No Sour Grapes

Wednesday, 7^th September, 2011.

I just finished my last class of the day.

Today I had the four lowest level grade 1 classes. The classes are very small, just 9 to 11 students, and they consist of the students with the lowest English ability.

From week to week, lesson to lesson, the success or otherwise of these classes can vary dramatically depending on the students’ mood. This phenomenon is true of every class but it is exacerbated with my ‘Grape’ classes. ‘Grape’ being the name given to the low level section in my school. Amongst the students that comprise the Grape classes are several with behavioural problems and / or educational (learning development) issues. They generally know the alphabet, some vocabulary and a little grammar. Their lack of English requires my co-teacher to translate an extensive amount of what I say.

My co-teacher for these classes this semester is a young Korean woman, fresh out of university. This is her first job. The students really like her, responding well to her youth and enthusiasm. She is a lovely person to work with and, now that I think about it, my favourite co-teacher to have a class with.

Designing lessons for the low level, Grape, classes has been considerably problematic. At first I found I had to severely lower my expectations of what they were capable. Over the past year I have tried many different things to engage them but they are very difficult to motivate. There have, however, been some successes. A card game lesson was particularly memorable. Today’s lesson happily ranks in the upper echelons of Grape lessons.

The lesson consisted of two parts. The first revolved around a ‘Last One Standing’ game using the song ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ by Daft Punk. First I teach the vocabulary using PPT slides with my co-teacher providing a Korean commentary. This commentary is unsolicited but entirely welcome and necessary. Next we play the game itself. We make a semi circle around the TV to play. Mostly the students seem to enjoy it because it is active and often funny. (I can send a fuller explanation of the game to anyone who is interested)

The second part of the lesson was for a different game called ‘Zip-Zap’. I gave all the students alphabet organisers and together, as a class, I get them to generate two words for each letter. The alphabet organiser is a good tool I have found. It helps to focus the students’ attention and works to keep them engaged in the lesson. Today was a good example and this exercise, generating words for each letter, worked better than I expected. I didn’t have to bribe them with candy or even put them in teams. I have been experimenting with the alphabet organiser in my Grape classes for a while but this was a particularly good result which I will seek to develop with similar exercises.

Once the alphabet organiser part of the exercise is completed it is on to the actual game. Zip-Zap is a game I have used before in camp and with different classes. I like it because it is very active, competitive and can easily be adapted to suit different levels of English proficiency. Most importantly the students really enjoy and often take control of it from me, running the game themselves. Although it is a very simple game in essence it is too involved to explain here. It basically involves making words or sentences quickly, a lot of standing up, sitting down and spinning around. If you want a full description let me know and I’ll send you a link.

Ultimately, today was a surprising success. The students were engaged in the activities, responded enthusiastically and completed all the exercises. However, I have some reservations. The two parts of the lesson are not linked in any way. This stems from the fact that I usually just want any exercise that I think will motivate the ‘Grape’ classes. Thematic coherence be damned. A more troubling concern is that I’m not exactly sure what they learned. What did I teach? They practiced some vocabulary and a little grammar but that is the sum total. Is this good enough? I’m not sure. But I don’t know how to deliver better lessons for the low level students that builds on their knowledge. I’m not sure these students are getting the education they deserve.

In closing I will say these are the only classes for which I am not directed to make lessons from the textbook. Is this a tacit admission of lowered expectations?