Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Mid-Term
No lessons this week. Conducting speaking tests for the mid terms. Usual test style: reading, picture description, and opinion making. The only change I have made this quarter was to grade along the lines of Fluency and Accuracy. This has made grading a bit clearer and simpler. I have also been using meaning has a better indicator of grade. So, instead of just looking for the particular format of the answer, I have been listening for the knowledge/information communicated. Does the response make sense? Would a native speaker understand this? The only problem is that this often allows a a bit of charisma to slip in, as students who are personable, but have little English ability gain an advantage. I have been aware of this and try to avoid grading on confidence and manners.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
I was not able to really modify my lesson for the classes in the second half of the week. I spent about a half-hour reviewing the opinion making exercises building on what we covered last time. After that I reviewed a bit of the listening last time, had the students creat some questions they would ask if they interviewed someone who had run a marathon before listening to the interview. Then we listened. I checked comprehension using the questions we made. We worked from the general to the specific It took a while and we rushed through the rest of the class, barely covering everything we needed to in order to prepare them for the mid-term.
It seems to be effective to have a lot of warm up and activation but very time consuming. In the future I would like to deviate from the book and use more interesting material.
It seems to be effective to have a lot of warm up and activation but very time consuming. In the future I would like to deviate from the book and use more interesting material.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Listening Exercises
This week we run into a lot of listening exercises in the book. In the past I would of skipped over about half of them, but this semester we really have to teach the book, so I will be grinding through them this week. Today I did it the way I normally would, but with a few modifications. I made these changes because I have picked up a few things at SMU, but I should mention that I haven't done the Harmer readings yet. I will read that before I teach using more listening tomorrow.
The usual method to the listening exercises goes like this: We get the listening in the book and I ask the students to read the questions in the book before I play the file. After the first time through, I tell the students to go through the questions again to answer what they can and to guess what they aren't sure of. I tell them I will play it one more time and they should this to check the answers they already wrote and to listen for the things they don't know. I always give specific time lengths for this. When they have listened and are answering I tell them to ask one another the answers to the questions they don't know. I do this to keep the faster students engaged and to give extra speaking and listening practice to the other students
This time I added some activation before even looking at the questions. I asked question about prediction and for the students to make other questions they think might be answered/ other information we may get from the listening.
Overall, it seems to have worked out better, but I can't really evaluate yet. The first class had a listening file a manners survey that was done in 2001. This was actually begun a week ago, they heard the file once and completed some of the questions in the book. I asked the students to remind me about what the topic of the listening was and for any details they remembered by using open referential questions. I took responses from volunteers and by cold calling on others. Some memories came back. I went through the usual reminders and plowed through the file (about 5 minutes long). To get answers from this class I found that just reading the answer page and had the students reply in chorus. (The book looked like this: "They conducted the survey in ____________ countries.") I don't know if this worked better or not.
The later classes listened to an interview with an ultramarathoner. I tied this to the reading that we did as an earlier part of the lesson. I did a lot of previewing for the earlier reading, I had the students make questions they would like to have answered about foot races. After the reading and (the attached vocab lesson) we revisited the questions they made and found answers in the reasons. I used this as a preview for the interview and asked what they thought would be discussed and some of the potential answers.
As for the effect, the only thing I can mention is a quick comparison to the book questions. The book does have a prediction question that should be answered after listening to a short excerpt. Just using the question and the excerpt didn't help the students at all. Talking through it, without the excerpt, produced much better results.
I think the previewing is helpful. Having the students read the questions before seems to be much more useful, too. The only real problem is that this takes much longer than just playing the audio and moving on. It is also difficult to tell how useful this is for the students. The students who had a lot of trouble I had use the script in the back of the book, another thing that also seemed helpful.
I'll check the book and apply it tomorrow.
The usual method to the listening exercises goes like this: We get the listening in the book and I ask the students to read the questions in the book before I play the file. After the first time through, I tell the students to go through the questions again to answer what they can and to guess what they aren't sure of. I tell them I will play it one more time and they should this to check the answers they already wrote and to listen for the things they don't know. I always give specific time lengths for this. When they have listened and are answering I tell them to ask one another the answers to the questions they don't know. I do this to keep the faster students engaged and to give extra speaking and listening practice to the other students
This time I added some activation before even looking at the questions. I asked question about prediction and for the students to make other questions they think might be answered/ other information we may get from the listening.
Overall, it seems to have worked out better, but I can't really evaluate yet. The first class had a listening file a manners survey that was done in 2001. This was actually begun a week ago, they heard the file once and completed some of the questions in the book. I asked the students to remind me about what the topic of the listening was and for any details they remembered by using open referential questions. I took responses from volunteers and by cold calling on others. Some memories came back. I went through the usual reminders and plowed through the file (about 5 minutes long). To get answers from this class I found that just reading the answer page and had the students reply in chorus. (The book looked like this: "They conducted the survey in ____________ countries.") I don't know if this worked better or not.
The later classes listened to an interview with an ultramarathoner. I tied this to the reading that we did as an earlier part of the lesson. I did a lot of previewing for the earlier reading, I had the students make questions they would like to have answered about foot races. After the reading and (the attached vocab lesson) we revisited the questions they made and found answers in the reasons. I used this as a preview for the interview and asked what they thought would be discussed and some of the potential answers.
As for the effect, the only thing I can mention is a quick comparison to the book questions. The book does have a prediction question that should be answered after listening to a short excerpt. Just using the question and the excerpt didn't help the students at all. Talking through it, without the excerpt, produced much better results.
I think the previewing is helpful. Having the students read the questions before seems to be much more useful, too. The only real problem is that this takes much longer than just playing the audio and moving on. It is also difficult to tell how useful this is for the students. The students who had a lot of trouble I had use the script in the back of the book, another thing that also seemed helpful.
I'll check the book and apply it tomorrow.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
The Short Week
Short week this time. Two days on, one day off, one day on. Since all of our holiday fall on either a Monday or Wednesday the schedule becomes unbalanced for the students; those in Tuesday and Thursday classes end up with an extra week and a half of classes.
As such, today was a bit of a non-day. The classes I held today were less formal and more about test prep and tasks. We did photo description and opinion making and in one class a game about asking questions. The special activity for me, and the one I saved for the blog, was a reading activity.
The reading activity was a bit deceptive. I stitched together a few different news articles into one sheet and made handouts. The first article was written for ESL students in 2010. It was about a NK missile launch. I just changed the dates and a few names and it seemed to work. The next part was from a NYT article, as was the next bit, but for that one I dumbed-down the language a bit and broke up the dependent clauses into separate sentences. One reason I did this was to test their level, I figured they would have trouble with the middle section. Another reason was that I wanted them to give opinions, and everyone has an opinion about NK. This article would also give them evidence to attach to reasons. Finally, I wanted to see how they would evaluate the claims put forward by US, AK and NK officials for missile launches.
The assumption I was basing all of this on was that their schema, which would be in L1, would be applicable in L2. That is, they have the understanding already, so they should be able to carry out the cognitive processes even if the input and output are both in TL.
I used a common reading method process - skim to yourself, read aloud with a partner by trading off lines and then as a class. However, I critically misjudged the time. I planned for 20, gave them about 15 minutes which they used to read to themselves and each other, but we didn't read as a class. I also had to rush the discussion. Before the discussion I used a lot of closed display to check comprehension. It was surprisingly good. They picked up words I didn't expect them to (I noted that they understood what it meant that "Obama leaned on China") and showed a strong understanding of everything. They seemed to get the long quotes from the unaltered section, but I didn't probe as much as I wanted to. They also produced good arguments and referred to parts of the text (I have here examples that related to food aid) and gave critical evaluations of the claims (not surprising to find that that did not believe NK, but it was surprising when they quoted the text to do it, especially the use of "commemorate").
While I liked the exercise and think it was a good way to utilize schema and develop interest, I know now that I need something a little longer and involved and with better in class activities and guided discussion. Hopefully I can get ahead of the book at some point and use my pieces instead.
As such, today was a bit of a non-day. The classes I held today were less formal and more about test prep and tasks. We did photo description and opinion making and in one class a game about asking questions. The special activity for me, and the one I saved for the blog, was a reading activity.
The reading activity was a bit deceptive. I stitched together a few different news articles into one sheet and made handouts. The first article was written for ESL students in 2010. It was about a NK missile launch. I just changed the dates and a few names and it seemed to work. The next part was from a NYT article, as was the next bit, but for that one I dumbed-down the language a bit and broke up the dependent clauses into separate sentences. One reason I did this was to test their level, I figured they would have trouble with the middle section. Another reason was that I wanted them to give opinions, and everyone has an opinion about NK. This article would also give them evidence to attach to reasons. Finally, I wanted to see how they would evaluate the claims put forward by US, AK and NK officials for missile launches.
The assumption I was basing all of this on was that their schema, which would be in L1, would be applicable in L2. That is, they have the understanding already, so they should be able to carry out the cognitive processes even if the input and output are both in TL.
I used a common reading method process - skim to yourself, read aloud with a partner by trading off lines and then as a class. However, I critically misjudged the time. I planned for 20, gave them about 15 minutes which they used to read to themselves and each other, but we didn't read as a class. I also had to rush the discussion. Before the discussion I used a lot of closed display to check comprehension. It was surprisingly good. They picked up words I didn't expect them to (I noted that they understood what it meant that "Obama leaned on China") and showed a strong understanding of everything. They seemed to get the long quotes from the unaltered section, but I didn't probe as much as I wanted to. They also produced good arguments and referred to parts of the text (I have here examples that related to food aid) and gave critical evaluations of the claims (not surprising to find that that did not believe NK, but it was surprising when they quoted the text to do it, especially the use of "commemorate").
While I liked the exercise and think it was a good way to utilize schema and develop interest, I know now that I need something a little longer and involved and with better in class activities and guided discussion. Hopefully I can get ahead of the book at some point and use my pieces instead.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The Slog (cont.)
My cold is better. I can talk and walk a bit more. I can mostly breathe without a nasty cough interrupting me. Things are looking up!
My early class today was my practice class. The poor kids, they are my first of six classes and I learn all failures to plan from them. Whatever goes wrong in this class gets fixed in the future classes. That said, it generally went well today. The main grammar lesson was making past tense questions (it was previewed last time and reviewed today). I activated this by changing the class intro a little. Normally I go through common greetings and ask them how they are today. I switched and asked them what they did last night or yesterday. They gave good answers and required little scaffolding, usually the responded to repeated questions or "past tense" to self correct. I gave the lesson using PPT and had students generate examples with answers. Then we used group work to practice and create discussion. Other things did not go so well.
One problem was that a pronunciation lesson handcuffed me a little bit. It was a little mini lesson about pronouncing past tense verbs (with the ~t ~d or full ~ed sound) it required a lot more explanation than I thought it would. We also started picture descriptions in this class which they were wholly unprepared for. I put them in pairs and had one partner describe the picture to the other. This did not work. I had to strip it down and do a lot more modeling of a correct response. I also gave them the pieces and had them make sentences as the class about different photos.
The second class went very well. I did the same thing for an introduction and got the kids very involved. I also used the WB a bit more to analyze the structure of past tense questions (Q word + did + subject + base verb...?) and had use that to make many different constructions. I modeled a bit of the questions and answers with students before having them do group work. I also gave more info about the pronunciation section including information about voicing and how they can feel it in their throat. I used the WB more to display the answers. This went much better. Similarly, the picture description was better. I started by modeling a good answer and then went through it piece by piece. We identified nouns, attached adjectives, described actions and made complete sentences with it.
Although it went better, the second class did not get as far into the lesson as the first. This shows what is becoming the new problem - getting everything done. Well, more like getting everything done correctly. Anyone can cover everything in the book, but teaching everything in the book is a challenge. I am however much happier with the way class is developing and the corrections I have been making. The students are more involved and the lessons seem to be a bit more meaningful for them. (note: if I lower the lights at all in the engineering class their eyes start to role into the backs of their heads. The poor kids are always barely awake. One of them seemed to start to sleep with her eyes open a little, just the whites showing. Very creepy looking. Anyway, keep the lights on.)
My early class today was my practice class. The poor kids, they are my first of six classes and I learn all failures to plan from them. Whatever goes wrong in this class gets fixed in the future classes. That said, it generally went well today. The main grammar lesson was making past tense questions (it was previewed last time and reviewed today). I activated this by changing the class intro a little. Normally I go through common greetings and ask them how they are today. I switched and asked them what they did last night or yesterday. They gave good answers and required little scaffolding, usually the responded to repeated questions or "past tense" to self correct. I gave the lesson using PPT and had students generate examples with answers. Then we used group work to practice and create discussion. Other things did not go so well.
One problem was that a pronunciation lesson handcuffed me a little bit. It was a little mini lesson about pronouncing past tense verbs (with the ~t ~d or full ~ed sound) it required a lot more explanation than I thought it would. We also started picture descriptions in this class which they were wholly unprepared for. I put them in pairs and had one partner describe the picture to the other. This did not work. I had to strip it down and do a lot more modeling of a correct response. I also gave them the pieces and had them make sentences as the class about different photos.
The second class went very well. I did the same thing for an introduction and got the kids very involved. I also used the WB a bit more to analyze the structure of past tense questions (Q word + did + subject + base verb...?) and had use that to make many different constructions. I modeled a bit of the questions and answers with students before having them do group work. I also gave more info about the pronunciation section including information about voicing and how they can feel it in their throat. I used the WB more to display the answers. This went much better. Similarly, the picture description was better. I started by modeling a good answer and then went through it piece by piece. We identified nouns, attached adjectives, described actions and made complete sentences with it.
Although it went better, the second class did not get as far into the lesson as the first. This shows what is becoming the new problem - getting everything done. Well, more like getting everything done correctly. Anyone can cover everything in the book, but teaching everything in the book is a challenge. I am however much happier with the way class is developing and the corrections I have been making. The students are more involved and the lessons seem to be a bit more meaningful for them. (note: if I lower the lights at all in the engineering class their eyes start to role into the backs of their heads. The poor kids are always barely awake. One of them seemed to start to sleep with her eyes open a little, just the whites showing. Very creepy looking. Anyway, keep the lights on.)
Monday, April 2, 2012
The Slog
First a quick note to myself: keep this short. Another, seemingly contradictory note: give details.
A new week and a new cold. I am sick again and coughing horribly. Yet I soldier on.
The main problem this week will be playing catch-up. I am very far back on the book lessons and it will be a problem to get them all done. Today I rushed through most of the material for English 1 and feel good about it. It involved a lot of listening, some Q&A in the book and a short grammar lesson on past tense and making past tense questions. I will have to revisit the PT question part on Wednesday to make sure. The classes were well engaged and talkative and did well with peer correction and making complete sentences.
English 2 was even further back and less was completed today. They worked on developing some of there own definitions and shared a lot of information on the theme of "identity theft". They got through the listening and vocab work, but not the grammar lesson. Because there was a hang up due to a short section on prepositional verbs / idioms I was not able to even get to the main grammar lesson.
Short note: This relates to the major problem I have with the text - why the hell were prepositional verbs part of the lesson? Are they extra vocab? Are they another grammar lesson? Should these be distinguished from other verbs that will be used later? Is this important?
(It turns out the short note is important. I just received an email regarding sample questions for the standardized final. It appears that students will be tested on knowledge of the textbook content. This requires more investigation.)
The other noteworthy event today was that I received student writing today. Some still seem to be writing a sentence and skipping to the next line. I've skimmed them and some are really excellent, but many are missing basic things like the student's name. Freshmen...
A new week and a new cold. I am sick again and coughing horribly. Yet I soldier on.
The main problem this week will be playing catch-up. I am very far back on the book lessons and it will be a problem to get them all done. Today I rushed through most of the material for English 1 and feel good about it. It involved a lot of listening, some Q&A in the book and a short grammar lesson on past tense and making past tense questions. I will have to revisit the PT question part on Wednesday to make sure. The classes were well engaged and talkative and did well with peer correction and making complete sentences.
English 2 was even further back and less was completed today. They worked on developing some of there own definitions and shared a lot of information on the theme of "identity theft". They got through the listening and vocab work, but not the grammar lesson. Because there was a hang up due to a short section on prepositional verbs / idioms I was not able to even get to the main grammar lesson.
Short note: This relates to the major problem I have with the text - why the hell were prepositional verbs part of the lesson? Are they extra vocab? Are they another grammar lesson? Should these be distinguished from other verbs that will be used later? Is this important?
(It turns out the short note is important. I just received an email regarding sample questions for the standardized final. It appears that students will be tested on knowledge of the textbook content. This requires more investigation.)
The other noteworthy event today was that I received student writing today. Some still seem to be writing a sentence and skipping to the next line. I've skimmed them and some are really excellent, but many are missing basic things like the student's name. Freshmen...
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