Practicum, Day Three
Genia called this morning to talk about class. I feel this is good progress. We discussed some activities to work on in class, and it just happened that she'd observed a colleague's class last night, which gave her some "great new ideas". One of them was to go online to
Dave's ESL Cafe. Not exactly a new idea, but okay. Different, and not a textbook, so I'm game. I refrained from telling her that I've been researching ideas for using the internet and its resources in the classroom for almost a year now. Genia's colleague has been doing a unit on food and cooking. It's like my suggestions last week had to be reinforced by someone else, and then regurgitated as her own ideas for them to take hold. But since it allows me to implement what I'm working on for the class, I just smiled and nodded and told her she was brilliant. Hence, Genia encouraged me to take the class for the last hour of classtime.
Tonight I grabbed a handful of sales papers from the grocery store, enough for each student to have one. We talked about the names of different foods, sales and specials being offered, and where they do their grocery shopping. Then, looking at the sales paper, they wrote out a grocery list. Some of them were eager to read their list out loud, and others were hesitant. I'm beginning to see that some of them would be more outgoing in class if they had more confidence in their English skills, while others who never talk know more than they let on because they are so shy. I guess that would fall under "informal assessment". It was a good activity, and took the better part of an hour. Genia plans to take them to the grocery store for a field trip in a couple of weeks, and I showed her some useful pages in the picture dictionary that she can use for reference in the meantime. I don't want her to think I'm trying to take over, but I want the class to keep up with this new theme when I'm not there.
I feel like the grocery list activity fell a little flat tonight. I think a food magazine or colorful cookbook would have been better than the sales papers, which were a little overwhelming and text heavy. Instead of simply saying "beef", it was "cubed beef steak", and became complicated explaining that "beef" was the important word. I'm going to work on this and see what else I can come up with that might work better. The students didn't seem dissatisfied, nor did Genia, but I didn't see that it was much of a learning experience for them. If I rework it into a more communicative activity, I think they'll get more out of it.
Next week, I'm going to try out my "
Recipe for Writing" lesson plan. Last week, Yolande said she'd like to learn to cook some American foods, and the other students are interested as well. I hope it goes well (it could very easily turn into absolute chaos), because Chandrika is observing me that night. I could wait for another night to try the recipe lesson, and do something more staid, but I think I'll take the risk. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.
Practicum, Day Two
Class took place in a different room this evening. The room we were in had one table just big enough for everyone, and no whiteboard. most of the students reacted by being chattier than usual. A new student showed up, and Genia tests them as soon as they walk in the door. She asked me to take over with what she had started - just a packet of worksheets. The packet had been photocopied from some outdated workbook, and attempted to incorporate several different methodologies. There was a TPR activity, and a couple of conversation activities, and several matching exercises. I walked them through the worksheets, b/c Genia had asked me to, but I encouraged them to ask peripheral questions. We did a little with "How are you/I'm fine, thank you". I need to make an activity with more adjacency pairs, b/c they are eager to learn "appropriate" responses. One of the worksheets was a form letter ("Please excuse my son/daughter," etc), but the only things they had to fill in were the names. We went over Miss, Ms., Mrs., and Mr., b/c they seemed to be having trouble with the teacher's name. Turns out that was new information to them. The information on the worksheets mostly dealt with going to the doctor, body parts, common ailments, etc. Genia kept talking to them about learning the names for body parts b/c it's on the test (!!!!!). The students just looked at her blankly. I piped up and told them I felt it was useful for them to know these things b/c when they or their children are sick, they need to be able to communicate with the doctor. That registered with them. I shouldn't be angry with her for staying safely inside the text, but I get so frustrated that the students aren't learning purposeful language. The only thing I can do is try to be different myself, and make sure my lessons have a point.
Practicum, Day One
Tonight was the first night of my practicum. The teacher, Genia, is fairly typical from what I've seen of ESL teachers around here. She was nervous, b/c she apparently expects me to know lots more than she does. I don't feel like I know much at all right now, and it doesn't help that I don't really know what to expect. I guess next week I'll do more. Tonight I just read out the words for "body-part bingo". Genia has them working from the Side-by-Side workbooks, which are okay, but they need more communicative practice. I want to work on activities that get them out of the book. They seem to be dependent on pictures, which I'd like to get away from. They need to be more active. The facility is fairly good, but limited. I noticed at least three video cameras, and lots of A.V. equipment, but Genia says we're not allowed to touch any of it. We are allowed use of the computer, but not the internet. Basically we have a whiteboard, carpet-panel walls, one computer (
sans internet), and good seating with plenty of tables. I plan to ask the MPP secretary about the video equipment - hopefully I can use that to tape myself later.
The students vary from complete novice to intermediate. Seven students in all, mostly women. One student is from Korea, which is an interesting change. One student has progressed "to level two", and spends the second half of the class working on the computer. I didn't have much of a chance to get to know any of them, but I think when Genia is more comfortable, I can interview each student and do a needs analysis.
Overall, I think this will be a good experience. Maintaining balance with Genia is the key, I think. I guess it's inevitable that I learn to play well with others, or at least try to.
