hand, it helps us to know how to make my own lesson plans, how to manage time inside the classroom and above all how to interact with learners. My experience during this phase paved the way for the next step, which is the full-time training phase.

2. The Full Time Phase:

The full time phase is the final stage in the practical training. After being part of the teaching environment in the alternate phase, the trainees take full responsibility of the teaching/learning situation in the full time phase. The latter, lasts for two weeks (15 days), during which the trainees act as real teachers who are responsible for a group of pupils with different levels and perceptions. The role of the training teacher is just to observe what we do and highlights the positive and negative points of our presentations. At this stage, the trainees entirely hold the teaching situation, making use of their previous theoretical knowledge and the one acquired in the two preceding phases of the training. They teach different types of lessons with different levels and classes.

My fifteen days were halted by an unfortunate event, in which I felt sick for all the second week of my training. However, my own experience during the full-time phase was a good and an effective one in terms of progression and development. Because when I came back, my supervisor and my training teacher gave me an opportunity to make up some lessons that I lost. Thus, I added two other interesting presentations to the previous ones.

My first experience was not that successful because I lacked more chances to engage with learners in the previous phase. However, after that I started to get more acquainted with the process of teaching by observing my colleagues and taking the teacher’s critics and notes about our presentations into consideration. Nevertheless, I got the opportunity to guard during the exams and correct the exam papers later.

My excitement began when I get back my full health state. In that day, I presented with two different classes. The first presentation was with the ASL₁ (literature stream) class (see appendix n°3) I made a kind of revision about the ‘if’ conditional type two, in which I provided the learners with two different tasks that were not included in the textbook. First I warmed up them by asking questions that follow the rule of the ‘if’ conditional type two, such as “what would you do if you were a boy?” for girls, and “what would you do if you were a girl?” for boys. Girls were more motivated than boys, and they gave good examples, as Aicha said: “if I were a boy, I would travel to many countries.”Then, I asked them to write some examples on the white board in order to correct them together. After that, some learners deduce the rule and we wrote it together on the board.

Second, before providing the learners with the first task, I asked them to give their own example using the rule to help them construct structured and correct sentences. Yet some wrote wrong sentences and some wrote correct ones. When they finish writing the rule and the examples on their copybooks, I gave them the activity number one (see appendix n^o4). Most of them were motivated and they gave a good atmosphere to the classroom. At last, I gave them a “say it in writing” task, in which I asked, “What would you do if you become a millionaire?”

The second lesson was with the first year scientific stream (ASS₁), in which I presented the ‘if’ conditional type two in the sequence “stop and consider,” “reminder” in “back to nature,” unit five (5) p.153 in the textbook “At the crossroads” . As with the literary stream class, I started my lesson by asking learners the same question, yet the reaction was better than the first one. Learners of the scientific stream were quickly engaged in the lesson and helped me a lot to follow my lesson plan easily (see appendix n^o3). Therefore, I felt that the lesson would be much better because almost all the learners were participating. After, I asked “Malak” to write the date, I wrote the title and number of the unit, the sequence and the title of the lesson that was anticipated by learners. Then, I asked “Selma,” “Noufel,” “Rania,” and “Lina” to write their examples on the white board in order to deduce the rule of ‘if” conditional type two. “Malak” was the first to deduce the rule, yet I gave her mates the chance to participate and share their answers, and check their understanding.

The first activity was the same of the literary stream (see appendix n^o 5). Learners were highly interested and motivated to answer; I gave them ten (10) minutes for that. The ten minutes finished, almost all the learners wanted to write their answers on the white board. Indeed, they had the opportunity to share their answers with their peers but just five answers were written and then revised from mistakes. Finally, I asked them to write the answers on their copybooks in order to move quickly to the last task.

The second task was “Say it in writing” from the textbook p.153 (see appendix n^o5). Learners were instructed to write full sentences from the given cues putting in mind the ‘if’ conditional type two. To ease the task for them, they were asked to imagine themselves in a higher position-prime minister- in order to make decisions that preserve the environment clean and healthy. After they finished, they were asked to read them to their classmates. The task was really a successful one; learner were interacting and discussing their answers in a good way.

When the lesson finished, I was greatly satisfied with my work. I felt that I did something good and completely different from the previous time. If the same lesson is to be presented to different classes, it would be better not to use the same plan; but rather change some or all the elements according to the learners level, interests, likes and dislikes. Thus, I waited until all the pupils left the room, and then I looked at my training teacher’s eyes searching for a sign of satisfaction. Although, she knew that I was waiting for her comments she kept talking to my colleagues and suddenly looked at me with a smiling face full of satisfaction. After that, she said that the lesson was better than the previous one and that there was an obvious progression in my performance. In fact, her words were too motivating and inspired me to do my best in my future career. I was so happy to hear her compliments. However, there were also some critics, such as when I did not check some spelling mistakes on the white board. Moreover, I did not manage well the literary stream class unlike the scientific stream one. All in All, I was so satisfied and glade to have such an exciting experience.

The full-time training was an experience from which we, future teachers, benefited a lot. Personally, I enjoyed being part of the teaching environment and playing the role of a real teacher for the 1^st time in my career. I performed all the tasks of a real teacher. I prepared and presented lessons, interacted with the pupils, managed the time and observed my colleagues when they presented their lessons. Despite the fact that my presentations were not all a success, I learnt many things during this experience. I learnt to be active, to resist the pressure, and to cope with any new or unexpected teaching situation. More importantly, I learnt to overcome my fear, shyness and to believe in myself.

3. Encountered Pedagogical Problems and Suggested Solutions according to some experts:

Through our journey to “les frerres Lekhal” school, I, as a trainee teacher, observed two noticeable pedagogical shortcomings. The first factor that got my attention was discipline. The classes and all the school are always in a messy and chaotic atmosphere. Learners respect neither to their teachers nor to the administrative staff. Unfortunately, sometime I felt I am in stadium supporting a football team. The second factor was that of the overcrowded classes and class management. Our training teacher was not just a teacher, but also a fighter. Forty (40) learners, in very small classes, it was a difficult task for the teacher to control them all and keep order and management even she was a strict teacher.

These two factors hindered me to adapt easily with the atmosphere of that school. Especially, when my colleagues and I witnessed some bad behaviours, as when a learner threw a cigarette on his classmate’s jacket. Another shocking behaviour was that of a girl who broke down the white board and so on so forth.

To confine these pedagogical shortcomings, experts have suggested some solutions. Managing the learning environment is both a major responsibility and an on-going concern for every teacher, even those with years of experience (Good & Brophy, 2002). Viewed broadly, Bothmer (2003) and Nations & Boyett (2002) pointed that Whatever the arrangement a teacher choose, it should help learners to focus on learning tasks as much as possible and minimize the chances of distractions. Beyond these basic principles, however, the “best” arrangement depends on what your students need and on the kind of teaching that you prefer and feel able to provide.

Some room arrangements depend significantly on the grade level or subject area of the class. If you teach in elementary school, for example, you may need to think about where students can keep their daily belongings, such as coats and lunches. In some schools, these can be kept outside the classroom—but not in all schools. Some subjects and grade levels, furthermore, lend themselves especially well to small group interaction, in which case you might prefer not to seat students in rows, but around several small-group tables or work areas. The latter arrangement is sometimes preferred by elementary teachers, but is also useful in high schools wherever students need lots of counter space, as in some shops courses, or wherever they need to interact, as in English as a Second Language courses (McCafferty, Jacobs, & Iddings, 2006).

Discipline is another major factor that should be controlled by novice teachers. In this respect, According to Morrish (2011) the teacher needs to plan how they want their students to behave and directly teach them how to behave. Rather than administering punishments have the student repeat the behavior until they have done it correctly. Moreover, the teacher should use consequences that are designed to help students learn, such as improvement plans.

To conclude, teachers need to control any unexpected behaviour of learners. Learners need to be taught how to behave inside the classroom. Nevertheless, novice teachers should move students toward greater independence and offer them more choices as they show they are capable of handling them. Finally, during this phase, teachers train their students to accept adult authority and comply with it automatically Morrish (2011, p 82).

Through our journey to “les frerres Lekhal” school, I, as a trainee teacher, observed two noticeable pedagogical shortcomings. The first factor that got my attention was discipline. The classes and all the school are always in a messy and chaotic atmosphere. Learners respect neither to their teachers nor to the administrative staff. Unfortunately, sometime I felt I am in stadium supporting a football team. The second factor was that of the overcrowded classes and class management. Our training teacher was not just a teacher, but also a fighter. Forty (40) learners, in very small classes, it was a difficult task for the teacher to control and keep order and management even she was a strict teacher.

These two factors hindered me to adapt easily with the atmosphere of that school. Especially, when my colleagues and I witnessed some bad behaviour, as when a learner threw a cigarette on his classmate’s jacket. Another shocking behaviour was that of a girl who broke down the white board and so on so forth.

Conclusion

During the three phases of the practical training, my colleagues and I had a great opportunity to put into practice all the theoretical knowledge we have acquired before. We planned lessons, prepared teaching cards, designed teaching/testing materials, and took in charge all the administrative duties. Most importantly, the training permitted us to face real situations and deal with them. This will help us get a clear insight into the potential intricacies of our future career. We examined carefully learners’ different behaviours, and we were successful, to some extent, to deal with them. This was due to the beneficial instructions and pieces of advice given by the training teacher and the supervisor.

Finally, the practical training that the Teacher’s Training School provides was of a great importance. Besides, our training teacher helped us a lot with her experience in teaching. Nevertheless, the more enticing was our supervisor’s kind advice and objective feedback, rather than criticism.

I myself benefited a lot of many things in this training, such as adapting to any unexpected situation I may encounter in my future career, and I learnt how to manage time and classroom interaction. These all was because of the sincerely guidance of my supervisor Mrs. Bouguebs and my training teacher Mrs. Debbache.

Bibliography :

Bothmer, S. (2003). Creating the peaceable classroom. Tuscon, AZ: Zephyr Press.

Good, T. L., & Brophy, J. E. (2002). Looking in classrooms (9th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

McCafferty, S., Jacobs, G., & Iddings, S. (Eds.). (2006). Cooperative learning and second language teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Nations, S. & Boyett, S. (2002). So much stuff, so little space: Creating and managing the learner-centered classroom. Gainesville, FL: Maupin House.