04/04/06 I didn't post last Thursday because I only had 2 students (Manuel, the regular and Patricia newby) and nothing really eventful happened. We worked on numbers and at the end of the night we practiced numbers in real life by playing Go Fish! That was kinda fun.
So tonight only Patricia shows up -- no Manuel. But tonight I also had to re-videotape the class (last time I tried I didn't get the sound thingy in the right thingy hole) AND Emily came to observe. Patricia said she didn't mind a "private" lesson so I forged ahead. An hour into the class, Guadalupe stuck his head in the door and I asked him if he'd come to my class instead of Betty's for the evening. He agreed and the tempo picked up a little. He's so personable and Patricia is rather quiet. Now, that does not mean that the class before Guadalupe arrived was totally quiet because Emily was there -- remember??? :) She put the spice in what would otherwise have been a pretty low key lesson.
In the last couple of weeks -- ever since my class more or less "re-formed" into a group of total beginners -- I've been thinking that maybe the lessons were going too slowly, maybe I should move faster with new things I introduce to them. Staying so long on numbers, for example, was beginning to seem a little boring to ME. But these people are so novice and I haven't been seeing them take up the material instantly. The recycing and practice, practice, practice seemed to me to be the best approach. I've been very careful to introduce only one new concept at a time, even if it's only a "little" concept, and not to clutter the lessons with extra information that seemed to me to make the lesson more complicated than it needed to be. For example, when I taught them the little conversation to use when meeting a new person, one of the lines was -- "Where are you from?" And the person would answer -- "I'm from Mexico." And I didn't stop to explain about contractions -- I just focused on the interrgative "where" and the meaning behind a reply. Contractions can come later.
So in regards to simplicity -- tonight's lesson involved clock time, quarter past, quarter to, and half past specifically. With hindsight I think I would omit entirely that vocabulary for novices. I think at this stage it's enough to be able to say "It's 8:45." Anyone could certainly understand that response. The "quarters" and "half pasts" aren't used very much in real speech anyway. So why did I introduce them tonight? Because they appear in ALL the texts I used as resources. It was a real stretch for Patricia, and I think there are other things she needs to know that are much more necessary. So lesson from tonight -- don't just take what's in a text at face value -- think about its effect on the student. Duh.
My explanation of morning, afternoon, evening, night was a flop. I thought we had picture cards to use for those words but we didn't. So I really had no way to explain the meanings except with more words. It was a flop until Emily showed us the page in the big Side-by-Side picture dictionary that goes with the text. Whew!!!
So tonight only Patricia shows up -- no Manuel. But tonight I also had to re-videotape the class (last time I tried I didn't get the sound thingy in the right thingy hole) AND Emily came to observe. Patricia said she didn't mind a "private" lesson so I forged ahead. An hour into the class, Guadalupe stuck his head in the door and I asked him if he'd come to my class instead of Betty's for the evening. He agreed and the tempo picked up a little. He's so personable and Patricia is rather quiet. Now, that does not mean that the class before Guadalupe arrived was totally quiet because Emily was there -- remember??? :) She put the spice in what would otherwise have been a pretty low key lesson.
In the last couple of weeks -- ever since my class more or less "re-formed" into a group of total beginners -- I've been thinking that maybe the lessons were going too slowly, maybe I should move faster with new things I introduce to them. Staying so long on numbers, for example, was beginning to seem a little boring to ME. But these people are so novice and I haven't been seeing them take up the material instantly. The recycing and practice, practice, practice seemed to me to be the best approach. I've been very careful to introduce only one new concept at a time, even if it's only a "little" concept, and not to clutter the lessons with extra information that seemed to me to make the lesson more complicated than it needed to be. For example, when I taught them the little conversation to use when meeting a new person, one of the lines was -- "Where are you from?" And the person would answer -- "I'm from Mexico." And I didn't stop to explain about contractions -- I just focused on the interrgative "where" and the meaning behind a reply. Contractions can come later.
So in regards to simplicity -- tonight's lesson involved clock time, quarter past, quarter to, and half past specifically. With hindsight I think I would omit entirely that vocabulary for novices. I think at this stage it's enough to be able to say "It's 8:45." Anyone could certainly understand that response. The "quarters" and "half pasts" aren't used very much in real speech anyway. So why did I introduce them tonight? Because they appear in ALL the texts I used as resources. It was a real stretch for Patricia, and I think there are other things she needs to know that are much more necessary. So lesson from tonight -- don't just take what's in a text at face value -- think about its effect on the student. Duh.
My explanation of morning, afternoon, evening, night was a flop. I thought we had picture cards to use for those words but we didn't. So I really had no way to explain the meanings except with more words. It was a flop until Emily showed us the page in the big Side-by-Side picture dictionary that goes with the text. Whew!!!
posted by Connie | 8:57 AM
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