a lesson that looked like its plan

I was very happy with a lesson this week.
I got the impression, and it was by no means anyone's fault but mine for taking it that way, that self reflection was a cover for self-flagellation, for finding fault with our lessons and flaying our methods for leading us that way: auto-confession.
This was a complex lesson so I thought it would be suitable for analysis. I think it was, but not to tear apart because I could barely have been happier with it.

What?
The lesson was showing the students how to use the as... as... form for colourful and idiomatic description.
It had only one piece of material which was sets of 24 cards, 12 nouns, 12 adjectives which would later pair up.
First I explained the as... as... form, checked for understanding, so far so good.
I was possibly helped because a couple of latecomers came in together and I used the opportunity to get different members of the class to explain what we had covered so far.
This went very well with good clear explanations.

Next I asked if they knew nouns. Most did, and they explained and gave examples to the few who didn't.
Next the same for adjectives.

Next I gave them, in working pairs, the bundles of words and asked them to divide them into two columns, adjectives on the left, nouns on the right.
Slowly we got all the words into the right columns - some had clues - like capital first letters, or articles.
When everyone had done this we checked as a whole group and then also made sure everyone understood all the words.

Next, a couple of minutes of straight up jug and mug while I tried to explain idiom.
I used the example of the franglais expression 'san fairy ann' (which I didn't confuse by adding that it is also used in England) - and having a Congolese student write it in French on the board 'Ça ne fait rien'(I always find students appreciate some validation of their existing knowledge) and giving me the precise word for word french translation - That makes/does nothing.
Then I explained that it is used more as the dismissive english 'whatever.'
What the words say isn't always exactly what they mean - but everyone still understands.

Next, I explained that all their nouns and adjectives were in pairs and that they had to put them together. I gave them an example - with probably the most untranslatable pair - as proud as Punch - and suggested a working method. They should pick an adjective first, try and pair it with a suitable noun, and if they couldn't find one, don't worry, pick another and try again, and feel free to help each other and work across groups.
It took a while and some fairly laborious explanations but we got there.
Next we checked as a group and did some context setting.

Next I explained that you can also make up this kind of as... as... pairing and that because it is fresh it can work even better than a well known example.
Cheap as chips.

Some of them suggested examples from their own languages and cultures.
As white as milk,
a love as deep as the ocean,
that businessman is a straight as a jelabi.

I had some tutorial work to do and some past homework to help them with (it was for a teacher who I suspected would be absent the following day) so while I went round one to one, I set them homework and told them they could do it in class if they wanted or discuss it in groups - surprisingly most went for the discussion. The homework was a simple:
Find or make up three new examples of as... as...


What went well?
Most of it went well. It flowed, the students were engaged and participating, they seemed to come away with both the ability to use the language and an understanding of why - because it makes our language more colourful, richer, and thus more authentic and 'English' sounding.
The 'own culture' examples went well and fed well into their search for their own examples.

Why did it go well?
I had given a very similar lesson before which had flowed less well. Practise helps.
I prepared it to within a couple of minutes.
I knew what was next and why at every point. There was always something to engage the students and they never knew which way it would turn.
For them it was interesting, relevant and useful.
It appealed to what they most wanted - to speak language that is natural and fits in.
The drawback if any is that it it was time consuming to prepare and it is predictably annoying when hard work pays immediate dividends as it demonstrates the corrollary - that busking it often doesn't work nearly so well.

Another lesson for me was to remember your own natural inclination.
I am very aural. I prefer not to do the synaesthetic stuff (as a student) as I often find it rather obvious and Sesame Street.
'Just tell me and get on with it.'
Naturally this means I tend not to produce materials like that, left to default.
I have to make myself remember that these kinds of activity often work well for students and that more importantly, they enjoy them.

One element that was badly planned was that this was an afternoon lesson and in the morning I had another lesson, this time for e1, on short vowel sounds, which involved short vowel sound snap.
cap, cup. No.
pin, pig. SNAP!
This lesson too involved eye-watering amounts of cutting up paper into squares. By the end of my lunch break I was on the verge of scissor rage - and then as you want to calm as you go into your lesson, you cope with the eccentricities of our new wireless PC tablet based register system

Conclusion
One of my best lessons. And the morning was pretty good too.

time is cruel

Left is this weekend, right is my mind's eye view of me.
My mind's eye seems to be running around ten years slow
Ouch.
Why does a reflective practice journal need pics?
I guess fellow HGSI students can read it without the effort of remembering who is who.
If I take my pre-inter (e3) students for an IT class, there's no reason why they couldn't take a look at the journal, given that it is partly about them.
Please feel free to make suggestions about what a journal should do, and if this journal does or doesn't meet the spec, and if so how and where are the problems.
The function is reflection but that does not mean the reflection need all be mine, or that I can't benefit from advice. There must be terabytes of teaching experience out there in the blogosphere.
The more comment the better.

week one - doh!

We were asked to scribble something about the week's teaching, or an incident, what went well or badly, what did we learn from it.
We were only told later that this could be the first entry in our journal.
The logical (or swotty) thing to do then would seem to be to smarten it up.
The honest (or lazy) thing to do would be publish and be damned. Or download it and forget it.
So here's the original version.

Reflections on week 1

My first work related observation is that I have really no idea what goes on in a literacy class, who is in there, what led them there, really anything and that as it is a discipline clearly related to ESOL it will be interesting to see how the two relate and to learn something of that discipline—I have moved to the main site at my place of work and away from a small community centre and now work alongside a small literacy department. It seems entirely possible that there are things I can learn from their materials and methods, especially as the history of FE ESOL in the UK is so closely tied to that of literacy—with literacy taking the leading role, right back to Bob Hoskins and Move On(?).

The second was in the ‘look at this week’s teaching’ task.

My item was an incident in the classroom with my low e1 group.

The exercise was to explain some simple classroom tasks, eg: circle, underline, match.

One student didn’t understand the word ‘word.’ And I found it very difficult to explain – If I pointed at a word and said ‘this is a word’ he would see the word itself: ‘so a word is a circle, yes?’

I realised how difficult and yet essential it is to be able to explain abstracts, ( I didn’t find a solution to the problem of abstracts—my solution to the immediate question was to tell him the word in French) which led in turn to confirmation of why I am on the course. The CELTA lets us in the classroom, then we have to learn to teach and often we are busy and fall into a rut, repeating what works and not finding much that is new.

While I realise that the underlying theory helps, I hope there is practical ‘abc’ help: if you want to achieve, this, try that.’

What I really don’t want is a guide to educational paperwork and procedures. Keeping fingers crossed that isn’t what’s in the pipeline.

dearauntie drops a log

I'm learning to teach.
I've worked as a teacher of English to speakers of other languages for a little over two years and now I'm taking the next stage: a Stage 5 FE, Stage 4 Esol specialism at Hampstead Institute in East Finchley.
Why am I putting myself through it when I'm already working?
Dedication, enthusiasm, and because if I don't do it this year or next I'll lose my job.
No extra pay.
All stick no carrot.
Why write a blog about it?
Because I have to write a teaching journal and my paperwork skills are like separating leaves and confetti in a hurricane - whereas my hard disk is nice and tidy.
Keyboard good - paper bad.
So I thought I'd save the effort of forgetting to bring in my journal and keep it tidy and online.