esl ::: emily's so luscious

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Practicum, Day Eighteen::: Peer Observation

Heather came to my class tonight. Using my fabulous syllabus as a guide, I prepared a simple lesson for "setting the table".

More on that later.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Practicum, Day Seventeen ::: ProfObs5

My students were really hyper tonight, for some reason. Jamey came to observe again - my final prof observation. I was out all last week, to study for comps (btw, I passed!). Because of being out, and not having loads of time to prepare a lesson, I adapted my cooking lesson from a whiles back, but instead of following a recipe, we made brownies from a mix. I was excited to using a new lesson based on my new syllabus, and I had great expectations for the class. Unfortunately, it was a bit chaotic again. I take responsibility for that - I may have been out of my groove. I said WAAAAY too many words, again. I am trying so hard not to do that, and then there I go, chattering away like an annoying aunt. I know I'm doing it at the time, but I can't figure out how to stop. Also, the students' hyperness made them not want to speak English. They chattered a lot. In Spanish.
Giving students their instructions before moving into a new place works better than moving into the kitchen or into groups before instructions. That confirms my own analysis of that transition, so I was pleased. Of course, it didn't go perfectly, because I didn't give incredibly clear instructions, and I didn't hold their attention very well. They were so hyper and chattery and even more excited to be cooking in the kitchen, so that was a bit too much all together for my exhausted mind.
Situation aside, the lesson itself needed a specific language focus. I need to rewrite that lesson, and insert some activities that require students to produce language, and lots of it. The vocabulary lesson, which was intended to prep students for cooking instructions, didn't go well. One very big reason is that I didn't examine the text closely enough beforehand, assuming that it would be appropriate. But it included the word "sift"! When are they ever going to need to know what "sift" means? Never. Next time I do this lesson (if I ever do), I'll have a very specific vocab list, one more language activity for when the brownies are in the oven, and a wrap-up discussion to engage the students while they eat. And I really need to work on getting a timer and setting up some kind of English-only game.
Typically, the best part of the class was after Jamey left (not b/c of Jamey himself, but b/c the students calmed down a bit). I could tell we needed to do some classroom-y things to calm them down, so I reviewed the lesson Malinda had done last week. They needed that cool-down session, which I need to remember - if I always have a cool-down that pertains to the main lesson, they'll get that language focus I'm lacking.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

in other news ...

And now for the part of the show where Emily posts links to her other blog.
I've taken a break from your regularly scheduled programming to study for comps, but it's strange to be at home on a Thursday, knowing I don't have to prepare for class tonight.

Now, back to the studio!

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Practicum, Day Sixteen

Since I had to go to Asheville Monday night, Malinda filled in for me. She'll be doing the same next week, too, as I will be single-mindedly focused on comps. Since I'll be out so much, last week I told her she could start a unit of her own, and showed her the rough draft of my syllabus. We've finished up on the grocery-shopping for now, and I'm ready to move on to ingredient lists, recipes, and household cleaners ... since that's how I designed the syllabus ... but the unit she's working up is to do with employment. It's dead useful, so I'm not going to stop it, but it did cause a bit of disjointedness tonight. We split the class time, an hour of computer-work (only two students showed up for this) then an hour each for lesson. Continuing with the employment unit, Malinda led them through the job ads in the local freebie paper, and they talked about different jobs in the picture dictionary. My lesson, in contrast, seemed totally frivolous. I took a small story from one of the rejected side-by-side books, split up the sentences into single lines, added a few questions, and cut them into strips. I wrapped each strip around a piece of candy and put it in a plastic Easter egg (I put all my eggs in one basket, btw). Each student took two eggs, and read their line out loud. We put aside the questions for later. Then they worked together to put the story back together in the correct order. Then we read the story out loud, and answered the questions. The story was about the cultural significance behind meanings and traditions to do with colors, and the questions were more personal, like what is your favorite color, etc. I combined all the levels for the activity, b/c we had a brand-new novice tonight, who would not read out loud, and Yolande, who was able to help put the sentences together quickly. I asked her and Luis and Carmen to explain why they thought a sentence might go where it should, to get them to think about discourse markers. It was a fun activity, and they enjoyed talking about color-meanings in Mexico. They didn't seem to mind that tonight's class was disjointed, but I'd like to see a more cohesive three hours, rather than three separate chunks.

I felt I was taking a risk with the activity - it's a bit more challenging than what we've been doing lately, and less function-oriented. I've noticed they have trouble with function words when speaking, and so far all my lessons have revolved around content words. I needed a fun way to push their limits, without damaging their confidence. The risk paid off, I think. Mainly b/c by pushing those limits, I could tell a little bit about where they are, and where I need to go next. A little reading practice tonight, and when I get back from my week off, we can go on to cooking instructions. That's where the recipe lesson would fit, but this time we'll do a variation on that, and bake some something from a mix.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Self-Observation

First of all, here is a list of a few things the video showed for fact, that I was guessing about before:

I'm very casual - I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

I need to stay more focused in class.

My explanations are confusing.

I need to be aware of the actual words coming out of my mouth.

I say too many words. Too much filler - content words get buried and students can't tell what's important and what's not.

I need to make sure I pronounce words as they are said in conversation - always.

When watching the video, the first thing I noticed is how very laid-back I am. There's an open, friendly atmosphere to the class. However, sometimes my casual demeanor detracts from my teaching. This shows up during moments of transition, anytime when I need the full attention of the class and am unable to command it, and during explanations, when I am so conversational as to use too many filler words. I believe if I can stay aware of these, I'll find better techniques and use them consistently instead. Most of it is coming from lack of experience, lack of confidence, and self-consciousness (instead of healthy self-awareness). I don't know if that is evident to people who don't know me well - I happen to know those are the qualities about myself I particularly do not want my students to pick up on, so I'm compensating with casualness and charm. Hopefully that charisma will get me through until I actually do know what I'm doing. Until then, these are the things I do in class that could be better.
Pronunciation practice is not focused enough. It has a tendency to get boring, especially when there are too many words on the list, like this lesson. I could stop doing this part, but I’m not sure what an effective substitute would be. Sometimes it's fun - this happens when something from outside is brought in (like asking them if they know what tortillas are) - the key is to bring up something that will get them talking about the words.
My explanations are very bad. I think out loud, and this confuses the students, as I circumlocute to find the right words to explain something. The explanation of wine led to an interesting moment, but this was a confusing sidetrack.
When I transitioned from the first activity to the second, it should have been seamless because they were already focused on me, and already sitting in a large group. However, my explanation was confusing (again). Students either tune me out because they're only getting a key word here and there in the sea of words I’m throwing at them, or they seem to tune out because they're talking to each other to clarify what I’ve said. The problem with that is when they clarify for each other, they're not always correct, because they haven't heard all the instructions yet. This is a continuous problem, so during the lesson I give them time to confer for each item. During the instructions and some explanations, they don't know that they are supposed to be listening to me right then.
There were so many problems with this lesson in particular even before I saw the tape, so I don't know how much of that I need to discuss here. A list of particularly bad explanations, so when I bring those vocabulary words in next time, I need to work on them extra hard:

Cantaloupe

Several / a few

One-at-a-time / individual

Each / for one (students discussed this among themselves during a break, while I was working with an individual student - I already knew I needed to cover this again, and seeing this on the tape reinforced that)

The second activity should not have been so exclusive of the content meant for the third activity. I should have combined them, and shortened them. What I did was logical, but counter-intuitive, and I should have gone with my first instinct, which was to divide the list in half, and do both actions on each word together as a class, and then they could finish the second half in their groups. That might have been more successful. Again, this is something I’d already reflected on, but the tape confirmed my pre-tape self-analysis.
Some students compel more attention than others, but I must make sure to pay equal attention to all my students. Blanca and Ruth are both very motivated to learn, so I tend to focus on their needs, but sometimes other students have questions that go unheard because they lack confidence to speak up. This is something I suspected might be happening, but seeing it on the video confirmed it. I'm using the video as a classroom monitor, in a way. Since I can't see and hear everything while I’m teaching, this tells me what else is happening that I can't be aware of when it happens.
When I get annoyed with myself for giving a bad example or a confusing explanation, sometimes that comes across as frustration or impatience with the students. I must stay aware of that danger.
The transition into their small groups didn't go as smoothly as it could have. In fact, it was pretty bad. All I said was "okay" and as I mentioned earlier, I say so many words that the students are not likely to hone in on one particular word just when I need them to. The more confusing my explanations get, the more they chatter among themselves. Instead of giving one set of instructions to the group, I had to sit with each group and go over the same instructions three times. If I had commanded their attention as a class, it would have been more efficient. I think it was a good idea going to each group and sitting down with them to discuss any problems they're having, and make clarifications or suggestions. That's something I’ll continue in future. The actual getting them into groups worked better, but that's because I had thought about how to group them during their break.
Reflection comes naturally to me, partly because of my personality, and partly because of my experience in theatre. Watching myself on the video helped because I was able to confirm that my self-analysis has been accurate, and because it showed a few things I'm not capable of knowing while I'm teaching, such as what the students are doing when I'm elsewhere. I think I'll be able to function just fine as a teacher without videoing myself often, because I am actually able to monitor myself so well. That's not to say that I am able to change things while I monitor - I can tell I'm doing something badly, but I can't alter my course. That will come with time, if those with more experience than I are to be believed. The value of the video is, to me, much like "exhibit B", when the lawyer brings out the enlarged and digitally remastered security tape to prove what really happened on the night of April 3, 2006.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

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?

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Peer Evaluation 2 ::: Wendy

Wendy was missing a couple of students in her fourth period class - there were 3 girls and 4 boys, ranging from 9th through 11th grade. She seated me at the back table, which gave me a vantage point to survey the room. The classroom setting was what I'd call an organized jumble. Every surface was covered with art, signs, maps, and student work. The class goals and rules were also up on the wall, as unintimidating bilingual posters. The students faced the whiteboard, which doubles as an overhead screen, in three columns of school desks. On the computers in the back corner and along the wall were colorful collage signs, which had been made by the students the day before. Each sign had a picture that illustrated a vocabulary word, and a definition in the student's own words. My favorite was the sign for assassination: an "Extreme X-Men" comic book cover and the caption: "assassination: somebody kill you and you die".

Wendy had no trouble getting her students' attention (I tried to figure out how she did it, but it seemed effortless). They went over the vocabulary, referring to the collages they had made. Then she passed out copies of a reading on the Civil War. On the whiteboard, Wendy drew what she called a "double bubble," a concept obviously familiar to the students. They took turns reading, a paragraph at a time, taking time to pause and discuss new words or concepts, and to start filling in the double bubble (which was a non-linear outline for comparison). After each paragraph was read, Wendy asked a different student to answer a question about that paragraph. A small discussion about cash crops led to an excellent teaching moment in which the students had a chance to describe sugarcane to Wendy. She didn't know it was edible in cane form, and the students really got into their descriptions, which stretched their adjective use. Then the class worked through the post-reading questions together, one at a time. Next came a brainstorming section, when Wendy wrote "Civil War" on the board, and gave them 2 minutes to write all the words they could think of about the Civil War, drawing on vocabulary from today and prior lessons. Next they worked in groups to find 5 new words, and put them all into semantic groups. She took them to the computer lab to research topics on the Civil War. Wendy directed them to a website that presents American History in simple language without dummying it down. [http://www.americasstory.com]

During their group work, Wendy let me read their journals from yesterday - they had written their opinions about the Mexican-American War. The journals are an excellent idea. It gives them a medium in which to write without feeling constrained by too many rules, with freedom to write what they feel (no right or wrong answers). It teaches them to think critically. Wendy teaches them about current issues that are relevant to them, and encourages them to discuss. She helped them write a letter to Senator Dole, in lieu of the walk-out the students themselves had proposed. They all signed the letter, taking as much a part in democracy as students can. I was impressed by how she had handled that situation, and how she empowered the students.
Wendy's students are open and communicative, and seem to have a good time while learning. She is very much herself - at home in her own skin, interested in what the students have to say, commanding respect without belittling. I was impressed by the comfortable atmosphere. One thing I noticed is that it would be almost impossible to have a student-centered class at the high school level. They would be totally out of control. A few of the activities were student-centered, but otherwise, it's all teacher-driven.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Peer Evaluation 1 ::: Connie

One of the biggest challenges Connie faces in her class is not knowing how many students will show up for class, and if they do, what level are they, and how many of them were there last week for the lesson that this lesson builds on ... ? See the problem? I'm impressed by how well Connie handles this uncertainty - by forging right ahead, and dealing with whoever comes, catching up those who have missed crucial information from prior lessons. The problem tonight was that only one student showed up. However, b/c she was videoing her lesson, she really needed to have class as usual.

First, she reviewed the time vocabulary from the last lesson. The student, Patricia, seemed to be very uncomfortable with telling time. She was a very-beginning novice, but I'm not sure she could tell time very well in Spanish, either. Connie used copies from the Oxford picture dictionary and flashcards to go over phrases such as: quarter of, quarter after, half past, etc. These were good tools, but the best was when she brought out the clock. She turned the little dial on the back to make it show the time on the worksheet, and that worked so much better, b/c Patricia could see the movement. Patricia had a lot of difficulty with "a quarter to". Using a quarter ($.25) to demonstrate the idea helps, but they haven't officially covered money yet. I noticed that Patricia says "I don't know" very quickly, when just a little extra thought will produce the answer. Watching the clock hands move helped her a lot.

About an hour in, Guadalupe peeked in the door, and Connie invited him to join the class. It's good that he did, b/c Patricia perked up considerably when the attention was not all focused on her. The pair together made more progress. Patricia was less self-conscious, and volunteered more answers. Guadalupe had apparently studied much of this information, but the practice was good. Too often, we assume that b/c a student is at a slightly higher level, they don't need to cover rudimentary language, when we should recycle regularly so that those basics don't fall through the cracks. When I found out she has access to the Heinle Picture Dictionary, I suggested she use the pages on time and time of day, b/c it worked well with my students. That seemed to help. I really like the basic words section of that dictionary - and it goes along with the first part of her course goals and syllabus.

Moving on from vocabulary practice, Connie made a sign that read "Bi-Lo" and put it in front of each of us in turn, and the rest took turns being the customer, on the phone. This was very good practice, and the students enjoyed it. They even added "thank you" and "you're welcome" to the end. With only 10 or 15 minutes left of class, Connie brought out her modified deck of cards (no face cards) for a game of "go fish". Her rules were weird - not that it mattered. It was effective practice for numbers and the students had fun.

Connie is calm and organized, which puts people at ease. She stays on track very well. It’s possible that staying so focused causes her to miss out on some detours to spontaneous teaching moments. Despite the fact that teaching isn't about a "bag of tricks", Connie has just that - she's worked hard to fill her bag with supplementary materials, to be prepared for two or ten students. After seeing her teach, the only tips I have for her are to be open to spontaneity and to learn the rules for “go fish”.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Practicum, Day Fourteen ::: ProfObs4

Every time I turn around, I'm being observed! Tonight I videotaped myself (well, Pedro worked the camera, on account of I don't know how). I haven't watched it yet, but I'm not too worried about it. I'm curious to see what I've missed by not being able to watch myself. Thank goodness we have video cameras - I think an out of body experience would not lend itself to effective CLT!
I had another computer disaster (a relatively minor one). I keep losing my phone connection at home, where I only have dialup. This time, my connection borked while I was sending myself tonight's lesson plan, so I never got it. And b/c I was using the same account, it didn't even save a draft. That's what I get for waiting till the last minute and depending on unreliable technology. When I got the my office and realized what had happened, I typed up a worksheet from memory, but I didn't have time to rework the entire lesson plan. That whole story was to explain why I was unprepared for class. In other words, the computer ate my lesson plan. That's okay - I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do, and tried it.
I had a huge list of vocabulary words. I guess in my effort to recreate the lesson, I overcompensated on the side of quantity instead of quality. I didn't realize until later that I had actually given them 36 words. In retrospect, I should not have included words like "avocado", which are sold individually - that should be a separate lesson. A box of cereal is fine, and a carton or jug of milk. But they still had trouble with "each" and "for one", combining the two to say "for each", which sounds awkward. We'll work on that another night. I'm going to recycle the list in more manageable parts. I felt like I was out of control, tossing words and phrases left and right, and then I wasn't able to juggle the questions that arose from them. Because the list was so large, each step took longer than it should have, and we didn't have time to combine as a class again after their group work. I wanted to go around the room and give them an opportunity to report, but hopefully we can do a variation on that next class. Ideally, I would have followed that with how to ask for items, and how to ask for the price. I'm not too worried about messing up tonight, b/c I know they're not damaged, they haven't learned anything incorrectly, it's just been a time set-back. I'm sure part of my out-of-control-ness was due to the camera, which switches the actress on. I need to video myself more often, to see how I look, but I wish I could be unaware of the camera. Does anyone want to come rig my classroom with hidden cameras? I'm sure the government has done that already - I just need to find a secret agent and convince him to let me see the footage ...
Back to reality!
Problems with tonight's class:
- Disorganized
- Huge vocabulary list
- Confusing activity
- Ran out of time so loose ends did not get tied up
- Teacher was out of control (actress button got pushed, maybe?)
- Transitions were still wonky
These are all things that can be prevented by thoughtful planning, time management, and careful self-monitoring.
Next class, I will pare down the vocab list, and see how they do with a bit of simple roleplaying. I'll keep it simple - simple seems to work consistently well for me, but it has to be deliberate. I need to let Malinda do some teaching, too, since she hasn't gotten a chance with all these observations.
That's not to say I don't appreciate the observations, b/c the feedback I get is quite valuable, and it doesn't disrupt my class at all. Not that I think the class would notice being disrupted ... we're a bit rambunctious at times. At any rate, I look forward to hearing what Jamey has to say about it.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

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.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Practicum, Day Twelve

Tonight was another big class, and I had planned for either big or small. I'm glad that worked - so commensensical! The lesson was for money and shopping. I used the Picture Dictionary as a guide, which worked rather well, considering that the pictures themselves for the shopping part are not very good. The students who arrived early worked on the computer, but as more students got there, I just pulled them off the computer and combined the group as a whole. I wanted to try that before I'm observed again. I did remove the side-by-side CDs, so the ladies working on the computer did the money/shopping section of the picture dictionary. Except Carmen, who works so quickly that she finished it and moved on to a chapter of her own selection. I will have to have backup sections for her in future, or pre-determined activities from the side-by-side that will go with the lesson. With the class as a whole, I went over the money and shopping vocab, and word partnerships. I learned the Mexican gesture for "cheap"! I suspected that my students don't use banks, with the exception of Yolande. I found I was correct in this assumption. We discussed the different words for banking anyway. I wonder though, if I need to edit that out of my course objectives. [Feedback on this would be helpful, Chandrika, Aaron, Connie and whoever else reads this.] After the break, I wanted to divide the class into groups. This is something I've been trying to figure out how to do since I began, but I never could get a grasp on it. As I started, Pedro came to the rescue. He split the class into three groups, and it was perfect. He actually split them according to level, but not homogenously. Two high beginners were paired with the low beginners; one high beginner with two low-intermediates; and two low-intermediates with one high-intermediate and a Korean high beginner. The key was to put the intermediates with Lee, so they were compelled to speak English during the entire process - this challenged them and included Lee. Very clever of Pedro, who seemed to do it without thinking. It's something I'll think about for future group work.
In groups, I asked them to write out a grocery list, referring to the food sections of the picture dictionary. I told them that they had $100 to spend, and could not go over that amount. I didn't have amounts written, so they had to do that from memory. They had no trouble with that, but I'd like to do some more with amounts. I discovered that they are not sure of how to write amounts. Often, the price included a dollar sign before and a cent sign after - logical, b/c we say both. I will need to plan that into the next lesson - how to read, write, and say prices. Overall, the class went very well. They were much more focused than last lesson - maybe b/c the class was larger, but more likely b/c I kept the lesson quite simple instead of trying to do worksheets that didn't make any contextual sense.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Practicum, Day Eleven ::: ProfObs2

I'm afraid my teaching takes the term "flexible" to a brand new level of madness. I planned a flexible lesson for possible groups, based on the numbers we've been having, and Malinda's participation. We had four students. They all came at different times. That's okay, but we needed to get started early so I could get some teaching done while Chandrika was there. Starting out on the computer is convenient with the staggered arrivals, but I have got to get them off the Side-by-Side! I just can't seem to juggle it, and it's not tied in to the regular class material. I tried to do the lesson I'd planned, but somehow the time gets away from me, and it turns to crazy. I let them spend too much time on the computer, b/c they seemed to be enjoying it, and I want them to do those activities. Then they took forever getting back from their break, though I'm sure I said five minutes. I did the warm-up discussion that I'd totally skipped earlier ... and that was useful, to find out what they'd studied before, and it got them thinking about the language. I think that worked out pretty well. I skipped around in my lesson plan, and did the worksheet before the vocab review, which was fine, since they'd been over that vocabulary before. Somehow, though, the worksheet didn't contain them at all. By that, I mean we talked about all kindsa stuff instead of the questions on the worksheet. Now, as far as I'm concerned, that's fine, on account of they're producing language, they're practicing conversation, and they're learning without even realizing it. We talked about last names, Gloria Estefan, J-Lo, basketball, weather in Mexico, butterflies, holidays, parties ... and some of it was related to the lesson, and some of it wasn't. I didn't manage to get them writing down sentences in English, which was something I'd really wanted to do. Maybe that's not as important as getting them to speak English while talking about something they're interested in, but the lack of structure concerns me. Shouldn't I be able to do both? I don't know if I lack confidence in my lesson-plan, or if I was too laid-back about it, but it didn't happen. After Chandrika left, we briefly reviewed the vocabulary, which again went off in a tangent about money and pronunciation. We were having conversation in English, about English, and I was able to answer questions for them, so I didn't stress too much about it. I can do fun, communicative, conversational, but without structure, I'm afraid any learning becomes accidental. How do I bring structure to this process, make it work, and stick to it?

Monday, March 13, 2006

Practicum, Day Ten

I had a new student tonight, but I refused to test him. I've tried it the other way, and it was horrid. It's just too much to yank a student out of class their first night and make them take a test. They don't get to participate in class, they don't meet the other students, and it makes them never want to come back. I filled out the registration form, and if the substitute (likely Genia) doesn't want to test him Thursday night, I will do so when I get back. I tried to prepare Pedro to take initiative with class content next week, since there will be a substitute then as well.
It looks like I'm going to have at least two groups, which I may be able to divide into three. Group size is largely based on the number of available computers, which I do not like. But for now, I'm using that to my advantage. I want to make sure the basics have been covered. Numbers, time, seasons, days of the week, money, etc. Tonight we started at the very bottom, with numbers. This is also a good way to introduce the new computer program, since the subject matter is pretty much review for most of them. The first group of students who came wanted to work on the computer, so I let them warm up with the old side-by-side program. Then when another group of students had arrived, I had them switch places. The early birds sat at the table with Pedro, who went over pronunciation and vocabulary for numbers. The later arrivals (students I know a bit better) went to the computers and I got them started on the picture dictionary cd. I made sure they knew how to click on each item and then the symbol to play the pronunciation, and showed them where to go for activities - I told them to do the word-search and the matching exercises. While the groups worked, I circulated, kind of overseeing everyone's progress (including Pedro). It is such a weird feeling to be the one in charge!
Two more students came in while Pedro was doing the book lesson, so they joined his group. When it was time to switch, I had a leftover student, but Ruth insisted she would rather work with me than on the computer, b/c she wants to "work on grammar". When we switched, I showed Pedro how to work the computer program, and let him be in charge of that group, while I took over the book lesson. That worked well, except Pedro isn't very skilled with computers. I'd noticed that he went too far into the book. He doesn't really know how to get the students involved with conversation about the vocabulary, which is perhaps the most important element of the lesson. I didn't go as far, but I learned that few of my students (even those I would place at low-intermediate) know how to tell their street address. So we worked on that. We worked on the difference in pronunciation between "third" and "turd", and when I told them that the latter was a "not very nice word", they worked so hard to make the "th" sound! I spoke to a couple of the more advanced students about how far backward we're going, but they said the review is very helpful to them. That's enough for me. For the next few weeks, I'm going to focus on getting all students started at the same place. If that means major review, so be it. Kay expressed "concerns" about lack of progress for three students in particular. One of the students she mentioned seems to be stuck at beginner level, but the other two are the most advanced. One of those is high-intermediate, and was being relegated to the computer as soon as she arrived in class, and was thus removed from all class conversation practice. I plan to change that. Unfortunately, she hasn't been to class in several weeks.
For the next few weeks, I plan to work through the "basic words" unit in the picture dictionary, with all levels, giving all students an opportunity to work on the computer (this might mean three shifts). During this time, I'll do some additional informal assessment so I can ascertain which students need to be given more challenging work. Until then, they can review, and continue to get communicative practice.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Practicum, Day Nine ::: PeerObs ::: Aaron

Carmela came back! We had another big group - 14 students this time. Other than that, class felt like a total disaster. Aaron came to observe, and I met my new Thursday night assistant, Malinda. I was just getting set up with computers and papers, etc, when here came Genia to do something to some paperwork. She asked me about some other papers, and I realized I'd left them at the office. Aaron, being the wonderful friend-cousin he is, went to get them for me. I wanted to start the students on the picture dictionary cd, but for some reason that didn't work. And for another change, a big group of students came all at the same time, so I didn't have enough computers for all of them. And I didn't have a workbook activity for the others. I spent a few agonized minutes worrying over this hitch in the routine that had seemed so smooth when Genia did it. And I had no idea how to use Malinda. Somehow I ended up with all the students sitting around a table (I think they sat down and looked at me expectantly), and I took out the big paper easel to go over ... contractions? We'd done some stuff with this before, so it should have made more sense. I think everything was just off a bit, and I know it's b/c I felt totally overwhelmed. We muddled through the contraction lesson for a while, which was confusing for them. I explained as best I could, and Yolanda translated like she does, and Aaron piped in with some helpful comments (thanks, dude!), and I made them laugh by elaborately ripping the paper off the easel every time I filled up a page. I figure if they're more likely to learn if they're having fun, whether that's sound methodology or not. I think I might have managed to pull through the lesson eventually, but never got the chance (and I may never have been able to salvage it), b/c there seemed to be loads of interruptions. Kay came in and needed me to go over paperwork with her Right Then.
I had to leave Malinda in charge and let her jump right in while I was carried off by Kay to take care of paperwork. I hate paperwork. I told Malinda we'd been working a bit with cooking and food vocabulary, so she and I chose a few pages of the picture dictionary to go over. I told her to stress punctuation and use more than going over every word, but I think she might have just run down the list. That's fine, b/c they've seen most of the words before, and she was doing great for her first night. So after Kay left, I let Malinda finish out what she was doing, and then it was time for the baby shower. For some reason, the whole night is a bit blurry for me. Aaron left at the break, and Malinda and I took some time to go over ideas for dividing the class, and what text to use. I'm excited that she likes the picture dictionary. I love it, and the companion cd-rom is great! She liked my idea of splitting the class, which is to give her the beginner group - she can split it into two groups, one on computer (all working on one pre-determined activity on the picture dictionary cd-rom), and the other in a small group with the picture dictionary, in discussion on the same topic as the computer activities. While she's doing that, I can work with the more advanced group on pronunciation and grammar. Then in another segment we can do interactive games, group activities, and conversation practice. She has a communicative approach that I heartily approve of. I think we'll get along very well. I always hate to have a pointless class, but I'd really have liked this one to go well, since Aaron was observing.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Practicum, Day Eight

I had three new students tonight! Isabel, a semi-regular student, brought them - her mother-in-law Silvia, sister-in-law Carmela, and Carmela's husband Miguel. They all came a bit early, so I decided to try Genia's immediate testing thing. OH I am never doing that again. I started them all with the low-intermediate CASAS test - 31 or 32, I think. Well, it was too easy for Miguel, who only missed one question. And Silvia refused to try it, insisting that she couldn't read it at all. So I had to give her the test for non-readers. She did too well on it, but fortunately her score was still below 180, so she is officially a novice-beginner. I gave Miguel a second test, and he placed intermediate-high. Carmela placed right in the middle, low-intermediate. Have I mentioned how much I hate the CASAS testing? It is too vague, and I don't think it's accurate. Carmela took a long time on her test, and thought about each answer. But when I asked her questions for the needs assessment, she turned to Miguel for translation. This could be cultural, but whatever the reason for it, I have to put a stop to it. The first four students who arrived worked on the computers, as is their wont. Pedro helped with that, which was great. I was trying to get the new students' paperwork together and figure out Genia's filing system when the other students arrived. I tried to split the class between intermediates on computer and beginners on book (I need to work on this class division thing), and had Pedro go over their homework that Genia had assigned last week. Then they worked in the book. Everything seemed to take forever tonight. During the break, Yolanda organized Carmen's baby shower for next class. She had everyone draw a slip of paper from a basket to determine who would bring what gift. I drew, and of course it was written in Spanish. I acted like I had never seen a Spanish word before, and exclaimed, "Oh no!!! I can't read this!!!" They all laughed, and several of them tried to translate (pacifier). This gave me an idea - after the break, we'd make sure we had English translations for all the items on the list for the shower. I also wanted to make sure everyone knew each other, since we had the new students. We sat around one big long table (we had 13 students!), and I started by introducing myself: "My name is Emily. I was born in South Carolina. I've lived in Franklin for 25 years." I was amazed by the combinations they came up with for introductions ... "My name is ___. Me living in Franklin quatro ... sorry ... four years." Mental note: go over "I" vs "me". I didn't want to over-correct, but I led a little "discussion" of how we introduce ourselves. Then we brought out our slips of paper, and worked together to find the English word for each item, and discussed each one. Some of them were easy, like "blanket" and "towel", but Lee, the Korean student, had "bottle" and she wanted to know what size bottle to bring. That led to a gesture adventure, with several of the Mexican students taking part. She eventually understood - I think she may have just wanted to remind us that not all the students speak Spanish. She is way smarter than Genia gave her credit for, but I've noticed that she relied on Genia's slow/loud speaking style, which makes it harder for her to understand my laid-back conversational style. It's not like I talk very fast, so she'll catch on soon enough. After we'd finished the list of gift items, I passed around a list for food items, which they had to write in English. They consulted their picture dictionaries, and each other, and came up with who would bring what, in English. I was very pleased with how well that went. Their spelling is pretty bad, but we can work on that as we go. I hate that I lost the first half of class for the stupid testing. I'm not doing that again. I'm afraid Carmela won't come back. She didn't seem to be having fun at all, and her baby cried so much that the babysitter brought him in before class was over. I hope she will - the other students were welcoming and encouraging, and it wouldn't take long for her to gain the confidence to become independent from Miguel's translating. On Thursday, we're going to have the shower for Carmen starting at 8, and I want to get an idea of where they are as far as grammar and vocabulary go. Last week I noticed problems with contractions, so maybe I can start there.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Practicum, Day Seven

We had eleven students tonight - what a difference from last week! For Genia's last night, the students threw her a surprise party with food and presents. She was very touched, and came very close to crying. I thanked her for guiding me into the class, and told her I appreciate having the opportunity to work with her. This was not a lie, b/c I learned a lot about what not to do ... and tonight I realized that she is very good at working from the book, while I am NOT. I tried doing some book exercises with them and it was dismal. Is it the materials, or is it me? It just seems so pointless to drill the nuances of asking and answering "where am I, where are you, where is he" when the answer has to be in the form of a contraction, but they don't understand how to make contractions. I want to leave the book for a while, at least till I can design some interactive exercises around it. Since it was her last night, I felt it was important to let Genia drive the train. She wanted to make sure I knew where all the students were in the book, and how to set up the computers, and how to do the ever-present paperwork. The students were very hyper and chattery, so it was hard to do anything as a group. I don't know if Genia was waiting for me to quiet them down, or if she just didn't know how ... I didn't worry about it. I just kept interrupting them to ask what they were saying, so they'd say it in English. Five seconds later, they were back to speaking in Spanish. I guess I'll start attacking that problem next week.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Practicum, Day Six

Tonight only three students showed up for class, so it's a good thing no one came to observe me. I met Pedro, the assistant, and he is going to fit in nicely, I think. He doesn't seem to overuse Spanish - answers questions about English, and helps with instructions. That, I can handle. Kay brought another laptop, so now we have four laptops and a desktop, which is enough to split the class into two groups (when we have a full class, that is). Genia has been doing that already, working with beginners on computer and low-intermediates out of the book, and then switching after the break. I like the idea of having two groups, based on level, but the computer/book combo isn't communicative. I'm willing to use it, b/c the students have said they like using the book (I'll find out more when I do my needs assessment), and I can see that some of them enjoy the computer. Starting in March, I want to try a cyclical pattern with my class, since it seems to be working for Aaron. I'm thinking something like:

6:00-7:00 - Individual book or computer work (some students come early to catch up or review)
7:00-7:25 - Beginners on computer, low-intermediates on book
7:30-7:55 - Whole class communicative activity (with movement)
7:55-8:05 - Break
8:05-8:30 - Low-intermediates on computer, beginners on book
8:35-9:00 - Whole class communicative activity (with conversation)

Genia and I winged (should that be "wang"?) tonight's class, since the lesson I'd planned depended on a full class. Lee and Carmen were there early, and Genia had them started on the computer before I got there. I had just started playing with the Heinle Picture Dictionary CD-Rom when Luis came in, sometime around 7:30. It's a good program! It's not fancy like Rosetta Stone, but it will actually do more, aside from the pronunciation demo. It's divided by topic, like the print dictionary, and once you choose a topic, you can "explore" a picture which includes common vocabulary related to that topic - you click a little circle next to a dude wearing a hat, and a little picture of the hat pops up at the bottom of the screen, along with the word "hat", and a little speaker icon, which you can click to play the pronunciation demo. After you've played with that for a while, you can go up to the top and pick a tab - activities, reading, spelling, etc. I checked out the activities, which include flashcards, wordsearches, matching, and I can't remember what else. Carmen loved the wordsearches. I set her up with that, and stayed with her to help with pronunciation and explanations when needed. Genia worked one-on-one with Lee, and Pedro with Luis. It was a bit ridiculous to have three teachers for three students, but at least they got plenty of attention.
I've been thinking a lot about needs assessment, and what kind of questions I want to ask for this class in particular. I need to know if they want more or less bookwork, and if they want it, do they like the way it is or do they need something different. I need to assess their level individually, b/c I don't think Genia has identified them accurately. Do they want to work on the computer, or is it a waste of time? For those who don't want computer, would they like to work ahead in the book, or do I need to make additional worksheets for them - would they like to use flashcards? ... Do these things go in a needs assessment?
We're approaching a time of transition, when Genia leaves. It seems to be a perfect opportunity for me to reassess and implement changes.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Practicum, Day Five

If any learning occurred tonight, I fear it was accidental.
SCC has provided a few laptops for our class, and Genia has been working with the students in shifts - beginners on computer while she works from the book with intermediates, and vice versa. The program we have is the Side-by-Side Interactive series. I miss my computer lab in Cashiers with Rosetta Stone and Internet access on every machine. I worked one-on-one with three of the five students, two on computer and one on book. I think computer skills are something we'll need to work on, if that's something they want to learn. If they will never need to use a computer, why should I waste learning time on teaching them to use the touchpad on a laptop? The program itself is not stellar enough to warrant learning computer skills just to access the few activities it provides. The listening portion is pitiful. I shall have to look into the program more closely. I may write a review and submit it to Kay so she knows what kind of materials she's giving us. I don't think much was accomplished tonight. Genia was more scattered than usual, but seemed intent on teaching me everything she knows.
See, what happened was:
Kay called me last week and asked me if I had Mondays free, and I was asleep so I said no. WTF was I thinking? I knew she was checking to see if I could take over the class (for pay) when Genia leaves, but I was too sleepy to connect that to what I was saying. Fortunately, Kay isn't in a huge hurry, and hadn't ruled me out. It helps that I'm already on the payroll at SCC, b/c of the class I taught in Cashiers for a while. I called her the next day after the sleepy-call, and left her a message that I could rearrange my schedule - I managed to make it sound like I'd been checking with several people to accomodate the Monday schedule, but really I only asked Aaron if we could meet another day to study for comps. Funny the things you can do with language without lying.
Anyway the point is, Kay called me again this morning, and though she did wake me, I was lucid enough to wake up fast and get myself a job (jeeeeoooooorb!). Genia's contract will expire March 2, so I'll be contracted starting March 6, for two nights a week, and I'll be getting paid to do what I'm already doing. w00t!!! In addition to the money (how I love the shiny shinies!), I'll be the one making decisions about class content and format! This is going to be great for the practicum.

I think it might be a positive thing that I've had to work with Genia, b/c it has definitely showed me what I shouldn't do in teaching, and it has been a lesson in diplomacy. I think I've learned my lesson nicely and now I'm ready to get the shiny shinies!

Those of you reading this, I need some help with something:
Pedro is a dude SCC hired b/c he has a connection with the place where our class meets, and is a fluent Spanish speaker (when will they understand that "able to speak spanish" not equal to "able to teach english"?). Pedro works with Genia's class on Monday nights, and he will be staying after she leaves, to assist me. I don't want to offend him, but I don't want my students speaking Spanish in class, not even with each other. I need to know how to keep him occupied in some capacity other than translator, so he isn't just taking up space and getting in the way. I know that sounds harsh, but I hope you know what I mean. He'll be in my class on Feb 23, which is when Chandrika and Aaron are coming to observe me. I would like to involve him in my lesson somehow, so that he has a function. For that matter, I'd like to also involve Chandrika and Aaron. This is where you come in. Any ideas on how to do that? I'm brainstorming on my own, of course, but six brains are better than one.
Go forth and Comment, please.

:)

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Practicum, Day Four ::: ProfObs1

< rant >
Chandrika observed me tonight. Only four students showed up for class. Genia theorized that perhaps they didn't want to come b/c they knew we'd be cooking again. Well, since I told her two weeks ago that I had a cooking lesson plan that I wanted to use, and that I would be using it for my observation, and she decided to rush in and "make biscuits" Monday night to start "her idea" for a "cooking theme", I blame her completely. For everything. Yes, including world hunger. I know I shouldn't be angry with her for doing that, but what was she thinking? Did she want to make it seem that I was following her lead, to retain her dubious "authority"? I feel like she resents my presence in her classroom. As we were leaving, I thanked her for letting me teach the class tonight. Her only reply was "you did fine." wtf?
< /rant >

Edited 02-08-06 @ 8:31 PM

All things considered, the lesson went well. Genia stayed pretty much out of the way, as if her pouting might bother me (it didn't). I stuck to the lesson plan as closely as I could, given my aversion to structure.
After giving up on more students showing up for class, we headed to the kitchen for the lesson. I used the Heinle Picture Dictionary to look at cooking vocabulary. Genia rummaged through the cabinet to find a few utensils to show. I went over the utensil's use, and the word's pronunciation. I think this could have been better - identifying the words by the object they represent gives learners a solid reference, but I didn't really know how to optimize that. I wasn't expecting that, and their interest caught me off guard. I started the recipe part, and realized I had no clue what I was doing. I held up the items we'd be using for the recipe, and asked them to identify each one. Then I went through the recipe line-by-line. I've noticed that when Genia asks them to repeat words after her, they repeat the tone as well. So I was determined that I would give them a whole phrase, so they'd have more than one word to mimic. We took some time working word-by-word as well. This part felt forced, even while I was doing it.
What I want to know is how to shift gears smoothly when that happens. If something isn't working, or doesn't feel right, how do I move on or change it? I've thought of just pausing and asking them if they have any questions. I love it when they ask questions. Sometimes I find myself so lost in what I'm doing that I forget to pay attention to them, and I miss questions, or funny "I don't get it" looks. When they're asking questions, I can direct the lesson to where they need/want it to go. For example, when we were going over the word "tongs", one student asked what the difference is between "tongs" and "tongue", which then led to the difference between those words and "thong".
When they were ready to actually make the cookies, I told them to have at it, and to speak English with each other. That didn't really happen ... Chandrika interjected at some point to ask Yolande to speak English, and Yolande actually started translating what Chandrika had asked! I got tickled, but I could see the problem. I suggested that they try two different ways in English before they resort to Spanish. If I continue to insist on that, I think they'll try. I know if they try, it will improve their English more quickly than anything else I teach them. The students worked very well with each other as a team, so I think I'll incorporate more group work. They seemed to be having a good time. While the cookies baked, we sat and chatted. The ladies decided to convince Chandrika that I'm a good teacher. I was surprised when Yolande said that she and Blanca don't even come on Mondays, b/c I'm not there. Ruth said she learns more when I teach than when Genia does. That made me feel good about what I'm doing, even though I know I have a lot to learn.
We had about fifteen minutes of class left after the cookies were done, which wasn't quite enough time for the writing segment, but I was going to get it started anyway. But two things thwarted me: 1, Yolande and Blanca had to leave early; and 2, right as we were taking the cookies out of the oven, Genia came into the kitchen and said that we'd just "take our break, since we didn't take one earlier". While we ate our cookies, I casually reviewed some of the vocabulary with Ruth and Maria, and kept conversation going in English.

I think the main thing they need is more practice speaking and listening in context. So what I need to figure out now is how to give them that.

P.S.
The cookies were great!

Thursday, January 26, 2006

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.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

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.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

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.