So, I did the Summer Vacation -- oh, excuse me, I mean Holiday -- Truth or Bluff activity today with the 4eme. It came from Onestopenglish.com, which has some good material for a free internet resource and is decently organized. It's my new favorite. Has anyone signed up for a paid subscription? I wonder if it's worth asking my bosses to join.
As a warmer, it worked pretty well and I got a very good idea of their levels. I accidentally called on one of the weaker kids first -- that's the rub with a new class -- who predictably read his card, thereby defeating the purpose of the activity. I pushed him a bit, anyway, but in a joking manner so that he got enough off-the-cuff speaking time. Since he was first, I gave him a little slack but forewarned the others that if they read instead of bluffing, they would get "yet more practice." The other weaker student immediately gave it away when it was his turn, but I gave him another card, some time to think, and the second time he did brilliantly. The rest of the bluffers did an excellent job of pretending they went to Australia to visit family or on wild water adventure trips in Canada, etc. At the end when I asked them to list activities that were useful, I think most of them listed Truth or Bluff.
Another activity they found both useful and enjoyable was a version of Question Tic-Tac-Toe. I wasn't initially thrilled about it (the lessons are mostly planned and the teachers select among suggested activities) but I liked it better than some of the other suggestions. It involves a grid of 20 squares with different question starters written in them...things such as 'Why did...," How many..., " and "Who were..." Students had to get 3 squares in a row by choosing a number and asking another group a grammatically correct question using the starter. It was harder than it sounds and gave them a good review of verb tenses before school starts back up. The true goal, I believe, was to aim for trivia questions but I ended up taking it down a notch and just focusing on the basics of how to form questions. Another team had to answer the question correctly or they lost a turn, so that team also got a good review of how to make sure the tenses matched between the question and answer.
I was surprised at how long they wanted to continue playing and also at how most of them listed it as really useful. I don't see this as being a good activity for a large group, though, because they got a lot of feedback and hints from me as they were making their questions (if they didn't have any guidance it would have been a total waste of time). They actually spoke a mix of French/English so I could understand what they were trying to say and then guide them in making the questions they wanted versus the questions they were 'forced' into based on the starters. Another surprise was that the other groups were paying attention to the group trying to formulate their question in order to get tips and then be able to "steal" the square later. Huh. Who knew?
You know, though, I do feel a lot of sympathy with the classroom teachers who have groups of 30 students. It's so difficult to set up successful groupwork and be able to adequately monitor all the students. It's a situation that just sets itself up for question & answer / grammar worksheets. I'd love to hear from people who are successful at setting up effective small-group activities in large classes.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Thursday, August 24, 2006
End of Vacation Blues
I've been out of teacher mode for a while, but am gearing up for it next week's English camp. I'm not trying any TPR-storytelling this time because I'm not yet sure how to adapt it to a more advanced level in such a compressed time period, so nothing too terribly new and innovative this time. Just pushing English as a useful tool and trying to find meaningful, contextual activities that aren't too easy or difficult. Oh, and I will also be doing my best to make them understand that enjoyable activities can in fact improve their English. I've read in other forums that other people have the same difficulty with the more communicative techniques...well, mainly with older students, I think. Sometimes it seems like they have their expectations beaten into them and activities that don't fit the mold are seen as a little frivolous. The ones at the camp aren't quite there (yet) so maybe I can make a little headway. They are just so used to looking at success in terms of test scores, so I can hardly blame them. That's how it is.
IThere aren't any first day warm-ups listed in the lesson plans I was given, so I'm thinking about which ones I want to use. Any suggestions? I'll write about the one(s) I chose and how they went next week. I found a version of "Truth or Lie" centered around holidays, so that might be a fun and easy way to start things off. Oh, and I'm also looking for any kind of off-beat role plays that are floating around out there. For the last camp I wrote up a complicated "love pentagon" that went over well since they were right in the throes of the whole teenage couple thing. I wouldn't use it with every group, so I'm not sure if I'll dig it out this time or not.
Somewhat off topic, there seem to be several other expats around who are also frustrated with finding steady employment here. I'm not sure in which direction I'll go, but I am sure that I am not going to be able to handle successive 10-month contracts without any minimum hours. Heck, sometimes I feel like I need a support group just to get through the next month and a half of "maybe I'll have work, maybe I won't." Hang in there, everybody. Someday it's bound to get better. I'd love to know about people who have started their own language schools, but I imagine it's a total mess of red tape.
IThere aren't any first day warm-ups listed in the lesson plans I was given, so I'm thinking about which ones I want to use. Any suggestions? I'll write about the one(s) I chose and how they went next week. I found a version of "Truth or Lie" centered around holidays, so that might be a fun and easy way to start things off. Oh, and I'm also looking for any kind of off-beat role plays that are floating around out there. For the last camp I wrote up a complicated "love pentagon" that went over well since they were right in the throes of the whole teenage couple thing. I wouldn't use it with every group, so I'm not sure if I'll dig it out this time or not.
Somewhat off topic, there seem to be several other expats around who are also frustrated with finding steady employment here. I'm not sure in which direction I'll go, but I am sure that I am not going to be able to handle successive 10-month contracts without any minimum hours. Heck, sometimes I feel like I need a support group just to get through the next month and a half of "maybe I'll have work, maybe I won't." Hang in there, everybody. Someday it's bound to get better. I'd love to know about people who have started their own language schools, but I imagine it's a total mess of red tape.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Pardon My Franglais wants to know...
If anyone stumbles across my blog and has an opinion, I'm anxious to know:
- How do you set goals for your lessons, and in what way to you present them to your students?
- Do you think your students see games as useful and not just for fun?
- How would you set up a 1 or 2 hour, once a week lesson to make it meaningful and not just "fun" for kids?
My comments are below...
English Camp!
I won't post about my BTS experience -- not for today, nor in general -- because I am too exhausted and upset to be neutral. I imagine lots of people have experienced difficult classrooms ... none of the other teachers like these classes, either, but we do it because we don't want to refuse work and because we need the money. It's demoralizing.
So, I'd rather write about something positive today and stop beating myself up. Last week I taught at an English camp for teenagers...we have classes 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. This time we had 4 groups of students: 6/5eme (early middle school), 4eme (late middle), 3eme (Freshman), and a high school group. I split my time between the 6/5eme and 3eme and had a completely awesome time with the kids. Normally I am not made for teenagers, but in a one-week situation like this I always end up having fun and they do as well.
With the younger group, I experimented with TPR storytelling, and it really worked well! I'm going to write a specific post on that later on, but my initial reaction is that I'm going to pursue that further and figure out how to adapt it to once-a-week classes. On Monday as I was leading them through the first steps, most of them looked at me as if to say, "Lady, there is no way I'm going to make these silly gestures in front of my peers." By Friday they were all standing up and having fun with it...two of them started to cooperate together in order to act out the more complex gestures. I'm not sure if this will be my main method, but I'd like to incorporate it on a regular basis.
I also ended up spending less time on smaller, different activities and spent long chunks of time working towards a specific goal. If there is one thing I could change about my teaching, it would be to figure out how to adapt the little time I have once a week with the kids in order to do more things like this. One child also responded really well to the whole idea of goal-setting. On the first day after we wrote stories, acted out situations and played games, I asked the class, "So, did we do any grammar points today?" They all simultaneously said, "Nooooooooooo!" and shook their heads. "Ha!" I said. "Oh, yes, we did! Think about it." Tick, tock, tick, tock. One kid figured it out quickly and that's all it took.
On Friday, I noticed one kid in particular had stopped saying, "I don't understand what I have to do." He said, "I don't understand the goal," and he was not being critical or sarcastic. Once he got what the point of the activity was, he said, "Oh, okay!" and he literally sat on the edge of his chair and participated full-out. I just really tried to present English to them as something useful, something they can use and do fun things with. Another thing I pushed was reading for fun and during their "DEAR" time, they actually did read. (DEAR=Drop Everything and Read; I stole it from basic elementary school stuff).
For the older group, I did throw in a bit more hard-core grammar stuff, but only because they requested it. They were serious students and I tried to give them a few more complex points and then practice it in speaking. The first day we covered the Present Perfect and P.P. Continuous, primarily focusing on the P.P.C. The next day we did modals of obligation and also the difference between ed/ing adjectives. During both of my grammar presentation sections the kids looked absolutely bored to tears, but they were hanging in there. I think I spent about one half hour on the grammar and the other 4 1/2 hours were activity based, heavily focused on speaking.
The funny thing was that when I asked them to give feedback on the day, they tended to love the games and speaking activities (of course) but they all said the grammar was also extremely useful for them. Not one said that the games were useful, even if they did enjoy them. I wonder how they would have answered if I had pushed the "activity 1st/grammar 2nd" point of view like I did with the other class. It makes me want to make sure I validate games with all the others so they'll see them as constructive, not just fun.
So, I'd rather write about something positive today and stop beating myself up. Last week I taught at an English camp for teenagers...we have classes 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. This time we had 4 groups of students: 6/5eme (early middle school), 4eme (late middle), 3eme (Freshman), and a high school group. I split my time between the 6/5eme and 3eme and had a completely awesome time with the kids. Normally I am not made for teenagers, but in a one-week situation like this I always end up having fun and they do as well.
With the younger group, I experimented with TPR storytelling, and it really worked well! I'm going to write a specific post on that later on, but my initial reaction is that I'm going to pursue that further and figure out how to adapt it to once-a-week classes. On Monday as I was leading them through the first steps, most of them looked at me as if to say, "Lady, there is no way I'm going to make these silly gestures in front of my peers." By Friday they were all standing up and having fun with it...two of them started to cooperate together in order to act out the more complex gestures. I'm not sure if this will be my main method, but I'd like to incorporate it on a regular basis.
I also ended up spending less time on smaller, different activities and spent long chunks of time working towards a specific goal. If there is one thing I could change about my teaching, it would be to figure out how to adapt the little time I have once a week with the kids in order to do more things like this. One child also responded really well to the whole idea of goal-setting. On the first day after we wrote stories, acted out situations and played games, I asked the class, "So, did we do any grammar points today?" They all simultaneously said, "Nooooooooooo!" and shook their heads. "Ha!" I said. "Oh, yes, we did! Think about it." Tick, tock, tick, tock. One kid figured it out quickly and that's all it took.
On Friday, I noticed one kid in particular had stopped saying, "I don't understand what I have to do." He said, "I don't understand the goal," and he was not being critical or sarcastic. Once he got what the point of the activity was, he said, "Oh, okay!" and he literally sat on the edge of his chair and participated full-out. I just really tried to present English to them as something useful, something they can use and do fun things with. Another thing I pushed was reading for fun and during their "DEAR" time, they actually did read. (DEAR=Drop Everything and Read; I stole it from basic elementary school stuff).
For the older group, I did throw in a bit more hard-core grammar stuff, but only because they requested it. They were serious students and I tried to give them a few more complex points and then practice it in speaking. The first day we covered the Present Perfect and P.P. Continuous, primarily focusing on the P.P.C. The next day we did modals of obligation and also the difference between ed/ing adjectives. During both of my grammar presentation sections the kids looked absolutely bored to tears, but they were hanging in there. I think I spent about one half hour on the grammar and the other 4 1/2 hours were activity based, heavily focused on speaking.
The funny thing was that when I asked them to give feedback on the day, they tended to love the games and speaking activities (of course) but they all said the grammar was also extremely useful for them. Not one said that the games were useful, even if they did enjoy them. I wonder how they would have answered if I had pushed the "activity 1st/grammar 2nd" point of view like I did with the other class. It makes me want to make sure I validate games with all the others so they'll see them as constructive, not just fun.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Welcome to my "reflections on teaching" blog
And thanks for stopping by! I have hard time believing anyone besides my parents would read the nonsense I write, but if you're here, I bet you're in the same boat as I am. I've been living in France for a year and a half, and before that I was working in what I considered to be (and still do) the best possible job that anyone could have: an elementary ESL teacher in scenic Virginia. I loved my job, I loved the kids, I loved the school staff...but I also loved my husband (and still do) and was ready to start our new life together in France. Since I have a teaching degree in ESL, I felt pretty confident that I would be able to transfer my career here without too much trouble, and that has turned out to be true. On the other hand, I've found my role has changed and I still need to adjust. I can't imagine I will ever stop trying to find that "perfect" lesson and improve myself as a teacher. ESL is not the same thing at all as EFL, and I'm looking for other EFL teachers out there -- France, Japan, Saudi Arabia...you name it, I want it. I also spent 2 years in Japan teaching English through the JET Program, and while I found the country and people absolutely fabulous, I think my basic teaching philosophy and that of Japan just ultimately did not match.
This blog will serve a role for me...I'd like it to be a place where I can focus on my teaching experiences here as well as reflections on the educational system, and I hope that others will be kind enough to give me feedback. That's something I crave and don't get here, not formally at least, and another thing I miss about being in my old school is the constant companionship of other people who are genuinely interesting in serving students, sharing ideas, and helping each other improve as teachers. I do have a small support group here of fantastic people who I really respect, but the more, the better. I think I went from about 30 peers to having 5-6, and it's kind of strange. I also am a constant borrower of ideas, so if you have a lesson that really goes over well or have had some kind of epiphany, please don't hesitate to let me know!
More to come...
This blog will serve a role for me...I'd like it to be a place where I can focus on my teaching experiences here as well as reflections on the educational system, and I hope that others will be kind enough to give me feedback. That's something I crave and don't get here, not formally at least, and another thing I miss about being in my old school is the constant companionship of other people who are genuinely interesting in serving students, sharing ideas, and helping each other improve as teachers. I do have a small support group here of fantastic people who I really respect, but the more, the better. I think I went from about 30 peers to having 5-6, and it's kind of strange. I also am a constant borrower of ideas, so if you have a lesson that really goes over well or have had some kind of epiphany, please don't hesitate to let me know!
More to come...
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