esl ::: emily's so luscious

Practicum, Day Fifteen

Quality control was the order of the evening. Since I blundered in Monday's class, I needed to bring in the same content, but make it more palatable. I trimmed down the vocab list, limiting it to 20 familiar words, all of which have a container of some sort. The students were a bit skeptical, since they had already seen all these words, and we didn't really use the picture dictionary. I used the pronunciation practice to work on some individual sounds they've been having trouble with. This later prompted Malinda to go over vowel sounds again during her segment of the class. I finally figured out how to uncover the whiteboard (behind a carpet panel wall), so I used it to do some semantic grouping with the class. I wrote some headings on the board, such as box, bag, carton, etc. I asked the students to tell me something that comes in a box, and they took off with it. That worked well, and they even used some words that were not on their vocabulary list. :) Next time, I think they'll understand the format well enough to write the words on the board themselves. After they had the words in their groups, I asked them to complete the phrase on their vocabulary worksheet (which was set up like: "a _____ of flour). We then went over pronunciation of the whole phrase, concentrating on linking. This was my first quasi-successful attempt at teaching them linking, and I'm rather excited about it. After the linking, I made a sign that said "bi-lo" (thanks for the idea, Connie!), and students took turns being bi-lo or the customer, asking and answering how much certain items are. That also worked well, considering it was their first roleplay exercise ever. Like the groupwork, they'll get used to it. They seemed to enjoy it, especially since it gave them an opportunity to tease each other.
I've been trying to self-monitor my transitions, and I think I did a little better tonight. I know everything went much more quickly, but I'm not sure exactly what I did. I was very aware of trying to give clear instructions, and I made a conscious effort to keep my voice level up (instead of lowering it like I've been doing). The voice modulation is interesting ... instead of becoming louder, I seem to firm my voice a bit, which gets their attention. I can't be sure that I've hit the trick, but I'll continue to monitor it over the next few weeks. I'll be working on how to do that for my action research plan, and I intend to put it into practice. How better to learn than by doing it?

posted by E.M @ 10:25 PM