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[QatarChic]

Know the feeing when everything just goes from bad to worse?? Well how about substituting the hair for teaching�a bad teaching day?? Ever had one?? I just did�.don�t know whether it was the class itself or one particular student (who was VERY argumentative by the way)

I don�t know if there is a thread on this already, but I just had to get it off my chest! Hopefully there will be someone out there in cyber world who can relate to it�

So, this is what happened:

I was teaching my IELTS group today and we were looking at how to approach the writing task 2 on the academic writing paper- I basically told them how it was important to look at the pros and the cons before stating whether you disagree or agree with a statement (those of you who teach IELTS will know what I am on about) so one student (who was male in a mixed class, so don�t know if this is relevant or not) just kept going on and on and on about how he if he didn�t agree with something then he why should he write about�he basically went on for a few minutes, ranting and raving- drove me MAD! No matter how many times I told him or the reasons why, or by giving examples he just wouldn�t shut up. The class basically ended on a bad note because he wanted to prove to the other students that HE was right�..I feel sorry for the other students because he was appeared quite convincing PLUS students had never written a discursive essay before and felt that what he was saying was true!

Aaaagh! I have a few more days left with this class and don�t know how to approach it tomorrow- would you do a follow up? or not mention what happened the day before at all?

Oh PS I have over 7 years TEFL experience but have never come across such aggressive students but I guess you�re always learning something new.

Merci

[Teacher in Rome]

I sympathise with you - it's difficult when one vocal student monopolises the group, because then other students feel intimidated to contribute.

Perhaps what you could do tomorrow is to split up the class into small groups - or even pairs. Then give them a task based on an exam question (you choose the title). Ask them to come up with a plan or an idea as to how they would tackle the question. Get each group or pair to appoint a spokesperson, and write up their ideas on the whiteboard. Hopefully, you then get ideas from a number of people in the class, and this will dilute the effect of what just one person says. As they have all invested time in completing your task, they feel they have made a valid contribution.

It might also be an idea to get them to brainstorm (again in small groups) the advantages or disadvantages of writing on a topic where they can only see one point of view. Maybe they can see this task as an academic exercise in creative thinking.

Hope it goes better for you tomorrow.

[ls650]

[denise]

I haven�t taught IELTS, but I have taught academic writing to pre-university students intending to transfer to the US. The other teachers and I often required students, in both papers and speeches, to at least address the opposing viewpoint, sometimes even argue for it (e.g., finding out what their opinions are and then sticking them on the opposing side during a debate). I would just explain to them that if they wanted to succeed in a US university (and given that we were a US university, just a foreign branch, I assume they all did want to succeed...), then understanding the opposing viewpoint was simply expected of them. It was a basic critical thinking skill that they needed to develop, and their own arguments would be weak unless they had that skill.

I hope tomorrow goes better for you!

d

[Justin Trullinger]

Haven't had a bad hair day for years. (Bald had it's advantages, as I haven't got enough hair left to go truly wrong.)

But a bad teaching day on the other hand, has been known to happen.

One thing to do is to emphasize that in a language class, IELTS or otherwise, we are PRACTICING LANGUAGE. So the idea of expressing a point of view is simply to practice articulating ideas clearly. It doesn't matter what ideas, at this point. Developing them clearly is the point.
In a relatively homogenous group, for example, I always assign points of view in a debate- otherwise they just agree with each other, and get NO meaningful practice.

But IS650 has hit it on the head- some students don't want to do the thing right, they just want to hijack the class to serve their own ego needs. In this case, a calm, unworried, "This is very interesting, but we have a lot of stuff to cover. Let's move on," is the way to go.


Hang in there,
Justin

[teacheringreece]

In my opinion, students of this kind need to be put in their place a little or others students will suffer. In the specific example, I'd probably write a bad answer to the question completely concentrating on my side of the argument, photocopy some excerpts of the marking scheme for the writing paper, and go through the answer with the class explaining/getting them to explain the problem with the answer in reference to the marking scheme. You could then get them to correct the answer you've given them or perhaps do the corrections together.

By the end the aggressive student shouldn't have too much to say!

I agree with ls650 as well - sometimes you do come across perfectly reasonable frustrations about certain aspects of exams when teaching exam classes. Sometimes you need to sympathise and say you agree with the point, but just emphasise that unless ss do what is required in the question and marking scheme, they'll fail.

[basiltherat]

id have given him the rest of the day off. gone home and written an essay in support of the proposal. handed the essay to the guy the following morning and asked him to read it and to ... COUNTER THAT, THEN ! You might get him to write something that way
regards
basil

[drteacher]

In my experience, this type of student tends to be a "leader", or dominating personality in the classroom. I would take him aside, away from the rest of the class, and tell him he is someone that the rest of the class looks up to; tell him that he can be an example to the rest of the class. This provides him with greater self-esteem and helps to create a sense of responsibility.
A lesson on debating tactics may also provide some assistance in preparing "pro" and "con" arguments despite a students own personal opinions. These classes prove to be engaging and very energetic.

[spidey]

[QatarChic]

Thank you Teacher in Rome, ls650, Denise, Justin Trullinger, teacheringreece, basiltherat, drteacher, spidey for your useful comments/suggestions:) This is what I ended up doing last night:

I gave them 4 different sample answers that students had written and then asked them to comment on it and give a band- according to the criteria wich we looked at together in class the week before. When they compared their bands to the ones which the examiners had given, they were shocked to see how different their own perceptions were to that of the examiner- the particular student who was so vocal the previous lesson was speechless, went red in the face and didn't know what to say- he ended apologising to me at the end of the class....

What I think I should have done, was to be more assertive with him in class- something which I did in class yesterday with another student (who wasn't s bad as the other) and it worked!