Lesson Report, Monday 17th, October 2011

This is the follow up to - Lesson Report, Wednesday 12th October 2011.

I taught this lesson for the first time on Wednesday 12th October to my high level classes. I handed this report in on Saturday for methodology class. On Monday 17^th I taught the lesson for a second time, this time to my mid level classes. The results were entirely different. I have only noted the differences in this blog post. The objectives and activating schema ideas are all listed in the original blog post.

Date/Time: Monday 17^th October, 9am – 9.45am, 10.50am – 11.35am, 11.45am – 12.30pm, 1.30pm – 2.15pm

Student Profile: The classes I taught this lesson to today are the mid level classes. They are considerably less forthcoming than the higher level classes that I taught the lesson to previously. Many students are often withdrawn and reticent to speak out loud. They can be very passive, even morose at times. There are however some lively kids amongst them. I always think it is strange to note how communicative many of these students are outside the class. When I see them about school they are often chatty and friendly, often eager to try and speak English. It is like someone hits their ‘off’ switch as soon as they step into the classroom. Their ACTFl proficiency is considerably lower than the high level classes. I would estimate the majority would be classed as ‘Novice High’. I don’t know why there is such a significant difference between the mid and high level classes. I have speculated in the past. The high level classes all seem happy and the mid level classes just don’t exhibit this. An odd example – there was a girl in the high level class who was moved to the mid level class after her midterm result. In the high level class she was one of the most out spoken and communicative students. Now she is in the mid level class she is sullen and defensive. Is it because she has been separated from her friends, she feels embarrassed or angry? I don’t know. Anyway, I have to work much harder to convey the lesson ideas than I do for other classes.

Co-Teacher: My co-teacher for these classes had been Sonsujong, the most senior teacher and the head of the whole English department, but from this lesson onwards my co-teacher is Kyuyun, the most junior teacher in the department. When the students found this out and Kyuyun walked in they were ecstatic. Every class cheered when Kyuyun arrived! I have mentioned in the past that the students really seem to like her and respond well to her. I guess youth and enthusiasm count for a lot.

Pronunciation: In the previous lesson I questioned how I managed to overlook specifically

practicing pronunciation and said “I should have focused on the different pronunciations of

the ‘ed’ ending – [d] in cleaned, [t] in cooked and [id] in wanted” I remembered this time

and it turns out explaining this type of pronunciation is not as straightforward as you might

think. Once we had gone through various examples of grammar construction I thought I

could insert a little two minute section on pronunciation and that would be that. So I write

the three words on the board. I wrote [d], [t] or [id] after each word and asked the students

how to pronounce them. Of course they responded with the alphabet pronunciation. So I

tried using other words with the correct sounds like ‘tin’ for [t]. This just seemed to confuse

the issue. With some help from the co-teacher, who has clearly taught pronunciation like this

before, it was eventually explained. I will have to work on this in future.

Timetable fit/Assumptions: This was the first time I had class with these students since their midterm. This means some of the students have been moved round. Not a huge amount but a few have moved up to a high level class or down to a low level class and some students have newly joined the mid level classes too. Furthermore, the next two lessons I have with these students will be devoted to their speaking test. The next lesson will consist of practicing for the test and the subsequent lesson will be the test itself. So I won’t be able to pick this lesson up until three lessons time. This is a shame because, as detailed below this lesson is only half finished

1. Introduction and Warm Up

Generally speaking this went fine. As I have already mentioned there is a marked difference between the mid and high level classes. But the students were reasonably responsive when encouraged. Completing this lesson report activity has really brought into clarity how much more similar the mid level classes are to the low level classes than they are to the higher level classes. This does not make sense. I found in delivering these classes today that I’m really pushing all the different MIC and CI techniques just like in the low level classes. Is there a psychological effect on the students where by if they are put into the mid level class they just stop trying? Activating their schema should not be as difficult as it is. I noted previously that I agree with Walsh when he argues that terms like ‘disadvantaged’ are socio-cultural constructs of a particular environment. Maybe these labels, ‘mid level, high level’, can be self fulfilling. Theoretically then if you put a student in the mid level class they will not perform as well as they would in the high level class. Is this possible? Or maybe they just won’t try as hard in the mid level class. Is there something about simply ‘being’ in the mid level class that raises their affective filter?

On a positive note the MIC and CI techniques do actually work, which I gratifying even if it is on a lesser scale than with some other classes. However, the ‘pass the paper’ game, the kinesthetic activity I planned was difficult in some classes. The students just weren’t interested in some classes. This is odd – the students in the high and low level classes both really liked it. It is like the mid level kids are excessively self conscious. I was also disappointed to note just how little they had retained from the previous lesson. The last class was all about expressions like ‘big cheese’ and ‘over the moon’. Either they couldn’t remember or they just don’t like speaking out. Either answer is feasible.

My final observation about this section is to do with the issue of timing. This part of the lesson took much longer than I wanted it to. I think when I plan lessons I’m often planning the time as if it is for the best class. In future I need to remember to take into consideration the additional time it takes for the mid level classes to complete an activity.

2. Model Dialogue and Grammar Structures, Part 1

The issues here were essentially the same as those above - it took far too long to complete and the students were not especially responsive. I’m being too negative. The students did fine. They just didn’t excel the way the high level classes did and I feel bad that so many don’t seem to be engaged. Again I really had to push the MIC and CI techniques. This section, which basically consumed the rest of the lesson, was heavily teacher dominated. I taught this section for the second time to the low level classes recently and, second time around, you could see it came to them all the quicker. I wish I could revise this class next week to see how much had stuck with these students. There is not much to add. I didn’t even get on to the rest of the lesson because of the time it took doing this part. I’m left thinking that there must be some way I can reproduce the atmosphere from the high level classes here in the mid level classes. I know that is what activating schema and the MIC techniques are meant to do and to a certain extent it does help. However, I need to get much better at activating their schema and using MIC techniques if I’m going to make a significant difference.

‘Changes’

Wednesday 19^th, October, 2011

Last week’s successes and this week’s relative failure amount to a case of ‘two steps forwards, one step back’. The mid term results have affected the make-up of all my classes. Depending on their results some students have been shuffled around – some have moved up a level whilst others have dropped down. The co-teachers I teach with have been shuffled around too and even the actual class rooms have changed for some of the classes. It has been a confusing week. To add to the confusion my school is hosting a theatrical competition this week. Seven other schools are coming here with some of their students to compete and making the necessary arrangements has led to a hectic working environment. I have been helping our students rehearse (they are doing ‘Red Hiding Hood’ in a Korean style) and it has really thrown my schedule out of step. On a personal note I have been to the dentist 3 times in the past week and not to complain but it has really had a negative effect on my week.

Putting all of that aside what I mainly want to write about today is the follow up to the lesson I gave last week to my low level students. I wrote that the previous lesson was an experiment to see if I could change the way I taught the lower level students. I wanted to see if I could alter my pedagogic purpose in delivering those classes and raise the students own and my expectations of what they were capable. I dispensed with the lesson model I had been using for them and tried to use a more structured lesson plan. Throughout the lesson I tried to include ideas and techniques we have been learning in methodology class – activating schema, lowering the affective filter, bodily kinesthetic responses, different MIC techniques and so on. I concluded that, whilst difficult and teacher dominated, it was a good lesson to build on. The next lesson, the one I want to write about today, would aim to “move them a little ways along the obstructive / controlled continuum closer to the constructive / free end”.

So did today’s lesson build on the last lesson constructively and incorporate a greater degree of freedom in classroom interaction? I think the jury is still out. There were some issues to deal with:

Co-Teachers and Korean in the Classroom

Unfortunately Kyuyun is no longer teaching the low level classes. She has been swapped out with Sonsujong who is the most senior teacher and the head of the English department. Last week I had agreed with Kyuyun that we would not use any Korean in class. Sonsujong uses a lot of Korean, sometimes wresting control of the lesson away from me completely to explain something, at length, in Korean. She is an excellent teacher and a lovely person but I wish she would not do this. However, whereas I was happy to approach Kyuyun about speaking Korean in the classroom there is no way I am going to broach the subject with Sonsujong. Furthermore, the things she is explaining in Korean are things Kyuyun and I managed to convey without using Korean last week – mainly things to do with past tense construction.

There was a significant change in the atmosphere of these classes today. I’m not sure what to attribute this to. Teaching the classes with Kyuyun was difficult last week, I spent a lot of energy and really had to encourage the students to do the work, but it was essentially okay. The students were all awake and just about paying attention for the most part. However, in 2 or 3 classes today there were 1 or 2 students who were simply asleep on their desks. When cajoled by Sonsujong they point blank refused to do anything. Sonsujong actually got really angry and sent a couple of students from the room. A couple of others she just moved to the back of the room where they continued to sleep on their desks. This never happened with Kyuyun. Sonsujong, like the other two more senior co-teachers, is comfortable expressing anger in the classroom whereas the younger co-teachers, Kyuyun and Pakanna, never seem to do so. I have no solid explanation for this. Maybe when Kyuyun has been teaching as long as Sonsujong she will be screaming at the students too. Regardless it obviously changes the tenor of the classroom. I suspect it also has negative implications for the affective filter. Purely anecdotal evidence suggests that the students are happier, more engaged in Kyuyun’s class than in Sonsujongs. (When my grade 2 classes this week found out they were getting Kyuyun they were over the moon. She walked into the class and the students started cheering! There was no cheering from the students who found out Sonsujong was their teacher. Make of this what you will).

There may be another contributing factor. Last week the low level classes were in the English village – the nicest classroom in the school. It is light and airy and full of clean surfaces. The computer works, the technology is great and it is open and spacious. This week and for the rest of the semester the low level classes are in a standard classroom. (They rotate the classes taught in the English village so that every class gets a chance to use it at some point). The standard classrooms are a little rough around the edges, definitely not as inviting for the students or teachers as the English village. Class room environment clearly has a part to play in learner development. As I teach in maybe 19 different classrooms I have no opportunity to influence the way the classroom looks or is set up. This places a greater emphasis on the need for the teacher to bring the atmosphere into the class with them.

The third issue facing today’s lessons was the shuffling of students. Whilst most of the students remained the same, in each class there were one or two who had done well enough in their mid term to be moved up to the mid level class. At the same time there was a couple who were moved down to the low level class. This meant that not every student in these classes had been a part of the previous lesson although they had been a part of a similar lesson given to the mid level classes.

Together these issues conspired to derail my optimistic intentions for the new lesson.

The Regular Past Tense, Revising and Moving Forward

At the end of my last blog post about these classes I concluded (somewhat optimistically) that “the next lesson will afford these students greater opportunities for constructing knowledge and meaning, which Walsh says is one of the main pedagogic aims of a teacher, as they will bring this newly acquired schema with them.” I was crushed to discover that after all my hard work, all the energy, planning and effort of last week’s lesson the students remembered next to nothing! Truly, I was so disheartened. It’s not even that I was expecting them to remember everything or to be able to fluently explain the entire concept of ‘Regular Past Tense’ but I had hoped they would retain more than they did. I had a revision section planned for the beginning of this lesson to ‘refresh’ the students’ memories and connect to the previous lesson. My aim was to build on this foundation by first going over the material from last week and then introducing some little speaking / writing activities. The revision section however took a lot longer than I though it would because their grasp on the material was so tenuous. We spent around 20 minutes reviewing the material from last week. To be fair they picked it up a lot quicker second time around and maybe I was reaching too far too quickly in planning so much for the lesson. So on reflection I think I have to be satisfied. The 20 minutes were essentially spent doing exactly what was done last week – going through each example, checking understanding, choral repetition, modeling, asking questions, getting the students to ask each other the example questions etc. Afterwards I mentioned my disappointment to Sonsujong about the students not remembering the previous lesson. She simply laughed like it was to be expected and said you just have to keep repeating everything and eventually some little amount will be taken in. It really is like pushing a boulder up a hill.

The above actually makes it sound worse than it ultimately was. My expectations here are the problem. I should probably be happier with this result. During the review section I could see they were remembering things, they were putting it together and many students were answering enthusiastically. The bodily kinesthetic activity I planned as a little revision exercise worked really well too. The students were excited and engaged by it – it was a ‘pass the paper’ game. They really enjoyed playing it but still, even after the review section, a couple of students had no idea when it was their turn to answer something.

After the ‘pass the paper’ game it was time to introduce a new exercise. The exercise involved using the grammar we had already worked on plus a couple of small, additional items. So whereas they have already learned “did you cook dinner at the weekend? Yes, I cooked dinner at the weekend’ this time I also wanted them to learn ‘Barry cooked dinner at the weekend’ and ‘Barry didn’t cook dinner at the weekend.’ It was when I was explaining the concept of how to turn an answer someone gives, ‘I cooked dinner at the weekend’, into ‘[name] cooked dinner at the weekend’ or ‘[name] didn’t cook dinner at the weekend’ that Sonsujong intervened and explained in Korean exactly what was happening. I was really disappointed by this. Kyuyun and I did so well last week not using Korean that it felt like such a regressive move to use Korean to explain. I feel that I could have conveyed it quite simply. At the point where I was beginning to explain she just stepped right in and used Korean. I am worried that they are less likely to retain the English knowledge as it was explained in Korean. Still, Sonsujong is too senior a figure for me to ask not to use Korean in the classroom. I am far too concerned that I might offend her. She is my boss so I don’t really want to cause any problems with her.

The activity progressed after this with difficulty anyway. The students who only minutes earlier were excitedly playing a game together were overcome with shyness and reticence. I had to encourage and cajole almost every student. Would it have been smoother had Sonsujong not made a lengthy interjection in Korean? I don’t think it would have made much difference. I tried this activity with one of the Kyuyun classes last week and it was really difficult then too. How then do I explain it? In the lesson at this point they have already demonstrated they understand the grammar (even if it was explained to them in Korean) and they been being energetic and speaking to one another just prior to the activity. There is no real reason why they CAN’T do the activity so what happens in the transition from game to activity? Is it the way it is explained? I think it might have something to do with the distinction between ‘game’ and ‘activity’. The lines are too clearly marked. One is presented as inconsequential, ‘it’s just a game, not really learning’, whereas the other is presented as ‘work time, learning time, so pay attention, don’t get it wrong’. I need to think of a better way to transition from one to the other. I said elsewhere I was happy with a particular lesson introduction because it segued seamlessly from section to section. I was happy because the students shouldn’t notice the joins, the parts where your lesson is stitched together. In this lesson the students could see the stitching. I think this is why the lesson planning exercise was so helpful. I want to plan lessons that flow without jarring changes of direction or abrupt transitions justified only by what I want to achieve. The lesson should have its own internal logic.

Again, I was exhausted after finishing the fourth lesson of the day. The lesson, although not quite as teacher dominated as last week, still required a lot of energy on my part. I’m not sure where to go from here. The next lesson should move on to the irregular past tense whilst incorporating further revision of the regular past tense. I will have to remember to devote a decent amount of time to revising the previous lesson at the beginning of each new lesson. It will be difficult to build on this lesson immediately. The next two lessons I have with the low level classes will be consumed by their speaking test. The next lesson will be given to preparing for the speaking test and the subsequent lesson will be the speaking test itself. So I will have to pick up where I left off after the speaking tests are completed.

In future I need to have more realistic expectations.

Finally, I’m not going to speak to Sonsujong about Korean in the class room so I will simply have to work around that particular issue.

Lesson Report, Wednesday 12th October 2011

Date/time: Wednesday 12th October, 9am – 9.45am, 9.55 – 10.40am, 10.50am – 11.35am, 11.45am – 12.30 pm (these classes are normally spread throughout the day. Today however they were all rescheduled to the morning because another teacher is absent in the afternoon)

Location of Lesson: I don’t have my own classroom so every class is in a different room. They are generally the same. They are standard middle school classrooms. They seat around 40 students. There is a computer (often not working or very slow and faulty), a blackboard, and a TV screen. The desks are arranged differently from classroom to classroom – sometimes in rows, sometimes in groups and sometime in pairs. Most of the classrooms are a little rough around the edges.

Student Profile: I teach at a public middle school. The students in these particular classes are grade 1 orange students. Orange is the name the school gives to the high-level students. Their English ability is generally quite good. I would say that their ACTFL proficiency is around ‘Intermediate Mid’ in terms of the ‘speaking’ classification. The grade 1 Orange classes are nearly always a joy to teach. The Orange classes are filled with an abundance of friendly, happy, seemingly well adjusted kids who enjoy the English classes and like engaging with the lessons. They are forthcoming and communicative, energetic and playful. They seem to really like the Native English Teacher lessons and the class atmosphere is nearly always warm and friendly. If anything one of the problems I face with these classes is that they can get too excited or carried away with activities. It can be difficult calming them down and getting them to focus.

There are between 28 and 30 ss in these classes.

There are no ‘special’ factors that I can think of.

Co-Teacher: My co-teacher for Grade 1 Orange is PakAnna. I have written about my relationship with PakAnna for ICC. I would characterize our relationship currently as ‘strained’. She is 30 years old and she was the teacher ‘assigned’ to help me with anything related to settling in. She helped me open my bank account, get a mobile ‘phone and find a doctor. Anything admin related to the Native English Teacher is her responsibility. PakAnna was my ‘go to person’ if I had any questions about school practice, Korean etiquette or anything really. She has lived in England, studied abroad and is generally highly educated and intelligent. She was really helpful and we were pretty good friends. Or so I thought. In the past couple of months Pakanná’s attitude towards me has visibly soured to such an extent that if possible I will simply avoid speaking to her and she often outright ignores me. This is not a nice situation and I’m genuinely at a loss to explain it. This affects my classes in that I will refrain from modeling anything with her or asking for help during my classes. Instead she lingers disinterestedly at the back of the room. It also affects my classes by making me feel incredibly self conscious about the lessons I’m giving. My relationship with this woman is the only real negative aspect of my job at this school.

TLC: New Target Language Content

Grammar: Regular past tense structure - I cleaned my room; I played computer games … on Saturday morning / afternoon / night.

Questions - Did you …..yesterday? What did you do on Saturday morning? What did you do on Sunday afternoon?

Vocab: clean/ed, cook/ed, play/ed and a variety of other regular past tense verbs.

Pronunciation: No particular focus on pronunciation. This may be a glaring oversight but I have never included ‘pronunciation’ in a lesson plan. I will model correct pronunciation as a matter of course and correct erroneous pronunciations but honestly, it has never occurred to me to plan to incorporate it into a lesson. That is, I always know I will model vocabulary and new words so I know I am giving examples of pronunciation but I never write it into my lesson plans. Now that I think of it though the textbook does have little sections called ‘focus on sounds’. I should really specifically incorporate these into my lessons.

(So why didn’t I??!! After writing the above I then went right ahead and completely forgot / neglected to incorporate it into my lesson. In particular I should have focused on the different pronunciations of the ‘ed’ ending – [d] in cleaned, [t] in cooked and [id] in wanted. This was a really big oversight. I actually noticed in the class some students pronouncing the ‘ed’ ending quite emphatically. Why didn’t I think to correct and discuss this? When I give these ss their next lesson on the irregular past tense I am going to include something about this pronunciation element. The next time I give this lesson to the mid-level ss next week I will incorporate this pronunciation issue into the lesson.)

Function: (I don’t know what to include in the ‘Function’ section.)

Task: Ask their team mates a question about the past weekend. Answer, their team mates a question about the past weekend - using regular past tense. Ask their partner specific questions about the past weekend. Answer their partner’s questions about the past weekend - using regular past tense.

TLC: Recycled Target Language Content

In the previous lesson these ss had with me they learned several expression like ‘on cloud nine’, ‘over the moon’ and ‘big cheese’. Many of these expressions will be incorporated into the introduction and warm up section of this lesson.

Terminal Objective: Students will successfully ask and answer questions about the past weekend using past tense structures.

Enabling Objectives:

1. Students will comprehend the regular past tense verbs – cleaned, cooked, helped, listened, played, worked, danced, loved, liked, smiled, practiced, and surprised.
2. Students will listen to and understand sentences using the regular past tense
3. Students will ask questions using the regular past tense
4. Students will answer questions using the past tense

Personal Objectives:

1. Use less Korean. (I want to stop using Korean altogether in the classroom)
2. Pay more attention to the IRF structure.
3. Convey a consistently positive attitude.
4. Pay more attention to the types of questions I use.
5. Use a successful warm-up as per this weeks methodology assignment

Assessment of T.Os: Theoretically, I will be assessing the students’ ability to use the new structures throughout the lesson. There are several opportunities where I can observe the students using the structures and monitor how effectively they are being used. However, this is not something I have ever explicitly recognized as being required in a lesson plan. I think I have assumed that if the ss are using the target language throughout the lesson then they are learning it. I have never specifically set out to observe or measure the achievement of any particular lesson. Surely, if the activities are working and the ss are using the target language this is how you ascertain it is working? I need to think of ways of incorporating this into my lessons.

Anticipated Difficulties/Solutions:

Conceptual: I do not anticipate any serious conceptual problems for the students in using the regular past tense. In earlier lessons delivered by the Korean English teachers the basic premise has already been introduced. As such I expect they will understand the concept. This may beg the question, then why am I teaching it? The answer is that the entire chapter revolves around the past tense so they always have a lesson from me on the chapter’s subject. They will cover the same concept but not in the same way.

Structural: I believe the way past tense sentences are structured in Korean and English are different. In English the order is subject verb object i.e. I walked home. In Korean I believe it is object verb (no subject) i.e. – home walked. However, I do no expect this pose a significant problem for the students.

Phonological: As I mentioned above I have probably neglected to think about pronunciation issues in my previous lessons. So I’m not sure how to start. However, the textbook highlights a couple of issues with the vocab and grammar I will be using for this chapter. 1. ‘What did you do on Sunday morning?’ (Did-you) 2. Pronunciation difference of ed in cleaned (d), cooked (t), wanted (id). I will try to pay attention to these areas.

(I totally forgot to do this – see note above)

Cultural: Besides the general reticence of many students I foresee no problems stemming from their cultural backgrounds.

Timetable fit/Assumptions: This week is essentially a new start. They have just finished mid-terms so the material from before is largely considered dealt with. They need to start studying all new material for the next exam. I will however specifically reference and review the expressions they learned in the last class with me partly as a form of continuity and partly as revision. The next time I see this class will be in 2 weeks. This week it is regular past tense and next class is irregular past tense. The Korean English teachers in their classes with these students will also be covering regular and irregular past tense.

Materials: I will use a PowerPoint presentation, the blackboard and several little handouts

1. Introduction and Warm Up

(Lowering the affective filter: In the first instance I would like to think that my manner and approach goes some way in terms of lowering of the affective filter. I think I am a friendly, happy, approachable teacher – I’m definitely not an authoritarian. I always treat the students kindly. They know by now that I don’t get angry or shout or scold. I think they can tell that I am happy and want to be there and want to speak to them. I think this is important in reducing feelings of stress or anxiety which may contribute to an affective filter. But in this lesson’s warm up activity there are specific things I’ve tried to relax students and lower the affective filter – noted below.)

(Activating schema/ Authentic & Real-World schema: Throughout the lesson I will continually refer to things in the students’ lives and constantly direct them to reflect and draw answers from their actual lives. I think this can be considered activating authentic, real-world schema. I use pictures on the ppt to support this – pictures of games they play, TV shows they watch, food they eat, places they have been – all things I’m aware of from having spoken to them lots. There are also specific points in the warm up where I try to activate schema using authentic, real world visuals – noted below)

a. T greets Ss – T Stands at the front of the class and says ‘Good morning’. T writes ‘Good morning’ on the BB. T repeats and gestures for students to repeat. T chooses a single s to say ‘Good morning’ to. T gestures for students to say ‘Good morning’ to each other.

(This went according to plan for each class. Although the 3^rd of the 4 classes was the least responsive. This class (class 3) was a bit of a problem. Especially in comparison to the other 3 who were excellent. They were restless and not as engaged as they could have been. Was there a specific reason? How can I tell? I delivered the lesson the same way and it worked very well, mostly, for the classes before and after. I don’t know how to explain it. Throughout these comments you will notice class 3 was a recurring disappointment)

b. T writes ‘how are you today?’ on the BB. Gestures and asks students to repeat. T answers the question, ‘I am great today’, and writes the answer on the board. T asks and gestures for ss to repeat this answer. T asks and gestures for ss to ask their partner, ‘How are you today?’ After ss ask each other T chooses a couple of students at random and asks them. Then T asks the class as a whole. T asks follow up and elaboration questions where appropriate and when possible. T asks if anyone is happy. T asks if students can remember the expressions from the last lesson. T asks if they can remember an expression for ‘happy’. T puts ppt on with visual representations of ‘over the moon’ and ‘on cloud nine’. T solicits the meaning of each and how to use in a full sentence. T gestures for choral repetition.

(Schema – the expressions ppt slides were used in the previous lesson and are the connecting strand with this lesson. As they have already been learned previously I believe they constitute (or should do) part of the students’ linguistic / content schema. The fact that they are talking about their lives should also be activating schema – building the language learning context around their lives is authentic schema)

(Happy to note how successful this basically was. The ss eagerly asked one another when directed. They are at a level where they can respond and process follow up questions. For example - ‘How are you today?’, ‘I am tired today’, ‘Why are you tired?’, ‘I was studying’, ‘what were you studying?’, ‘Did anyone else study English yesterday?’ Often ss will get a laugh from their classmates by saying a silly answer or my response will make them laugh. They responded well to the expression slides. This is a little gratifying – it is good to know they have remembered something I have taught them. These comments would be completely different if I had given this lesson to my mid level classes. I will give this lesson to them next Monday and the disparity will be huge. It is almost too easy giving lessons to the Orange classes because they are so good and so happy to participate. Again class 3 was a little disruptive. Overall I’m really happy with how this segued from the basic greeting, ‘good morning’, into general small talk, ‘how are you today?’, then linked to a previous lesson – the expression slides for ‘Over the Moon’, ‘On Cloud Nine’ and onto ‘Big Cheese’ which takes me to the next part…)

c. T puts visual representation of the expression ‘big cheese’ on the ppt. T solicits meaning from ss. T asks ‘who is a big cheese?’ T Asks follow up questions depending on ss answers. T shows slides of BanKiMoon and EMyungBack. T asks ‘is he a big cheese?’ T asks ‘how do you say hello to a big cheese?’ T tells / acts – what if eMyungBack came here now how would we say hello? T writes ‘how do you do?’ On the BB. T asks if they know what it means. T writes ‘polite’ on the board and asks if they know what it means. Explains ‘how do you do?’ is polite. T asks and gestures for ss to say it to each other. T brings one s to the front and tells the class it is EMyungBack. T explains when we say ‘how do you do?’ we normally shake hands. T says ‘How do you do?’ and shakes hands with EMyungBack. T asks ss to stand up and say it to their partner and shake their hands.

(Schema – The images of famous Korean figures. The expressions from the previous lesson. The general frivolity and fun factor of the student pretending o be the president lowers the affective filter. The standing up and shaking of hands is a bodily kinesthetic little activity. They are learning a new introduction but it is wrapped up in the formal / genre context of the ‘introduction’ and linked to the expressions learned in the previous lesson)

(This went well to. Whereas some other classes would have to be cajoled into standing up and shaking hands these classes were on board straight away. And they all thought getting a student to be the president was hilarious. I think I can safely say the ss all seemed happy and relaxed as the lesson progressed. I think I’m getting a little better at using gestures too. Just a little. I’m not really a physically expressive person by nature but I used gesturing consistently throughout the lesson – I even did a little dance later. It does help and the ss find it musing. Using different mic techniques helps too. Chinking is effective and slowing done choral repetition is to. Slowing down is best used sparingly if possible I think. But chunking I can see will be a staple of my Teacher talk. Again at this point I’m happy with the transition – from ‘Big Cheese’ and the ‘How do you do’ introduction into the desk move. They are standing up to shake hands and then whilst standing I can slyly spring the desk move on them)

d. As the ss are now standing T puts ss into teams of 5 or 6 and tells them to put their desks together.

(This was no problem. I’m always a little anxious the shifting of desks will take too much time and cause the students to become disruptive. The noise levels always escalate a little when I do this. Today it was okay. They were noisier than they had been. But I quickly managed to focus their energy into the game…)

e. T puts PowerPoint slide ‘Pass the Paper’ game on. T explains the rules ‘Okay. I’m going to give every team a piece of paper (holds up paper crumpled into a ball). Then I’m going to play some music. When the music is playing you must pass the paper.’ (T goes around demonstrating the passing of paper) T asks ‘what does ‘pass the paper’ mean. T checks comprehension. “When the music stops the person with the paper must stand up. The person with the paper must answer a question about expressions”. T runs the ppt slide expressions game. When the music stops T makes sure the relevant ss stand up and tests them on the expression on the screen. The slides all show visual representations of expressions. T asks ‘what is this expression?’ of some ss and ‘what does this expression mean?’ of other ss. T lets game play for 4 turns. The last expression (on the 4^th turn) is ‘busy bee’. T stops the game. T asks ss ‘Are you a busy bee?’

(Lowering the affective filter: This is the primary element of the warm up aimed to lower the affective filter and relax the students. This is a fun game and I know other students have enjoyed it. It is new and different for these students though because I have not tried it on them yet. It also serves as a revision of the previous lesson and segues quite nicely (I think) into the first real activity of this lesson. It is also a bodily kinesthetic activity.)

(The game was a hit. There were no ss scared to stand up or unable to answer. Again the joy of teaching the high level classes. And it is just gratifying to see them engaged and having fun in a lesson using something I taught them. I finish the game at the right point. Using ‘Busy Bee’ is a great conversational segue way into the first activity. Like a good book or film you don’t want the audience (the students) to notice the structure – I think I almost achieved that today. Especially in the warm–up section. I think this is because the warm-up was the assignment so I really spent some time thinking and planning how it should all work together. In this sense the assignment was really helpful)

f. T asks ss ‘Are you a busy bee?’ and follows up on answers. ‘Why are you a busy bee?’ ss – ‘studying, homework!’. T asks ‘did you study yesterday?’ ‘What did you do yesterday?’ T checks they know what ‘yesterday’ means and explains by drawing a timeline on the board and checking they know what ‘today’ means working out ‘today’ is ‘Wednesday’ and ‘yesterday’ was ‘Tuesday’. T asks follow up questions where appropriate. T asks ‘what did you do last weekend?’ This leads into the first activity.

(This too was essentially fine although I think my exposition was a little clumsy in places. Luckily they already understood the concept of past tense. But even so it is difficult to talk about and explain as a concept. I was not satisfied with this portion. Teacher Talk was the problem. I should have had a clearer plan of what I wanted to say and how to explain the concept. I think I started losing a student here or there at this point. I will make sure and give this some more thought before I teach this lesson again next week. Nevertheless, the introduction and warm-up was a resounding success. Except perhaps for class 3 who were restless and unmotivated in comparison to the others.

2. Model dialogue and grammar structures, part 1

a. T uses pre-prepared ppt presentation to explain the first grammatical structure of the day. This is how to conjugate verbs into the regular past tense. First I start with a general question posed to the entire class, ‘What did you do last weekend?’ (I’ll ask the class if they understand each section of the question, i.e. ‘what does ‘weekend' mean?‘ ‘What does ‘last’ mean?’) I will ask follow up questions about responses if there are any. If not I move onto …

b. First slide shows picture and first question I want the ss to learn – ‘Did you …. At the weekend?’ (In this example it is ‘Did you play computer games at the weekend?). Choral repetition of the sentence. Choral repetition in chunks. Slow choral repetition. (I will not necessarily use every type of choral repetition for every example – I mix them up)

c. Next slide gives the answer ‘I played computer games at the weekend.’ Choral repetition.

d. Next slide shows how the verb is conjugated and how it goes from ‘play’ in the question to ‘played’ in the answer. It explicitly explains the process of adding ‘ed’.

e. There are 5 more examples which use a series of pictures in the ppt along with the questions. Each of the 5 examples has a series of slides going through the question, prompting to complete the answer and then an explanation of the adding ‘ed’ process. Amongst the slides are slides containing images of things I know the students are interested in. So before I show the slide about ‘Did you play computer games at the weekend?’ I show some pictures of computer games I know they like. This way I can ask, ‘What is this?’, ‘Star Craft?’ ‘Really?’ ‘What is Star Craft?’ ‘Who plays Star Craft?’ Before moving onto ‘Did you play computer games last weekend?’ And ‘I played computer games last weekend. Before the question about watching TV I have pictures of ‘Running Man’ and ‘High Kick’ – two popular, Korean TV shows that I know many ss like. I ask them similar questions about these shows – ‘what is this?’ ‘What is Running Man about?’ ‘Who watches Running Man?’ ‘Is it better than High Kick?’ Etc. I always try and use images of things they encounter their lives. This is, I believe, a schema activating practice. The ss are keen and eager to talk about things they are interested in (which are often not in their textbook) than things remote from their lives.

(This was almost too easy. The ss all seemed to understand the concept straight away. Although they have not been taught it before in my school they clearly understand the concept. They were also interested in the examples. The pictures of Ramyon and Star Craft and Korean TV shows noticeably generated interest. I mentioned in a blog post this week that when I used this section for the low level classes it took much longer than I wanted. Well it still took much longer than I wanted here too. And because the students grasped the idea so quickly 6 examples was too many and they were beginning to get bored. I realized this during the first lesson and stopped after the third example. I moved on to the handout activity and then came back and used the remaining 3 examples as a kind of revision to check comprehension. I need to be more careful when I consider how long an activity will take. However, it worked out for the best. One problem I have realized is that I don’t plan conclusions to activities or lessons! By accident this activity had an element of objective checking because I shifted some of the examples to after the activity.)

f. After going through the 6 examples I give each s a handout with a single question and space to write 3 answers. Each s in a team has a different question. On the bb I write how to change the answer ‘I played….’ To ’Barry played….’ First I write one of the examples we have just covered on the BB, ‘Did you watch TV at the weekend?’ I use choral repetition of each phrase. I select a student and ask them the question. I write their answer on the board. Then I show how to change the sentence from 1^st to 3^rd person. I do a second example to show the construct ‘Barry didn’t play…’ Then I give each of the students a handout and explain: ‘Okay. Each handout has 1 question. You need to ask your teammates this question and record their answers like this (pointing at the board).” At this point I run through the 2 examples again and act writing on a handout. Whilst they are doing this activity I go around each team making sure they know what to do and helping, prompting, listening, checking etc.

Sample Script: Setting up Group Work Activity

T: Okay (Holding up handouts) I’m going to give every one a handout. One of these (waving handouts) . (T gives handouts to ss to distribute) Each handout has 1 question. 1 question. You need to ask everyone in your team your question. (T gestures at the ss in a team for ‘everyone’). And you have to write their answer. (T writes example question, ‘Did you watch TV at the weekend?’, and handout layout on BB.)

T: (Asks a selected s) ‘Did you watch TV at the weekend?’

S1: No, I didn’t watch TV at the weekend.

T: (Writes the S1 answer on the board) Everyone, (signals for whole class to repeat – and chunks in two parts) ‘No, I didn’t watch TV at the weekend.’ (T writes ‘[S1 name] didn’t watch TV at the weekend’ on the BB). Everyone, (signals for whole class to repeat – and, again, chunks in two parts) ‘[S1 name] didn’t watch TV at the weekend.’

T: Asks a selected s) ‘Did you watch TV at the weekend?’

S2: No, I didn’t watch TV at the weekend.

T: (Cupping hand s around mouth and making exaggerated whisper) Say ‘yes’

S2: Yes, I watched TV at the weekend

T: (Writes the S2 answer on the board) Everyone, (signals for whole class to repeat – and chunks in two parts) ‘Yes, I watched TV at the weekend.’ (T writes ‘[S2 name] watched TV at the weekend’ on the BB). Everyone, (signals for whole class to repeat – and, again, chunks in two parts) ‘[S2 name] watched TV at the weekend.’

T: Okay. Each handout has 1 question. You need to ask your teammates this question and record their answers like this (pointing at the board).

T: [S1 name] did you watch TV at the weekend?

S1: No, I didn’t watch TV at the weekend.

T: [S1 name] didn’t watch TV at the weekend (mimes writing this on a handout)

T: [S2 name] did you watch TV at the weekend?

S2: Yes, I watched TV at the weekend.

T: [S2 name] watched TV at the weekend. (mimes writing this on a handout)

T: Okay. Do you understand?

SS: Yes

T: Really?

SS: Yes

T: Are you sure? 100%? Okay. I want to hear everyone talking. No Korean. Quickly. Quickly.

(Nearly all the students understood what to do and went about the task with no qualms. There were a couple in each class who gently needed to be prodded but there was no significant resistance. I only found one example all day of a student writing the answers and not using ‘ed’ to make the past tense. Just one. Again, if anything the exercise was too easy. Some of the students rattled through it really quickly. Sometimes their answers were outside what we had studied and they were giving each other answers that required using irregular past tense constructions or different linguistic constructs. Often these answers were muddled. I did advise how to correct these errors to individual students but didn’t use them as examples or draw attention to them. Perhaps I should have explained to ss only to use language from today’s lesson. But this runs counter to lots of the theories we have been reading about. If they are creating language and constructing meaning then so be it. The main problem by this point in the lesson was that my timing was out and I was faced with the choice of leaving something for the next lesson or speeding through the remainder. I chose to plow ahead)

3. Model dialogue and grammar structures, part 2

a. I focus attention back on the ppt. New slide lists several verbs ending in ‘e’. I ask the class a question relating to each verb. E.g. for ‘dance’ I ask – ‘who likes dancing?’ If a students answers I ask them ‘did you dance last weekend/month/year etc?’ On the bb I write their answer – ‘I danced….’ I then write the word ‘dance’ separately and explain about adding d because it ends with an ‘e’. I follow this process for several more verbs ending ‘e’.

(This was straightforward. They grasped it immediately. The examples were engaging for the most part although by this point there were 2 or 3 students in each class struggling to remain focused. Biggest problem was time – I was rushing at this point to get to the next activity)

4. Model dialogue and grammar structures, part 3

a. I use the ppt to introduce the next structure. ‘What did you do on Saturday morning?’ This time I tell the students they have to ask me the question. Choral repetition. Followed by my answer. I write my answer on the board. Choral repetition. 5 examples like this.

b. I put the students into pairs. Basically split the groups of four in half but they don’t have to move their tables or chairs. I give each student a handout with 6 questions like ‘what did you don Saturday morning/ Sunday afternoon?’ I explain they have to ask their partner the questions and answer their partner’s questions. They are to record the answers using the format ‘Barry watched…’

(Timing again was the only real issue. I rushed through the explanations because I knew they understood it quickly and I wanted to get them performing the activity. I think in two classes the bell rang during this activity. The activity itself worked fine and again the ss came up with interesting answers. I did have to make some corrections but on the whole I think this lesson was too easy for them. I wish there was some way I could tailor it so that it allowed them greater scope to produce language.)

c. Once completed I make the ss swap partners. They explain to their new partner their previous partner’s answers.

(I didn’t get to do this part of the class because of timing)

d. During both sections I go around checking comprehension (and that the ss are actually doing the work)

5. Time permitting activities:

Vocab word search puzzle

6. Homework:

I don’t actually give homework. But I can give the ss a word search puzzle to take away with them. They have to find the vocab from the lesson in the word search.

7. Conclusion:

Say goodbye to the ss.