Working my way up!!

This time, I would like to reflect on my experience teaching a warm-up/preview on Sunday, March 30^th.

I planned to start out with a greeting, which I had been doing all along. However, I had not taken the time to familiarize my students with it and really paid attention whether they had greeted me in return or not. After the greeting, there would an ice-breaker followed by my warm-up/preview.

That day, I got to class earlier than usual to prepare physically and mentally. I wrote down “Good afternoon!” on the whiteboard as well as what I had planned on using to revolve the ice-breaker around: “One interesting thing that happened to me last week was…”

Once all six students arrived, I started with making a point of starting class that day and every class with greeting one another. I pointed out to what I had written on the whiteboard for a greeting and explained that this was appropriate as our class was 1-2PM. I modeled by uttering to the whole class: “Good afternoon!”

They sort of mumbled back the same. But to make my point that they should greet loud and clear, I uttered once more, louder than before: “Good afternoon!!” This time they replied back “Good afternoon!” in a manner which was loud and clear.I followed by saying: “How are you all  doing? Is everybody well?” which was met by a unanimous “yes!!”

Greeting took all in all 58 seconds. It was followed by the ice-breaker. This time, I brought their attention to the other sentence I had written prior to the start of the class, which was: “One interesting thing that happened to me last week was…”

I instructed them to take two minutes to discuss with the person sitting next to them (in pairs) and then share with the class what they had all come up with as a response to this open, referential question: “What was one interesting that happened to you last week?”

They looked confused immediately and there was no apparent discussion taking place. Were they not accustomed to such pair work activities in their school and hagwons?

I proceeded right away with a MIC technique. I gave several examples such as: “Did you try a new food item? Did you meet a new person last week?” to explain what they were asked to do. I was surprised to see that they still looked confused and they appeared as if they were having a hard time to come up with an answer.

This time, I broadened the question to include something interesting, surprising, good or bad...

After two minutes, I nominated a student to answer and then I asked this student to pick someone else to go next. Students took turns to alternatively nominate another student to speak, which I had noticed previously that they had enjoyed doing.

During the ice-breaker, based on their answers, I tried to introduce new vocabulary. For example, when one student brought up novels, we talked about the difference between fact and fiction, etc.

I made sure to allow extended wait-time throughout. Hence, when all said and done, the ice-breaker had taken up 10 minutes and 46 seconds. In all honesty, this was the first time I had done a formal ice-breaker with this class. I believe that, in time, we will be able to complete the ice-breaker within a shorter amount of time.

Next up was what I had been waiting for since the beginning of the class: warm-up/preview. This was the first time to use a preview for me; not just with class but ever…

After we discussed about warm-up/preview in the class, I realized that such activities had two main purposes:

1) Creating a positive environment for learning:

When planned and executed well, such activities would help to promote relaxation of students, make them comfortable and focus them on learning. Otherwise, they may be too distracted with all the other things in their heads whether it is lots of homework waiting for them at home or private institutions they have to go later that day or even personal issues. Therefore, I concluded that a fun warm-up/preview activity, which makes students relaxed and comfortable without demanding too much of them is a great place to start.

2) Activating students’ schemata:

A warm-up/preview activity could serve to help students access their background knowledge/experience on the topic at hand so that they would be ready to process teachers’ input much more effectively. In a nut shell, learning would be an active rather than a passive process.

Last class, I had given students homework whereby they had to come up with a country they wished to travel to, search for some specific information on this country by using Google and then answer four questions. 

Building on what they had to do for homework over the week, I showed them three pictures on France, which played the role of the country I wished to travel to. At the same time, I was attempting to recycle the main topic from last class (computers and internet) as well as vocabulary covered at the end of last class presented in an effort to help them with their homework. 

One of these was the picture of Eiffel Tower, the second one was Louvre Museum and the third picture was on cuisine of France, which depicted baguette, different kinds of cheeses and wine. I had selected these pictures as I was quite sure that they would be able to guess France without much difficulty. 

After looking at all three pictures, they each wrote down on a blank piece of paper which country they thought this was. Then, individually, they revealed what they had written down (I called on them one by one so that it would go a little faster). All had gotten it right. They had all written down France with the exception of one student who had written down Paris.

Initially this student had thought that he had gotten it wrong. However, I explained that the two attractions depicted in the pictures were specifically from Paris; whereas the third picture was about the cuisine of France in general. Realizing that his guess was not wrong, his eyes lit up with relief and happiness.

I followed up by passing them a handout I had put together, which was a basic country profile of France. It was about a page and a half in length. I had divided into six sections as there were six students in total. It served as our platform for the reading activity to follow.

Overall, my warm-up/preview was 3 minutes and 11 seconds in length. Although each and every student had had an opportunity to participate and create with L2, the activity was much shorter than I had expected it to be and hoped for. However, when I had looked at the big picture, I had just enough time in the end to go through alI I had intended to for that class. On the other hand, the ice-breaker could have been much shorter and hence I would have had more time for the warm-up/preview. This means that I will be working on managing my time spent on the ice-breaker and warm-up/preview moving forward.

Another thing I realized after the fact was that I could have taken my preview one step further and after establishing the fact that France was the country of interest, I could have asked students to tell me what types of things came to their minds with regards to France, could have written all these contributions down on the whiteboard and started a discussion before passing out the handout on France’s country profile. 

I have no regrets though, zip, nada… This is all part of my professional development as a language teacher in Korea. It serves as yet another challenge for me to work on. I will prepare and execute better warm-up/preview activities in the classes to come!!

I do have much more I wish to reflect on with regards to this class. I will be doing so in my next blog, which I plan to share with you all later this week. Please stay tuned. :)

If I could only look inside their brains...

Last Thursday, right before lunchtime, I received a text message from the class leader stating that they have picked computers as one of the topics for the upcoming class (this was my first time to employ Responsive-Collaborative Discourse). I was quite surprised to read this and spent a big chunk of my lunch break pondering how to approach this topic as I have to admit that I am one of those technologically-retarded individuals. I exchanged a few more text messages with the class leader and clarified that, in fact, they were interested in learning about computer lingo, parts of a computer, etc. in English. I was able to put together a handout, which highlighted all the main parts of a desktop computer. While we were going through the handout, I made use of morphological processing again when I was explaining the meaning of laptop (vs. notebook as It is referred to by most Koreans). I even cited a personal experience (once I had asked a colleague for a notebook before rushing off to a meeting to be able to take notes but she had thought that I was asking for a laptop!!), which they found funny.  I also made use of morphological processing when we were talking about mouse pad. I am planning to include more activities in the future to enable them to understand this method better and hopefully be able to use it independently in the future.

We talked about MIC techniques last Saturday in class, namely: repeat, rephrase, preview, describe and provide examples, and use visuals. Once I examined my teaching practices, I realized that I am not making use of repetition and, moreover, I am minimally using preview. So far, I have used the preview technique when I was telling my students what we would be doing next/talking about next. I am very interested in using this technique more to activate my students’ schemata. For example, showing them pictures relevant to the topic to be discussed, posing some relevant questions on the topic, etc. However, as we have discussed in class, I have to make sure to introduce relevant vocabulary, if need be, as the lower-level students may have the schemata but not the linguistic skills to discuss them in L2. Otherwise though their schemata would be activated, learning would not be facilitated. I gave my students a simple homework last Sunday, which involves looking up some simple information on Google. I was initially planning to go through their homework. However, a light bulb just went on in my head and I have come up with a way to use the preview technique this coming Sunday. I would like to include my findings as part of my reflective post next week.

Unfortunately, last Sunday, for the first time, I could not get through my lesson plan. This would have been perhaps a problem if I was working at a public school or for a hagwon. I hadn’t really timed myself in the two prior classes before past Sunday. But, somehow, I had managed to cover all I had set out just in time. This incident may have been a result of over-planning (I had planned to talk about computers, highlight some points about formatting emails {using Gmail, etc.}, do a storytelling activity in groups, assign homework for the following week and explain it). Nonetheless, I have realized that I need to start practicing time management.

We have talked about how students’ low interaction may be linked to teacher’s discourse style and how extended wait-time could be one ways to address this problem. I have been practicing extended wait-time since that day. I do count in my head literally… However, I have failed so far to get one of my low-level students to participate more in classroom discourse. Even though, I have allowed him more time than other students and tried hard to provoke to speak, all I could get so far was 1-2 word answers and perhaps three words at the most. It was very agonizing…  The problem could be partly due to the fact that he lacks confidence. Perhaps he fears that if he makes a mistake I will be criticizing him. I wonder if he has been criticized before in the classroom. However, I have reiterated in the class many times that it is ok if they make a mistake and that this is a part of the learning process. I have been trying to ask open-ended questions as well. I have formulated two more strategies to attack this problem. Firstly, I am planning to incorporate more group activities and nominate him as the spokesperson for his group to allow him more opportunities to create with L2. I am planning to let them discuss regarding the topic/question at hand and then answer individually one by one at times as well. I feel that such activities would allow him more time to reflect with other students and prepare an answer, and hence may help to increase his participation. This being said, I would appreciate any feedback on this issue from the members of SMU STG Community…

Lastly, I am very thrilled to announce that I have figured out what the technical problem I have been experiencing while trying to video record my classes was. I successfully managed to disable the default setting of 30 minutes, which was applied to my camera. Next week, my reflective blog will be accompanied by a one hour video, fingers crossed. 

A little bit wiser..?

I was very excited to be able to watch myself after using my camera to video my class last Sunday. I excitedly came home right after the class and started uploading the video to YouTube. After two agonizing hours, I discovered that I had partially failed again. Oh boy... It turned out that I did not have enough memory and was able to record 21 minutes and 52 seconds of my one hour class. Moreover, the recording was slanted. I swear I will get it right this week!! Fortunately, I was able to hear myself and students clearly and was able to gather more ideas about where I have issues to take a closer look and come with strategies to improve…    

After my first class, I was determined to allow more time for students to reply. Based on the readings and discussions we have had in class, I made sure to wait at least three seconds (I counted in my head literally) and practiced extended wait-time. I was very pleased to find out that in fact there were more students participating in classroom discourse including one of the quiet students. In the first class, I had received mostly one or two-word responses. So, I was prepared to fight! I actively tried to provoke them to talk more. It worked with some students (not yet with all) and they were able to produce longer sentences. Their sentences, however, were not any more complex or higher level than before. I need to keep provoking them. I need to find ways to do so more skillfully. I need to help my students create more with L2 to help grow their level of English proficiency.

They did have homework as well. It was to describe their favorite dish as thoroughly as possible. I had planned to have each student read out loud and then engage in a dialogue on this topic. However, after we had done a simple group activity, students asked me if they could do this activity in groups instead. I was glad to allow students to self-select. So, we changed the rules of the activity a bit so that it could be done in groups. Now that I know they enjoy group activities, I plan to incorporate more of it...

In another part of the class, we went over asking for and giving directions using the maps I had brought to class. They role-played in pairs and carried out both tasks. When I first suggested this activity, it did not take me long to realize that they did not know the meaning of “role-play”. I tried to explain to them by making use of morphological processing. I wrote the word “role-play” on the whiteboard and pointed out that it was made up off “role” and “play”. Then I heard plenty of “ahhhh”s. They had gotten it!! I will try to use this method as much as possible and hopefully, in time, they will be able to do this to an extent independently.

Furthermore, I really made an effort to nominate students more equally to answer my questions after I had noticed that I had failed to do so during my first class. I also tried to pick different students to serve as leaders for different group activities. I need to make sure to continue to conduct my classes in this manner.

Although I did not do this during my first class, last Sunday I ended up using L1 in two instances. Though one was justified as I was comparing and contrasting certain restaurant manners in Korea and overseas, the other was absolutely not. The word “yagguk” just slipped right out of my mouth. Immediately I caught myself and uttered “pharmacy”, which is the equivalent word in English. I think part of the problem is that when I am speaking (or rather trying to) in Korean with Korean colleagues, who can understand some English, I am doing this a lot: mixing English words with Korean as I am not quite yet able to hold a conversation from beginning to end in Korean except for short, simple sentences to express physical needs such as “I am hungry”, “I am tired”, etc. I must keep reminding myself the golden rule on L1 usage: “as little as necessary, as much as necessary”.

This brings me to the last point I wish to highlight. I experimented using the Responsive-Collaborative Discourse, which we talked about last Saturday. I asked my students to discuss among themselves and come up with one topic they have difficulty with. I selected one student, who is supposed to get back to me and inform me what that topic is so that I incorporate into next class. I was supposed to hear back by today. It is now 10:12PM and I have not yet heard back. Shall I be starting to freak out..?

Based on my self-observations, I am planning to study turn-taking, corrective feedback and Teacher & Students’ L1 use for my Module 1 assignment. I have to admit that the third category I have listed is the one I am most excited to find out more about. 

During the days leading up to my first class in Korea, my anxiety seemed to keep growing. I was worried about going blank, not having a smooth transition between topics, and students falling asleep from boredom among others. Several scenarios kept playing in my head.

I had made a lesson plan, which included a warm-up. To get the first class started, I was planning to ask students to pick English names for themselves and share with the class the name had picked and why. I imagined that this would be a fun activity for them. Furthermore, I had decided to incorporate a CI. I had planned on after picking the first student to tell about his English name, he would then pick another student to the same and so forth until all had a chance to speak. This warm-up activity, in fact, was well-received by the students. I could tell that they had had fun coming up with a name and finding out what others in the class had picked. I also found out that during their English classes at school they had never used this CI (a student asking questions to another student). Hence, I have decided to try to incorporate this CI more when the opportunity to use it appropriately presents itself.

After listening to my recording, I am able to identify many areas to work on. I did expect it to turn out this way and I am by no means discouraged. Determining what my problem areas are, I believe, is the first step towards change to be a better language teacher.

First and foremost, I have realized that I nominated students to answer questions I had posed throughout the class. This was most likely due to the fact that once I had invited anyone to reply directly at the beginning of the class, no one had taken the initiative. However, I kept calling on the same two students most of the time. After further analysis I have realized that these two were the strongest and the weakest students in the class. This is definitely an issue I need to work on…

Furthermore, I could see that I had had a hard time sticking to my lesson plan. I had gotten sidetracked a lot. I witnessed for example that I had started with telling them about the name “Bob” but then I was talking about sports shoes somehow.

Another area I need to work on and perhaps the one I should work on first is that I need to create more opportunities for students to converse in English and construct learner participation. As I am doing a conversation class, I do not have a curriculum to follow and able to devise my lesson plans freely. Transcribing my recording made me realize that I had used, almost exclusively, closed questions during classroom discourse. I encountered numerous times such sentences coming out of my mouth: “they don’t mean the same thing, right?” To make things worse, I realized that I definitely did not allow sufficient wait-time for students to response or possibly even more students to respond. I need extended wait-time, more open-ended questions and I need to work on “probing” students further with questions to allow them to converse more and hence increase their learning potential.

I am not quite yet sure if the boys I am teaching are just shy in general or shy/uncomfortable around non-Koreans (at least for some time) or merely displaying a low interaction level. I need more time to “figure them out”, to understand their personalities, their reasons for learning English, their motivations, etc. However, practicing an extended wait-time from next class will hopefully increase their participation in classroom communication.

The bottom line is that I feel I am on the right path working on identifying my problem areas and trying to formulate different strategies to use to improve how I teach. I know that I am building my pool of skills, knowledge, experiences, and networks to draw from and I need to engage myself in continuous professional development to continue to learn and be able to apply new knowledge, strategies to move forward.