Methodology - Class Reflection

September 17th 2013

This week I set out to teach my 3^rd graders about adjectives. This lesson supports the government textbook Lesson 10: It’s Big (Learning about adjectives)

Segment	What and How? Classroom Interactions	Medium	C.I. mode	Time min
Warm up and activity	Repetition	PowerPoint	T to SS – SS to T	5
	Assistance	White Board	T to SS – S to T	10
	Comprehension Check	Pair work	S to S	15
	Comprehension continued	PowerPoint Game	S answer individually	10

I started out with a similar plan to my previous warm up, but expanding it to cover a 40 minute class.

We started with a PPT to introduce the target language for the lesson, to try for early total participation. I taught this particular lesson eight times over the last two days. My co-teacher and I prefer to start with the PPT or a video to grab the Ss attention and settle them down.

From there we moved on to using the whiteboard to better explain the concept of adjectives.

The students picked up on the basic concept of using adjectives to describe nouns, and when prompted were able to give some example sentences. So far so good.

Moving on to the comprehension check stage, I had the students pair up in order to try step away from teacher dominated monologic classroom discourse and move towards the ‘Holy Grail’ of teacher assisted dialogic discourse.

The result? Failure. Resounding failure. Four out of Six classes completely bombed at this point, with only two classes turning out a successful interaction. I couldn’t even stand to try it again for the last two classes, as my patience was at an end.

Why? Perhaps the students are not used to my pushing so hard for S on S interaction. Now that the captain is not steering the ship, the sailors seem to think it the perfect time for a mutiny , and that we can just drift aimlessly through the English Channel. Students were not interested in trying to interact with each other in English unless I was standing over them and policing their actions. I had kids screaming out ‘Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!’, a particular adjective that Korean children really seem to latch onto. I had snot and tears, anarchy in the isles, cats and dogs living together, and one fight between two boys that ended with them losing their seats and having to stand facing the back wall for the rest of the lesson.

When my co-teacher lifted a questioning eyebrow at my continuously trying to force this particular type of interaction, I explained that I was trying to ‘create more opportunities of interaction’ for my students as is preached in the good methodology bible. She said that the kids were possibly too young, their skill level too mixed, and the number of students in class too high.

So If I take a deep breath and take a step back, what do I see?

 I see a sudden loss of classroom control.

Why?

The students are not used to me giving them the floor on quite this scale.

Can the problem be addressed?

Yes, I believe so. With gradual increase in dialogic discourse my students should start to get an idea of what I expect from them. This may require some carrot and stick action, but after watching Dan Pink’s video on the effects of rewards I’m hesitant to bring in the bribes just now. I might try reducing the time for the activity (it had the largest allotment of time for this particular lesson) until they are more used to having control of the floor.

We have no more lessons this week due to Chuseok holidays, so I will wait until next week to try and modify my interactions as per Long’s (1996) Interaction Hypothesis.  I must keep his main points in mind:

Interactional modification makes input comprehensible.

Comprehensible input promotes acquisition, therefore

Interactional modification promotes acquisition.

I am teacher. Hear me roar.

General Career Reflection:( Not the required Methodology reflection on class)

I realize that the more I reflect on this blog, the easier time I’ll have at the end of the program when I have to do the final presentation and report back on the changes I have undergone through this learning process. The more reflecting I do, the more material I’ll have to draw on. I didn't reflect last week, so I’m going to dig deep this week. Ye stand forewarned.

Tom spoke of teachers in the classroom probably getting into a comfort zone within their careers, in which they believe themselves to be proficient teachers. I could easily count myself in this category, I find as the years go by, that teaching elementary level English does just keep getting easier on some levels. With every year that goes by, I gain more experience teaching different grades and adding material to digital library. If you asked me to drop a two week plan for an English winter camp on your desk nine years ago, I’d need a new change of shorts. Nowadays, I’d just email you the plan as well as  the content within 30 minutes.

However, that brings me to something else I read recently in the coursework. Am I a teacher with nine years teaching experience, or am I a teacher with one year experience who has been teaching the same thing for nine years? Tough questions if I’m going to be honest with myself. I probably only really started to take teaching seriously after I decided to marry and stay in Korea. I stopped going to work in cargo shorts and T-shirts and started wearing suits. Only four years ago did I start bringing a laptop to work, and start trying to build up a library of effective teaching material.

I have also put myself in certain situations that were not conducive to my growth as a teacher. I worked for three years at a private elementary school where we had to teach seventeen new lessons a week. That required seventeen lesson plans a week that had to be uploaded to the internet for the parents’ perusal. This workload combined with another afternoon job (30 classes a week) that ended at 8:30pm left little time for quality lesson planning (forty-seven classes a week total).

After developing heart arrhythmia last year, I now work at a public elementary school where I teach nineteen classes a week, but it’s the same two lessons for one week. This means I only have to plan two lessons a week for that morning job, as opposed to seventeen lessons like the previous job. I have found that this extra time has improved the quality of my teaching by order of magnitude.

I’ve decided to take this step further still and quit my two jobs starting next year. I will apply for a full time public school job and teach the regular twenty three classes a week instead of my current thirty-five. This will give me time to be a better teacher and also time to focus on doing an MA TESOL degree should I choose to go down that road.

With regards to classroom interactions I am going to try and move away from monologic IRF (Initiating-Response-Feedback) and go to a more teacher initiated diologic classroom discourse. This will be harder to do with my 3^rd graders as opposed to my 6^th graders, but I will continue to try and create more opportunities for student interaction.

Looking at my transcript of my uploaded video lesson I have also noticed that almost all of my F – stage (feedback) interaction with my students is evaluative. “Good job. Well done.” This cues that we are done now done talking about the subject and are moving on. I suspect I do this not only with my young learners, but my older 6^th graders as well. While I appreciate the necessity for positive reinforcement, I must try to give more communicative feedback and try to keep the students talking.

The SLA section of the STG course is challenging me by sharpening my teaching tools. I find myself having to look up lexical definitions I had forgotten or simply never knew. The video narrative, scripting and word analysis also feels like a new set of power tools for my teacher tool belt. I had used these techniques once before in Ilsan, when tutoring a university student for a foreign university interview. At the time I felt like a teacher ninja using “Audacity” to record my pupil’s voice on my laptop to produce a transcript. Now, looking back I think my approach was rather basic. By simply analyzing the student’s place and manner of articulation, I could have gone a lot deeper to help him.

We've only just started with the ICC coursework, but I suspect that too will be a positive influence on my future classroom interactions. Dr. Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) rings true with my experience both in Ireland and Korea. I remember moving from the stages of denial, defense and minimization. Particularly in Ireland, as I lived on an isolated farmhouse, and let my weight drop to 59kgs. I remember moving to Korea, and instead of restarting the model, just moving on to the ethnorelative stages of acceptance and adaptation. I’m not at the integration stage just yet, but I’ll probably get there. Steady as she goes…

SLA: Analysis of Lisa's Phonological Contexts

Week 3: Sounds of Learner language

Identify two English sounds your interviewee had during the interview
(target feature A and B).

1. What new information have you obtained about your subjects IL phonology by listing the correct and incorrect productions? Are there phonological contexts in which A and B are produced more correctly then others?

Target feature A: r / l pronunciation

Lisa had no problems pronouncing the ‘r’ sound in her sentences at all. There was only one instance I could find where she mispronounced ‘l’ with an ‘r’ sound.

In line 25 of the transcript I typed out, Lisa says the teacher in the classroom ‘moved a rittle bit’.

However in lines 13, 27, and 34 she uses the ‘l’ sound with no problem.

13: started learning English

27: Not like nowadays

34: and then listen to English radio.

So it would seem that she starts to struggle when faced with a CVCC in the alveolar place of articulation (t sound). More specifically trying to start with the alveolar ‘l’ and move into the alveolar ‘t’.

It is here that Lisa mispronounces the alveolar ‘l’ and instead produces the palatal ‘r’ phoneme.

In other instances of using CVCC  where the vowel is followed with palatal (r), velar (k), and alveolar (s) phonemes, Lisa pronounces the words with no problems.

Target feature B: ‘ch’

In line 20 Lisa mispronounces the ‘ch’ sound , and then again in line 33. There seems to be an added vowel sound at the end of the word.

20: in which(ee) I could learn

33: I try to watch(ee) news

In both instances the ‘ch’ sound is at the end of the word. This mispronunciation could also be attributed to L1 influence due the way the words would be spelt in the Korean Hangul writing system.

Which = 윗치    and Watch = 왓치 . The last two characters 치 = chee sound in English.

However, in lines 21 and 24, when the ch sound ( in the palatal position) is produced at beginning or middle of the word, Lisa is able to complete the word with no problems.

21: chose a club activity

24: Listened to the teacher

This ends my analysis of the phonological contexts of the subjects target features.

SLA: Second Language Acquisition - Interview with 'Lisa'

September 6th, 2013
Answering the 'Richard and Lockhart' questions with regard to my warm up lesson.

1. What did you set out to teach?
I set out to teach the target sentences for the chapter in the textbook.

2. Were you able to accomplish your goals?
Yes, I was.

3. What teaching materials did you use? How effective were they?
I used the whiteboard, the classroom computer and TV to show a PPT, and a visual aid for cueing Ss.

4. What techniques did you use?
I used the classroom interactions of Assistance, Repetition and Comprehension Check.

5. What grouping arrangements did you use?
I had the students form into pairs for question and answer dialogue.

6. Was your lesson teacher dominated?
No, I think I got the Ss to do a fair amount of speaking and interacting.

7. What kind of teacher student interaction occurred?
I questioned Ss and then had them question me. Finally, they questioned each other.

8. Did anything amusing or unusual occur?
Four Ss interrupted my video to come and carry some boxes out of the classroom.

9. Did you have any problems with the lesson?
I taught that particular lesson six times. The first takes had some problems.

10. Did you do anything differently than usual?
Not really, no.

11. What kinds of decision did you employ?
I decided to execute my lesson plan.

12. Did you depart from your lesson plan? If so why?
No, I stuck with it.

13. What was the main accomplishment of the lesson?
The students learned the target language, had fun and I completed a STG assignment.

14. Which parts of the lesson were most successful?
The pairwork was a lot of fun for the students.

15. Which parts of the lesson were the least successful?
The T Q S section of the PPT. Some students gave the 'wrong' answer just to be contrary.

16. Would you teach the lesson differently if you taught it again?
I did. As I said I taught it six times.

17. Was your philosophy of teaching reflected in the lesson?
I suppose. That is how most of my young learner lessons go.

18. Did you discover anything new about your teaching?
I sometimes rush parts of a lesson due to boredom (on say the 4th time explaining something)

19. What changes do you think you should make in your teaching?
I should use groupwork more often.

Questions about the students

1. Did you teach all your students today?
No, I teach close to a thousand students. They see me once a week at my first job and twice a week at my second job.

2. Did students contribute actively to the lesson?
Yes.

3. How did you respond to different student needs?
I try and cater to the student needs on a case by case basis. But that is more at my second job. Honestly, at my first job, their faces are a blur.

4. Were students challenged by the lesson?
Most of them. There are a few ahead of the curve and a few behind. I create lessons for the majority.

5. What do you think students really learned from the lesson?
They went in the direction that the textbook wanted them to. School management chooses the textbooks, and I take my lead from that action.

6. What did they like most about the lesson?
I incorporate PPT learning games into my young learner lessons. They love that.

7. What didn't they respond well to?
They don't respond well to worksheets.

Questions to ask yourself as a language teacher?

1. What is the source of my ideas about language teaching?
How I was taught as a student (by my favorite teachers), and the ideas and concepts I've picked up in my local context.

2. Where am I in my professional development?
It's still early days for me. I've got a lot to learn.

3. How am I developing as a language teacher?
I keep gathering material related to my level of child development, and picking up more confidence with teaching elementary school students. I'm trying (with this STG course) to push my boundaries out further, to teach adults at university level.

4. What are my strengths as a language teacher?
I'm patient, friendly and genuinely love well behaved kids.

5. What are my limitations at present?
I work too much. I sacrifice lesson quality for money. I have a business degree and have limited advanced English language knowledge.

6. Are there any contradictions in my teaching?
I say it's important to let the students speak in class, but probably don't give them enough opportunity to do so.

7. How can I improve my language teaching?
By being open to new ideas from different sources.

8. How am I helping my students?
I always try to maintain a certain level of professionalism. I give a good effort.

9. What satisfaction does language teaching give me?
My previous job at a logistics company, had me checking endless sheets of order numbers and regularly lying to customers (by order of management) about the location of their goods. There was zero joy in any action I took on any given day. Teaching is much more emotionally rewarding.

Methodology: September 4th, 2013 - Warm Up Plan In Action

Here we have the video of my 10 minute warm up lesson plan in action. I tried uploading a bigger 130MB file but it wouldn't go through.
Thus I had to record again in a lower resolution, but I only taught that lesson plan once more this week.

Of course the students' homeroom teacher was replaced that very day, and the children only found out about it 5 minutes before I walked through the door. So desperately needing another recording, I was faced with a wall of crying children.

Bless their little hearts they wiped their noses and gave a good effort when asked. I feel like the lesson went  well, in that I used the classroom interactions I was aiming for. Blending  assistance with repetition and finishing with a comprehension check.

The students aren't really audible in the video, but I could hear their answers in the classroom. Please keep in mind that the material is very simple, as my students are only in 3rd grade and this is a public school. Like Sean, I teach close to 1000 students (two jobs) and can't remember their names. So you will hear me referring to students as 'young man' or by gesturing to them.

The material is strongly linked to the government issued textbook. It comes with a lot of multimedia CD's, which the students study with the Korean teacher on alternate days of the week. The students also study more grammar with the Korean teacher, and the foreign teachers are expected to make more fun, interactive lessons  focusing on making the students speak more in class.

Methodology - Warm Up Plan

Tuesday
September 3rd, 2013

Warm up plan for Lesson 9 'I Like Chicken'.
Grade 3

Segment	What and How? Classroom Interactions	Medium	C.I. mode	Time min
Warm up	Assistance	White Board	T to SS – S to T	3
	Repetition	PowerPoint	T to SS – SS to T	3
	Comprehension check	Pair work	S to S	4

·         Assistance : The forms of assistance that I will focus on in this class segment will be using the whiteboard, modeling, chunking and cueing.

·         Repetition: For repetition I will be looking to focus the students’ attention, gain control of the class, achieve total participation, encourage hesitant students, practice pronunciation and introduce new target language for the lesson.

·         Comprehension Check: For this last classroom interaction I will have students answer individually and then have students question other students.