PERSONAL NARRATIVES

Learning from a critical incident

The following report will outline a critical incident which ocurred in September 2009 in my 6^th year class at a private school. There were fourteen students in the group and, even though it was a private institution, most of them were from low social classes, as I was told in the diagnostic period. We had lessons three times a week and most of them seemed to be really enthusiastic and interested in learning a foreign language.

I was teaching family members and adjectives and students were expected to bring a photo and describe the people that were there. I started the lesson giving an example with my own photo. I clearly saw that students were eager to ask me questions about my family. However, I suddenly realized that one of the students, Lucia, was extremely nervous and tensioned. I asked her if she was fine but she told me she only felt tired. I could not understand her strange behaviour since she had never had any discipline problems up to that moment.

Although I decided to continue with the class, my attention was focused on her. After listening to me, students were supposed to provide their own descriptions. They took turns to talk and the atmosphere seemed to be relaxed. Nevertheless, when it was Lucia`s turn, she started to cry desperately. All her partners looked at her immediately because they did not understand what was happening. As I noticed that she was not feeling comfortable, I asked her to leave the classroom so we could talk privately.

At first, I let her cry and when she felt better she told me that her parents were divorced and she lived with her mother, who was  very ill at hospital at that moment. Lucia felt sad because the night before she had argued with her and had told her that she wanted to live with his father. But as we did the activity in class she had realised how important her mother was for her and felt sorry for their last conversation. I advised her to go to hospital after school and tell her mother those thoughts. After explaining her problem, Lucia felt better and wanted to go back to the classroom to give their partners, to whom she really felt respect, a proper explanation.

After the incident passed, many emotions were running through me. I felt overwhelmed by the situation and also concerned about what impact the incident might have on Lucia´s life. What is more, the situation made me and students aware of the influence social relations have on the learning process. Personally, I felt confident about the way I had handled the incident and now I believe it has had a positive impact on my career.

Lucia is an unreal name so as to preserve the student´s identity. .