esl ::: emily's so luscious

Practicum, Day Thirteen ::: ProfObs3

I think I've found a place for the computers in my class. They make good warm-up, and the students who arrive early can work to increase their vocabulary. I chose four different sections for them to choose from tonight, all of which related to my lesson. It would be nice to find another computer program that sequentially followed my train of thought for the class, but I'll stick to the one I have for now. It's fairly interactive, if I make sure they're doing the activities provided. Only three students worked on computer tonight - all but one student came in way after seven, which was odd. Since simple seemed to work so well Monday night, I decided to keep this lesson as simple as possible as well. I went online to www.ingles-markets.com to see if they post their sales papers. Come to find out, they do! I made a vocabulary list from the sales paper (20 words), and printed out the ads for the ones I'd chosen (turns out that was a pointless exercise, but I didn't know that at the time). After I'd already printed those out, I went by Ingles and picked up some sales papers to use instead. I went over the vocab list with the class, and then put them in groups. I am not as good as group assignments as Pedro, but it worked okay, I think. Getting the students into the groups is the hardest part, b/c it's not what they're used to. I hope they get used to it soon, b/c I like how they interact with each other in small groups. In their groups, they went through the sales paper to find each item from the vocab list, and copied down the sale price. Then I had them make a list with a specific meal in mind, as if they needed to buy all the main ingredients for that meal. I didn't do a very good job explaining that one, but Chandrika helped out. By that point in the lesson, Yolande had asked to work on the computer, b/c she was bored - so I didn't have a translator! It was good for the other students to have to work at understanding, and good for me to think about how to explain things. On Monday nights, Pedro chimes in with translation (though I'm trying to limit this), and when Yolande is present, translating is how she keeps from getting too bored. I made a note to make sure activities have immediate context, whether it's true context or not. As for Yolande, I have got to start bringing challenging work to keep her occupied, so she can start improving. She's practicing, but she's not learning, and that is so frustrating for her. Chandrika suggested I bring in some novels, and design some questions on the reading. I'd also like to see if there's a high-intermediate text for non-academic reading. I think I'll see what she can let me borrow Monday. Back to the majority of my class, I still have trouble with keeping everyone focused and on task. The students like to chatter, and I want them to have fun - but I want them to have fun in ENGLISH! Aaron's idea of a stopwatch is a good one - I'm going to try that. Another thing I need to work on is getting their attention when I need to change gears. Aaron mentioned that I lower my voice when I need to raise it. I hope the video Monday night helps me see what he means, exactly. No matter how well I self-monitor as a matter of course, the video will show me miles of area to improve on. I feel pretty good about tonight's class, compared with last Thursday night. I know it could be better, but I think I'm making some improvements as I go. I look forward to hearing what Chandrika has to say.

posted by E.M @ 10:43 PM