This is a call for a properly subtle form of revenge...(for a certain bunch of ne'r do trys)
...to get teenagers learning while keeping them guessing -
So wise they think they are, that they basically seek ways to screw your lesson up; so cowardly, that they can't stand-out from the crowd, and so have to try exactly as pathetically as everyone else; so cunning themselves that they try to make me do all the work...
Any ideas on how to keep 'em guessing, keep 'em on task; get them confused, trick them into learning english and using their minds?
Seriously - I would like to know if anyone has ever developed a really good conspiricy, with which, for theirown learning objectives, you can or have manipulated your students?
Amusing anecdotes, proven formula's and miracles all welcome...
Mind Games (to keep 'em guessing)
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
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I do this all the time but it varies for each student. You have to get to know the student really well to tap into what turns them on. Then you use that to get them excited and give them a project to get ready to present to the other students or to work in a group of like-minded people to present to the group, perhaps the other English teachers, the VP, Principal and parents and so on, depending on how good it is.
Most teenagers have a favourite music group they can do a project on or have heard of a scary story or two they can make a short movie about or know someone in their village, town or city who they want to find out more about and can make a biography of them or follow them around their job for a day or two and take pictures and make a poster session on them for the school. With boys it is often sports, cars, hunting, fishing. With girls it is often fashion, famous people.
I got my grade 12's to research an English lesson on a topic on the Internet and find several lesson plans and then make one of their own to teach the grade 1's. They seem to love to research their own country and find statistics on weird things on the CIA website.
I give them a demonstration lesson on what I would like in a project that I have done - I did one on Japanese cartoon characters and one on Donald Duck's family, one on the principal of the school, one on my family. I created a four or five page booklet, or a movie, or a poster to show them the kinds of products that I wanted and then booked the rooms, the equipment and facilitated the groups that needed more help to get going or get focused.
Several students interested in science did an experiment in front of the class, wrote it up with instructions for future students and went on to find out practical applications for what they had done. it is an endless and mindblowing as they can be encouraged to think about.
Of course, you always get into trouble because things are not as they are expected to be in traditional classrooms and some students will do sometihng inappropriate (some of the students did a copy of that terrible movie, Jackass), but learning to deal with all these things is part of the growth, yours and theirs,
Most teenagers have a favourite music group they can do a project on or have heard of a scary story or two they can make a short movie about or know someone in their village, town or city who they want to find out more about and can make a biography of them or follow them around their job for a day or two and take pictures and make a poster session on them for the school. With boys it is often sports, cars, hunting, fishing. With girls it is often fashion, famous people.
I got my grade 12's to research an English lesson on a topic on the Internet and find several lesson plans and then make one of their own to teach the grade 1's. They seem to love to research their own country and find statistics on weird things on the CIA website.
I give them a demonstration lesson on what I would like in a project that I have done - I did one on Japanese cartoon characters and one on Donald Duck's family, one on the principal of the school, one on my family. I created a four or five page booklet, or a movie, or a poster to show them the kinds of products that I wanted and then booked the rooms, the equipment and facilitated the groups that needed more help to get going or get focused.
Several students interested in science did an experiment in front of the class, wrote it up with instructions for future students and went on to find out practical applications for what they had done. it is an endless and mindblowing as they can be encouraged to think about.
Of course, you always get into trouble because things are not as they are expected to be in traditional classrooms and some students will do sometihng inappropriate (some of the students did a copy of that terrible movie, Jackass), but learning to deal with all these things is part of the growth, yours and theirs,
Last edited by Sally Olsen on Tue May 15, 2007 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Wow, thanks for the reminders, Sally.
I have, on previous occasions, come accross some of their interests and how little they can talk about them (in any language) because they haven't really looked into it. (E.g. a class of girls who had no idea about the personalities of the pop stars they supposedly addored). So a project here could be ideal for them. I also have the ubiquitous class of silent 'intermediate' boys. With these guys[rant truncated].
Yes, I will persue this angle. We're all tired of the previous stuff. I just can never trust them to come up with anything in response to the oppertunity. They'll probably just sit there and fall asleep. I work in a rural Hakwon; its taken some of them 5 months to buy a notebook...
Nonetheless, I really do think they have stuff they can bring to the class (and the world). If I show I'm serious I suppose they'll get the message. And mb get into it. I guess I should make my presentation and encouragement soon before I totally give up on them!
Watch this space!
I have, on previous occasions, come accross some of their interests and how little they can talk about them (in any language) because they haven't really looked into it. (E.g. a class of girls who had no idea about the personalities of the pop stars they supposedly addored). So a project here could be ideal for them. I also have the ubiquitous class of silent 'intermediate' boys. With these guys[rant truncated].
Yes, I will persue this angle. We're all tired of the previous stuff. I just can never trust them to come up with anything in response to the oppertunity. They'll probably just sit there and fall asleep. I work in a rural Hakwon; its taken some of them 5 months to buy a notebook...
Nonetheless, I really do think they have stuff they can bring to the class (and the world). If I show I'm serious I suppose they'll get the message. And mb get into it. I guess I should make my presentation and encouragement soon before I totally give up on them!
Watch this space!
Dear Sally, I was inspired by your post and I said 'watch this space'//so..
I have taken up the idea of presenting what it is you want to be produced from a class. On some occasions it has worked really well. In fact, I have often used an example taken from one activity in one class to inspire another class to come up with something else.
I did have trouble when a class came up with posters that were in places grammatically incorrect .. I had to decide whether to put them up or not,. In many cases I did not. I must say that on occasion I have embellished their contributions myself (when we have run out of time) by adding more colours, for example, or just not displayed them - what is the point of putting them up when they are wrong or ugly? Perhaps, I should have taught them better in the first place, but must I display their mistakes to all, and in other cases, should they have made them better with a little effort of their own? Do I display their lack of effort as an example?
The hardest thing for me is that although I teach my students several times a week, it seems (for some reason!) as though we can not spend more than one lesson practicing one particular kind of grammatical form. Or, use one way of practicing one way of talking about the form. Obviously, with some we revisit the same form more than once, if not many times, but (perhaps this is just me being rubbish) I do not see how we can structure a meaningful activity around EVERY particular grammar structure. Other times it's like the lesson just takes on a force of its own. Indeed, its just like I'm there to allow them to practice speaking or to police the mistakes only native speakers hear. Once they can do it, it's like that's enough..drawing pictures (or doing exercises) just fills in the time (giving more practice) for the stronger students while you help the weaker students. What they need is conversation (speaking) practice - that they can only get by checking with me and practicing amongst themselves.
Am I just shirking attempts to make our lessons more meaningful? Perhaps I am just being lazy! . Should I spend every hour of every day preparing examples, just to have them forgotten, rubbished or ignored by the end of the lesson? Any special ideas on how to keep grammar tasks communicative? Does one make a special project out of each?
Anybody tired these things? Had any success in a 30 hour week!? Had any interesting achievements or encountered any apparently insoluble mistakes? Post your experiences here!
______
On the more OP related subject of conspiracy, I think the notion of using things they know to get them on board is well useful. I often use celebrities to get them using the knowledge they already know and getting them used to producing this in English, but this really depends on the strength of the class. There are many ways: I took your example of Donald Duck's family and just made up a random family of mine from some of the random pictures of celebrities I had (Brad Pitt was my uncle, etc).
There are many devices one can use to keep classes on their toes, but I am not subtle, nor two-faced enough to totally fool my students. Thus, what I've found it to show that you will punish them everytime, until they come up with the goods! A conspiricy of being strict!
A classic example is the stand up quiz (which I use at the beginning of most of my classes (taken from the Genki English website)- Everyone makes a line and no one can sit down (when you tell them where they can sit- a good tool for separating a class from their usual groups) until they answer the question/say the sentence 100% correctly! Lines are a favourite too, if they don't do the basics (turn up on time or bring their books, etc, they get lines.
I found punishing them quite effective because its consistent and calming and I don't have to shout or explain it more than once. Though its a little bit strange the way they just sit their and except it a little easily..I have had to explain WHY they are being punished, even though it is explained in the words they are writing.. However, making exceptions on a given day, after a hard week, was a kind of conspiracy of kindness they appreiciated.
Otherwise, I (and most teachers in similar circumstances) just tend to use some sort of game which makes going through the exercises a bit better. Tetris or 'get 4' on the board, in groups or in paris. Its a shame, really: one feels one isn't really fuffilling anyones potential to the full but it 'does the job'. So if we can do what is reasonably expectded in terms of behaviour and get through the exercise or task, that's ok. With better classes with have a kind of conspiricy of comedy or just something approaching a conversation. But that's about as far as my conspiricies get.
Edited to amend the previous edit's lack of sobriety, exclamation marks, incoherence.
I have taken up the idea of presenting what it is you want to be produced from a class. On some occasions it has worked really well. In fact, I have often used an example taken from one activity in one class to inspire another class to come up with something else.
I did have trouble when a class came up with posters that were in places grammatically incorrect .. I had to decide whether to put them up or not,. In many cases I did not. I must say that on occasion I have embellished their contributions myself (when we have run out of time) by adding more colours, for example, or just not displayed them - what is the point of putting them up when they are wrong or ugly? Perhaps, I should have taught them better in the first place, but must I display their mistakes to all, and in other cases, should they have made them better with a little effort of their own? Do I display their lack of effort as an example?
The hardest thing for me is that although I teach my students several times a week, it seems (for some reason!) as though we can not spend more than one lesson practicing one particular kind of grammatical form. Or, use one way of practicing one way of talking about the form. Obviously, with some we revisit the same form more than once, if not many times, but (perhaps this is just me being rubbish) I do not see how we can structure a meaningful activity around EVERY particular grammar structure. Other times it's like the lesson just takes on a force of its own. Indeed, its just like I'm there to allow them to practice speaking or to police the mistakes only native speakers hear. Once they can do it, it's like that's enough..drawing pictures (or doing exercises) just fills in the time (giving more practice) for the stronger students while you help the weaker students. What they need is conversation (speaking) practice - that they can only get by checking with me and practicing amongst themselves.
Am I just shirking attempts to make our lessons more meaningful? Perhaps I am just being lazy! . Should I spend every hour of every day preparing examples, just to have them forgotten, rubbished or ignored by the end of the lesson? Any special ideas on how to keep grammar tasks communicative? Does one make a special project out of each?
Anybody tired these things? Had any success in a 30 hour week!? Had any interesting achievements or encountered any apparently insoluble mistakes? Post your experiences here!
______
On the more OP related subject of conspiracy, I think the notion of using things they know to get them on board is well useful. I often use celebrities to get them using the knowledge they already know and getting them used to producing this in English, but this really depends on the strength of the class. There are many ways: I took your example of Donald Duck's family and just made up a random family of mine from some of the random pictures of celebrities I had (Brad Pitt was my uncle, etc).
There are many devices one can use to keep classes on their toes, but I am not subtle, nor two-faced enough to totally fool my students. Thus, what I've found it to show that you will punish them everytime, until they come up with the goods! A conspiricy of being strict!
A classic example is the stand up quiz (which I use at the beginning of most of my classes (taken from the Genki English website)- Everyone makes a line and no one can sit down (when you tell them where they can sit- a good tool for separating a class from their usual groups) until they answer the question/say the sentence 100% correctly! Lines are a favourite too, if they don't do the basics (turn up on time or bring their books, etc, they get lines.
I found punishing them quite effective because its consistent and calming and I don't have to shout or explain it more than once. Though its a little bit strange the way they just sit their and except it a little easily..I have had to explain WHY they are being punished, even though it is explained in the words they are writing.. However, making exceptions on a given day, after a hard week, was a kind of conspiracy of kindness they appreiciated.
Otherwise, I (and most teachers in similar circumstances) just tend to use some sort of game which makes going through the exercises a bit better. Tetris or 'get 4' on the board, in groups or in paris. Its a shame, really: one feels one isn't really fuffilling anyones potential to the full but it 'does the job'. So if we can do what is reasonably expectded in terms of behaviour and get through the exercise or task, that's ok. With better classes with have a kind of conspiricy of comedy or just something approaching a conversation. But that's about as far as my conspiricies get.
Edited to amend the previous edit's lack of sobriety, exclamation marks, incoherence.
Last edited by trubadour on Fri May 18, 2007 6:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
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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
You certainly are very thoughtful and are expressing your concerns so well. We have all had these thoughts no doubt.
As I understand the schools called Hogwans or Hokwans, the students come for specified lessons at a certain time for a certain period, like an hour, two or three times a week. They are coming because they don't do well in English in school or their parents want them to have "better" English lessons with a native speaker and so on. It is not their choice.
They have already spent the day in school and have homework to do after your lesson. They only see English as a passport to a good school and are not looking at the language itself as interesting. They just want to pass the Engish test and there is a small oral test.
I gather that in some schools there is a curriculum laid out and you have to follow it pretty closely with a card for each student that you check off they have learned that lesson. Lesson 5 - simple present. Once they have done the lesson that is it and they figure they have learned it and don't want to do it again.
I ran into this in my Japanese lessons in Japan. I was taking lessons at the local cultural centre and there would be many different volunteer teachers. So they had a card for me and checked off that I did a lesson. When I came for the next lesson they would go on to the next lesson in the course, whether or not I had understood anything of the previous lesson. Since I was taking the same lessons in two different places, I had the same lesson twice a week so that helped some until the found out and started to ask the other instructors what I had done and forced me to move more quickly. They were highly incensed that I would ask to repeat a lesson or have a review. They wanted to go on.
I suspect that this is the way that the schools operate as well. If the teacher has taught it, the students are expected to know it. If they don't, they go to after school classes and in fact, many students don't pay much attention to their teacher because they know they will get it again in the afternoon.
But by the afternoon they are full of information and tired and so don't get it then either.
So, Yes, I think that you have to stand on your head to get them to wake up and pay attention. You need to get them excited about learning so that they catch your enthusiastic experience. It will be hard work for you no doubt but at the end of your season you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you turned on your students to learning, not just learning English.
We used tape recorders get them to talk and then listen to their talk. Tape recorders are so small and relatively inexpensive nowadays. Divide them into groups of four up to six and after a short lecture on the topic of the day, grammar point, whatever, then give them a topic they could use that grammar point for. Have one person as a facilitator to make sure everyone in the group speaks into the tape . They can stop the tape and erase, practice what they are going to say beforehand so they get interesting vocabulary and structures and so on. Then exchange the tapes among groups and have them comment on the content of points made by the other students, adding to the tapes. This gives them a bit of cushion between free conversation and prepared conversations.
I would suggest that they have to make a draft before they make the poster and submit it to another group for corrections before they do the final version. As a teacher, I would circulate to the groups that I know will have difficulties and make some suggestions for corrections.
I guess I agree with them that your classes are not for making pictures and making posters pretty and perhaps you could have prepared pictures and borders and such to jazz them up. Actually in your situation I might even use a number of small whiteboards and that would mean the errors could easily be erased. Just having different coloured pens will make the collection look more colourful. You can take pictures of the best ones and blow those up for parent demonstrations or to take to other classes.
As I understand the schools called Hogwans or Hokwans, the students come for specified lessons at a certain time for a certain period, like an hour, two or three times a week. They are coming because they don't do well in English in school or their parents want them to have "better" English lessons with a native speaker and so on. It is not their choice.
They have already spent the day in school and have homework to do after your lesson. They only see English as a passport to a good school and are not looking at the language itself as interesting. They just want to pass the Engish test and there is a small oral test.
I gather that in some schools there is a curriculum laid out and you have to follow it pretty closely with a card for each student that you check off they have learned that lesson. Lesson 5 - simple present. Once they have done the lesson that is it and they figure they have learned it and don't want to do it again.
I ran into this in my Japanese lessons in Japan. I was taking lessons at the local cultural centre and there would be many different volunteer teachers. So they had a card for me and checked off that I did a lesson. When I came for the next lesson they would go on to the next lesson in the course, whether or not I had understood anything of the previous lesson. Since I was taking the same lessons in two different places, I had the same lesson twice a week so that helped some until the found out and started to ask the other instructors what I had done and forced me to move more quickly. They were highly incensed that I would ask to repeat a lesson or have a review. They wanted to go on.
I suspect that this is the way that the schools operate as well. If the teacher has taught it, the students are expected to know it. If they don't, they go to after school classes and in fact, many students don't pay much attention to their teacher because they know they will get it again in the afternoon.
But by the afternoon they are full of information and tired and so don't get it then either.
So, Yes, I think that you have to stand on your head to get them to wake up and pay attention. You need to get them excited about learning so that they catch your enthusiastic experience. It will be hard work for you no doubt but at the end of your season you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you turned on your students to learning, not just learning English.
We used tape recorders get them to talk and then listen to their talk. Tape recorders are so small and relatively inexpensive nowadays. Divide them into groups of four up to six and after a short lecture on the topic of the day, grammar point, whatever, then give them a topic they could use that grammar point for. Have one person as a facilitator to make sure everyone in the group speaks into the tape . They can stop the tape and erase, practice what they are going to say beforehand so they get interesting vocabulary and structures and so on. Then exchange the tapes among groups and have them comment on the content of points made by the other students, adding to the tapes. This gives them a bit of cushion between free conversation and prepared conversations.
I would suggest that they have to make a draft before they make the poster and submit it to another group for corrections before they do the final version. As a teacher, I would circulate to the groups that I know will have difficulties and make some suggestions for corrections.
I guess I agree with them that your classes are not for making pictures and making posters pretty and perhaps you could have prepared pictures and borders and such to jazz them up. Actually in your situation I might even use a number of small whiteboards and that would mean the errors could easily be erased. Just having different coloured pens will make the collection look more colourful. You can take pictures of the best ones and blow those up for parent demonstrations or to take to other classes.