Learning to Teach Better

Sorry for being late this week. Between cooking and eating Thanksgiving and then some follow up dinners, plus my son being out of school for half the week, it's been hard to find free time! But I did watch the video yesterday and I'm honestly not sure I have much to say. I agree very strongly with many of the things said about L1. A few years ago while teaching in an IEP with very strong English-only rules, I ended up stumbling on some research on L1 use. I found it quite persuasive that allowing students to speak L1 can be very beneficial for all the reasons Penny said. I can also add that letting students use L1 can be good for their well-being and for building community. I've seen research that suggests it’s very demotivating to force students to never use their L1, especially if they are in school all day long, and especially where the English Only rules are enforced even in free time, like in the halls or the lunch room. If they can't speak their language and be f...

I've taught a lot of students that want every written error corrected, but they don't seem to actually look at the corrections. What I've started implementing is error logs. I correct their errors and use an error code to indicate the type of error. The error codes are fairly detailed i.e. perfect tense error, present tense error, preposition. When students get their essays back, they keep a record of the different types of errors they make. In subsequent essays, they add any new error types and keep a running count of how many errors they made of a particular type. They can also add any example sentences that help them see their error. Before students revise their essay, I ask them to go back, look at that error logs, and focus on their most frequent errors. I find it definitely helps them focus on their weaknesses and improve.

I learned a lot from this week's talk, not least of all, the classification of tasks at the end! More importantly, I really liked the tips on making the classroom a safe space, and I think it's a simple but radical idea to not start with speaking activities and to let shy students have their "quiet period" Many teachers I know who are considered the fun, kind, likable teachers kick their classes off with loud speaking heavy activities, and I always question that for more introverted students. It's definitely good to remember that students may need time to warm up. And also that the task should be at i-1 to let students practice successfully. I did have a question about making sure their speech is well-received. I certainly agree that we should make students feel that they are heard. I see that nodding and smiling, and echoing are all ways of doing that. But I wonder if providing more authentic feedback isn't better, where possible. If I am talking to a friend,...

Penny mentioned having students talk about what's happening in a picture. I love using odd pictures for that and I wanted to share one of my favorites. There's so much going on here that students always have something to talk about.

I was very struck very strongly by principle 1. I tend to be a bit of a discursive teacher and I enjoy chatting with my students, bringing up current events, or joking around a bit. I think too often I assume that if they are using English, they are learning, right? So I do need to be careful about using class time efficiently since learning time is such a small part of the whole day. I had never really thought about that before. The other thing that struck me was about differentiating students in the class. I suppose I have always looked at the problem of multiple levels as: my job is to bring the lower level students up to the level of the more advanced students. I think to some extent this has been beneficial. I often try to get students who are good at learning vocabulary to share their methods with those who are less successful for example, or ask students who love grammar to share their understanding with others, becoming mini-mentors. However, when Penny discussed the second pr...

Hello all. My name is Walton. I live in Branford, Connecticut in the US. I started teaching in the Peace Corps in 2001 in the island nation of Vanuatu. I also lived in Kazakhstan for 7 years. I've taught a broad range of students, mostly in private language schools, but I've also done speaking classes and test prep in public schools. Most recently, I worked at an Intensive English Program attached to the University of New Haven. I also write materials for publishers and language schools. I'm particularly interested in ideas for getting students to talk and error correction. How do you balance letting them express themselves with correcting their errors? And I look forward to hearing about new activity ideas.