...I feel a bit guilty that I did not post before but I needed time to reflect, see whether anything from Sunday...

...I feel a bit guilty that I did not post before but I needed time to reflect, see whether anything from Sunday "stuck" with me, and I wanted to see what sort of things everyone posted. I kept getting notifications from Google+ so I read most posts -sometimes I replied. It was very illuminating, fun. Part of my brain was observing how an online community forms ( I have done online courses before but the posting was obligatory ( University) or part if a MOOC (FutureLearn) and not as authentic and natural as this is.

My takeaways from Sunday were:

1. Use time more deliberately and constructively (less waffle Claudie; you really need to plan better, give students more useful activities to discover/practice. I think I do too much "teaching in the moment" ...storytelling is good but I need to monitor for balance..students can tell stories too.)

2. Hmm, then, think about whether to preteach vocabulary, or not, before a listening.

Some course book listening texts have pre teaching vocabulary built in.

Listening to the radio (on the hour short newscasts) doesn't come with a "pre teach!" but that's the point of making them listen and take brief notes (to hear and decipher connected speech) The students usually freak the first time they are asked to do this - it is hard to coordinate listening and note taking...but it is exciting seeing improvement after a couple of weeks. At the beginning of our two month session I'll do the radio listening about three times a week (5 minutes, twice a day - followed by take up. They are also asked to listen after school on their own, especially on the weekends. I'm glad my intuition told me that they need to be challenged to do this in the supportive class setting so they will be able, with practice , to follow rapid casual speech. (I recommend a popular call in talk show rather than the more careful and formal CBC for this.)

However, in preparation for the field trip to the Ontario Legislative Building on Tuesday, I had them "discover" the vocabulary they would hear from the tour guide. I used the picture of the Chamber with the (numbered) description of items in the Chamber (educational material provided by the Legislature in a teacher's kit) I use whiteout to create Student A and Student B gap fill sheets. I block out full phrases, or even sentences rather than individual words. I always do this to maximize vocabulary exposure and make the field trip more enjoyable but I thought about the "why" this time more than before.

"Don't ask the students to do anything you would not (want to) do" resonated with me. And I quoted this in a reply to a post on a blog I follow!

On Friday we played the memory game (students created a ten word list using vocabulary from O Canada) then gave it to a partner AND we played Hatman...I had forgotten how excited students get at being at the chalkface (OK, whiteboard..) For the memory "test" they had to use words from the week so it was a sort of review (the O Canada was too easy for the stronger students as they knew it ) but it was also a chance to relax and josh around ( truth to tell there's a lot of relaxing and joshing in my class - high level adults. It is a noncredit school. I take the academic preparation element very seriously but it is a long day (5 hours) and it needs to be interesting and fun. )

So. LOTS stayed with me during the week on many levels.
Thank you Penny, thank you all.
See you in a few hours!