I tought 2 girls (13 ysold) for over 6 months. They seemed to love lessons and to learn easily grammar and voc. From time to time they asked to deal with new topics. I agreed as topics were coherent with my programme and with sts level. We laughed and chatted, my corrections were polite but firm. At the end of the course it came out with my boss that they were bored with me, that I made them work too much and they wanted to change teacher. This is not offensive for me, anybody can have his/her preference ... but it's worrying the fact that I didn'd understand their feelings. I now need to make a kind of course analysis but I don't have any tecnique for it! Do I have to consider their feelings as well as their progress? Do I have to prepare a lesson by lesson diagram? Do I have to write down what was good/bad in my opinion? I don't want my write up to seem a self defence as I feel I did my best!
Thanks
nonnative
how to analyse a course that went wrong
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serendipity
- Posts: 110
- Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2004 4:49 pm
- Location: Wiener Neustadt, Austria
Dear Nonnative,
You say that it's worrying to you that you didn't understand the feelings of these girls.
Keep in mind, though, that you've been interacting with young teenagers, who are readjusting themselves to changing circumstances. It may well be that their rejection of you as a teacher is a part of a power-struggle with their parents, and has little to do with you and your methodology.
I'm not sure who is requiring you to make a course analysis.
Your boss?
I wouldn't say that the course "went wrong", either, just because they're about to drop it - especially as they seemed to enjoy the lessons and to pick up bits and pieces of the language.
By the way.... When I was studying, I gave private tuition to kids of that age-group, too. One of them had to be dragged into the room, and insisted on taking out her Barbie-dolls as soon as her mother was gone. Another one tried to get me to watch videos instead of studying. And yet another one thought wouldn't sit still and kept swinging on his chair until he fell.
Parents sometimes have the weirdest ideas of how much studying a kid ought to do - in order to make their own dreams come true. As the tutor, you're just a marginal figure in their interaction with the kids, and in some cases, there's simply nothing you can do to salvage a hopeless situation.
Please don't beat yourself up about it, non-native. It probably wasn't personal anyway.
All the best, Eva
You say that it's worrying to you that you didn't understand the feelings of these girls.
Keep in mind, though, that you've been interacting with young teenagers, who are readjusting themselves to changing circumstances. It may well be that their rejection of you as a teacher is a part of a power-struggle with their parents, and has little to do with you and your methodology.
I'm not sure who is requiring you to make a course analysis.
Your boss?
I wouldn't say that the course "went wrong", either, just because they're about to drop it - especially as they seemed to enjoy the lessons and to pick up bits and pieces of the language.
By the way.... When I was studying, I gave private tuition to kids of that age-group, too. One of them had to be dragged into the room, and insisted on taking out her Barbie-dolls as soon as her mother was gone. Another one tried to get me to watch videos instead of studying. And yet another one thought wouldn't sit still and kept swinging on his chair until he fell.
Parents sometimes have the weirdest ideas of how much studying a kid ought to do - in order to make their own dreams come true. As the tutor, you're just a marginal figure in their interaction with the kids, and in some cases, there's simply nothing you can do to salvage a hopeless situation.
Please don't beat yourself up about it, non-native. It probably wasn't personal anyway.
All the best, Eva
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
It is always great to do an analysis of how you did with the students. You can learn something new from every situation. It is good to do regular class assessments with them too with small questionnaires as to what they think they are learning and how they think they are progressing. It is good to keep this for your bosses and the parents and show them their progress. It is great to document what you are doing. It is what anyone does in any position in any job and we need to do more of it in the teaching profession. It sounds like you did this all along but didn't get it written down so next time you just have to write it down. But in the end, this is a person to person job and you are right in saying they have a choice to go to another person and you won't take offence. We can only please perhaps three quarters of our students and since they can decide whether they like us or not in the first 15 seconds of meeting us, we can't do much about that. People who run schools usually understand that certain teachers are better with certain students and channel them the students they will have success with so that the teachers and the school will benefit. If you can help your boss by telling him which students you are most successful with, she/he will be grateful and you will have a better experience. Don't beat yourself up about the other quarter. You can't possibly please everyone and a realistic boss doesn't expect this. If you can find a way to get the real opinion of the girls (through one of your colleagues or a friend of theirs) then you can find out if you can change anything but it will most likely be personality traits that are yours that you can't change. Don't dwell on this and enjoy the students who stay with you. Having students who don't like you is unpleasant but every job has those parts and this job is one of the best there is with the students who do like you.
objectivity
Hey everyone!
nonnative, I would go about this assesment like this:
A. Clearly state the objective or objectives of the lessons.
B. Outline briefly the methods and resources you used to reach those objectives.
C. Discuss the results: did you and the kids meet the objectives? What were the areas where objectives were not met, and why do you think so?
I'd leave almost all reference to the students' opinion out of your evaluation. You seem to have received that information second hand, which removes accuracy from what might have already been an inaccurate assesment of the classes. So many factors must be considered when listening to the opinion of kids about their education, like the power thing already mentioned here, that the "grain of salt" is the best way of taking it all.
If after having turned in your evaluation you are asked how you feel about the class, you can answer or not as you like. But you can't answer how your students felt, that's their business. Yours is helping them improve their English.
good luck.
peace,
revel.
nonnative, I would go about this assesment like this:
A. Clearly state the objective or objectives of the lessons.
B. Outline briefly the methods and resources you used to reach those objectives.
C. Discuss the results: did you and the kids meet the objectives? What were the areas where objectives were not met, and why do you think so?
I'd leave almost all reference to the students' opinion out of your evaluation. You seem to have received that information second hand, which removes accuracy from what might have already been an inaccurate assesment of the classes. So many factors must be considered when listening to the opinion of kids about their education, like the power thing already mentioned here, that the "grain of salt" is the best way of taking it all.
If after having turned in your evaluation you are asked how you feel about the class, you can answer or not as you like. But you can't answer how your students felt, that's their business. Yours is helping them improve their English.
good luck.
peace,
revel.
Thanks
thankyou serendipity, sally, revel.
I wrote my write up. I used much of your advice. But it was the idea of other teachers support that helped me most. I believe this forum is great, everytime I needed I found here help, ideas, virtual collegues. It's like an enourmous, countinuous, world wide teachers congress. Don't you think so?
thanks again
nonnative
I wrote my write up. I used much of your advice. But it was the idea of other teachers support that helped me most. I believe this forum is great, everytime I needed I found here help, ideas, virtual collegues. It's like an enourmous, countinuous, world wide teachers congress. Don't you think so?
thanks again
nonnative