Some of the things that struck me from the first session:
Some of the things that struck me from the first session:
Making the best use of class time. This really hit home for me from this week's session. Our students have classes once a week for 45 or 50 or 60 minutes. During that time there are a lot of things we have to do. One of my boss's strategies that he has tried to train us all in is how to make transitions between activities learning time as well. This involves giving students jobs to do that teachers normally do, having students repeat instructions before doing them, and having students listen to a series of instructions, remember them, and then complete them.
Personalizing activities. This just makes so much sense! I think sometimes it's a natural thing to do. Very young learners are not shy (or polite) about showing you when they're not interested in something. They just kind of crawl away. Personalization helps connect them to the material and keep them engaged. But one thing that I just thought of that hadn't occurred to me before is personalizing storytelling (from picture books). I agree that stories are engaging anyway, but maybe more so if the students can see themselves as characters - or if the characters share their names.
"Never ask students to do something you're not willing to do yourself." (This is right around 44' in the recording.) This is something I also believe. And a rule I break every day - asking my students to speak and do things in English that I can't do in Japanese yet. I think about this a lot. On the other hand, doing activities with colleagues before class to see how they might work with kids is a really helpful activity.
A question I had in the session that I still wonder about: Are there any TV shows/ cartoons for kids that might also be beneficial for non-native speaking kids? I think that for kids few words and fun visual stories and plot is more important than slow and clear speech. Things like Looney Tunes cartoons, if there is a more modern version somewhere.
Making the best use of class time. This really hit home for me from this week's session. Our students have classes once a week for 45 or 50 or 60 minutes. During that time there are a lot of things we have to do. One of my boss's strategies that he has tried to train us all in is how to make transitions between activities learning time as well. This involves giving students jobs to do that teachers normally do, having students repeat instructions before doing them, and having students listen to a series of instructions, remember them, and then complete them.
Personalizing activities. This just makes so much sense! I think sometimes it's a natural thing to do. Very young learners are not shy (or polite) about showing you when they're not interested in something. They just kind of crawl away. Personalization helps connect them to the material and keep them engaged. But one thing that I just thought of that hadn't occurred to me before is personalizing storytelling (from picture books). I agree that stories are engaging anyway, but maybe more so if the students can see themselves as characters - or if the characters share their names.
"Never ask students to do something you're not willing to do yourself." (This is right around 44' in the recording.) This is something I also believe. And a rule I break every day - asking my students to speak and do things in English that I can't do in Japanese yet. I think about this a lot. On the other hand, doing activities with colleagues before class to see how they might work with kids is a really helpful activity.
A question I had in the session that I still wonder about: Are there any TV shows/ cartoons for kids that might also be beneficial for non-native speaking kids? I think that for kids few words and fun visual stories and plot is more important than slow and clear speech. Things like Looney Tunes cartoons, if there is a more modern version somewhere.
Some important and interesting points, here, Anne, thanks! Can't help with the last question - can anyone in the group contribute here?
ReplyDeleteLooney Tunes are okay but rather than i-1 I think i+1 is better outside of class. If the kids can watch cartoons with some parts they do not understand is better. For Comprehensible Input yeah it is necessary but I think most kids would watch cartoons even if they didn't understand everything and maybe just being in a Japanese environment this has influenced me. For teaching yes, C.I. is best but outside of class and for getting the kids to be showered with the target language I think that getting used to not knowing everything can be good.
ReplyDeleteI can recommend The Magic School bus series and Give a Mouse a Cookie series on Netflix as they are pretty good as they can tie together with the books. With Netflix here they have a Puss in Boots one that is interactive and my boys love it. They choose how the story goes and they watched it multiple times to do each choice so I think watching how they were engrossed and did it I can say that was good.But I think outside of lessons the main point is that like in Extensive Reading, their interest is the most important factor. If you have that then worry more about level and having choices are best. If you have control of Youtube then there are plenty of good teachermade short songs and kids vids out there.
If you have the money and the internet connection, I can recommend EnglishCentral as I use it at work in my CALL classes. They have videos that they can click on any word to get a sub menu that has the word, each morpheme sound, the whole word sound, its definition, part of speech, word used in a sample sentence as just one part and many other great features but if you more info let me private mail you instead of the public forum here.
But just some quick thoughts.
Thanks VERY much for all of these recommendations, Scott. Can you please copy-paste and post all your suggestions for resources on the 'Tips to share' discussion?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to pick up your point about i+1, i-1. I think you're absolutely right, and next time I do my 'listening' presentation I'll remember to edit the 'i-1' bit to take your point into account. Thanks!
It all depends on the issue discussed in earlier postings, whether students are hung up on understanding every word. If they are hung up, then they'll get stressed out if faced with a text most of which they don't understand. If they are relaxed and ready to tolerate and live with the fact that they don't understand a lot of it, just make do with what they do ... then i+1 or even i+2,3,4... is fine, i.e. including language far above their level.
So if you want them to feel good about understanding pretty well everything, use i-1. If you want to stress listening out for information WITHOUT understanding every word, then the text can be as difficult as you like, provided that the target information is well within their level. But remember that if too much of it is incomprehensible, then they'll be spending a large proportion of the time just listening to 'noise' and not understanding: may be a bit discouraging and more importantly doesn't produce much learning (practice in listening-and-understanding English) which is, after all, the main goal.
Thanks Penny I will post it tomorrow morning when I am doing the laundry. I have not used Google too much although I have taken John Fanselow and your courses before. Sorry. I need to make time to study it some more and I have some free time finally.
ReplyDeleteYeah I have to agree I would not do too high above the kids but I think that the cartoons have a lot of visual imagery that most could pick up a lot without listening to any dialogue. So if anyone does i+2 or higher I would recommend that the teacher see that there is plenty in the context that they can pick up without dialogue or speaking. For most Loony Tunes I can say you could turn off the sound and still enjoy it. Also a really good series I enjoyed watching with my kids was The Trollhunter. I will add it to the list when I repost this info in Tips to share section.
Thanks, Scott. That's awesome information. Moms ask sometimes about things they can do at home to increase their kids' contact with English and I have been at a loss, not being a mom myself.
ReplyDeleteI think you are absolutely right, Scott! I had the same takeaways. I’m not sure where I am with never asking students to do what I can’t do. My students usually blow me away when I ask them to do things I can’t. It’s important to give students opportunities to shine. If I never allowed students to draw, for example, which is something I have little to no ability, I think I would be doing a disservice to some of my students. I agree that students give up when frustrated. But I also know that the pain associated with that frustration is what makes many learn. Learning is about failing again and again while continuing to try.
ReplyDeleteJasmine Taiwo That's a good point, Jasmine. There is definitely space for a variety of talents and passions, even if the teachers don't share them. I guess I was thinking in terms of activities I use in class - trying things out before the students do teaches me a lot about potential problems that might arise and helps me to place myself in the students' shoes.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you about frustration being a part of learning. But I'm not really confident that I know the correct level of frustration and struggle to allow, though.
Just want to clarify: I didn't say you should only ask students to do things you CAN do yourself, but that you shouldn't ask students to do things you're not WILLING TO DO yourself (even if you do them badly!). There are lots of they do better than I do. Drawing is a good example. I draw very badly. But that doesn't let me off drawing on the blackboard! On the contrary: if they see my blackboard drawings are pretty awful, they are encouraged because they understand that 'if my teacher draws like that and it's OK, then, I'm allowed to do less-than-perfect drawings as well!'
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