Australian expat who lives in Osaka, Japan. I blog about topics of interest to me. I am interested in linguistics, history, language learning and law.I write articles about these topics.
Monday 15 November 2010
Battle Report: Result EPIC FAIL
I tried the ammendment to the lesson plan. Giving the students the lifelines and the result was
not so different. They just seemed to ignore them or did not understand what they
were for..
Thank you for reading my blog. I really should update it more.
Don't be so bummed out. If your students have never really done tasks before, I think that you need to start them on something that is fairly easy and short as well as give them plenty of language support. The key for getting tasks to work is knowing your students, knowing their strengths and weaknesses and your students trusting you and eachother. The diffiuclt thing about being an ALT is that you often teach many different classes and visit them sporadically. Below is the link to a feel good complimenting activity that helps students build a stronger relationship and just feel plain happy: http://eltandhappiness.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=contentGeneric.jisyjjhtregamdqe&pageId=130998 It is from the "ELT and the Science of Happiness" home page. Click on the "compliments.pdf" link.
If you read Japanese, I can recommend some Japanese books that have interesting tasks. I have found that tasks adapted by Japanese work better than tasks you read about in the mainstream international ESL literature. In Japan, we are probably more EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers than ESL teachers
One more thing. I just read your other posts. I do not think there was anything wrong with your task design. It just seems like maybe it was not the right activity for those particular students. If students rarely speak English in class, it is too great a leap for them to have free discussions in groups. With these students, I would probably try pair work with more concrete goals, i.e. a find the differences task.
Anyway, I am really not that qualified to comment on your classes because I do not know your situation well enough, so please take every thing I say with a grain of salt.
I feel a little better now. I am always a little down for an hour or so after a lesson doesnt work well!
As an ALT I do have to teach many different classes in my school. And only once or twice per month.There level is quite high and some of them have some experience with communicative teaching in JHS. However they seem so self-concous now they are getting older.
I spoke with the JTE and she said that (paradoxically) the better the students know each other, the more embarrased they are to attempt these tasks in front of their friends.
She said that we should keep trying them as well.
My next chance will be to design a lesson for Christmas. I might try an ORDERING like you did with your Grad Students and use 'A Christmas Carol' as the story.
I can read Japanese and would be interested in any book reccomendations that you have. I failed 1kyuu this year though but will be having another attempt next summer and need as much reading practice as I can get!
Hey Ferric79,
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading my blog. I really should update it more.
Don't be so bummed out. If your students have never really done tasks before, I think that you need to start them on something that is fairly easy and short as well as give them plenty of language support. The key for getting tasks to work is knowing your students, knowing their strengths and weaknesses and your students trusting you and eachother. The diffiuclt thing about being an ALT is that you often teach many different classes and visit them sporadically.
Below is the link to a feel good complimenting activity that helps students build a stronger relationship and just feel plain happy:
http://eltandhappiness.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=contentGeneric.jisyjjhtregamdqe&pageId=130998
It is from the "ELT and the Science of Happiness" home page. Click on the "compliments.pdf" link.
If you read Japanese, I can recommend some Japanese books that have interesting tasks. I have found that tasks adapted by Japanese work better than tasks you read about in the mainstream international ESL literature. In Japan, we are probably more EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers than ESL teachers
Good luck!
One more thing. I just read your other posts. I do not think there was anything wrong with your task design. It just seems like maybe it was not the right activity for those particular students. If students rarely speak English in class, it is too great a leap for them to have free discussions in groups. With these students, I would probably try pair work with more concrete goals, i.e. a find the differences task.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I am really not that qualified to comment on your classes because I do not know your situation well enough, so please take every thing I say with a grain of salt.
JH thankyou very much for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI feel a little better now. I am always a little down for an hour or so after a lesson doesnt work well!
As an ALT I do have to teach many different classes in my school. And only once or twice per month.There level is quite high and some of them have some experience with communicative teaching in JHS. However they seem so self-concous now they are getting older.
I spoke with the JTE and she said that (paradoxically) the better the students know each other, the more embarrased they are to attempt these tasks in front of their friends.
She said that we should keep trying them as well.
My next chance will be to design a lesson for Christmas. I might try an ORDERING like you did with your Grad Students and use 'A Christmas Carol' as the story.
I can read Japanese and would be interested in any book reccomendations that you have. I failed 1kyuu this year though but will be having another attempt next summer and need as much reading practice as I can get!