Secundaria Pedagogy

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Secondary school in Spain, also known as Escuela Secondaria Obligatorio (ESO), is broken up into slightly different levels than in the U.S. ESO, sometimes referred to as instituto, begins for students who are 12 years old in the 1st year of ESO and goes through 15 year old students in 4th of ESO. There are two optional years at the end of ESO for students pursuing university education that are called bachillerato and lasts for two years.  

Within the public school system students have the option to enroll in bilingual programs starting from 1० (1st) of ESO. These programs are usually integrated into the school system and will entail students taking part of their courseload in English, and the other part in Spanish. While working with the bilingual department of your school you may work in English classes exclusively or in other subjects being taught in English. Additionally some TAs will work in English classes for non-bilingual sections and the role is similar between the two with alterations made to the English level.

Classroom Culture

One favorable aspect of being a teaching assistant as opposed to the main classroom teacher is that you fall in somewhat of a grey area between teacher and peer when it comes to your role in the school. This is in large part due to the fact that your disciplinary role is very small, you are young, and you will mostly be leading “fun” activities. Take advantage of this position, because if your students feel comfortable with you, they will be less afraid of taking (linguistic) risks. Of course, you must balance the inherent approachability of the role of teaching assistant with the need to maintain your professionalism and a classroom conducive to learning for all students. If you are ever unsure if something is appropriate, always check with the mentors or the Commission.

The very first week of school, discuss with your co-teachers how they maintain discipline in the classroom, what rules the students are expected to follow, and the consequences for not following them, and what they envision your role to be within this context. Your own reasons for being here are an important part of being an effective teacher – you chose to apply to this program and were selected after an extraordinarily rigorous selection process, so we already know you are more than capable and that you are motivated to be here. What you might find is that classroom culture in Spain may look different than it does in the United States. These differences can come in the form of student chatter that is very common in Spanish schools, or in the interactions between students and teachers.

lesson planning

Format of a lesson plan

What is most important is that you, as the teacher, identify what your students should take away from the lesson, no matter its difficulty or the level you’re teaching. This will allow you to craft a lesson plan around those learning objectives, will help make your practice more deliberate, and will help you reflect on your teaching. A big part of this is Checking for Understanding. Checking in with your students throughout the lesson to see whether or not they are understanding the material is essential to keeping your students engaged and to ensure they are not making repeated mistakes. If your learning objectives are clear and measurable, then each activity will incorporate some aspect that will allow you to check for understanding, or you can add a short and simple checking-in activity to your lesson. One example is a “classroom exit ticket,” which is a very short assignment with scaffolded questions given to students at the end of class which will give the teacher an insight to how students feel leaving class.

Basic steps for creating a lesson plan:
  • Objectives: These are for you to organize your goals for the lesson, and to keep your lesson focused
  • Warm-up: an activity to get students thinking about the subject matter, to brainstorm, or to gauge their previous knowledge
  • Activity: This will be the bulk of your lesson and can feature a variety of modalities. You could incorporate videos, games, group work, or debates among students. This is where students are learning, and practicing their skills
  • Assessment: Your last step in the lesson should be some type of assessment- and no not necessarily an exam/test. This can be a kahoot to see what students remember, a writing sample, or any creative way to gauge student retention and help shape what to focus on in the next class.
Content of a lesson plan

Types of lessons can vary between the classes you teach, and also the schools you teach at. Some teachers might use ETAs to help review grammar points, some might focus on conversational practice, and others will have you act as a cultural ambassador and speak to life in the USA. Examples of topics could include American Holidays, Sports, Daily life/school in the US. Each of these types of lessons can be found in the shared Google Drive which is filled with resources from hundreds of past Fulbrighters. You will find new and creative ways to connect topics and vocabulary to cultural lessons from the US. Students and teachers alike will appreciate personal connections and anecdotes you have to share.

A big component of teaching in the 21st century is the use of technology in the classroom. Most classrooms will be fitted with some type of projector system- but this can range from overhead projectors (picture elementary school days) to new mounted projectors (picture more college systems). Many ETAs take advantage of this and create presentations using text and visuals to support student engagement. The type of technology you utilize is personal preference; some Fulbrighters opt for Google Docs/Slides which are great to use over WiFi, and others will use the Microsoft Suite.  Whichever you choose it is advisable to consider buying/bringing a USB stick to bring downloaded versions of your presentation to school. Whatever you choose to do you should always ask yourself “How will I adapt if the WiFi/Projector/Audio doesn’t connect?” These don’t need to be formalized plans, or full fleshed out activities but you want to always have considered how to modify a plan before the moment you are in front of the class and the WiFi is out.

With the use of technology, and sometimes without, comes the possibility of integrating games into your lessons. ETAs may choose to use online resources like Kahoot, Jeopardy, or other similar resources, or use paper activities like Bingo, word searches etc. It is a good idea to discuss the use of these games with your teachers ahead of time to gauge how they feel, and about the access to personal technology devices in the case of games like Kahoot.  These types of games can be used both as a warm-up to check students’ prior knowledge and also as a way to assess retention at the end of a lesson.

Note: When dealing with computers, the Internet, Smartboards, or other technology, remember that you must always have a plan B. And, of course, always have something up your sleeve for that fateful day when even your Plan B goes awry. Be it a worksheet or two to give you time to think, a review or conversation game, or a recycled lesson from another class, always have something that you can do to either allow you to think or to fill those 50 minutes (or however long it takes to get whatever does not work fixed) in a productive way.

For more helpful tips on how to plan your lessons, see page 86 of the Full Fulbright Pedagogy Guide. 

classroom management

The most direct way to avoid most problems with classroom management is to assure your students are engaged in the material, and that they have a clear understanding of expectations for behavior in the classroom.

Below is a list of effective classroom techniques that in some cases double as classroom management strategies compiled by past TAs to support you. Keep in mind that whenever you enter a classroom you might be received in a number of ways, from having the students waiting for you in a circle to your co-teacher finishing the previous lesson and therefore the class being a bit chaotic. Having a few strategies for how to settle down the class will certainly come in handy.

If you are excited and passionate about what you are teaching, your students will (likely) be (more) excited about learning whatever it is you are teaching. Often all it takes is a good, excited teacher to make a student realize that they are capable of learning in a subject that they had written off for good.

Do not simply stand by the board, rather circulate around the room and move with the students. If you are lecturing; move closer to and farther away from them and thereby keep their eyes on you. By moving you will make sure that all your students are physically involved in the class.

Start class and end class the same way every day, especially if you have students with special needs. In general, having a routine and making the class predictable (not the activities, but the structure of the class), will help remove anxiety. When there are changes in routine, be explicit about the change and the reason for it. The beginning routine may be as simple as a two-minute “Do-Now” on the board or taking out the materials that will be needed for that day’s class. The closing can be going over the homework assigned (even if it was not assigned by you), a quick review of past concepts, or something fun such as a brain teaser or tongue twister.

if your students are upset because they don’t understand or “can’t” do something, offer to help and do not minimize the difficulty. Acknowledge what is frustrating your students, whether it be something directly related to class or something outside of school, and try using the “3 P’s” (see page 52). By modeling such behavior, your students will begin to mimic you and help you create a positive classroom culture.

You are the (assistant) teacher and so you are an authority figure in the classroom. While saying “please” and “thank you” is simply good manners, do not say things such as “can you please just be quiet!” Try saying instead, “this is an independent activity. All your voices should be turned off.” Be calm and direct and do not make it seem like your students’ behaving appropriately is a favor to you.

Instead of telling students to “stop” or to “not,” tell them what they should be doing. For example, instead of saying “stop looking out the window” say “eyes up here.” You can also redirect your students nonverbally by tapping their book where they should be, or catching their eye and making the “shh” motion.

This may seem silly, but it is very effective and helps ensure that there are no misunderstandings. For example, a grantee taught a lesson on following instructions to all of his classes using a PowerPoint with a very specific set of tasks they had to complete on a sheet of paper. His directions were writing a heading (his specific style of heading), skipping 2 lines, copying the sentence “Justin Bieber is the best singer in the world.”, and signing their name at the bottom right. This works wonderfully to establish expectations and/or procedures right at the beginning, and in many classes will work the whole year. You can reward your class with a game if (and when) the entire class follows all of the instructions correctly (even the period placement and capitalization!). Similarly, be specific when you give instructions. Avoid saying things like “answer the questions,” saying instead, “take out a blank piece of paper, number it from 1-5, and answer the questions. You do not need to copy the questions. I will collect your papers at the end of class.” Be sure to model instructions as well, as even specific instructions given slowly may be difficult for students to understand. If your students know exactly what is expected of them, everything will be much more efficient, and your correcting and giving feedback on their work will be much easier.

This will help you to better budget your time and keep you on track with your lesson plans. This will also help make sure that your students do not waste a lot of time during transitions. Moving from rows into groups can be complicated depending on the size and spacing of a classroom, but try to always say “Get into groups of 4; you have 1 minute (or however long makes sense)” instead of “get into groups of 4.” Also remind students when time is almost up instead of when time is up so that they are prepared to finish. If you have access to a projector and a computer, using an online stopwatch can help students adhere to this time limit as well.

If your students are interested in the subject they will pay more attention, and you will create an atmosphere in which your students’ ideas and feelings matter. When assigning research projects, reading assignments,  or writing assignments, allow your students to choose from a few options. Alternatively, you could allow a student to take 5 or 10 minutes every week to teach the class something. Remember that, in general, as long as your students are speaking in English, you will be given a fair amount of flexibility in the activities you plan.

You can use a random number generator, index cards, popsicle sticks, or whatever you see fit. Make sure you explain to your students that you are going to call on them randomly (X amount of times during the period) and that this is to ensure that everyone gets a chance to participate (and stays engaged the entire class period). This method can also give you a more accurate measure of what your students understand and if they have mastered that lesson’s learning objective(s). You can also use this method to set a minimum and maximum number of participations. Each student must participate at least X times but no more than Y times during the class period. This will help balance participation for those classes that have a few students who tend to dominate the conversation.

If your students are yelling, speak quietly and make an effort not to try to scream over them. Similarly, reinforce positive actions – praise students for doing the right thing, whether that be a student working quietly, writing a fantastic position paper/essay, or speaking only in English for an entire activity. Tell them that you are proud of them for helping another student. Praise not only your class but also individual students. Consider having prizes, such as being the group leader during a collaborative learning activity. By modeling appropriate behavior and reinforcing positive actions, your students will be constantly seeing what the classroom behavioral norms are and will begin adopting them.

It might be playing hangman or watching an (appropriate) music video for the last 5 minutes. If your students know that they can earn something they want, they will be more motivated to stay on task. Privileges should be granted sparingly, however, and should not be part of the closing routine of your class.

Every teacher has days or classes in which it just seems like everything goes wrong. Raising your voice can be very effective, but only if you do so once or twice during the year, not every day. Resist the urge to yell at or belittle your students. When reading this, we are sure you are shocked by the suggestion, but you are human. Think about how many times you have heard teachers say, “lower your voice, no one wants to hear you!” or, “your parents may accept that behavior, but we don’t do that here.” These statements often slip out and we give them no notice, but they can be very hurtful and rarely serve to correct behavior.

When a rule is broken, calmly remind students of the rule (“We raise our hands in class”) or model the appropriate behavior. Be consistent: if a student is out of warnings, you must react in the same way and with the same consequence for all of them. Never threaten your students, and certainly never threaten with something that you cannot or are unwilling to enforce (i.e. “You’ll have to stay inside for all of recreo!”).

Secundaria teaching helpful links

Remember! For more in-depth information about any of these topics, please refer to the full Pedagogy Guide. For secondary teaching resources sorted by category, please refer to the Fulbright TA Google Drive.