by wrj7usvt » Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:13 pm
'Look at the classroom situations in exercise 1and the solutions suggested by the teachers. What do you think of the teachers' suggestions? What else would you do in these situations?'
For the reading task situation(situation 1), I would also introduce a technique for doing this type of exercise. For example, I would get them used to 'skim' reading the text to get the gist before reading before reading the questions. Then if some students have any problems with understanding the questions they could ask me before continuing to try to find the answers within the text. Then they should read the text again more slowly and underline where they think the answer is. Next, they could check with a partner (who should be of a different ability to them if the class is of mixed ability).
For situation 2 (where some students are not participating in the speaking activity), I agree with the teacher's suggestion of asking students at the beginning of the year what things they're interested in to include in the speaking activities throughout the year, it's a good way to activate their schema. However if for some reason we haven't been able to do that, we could also put the students into pairs/3's and ask them to discuss the topic (monitoring the whole time), then ask for third person feedback as a class, so they are obliged to participate to be able to take in what their partner is saying.
Regarding the third situation, if I saw that some students were not able to answer the questions correctly, I could stop the class and go over the language point again, eliciting more examples from around the class and writing them up on the board. I also think it's important to reassure students (like the teacher said) and tell them not to worry, that we will do more practice with this language point.
With situation 4, I also agree with the teacher about giving out the tapescripts for students to read and check their answers, before doing feedback with the class. I'm also glad that he mentioned he would even tell the students the answers and explain why, if they weren't getting it. I do that too and I think it can really help the students to improve listening techniques. After all, we're here to help them learn and feel confident with their language skills, not to catch them out.
'Look at the classroom situations in exercise 1and the solutions suggested by the teachers. What do you think of the teachers' suggestions? What else would you do in these situations?'
For the reading task situation(situation 1), I would also introduce a technique for doing this type of exercise. For example, I would get them used to 'skim' reading the text to get the gist before reading before reading the questions. Then if some students have any problems with understanding the questions they could ask me before continuing to try to find the answers within the text. Then they should read the text again more slowly and underline where they think the answer is. Next, they could check with a partner (who should be of a different ability to them if the class is of mixed ability).
For situation 2 (where some students are not participating in the speaking activity), I agree with the teacher's suggestion of asking students at the beginning of the year what things they're interested in to include in the speaking activities throughout the year, it's a good way to activate their schema. However if for some reason we haven't been able to do that, we could also put the students into pairs/3's and ask them to discuss the topic (monitoring the whole time), then ask for third person feedback as a class, so they are obliged to participate to be able to take in what their partner is saying.
Regarding the third situation, if I saw that some students were not able to answer the questions correctly, I could stop the class and go over the language point again, eliciting more examples from around the class and writing them up on the board. I also think it's important to reassure students (like the teacher said) and tell them not to worry, that we will do more practice with this language point.
With situation 4, I also agree with the teacher about giving out the tapescripts for students to read and check their answers, before doing feedback with the class. I'm also glad that he mentioned he would even tell the students the answers and explain why, if they weren't getting it. I do that too and I think it can really help the students to improve listening techniques. After all, we're here to help them learn and feel confident with their language skills, not to catch them out.
