Second Term Implementation

September 12th

I have indicated my colleagues the topics we are going to be developing along these three following sessions before second term exams. I have shown them the general contents and the drafts of the learning guides, so, through Virtual Sabana in the forum they are going to tell me how the consider they should be used and how to improve them.

Date	Activity	Purpose
September 12th	6. Two Cities	Students are going to be able to write a descriptive paragraph in which they compare and contrast two cities, by using linking words such as and, but, both and neither.
September 17th	7. Learning guide No. 3: My best friend	Guide Sts on how to elaborate a descriptive paragraph to introduce their best friend.
September 24th	8. My classmates	Students are going to use PN to write a descriptive text about their peers in the English class. They must properly use the simple present tense, likes and dislikes and frequency adverbs and time expressions.
October 1st	9. Tourism & Transport	By writing descriptive paragraphs, Sts will use PN to elaborate a brochure inviting people to know their cities. They will talk about tourism and transport in their city.

September 16th

Today L, W, C R, L G, and even S and JF arrived to class with much of the learning guide solved by themselves. They brought some ideas regarding their towns and the trasport and tourism. They are starting to use the connecting words by themselkves, though this time they do not seem to find the connection between the present simple and describing transport and tourism.

On the contrary, A, Ca C, La and even CM have been absent from classes and their improvements have not been enough. They are not using the strategy and they dedicate no time to practice by themselves. Most Sts were working on their compositions. Most students have already learnt the rhetorical structure and use paragraphs adequately, introducing and concluding the elements that they are going to describe. Grammar continues presenting difficulty but there is much more fluency in the Sts' written discourse.

Some students find it difficult to throw a single idea to be the main of their text, since they think there are several elements to talk about. I tell them they have to consider one main element to develop, JF says 'como un título profe'. And W says, 'like I am selling the product. yes because it is tourism'.

September 20th

I applied the second survey in class last friday Sept 17th. Not all Sts were in class but this time Sts did not ask for translation to respond it. Most of them arrived to class and got it quickly and it just took 15 minutes to complete to all (only 14 Sts were in class). I found some contradictions in their replies, since though most Sts considered PN implementation a very valuable tool to enhnace their writing, some sts pointed that it was very hard and demanding, and that they could do easier with a simpler strategy. Other aspect was that most admitted that to improve many more efforts had to be done by them but did not necessarily found the relationship between their improvements and the strategy. For Isa, for instance, solving most of her tasks has been a very hard exercise since she counts on very short time to practice, but she told me that she felt releived that she did not have to do additional tasks but the final products were simply the learning guide formats.

Most sts find not valuable now to upload their final products into Virtual Sabana, because they feel that they are already communicating clearly through their single mails and postcards, so they find not useful the web.2.0 tools any longer, but, on the contrary, very time consuming for their purposes of writing.

I also found that Andres, who characterized for having the highest proficiency level when we started the course, and who is not very attentive, tends to make many more mistakes in his tasks. He is usually distracted on the web while his peers are solving their writings and he tends to asks for clarifications of topics previously mentioned and even developed.

On the contrary, S, who is very timid has been very concerned about his writing skill, and has been solving most tasks more efficiently. On the other hand, JF, who is the only true beginner in the course since he had studied French and not English at school, has made important improvements along the course but has never been seriously involved with the PN strategy. He just wants to solve the task but is not aware of the communicative purpose behind it. In general, his compositions are very basic in content and grammar rhough he makes efforts to use it appropriately. Believe it or not, his handwriting is an obstacle for me and his peers to understand what he writes.