The week before holidays!

I am going to share some of the activities I did in my social service the week before holidays. During that week I had some children in extra help, I helped them with some grammar points they had problems with. It was a little bit crazy because they came from different classes and with different problems so it was hard for me to keep them quiet but in the end I think it was useful for them, according to their teachers. I also had extra help sessions with adults, that is much easier ,however, it becomes difficult when I have too many students from different levels. Ss are always grateful to receive this kind of personalized help. I kept on teaching the conversation course and at the same time I had the presentations or sessions to help learners develop their communicative skills, I am teaching them strategies to improve their speaking and their writing skills. This presentations are no doubt very useful since most learners are not able to speak or write effectively.  I am pleased because most of the students from the conversation course are attending the presentations and they are improving a lot.

I kept on making material for all courses. this activity is really helpful since it helps teachers to cue more effectively in their classes and students benefit from it to a great extent. I also organized and planned the conversation course classes as well as the presentations.

Taking Action!

ACTION PLAN

Statement of Goal(s) and Objectives:

Prepare students to engage in conversations naturally and help learners develop their writing skills.

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 Organize courses or sessions to teach students conversation and writing strategies.	The coordinator and the teacher.	Mondays , Wednesday and Fridays  from 4 to 5 pm	Books, websites, the principal	Students’ reaction to the content and the sessions in general.	At the end of the sessions or course through a questionnaire
Step 2 Promote the courses or sessions among learners and encourage them to participate.	The principal, the coordinator, the administrative staff and the teachers.	Everyday	Bulletin board, leaflets, promoters	Number of learners attending the sessions.	At the end of every session. Considering the attendance.
Step 3 Carry out sessions to teach learners conversation and writing strategies.	The teacher	Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.	Laptop, suitable TV, Posters	Students’ performance	During every session, observing learners and monitoring their performance.
Step 4 Make a systematic analysis of students’ progress.	The coordinator, the principal and the teacher.	Once a week.	Tests, portfolio	Test results, portfolios review	Once a month, recording and analysing students results
Step 5 Final outcomes’ evaluation.	The coordinator, the principal and the teacher.	At the very end of the sessions.	Tests, the principal and/or the coordinator’s criteria	Final evaluations, learners’ satisfaction on the program.	At the very end of the program, evaluating learners and the program in general.

Adapted from the World View Action Plan (University of North Carolina)

To decide on how to make my action plan I took into accounts the needs analysis I had carried out in advance to know what needed to be done. I talked about my action plan with the principal and the coordinator and we agreed on an appropriate schedule to carry it out. We interviewed the teachers to know about the learners they thought needed to attend these sessions. However, I think it is absolutely necessary to promote the sessions among learners so that most of them benefit from this program, this is the reason why I decided to include the promotion of the program among students. Organization and planning are really important so as to avoid improvisation. I think a systematic analysis of students’ progress will be very useful to make any necessary change to the sessions and to be able to give learners appropriate feedback. The final outcomes’ evaluation will help us determine whether the program’s goal was achieved or not.

Enjoying The Experience!

This week was kind of different since I began with my presentations. This is something I've always wanted to do since the presentations are of a great help for learners and there was no one to carry them out. I had two sessions this week, both on learning strategies. I focused on learning strategies for reading comprehension and for increasing lexis. The students who attended the sessions were very excited and grateful for having this kind of presentations since it is something they rarely learn in class. I hope to have more students for next week sessions. the coordinator and I are promoting  these useful presentations among learners. For next week I'm planning to present some basic strategies to complete a written task.

Making progress!

I had a nice time in my social service this week. It was really rewarding to help a group of children prepare a project for their class. They got really excited and had a great time together, these are the kinds of experiences in life that will always remain as nice and pleasant memories. The students I am helping to improve their conversational skills have made a lot of progress and they are getting others to join the club. It is quite rewarding to see them making progress and participating actively in the tasks. I keep on checking the material we currently have for all courses and making appropriate cues and visuals so that teachers can use them in their classes to get better outcomes. I'll probably start with my presentations next week. I am very excited about that. Some of the topics of my presentations are learning strategies, writing strategies, reading strategies, phonology and so on.