2/2/06 Th Well, this lesson plan was a bust and waste of time. Guess things turn out after all because even after spending a lot of time on it, I still felt like it was a weak lesson plan going in. OK – after Tues I’m thinking – I have to have a plan that will accommodate a group of very beginners (like Tues) or all the regular guys (who are above the very beginner level) or BOTH. And go in thinking I’m covered. It’ll require some punting, but hey, in this sphere I’m finding that I CAN actually think on my feet. However, I go into the class and the lesson is immediately derailed by Rebecca, the class’s main teacher (who is SUPPOSED to be LETTING ME teach). (Thank GOODNESS Genia “lets” me teach on Tuesday. I’m going to do a little schmoozing next time I see her and tell her how grateful I am that she is stepping back and letting me go. Of course, she’s more than glad to do this – gives her time for the paperwork.) So Rebecca starts out by trying to explain to the first student who walks in the significance of Groundhog Day. What’s a groundhog in Spanish anyway? I told her just tell them it’s a big rat that lives in the ground. But we come up with marmot – marmota and they still don’t know what a groundhog is. Then a second student comes in and she starts all over. I just have to write this down. Trying to describe that he sees his shadow, I don’t think she even knows that he sees its shadow because the sun is shining (vocab word sunny) or doesn’t see its shadow because it’s (another vocab word) cloudy. Well, OK, she wasn’t there Tues when I taught the weather vocab. But I don’t think she gets the meteorological connection between sun and shadow; cloudy day and no shadow. Like duh. By the end of the schpiel second time around, the guys were just shaking their heads. They finally understood what she was trying to tell them (with stupid marmot pictures) but I could tell they were thinking – what a dumb holiday.
Only Guadalupe and Manuel tonight – but both working at same level. I asked Guadalupe if he minded if we recycled the weather words from Tues when Manuel wasn’t here. He was glad to work with the some more. And I started in – basically using a combination of Tues and Thurs lesson plans. Rebecca eventually sat down and we all 4 worked together with me leading. Interestingly – they began on their own moving in the direction of activities I had planned. I felt some desire to stick with the way I had ordered the activities and do them in my order, but knew I had to follow their interest. I felt like I did teach them something tonight – months, days, days abbreviations. I’m leading up to how to make, keep, and cancel an appointment. And I just have to be satisfied with the little steps of progress – both theirs and mine.
Big picture: I know where I want to head. I want to use the CASAS second level test (the next test that my guys will be given) as a guide for planning the rest of my time in this course. Major topics are use of numbers, money, time, calendar, shopping. This weekend I’m going to think about a general “course” plan to take me thru the rest of my time with this class. And I think by May it will be about time for them to take their next test. Oh yes, and one more thing. Neither Genia nor Rebecca does any sort of long-range planning or even short-range lesson planning. They come in each week and decide what to do on the spot. I could say that they have lots of experience to draw on but that’s not all that’s at work here. At NCCAT we call it the Golden Thread. There’s no Golden Thread here. No lesson is related to any other lesson. Yeah, they may go back and recycle what’s been learned before, but there’s no purpose for the recycling. I am too much a logical sequential thinker to bear this. It is so satisfying to me to create a logically flowing lesson plan. And at this point I don’t even mind when it doesn’t come off the way I envision it. (No NCCAT seminar I’ve planned has ever come off exactly the way I planned it.) But thankfully I have already had an experience where a plan and the actual class came pretty close to meeting and the thrill of that experience was enough to give me the patience and faith that it WILL happen again. This week I didn’t walk around Wed and Friday on the high I had last week, but this is still so rewarding.
1/31/06 Tu Welcome to the world of ESL teaching! Spent a lot of time planning, then revising lesson for tonight. “Where are you from?” “How’s the weather in _______?” weather vocab, then months on calendar, then tie weather to months for thinking about real world. Planned it for my regular guys. Even had a gut feeling I was introducing too much material. But then only Guadalupe showed up and new Mariana very beginner AND Kim and Soo from Cambodia!!! These are the 2 “Chinese” that Genia had told me about. They were from Cambodia, not China – oh well, begins with a C. Soo was translator for her aunt Kim. Soo learned her English in these very classes – took her about 3 years, she said, to get to where she is now – which is very good. Kim soft spoken, understands much more than she lets on (as I’m finding most do), pretty good pronunciation when she actually speaks. Kim wanted to write everything down which slowed down the others. So while she copied everything off the board, I just went on with Guadalupe and Mariana. Then folded Kim back in when she was ready. I felt bad holding Guadalupe back. Soo spent a lot of time explaining everything to Kim in Cambodian – felt disruptive to me. However – Chandrika will be happy – no Spanish for Kim!!! But I felt like I was kinda cheating with Soo there as translator – and, I have to say, she spoke MUCH more Cambodian than I ever spoke Spanish to “my” guys!!! One little interesting side light to that: I explained (in Spanish) to Guadalupe at the beginning of class that I was advised not to speak so much Spanish, only in a pinch. He must’ve gone out at break and told the guys in Betty’s class because Misael came into my class during break and said – basically – Hey, I hear they told you not to speak so much Spanish!!!! Interesting!
So anyway, well planned lesson derailed. Had to go much slower for Mariana and Kim while trying to keep Guadalupe interested and challenged. Taught weather terms within some conversation. Then recycled opposites from last week. Played concentration AGAIN. But they liked it. Broke the ice. At break time Misael and the other students flooded into my room. That hadn’t happened before. Watched the end of my students’ concentration game. I had brought a big map of Mexico and Cent Am to use in the “Where are you from?” conversation. They all spent their break at the map. Of course, I had to ask everyone the question. Interesting how little they know of their own country’s geography. But it had everyone talking – in Spanish though. Next time I’m going to nose in and suggest they talk in English to each other. Would be great opportunity – CLT in action.
1/26/06 Th Oh, rats! I just lost all I had written!!! Begin again. First observation. I wasn’t nervous. I think that all the mistakes I make and all the little things that I don’t do during this time I’m learning are small in comparison to the energy in that room – the Big Picture. I want to give those guys so much and I just have to be patient while I learn. After tonight I now have a couple of things in my bag of tricks that I know I can depend on. In a cooperative learning situation (students AND teacher) I know I can enlist the aid of the students to help each other in their learning. They do this for each other anyway like when they constantly translate for each other. But in the times when my explanations – in English or Spanish -- are just not getting through, I am going to consciously and actively encourage the more advanced students to explain to the others. Misael did this tonight. And in pronunciation too. I think that sometimes they can hear one another’s pronunciation better than they can understand mine. And I’m not so afraid anymore when an absolute beginner comes into the classroom for the first time. I will just fold them into the group and let the others help them along. That’s what Manuel did tonight for Aldo and I told Manuel he is a good teacher. It helps Manuel learn too.
We’ve talked for YEARS at NCCAT about creating a safe and comfortable atmosphere for learning where students feel they can take risks. It’s so interesting to experience a concept that I’ve known intellectually for so long – I must be creating that safe space because even the quiet students participate. I didn’t consciously set out to do that when I started with this class but I guess after all these NCCAT years it comes naturally to me. But I need to think about HOW I am actually doing that in THIS particular situation. Fodder for future reflection.
Questions after tonight: This pronunciation thing. It was so noisy in the room. How DO you teach Eng pron from the very beginning? That was one of the main things I didn’t like about Patricia Hackett’s beginning Span class at SCC that I took with Grace. She taught the kids how to say the NAMES of the letters but she never taught them the sounds. I never understood why. Span is so easy and regular to pronounce. Those kids struggled with pron never realizing they could sound out the words. Maybe I should take Mrs. Burrell to lunch!!! Do I need to learn how to teach phonics? I never found anything in last semester’s methods class that answered this question. Where do you start when Eng letters have so many different sounds, esp vowels, and so many diff combinations make diff sounds?
Another question: Antonio stayed after class to talk to Rebecca and me. He is frustrated. For one thing, he says when he goes home he can’t remember how to pronounce the words he’s learned in class. And he is one of the students who really struggles with pronunciation in the first place. And he says he wants to be able to TALK to people and he wonders WHEN he’s going to be able to do that. He wants conversation skills. I didn’t have the Spanish to tell him that we will “recycle” lessons in the class so that he has opportunity to practice the new information over and over. But I want to know how I can design the course to meet THOSE needs. What can I do to help them talk?
Only Guadalupe and Manuel tonight – but both working at same level. I asked Guadalupe if he minded if we recycled the weather words from Tues when Manuel wasn’t here. He was glad to work with the some more. And I started in – basically using a combination of Tues and Thurs lesson plans. Rebecca eventually sat down and we all 4 worked together with me leading. Interestingly – they began on their own moving in the direction of activities I had planned. I felt some desire to stick with the way I had ordered the activities and do them in my order, but knew I had to follow their interest. I felt like I did teach them something tonight – months, days, days abbreviations. I’m leading up to how to make, keep, and cancel an appointment. And I just have to be satisfied with the little steps of progress – both theirs and mine.
Big picture: I know where I want to head. I want to use the CASAS second level test (the next test that my guys will be given) as a guide for planning the rest of my time in this course. Major topics are use of numbers, money, time, calendar, shopping. This weekend I’m going to think about a general “course” plan to take me thru the rest of my time with this class. And I think by May it will be about time for them to take their next test. Oh yes, and one more thing. Neither Genia nor Rebecca does any sort of long-range planning or even short-range lesson planning. They come in each week and decide what to do on the spot. I could say that they have lots of experience to draw on but that’s not all that’s at work here. At NCCAT we call it the Golden Thread. There’s no Golden Thread here. No lesson is related to any other lesson. Yeah, they may go back and recycle what’s been learned before, but there’s no purpose for the recycling. I am too much a logical sequential thinker to bear this. It is so satisfying to me to create a logically flowing lesson plan. And at this point I don’t even mind when it doesn’t come off the way I envision it. (No NCCAT seminar I’ve planned has ever come off exactly the way I planned it.) But thankfully I have already had an experience where a plan and the actual class came pretty close to meeting and the thrill of that experience was enough to give me the patience and faith that it WILL happen again. This week I didn’t walk around Wed and Friday on the high I had last week, but this is still so rewarding.
1/31/06 Tu Welcome to the world of ESL teaching! Spent a lot of time planning, then revising lesson for tonight. “Where are you from?” “How’s the weather in _______?” weather vocab, then months on calendar, then tie weather to months for thinking about real world. Planned it for my regular guys. Even had a gut feeling I was introducing too much material. But then only Guadalupe showed up and new Mariana very beginner AND Kim and Soo from Cambodia!!! These are the 2 “Chinese” that Genia had told me about. They were from Cambodia, not China – oh well, begins with a C. Soo was translator for her aunt Kim. Soo learned her English in these very classes – took her about 3 years, she said, to get to where she is now – which is very good. Kim soft spoken, understands much more than she lets on (as I’m finding most do), pretty good pronunciation when she actually speaks. Kim wanted to write everything down which slowed down the others. So while she copied everything off the board, I just went on with Guadalupe and Mariana. Then folded Kim back in when she was ready. I felt bad holding Guadalupe back. Soo spent a lot of time explaining everything to Kim in Cambodian – felt disruptive to me. However – Chandrika will be happy – no Spanish for Kim!!! But I felt like I was kinda cheating with Soo there as translator – and, I have to say, she spoke MUCH more Cambodian than I ever spoke Spanish to “my” guys!!! One little interesting side light to that: I explained (in Spanish) to Guadalupe at the beginning of class that I was advised not to speak so much Spanish, only in a pinch. He must’ve gone out at break and told the guys in Betty’s class because Misael came into my class during break and said – basically – Hey, I hear they told you not to speak so much Spanish!!!! Interesting!
So anyway, well planned lesson derailed. Had to go much slower for Mariana and Kim while trying to keep Guadalupe interested and challenged. Taught weather terms within some conversation. Then recycled opposites from last week. Played concentration AGAIN. But they liked it. Broke the ice. At break time Misael and the other students flooded into my room. That hadn’t happened before. Watched the end of my students’ concentration game. I had brought a big map of Mexico and Cent Am to use in the “Where are you from?” conversation. They all spent their break at the map. Of course, I had to ask everyone the question. Interesting how little they know of their own country’s geography. But it had everyone talking – in Spanish though. Next time I’m going to nose in and suggest they talk in English to each other. Would be great opportunity – CLT in action.
1/26/06 Th Oh, rats! I just lost all I had written!!! Begin again. First observation. I wasn’t nervous. I think that all the mistakes I make and all the little things that I don’t do during this time I’m learning are small in comparison to the energy in that room – the Big Picture. I want to give those guys so much and I just have to be patient while I learn. After tonight I now have a couple of things in my bag of tricks that I know I can depend on. In a cooperative learning situation (students AND teacher) I know I can enlist the aid of the students to help each other in their learning. They do this for each other anyway like when they constantly translate for each other. But in the times when my explanations – in English or Spanish -- are just not getting through, I am going to consciously and actively encourage the more advanced students to explain to the others. Misael did this tonight. And in pronunciation too. I think that sometimes they can hear one another’s pronunciation better than they can understand mine. And I’m not so afraid anymore when an absolute beginner comes into the classroom for the first time. I will just fold them into the group and let the others help them along. That’s what Manuel did tonight for Aldo and I told Manuel he is a good teacher. It helps Manuel learn too.
We’ve talked for YEARS at NCCAT about creating a safe and comfortable atmosphere for learning where students feel they can take risks. It’s so interesting to experience a concept that I’ve known intellectually for so long – I must be creating that safe space because even the quiet students participate. I didn’t consciously set out to do that when I started with this class but I guess after all these NCCAT years it comes naturally to me. But I need to think about HOW I am actually doing that in THIS particular situation. Fodder for future reflection.
Questions after tonight: This pronunciation thing. It was so noisy in the room. How DO you teach Eng pron from the very beginning? That was one of the main things I didn’t like about Patricia Hackett’s beginning Span class at SCC that I took with Grace. She taught the kids how to say the NAMES of the letters but she never taught them the sounds. I never understood why. Span is so easy and regular to pronounce. Those kids struggled with pron never realizing they could sound out the words. Maybe I should take Mrs. Burrell to lunch!!! Do I need to learn how to teach phonics? I never found anything in last semester’s methods class that answered this question. Where do you start when Eng letters have so many different sounds, esp vowels, and so many diff combinations make diff sounds?
Another question: Antonio stayed after class to talk to Rebecca and me. He is frustrated. For one thing, he says when he goes home he can’t remember how to pronounce the words he’s learned in class. And he is one of the students who really struggles with pronunciation in the first place. And he says he wants to be able to TALK to people and he wonders WHEN he’s going to be able to do that. He wants conversation skills. I didn’t have the Spanish to tell him that we will “recycle” lessons in the class so that he has opportunity to practice the new information over and over. But I want to know how I can design the course to meet THOSE needs. What can I do to help them talk?
posted by Connie | 11:14 AM
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