'Not Waving but Drowning'

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Monday 26^th, September, 2011

Too much work to do to spend time blogging so this will have to be short.

I had 4 grade 1 mid level classes today. My co-teacher for all 4 was SonSuJong, the head of the English department. SonSuJong is a really lovely person. I like her a lot. She seems like a natural authority figure and is really great at communicating with the students.

The lesson I used for these classes was the same lesson I used with the high level grade 1 classes last week. Whereas the high level classes really enjoyed the lesson and were active participants, shouting out questions and generally having fun with it my mid level classes sat through it in a deep, deep torpor. Why such a drastic difference?

The high level classes all seem like they are friends. They are happy and willing to talk to each other. There is a jovial, fun atmosphere in the classroom. It’s palpable. Just as palpable is the reserve and indifference emanating from the mid level students. Strangely, many of these same students are my best friends in the corridor. But as soon as class starts they close down. In the methodology class on Saturday we watched a video example of teaching a class of university students. And it was great. But I would really like to see an example of a teacher dealing with a class like my mid level students and turning it into a great class. I just don’t even know how it would be possible.

I had a goal this week (courtesy of Agnes) to not use any Korean in the classroom. I was full of determination. This determination crumbled during my second class. I would have tried anything to get a response from these students. Instead the lessons were mainly teacher talk and more teacher talk.

My co-teacher seems to recognize the problem. She spends the whole lesson translating and telling them what to do in Korean. Now that I am more aware of the effect this has in the classroom it is really depressing.

I have no idea what to do about these classes.

I will have to think more about it after the weekend.

'The Trick is to Keep Breathing'

In the middle of a stressful week so I’ll have to keep this brief. I just want to wrap up last week’s classes. I’ve been meaning to do this since Friday but things keep getting in the way.

Thursday 22^nd / Friday 23^rd September, 2011

I was able to observe another of KyuYun’s classes on Thursday. This time it was a middle level (ability wise) grade 2 class. Again she spoke primarily in Korean. Very little English was used at all. It was a review lesson for the upcoming midterms. Not only was there little English but the lesson consisted almost entirely of teacher talk. She would occasionally ask closed display questions. To support the lesson she had a PowerPoint and once again used stickers and stamps as incentives. As she spoke mostly Korean in conjunction with the PowerPoint could this be called dual-coding? I don’t think so. I didn’t really have a chance to ask her any questions about it afterwards. I want to ask questions but am wary of doing so. It is quite a sensitive area. I don’t want her to think I am questioning her ability as a teacher. I will think more on this after Saturday’s TESOL class.

The most important element of my Thursdays and Fridays are my 6 grade 3 classes. I have 2 on Thursday and 4 on Friday – the final, challenging hurdle of the week. Friday can be a rollercoaster; the 4 classes are back to back and each class’ response to a lesson can vary dramatically. I have learned to roll with the punches on Fridays. This Friday was no exception.

For grade 3 this week I tried to implement a highly structured lesson plan in the hope it might coral the disparate elements of the class together for a more cohesive lesson. It was not a resounding success.

In the first instance my grade 3 students were mostly impervious to my new small talk method – pair work before questions. It has been a couple of days so I will have to review the tapes in detail but I am fairly sure there was no dramatic improvement to the lesson introductions. Disappointing.

The overall lesson was based around using prepositions in conjunction with ‘There is…’ and ‘There are…’ I had several activities prepared. Some from a really great book I use called ‘Two Way Activities’ by Jill Hadfield (I can email it to anyone who is interested – lots of great lesson ideas). Most classes got through 4 or 5 of the activities I had planned. Unfortunately implementing the structured format was really exhausting. I had to set up, explain and lead the students through each activity. This seemed to involve a lot more teacher talk than I had planned to use. It certainly was not a victory for dialogism in the classroom although some of the pair activities worked well for those students paying attention. I had to cajole, encourage and exhort them on every step of the way. What’s the myth about the man who has to constantly push a boulder up a hill? If I had time I would look it up. Anyway, I feel like that guy – constantly pushing something up hill. One class ends, another starts and I just have to start pushing all over again.

I will not go into the exact details of the lesson here because I might write about it for the Methodology paper.

However, in each class there is always ore group of students who want to engage with the lesson, do the work and have a dialogue with me. It is not necessarily always the best students either. The problem is the class is too atomized. Little groups split off chatting or generally messing around or a couple of students just put their heads down and go to sleep. There are always 2 or 3 students whose English is so low they just aren’t a part of the lesson. There is a tacit understanding with my co-teachers that these kids just miss out. When I give these kids the handouts each week I feel like a fraud because I know they won’t do anything with them I am not going to do anything about it.

I need to wrap this up. One last thing – I asked the head of the English department about the problem I just outlined. In methodology and ICC we have been talking about how culture influences the way people communicate. Well my head teacher’s response was completely that of someone from a collectivist, Confucian, face-saving culture. She was so uncomfortable, so evasive and clearly didn’t want to talk about it. Very briefly, she gave me some very generic, non-specific advice and basically laughed it off – rather nervously. I did not press the issue.

Not had time to think about this in depth. I will think about what to do after Saturday’s TESOL class. (Too much work to do now)

‘Aint That a Kick in the Head’

There is a movie being advertised just now called Contagion. You may have seen the posters all over the Seoul subway. In the trailer for the movie lovely Gwyneth Paltrow thinks she has a little jetlag. Turns out she has a deadly new virus with the potential to wipe out human civilisation. Anyway, lovely Gwyneth dies in a very un-flattering, foaming-at-the-lips kind of way and then the rest of the world dies. Well, since about 8pm on Saturday I have been feeling like poor old Gwyneth. Any moment now I am going to keel over and die. Or I could just have the world’s worst case of man-flu.

Regardless, it has totally affected my work at school and for TESOL. Sunday was pretty much spent in bed. Although I did manage to intermittently drag myself from under the duvet and do a little reading. I posted some objectives on the blog. I may have been too ambitious.

However, some goals were progressed and some were thwarted.

Monday, 19^th September- 4 low level grade 1 classes with ImKyuYun (young co-teacher, fresh out of university)

I managed to record one of these classes but I have not had a chance to review it. More importantly however, I also managed to observe one of KyuYun’s solo low-level classes. I asked because I was curious to see how the Korean teachers handled the grape classes. Interestingly she spoke in Korean almost the entire time. She also relies on giving stickers as a form of motivation. I’m going to ask some of the other teachers if I can observe their classes too. I asked KyuYun about two students who were simply not focussed or contributing in any way. Her explanation was that they had no interest in English.

Tuesday, 20^th September – 3 mid level grade 2 classes. 1 grade 3 class.

I did not feel well today. Although totally drained and exhausted I feel I made some really significant, comforting observations.

My first two grade 2 classes were with the new teacher YongYon who just recently transferred from a different school. She is definitely beginning to settle in. She is middle aged and has been teaching for some time. Her style of teaching, as well as classroom management, is markedly different from that of KyuYun who was co-teacher for the 3^rd grade 2 class. More on the difference shortly.

My big observation was how well one of the suggestions from Saturday’s TESOL class worked; pair work before asking direct questions. I implemented this during the small talk at the beginning of class. I wrote 3 questions on the board. I made them repeat each question in choral repetition (Da-ra-ha-say-yo). I gave no examples of answers. Then I told them they had 1 minute to answer the questions. After 1 minute I randomly selected 9 or 10 students from the register and asked them a question. It worked incredibly well. I was so surprised and just so, so happy. And because they were giving good answers with more confidence than usual it was much easier to exploit the ‘F’ turn to ask follow up and elaboration questions. It seems like such a small thing, such a slight change but for me I have to say it felt like a huge step. Tom I will forever be indebted to you for this piece of good advice. How can something so simple change the entire tenor of the beginning of a lesson? Amazing.

I wish I had recorded either of these classes.

There were also important observations to be made from contrasting the effectiveness of YongYon and KyuYun’s co-teaching styles. YongYon stays at the back of the room and never intervenes, or translates unless I signal for her to do so. KyuYun on the other hand follows me around like a shadow translating everything I say. For the first time I was completely aware that the students in KyuYun’s class don’t really pay me any attention at all. I am going to have to ask her to step back in future but I am worried and nervous I will offend her.

My grade 3 class was a nightmare. It was period 7. The last period of the day. I was half dead on my feet. No significant events to report. It ended; I went home, fell asleep before 6pm and didn’t wake until after 6am. I can’t remember the last time I slept for 12 hours.

Today, Wednesday, 21^st September – 4 high level grade 1 classes

Today’s objectives were frustrated by technology. This week I have only been able to have the camera in the afternoon for some reason. When I got it this afternoon both the batteries were dead. Both! I will be lucky if I managed to record more than 2 or 3 minutes of each class. Extremely annoying.

The classes themselves went really well. Thanks in part to the new introduction technique. But also because the grade 1 high level classes are really wonderful classes to teach and this week’s lesson is a lot of fun.

Conclusions

I may be far behind on my TESOL work for the week but I’ve definitely made some progress I’m happy with in school. Even just in terms of observations of things to work on in the future. I’ve been making better use of the IRF structure, used a little less teacher talk, made some useful observations about my co-teachers, re-introduced choral repetition and recorded some classes.

Best of all I made one little change in my small talk at the beginning of class and it significantly improved the tone of my lessons.

Like the man said, aint that a kick in the head.

Goals and Objectives for the Week

Monday 18th September - Friday 24th September

My goals and objectives for this week are as follows:

1. Become more aware of how I use the IRF structure. I don't think I’m confident enough to entirely abandon triadic dialogue. Instead, I want to exploit its inherent potential. So I will focus on using the 'F' turn in my classes to encourage elaboration.

2. Become more aware of how much teacher talk I use in each class. I think I am talking too much and the students are talking too little. Why is this? This week I’m going to pay attention to when and how I use teacher talk. Also, from showing my video to Agnes and Tom during Saturday’s discussion I don’t think I’m making the best use of my energy in class. I need to make it work for me.

3. Become more aware of my co-teachers role in my classes. I want to observe just what they do and how involved they are. Ultimately I want to think of better ways to work with them in the classroom. Linked to this – I want to pay attention to how much Korean is spoken in my class and think of ways to reduce it.

4. I want to try a little thing from Saturday’s class: pair-work before asking students questions.

5. I want to pay extra attention to the especially shy students in my class this week and the students who are outcasts.

6. Record some classes.

7. Re-introduce choral repetition.

8. More structured lesson plans for Grade 3.

I will try and post blogs about how it is all going during the week.