The Number One Priority

Image courtesy of nightmaremode.net

As a learning director of a private language institute, there is one question I ask myself over and over again every day: “Is what I’m doing right now the best thing I can be doing to help our students learn?”. It’s such a simple and obvious question, but I’ve found that we don’t ask it nearly enough.

I have tons of competing priorities every day. Often I have to make a choice between such things as supporting an upset teacher, helping a learner whose parents lost their book, cleaning up a classroom, or filing some paperwork every ten minutes. When all these issues constantly crop up at the same time, I just ask myself that simple question and make my choice.

This question doesn’t just focus on the students though, even though at first glance you might think that. It encompasses every choice and action throughout the day. Should I spend extra time planning my lesson or use that time to read a research article on teaching? Is complaining about my day making anyone else feel better about being here and will that in turn help the students in all of our classes? Is staying out for that one or two more beers going to affect the quality of my lessons tomorrow? Will going out of my way to welcome a new teacher have a positive effect on their teaching?

As a teacher, and especially as a manager, we affect the quality of learning at our school far more than just in making choices involved in lesson planning and delivery. Every choice we make at our school whether it affects other team members, the students, or even the cleanliness of the school all contribute to creating a quality learning environment for everyone. Often, even many of the choices we make away from our schools affect the quality of learning, too.

How do you prioritize your day? How do you make choices between all the competing demands on you? Do you always make the choices that benefit your students?

Learning is Messy!

Image courtesy of Provinciales Primary School

What’s your vision of the ideal classroom?  Is it a classroom where every learner sits calmly and quietly?  Do students always raise their hands before talking?  Are they always focused on their task?

In my experience, this is what’s passed down to us as the ideal class.  But whose ideal class is it?  The teacher’s of course.  The teacher is the one who wants all the students sitting quietly and listening only to them.  They don’t want the chaos of 20 students all talking at once.  Every student should be focused on their task whether they find it interesting or not.

My classrooms rarely fit this vision because I think learning is loud.  Learning is messy.  I try my best to make learners interested in my lessons.  They don’t sit quietly because they aren’t going to get a sticker, they’ll be put in time out, or I’ll yell at them.  In fact, they generally don’t sit quietly at all.

When young learners are engaged in a lesson, they’re excited; they want to shout and move around.  A loud classroom means that they’r really happy and enjoy what we’re doing, which will make them feel positive about English and learning.  What more could I ask for?

It’s also great practice.  Sure, I could have students raise their hand before speaking, but then only one student would speak and they’d only say one sentence.  Letting them all shout out the answers, or shouting to be chosen next, or shouting to say what they want to do next is great.  Sure it’s loud and chaotic, but not only are they getting tons of practice, they’re using English to express themselves.  To say what they want to say and to get their desires and interests across.  They’re speaking in their own voice, and not just when the teacher says it’s ok.

I also love projects and tasks and role-plays where all the learners are trying it together.  Will some get side-tracked?  Of course, they’re only 5 years old.  But what would they be doing otherwise?  If you only have one pair of students at a time do something, then the others will simply be bored in their chairs and not learning anyway.  At least if they all participate, they’ll work with each other.  And the surprising thing is, most of them will do the activity to the best of their ability.  Even better, they’ll start teaching each other.  There’s nothing cuter than seeing a five-year-old teach another five-year-old how to buy fruit in English

Yes, my classrooms are loud.  Yes, learners are often moving around and may get off task.  But they’re also learning to express themselves.  They’re learning to take responsibility, share, and help each other too.  Learning may be messy, but there sure is a lot of learning ,even if it’s spread all over the classroom floor

Who’s Responsible for a Child’s Education?

Image courtesy of UpwardAction.com

Perhaps an obvious question, but one I find is not often thought about. As teachers, there are a lot more people involved in the education of a child in our classrooms than just us. Education has many stakeholders. Perhaps the most important are the learners themselves and, in YL classrooms, the parents. Then you have the teachers, the administrators, and the curriculum developers as well.

We don’t teach in a vacuum and, as teachers, to do the best we can for a child, we need to align all interested parties. We may think we teach the best way, but if the parents don’t believe it, they won’t support you at home. If an administrator doesn’t believe it, you’ll face a lot of conflict in the school. If you don’t believe in you’re curriculum, you won’t be enthusiastic about the material you teach.  All these people want what’s best for the learners.  Everyone will have differing ideas on what that is and part of our job is to foster cooperation and support so that children can get the best education possible.

As a teacher, how do you involve others in the lives of your learners and your classrooms?  Could you foster more learning by thinking about the wider circle outside your classroom?

Let the Children Speak!

Courtesy of Public Speaking for Kids

Two dialogues from classrooms with very different learning environments.  Can you guess which one allows for more learner autonomy, emergent language, and student participation?

S: Ehm, how old is your father?
L: My father is forty years old. And how old is your father?
S: Fifteen years old.  How old is your mother?
L: My mother is thirty-nine years old.
S: How old are you?
L: I’m twelve.  How old are you?
S: I’m eleven.  What are your foreign languages?
L: My foreign languages are Sport, Textil.  What are your foreign languages?
S: My foreign languages are Biologie, Textil and German.
L: Ehm.
S: Oh, ah how ah how ne, what is the name or your father?
L: The name of my fater is Felix.  And what is the name of your father?
S: Ehm, the name of my father is ah Bernd, ah.
L: What’s the name of your mother?
S: Ehm, ah, my mother’s name is Maria.  And your mother’s name?
(Legenhausen, 1999:  166-167)

L: What should we talk about, Claus?
C: I don’t know, we could talk about our music group ‘Big Engine’.
L: Yeah, that’s a good idea.
C: I think it’s fun.  Now we have to play, ah , record our tape.
L: Yeah, the first time.
C: Yeah, it’s very exciting.  I have made a cover to our tape at home.
L: That one you showed me?
C: Yes.
L: The only thing it’s beautiful.
C: Beautiful?
L: Yes.
C: It’s lovely. (Laughing)
L: I think it’s good, too.
C: Yes.
(Legenhausen, 1999:  167)

In the above two dialogues, the students were put into pairs and given the very basic task of simply talking to each other in English for a few minutes.  The dialogues are from two classrooms of the same level and age but different countries with different learning environments.  Which one do you think comes from a classroom where children are given their own voice?

The first dialogue is from a German classroom where children learn from a textbook and follow a fairly prescriptive progression of learning targets.  The second dialogue is from a Danish classroom where learner autonomy is encouraged, the voice of the learners is listened to, and choice is an integral part of the learning process.  In the words of Legenhausen,the researcher who conducted the study, the learners “do not construe a contrast between authentic and didactic tasks” (Legenhausen, 1999:  181).

This was a post I’ve been yearning to write for a while and Dave Dodgson’s recent post told me the time had come.  Dave reflects on why, after years of English language instruction, learners still have poor communicative ability.  As Dave hints at, I think the key lies in the contrast we see above.  Text book type teaching and prescriptive curriculums simply don’t engage learners.  Further more, the English language becomes only something used in the classroom; it’s not seen as a part of who they are or connected to their life.  For language to be truly internalized, it has to become part of a learner’s identity, not something done to them at school.  What do you think?

Assessment – What is it Good for?

Courtesy of http://sokoloperkovuskeci.com

In my last post I talked about throwing exams out.  In this one, I’ll discuss how to use them.

I believe the greatest mistake made with assessments is that they are viewed as an indicator of worth, either the student’s or the teacher’s.  An assessment does not tell you if a student is smart, a hard studier, or good at English.  An assessment does not tell you how effective a teacher is or how much they should be paid.  Tests should never be used in the sense of pass/fail for either teachers or students.  Using tests in this way ignores the realities that most tests are not designed well, don’t necessarily measure what we want them to measure, don’t take into account the level and needs of the students, and don’t encourage mistakes or skill development.

Assessments are merely a tool like any other in the teacher’s toolbox.  If used correctly, an assessment can show you where students are struggling and what areas were not taught well.  If the class average is 80% and Jimmy only got a 20%, it’s  a good bet he needs some extra help.  If everyone got that question about the present perfect wrong (not that anyone ever really understands the present perfect ), it’s probably because it wasn’t taught well.

The greatest value of assessments come from the practices we put into place after viewing the results.  Assessments should help us determine where to go next.  If Jimmy is doing so poorly, we now need to find out why and come up with a plan to help him to better.  If none of the students understood the present perfect, we need to find out where they are confused.  We then have to look back at our lessons on it and determine why we failed to create the conditions for learners to grasp the concept.

Assessment doesn’t just tell us what went poorly, it also tells us what went well.  If all the students got something right, it must have been taught effectively.  We should ask ourselves how we can use elements of that lesson to help teach other aspects of the course.  It also tells us which students are up for more of a challenge.

What do you do with the information you learn after giving an assessment?  Does it influence where your attention is focused, the direction you take, the amount of material you cover, what you review?  If not, maybe you shouldn’t bother giving the test in the first place

Related Posts

Assessments – A Look Back at Getting Rid of Them

Crazy or Enlightened

Joe Bower- Why Do We Give Exams?

Assessments – A Look Back at Getting Rid of Them

Courtesy of Zhi Shan’s Blog

If you’re a long-time reader, you may remember that at my previous school I threw out exams.  Students moved up or down levels based completely on mutual decisions between the teacher and student.  If you’re in a position to do so, I highly recommend giving it a try.  Below I’ll share some of the feedback I received from teachers and students.

Feedback from teachers:

- Some teachers felt it would be difficult to determine what level a student was and especially whether or not they were ready to move up.  My answer to this was that we had small classes.  Teachers should be informally assessing their students at all times.  Want to know if your students have a decent understanding of past simple?  Ask them what they did yesterday.  Simple as that.

- Without an exam, some teachers weren’t sure what the goal posts were and where they should be headed with what they were teaching.  My answer was to ask the students where they wanted to go.  Additionally, assess their needs and fill in gaps by creating lessons that use what they know, but challenge them to take themselves to the next level.

- Some teachers liked that fact that they were be able to take the lesson in any direction they wanted without having to tailor everything to an exam.  This was a key reason for my decision to remove exams.  There would be no more teaching to the exam and no more limiting of what was learned simply because they wanted to focus on what students would need to pass.

-  One thing teachers really liked was that students focused on improving.  Beforehand, many students would do nothing, but then cram for exams in an effort to pass.  Sometimes students might pass an exam even though there general language ability was clearly far below what the exam indicated.  Students saw that improvement was dependant on them and came down to how much work they put in.  Once students realized this, they became much more engaged in lessons and focused much more on self-improvement.

From the students:

-  They thought it took a lot of pressure off.

-  They liked having a say in whether or not they were ready to move up.

-  Some students felt uncomfortable about not knowing whether or not they were making progress.  They felt they couldn’t see results.  This sometimes had a negative effect on motivation.

Summary:

When I first talked to the teachers about trying this, I wasn’t sure it would work. After doing it for about 6 months, it was clear that it was working.  Students no longer felt the need to take formal exams.  Especially helpful was the larger amounts of feedback teachers started giving students in one-on-one discussions.  Students and teachers also became much better at consistent informal assessment.  I also felt that teachers really became more aware of their students and they needed to really look at how their students were doing to help plan the next lesson or set overall directions for a student or course.

In addition, like I mentioned above, we stopped having students that would slack through courses only to try and pass desperately at the end.  They realized they both needed to actually improve and to prove that they had improved to the teacher in order to advance.  I think this is one big reason students started to rapidly advance through levels.

Well, that’s a decent summary of some benefits and potential hiccups to eliminating exams.  At my current school, I am back to adminstering exams.  Most teachers the world over have to adminster exams, so, with that being the case, what’s the best way to look at exams and how should teachers use them?  Find out what I think in next week’s post.

Related Posts:

Assessment – What is it Good for?

Crazy or Enlightened

Joe Bower- Why Do We Give Exams?

Sumo: A Body Parts Game

Image courtesy of Cforums

Sumo is a really fun game to play with kids, especially in Asia where they are probably familiar with the sport.

How to Play:

1)  Draw a circle on the floor with a whiteboard marker or make one with a long rope or string.

2)  Call a student up to demonstrate with.  Step into the circle like a sumo wrestler would by putting your hands on your knees and stamping your feet into place.  Be overly dramatic here.  Motion for the student to do the same.

3)  Call out a body part.  The two students in the circle must then touch the respective body part on their opponent (probably the all time funniest one to do is “back”)

4)  You can do king of the hill style where the winner always stays in or break the students into teams and have them get points for the fastest.

Note:  Remember to make a student the ref who calls out the body parts after a while.  You can also get more than one sumo circle going at time.  Be careful with body parts like “eyes”.

This game is always a hit and kids thoroughly enjoy it.  If you can, show a youtube video of some sumo wrestlers before playing.

Have fun!

Capture the Flag: A Vocabulary Review Game

Image courtesy of KidzWorld

Capture the Flag is a ton of fun and great for listening practice with reviewed vocabulary.  Also, many kids will be familiar with the game from popular iterations in my video games.

How to Play:

1)  Split the class into 2 teams.  Have the teams line up on opposite ends of the classroom facing each other with nothing in-between them.

2)  In the middle between the two teams, put a flag (any soft toy will do)

3)  Assign a vocabulary word to pairs of students across from each other.  So, for example, a student from team 1 will have the word Egypt and so will the student from team 2 exactly opposite him.

4)  Demonstrate the game/explain the rules.  When the teacher calls out one of the vocabulary words, the students assigned that word must run (or hop if you want to slow them down) to the middle, grab the flag, and bring it back to their team.  The first team to do so gets a point.  Also, once a student grabs the flag, if the student from the other team touches them, they don’t get the point (this prevents fighting over the flag and also makes students more careful when they run to grab it).

Tips:  Rather than just calling out the words, change it up so the students have to think and pay attention more.  For example, if all the students have been assigned countries as vocabulary words, you can say sentences like “I speak Arabic”, “I’m Egyptian”, “I live in Cairo”, etc.  The students who the sentence applies to must go for the flag.  Notice that you might even have more than one country run up with sentences like “I speak Arabic”, which makes it more fun.

Remember to have students take the role of the teacher after a few rounds.

Other Vocabulary Review Games:

Bonk!

Vocabulary Tennis

Stop the Bus!

Five Challenges to Chinese Speakers Learning English

I’m happy to present a guest post by Lindsey  Wright.  Lindsey is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.  Contact her at lindswright82@gmail.com.

Five Challenges to Chinese Speakers Learning English

Learning English as a second language can be difficult for anyone. For the Chinese speaker attempting the task, it can seem daunting for reasons stemming not just from the structural and grammatical differences between the languages, but also in the way each is written. However, by identifying key areas that present the greatest barriers to fluency, an instructor teaching at either a traditional campus or an online school can reduce these challenges to manageable levels. The two most known are arguably verb tense and plurals, which will serve as a great starting point.

1) Verbs

In English, the verb serves not only as the source of action in a sentence, but also as a marker of time. This is not the case in Chinese where time is most often identified at the beginning of the sentence. Auxiliary, or helping verbs in English also serve to indicate if an action is still in progress, completed, or will continue until some future point that may or may not be named. This is a lot of information for one to three words to convey and can be daunting for someone not used to thinking of time in this way.

2) Plurality

Connected to verbs is the issue of plurality. Chinese uses numbers to specify quantity rather than endings or spelling changes to indicate multiplicity. If verbs weren’t complicated enough by action and time, having to add endings to them to facilitate agreement with the quantity of the sentence’s subject is likely to confuse even the best of students. Thankfully, number agreement has more to do with the flow of the language than it does anything else, which brings up the next point.

3) Intonations and Tonality

Chinese uses intonations and tonality to distinguish words, unlike English. Other than a few changes to vowel sounds for pronunciation, English reserves differences in tone to indicate types of sentences: questions, statements, imperatives, and so on. Beyond that, English relies on sound to provide rhythm and flow rather than meaning. This lack of emphasis on tones can be daunting as there seems to be fewer aural cues.

4) Cultural Differences

Another issue that may not seem inherent in learning English is cultural differences. While Chinese speakers rely on indirect communication and non-verbal cues, English speakers are taught to be direct. In part, this is as much a stylistic approach to transmitting message as it is a cultural reinforcement of interactions. A researched approach on these differences found that amongst other issues, that the highly prized conciseness that exemplifies business English for its economy and clarity can strike a native Chinese speaker as too informal.

5) Arrangement

Lastly, it can take a bit of getting used to the concept that words in English are arranged alphabetically whereas the system used in Chinese dictionaries varies by not only the number of radicals, but whether a book chooses to organize them by number of strokes or by some other system. This is exemplified in some directions to help English students at University of Albany – SUNY learning Chinese understand the differences in dictionaries. Using an English dictionary can seem daunting to students as most of the linguistic elements essentially involve the phonetic sounds rather than the symbolic or conceptual elements that define words written in Chinese. However, having students make the connection between the phonetic sound and arrangement of the alphabet can aid in the study of English as new words are committed to memory.

By keeping these five challenges in mind, it becomes easier to teach English to a native Chinese speaker. Focusing on the more difficult areas and being patient means that the instructor and the student can overcome these obstacles so fluency is possible with the least amount of stress for both.

Stop the Bus! – A Vocabulary Review Game

Image courtesy of Dream West Embroidery

Stop the Bus! is the same as Scattegories if you are familiar with the family-fun US board game.

How to Play:

1)  Split the class into small teams.

2)  Draw three columns on the board and write a different category above each column, for example, countries, fruits, and colors.

3)  Write a letter of the alphabet in the upper-left corner of the board.  Students must then write a word in each column corresponding to the category and starting with the first letter written on the board.  For example, if the letter is “B”, students could write Brazil, banana, and blue.  When teams finish, they need to shout, “Stop the Bus!”  The first team to shout, “stop the bus” and have correct answers scores a point.

After each round you can ask for more examples of words starting with the chosen letter in a given category to review some more.  I’ve found this to be a really good game to start off lessons with, especially for lower levels.

Other Vocabulary Review Games:

Bonk!

Vocabulary Tennis

Capture the Flag