Learning to Teach Better

I posted about the Canadian government experiment called Portfolio Based Learning Assessment and noted some of the issues I had with it. Here is a blog post by a teacher who has had more experience with it. Just thinking about teaching and how to teach better... http://blog.teslontario.org/reflections-on-the-implementation-of-pbla/#.WvCDXhcUOVN.google_plusone_share

Slide p 59/64 Social media and literature have really played a significant role in my classes. I have also used both in tests. Please take a look at ex 3 below.

I would like to comment on reading out loud and on guessing from the context tips. For the first one I would like to suggest my method. At first, me, the teacher read the text aloud so that students grasp the pronunciation. Then, I give time to students to read it silently in order to understand it and asnwer the clarification questions. In the end, I ask students to read it again aloud, play roles or change their voices in order to practice pronunciation too. This technique concerns younger students. As far as the guessing from the text is concerned, it is very amusing to let the students' imagination come in surface.

Hi Penny and everyone, week 4 live session was also full of useful insights and interesting tips, I learned a lot! Reading aloud Most of my students like this activity. In some of my classes, most of the students are really enthusiastic when it comes to reading aloud, they would ask me if they could read the text for the class no matter whether it’s a new text or one that they had already been familiar with. And I always thought that reading aloud was more student-centered. So, whenever we had a reading lesson, I always asked students to take turns reading the text for the class. After Penny’s 4th session I came to realize that it doesn’t always work that way (student-centered). Asking students to read aloud a new text (doing sight-reading) may not be very helpful as they may make mistakes in pronunciation, intonation, etc, and therefore they may not be able to understand the passage very well and at the same time they may also make it difficult for others who listen to have a good gr...

Last week, I approached a grammatical exercise following Penny’s advice about giving the students all the answers and then I asked them if there was something unclear. For me, it was a new technique and the students were surprised because in our teaching culture, we are not used to do so

Teaching corporate students and THOUSANDS of PAs, I often come across the use of acronyms in emails or instant messaging. Today's session has provided a considerable number of inputs for my future lessons (eg. re-writing words in full or viceversa - turn a message in its 'sms' version). Thanks a lot, Penny! :)

I've finally finished watching the video from Week 4 and I'm just so very happy to have done this course. Lots of food for thought, numerous practical tips and ideas and a fabulous constructive community. Huge thanks to Penny and all of the iTDi team! I'll certainly be recommending future courses to colleagues and trainees.

Thank you Penny for the great tips and for 4 weeks of information and ideas. I will be thinking about and implementing much of the advice as I'm sure the other participants will be doing as well. For me, this week had some interesting ideas about reading and check comprehension. For example, I really enjoyed reading out loud and guessing new words by context when I was a student because it was almost like a game. However, I also have vivid memories of some of my classmates painfully stumbling over words (even though we were all native speakers). I hadn't really thought about those kids before even though I am sure some of them exist in my classes now. While I wouldn't remove it altogether, I will think more carefully about when and how I ask students to read aloud. As for comprehension questions, I had the same experience when I was studying Japanese in university. I usually get around it with my students by asking them to perform some task based on the reading (usually deb...

Hello everyone! I'm so sorry I couldn't be there live during the last couple of recordings. Just finished watching Week 4 and I had to stop myself from typing my thoughts and praise for all the fantastic ideas shared into the chat box, so here is my (lengthy) response to another excellent session! There were plenty of great activities to try out for teaching reading, some of which have confirmed my own beliefs, such as Tips 1 and 2, not letting students read a text aloud if they've never seen it before and pre-reading for them. It is incredibly daunting reading aloud in a foreign language anyway, let alone something they haven't come across previously, especially for weaker students. One of mine doesn't even like doing it in her own language, so much so that the school told us not to force her to read things aloud (English is ok though, apparently!) TTT is again called into question here, but these are incredibly useful tasks for our learners! I always let them hea...

READING In the Reading section the ‘don’t do guessing from context’ is the most interesting point for me. I believe once upon a time I came across some research which claimed that it was not the most effective technique, so this idea has not come as a surprise for me. However, I think it might work at least partly, which can be enough when reading for gist. What I do not quite understand though is why asking which part of speech the word is doesn’t add to the comprehension. From my point of view, if a student doesn’t / can’t pinpoint the part of speech, they are not able to use even a bilingual dictionary correctly as the meaning quite often depends on the part of speech. Moreover, when it is time for them to use the word, they won’t be able to use it correctly in a sentence of their own. WRITING I really like the idea of brief writing tasks to do in class. Most of my students seem to find writing one of the most challenging types of activities (even more challenging than speaking), so...

Session 4 was full of useful tips , I’d like to share my views and experience on reading aloud and guessing meaning from context as these two points resonated powerfully with me, my colleagues and other teachers in the community. READING ALOUD I have been dealing with reading aloud a lot in my teaching. On one hand a lot of students asked for reading aloud because they feel, as Penny mentioned in her talk, it’s part of their learning culture, they are used to it and like it. On the other hand, I clearly saw that reading aloud focuses on decoding and production rather than comprehension. I decided to accept the request from the students to read aloud in some situations showing understanding of their needs and preferences. I do believe that sometimes students are right and the teacher should follow their requirements to be student centered. However, I do explain a lot what is happening when they focus on reading and not comprehension. I show the logic behind reading for gist and detail,...

I think instead of commenting on the tips I just want to say that this online experience has been great!! I compare it to an all day workshop at a conference. In reflecting on what took place and how much learning took place I can honestly say that this gives F2F workshops at conferences some serious competition. I love going to conferences..... But - I found the extended time between sessions gave me time to reflect and think and try out and read other's posts -and communicate in a real way...I'm a little surprised at that. Of course the presenter is always key but I felt real communication, respect, appreciation happening between participants. The comments and replies were real - not just something that had to be done because of a requirement. Hmm - peer teaching. Of course!! Just like what happens in our classes. It was a privilege and joy to be part of this experience with you all. I wish you all happiness and success in your different places. Thank you for your generosi...

Hello everyone! So sorry for not writing earlier, it was a hectic week! I would like to comment on the first reading tip. I usually never ask students to read out loud with the exception of total beginners, since my goal there IS to practice pronunciation and text are usually quite short, so it doesn't take much time. Students in Serbia are used to reading out loud, so higher levels usually feel surprised if they read silently. The tip that really took me by surprise is number 3 - guessing from the context. I usually do Face 2 Face course books (huge fan, I must say) and they even have texts whose purpose is guessing from context. They do that with grammar as well and I am pretty used to it. I actually get two opposing ideas from my students - on one hand, they don't like to guess from context because it makes them think and reread and they prefer just to be given the words. On the other hand, higher levels have told me that they could read an unabridged English book with very ...

Thank you Penny for another fantastic week. Tip 1 on not asking students to read aloud was a really good reminder and made me think of so many language classes where we'd squirmed as students when called upon! The first language school I worked at also had us ask students to read silently but themselves but this was mostly recommended for shyer students and/or those with less confidence. On the occasions where I did get students to read aloud, it was often with the (misguided?!) notion that it would help them to practice/improve pronunciation, as well as identify difficult/new words. It was really good therefore to see you spell out the dangers so clearly, and all issues often applied! "They may make mistakes in pronunciation • They find it difficult to get the prosody right (timing, pausing, stress) • They may not speak clearly • ... so they won’t help other students to understand." Tip 2 on getting students to follow while you read works well with my students, too. In a...

Hi, I would like to thank Penny for her tips. To be honest, I was teaching writing and reading in a wrong way. for instance, I used to ask my students to read the text aloud and guess meaning from the context. I will definitely use the tips for effective reading and writing teaching. In Tunisia, technology is not used in teaching. But, I like your idea of using texting messages to improve spelling.

Thanks for all the insights and interactions everyone - it's been great to meet you all, even if it's 'virtual'. It'd be great to keep in touch and see how everyone progresses in their teaching and teacher development. I will be starting an MA in ELT in early 2018, so I've got some busy times ahead! In addition to that, I hope to keep my teaching blog updated (haven't had much time for it recently) and I'm looking at the conference schedule to see if there's anything worth attending next year. I presented at conferences for the first time this year (it's worth it if you've never done it before - it does help you to focus on your research), though I'll probably go back to being an active attendee for a while. On the non-teaching front, I'll be taking a short break with my family around Christmas to a spot in central Taiwan we really love, and I'm also training for a couple of half marathons. I've enjoyed the sessions - I think...

Another interesting session this week! This week was another lesson that made me question why we do the things we do: 1. Guessing words from context- This wasn't the first time I heard that guessing the meaning of words from context is ineffective. However, in textbooks and in our curriculum at our IEP, guessing words from context plays an integral role on what students should be able to do. The exercise that was presented during the class was an excellent example of how we can really incorrectly guess the meaning of the right word. It makes me realize what my students really do when we complete these exercises. In the end, I have to explain and describe what the word really means because the guesses have a tendency to be extremely off. 2. Don't grade the first draft- Before working at my current job, I never graded the first draft for the reasons outlined in the session. However, I started grading the first drafts in order to make myself appear to be "in line" and ...

Very insightful discussion this week- I'd never thought about the potential negative effects of asking students to guess words from the context. It's something I have done in the past and after this week's discussion, I will reconsider its effectiveness... It's also made me acknowledge the difficult students have when reading a text for the first time: they are thinking about pronunciation, comprehension & probably the fact that other class members are listening to them. Perhaps something to avoid in the future with lower level groups...

And I want to thank Phil from Malaysia who had shared a number of helpful websites during this session!

I love that Penny brought up about the use of L1. People here believe that using L1 in lessons is a taboo and those who are found using L1 could be simply labelled as incompetent. It is true after all that using L1 can also be a waste of time especially when it is incomprehensible. People suggest the use of simple English in second language classrooms to make input comprehensible yet often teachers are unsure of the level of simple English people are talking about. A brief explanation from Penny on the use of L1 has made me feel more confident with my teaching. Thank you Penny!