Magpie Moments

A WriteWays experiment...

Really interested in this offering from JR last week so had a go this week with my E1s. Their writing skills are generally quite a way behind their speaking and the first unit seemed ideal for their level so I got them to do the initial piece of writing and then inputted it into the template very generously shared by Jason.

This is what I ended up with:

Download Writeways_lvl_1_unit_1 adapted for A's E1 class

So how did it go? Well it's certainly given me a lot of food for thought and again brought home to me just how complacent and frankly lazy I've been over the last few years especially with error correction. Also, the intrinsic difficulties of teaching classes of learners some of whom have study skills whilst others don't.

This class is made up of mostly Asian learners and also some Polish learners. Interestingly the Polish learners  immediately noticed the difference between the passages and very easily corrected not only their own punctuation but also their grammar using the model to help them. (I didn't ask them to do that) However, the Pakistani learners found the incorrect passage easier to read despite the errors mainly because it was about a more familiar person. They didn't really notice the errors!!

However, after some more explicit explanation they did begin to get the hang of it and what was really encouraging was some of them began to notice that they were using capital letters throughout their work for words like Live, Favourite, Mother etc...  and were self correcting.

The part that made me hang my head in shame was just how easy and natural it was for me to simply tell them their errors. Especially at the end, after the follow up writing and dictation, as I was running out of time. So, despite having just witnessed some 'aha' moments for some of them when they were self correcting, I just pointed out their fresh mistakes and wrapped up the lesson.

However, if they really can begin to self correct and notice their own mistakes that's a priceless study skill that would have been really worth teaching them. And by they  I actually mean if I can persevere with this whole noticing approach rather than falling back on old habits. Since it was clear from this class that they definitely can self correct it just takes more initial effort from me!

I will definitely try the second unit after the half term holiday although I might not do it all in one chunk as I did today as it's quite intensive. However, definitely well worth it both for them and me :-)

Giving Feedback...

One of the things that I keep coming back to with this whole teaching unplugged thing is collecting and giving feedback. I don't feel like I do it particularly well or regulary.

I watched this the other night about some people unplugging their CELTA intial teacher training course.  It does take an hour to watch but it was fascinating for all sorts of reasons! I'd love to go on some kind of two day CELTA update course along those lines... with regards to feedback (which starts about 26 minutes in) I loved how they listened to their trainees and demoed giving feedback on their language before asking them to listen to their learners and helping them give feedback in the same way to their learners.

The other thing that struck me about feedback recently was what Cecilia Cohelo said here about words and their power. What struck me in particular was the examples she gave of comments e.g. we often  respond to learners with

“Great!” “Perfect!” “Good job!”  instead of really listening and personalising the comment e.g. “Great! I also like going to the beach on my holidays Julia!” or “Yes! And what was the last film you’ve watched Lucas?”.

Both these kinds of feedback - the form focused and the content focused require that I really listen to my learners and I find that quite challenging.  However, one of the things I like about the whole unplugged approach is it does seem to free up a lot of time to do this. So I'm going to make an effort to begin regularly giving my learners feedback that is genuinely helpful and affirming not just a surface response that maintains rapport without any real substance.

Circles of Similarity...

Had a lot of fun with this today (from onestopenglish) in my E1 class... again amazing the difference a more unplugged approach is having with this class!

They had some great conversations with their poster papers and circles. Then once they'd finished talking... I got them to do a bit of collaborative writing on their similarities/ differences. This class struggles with 3rd person s and subject verb agreement so was really useful e.g. I like coffee but Salma likes tea. I'm from Poland but she's from Pakistan. I have a car but she hasn't got one.  This led on to a spoken presentation of their written work and then in the break I was able to write up some errors on the board which we went through before a quick fun game of spelling play /pass again from OSE.

Another, fun, useful and satisfying lesson for all concerned! You can tell I've been reinvigorated its 1.30 am and I'm still writing about work!

Wizard English Grids

Now these don't look all that pretty and to begin with when I saw them on the English Raven's blog I wasn't too sure what to do with them but I've since tried them twice. Once with my Burmese absolute beginner refugees and once with my mixed nationalities Entry One group. It was a learning experience that didn't work 100% with the beginner group. However, the E1 class was amazing.

I've really struggled with this group... none of my go-to ideas work that great... however, since trying a more unplugged approach I've really began to enjoy teaching this group.

So the lesson: Well the syllabus and exam does not require more grammar of them at this state than present simple and continuous so this activity was a bit risky.

I started by just chatting as they came in. I asked them what they did at the weekend. What they like to do normally and what they will do next weekend. Some great conversation ensued including teaching one of my Polish learners that the word he was looking for to describe how he felt after a fairly heavy weekend of drinking was rough. Then I handed out the grids and demoed on the board what I wanted them to put.

Then off they went... finding out from eachother. I've done FSW / grid activities before but the questions have already been provided. This gave them the freedom to ask a question in the past, present and future and it was easy for me to monitor and correct slips e.g. "you work last weekend?" "Oh sorry I worked last weekend" Despite not being on their syllabus it was well within their ability as we were not massively focusing on the form but rather communicating about their lives.

Loved it! Could easily have developed into a writing activity if I'd had time but "letting it run" worked so well that it lasted way longer than anticipated with all my learners fully engaged with eachother despite language, cultural, religous and gender! barriers!

Thanks again to Jason Renshaw!

 

Live Reading

One of the shiniest jewels I've recently discovered is Jason Renshaw's blog. This guy is prolific every day there is something new and it's giving me such a lease of life. I've tried several of his ideas... some with a certain amount of trepidation but so far every one has been a complete success.

The Live Reading looked interesting so today I tried it with my ESOL Entry Three group of Asian ladies. Seeing as it's Valentine's Day on Monday I thought that would be a good place to try. So armed with my Wikipedia entry and a few key words I started the conversation. Chatting with this group is never hard and we had 20 minutes of free flowing conversation where I asked them questions and they asked me some. They were really interested especially in the story of St Valentine.

Then despite nerves and a temptation to do something I knew would work like the Music Live from London I had prepped as a backup... I went for it. Wow it was so much fun. My ladies loved it. They were all shouting out ideas, suggestions, even the quieter ones would come up with just the right phrase at certain points. They were very enthusiastic, told me how much they needed activities like this and I know that they will retain a lot more about V Day than if I'd just plonked a reading with questions in front of them.

Here's a picture of my (very messy) but 1st ever Live Reading!

 

Teaching Unplugged...

One of the first ideas I stumbled across online was Teaching Unplugged by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings. It made so much sense and despite having a department budget I decided to buy the book personally. It felt important for some reason and as I read it my lungs began to expand even further. The ideas these guys were expressing and quoting were like someone putting into words a fuzzy feeling you had from time to time after a class had gone well or when you'd taught a lesson without a brick load of photocopying.

The students asking the questions, relying on your interactions to direct the class, content being decided by them, language emerging organically, providing a safe and rich space in which you and the students can play. It sounded amazing. But then on top of that there were pages and pages of ideas ready to go. What more could you ask for?