Wow, it felt like I had a marathon teaching week last week. It wasn't until Saturday afternoon that I realized just how exhausted I felt. I spent most of the weekend in a post-work funk that went away late last night. I wasn't feeling too inspired this week but usefulness sometimes trumps creativity. That's why I decided to take it easy this week and use some pre-prepared lesson plans, something I rarely do.
Thursday 3-4pm: A Trip to The Baker School
I'm a big fan of the Baker Street activity where students have to take the clues given to them to draw a complete picture of who lives where, drinks what, reads what, and etc. I have all beginner level English Corners this week so doing something like this where the more advanced students can help the beginner students is great. Although it seems like this activity is designed for students much younger than mine, I want to test its usefulness in the English Corner setting and see if I should get to work on writing some more of my own. Of course, I'm still wondering where I'm going to find the time to do all of this so called writing I always talk about.
Friday 2-3pm: Really?
A few weeks ago, I had great success with an activity I called Secret Partners (to be posted soon.) I felt this one was a success because it had the whole class interacting with each other and it's my goal to recreate that same environment again. I'm sure other teachers have the clique problem that I do, even at the adult level. The classic example of this activity is "Find Someone Who" but you can only use that once and then you're left on your own when you have hundreds of other English Corners you need to facilitate. I'm going to rewrite the material in this lesson to suit my own students, something similar to a gossip article. My students love to gossip so this is a natural choice.
Saturday 2-3pm: Getting Into Trouble
This is another one of my Breakfast at Tiffany's inspired lesson plans. I'm going to use the scene where Holly tells Paul about what she does when she goes to Sing Sing to visit Sally Tomato, mainly giving the “weather report.” Paul then wonders if Holly could get into some trouble. So I hope to design the whole lesson around functional language for beginners around the subject of trouble. I'm trying to use more role plays in class which has been challenging. I'm thinking I might need to use some improv warm ups in class to get them out of their comfort zone. Then, I'll ease them into the role plays.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
A Healthy Dose of Reflection
My last minute class went over quite well last night. It felt empowering that I was able to take a situation such as making comparisons and tailor it so that it could meet the needs of the students who wanted to take it easy and those who wanted to challenge themselves a little bit more. Once the groups had their topics, there was that lovely buzz that always makes me feel like I'm in the center of something important happening, especially people growing in their English skills and using them in different ways.
However, when I woke up this morning, I stayed in bed (actually an IKEA style red couch that I call my bed since the actual bed in my apartment is beyond uncomfortable) and thought about how I could do the lesson better. Usually I let the class go on until I have to rush off to my next class and hope that the students continue their conversations without even noticing that I've left. I felt like something was missing though. Was it the way I began the class? Was it the lack of handouts? Should I have encouraged a more sophisticated use of the target language? I wasn't sure.
When the questions start rolling around in my mind, I usually rewind the class in my head and do a choose your own adventure approach to reflection. Each decision I make has an effect on the outcome of the class after all. Once I figure out all the different factors that came into play for that lesson, I play around with the arrangement of them in order to see if something could have been more effective than it was. Here's an example:
The Thoughts
Last night, I did as I usually do when giving group work. Usually I walk around in the beginning just to see if there are any initial questions about what is expected of them. At this point, they haven't been able to really delve into the material yet so opportunities for discussion don't exist yet unless the topic immediately brings up an intriguing question. As they become more engaged in the task at hand (I hate calling them assignments because everything in this social club is voluntary), I then take time to sit with them and see what opinions they've formed and if they've been able to use any of the target language that was introduced.
The Choice
This morning, I thought about isolating the group work idea. I love using group work in my classes but it means that the time I get to spend with each group is minimal and surface oriented at best. So, I played around with the idea of randomly choosing groups to spend a more significant time with, maybe around 15-20 minutes so that two groups could get undivided attention from me rather than me being taken away at a whim by another group who has a pressing question. From this, I thought that this would be good for future classes because each group (students who usually sit together even though seating is by choice and limited by what's available) would have an equal opportunity in each class to get this opportunity even if they don't get it sometimes.
The Questions
Simply enough, this is when I ask myself how I could make this new process work. Should I use a dice? No, there are only 6 sides and sometimes I have more groups than that. Could I have the groups write their names on a paper? It's a possibility. Would other groups feel like their time is wasted? Another possibility.
Time To Table
Though I absolutely love to get lost in thought, I also find it necessary to step away from what I've been thinking about in order to make better decisions. The idea of handling group work differently is on my mind but I'm not sure if I'm ready for it just yet. This will be one of the ideas to revisit in a more practical way once I'm starting to plan my topics next week.
So that's how I implement reflection in my teaching life. Of course some lessons need more thought than others, especially if it's one that I'm thinking of publishing. I can't say that I'm the most linear thinker and that everything follows this template but I'd say it's close enough. I hope to follow up with some more discussion on why reflection is so important in the ESL classroom, both for newbie and veteran teachers.
However, when I woke up this morning, I stayed in bed (actually an IKEA style red couch that I call my bed since the actual bed in my apartment is beyond uncomfortable) and thought about how I could do the lesson better. Usually I let the class go on until I have to rush off to my next class and hope that the students continue their conversations without even noticing that I've left. I felt like something was missing though. Was it the way I began the class? Was it the lack of handouts? Should I have encouraged a more sophisticated use of the target language? I wasn't sure.
When the questions start rolling around in my mind, I usually rewind the class in my head and do a choose your own adventure approach to reflection. Each decision I make has an effect on the outcome of the class after all. Once I figure out all the different factors that came into play for that lesson, I play around with the arrangement of them in order to see if something could have been more effective than it was. Here's an example:
The Thoughts
Last night, I did as I usually do when giving group work. Usually I walk around in the beginning just to see if there are any initial questions about what is expected of them. At this point, they haven't been able to really delve into the material yet so opportunities for discussion don't exist yet unless the topic immediately brings up an intriguing question. As they become more engaged in the task at hand (I hate calling them assignments because everything in this social club is voluntary), I then take time to sit with them and see what opinions they've formed and if they've been able to use any of the target language that was introduced.
The Choice
This morning, I thought about isolating the group work idea. I love using group work in my classes but it means that the time I get to spend with each group is minimal and surface oriented at best. So, I played around with the idea of randomly choosing groups to spend a more significant time with, maybe around 15-20 minutes so that two groups could get undivided attention from me rather than me being taken away at a whim by another group who has a pressing question. From this, I thought that this would be good for future classes because each group (students who usually sit together even though seating is by choice and limited by what's available) would have an equal opportunity in each class to get this opportunity even if they don't get it sometimes.
The Questions
Simply enough, this is when I ask myself how I could make this new process work. Should I use a dice? No, there are only 6 sides and sometimes I have more groups than that. Could I have the groups write their names on a paper? It's a possibility. Would other groups feel like their time is wasted? Another possibility.
Time To Table
Though I absolutely love to get lost in thought, I also find it necessary to step away from what I've been thinking about in order to make better decisions. The idea of handling group work differently is on my mind but I'm not sure if I'm ready for it just yet. This will be one of the ideas to revisit in a more practical way once I'm starting to plan my topics next week.
So that's how I implement reflection in my teaching life. Of course some lessons need more thought than others, especially if it's one that I'm thinking of publishing. I can't say that I'm the most linear thinker and that everything follows this template but I'd say it's close enough. I hope to follow up with some more discussion on why reflection is so important in the ESL classroom, both for newbie and veteran teachers.
Monday, March 17, 2008
5 New English Corner Topics
This week I'm feeling overwhelmed with the amount of English corners I have to teach. What gets me by is knowing that I'll have some great new additions to my Resource Notebook. Every week I'm going to post the topics and then expand on a few of them as the week goes by in order to give you more insight on how to make these subjects work in your classroom.
Just for reference, these classes are geared towards an age group of 17+ since I have many high school and college students plus working adults.
Tuesday 7-8pm: Comparisons
This was a last minute class that was put on me as I walked through the door today so I didn't get as much brainstorming time as I'd like. However, I was teaching a class where we were comparing things like the city and the countryside, Beijing and Shanghai, plus day and night. I started realizing how many ways there were to compare things to each other so tonight I'm going to try and teach more ways to do that. Since this will be a mixed group, I'm going to give the more advanced students more challenges. I wish I had more preparation time though!
Wednesday 7-8pm: Short Term vs Long Term Effects
Lately I'm finding it more difficult to teach classes to the higher level students as their expectations are higher. However, I have learned that the majority of the students in the training center struggle with cause and effect language. I've already decided that some of the topics for this class are things like deciding to have a family, certain work policies, and maybe even some science fiction type scenarios.
Thursday: 7-8pm: The French Side of English
This one is quite self explanatory as far as content but it's actually a bit difficult to think about how to incorporate it into a lesson that gets people talking rather than just teaching. I have quite a bit of experience with French so I'll also be able to talk about my own learning experiences with the language and what helped me. I have much more time tomorrow to flesh out what I'm going to do for this class.
Friday 2-3pm: Oops! I forgot!
There are two things I've been incorporating into my classes lately: role play and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Last week I did a role play class where we recreated the meeting of Holly Golightly and Paul Varjak that went over well. Chinese students have a difficult time warming up to role plays as it goes against their natural inhibitions but hopefully they'll be able to build more trust in me as time goes on. This week I'm going to try and recreate Holly remembering her meeting at Sing Sing. What's so gruesome about that?
Saturday 2-3pm: Getting Around.
Sometimes I absolutely love doing straight forward vocabulary classes. I'm thinking of opening up with things like tuk-tuk, cruise ship, limousine and etc. Then I'm going to do a gap fill storytelling activity where hopefully they'll be able to use the language in a story of their own. I always try to create new connections to the material to help them solidify their new knowledge.
Just for reference, these classes are geared towards an age group of 17+ since I have many high school and college students plus working adults.
Tuesday 7-8pm: Comparisons
This was a last minute class that was put on me as I walked through the door today so I didn't get as much brainstorming time as I'd like. However, I was teaching a class where we were comparing things like the city and the countryside, Beijing and Shanghai, plus day and night. I started realizing how many ways there were to compare things to each other so tonight I'm going to try and teach more ways to do that. Since this will be a mixed group, I'm going to give the more advanced students more challenges. I wish I had more preparation time though!
Wednesday 7-8pm: Short Term vs Long Term Effects
Lately I'm finding it more difficult to teach classes to the higher level students as their expectations are higher. However, I have learned that the majority of the students in the training center struggle with cause and effect language. I've already decided that some of the topics for this class are things like deciding to have a family, certain work policies, and maybe even some science fiction type scenarios.
Thursday: 7-8pm: The French Side of English
This one is quite self explanatory as far as content but it's actually a bit difficult to think about how to incorporate it into a lesson that gets people talking rather than just teaching. I have quite a bit of experience with French so I'll also be able to talk about my own learning experiences with the language and what helped me. I have much more time tomorrow to flesh out what I'm going to do for this class.
Friday 2-3pm: Oops! I forgot!
There are two things I've been incorporating into my classes lately: role play and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Last week I did a role play class where we recreated the meeting of Holly Golightly and Paul Varjak that went over well. Chinese students have a difficult time warming up to role plays as it goes against their natural inhibitions but hopefully they'll be able to build more trust in me as time goes on. This week I'm going to try and recreate Holly remembering her meeting at Sing Sing. What's so gruesome about that?
Saturday 2-3pm: Getting Around.
Sometimes I absolutely love doing straight forward vocabulary classes. I'm thinking of opening up with things like tuk-tuk, cruise ship, limousine and etc. Then I'm going to do a gap fill storytelling activity where hopefully they'll be able to use the language in a story of their own. I always try to create new connections to the material to help them solidify their new knowledge.
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