Learning Twigs

Teaching Online: A Review

 

With the relative surge of online learning happening (or apparenty happening) these days, this new title in the rather impressive (and rapidly growing) Teacher Development Series from Delta is sure to get some interest around the traps.

 

Teaching Online is the work of Nicky Hockly and Lindsay Clandfield, two people who need very little in the way of introductions in our field (I'm sure).

 

The whole notion of online language learning is one that has grown somewhat organically -- but also chaotically -- over the past 5-10 years, and I think Nicky and Lindsay have pulled off a pretty amazing feat to pull so many strands together into such a cohesive and easy to follow resource book.

 

The structure of the book is fairly straightforward:

 

PART A: Software and Liveware

PART B: Practical activities section

PART C: Avenues for online teacher development

 

 

In Part A, I liked the approach to defining online learning and presentation of various models that split F2F (that's face-to-face, if you're not up with the lingo yet!) and online elements in courses that aspire to blended learning delivery.

 

The "software" elements are very well organised, explained and referenced, and looking through the recommended tools I have to admit that most all of the ones I recognised have proved to be quite reliable: "lasters" on the web (which is so crucial if you're going to write about online learning and the Internet in the frozen time capsule format of a physical book).

 

My only potential critcism on this front is that, for the average moderately-to-very-tech-challenged teachers out there, they may find the explanations here too brief and put the book back down on the shelf because they get the impression that this book is clearly only for people who already tech-literate and have some awareness about web 2.0 in particular. I'm only talking about appearances here, and clearly a book has space limitations and needs to think about a particular market of potential readers (and here I get the impression it is teachers who have a bit of tech and are ready to branch out with it).

 

The focus on "liveware", following the software listing, is an absolute gem, and one of the real achievements of this book. This is very much about the human and teaching elements involved in online instruction. It is tackled sensibly and coherently, and I hope features prominently enough to help teachers realise that online learning is not (necessarily) about replacing people/teachers with automated systems of learning. In fact, one of the most appealing things about this whole book is how teachers are encouraged to see themselves as front and centre (or, perhaps, better said: at the "hub") in the whole process of creating and delivering a course online.

 

All in all, I think the practical, organisational and pedagogical aspects of teaching online are very nicely covered.

 

Section B presents a pretty comprehensive set of practical activities that might be used in online courses, neatly organised into "the starting line" (setting up and getting started with an online course), reading and writing activities, listening and speaking activities, language and evaluation activities, and "the finishing line" (how to tie things up and finish a course).

 

These activities have the trademark Clandfieldian Creativity stamped all over them. Some of them are quite brilliant, and all of them have a lot of potential to genuinely engage students and get them developing and using language. I did, however, think that the "evaluation" activities were a bit too scarce, given the massive emphasis on this in most language learning contexts.

 

Section C emphasises ways to harness the Internet and web 2.0 to develop as a teacher -- and in particular as a teacher with online tools at his/her disposal. These range from established courses to things like blogging, micro-blogging and building Personal Learning Networks. The suggestions here are great, and a part of me would like to see this section at the start of the book, to help get the more technophobic teachers out there moving in practical and accessible ways to get over their doubts about technology and join a very supportive and informative online community of teachers. In any case, it is good to see that a book about online teaching places this much emphasis on actually developing as a teacher in an online medium.

 

 

So, mostly only very positive things to say about the book up to this point... Where do I feel the book potentially let me down or missed something?

 

Well, the book certainly does an outstanding job of covering all the essential bases for teachers out there who want to bring online learning into an already established (and somewhat institutionalised) context. As in, the teachers already have their students (in a school, institute or business setting), and are now looking at ways to deliver part or even all of the coursework online. Okay, that's where most teachers and learners find themselves -- at least at present -- so it certainly makes sense to focus on those aspects.

 

Where I think this book may have left a bit of a hole is with the prospect of teachers and learners going online independently to find and engage in language instruction. There is obviously a whole new dynamic to consider there, encompassing things like how to find students (as well as design the sorts of programs that online students will find appealing), how to charge fees, and -- in short -- how to potentially make a living for oneself as a fully online teacher. Teaching Online doesn't really go near this, and I can't help but feel that at least some teachers out there -- when they see the title -- will expect it to and perhaps be disappointed that it doesn't deliver the goods.

 

I personally feel, as an online teacher myself, that one of the most promising avenues the Internet and web 2.0 provides is a bona fide meeting and learning place for teachers and students, completely (or at least greatly) removing the necessity for published materials and institutions.

 

I would have loved to see Teaching Online try its experimental hand in this area, but this could be just a personal and ultimately erroneous view of where online learning could be heading now, and -- if so -- the authors and publisher were right to avoid it.

 

At least for now... :-)

 

 

But in a nutshell, Teaching Online is a beautifully well written and presented work, and deserves a place on any online (or potential online) teacher's bookshelf.

 

(And, erm, when the digital version eventually becomes available, it can have an even worthier place in your "My Documents" folder on the desktop, laptop or tablet, as well!)

 

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

 

                                                               

 

Just put those old CDs on the shelf...

 

 

-- they ought to listen to them by themselves...

 

 

Okay, so your ELT coursebooks (and various other resources) usually come with audio CDs. To be bluntly honest, I have very rarely used the audio CDs at my disposal while teaching classes at all levels and ages over the past 10 years, including (shock horror!) the CDs that accompany my own coursebooks!

 

Note that I said rarely. There are times when they can be relevant and useful in a classroom context, but not often. To me, audio CDs (and for that matter, mp3 files and -- if anyone here remembers them -- cassettes) are still useful, but only if they are used privately by students at home.

 

So, how about I approach this in list-like fashion?

 

 

 

Top reasons for NOT using those audio CDs in the classroom:

 

- Most of them feature audio dialogues that are artificial to the point of being useless

 

- Their use hints at a sort of situation whereby learners stand around speakers at a casting, with their eyes firmly shut or else gazing rigidly at anything but the actual speakers

 

- Their use discourages the very best source of real-world listening in a classroom setting: the learners themselves -- other people in the room that they can see

 

- They often involve a fair amount of faffing about, both in the staffroom before class and en route and in the classroom as teachers make desperate lunges for the best or limited CD players available

 

- They stifle the natural flow of a class, as tracks are referenced and sought before playing

 

- They are ridiculously unnatural in terms of facilitating discourse that sounds (and "looks") exactly the same every time it is performed, which can happen in the real world, but only in very specific circumstances (see below)

 

- The increasing amount of video means that we can present listening in its natural state, with visual and environmental factors inclusive (but even then, I still think video can place a poor second compared to having the learners themselves perform)

 

 

 

Good reasons FOR using audio CDs in the classroom:

 

- When they feature spoken language that matches their format and delivery: telephone calls, telephone messages, automated menus, announcements over PA systems, etc.

 

- When they feature songs (and yes, this is as natural a format as we can imagine for songs!)

 

- When we want to highlight different accents for the learners

 

- When we want to showcase dialogue in places where there is background noise/action (but this still assumes people listen with their eyes shut, and can't really compare to the language exposure available through video) 

 

 

 

So how do I use all those dialogues and listening tracks in coursebooks, if I insist on not using the CD itself?

 

- I use them as scripts, which the learners take turns peforming for the class (and by perform, I mean I often require them to stand, move about, using gestures and facial expressions)

 

- I perform them myself, sometimes accompanied by a learner, and manipulate them to showcase pronunciation, rhythm, emphasis, sarcasm, surprise, and other emotions (without succumbing to the temptation to overdo things...)

 

 

 

And those CDs, which publishers have gone to great lengths to produce and include with student books?

 

Excellent self-study and review.

 

At home.

 

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                  

                      

The live reading lesson followed up with some word swimming

 

 

 

In today's class (with elementary level adult migrant and refugee learners), I used something I call a "live" reading text, and then followed up with some in-depth vocabulary work (which I like to refer to as "word swimming") using the Word Wise Vocabulary sheets I've already blogged about here on English Raven not too long ago.

 

What do I mean by "live reading" then?

 

In a nustshell, the live reading text is co-constructed on the spot in class between learners and teacher, targeting a topic that the students express an interest in. The teacher converses with the learners, usually by means of a variety of follow-up questions, progressively adding to the text.

 

It's sort of a mix between a conversation and a reading text, but it generates a passage that:

 

- is real and relevant to the learners;

- evolves at a level just slightly beyond the learners' current ability;

- combines cohesion and progression characteristic of both conversations and written texts;

- allows a teacher to feature contextual content as well as language challenges;

 

The text we generated today targeted the state election that took place on Saturday -- something they had all picked up snippets about on the news, but could only understand in the most general of terms. Hence, our text today was both topical and language oriented, but also aimed to improve their understanding of their state's basic political landscape.

 

Here's how our "live" text turned out:

 

 

 

Once we have talked and written our way through a reading text, there are all sorts of directions the lesson can head from there, but for today I wanted to give the learners some much more robust work with vocabulary. And by robust, I don't mean a large quantity of new words. I mean a reasonably small quantity of challenging words that the learners investigate and apply in a variety of layers.

 

So, based on the text, I chose the following 12 words for the learners to focus on (underlining them in the passage but also writing their base forms in a list to the right of the main reading text):

 

 

 

Given it was these learners' first try at the Word Wise worksheet approach, I began by sketching the basic vocabulary grid and filling in the relevant information using the first word on our list ("state"):

 

 

 

 

I then distributed the Word Wise sheets, and the learners got to work. Most of them immediately got into small groups to help each other out, and yes - many of them really did struggle a bit with it at first.

 

 

 

And yes, many of them demonstrated a lot of problems with the words at a variety of levels. The first time with "Word Wise" (like anything that is both very involved and very dependent on the learners' own efforts) is always pretty tough.

 

This always captivates me as a teacher because:

 

1. Learners so often dive for a dictionary when they find new words, and rather too quickly assure me that they understand them.

 

2. It's amazing how much I get to see and help the learners with their language awareness as they struggle through the process of developing and demonstrating understanding of words through various levels or angles. The Word Wise approach often shows me that learners have a very superficial or even completely erroneous understanding of new English words based only on quick dictionary references.

 

The other thing I like about Word Wise is that, once the learners become accustomed to its demands, they have a remarkable and disciplined tool for developing vocabulary awarenss in the future -- often independently -- and are encouraged to think about all the new words they meet beyond a simplistic (and, at times, perhaps treacherous) dictionary translation.

 

 

Anyway, that was my lesson for today: the "live reading" text and some "word swimming".

 

I'll dare to call it a success. The live reading text was popular (and must feel/look nice compared to the average photocopied handout). And, despite the difficulties involved, the learners were engaged and keen on working with the Word Wise process.

 

I have the same learners again tomorrow morning. We'll take what we've done here today and head in an altogether new learning/using direction!

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                     

                                              

 

eReader fun with the bairn

 

I blogged not so long ago about the delightful experience I've been having with reading since getting a new Sony eReader for my birthday.

 

Turns out my 5-year-old lad is quite taken with it as well.

 

Whenever he sees me using it, he dashes over and insists on flipping the pages for me using the touchscreen. That can get a bit old for both of us (me trying to read with him perched right next to me with an index finger poised and ready to turn a page, and him becoming a bit disappointed with the fact that each new page is as illegible and "unfun" to him as the last).

 

I've been brainstorming and experimenting a lot with digital book content and formatting, and today it occured to me that I should try putting one of his books on the eReader, so that he could use it on his own, with a story he would like.

 

A quick 15 minutes of formatting later, and a quick drag and drop of the PDF from my documents to the eReader, and here's what we had for bedtime tonight...

 

 

 

 

A pity we can only get grayscale on the eReader, but Jamie didn't seem to mind in the least. The deliberate formatting with large text also worked a real treat for the small eReader screen, though as you can see we watched it in landscape mode, which helped to keep everything big.

 

Really makes me wonder about the potential of digital publications for children...

 

And also has me thinking that an iPad for the lad in the very near future might not be such a silly (or premature) move after all.

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

 

Are we too afraid of 'Hard Yakka' in ELT?

 

 

 

'Yakka' is an Australian term for (hard) work. As I ponder the term and its usage here in Australia, statements like "it's pretty hard yakka", "not enough hard yakka" (to describe someone who is soft on account of not really having to work hard), and "a bit of hard yakka won't hurt ya" all spring readily to mind.

 

The idea of hard yakka leapt into my head today while I was doing a rather intensive and repetitive activity with my beginner adult students with Dolch sight word lists. We work on these on an ongoing basis, but every second week I dedicate a good two hours to really working hard on mastering the basic list of sight words for these adults who can't read anything yet in the country they've made their new home.

 

The reason I thought about this was that, if an outsider of the ELT sort were to observe this stage of my classes, I think I might get a bit of a negative review. The learners weren't overtly having fun, or doing something really interesting or engaging. They were working really hard!

 

That raised the question in my mind: Why do so many of our materials, resource books and blog posts appear to avoid this issue of 'hard work'?

 

I know it is important to keep learners interested and motivated, even entertained at times. But I'll tell you this: I have never yet met a learner who 'made it' into the upper levels of advanced proficiency without being willing to do some good old-fashioned hard work with the language.

Having a whale of a time and making the lessons "all about them" is good and all, but I honestly don't think that that alone is enough to consolidate and drive deeper language learning.

 

But we don't hear or see much about the very important work ethic involved in learning a second or foreign language. We see slogans advocating interesting content and motivating activities based on a fun factor, we are told to at all times avoid the risk of overwhelming or over-challenging the learners. Keep them soft and cozy, like a sponge, and the language will just miraculously be absorbed, sort of thing...

 

You may have read some of the articles out and about describing an emerging "helicopter parent" syndrome. To what extent has ELT developed a well-meaning but ultimately flawed "helicopter teacher" and "helicopter materials" mentality?

 

Personally, I think ELT needs more genuine attention to 'hard yakka' -- alongside all the other interesting and fun things we've managed to incorporate into our approaches and materials -- and I'll even go so far as to say that hard yakka can bring just as much motivation and sense of fulfilment to our learners as anything else we manage to do.

 

And I'm not blindly advocating a sort of 'hard labour/slavery' approach here. What I am calling for is attention to activities and materials that really do help to build up learners' strength and endurance with the language, and for this not to be automatically written off as unmotivating and ineffective.

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A simple patchwork lesson for beginners

 

 

An integrated 4-skills lesson for beginner level students...  Image: net_efekt

 

 

I had another very fulfilling lesson today with my beginner-level refugee students (the same lot I video recorded myself teaching in my recent flipcammed/unplugged post). For the three hour session today (and as is typical of my overall style, I guess), I didn't have anything specific planned, but today I did want to find some ways to review and develop language we'd already gone over in some previous lessons, and also create a sequence that gave the students integrated practice across all the four major skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing).

 

Here's how it went down...

 

 

STAGE 1

Main foci: Listening & Speaking

Purpose: Review previous language work (through oral/aural application) and set up the whiteboard for follow up work with integrated reading and writing

 

Basically, I started asking the students some questions. They weren't written down or anything, but they were (or were similar to) Q&A style prompts we've dealt with a few times over the past couple of weeks. I didn't plan them in advance, but thought them up as we went and as they occurred to me.

 

 

I drew a line in red down the middle of the whiteboard to divide it into two halves. As students responded to each prompt (mostly with one or two-word answers, which was fine with me as it is representative of normal/natural conversation patterns anyway), I listed their information in sections in the left hand section of the split whiteboard.

 

 

 

Reasoning at this point:

- In order to do some writing later, it would be good to have the students' own input divided into sections and spelt out for them so that they could refer back (or look for it) to help them. At this level, their reading skills are still very limited, but it often helps if they can look for whole words that correspond to words they've already produced orally.

- I'm still not entirely sure exactly how I am going to extend this into reading/writing following this stage of the lesson, but keeping half the whiteboard free and listing lexis as it emerges according to prompt and organising it into sections means there will be several options for applying this all in a new way.

- As the information flows onto the whiteboard, I'm getting (a) new ideas about oral questions to ask next (the final product shown in the speech bubble above), and (b) some ideas about how this could be put to use in a language/writing activity to follow.

 

 

STAGE 2

Main foci: Reading, Speaking, Writing, Grammar/Patterns

Purpose: Expand the one-word responses in stage 1 into full sentence patterns, with gaps where students' own information (already spoken and listed in writing) can be slotted in. This can then be used for a follow-up writing task, bearing in mind the learners will need help with spelling (and the opportunity to copy but also interact with what they write).

 

I referred students to each section of the left-hand side of the whiteboard, and asked them to give me statements (orally) instead of single words. Students made guesses as to the full statements involved, and I helped them adapt and polish them into simple but accurate sentences. Once we had this right orally, I wrote each statement down next to the relevant answer content, leaving a blank space where that lexis could be slotted in.

 

 

Reasoning at this point:

- The learners can already fairly adequately understand and respond (with very short utterances) to the communicative prompts here, but exposure to and practice with the full statement forms will hopefully create a basis for them to start offering information of this nature on their own as part of discussions (without needing someone to directly question them).

- The "like to" sequence creates a pattern that will be handy for drills and rhythm, working across two different sorts of information (food/drink and activities at home), but then followed up with a future form to create another shift in attention (I seem to have developed this as a priority in a lot of my teaching: that learners can "shift" between different sorts of information in different tenses or functional modes).

- The learners (who have very limited literacy in their L1s) now have everything they need to write a simple introduction about themselves, but they will still need to read and think in order to put the sentences together (both in terms of the statements, but also "fishing out" the words that equate to their own contributions in Stage 1 of the lesson).

 

 

STAGE 3

Main foci: Reading and Writing (Typing)

Purpose: Creating a crossover from oral work to written work, giving the learners valuable practice with computers and keyboards, integrating reading and writing, applying copying skills and accuracy with basic punctuation.

 

I sat down at one of the classroom computers and asked the students to gather behind me. I showed them how to open Microsoft Word from the desktop, then typed in a couple of example sentences using information about myself. With the example thus set, the learners then each went to a computer, opened up MS Word, and using the patterns and text on the whiteboard (in Stages 1 and 2 above) typed out the statements and filled in the gaps using their own personal information.

 

This was quite an involved process that required a lot of help from the teacher. Learners needed help with using the SHIFT key, the space bar, the full stop key, using ENTER, and the "backspace" versus "delete" keys. At first, capital letters were completely absent, and the learners all entered multiple spaces between words to space them out more. However, with some one-on-one help, after 15 minutes or so, most of the students were handling most of the typing challenges reasonably well.

 

As the students typed up their information, I circulated and supplemented what they were doing by basically talking and asking questions about what they were typing.

 

Reasoning at this point:

- The learners already do a lot of handwriting in their notebooks and on printed supplements in other teachers' classes. With access to computers in this particular classroom, it was an important opportunity to give them practice with very basic functions and typing on a keyboard. This will hopefully be a foundation for helping them become more digitally literate further down the track in their education. It is very difficult and time-consuming for some of them, but they have to start somewhere. They could, by the end of this lesson, to some degree type out a very simple self introduction about themselves. Despite the obvious difficulties, all the learners were keen to use the computers and type out the sentences, and looked quite happy/satisfied when it became clear that they could do so.

- The activity forced them to read, sound out words, check spelling etc. White it was mainly a writing and typing activity, there was an integration of skills happening.

- The learners were working independently here, which is important for their own language learning habits, but also great for me as the teacher as I could monitor how each student was handling the task, get to know their individual problems a little better, and also think ahead to where I might take the lesson from this point.

 

 

STAGE 4

Main foci: Reading and Writing (Typing); Grammar Awareness

Purpose: Create additional reading practice, give the learners exposure to the difference between first and third person language, give additional writing/typing practice that links from the previous activity but nevertheless does something slightly different, give the learners exposure to the idea of simple paragraphs, cater to mixed ability (or "speed of uptake") students.

 

As Stage 3 was unfolding (above), three things occurred to me:

(1) Students appeared to like the challenge of typing

(2) Some students were picking it up faster than others and would soon need something to go on with

(3) It could be a good idea to expose these faster students to a different format for the same essential style of information, but with different potential function and grammatical forms, and also a slight advance in the basic writing skills involved

 

So, during the second half of Stage 3, I sat down with some paper and used the information on the board to write two separate paragraphs about two different students:

 

 

 

I then nipped in to the staffroom to make copies of the above, returned to the class, and as the faster students completed the initial task in Stage 3, I gave them this paper and asked them to type as much of it out below what they'd already done.

 

As slower students eventually finished Stage 3, they got the same paper and had generally made good progress with the first paragraph (about Bo Day) at about the same time the faster students had started to complete the second paragraph (about Sheriff, having already finished writing about Bo Day).

 

Obviously, the copying/typing task here involved dealing with other students' information, noticing and applying the difference between first and third person forms, and noticing and applying the difference between stand alone sentences and a collection of follow-on sentences put together to create a simple paragraph.

 

Reasoning at this point:

- It is always a good idea to have extension opportunities for tasks so that quicker students can continue to be challenged.

- It benefits students to get initial exposure to different information, functions and grammatical forms in a way that forms a contrastive experience (based on something they've already grasped and completed).

- I have created an initial experience with talking about other people, which will be good for future classes and activities (whether that means bringing information about friends and family into the classroom, or just talking about classmates in the same room).

 

 

STAGE 5

Main foci: Listening and Speaking (Automaticity and Fluency)

Purpose: Use the information in the previous stages to return to conversational application, with more emphasis now on picking up and applying language at a faster pace and with more randomness.

 

This segment took up the remainder of the overall 3-hour session (lasting for about 30-40 minutes), and itself went through a series of quick stages:

 

1) I asked students the original questions (in order) from the start of the lesson (remember these questions haven't been written down anywhere) and encouraged them to answer more in full sentences (using the information they'd typed), working with pronunciation, rhythm and intonation.

 

2) The whiteboard was erased, typed papers were put away, and I began to ask the same questions to students in turn, but at completely natural speaking speed and in a random order.

 

3) I asked random questions to random students, using a genuinely fast delivery speed.

 

4) Students got their papers back out, and then attempted to interview each other (using the answer information to try and guess the correct way of asking the relevant question), pair by pair while the rest of the class observed, with help/prompts/corrections from the teacher.

 

5) Students put their papers away, and then did the same thing again but now working almost purely from memory in terms of both correct questions to ask and correct full-sentence answers.

 

6) The same application as in (5) above, but now with the teacher applying time pressure (failure to begin a question or a response to a question within 3 seconds resulting in a sort of disqualification and a requirement to immediately move on to a new question).

 

 

There were a lot of good-natured laughs (and cries of frustration) in stage 6 of the sequence above, but generally speaking it was quite remarkable to see just how well the learners could ask relevant questions they'd only heard orally and respond fluently to these question with the correct information and good delivery and speed.

 

Reasoning at this point:

- It fits a common pattern I like to have in every class: begin and finish with listening and speaking, and show the students clearly just how far they have come by comparing what they could do at the start of the lesson as opposed to the conclusion of the lesson.

- Having built and worked through language in oral/aural and written formats, it's always great to dedicate a certain amount of time at the end of the class to concentrate on absorbing the language, understanding it very quickly (chunkily?) without needing to break it down into very small pieces (automaticity), and being able to respond quickly, fluently and clearly.

- It's good if oral/conversation work has a corresponding set of written notes or production that can be referred to and practised with privately at home once the lesson is over.

 

 

STAGE 6

The teacher writes a detailed blog post about the lesson, invites comments and thoughts from a global community of eclectic ELTers, and begins the very important process of reflecting on the overall lesson and thinking ahead to new learning opportunities for this particular group of learners based on what has been achieved and learned today...

 

 

 

=D

 

 

                                      

 

Flipcammed: An unplugged lesson with beginner level students

 

 

A fairly representative illustration of the extensive and sophisticated physical tools required in an unplugged language classroom... :-)

 

 

Well, I've been promising a video of an unplugged class for a while now on this blog, but wanted to wait until I had established solid enough relationships with my classes before taking a video camera (in my case, the brilliant Flipcam that Jeremy Harmer recommended to me a while back!) into the room.

 

I've reached that point now, but complications with institutional policies and getting across to very low level students the personal permissions involved have meant I'm only game (at this stage) to video myself and let the learners' voices speak for themselves. In any case, I hope a detailed view of the teacher's end of the unplugged classroom (with the learners a metre or so to the right of screen) might still be interesting and useful for any teachers out there contemplating an unplugged teaching approach.

 

What you're about to see (if you have the patience!) is a class of seven adult students (six Karen refugees from Burma and a Congolese refugee) who are in one of our preliminary levels (think real beginner, without much if anything at all in the way of formal education even in their L1s). I've been with this group for about six weeks now, teaching them twice a week. Two of the students are new, this being only their second lesson with me.

 

 

The first part of the lesson is here:

 

 

 

 

I paused the camera at this point, to let the learners get on with their basic "Finding Out" activity (I've mentioned Finding Out and the Wizard English Grid on a few of my more recent posts).

 

Once they completed their grids, we took a 15 minute break. When I returned to the classroom, I found that a couple of the Karen students had decided to engage with the Congolese lady, and they were talking about what they'd been cooking in the morning. The lesson continues:

 

 

 

 

Started running out of recording time and battery at this point (unfortunately).

 

Following this, we used our Finding Out sheets to write simple summaries (with first and third person templates provided by me on the whiteboard) about themselves and three other classmates.

 

From there, I generated a simple form resembling part of the documents presented at child care centres and kindergartens (this is one of their key assessment tasks -- filling out personal information on simple forms), and we roleplayed a situation where they were checking out new child care or kindergarten facilities for their children (the "what do your children like?" line is one I've faced in the same situations).

 

Some of the males in the room indicated that it wasn't really their role to look into childcare and school. That was interesting, as I pointed out that Australian males don't (or shouldn't) adopt that sort of stance anymore, and gave the example of myself (handling pretty much all of the school and childcare issues so my wife can concentrate on her schooling) And, if nothing else, with limited linguistic skills it might be a much better idea if two parents tackled these sorts of tasks together rather than one alone. They agreed with that at least! Pity I didn't get that part on camera, because the concepts involved sound complicated, but we managed to deal with them using amazingly simple language and a fair amount of body language! It was also demonstrative of the sort of ongoing issue with cultural differences, trying to respect the learners' backgrounds and culture while adequately exposing them to the cultural norms of the society they've come to live in.

 

Normally, these people would need to wait for a time that a translator and settlement support officer could accompany them to organise things like child care and kindergarten. Perhaps we've managed today to take them a few steps closer to being able to handle this sort of thing on their own.

 

 

In any case, there are some portions of an unplugged lesson with very low level adult learners. There is a plethora of things happening in, around and through what you can see here, but for now I'll let the videos speak for themselves, and try my best to answer any questions anybody has!

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                                          

 

Social networking? Not a lot since I got this little baby...

 

 

At first I thought it was mainly Internet/social networking fatigue (and no doubt I am suffering from a bit of that), but my time and interest in all things blog/Facebook/Twitter has seriously dwindled of late.

 

Three main causes:

 

1) Work -- 'nuff said I reckon...

 

2) The kids - Jamie is doing some amazing things with his artwork and bilingualism, holding me enthralled, and little Hannah -- not far out from her second birthday -- has veritably exploded into talk. There's nothing on the Internet or anywhere else in any multiverse that can drag me away from those two at the moment!

 

3) My new Sony eReader Touch Edition (pictured above -- I have the leather cover and light, but I think my version is a slightly different edition -- it's silver and only has one plug in at the bottom).

 

 

The eReader has transformed me. It's simply amazing. I got it last month for my birthday from my dear wife, and it has sort of already paid for itself. By that I mean, by getting access to a lot of books at anywhere from half to a third of the price of regular paperback versions, the money saved has already eclipsed the cost of the actual device.

 

And the access to so many more books than I'll ever find in any physical bookshop... delightful!

 

The display is super-friendly on the eyes, the touch technology wonderful for turning pages with a minimum of effort. And the built in light makes it perfect for reading at night without disturbing whichever family member I happen to be bunked down with at any given moment. It's also got superb battery life (so far I've only needed to recharge it about once a week, and that's a simple matter of plugging it into my computer's USB port).

 

After reading stories to the kids, I used to get really active on the Internet.

 

Now, more often than not, I read myself to sleep!

 

It has certainly transformed and enlivened my reading habits, that's for sure.

 

Now I'm looking into the skill sets I need to work documents into eReader friendly (with reflow) texts. The capacity to self-publish and distribute with eBooks looks both astoundingly simple and genuinely exciting.

 

 

So if you don't see me about much these days, blame it on Sony and eBooks!

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favourite "go-to" lesson application

 

 

If only our favourite "go-to" lessons actually entitled us to $200 salary each time we put them to use in our classrooms!  Image: Brian Talbot

 

 

Chaotic start to this morning (thanks, kids!) and arrival at work a few scant minutes before the morning's first lesson was about to start. Not a great way to start a three-hour teaching session...

 

Thank goodness for my favourite "go-to" lesson application! Wizard English Grids already printed up a-plenty, I dash to the classroom (slowing down just before I reach the doorway, so I can wander in looking relaxed and nonchalant...).

 

Using Wizard English Grids for "Finding Out" is my tried and true, non-prep (other than some photocopying en masse in advance) activity that has never let me down. Not for more than a decade now.

 

Here's how it worked today:

 

 

STAGE A

 

1. After some initial chat with the class, have them suggest questions we can ask to find out more about other classmates. Elicit and negotiate and edit as the suggestions emerge and generate a list of about a dozen questions on the whiteboard.

 

2. Hand out blank copies of the Wizard English Grid, and ask the learners to turn it so that it is horizontal (or in "landscape" mode). Instruct learners that they need to write down three questions to ask classmates using three of the boxes to the far left of the paper (I put a version up on the IWB so that I could illustrate for learners exactly). They can choose questions from the list we have already generated as a class, or construct new questions of their own.

 

3. Have the learners write "Name 1" to "Name 4" in the top four boxes of the sheet (excepting the column on the far left, which is already dedicated to the three questions they have selected and written down).

 

4. Ask students to ask their selected questions to four other students in the class, writing those students' names at the top of the four dedicated columns. They write responses to their questions in the grid provided, using just simple notes rather than full sentences. Encourage them to work horizontally across the grid (so that they swap between students and complete the same question four times, rather than ask three different questions to the same person -- I find the latter tends to bog them down a bit too much in pairs, with some students left stranded waiting for a chance to talk to someone).

 

5. As the teacher, do the same activity on the same worksheet yourself. You become a participant, and any doubtful students get a natural model to follow in terms of how to apply the activity.

 

 

By the end of those five steps, here is what my own Wizard English Grid looked like today:

 

 

 

Basically, three questions I liked from the list generated by the class, applied to four "classmates", with their responses indicated in simple note form.

 

 

STAGE B

 

Right, so having finished Stage A, we are going to move on to Stage B, which involves using this information in the "Finding Out" activity to compose a simple written report. We're going to use the three central questions to generate body paragraphs, and add a simple introduction and conclusion to create a basic 5-paragraph report.

 

For this version of the Wizard English Grid, I already have a lined writing page copied onto the reverse side of the initial "Finding Out" sheet.

 

Having finished the "Finding Out" stage well before most other students, and this being a somewhat lower level class, I went ahead and wrote my own report while they were all still asking and answering questions and taking notes.

 

I then walked around the class and showed each student what I had produced:

 

 

 

Using their own grids, I asked them to try and produce something similar, explaining the idea of paragraphs, a basic introduction and a basic finish-up.

 

While they got to work on their written reports, I dashed off to the office and photocopied both sides of my own paper. I got back in time to wander around and give some tips and feedback and corrections as they were all writing.

 

Once they were all done, I handed out the copies of my own report and had them get into small groups to compare the style and language of my report to their own. They were free to edit and change anything with their own reports if they discovered anything from my own example to apply to their own work.

 

 

STAGE C

 

Right, so "Finding Out" done, written report in five basic paragraphs done. Time now for an oral report!

 

Selecting students in a random sequence, in turn, I took away their written reports and invited them to give an oral summary to the best of their ability based on the reports they'd written.

 

While they spoke, I followed along on their reports in front of me, helping with prompts or hints where necessary to help them recall, correcting pronunciation here and there, inviting the students referred to in the report to confirm or correct what was being said about them, but simultaneously locating and correcting any major language mistakes in the written report. Teacher multi-tasking at its best!

 

 

 

End of class results:

 

- A list of questions generated by the class on the whiteboard

- An interactive Q&A session that seamlessly integrates speaking, listening, writing and reading

- A simple 5-paragraph written report, compared alongside a proficient language user's version, with written corrections from the teacher

- A small speech/report drawing on memory of details collecting while communicating and reporting in writing, with some feedback/help from both teacher and other students.

 

 

 

As I said, this never fails me. And it requires no specific preparation, with no need for teachers to take anything home for correction duties.

 

 

And a decade on, I still love using this activity and sequence. Never gets old, never fails to get students productive and busy with the language across all major skill areas.

 

 

That's my "go-to" lesson plan for chaotic mornings like the one I experienced today (but also a good many regular days as well).

 

 

What's your "go-to" plan of action for ELT?

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                                              

 

A simple approach to trees in the 'beginners' section of the orchard

 

 

A sample selection of "English Tree" worksheets I've been experimenting on with beginner level adult learners of English...

 

 

Have you ever noticed how often "newbie" teachers end up with the "newbie" learners in so many ELT contexts? It has always fascinated me how more established and experienced teachers in some institutions use their leverage to stick to intermediate and higher level classes, leaving the very low levels and beginners to the newest teachers to arrive.

 

I've been (and am going) through that in my current teaching context, where -- as the "newest" teacher on the block -- I teach some pure beginners and nothing above level 4 in an 8-level system (except for an ESP class).

 

Personally, it's been great for me. It's been a very long time since I taught beginners of any age, and this has been a sort of rebirth process for me as an ELTer. We often talk about different kinds of teaching methods and materials, but less often about which methods or materials are more or less appropriate for different stages of English language learner.

 

Anyone who has been following this blog at all would know that two things in particular are currently driving my interest in ELT: unplugged language teaching and innovative materials design.

 

I've often seen it mentioned that unplugged teaching (or 'Dogme') is generally more effective at middle or higher levels. This appears to be logical when you look at two of the three essential pillars of Dogme: effective learning is conversation driven, and language development is emergent in nature.

 

Right: so how do you do unplugged gigs with learners who can't really have much at all in the way of conversations, and there is bugger all emerging, because -- well, there's no language "in there" yet, is there???

 

My experiences with beginners over the past couple of months don't really support those assumptions. Even the rawest of beginners are capable of conversations (though not the sort we generally presume or envisage), and even a couple of tiny pieces of straw can end up leading to a sort of emergent haystack.

 

And that other "law" of Dogme (materials-light) actually fits beginners admirably well. Most materials don't work all that well with my beginners, because they can't bloody read them yet! In the past, what I thought were beginners were generally speaking literate false-beginners. What I have now are a lot of learners with no formal education in their L1 much less in an L2. When your learners can't read anything at all, in any language, you get a brand new awareness about what "beginner" can encompass...

 

So these issues, alongside the oft-quoted line that "beginners really benefit from having a coursebook approach" and then my own recent experiences with beginners who can't read much at all yet, have really had me pondering of late.

 

First of all, I've been thinking a lot about initial speaking and listening skills. If our beginners can read a bit, apparently a coursebook approach will be good for them in terms of getting some basic communicative skills happening. And if they can't read yet, then it is a good time to start, right? I mean, the sooner they can read a bit, the sooner they can comprehend those coursebook pages and use the outstanding, well-researched, tried and true content and examples there to start improving their basic speaking and listening. Right?

 

Wrong, methinks.

 

My recent experiments with unplugged teaching with beginners has shown that the absence of printed material has resulted in other things happening during classroom time.

 

Heads are up. Ears are open. Eyes are peeled for contextual clues happening in recast language and supporting physical gestures and the general environment itself to help the learners understand what the hell is going on in this new multiverse of a foreign language.

 

The lack of a coursebook and printed lesson approach is helping, not hindering, these learners get a basic grip on hearing the language and using all sorts of cues to understand it. They are learning to guess, and learning to use anything from very simple words -- or even just nods or shrugs or waves of the hand -- to respond and participate.

 

I can't help but think that, in the past, when I was using printed materials with beginners, I may very well have been inadvertently depriving these starters of some of the most essential strategies when it comes to handling a foreign language. Eyes, ears, guesses and gestures.

 

Not PP:PP:PP (Printed Presentation: Printed Practice: Printed Production)...

 

I'm not writing off coursebooks here (starting to sound like a tired "necessary" apology here), but I am suggesting that the assumption beginners in particular do better because of them is potentially misguided.

 

In any case, I am also interested in what I can do in the way of printed materials to facilitate good beginner level classes in terms of providing a good follow up to lessons. Things the learners can take away and refer to, and use the memory of speaking and listening in the classroom to help them start reading and benefitting from printed notes (in their own time).

 

I've developed a very basic unplugged approach (amongst others) to my beginner level classes that works predominantly with drawing on simple themes and associated items of lexis the beginners have already taken up (however simple, limited, partial or flawed), adding to them, then developing simple (purely oral/aural supplemented with plenty of non-verbal support elements) discussions around them directly dependent on the learners' actual lives, using the whiteboard as a reference point to keep us on track and "record" what and where and how we're going.

 

Hey, it's hard work at the start. No promises of miracle methods from this part of town, I can assure you!

 

Patience is required (spades of it, from both teacher and learners). A sense of humour is essential. The ability to pause and provide those extra 3-4 seconds before prompting for a response (and balancing on that high wire between guessing that the learner doesn't understand and needs help or is almost there all on his/her own) is crucial. Encouraging and acknowledging (not to mention correctly interpreting) non-verbal responses is important. Creating a supportive but natural mix of yes/no and information questions with deliberate use of intonation really helps. Beginning with slightly difficult and complex utterances and then attaching a smooth flow of natural-sounding easier/simpler recasts (with liberal use of physical examples and body language) to make the incomprehensible beast become a more approachable tame animal is both a sublime teaching skill and (in my opinion) an all-important method of helping the learners begin to cope with new and potentially complex oral/aural language.

 

But I have found that it works marvellously well, especially as relationships form and a certain kind of classroom atmosphere emerges.

 

The theme/words part at the start is relatively easy. It's also often readily accessible to the learners and creates realistic boundaries for the teacher as the lesson emerges.

 

For example, give the learners the idea of family, shopping, food, school, or even weekend, and it's pretty easy to get a small flow of simple words happening. The words they don't know, they can sometimes show you. Sometimes they can't say a word, but will recognise it and confirm it for you if you say it. Some words become like a spark that sets off a small fireworks display in a sort of lexical set (for example, someone mentions "toma-o" -- which we discover means "tomato", and the next thing you know you have half a whiteboard full of fruit terms).

 

All of these words get written up on the whiteboard (sometimes with simple illustrations) in a sort of brainstorm mind-map display, emanating out from that central word/theme we decided to go with at the start.

 

But that's all the writing we'll be doing until the very end of the lesson.

 

With our word tree established, it's time to get talking...

 

Who likes tomatoes, then?

Do you buy them at the supermarket or the market?

Is that all you buy? No other fruits?

So just fruit, then?

Who went to the supermarket this week, then?

This week? Monday, Tuesday...

With the family, or just by yourself?

Yep, in my family, we do the supermarket shopping every Tuesday. Do you? Another day?

So which of these foods did we have for breakfast...? Lunch? Dinner? Snack?

 

Looking over that brief representative sample, it all looks deceptively simple. So much more is happening before, around, and after all of those (what I like to think of as) semi-events in ongoing communicative exchanges.

 

The first priority is just finding ways to understand what is going on.

The second is to have individual students find ways to understand and respond in some meaningful way.

The third (which -- in the early stages -- is often not achieved) is to reach a stage where students themselves can do more of the questioning.

The fourth is for independent exchanges amongst students, using whatever resources they can draw on to understand and make themselves understood.

 

Once we've pretty much exhausted a theme and the allocated words (and this is yet another good judgment call on the part of teachers: when do we know students have had enough to (a) have learned effectively and (b) not started to succumb to boredom or confusion?), time for some basic review, and then as a kind of wrap-up, I as the teacher select some simple sentences that have emerged (or could emerge) from the discussion. They could be Q&A style, or basic sentences where a single key information element (usually a noun) can be exchanged for a variety of other items. They only ever represent a small percentage of the language that has actually been used during the lesson, but they are deemed to be the more high percentage and/or comprehensible and/or useful ones.

 

All of those other words and sentences and questions stay in the general mash that represents our class's ongoing exposure to comprehensible spoken input. Or perhaps I should say: input that will hopefully become more comprehensible and familiar in time?

 

Students copy out these sentences, and we do some controlled practice with them.

 

Students go home with a sort of thematic word-tree, and beneath it a small range of sentences that represent a (hopefully) useful sample of what we've covered, sentences that have been practiced in a controlled manner, sentences it might be worth spending some time at home reading aloud and practising.

 

Those sentences also become fodder for a quick review at the start of the next class, and from one or more of them, we find a new seed to become a new theme for the next application of a similar lesson process.

 

 

We could, of course, just do this all in the students' notebooks (and we usually do).

 

But I've also started doing this in pre-prepared materials format, to create some flavour and some formatted guidance.

 

 

Funnily enough, I've found the learners take to the approach more enthusiastically when I provide prepared sheets like this one:

 

 
 

 

This colour version is what I use in PDF format on the IWB which the whole class can see (the learners use a grayscale photocopied version). The pictures really do help to get things started, and as a teacher I find I do benefit from having most of the space mapped out in a format that is identical to what learners have on paper in front of them.

 

 

And I must confess, I find that this approach and this material works so much better than the beginning units I see in so many beginner level coursebooks.

 

The material is a result of their own initial words, then the words that emerge from those beginning efforts, and then the communicative language that flows on from there. And it really is a basic map, an outline, for a large amount of communication that they concentrate for the most part on understanding and working within.

 

Another way of putting it: the learners' words and communicative language are not a result of the material. It's the other way around.

 

 

And now for a humble apology as I reach the end of this post and look back over it... I'm not really sure what I was trying to say or whether I was trying to prove anything at all. I guess, in hindsight, if there were any major points to be made, they weren't expressed succinctly or approached in a progressive or logical way. For that I extend my apologies!

 

I'm just trying stuff out. And learning heaps. And thinking.

 

And then blathering about it on my blog!

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                                      

 

Throwing grammar back on the train

 

 

 

I got the idea for the title of this post from an interesting blog called Throw Grammar From the Train, which struck me as being a nice little twist on the popular black comedy movie title Throw Momma from the Train.

 

I think it's pretty fair to say that, in some circles, the attitude towards explicit grammar instruction is rather similar to the way "momma" is seen and talked about in the clip below (from the movie):

 

 

 

 

Danny Devito wants to get rid of his momma, and mentions her being old, having "a bad ticker", and just needing a good scare to send her on her way (out of his life). But as soon as she confronts him, he'd rather whack someone with a saucepan than get her upset.

 

As in, grammar is a an ugly old grump that we'd like to do away with, but in many cases don't have the courage to. We'd rather call in someone to do the dirty deed for us...

 

 

Well, after several weeks of mostly unplugged teaching, I decided to toss grammar back on my classroom trains last week.

 

Oooh, I can just hear some of the reactions... :-)

 

Having access to computers and Internet, I had my classes get into pairs and tackle (what I felt to be) level-appropriate applications of the online "Grammar in Use" and "Vocabulary in Use" level tests from Cambridge University Press.

 

 

The idea and application was pretty simple:

 

1. Work through the tests in 2-student teams, discussing and making decisions about which answers to choose.

 

2. Look at the final score out of 50 on the test, then look at and talk about the answer corrections that follow.

 

3. Re-try the test again and try to improve on the initial score.

 

4. Go through the test as a class using the IWB, choosing answers, with the teacher (me) available to explain any questions the students might have about the grammar or vocabulary in use, but also inviting the students to ask or respond in imaginary personal situations where the language from the test questions might potentially happen.

 

 

So yeah, three hours where grammar ruled.

Grammar that didn't "emerge" from the learners.

Grammar that was only vaguely contextualised, and only actually well after the fact.

Lots of talk "about" using language, rather than actually using it.

 

 

 

And oh, the horror!, these classes actually went down really well. Students negotiating and discussing, asking a lot of questions, making a lot of guesses. Rules and patterns filled the whiteboard during the review and Q&A session, with students making questions or statements in answer to hypothetically personal situations to emerge from each grammar question on the tests.

 

I enjoyed it.

 

The students definitely enjoyed it.

 

Things were learned, or (probably better said) explored.

 

 

The grammar I threw back on the train last week didn't look much at all like the momma tossed from the train in the movie.

 

 

And I don't feel bad about letting her back on.

 

 

Bless me, Unplugged Father, for I have sinned!

 

 

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                      

 

Passing the test of ELT

 

 

Want a serious long-term future in ELT? Your credentials with helping students "measure up" can make all the difference, in my opinion...

Image: Darren Hester

 

 

As with any job or profession, there are good and bad things about ELT. What is really interesting about ELT, however, is how its ability to both feed and motivate you can vary considerably according to what life stage or situation you happen to be passing through.

 

When I was in my mid-20s and single, a teaching job with a crappy wage but the chance to experiment and be creative was all good.

 

When I was (am) in my mid-30s, married with two little children, a teaching job with a crappy wage but the chance to experiment and be creative was (is) untenable.

 

ELT is one of those sad professions where you will inevitably suffer financially by staying at a level where the real action happens. That is, in the classroom. I look at all the (what appear to be) reasonably well off ELT personalities in their late 40s and early 50s (and beyond), and relatively few of them are active (in any full time way) at the classroom level. It's also astonishing at times to notice how many of them are male/single or female/married.

 

When it comes to staying out of classroom jobs, I can't blame them one bit. I looked at my earnings after a month of classroom teaching here in Australia and was startled to see that not only was I perilously close to this country's "minimum wage", but I was actually earning less per hour than the casual staff employed at my father's retail bedding shop. The casual staff who had been working for 6 months in their "field" (not 16 years). The casual staff who did not need any university qualifications, post-graduate qualifications, or a Cert IV in Training and Assessment.

 

Thank goodness a decision to return to classroom teaching had almost nothing to do with earning a wage. Thank goodness I am earning my ELT income elsewhere.

 

Where?

 

Coursebooks?

Yeah, there's a bit of money there. Not enough to support a family, of course. I suppose if you did coursebooks full time it might be different.

 

Where I make my ELT income, and where almost all of my genuinely profitable offers have come from, is in testing.

 

Tests. Tests. Tests.

 

TOEFL. IELTS. TOEIC. And all the rest.

 

A very long time ago now, when I was working in my first job at my first school, the principal waltzed in one afternoon to announce that they were intending to offer test preparation classes for TOEIC and TOEFL, and she needed some "foreign teacher" volunteers to start teaching them.

 

I put my hand up. I was the only one.

 

Smartest choice I ever made.

 

It's not the most enjoyable aspect of ELT to deal with, I'll admit (though it can be more interesting and motivating to work with than some teachers might imagine), but ELT and its obsession with testing keeps me gainfully self-employed, with the real prospect of being able to feed and clothe a family.

 

 

Are you a young teacher wondering how you could stay in ELT for the long term?

 

Personally, I think it's a very good idea to make sure you know and can teach to the major international English tests.

 

You see, with all those students out there, learning English is a just a step towards a goal. A goal with a gateway with "TEST" written all over it.

 

 

It's not the only route to longer-term success and income in ELT, but it sure as hell is probably one of the more reliable ones.

 

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                    

 

Ken Wilson's 'tabloid' recto teaser idea not as bizarre as it sounds

 

I've just finished reading an absolute cracker of a post over on Ken Wilson's blog, where he explains his fascination with tabloid presentation of content and how he floated a related idea to a group of publishing people.

 

To quote Ken:

 

ELT books are usually divided into units. And the units usually start with a double-page spread, so they start on the left-hand page, what is known as the verso page. Once I suggested that we could start the unit on the recto page, and use the first page as a teaser for the contents of the main unit.

There was general puzzlement at this idea. Sandwiches were not being waved in delight.

“What’s the point of that?” asked one of the editorial team.

“Well,” I stumbled on, convinced that the idea was dying on its feet. “Let’s say the unit is about geography, and there are photos of famous rivers, mountains. Let’s have a small detail of the photos on the first page, the recto page, and a caption saying ‘Do you know where this is?’

Silence.

“And we could also take a sentence out of a reading text, and ask if the reader can guess the context. And put an example of the key grammar, or vocabulary – in a way to make the students want to hunt around and find the answer.”

 

 

Ken's idea apparently went down as being rather non-sensical and potentially a huge waste of paper.

 

Well, Ken, let me tell you that four years or so ago I had a similar discussion with a publishing team where the response was completely different.

 

Here's a quick snapshot of a unit from my Boost! Reading strand:

 

 

The unit starts on a fresh recto (rather than verso) page, hence avoiding the "usual" double page spread.

 

This first page acts as a teaser page both for the unit theme/content but also a particular reading skill. There is a big engaging picture with a simple conversation prompt, then a selection (about one short paragraph) of text taken from the main article which follows on the next page in the open spread section of the unit. This is to get the students interested and curious about the content. There is also a simple task which "orients", or introduces, the concept of the main skill to be applied over on the next pages. In essence, this is set up to help the learners "see" or "discover" the skill in a simple way, with a limited amount of text, without being too technical or explicit.

 

The main double page spread is for the "guts" and real application of the reading text and associated skills, along with vocabulary work. The final page of the unit (meaning the unit finishes on a verso page) expands beyond reading skills in particular and takes the content in new directions that call on other skills (listening, speaking, writing).

 

 

And we followed the same basic pattern/approach for the listening strand as well:

 

 

 

In this case (for the unit depicted), the learners get an excerpt from an interview with a famous (and potentially slightly deranged) tornado hunter on the teaser page, with the full interview featured across activities on the following page.

 

I've used these books in classrooms myself, and the "teaser" idea is very much based on my own experience with inhouse materials development. It works really well: students become curious, in many instances they do something relatively unheard of in many ELT classes and express a genuine desire to flip the page over to see what's coming next (based on the curiosity generated on that first page rather than out of desire to see the back of it, so to speak!).

 

And in terms of skills development, letting them work with a small sample of input and a simple application in advance is a great way to ease them into more full-on skills work.

 

 

And, erm... we've sold quite a few of these Boast (sorry -- BOOST!) books. Apparently young teens quite like the approach and the content.

 

So Ken, I can humbly claim to support your idea with something in the way of real evidence. You were on the right track, and I think a certain publishing team ought to eat a little less in the way of sandwiches (with all the usual fillings) and a little more in the way of their own words. (I mean that nicely, of course!).

 

And my examples here are only a fairly limited or simple application of what Ken is talking about. I think it needs to go further and publishers need to think a little more about what genuinely works to make readers curious and motivated to read/do on.

 

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                 

 

un)-plug-(un: A butterfly bow tie lesson sequence

 

 

The shape of things as we unplugged, then plugged, then unplugged again?

Image: Meghan M. Rogers

 

 

As part of a recent post I showcased an attempt at an experiment involving a sort of post-unplugged coursebook unit. That is, based on an unplugged lesson that ended up focussing more or less on weekend activities, I developed a two-page mini unit with more of a coursebookish approach and appearance. I brought together a lot of the language that had been uncovered and developed in the unplugged lesson, put it into a more controlled situational format, and added some new things to notice and work on (mainly the difference between casual spoken Australian English and corresponding written forms, as well as some strategic devices for handling some conversation sequences, some controlled activities with pronunciation, etc.).

 

Well, after a rather absurdly long weekend (thanks to Melbourne Cup Day yesterday), I took this coursebook-style unit in to my learners today, some three weeks after the initial unplugged lesson that emerged into talk about weekends, to see how they would respond to it.

 

To put it quite mildly, I was really blown away with what happened today. I had planned on this being a quickish 50-minute follow up to that earlier unplugged lesson. Two and a half hours later, we were still firing away with it.

 

The class liked the coursebookish unit (I dare to say, noticing the interest and application they exhibited as soon as the paper was put before them). There was enough there for them to see that "they" had invested something in it beforehand, and they were quite absorbed with how it panned out in the model dialogue. There were new things to notice and think about, however, and they got quite into it.

 

And, in this largish class, I did notice that more students were "on board" for more of the lesson. Whether that was because they had had time to absorb and now add something, or just found the more targeted format of a coursebookish unit more in line with their learning preferences, I can't really tell at this stage (and to be honest, I don't really care).

 

Because then, on the second page of the experimental unit, something fantastic happened.

 

It started going all unplugged again.

 

As we went through the specific strategies, language tips and explanations relevant to the dialogue, the learners had lots of additional examples to test out or ask questions about. The idea of weekends and even common activities exploded into a rainbow of other experiences, and as each emerged from a learner, the others had questions to ask or additional experiences to add on to it.

 

Of course, already being a keen advocate of "unplugged moments", I was fire spotting and darting here and there to throw more kindling on whatever sprang out, then standing by ready to fan it.

 

A particularly popular stage of the lesson happened when students started relating experiences where they had totally misinterpreted spoken English, often with comical results. Like the lady who couldn't understand why her Australian father-in-law was asking her whether she wanted to go to "the zoo", when in fact he was offering her some "dessert". Or the other lady who couldn't comprehend why someone was referring to a substance used to make roads (which is what her bilingual dictionary rendered for her) when in fact the person was just saying thanks to her ("ta").

 

But as I said, basically the learners took what was there and found all sorts of new ways to explore, question and apply it. Made me very glad I'd stuck to just two pages, actually...

 

So looking back on this sequence, what I see is a butterfly or bow tie shape.

 

The initial unplugged lesson brought together a variety of emergent language contributions within a mutually agreed-upon (and "on the spot") theme. I tied that together into a controlled hub, or target, with some new things to notice and think about -- something that turned out much easier for me to do post-lesson and in a coursebookish unit format (given the time I had to review, reflect and think ahead to new learning possibilities), to be applied a couple of weeks later. We worked our way through that controlled target into new learning areas, which the learners then applied (or related) to new themes and experiences of their own, which then became shared conversations with more emergent language to explore and think about.

 

It's early days yet, of course, and like any impatient classroom experimenter, I'm blinkered and keen to see my own idea as potentially valid and valuable...

 

But this worked. And worked well.

 

Unplugged -> Coursebookish unit -> Unplugged

 

Or:

 

un)-plug-(un

 

 

A butterfly bow tie lesson sequence...

 

 

I do apologise to anyone who sees unplugged teaching and coursebooks (or any other "plugged" material) as being mutually exclusive, but my experience in this sequence of lessons and materials has shown me (at this stage) that they have the capacity to feed and nourish each other quite nicely.

 

More experimentation needed!    

 

 

 

=D

 

 

 

                                                  

 

Jamie's current corpus of written English (age 5)

 

 

I recently went through several piles of my son's drawings and scrap paper and made a quick list of the words and sentences he's been writing - at first with assistance from me with spelling, but now pretty much on his own.

 

You can see the little corpus generated above through a Wordle.

 

What are you looking at here?

 

Phrases he's become obsessed with writing based on playing the Daytona car racing game whenever we go to the shopping centre, and the signs he has seen around the entrances to his kindergarten.

 

Hence, everything from "Check Point", "Starting Line" and "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!" to "Stairs", "Fire Door" and "Private: Keep Out".

 

It was interesting to put these phrases in a Wordle, so that they were broken up and scattered about. He now has fun reading aloud each of the phrasey chunks he's memorised by scouting about the Wordle and finding each separate word in turn.

 

In a word: FASCINATING!

 

 

 

=D