how to make a class more enjoyable

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phxqhd
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how to make a class more enjoyable

Post by phxqhd » Mon May 17, 2004 7:09 pm

Any tips? I am teaching some Hispanic adults. They don't speak much.

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Lorikeet
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Post by Lorikeet » Mon May 17, 2004 8:48 pm

I think having a sense of humor is quite helpful. My classes laugh a lot, even if it's because I act out things. ;) When they are laughing, they relax. Once I was teaching in, on, and under. I had a cup on my head, a straw in the cup, and a chopstick in the straw. My boss walked in. :D Another teacher was under the desk when he walked in, teaching "Where am I?"

I used to teach parts of the body, and then do a "Simon says" type exercise. Put your left hand on your forehead. Put your right hand on your nose. Then I got fancy. Put your right hand on your right elbow. They would laugh because it was impossible. or "Don't put your right hand on your nose." Everyone who didn't hear the don't laughed at their mistake. As long as you are laughing together, I think it's a good thing.

phxqhd
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thank you, Lorikeet.

Post by phxqhd » Wed May 19, 2004 9:10 pm

I am brand new in teaching. Your advice is really helpful.

Liquid
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Post by Liquid » Thu Aug 05, 2004 1:39 am

You can make your class enjoyable by making your activities enjoyable and of interest to your students. Regardless of their ethnicity or country of origin, adults students are interested in content that makes sense to them...stuff they can relate to. Try designing lesson plans about their experience as immigrants like finding a job, shopping, food, going to the doctor, asking for directions, getting involved in their children's education, traveling... Most importantly, treat them as adults and listen to what they have to say. My best lessons are those requested by my students. Just make sure you create a comfortable environment where they are not afraid to tell you what they want to learn.
Good luck!

woodcutter
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Pray someone like me is not in your class

Post by woodcutter » Sat Aug 07, 2004 12:36 am

Sorry phxqhd, I'm going to use your question as an opportunity to spout off. If I was in your class, the best way to make it enjoyable for me, assuming I didn't speak the language you were teaching, would be to teach some useful words and grammar, and give me a chance to practice using them. Again and again. Hangman, bingo, blindman's bluff, making a valentine's day card, pin the tail on the donkey, put words on the other student's backs with scotch tape, memory games, pictionary, mime-in-the-manner-of-the-adverbs, go fish! and go-to-the-park-with-teacher would all get on my wick.
Having said that, as a teacher I employ all of these now and again. Try and see who you've got in front of you!

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Lorikeet
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Post by Lorikeet » Sat Aug 07, 2004 4:27 am

Actually Woodcutter, I don't do any of those things. ;)
Here's an old thread with some of the things I do use in it, toward the bottom.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... =scrambled

woodcutter
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gap-fills and bits of paper in envelopes

Post by woodcutter » Sat Aug 07, 2004 6:26 am

Yes, there are also gapfills and scrambled-language exercises. That doesn't really alter my point, though those are probably more productive than pin the tail on the donkey, I'll grant you. As a student, however, I can live without them.

They won't necessarily go down better than go-to-the-park-with- woodcutter either, despite my curmudgeon like personality.

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Lorikeet
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Post by Lorikeet » Sat Aug 07, 2004 9:08 am

Well, I certainly find they are in different categories. I teach grammar with the scrambled words of sentences. Students have an opportunity to get a better feel for the order of English sentences, and it is always an interesting grammar lesson.

Different strokes for different folks ;)

woodcutter
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gruff types from over the rio grande

Post by woodcutter » Sun Aug 08, 2004 4:56 am

Yes, well, what folks are we dealing with here anyway? Hispanic persons who don't speak much, eh! Maybe Phxqhd could help us out with a tad more information.

Besides, why is it that teachers so often see students as some kind of unified block? Doesn't seem like the shining modern attitude that is expected of us educators.

woodcutter
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A lorra fun

Post by woodcutter » Mon Aug 09, 2004 12:54 am

What I really want to say is that if you strain your ears towards the ivory tower you may hear some sort of distant slogan:

More Fun = Better Class

That's awful. That isn't the spririt of different strokes for different folks. Students run the gamut from the laser-focused to the grumpy kids who only wake up for the rowdy game. A more democratic formula would be

Right amount of fun = Level of fun required by average student in class

That's a good formula if the boss wants bums on seats.
Alternatively, you could stick to only very efficient methods, or mildy stimulating and useful things like gapfills, in order to reward people who come to class with a decent attitude. There is an argument for doing that.

This attitude is unorthodox because "fun" things are always supposed to be efficient. I don't believe that is so. When I taught in Mexico I took over from a Geordie teacher who taught mainly in Spanish and took the class out dancing. They loved him, he was really fun, and it was hard to fill the gap. I don't believe he did much for their English levels though.

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Lorikeet
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Post by Lorikeet » Mon Aug 09, 2004 3:00 am

You can have "fun" without playing games. Just having a relaxed atmosphere in class is helpful. I happen to enjoy teaching and I laugh a lot. So do my students. I also think that helps them remember things. It's not worth arguing about. If you believe in what you're doing, I'm sure you can sell your approach to your students and they will think it's great. Students aren't stupid and I think a bored and lazy teacher will turn anyone off.

woodcutter
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Homogenous Students

Post by woodcutter » Wed Aug 11, 2004 1:28 am

I'm not trying to attack anybody's class so please don't take offence. I am fighting for a free world, if you listen carefully! And please don't imply that I am bored and lazy! (because I would rather not create a worksheet for every class I am "lazy" perhaps?) If you don't play games that is fine with me, but games are very common in the classroom, and on training courses, and I have been told I should do more by der-management, on at least one occasion.
I suppose I am the only person in the educational world who has had to worry about what the bosses think, or has students that don't come in an amorphous block that think my method is wonderful. Have you never had a very quiet class, where it was difficult to "laugh a lot" and elicit responses? As you may know, direct method teaching seems fine to me, but the fact that I believe in it will not necessarily quell dissent if I start employing it out of context. Such classes can be very relaxed too, by the way.

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Lorikeet
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Re: Homogenous Students

Post by Lorikeet » Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:50 am

woodcutter wrote:I'm not trying to attack anybody's class so please don't take offence. I am fighting for a free world, if you listen carefully! And please don't imply that I am bored and lazy! (because I would rather not create a worksheet for every class I am "lazy" perhaps?) If you don't play games that is fine with me, but games are very common in the classroom, and on training courses, and I have been told I should do more by der-management, on at least one occasion.
I suppose I am the only person in the educational world who has had to worry about what the bosses think, or has students that don't come in an amorphous block that think my method is wonderful. Have you never had a very quiet class, where it was difficult to "laugh a lot" and elicit responses? As you may know, direct method teaching seems fine to me, but the fact that I believe in it will not necessarily quell dissent if I start employing it out of context. Such classes can be very relaxed too, by the way.
Oh boy, sorry, I wasn't thinking of you when I mentioned bored and lazy teachers, but I see how you might have construed that. Well, I don't have to worry about what the bosses think--I only have to worry about what the students think. I can't remember a very quiet class that was difficult to elicit responses from, but I am probably working in a much different situation. I have a mixture of language backgrounds and ages, in a noncredit community college where the education is provided for free by the state and the class is mostly made up of immigrants.

phxqhd
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Hi, everyone,

Post by phxqhd » Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:48 pm

I am back. I haven't been to this site for a long time and didn't know I had 12 replies already. :lol: When I say my students don't talk much, I mean they don't speak English to each other much. I keep asking them to speak to each other in English but they always go back to Spanish when I give them time to do speaking exercises. Sometimes when I ask whether what I said make sense they are just quiet and I don't get any response.I then feel frustrated because I don't know how much they know and can't communicate with them in Spanish.

woodcutter
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I wish they all could be California girls

Post by woodcutter » Thu Aug 12, 2004 2:11 am

Well, hats off to you Lorikeet, you have perhaps got to the heart of the matter - ie the things Korea can do to a teacher!

Of course I think the class-of-the-imagination is like your classes, not my classes, hence the problem with a reality gap between academia and the classroom in certain contexts.

What I really wanted to know, Phxqhd, was the level of the class, I take it it is fairly low. I suppose I would imagine the problem is that what you are asking is simply too challenging for these individuals to perform in English. Perhaps think of ways to do some of the work for them. Write everything on the board. Make them ask each other things you have already answered yourself. Don't bother to ask if they understand - it's a waste of time in that kind of class. Feel your way!

Perhaps I might do better to just offer sympathy however, because I think that Latin American students seldom encounter teachers with no grasp of their language, and I found that my lack of Spanish was an unexpected obstacle at the beginning of my time in Mexico.

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