Boy, if I knew the answer to that question, I could be a master teacher. This is not an easy question to answer. I think that the main reason is that people generally will choose the method that is easiest to do, and for Korean students, that method is speaking in Korea. The typical "English class" in Korea usually focuses on reading and/or listening. The students regular English teacher will utter very little English during class. At my current school, one of the English teachers does not have strong conversational skills, so, if that teacher isn't strong, they probably won't speak much during class.
The other difficulty is that structure that the students are accustomed to being the norm. The students are used to the teacher instructing them on everything that they are required to do. As a foreign teacher, I see very little spontaneity from the students.
So the students are accustomed to being told what to do, and the typical student's conversational skills are not very good. So that is the typical challenge that I face.
Typically, at my last school, I would feed the students questions to ask each other, and that would be the conversational part of the lesson. I realize now that I could have done a lot better.
This past week, I attempted my first role-play activity with my advanced students. The basic premise is that they have a list of bad behaviors. Half of the students will act out the had behavior, and the other students will correct the other student's bad behavior. This isn't very complicated, but before I did the lesson, I judged that the advanced students could do it. The students acting it out also had to tell the other students where the action was taking place. I thought it would be fun because I know that students like to behave badly.
This activity was difficult to pull off. The main reason is that it was my first time attempting to do it. And the directions are a lot more complicated that my normal activities. The first attempt was a disaster. No student understood what they were suppose to do. So for the following class, I tightened up the directions a lot. I put a diagram of how the students were suppose to move from table to table in the PP. I also had listed on the PP the directions.
Originally something like this: (I forget the exact wording).
- The first person will say where they are.
- The first person will act out the bad behavior.
- The other person will tell what the bad behavior was.
- The other person will say, "You should have ..."
I changed it to:
- A: Tell where.
- A: Act.
- B: Tell bad behavior.
- B: Say "You should have ..."
- Finished, switch.
At the beginning of class, I also had the students make a list of bad behaviors. In the original plan, the students could choose which bad behavior they would want to act out. I also realized that this needed to be tightened up. So I had each team circle one bad behavior on their list, and that is what they would act out.
So the next class, I think the directions where a lot clearer, but the students still didn't understand. I did do a demo of the action, but an explanation still needed to be given in Korean.
My last class that I did this activity with went a lot smoother. I would say that their speaking ability is advanced-low. I think they got the general idea, but I still needed to go to each table and explain the directions again. After I explained the directions again, the students seemed to enjoy it. I heard a lot of laughter. But I couldn't hear a lot of English. That's the next challenge: Getting the students to speak in English with each other. They will speak in English with me, but not with each other. This will probably require several more goes at it.
I also assigned an activity to work with a friend to create a list that would be used later in class, be it a list of Korean culture or bad behaviors. I've haven't heard much English being used. I think that in "group work," only one student will do the work. Maybe I'll have to assign a certain amount of input from each individual. I will check with the groups working, but I don't hear much English used. When I talk to them, they will respond in English, but this isn't an efficient way to get everyone to talk in English.
My other activity that needed explanation: the secret code using prepositions around the room. I did this activity earlier at my old school this year, so I should be a master at it. I gave the students a practice go at breaking the code. I demoed using the hint to find the answer. And I went to one of the actual code stations in the room to show them how it is set up. And I also told them on their worksheet that they should only write down the answer. After I did all of that, using the simplest language, and checking for understanding, a Korean explanation was still necessary.
So that is my biggest frustration right now is my inability to explain more complex tasks. If the students could understand more complex tasks, then I could have a lot more options of what can be done in class.
Regarding issues brought up earlier: I did try to adjust the volume of my voice. It works in certain circumstances, and doesn't work in others. If the students just aren't interested in the lesson, then obviously a lower voice doesn't work. They will continue to talk regardless. But it's an effective tool to get the students attention; speaking in my loud voice is a lot louder than my normal conversational voice.
Giving directions: I like to use a lot of repeating and asking comprehension questions.
Example: Last week, I had a slide that said: "What is Korean culture?" The students would give me a couple of examples.
Then the directions for the next activity: "With your friend, make a list of 5 things about Korean culture." I pointed to friend, and asked: "Who?" I pointed to 5, and asked "How many?" I then pointed to "Korean culture," and asked "What?" And I would repeat this action 1 more time. The students who were paying attention would understand for the most part, but the students, who weren't paying attention, didn't understand. So I would have to move around the room to check for completion. A co-teacher said that I needed to be more strict with them as far as their talking goes. I do my mechanism for getting their attention more often than I was doing. I guess my concern was that if I use it too often, it would lose its effectiveness. Since he said that, I've been using it more.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Microteaching #2 Redo Reflection
Here is a link to my second microteaching redo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1yQPgavlMI
As I stated before, I think that this microteaching went a lot better than the previous one. I think that the interactions are much more dialogic, and I find dialogic conversations much more interesting than monologic conversations. In this microteaching, the open ended questions yielded some unexpected answers. Ella in particular uttered something like the man left his wife in the bathroom because he killed her. This was unexpected, and it makes teaching classes much more interesting. And the unplanned is always what everyone remembers.
As far as student discourse in the microteaching, I did get all the students to talk. I like the student asking questions to student strategy. It encourages students to pay attention during class. And it provides students with public speaking practice. A student needs to speak loudly and clearly for the other students to understand what he or she said. And nobody likes to repeat themselves multiple times. I did notice from my last week at the middle school; students spoke numbers very quickly, and none of the other students were able to understand them. I guess you could call this pronunciation practice.
One thing that Steve did that I didn't do was choral repetition. I think that is a much more effective strategy than getting individual students to repeat the directions. This past week, the only students that repeated the directions in class were the ones who were paying attention. Maybe I should have all the students stand up and repeat it as a class. Probably one other strategy that I will try is to have the students paraphrase it in Korean. I know that L1 usage should be minimal, but comprehension of directions is important as well.
During this microteaching, Type 1 and Type 2 activities are much clearer. I do think giving comprehension questions to do while reading the text is very important. The students can use the questions to look for and spot the important points. I must admit that I use the same strategy while doing reading for this course. During next week's lesson, I try the same activities that I employed during the microteaching.
So, after much grumbling, I do think that this activity was useful. I think that actually doing an activity is much more illuminating that just reading about it. Probably the only thing that I did during the microteaching that I would not do during an actual teaching activity is a strict adherence to the clock. The ten minute time limit made me feel like I needed to set stricter time limits that I otherwise would not. During my normal class, I would have done the time limits for the actual readings, but everything else felt a little rushed. For the comp check, maybe I would have given them double the amount of time as I did in the microteaching.
The other thing I would have changed is the amount of pair work. I would have done more of it. Rather than respond individually during class, I would have had them consult with their partner before responding during class.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Reflection for Week 13
I'll reflect on the Micro-teaching #2 redo further down. Just a quick note on my schedule for this week. Grade 2 went to Jeju-do for 3 days. Sports Day is Thursday and Friday. And Monday and Tuesday, I am still doing the introduction/culture lesson from last week.
So, from today, I did notice that doing frequent comp. checks during students' presentations seemed to encourage other students' listening of the presentation. I would have one of the students from each group present their cultural analysis of the photos that I gave them. Then I would ask another group what was just said. Much to my surprise, after questions a few times and having the speaking student repeat, the students actually started to listen more carefully to the other students. I know that it seems like it's an obvious classroom technique, but I had only used it sparingly before. So, I was pleased with how that class turned out.
But, in the next class, I tried the same technique, but it didn't go so well. I think the first class was an advanced class, and the second class was more of a lower level class. In the second class, there were a couple of competent speakers, but I think their level was much lower. So even after asking the student to repeat a second time, I didn't get much of a response. Maybe a most, it was a mumbling of a few words.
So, I think I'm going to have to have the students do more speaking practice. This practice will be speaking slowly and clearly so everyone can understand. And I'm going to need to go back to the basics with these students.
I tried to make the lesson as simple as I could. On the paper, I wrote out the what I thought was strange. And I structured the written response as "______ is normal because _________." I don't know how I could have made this any simpler, and I'm fairly certain that at some point in the students' academic career, explaining a reason surely came up.
So, from today, I did notice that doing frequent comp. checks during students' presentations seemed to encourage other students' listening of the presentation. I would have one of the students from each group present their cultural analysis of the photos that I gave them. Then I would ask another group what was just said. Much to my surprise, after questions a few times and having the speaking student repeat, the students actually started to listen more carefully to the other students. I know that it seems like it's an obvious classroom technique, but I had only used it sparingly before. So, I was pleased with how that class turned out.
But, in the next class, I tried the same technique, but it didn't go so well. I think the first class was an advanced class, and the second class was more of a lower level class. In the second class, there were a couple of competent speakers, but I think their level was much lower. So even after asking the student to repeat a second time, I didn't get much of a response. Maybe a most, it was a mumbling of a few words.
So, I think I'm going to have to have the students do more speaking practice. This practice will be speaking slowly and clearly so everyone can understand. And I'm going to need to go back to the basics with these students.
I tried to make the lesson as simple as I could. On the paper, I wrote out the what I thought was strange. And I structured the written response as "______ is normal because _________." I don't know how I could have made this any simpler, and I'm fairly certain that at some point in the students' academic career, explaining a reason surely came up.
Friday, May 17, 2013
ICC Culture Classes 1 and 2
Culture Class 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghq3hQ2W6Ks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X7iAdVpa2Q
I know a should have done this a while back, but I kept delaying posting the culture classes.
The first culture class that I did was several weeks ago. Because the activities in the book are a little to advanced for my students, I felt that they needed to be simplified. I modified one of the activities where the students see a picture from another culture, and list all the similarities and differences. I handed out 6 different pictures to each group, and asked each group to write a 1 sentence on how they were similar to Korea, and how they were different.
To activate schema, I first asked the class to tell me about Korean culture, so the list was about Big C culture. The list was obvious things like food, music and pastimes. Then I gave a preview of the pictures. I told the students where they were from. And then I did an example of the first picture, a floating market in Vietnam. I passed out the pictures to all the students. After that, my co-teacher and I would help the students see things if they did not spot anything. We would scaffold.
For me, the highlight of the lesson was with a picture of Saudi Arabia. In that picture, the girls were in the back of the class, and the boys were in the front. The Korean students spotted the fact that the students were sitting on the ground. But the students had an "Aha" moment when I asked them, "Where were the girls?" I usually only said that to one group.
So after the group work, I would stand in front of the class, and ask random groups, what the similarities and differences were. I think that most of the class overlooked the Saudi Arabia boys and girls situation. So when one of the groups mentioned it, it got the classes attention.
I know the objective of the class was to note that we have more similarities than differences, but the lesson didn't turn out that way. We ended up about par, but the groups tended to notice the same similarities. When I counted them up, there was usually one or two more differences and similarities.
I would have done this class differently. I probably should have only handed out one scene to each group. Therefore, the other groups would not have known what to expect. I should have also had the groups to a presentation. I just asked what their answers were. I should have also come up with a reason for the other students to listen. I noticed that my co-teacher had to go around to the other groups to get their attention so that they could answer.
My direction giving was mediocre. I didn't check for understanding, nor did I break up the T-talk. I think my main concern was to get the pictures out, and then go to the groups to explain the directions. At that time, that was my method. Explain to smaller groups of students was a lot easier than explaining to the entire class.
Class number 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywfYFSHoXhw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz7_EnOd1i0
As I changed schools, I redid the culture lesson that I did last week at my old school. And this lesson was a rehash of my first cultural micro-teaching. The basic premise is to be able to explain the reasons behind a behavior that is specific to a culture. For example, in Korea some women wear high-heels to the beach. This is not done in the US, and so Americans find this strange. A Korean might have to explain why some Korean women might do this.
So the plan for the lesson this past week: I had each pair of students list 5 things of Korean culture. I then had them choose one item, and explain why it is important. I then asked maybe 2 different students what they chose and why. I would check for listening from the other groups. I would then show a video of a Greek celebration where they were smashing plates. I asked the class if they thought it was strange and why. I asked them how Koreans celebrate. Then I went for USA - Korean culture comparison. I would give 1 picture of Korean behavior and then a picture from the USA in a similar situation. From the example above, the USA picture was of people wearing scandals to the beach. I went through each group's pictures, and pointed out things in each picture. I finished each picture by saying that I thought it was strange. I handed out the pictures to the groups. They discussed it. And then I had one person from each group present to the class. After each presentation, I would check for listening.
The class that I did the video with was a high level class, so they were about to complete the task without much difficulty. This class was High School grade 2. I made a conscious effort to make my directions simple. I also worked in some small pair work exercises.
The difficulties with this lesson: This was my second day at the school, and I didn't know how the English level that the students spoke. I also didn't the level of individual classes. I found that this activity was too difficult for some of the lower level classes. I personally didn't think that it was too demanding. The students only needed to answer 3 questions per group.
1. What do I think is strange?
2. Why is this normal in USA culture? Why?
3. Why is this normal is Korean culture? Why?
My target language was It is (normal/strange) because _____. Most of the lower level students were unable to answer these questions on the first day. So on the second day, I wrote the above sentence. I thought it might get them to at least write some answer. The students might not be able to understand what I am saying.
I will probably need to create a special program for the lower level students for this activity. "Wearing high heels on the beach in normal in Korea because ____". I don't want to do it, but it might be the only way to help them on the assignment.
So I think that this plan was probably appropriate for the higher level students. I still had to point to what I thought was strange. For the lower level students, I think I'm going to develop "survival English" lessons. They are probably at the level that my middle school first graders are at.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghq3hQ2W6Ks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X7iAdVpa2Q
I know a should have done this a while back, but I kept delaying posting the culture classes.
The first culture class that I did was several weeks ago. Because the activities in the book are a little to advanced for my students, I felt that they needed to be simplified. I modified one of the activities where the students see a picture from another culture, and list all the similarities and differences. I handed out 6 different pictures to each group, and asked each group to write a 1 sentence on how they were similar to Korea, and how they were different.
To activate schema, I first asked the class to tell me about Korean culture, so the list was about Big C culture. The list was obvious things like food, music and pastimes. Then I gave a preview of the pictures. I told the students where they were from. And then I did an example of the first picture, a floating market in Vietnam. I passed out the pictures to all the students. After that, my co-teacher and I would help the students see things if they did not spot anything. We would scaffold.
For me, the highlight of the lesson was with a picture of Saudi Arabia. In that picture, the girls were in the back of the class, and the boys were in the front. The Korean students spotted the fact that the students were sitting on the ground. But the students had an "Aha" moment when I asked them, "Where were the girls?" I usually only said that to one group.
So after the group work, I would stand in front of the class, and ask random groups, what the similarities and differences were. I think that most of the class overlooked the Saudi Arabia boys and girls situation. So when one of the groups mentioned it, it got the classes attention.
I know the objective of the class was to note that we have more similarities than differences, but the lesson didn't turn out that way. We ended up about par, but the groups tended to notice the same similarities. When I counted them up, there was usually one or two more differences and similarities.
I would have done this class differently. I probably should have only handed out one scene to each group. Therefore, the other groups would not have known what to expect. I should have also had the groups to a presentation. I just asked what their answers were. I should have also come up with a reason for the other students to listen. I noticed that my co-teacher had to go around to the other groups to get their attention so that they could answer.
My direction giving was mediocre. I didn't check for understanding, nor did I break up the T-talk. I think my main concern was to get the pictures out, and then go to the groups to explain the directions. At that time, that was my method. Explain to smaller groups of students was a lot easier than explaining to the entire class.
Class number 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywfYFSHoXhw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz7_EnOd1i0
As I changed schools, I redid the culture lesson that I did last week at my old school. And this lesson was a rehash of my first cultural micro-teaching. The basic premise is to be able to explain the reasons behind a behavior that is specific to a culture. For example, in Korea some women wear high-heels to the beach. This is not done in the US, and so Americans find this strange. A Korean might have to explain why some Korean women might do this.
So the plan for the lesson this past week: I had each pair of students list 5 things of Korean culture. I then had them choose one item, and explain why it is important. I then asked maybe 2 different students what they chose and why. I would check for listening from the other groups. I would then show a video of a Greek celebration where they were smashing plates. I asked the class if they thought it was strange and why. I asked them how Koreans celebrate. Then I went for USA - Korean culture comparison. I would give 1 picture of Korean behavior and then a picture from the USA in a similar situation. From the example above, the USA picture was of people wearing scandals to the beach. I went through each group's pictures, and pointed out things in each picture. I finished each picture by saying that I thought it was strange. I handed out the pictures to the groups. They discussed it. And then I had one person from each group present to the class. After each presentation, I would check for listening.
The class that I did the video with was a high level class, so they were about to complete the task without much difficulty. This class was High School grade 2. I made a conscious effort to make my directions simple. I also worked in some small pair work exercises.
The difficulties with this lesson: This was my second day at the school, and I didn't know how the English level that the students spoke. I also didn't the level of individual classes. I found that this activity was too difficult for some of the lower level classes. I personally didn't think that it was too demanding. The students only needed to answer 3 questions per group.
1. What do I think is strange?
2. Why is this normal in USA culture? Why?
3. Why is this normal is Korean culture? Why?
My target language was It is (normal/strange) because _____. Most of the lower level students were unable to answer these questions on the first day. So on the second day, I wrote the above sentence. I thought it might get them to at least write some answer. The students might not be able to understand what I am saying.
I will probably need to create a special program for the lower level students for this activity. "Wearing high heels on the beach in normal in Korea because ____". I don't want to do it, but it might be the only way to help them on the assignment.
So I think that this plan was probably appropriate for the higher level students. I still had to point to what I thought was strange. For the lower level students, I think I'm going to develop "survival English" lessons. They are probably at the level that my middle school first graders are at.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Week of May 11
This week was a disaster. I have a 3 week rotating schedule. Usually when test time comes, I don't have classes. And when classes resume, they will start on the next week of the schedule. Well, last week was test week, and I didn't have any classes. I assumed that I would have Grade 2 and 3. But they instead scheduled Grade 1 and 3. It was a mistake on my part; I should have asked. So on Monday, I had about an hour to put something together. On the downside, the lesson for Grade 2 that I commented on last Sunday, I won't be able to use because this was my last full week at my current school.
In the rush for 1st grade, the book had a lesson on prices, so I quickly put together a lesson about numbers. From previous experience, I know that Korean can have a difficult time saying numbers above 10,000. So after the warm up, and preview. The students did a brief listening activity. We did a SPEAKING analysis of the dialog. I tried to work it in. And then, I thought it would be nice to do some interdisciplinary work. I gave the students a math challenge. And then, to tie everything together, I had Power Point game: "The Price is Right."
The dialog went something like this:
W: "Excuse me, how much for this watch?"
B: "It's 3000 won."
W: "OK, I'll take it."
B: "Here you go."
The questions that I asked:
Where are they talking?
What is the first thing the woman said?
How can we make it more polite?
What is the last thing the boy said?
How can we make it more polite?
I tried doing this as group work, but the students didn't seem to understand. I highlighted polite. Asked them what polite meant in Korean. One or two students were able to answer that question. Obviously, the TLC was "Please" and "Thank you." So after the pair work didn't seem to work, I did this activity as a class exercise. Maybe I can come up with better questions. Oh, I didn't display all the questions at once; I displayed 2 at a time.
The math challenge I thought the students would enjoy. Each team had a small portable WB. I would read out the numbers. The student with the WB would have to write the number down, and then do the addition problem. To decrease my talk time, after the second student in each group answered, I would have a student volunteer read out the number. The problem that I observed is that the student volunteer would read the number so quickly that other students could not understand. I had to tell the student to say it slower. I could do maybe 4 students before I had to change the activity, because they would start to get restless. Each group had 6-7 students.
The Price is Right game is always successful. The students enjoy it. It gives them a real reason to use numbers. I got lots of output from students. They would scream out the answers. I would let students self-correct. For example, if the item was 120,000, but they said 12,000. I would write 12,000 on the board. Obviously, this was incorrect in their mind, and they would throw a protest that the number I wrote was incorrect. I this case, I would write 120. I would get them to say 120. Then I would add 000. Then they would said "thousand." I like having the students fix mistakes themselves. Their mind has to work a lot harder having this type of feedback rather than the teacher just directly correcting them.
I think on a short time frame, this was a decent lesson. I would have like the SPEAKING section to have gone a little better. I'll probably have to experiment a little more with this idea before I have it nailed down. I would have liked some pair work, but with numbers, you either say it correctly or you don't.
I'll comment next week on Grade 3. I probably won't have classes next week as I am changing schools. I am scheduled to start at Sejong Boys' High School in Cho Chiwon. This is about an hour south of Suwon by train. I am excited to be starting at this new school. I talked with teachers there, and the native speaking teacher doesn't have to follow the book. So I will have a lot more flexibility to do speaking activities.
Next week, I'll comment on my culture lessons that I did with Grade 3. The first one was probably in the beginning of April, and the second one was last week.
I should add a sidebar about vocabulary. I don't usually teach vocabulary in my classes. The only time that I cover vocabulary is if I'm doing a listening activity, and the vocabulary item is necessary for understanding. This past week, after my culture lesson was over, I figured I would have about 10-15 minutes that I would need to fill. So I thought it would be fun to do a pop song. We listened to "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. This song has a long narrative feel to it. For the part that we listening to, I judged that there were 3 or 4 items that the students might not understand. One of the items was "flashback." I gave a synonym memory. The students could understand that. The next item was "balcony." I showed them a picture of a balcony. The last item was "Scarlet Letter." So, I had to explain what scarlet was, and then the book. I showed a picture from the movie. I ask the students "A long time ago, was it good for an unmarried girl to have a baby?" They would say no. And then I showed them the meaning, "Scarlet Letter is a sign of dishonor."
Some of the difficult words I didn't go over like "ball gown." They had to fill in the blank for gown. I asked them if they knew what it was, and obviously they didn't. So I said that it was a fancy one piece.
In the rush for 1st grade, the book had a lesson on prices, so I quickly put together a lesson about numbers. From previous experience, I know that Korean can have a difficult time saying numbers above 10,000. So after the warm up, and preview. The students did a brief listening activity. We did a SPEAKING analysis of the dialog. I tried to work it in. And then, I thought it would be nice to do some interdisciplinary work. I gave the students a math challenge. And then, to tie everything together, I had Power Point game: "The Price is Right."
The dialog went something like this:
W: "Excuse me, how much for this watch?"
B: "It's 3000 won."
W: "OK, I'll take it."
B: "Here you go."
The questions that I asked:
Where are they talking?
What is the first thing the woman said?
How can we make it more polite?
What is the last thing the boy said?
How can we make it more polite?
I tried doing this as group work, but the students didn't seem to understand. I highlighted polite. Asked them what polite meant in Korean. One or two students were able to answer that question. Obviously, the TLC was "Please" and "Thank you." So after the pair work didn't seem to work, I did this activity as a class exercise. Maybe I can come up with better questions. Oh, I didn't display all the questions at once; I displayed 2 at a time.
The math challenge I thought the students would enjoy. Each team had a small portable WB. I would read out the numbers. The student with the WB would have to write the number down, and then do the addition problem. To decrease my talk time, after the second student in each group answered, I would have a student volunteer read out the number. The problem that I observed is that the student volunteer would read the number so quickly that other students could not understand. I had to tell the student to say it slower. I could do maybe 4 students before I had to change the activity, because they would start to get restless. Each group had 6-7 students.
The Price is Right game is always successful. The students enjoy it. It gives them a real reason to use numbers. I got lots of output from students. They would scream out the answers. I would let students self-correct. For example, if the item was 120,000, but they said 12,000. I would write 12,000 on the board. Obviously, this was incorrect in their mind, and they would throw a protest that the number I wrote was incorrect. I this case, I would write 120. I would get them to say 120. Then I would add 000. Then they would said "thousand." I like having the students fix mistakes themselves. Their mind has to work a lot harder having this type of feedback rather than the teacher just directly correcting them.
I think on a short time frame, this was a decent lesson. I would have like the SPEAKING section to have gone a little better. I'll probably have to experiment a little more with this idea before I have it nailed down. I would have liked some pair work, but with numbers, you either say it correctly or you don't.
I'll comment next week on Grade 3. I probably won't have classes next week as I am changing schools. I am scheduled to start at Sejong Boys' High School in Cho Chiwon. This is about an hour south of Suwon by train. I am excited to be starting at this new school. I talked with teachers there, and the native speaking teacher doesn't have to follow the book. So I will have a lot more flexibility to do speaking activities.
Next week, I'll comment on my culture lessons that I did with Grade 3. The first one was probably in the beginning of April, and the second one was last week.
I should add a sidebar about vocabulary. I don't usually teach vocabulary in my classes. The only time that I cover vocabulary is if I'm doing a listening activity, and the vocabulary item is necessary for understanding. This past week, after my culture lesson was over, I figured I would have about 10-15 minutes that I would need to fill. So I thought it would be fun to do a pop song. We listened to "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. This song has a long narrative feel to it. For the part that we listening to, I judged that there were 3 or 4 items that the students might not understand. One of the items was "flashback." I gave a synonym memory. The students could understand that. The next item was "balcony." I showed them a picture of a balcony. The last item was "Scarlet Letter." So, I had to explain what scarlet was, and then the book. I showed a picture from the movie. I ask the students "A long time ago, was it good for an unmarried girl to have a baby?" They would say no. And then I showed them the meaning, "Scarlet Letter is a sign of dishonor."
Some of the difficult words I didn't go over like "ball gown." They had to fill in the blank for gown. I asked them if they knew what it was, and obviously they didn't. So I said that it was a fancy one piece.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Next week's plan
So, this week with my Grade 2 class. The grammar point is "What are you going to do next weekend?" And the answer. The entire lesson is based around this point. The preview will be a Power Point. The schema will involve pictures, and I've included a bit of scaffolding to help my students understand the structure. I don't anticipate the students having too much difficulty because this structure is a common one. But if they do, on the handout, they can write it down on the designated spot.
Next up is the listening activity. The book has a nice Type 1 activity. The activity is matching what the boy and girl will do. After listening 1 time, the class will answer the book activity. I don't anticipate any difficulty. Most of the students do this easily. Type 2 activity is fill in the blank while listening. The difficulty I foresee is some students not doing this. I will walk around the class to check for completion. Because there will probably be several that do not do it. I will probably have to play it a third time.
Next is a speaking activity. I am going to have them practice the grammar point in pairs. The students will ask "What are you going to do _____?" for 3 dates. To make it interesting, I'm going to ask for suggestions for the first 2 from my students. During this, I will usually wait several seconds before giving a scaffolding hint. (Of something that might be my idea.) The difficulty here is obviously student participation. I will have the students write down their answers on the handout. That way I can check for accuracy. If a student is giving me a blank look, then I can give him scaffolding hints to help him understand. This will probably take up the most time because there will probably be some students that I will need to cajole to finish the assignment.
Next, I am going to try an ICC SPEAKING activity with the dialog that was listened to. Since this is the first time I have ever done this type of activity, I really don't know what to expect. I am having the students answer 4 questions about the dialog. I will model the first question with the students. The questions are:
1. Where are Sora and the boy talking? Why?
- They are talking at ____ because_____.
I will have the students answer the blanks. I will press for specific answers to make this exchange dialog.
2. Do you think they are good friends? Why?
3. How does Sora feel about the magic lesson? Why?
I want the students to pick up Sora's closing, "That's good."
4. I want the students to rewrite the dialog as if the boy and Sora were adults.
-This will be a four line dialog. This will afford them the opportunity to practice the grammar point one time.
If I have time, I'll try to get some students to say the dialog. If this activity is too complicated, then I will cut question number 4.
The final activity is a speaking game. I'll have the students watch "Mr. Bean Makes a Sandwich." I'll stop the video at various points, and ask the students "What is Mr. Bean going to do?" To make it dialog, I'll ask the students why?
To help move the class along, I'll post the class agenda on the WB.
Next up is the listening activity. The book has a nice Type 1 activity. The activity is matching what the boy and girl will do. After listening 1 time, the class will answer the book activity. I don't anticipate any difficulty. Most of the students do this easily. Type 2 activity is fill in the blank while listening. The difficulty I foresee is some students not doing this. I will walk around the class to check for completion. Because there will probably be several that do not do it. I will probably have to play it a third time.
Next is a speaking activity. I am going to have them practice the grammar point in pairs. The students will ask "What are you going to do _____?" for 3 dates. To make it interesting, I'm going to ask for suggestions for the first 2 from my students. During this, I will usually wait several seconds before giving a scaffolding hint. (Of something that might be my idea.) The difficulty here is obviously student participation. I will have the students write down their answers on the handout. That way I can check for accuracy. If a student is giving me a blank look, then I can give him scaffolding hints to help him understand. This will probably take up the most time because there will probably be some students that I will need to cajole to finish the assignment.
Next, I am going to try an ICC SPEAKING activity with the dialog that was listened to. Since this is the first time I have ever done this type of activity, I really don't know what to expect. I am having the students answer 4 questions about the dialog. I will model the first question with the students. The questions are:
1. Where are Sora and the boy talking? Why?
- They are talking at ____ because_____.
I will have the students answer the blanks. I will press for specific answers to make this exchange dialog.
2. Do you think they are good friends? Why?
3. How does Sora feel about the magic lesson? Why?
I want the students to pick up Sora's closing, "That's good."
4. I want the students to rewrite the dialog as if the boy and Sora were adults.
-This will be a four line dialog. This will afford them the opportunity to practice the grammar point one time.
If I have time, I'll try to get some students to say the dialog. If this activity is too complicated, then I will cut question number 4.
The final activity is a speaking game. I'll have the students watch "Mr. Bean Makes a Sandwich." I'll stop the video at various points, and ask the students "What is Mr. Bean going to do?" To make it dialog, I'll ask the students why?
To help move the class along, I'll post the class agenda on the WB.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Week of May 4 Reflection
This week was test time, so I didn't have any classes this week. For my review, I reviewed the fourth lesson that I had with Grade 2.
The warm-up was my old staple: "What happens next?" I think the students enjoy this activity. However, I didn't have the students make complete sentences like I should have. And it is really difficult to create a follow-up with the students. But it's purpose is to create a fun atmosphere, and I think that it does it's job well.
For some reason, I was never able to quite get the Grade 2 lessons right. The grammar points didn't always lend themselves to make a great basis for a lesson. For this lesson, the first point that was covered was "What does that mean?" For the presentation, I told a corny Konglish joke about a 5 year old onion being an "oh nyeon." This was to set up the phrase: "I'm smiling from ear to ear." I printed out a big smiling face on a big piece of paper, and asked "Really?" And, so that was my presentation for that point.
We did a listening activity and then a speaking activity. I did the speaking activity the wrong way. I presented the vocabulary before the listening activity, and had the students do both the book activity and the gap fill activity on the worksheet at the same time. In reality, I should have done the vocabulary last. The students do the book activity first, and then after listening to it the first time, I should have had them do the gap fill activity.
The class that I recorded was a lower level class. My co-teacher spent a couple of minutes translating the dialog into Korean. So, I don't know if doing some of the cultural context questions mentioned in ICC would have been helpful. I should definitely try it next week.
The speaking activity involved matching an English idiom with the correct meaning. This activity was an ill-conceived role-playing activity. The problem is that really the activity would have involved two students, and I didn't give any instructions for dialog.
The second half involved the second grammar point, "What would you like to do?" I did a quick introduction, and listening activity. I finished the lesson with a game incorporating this point. A student would draw the picture on the board, and then the other students would have to say, "I'd like to..." The students seemed to enjoy this activity the most. However, I did notice that the same 5 or 6 students would raise their hand to venture a guess. I need to find a way to expand this.
So, overall, during this lesson, the teacher talked quite a bit. I need to work on designing the speaking activities better, and maybe increase the number of speaking activities from 2 to 3.
The warm-up was my old staple: "What happens next?" I think the students enjoy this activity. However, I didn't have the students make complete sentences like I should have. And it is really difficult to create a follow-up with the students. But it's purpose is to create a fun atmosphere, and I think that it does it's job well.
For some reason, I was never able to quite get the Grade 2 lessons right. The grammar points didn't always lend themselves to make a great basis for a lesson. For this lesson, the first point that was covered was "What does that mean?" For the presentation, I told a corny Konglish joke about a 5 year old onion being an "oh nyeon." This was to set up the phrase: "I'm smiling from ear to ear." I printed out a big smiling face on a big piece of paper, and asked "Really?" And, so that was my presentation for that point.
We did a listening activity and then a speaking activity. I did the speaking activity the wrong way. I presented the vocabulary before the listening activity, and had the students do both the book activity and the gap fill activity on the worksheet at the same time. In reality, I should have done the vocabulary last. The students do the book activity first, and then after listening to it the first time, I should have had them do the gap fill activity.
The class that I recorded was a lower level class. My co-teacher spent a couple of minutes translating the dialog into Korean. So, I don't know if doing some of the cultural context questions mentioned in ICC would have been helpful. I should definitely try it next week.
The speaking activity involved matching an English idiom with the correct meaning. This activity was an ill-conceived role-playing activity. The problem is that really the activity would have involved two students, and I didn't give any instructions for dialog.
The second half involved the second grammar point, "What would you like to do?" I did a quick introduction, and listening activity. I finished the lesson with a game incorporating this point. A student would draw the picture on the board, and then the other students would have to say, "I'd like to..." The students seemed to enjoy this activity the most. However, I did notice that the same 5 or 6 students would raise their hand to venture a guess. I need to find a way to expand this.
So, overall, during this lesson, the teacher talked quite a bit. I need to work on designing the speaking activities better, and maybe increase the number of speaking activities from 2 to 3.
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