Takin my chances and the learning curve's gonna be a steep one!

Well, having thrown out all textbooks this year (ask if you wanna know why) I'm now forced to think just about each and every day. I just spent four months studying Syllabus and Materials via the Birmingham MA TEFL and now it's time to "put up or shut up". I used 4500 words to trash textbooks (sorry D.N.), define my theory of learning and present my new theory of practice.

In a nutshell, my recipe looks like this:

I'm going to explore Paul Nation's four strand approach as the base of my lessons (equal parts of input, output, focus on form, and fluency), throw in a supplementary extensive reading program, add a pinch of motivation and a dash of learner autonomy. I'd also like to try to garnish the whole thing with some juicy 'lexical chunks' and top it off with a "judicious" smidgeon of the mother tongue for the struggling girls.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try a dictogloss type activity with the following original text in a Ko II and Ko III Oral class (20 students/elementary level):

Why are Japanese people so good at business and so good at making things like cars, cameras and other electronics? Why are Japanese people so good at some sports like figure skating, baseball and synchronized swimmimg? Why do many people think that Japanese food is the most delicious food in the world? And finally, why are a few Japanese people really good at English but so many other people are not at all good at English? I think I recently found part of the answer. Actually, there are two answers:

1. You need to make an effort. All the things Japanese are good at take a really big effort. Most people fail at English because they don’t try, not because they have no talent. I’m pretty sure that if you make an effort, all of you can be better at English. This year I want you to get a little better at English by trying either listening, reading, writing or speaking.

2. You need to balance studying English and using English. In Japan, the balance is about 90% studying and 10% using. You must try to make more chances to use English in order to make the balance a little closer to 50-50. What are some ways you can make a better balance?

I may dictogloss the first paragraph and do an info gap activity with points 1. and 2. as follows:


1. You need to ________ an effort. All the things Japanese are good at take a really big effort. Most people fail at English ________ they don’t try, not because they have no ________. I’m pretty sure that if you make an effort, all of you can be ________ at English. This year I want you to get a little better at English by trying either listening, reading, ________ or speaking.

2. You need to balance studying English and ________ English. In Japan, the ________ is about 90% studying and 10% using. You must try to make more chances to use English in order to make the balance a little ________ to 50-50. What are some ________ you can make a better balance?

I'm walking into class with a plan and we'll see what happens when reality hits. This may turn out to be another activity to add to the "Retrospective Syllabus". I wrote in my latest essay:

A teacher’s primary role is to imagine opportunities for learning when planning a lesson or a syllabus; and then, more importantly, to notice opportunities for learning when interacting in the classroom. A classroom is a fluid environment and what is planned so often does not resemble what actually happens.

OK, I've put you through enough for one sitting. I apologize if anyone is still reading. Let's all go get some rest...

Are you a "Praise Junkie" too?

Wow! What an article by Po Bronson in the New York Magazine! I just finished it and want to send it to anyone and everyone. It's not even settled in my brain yet but the reverberations I'm feeling are powerful - both as a parent of young children and as a teacher.

I had previously decided that the two tenets of my approach to teaching this year would be EFFORT and BALANCE. This article gives some very clear and specific ideas about the importance of effort and ways to focus on the effort that students make. It also provides a number of results from studies, revealing the positive and negative results of what we say to our students.

Here's the link:
http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/

Another link to Carol Dweck, the researcher referred to in the article:
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~dweck/index.html

Finally, thanks to this interesting blog for the link to the article:
http://realityonastick.wordpress.com/

Time to get to bed early for a change,

Steve

More info for Jimbo

I sense you are a busy man, Jimbo, so I want to thank you for taking the time to leave comments and ask follow-up questions.

Jimbo said:
I really liked the themes you had written for each grade. I think it is the way English in schools should be. In the schools I worked at 中 3　was not the last chance to get the basics. It seemed to me that by the time students reached 中 3 they had absolutely no chance of catching up if they fell behind in 中１ and 中2. Perhaps your school is different from the schools I have worked at.

I say:
I have to totally agree with you regarding the 中３ comment - in theory. It seems to be that the cut off line for English students to either 'get it' or not happens much earlier than 中３. I'm not sure if more students give up on English in 中１ or 中２, but the 中２ theme actually came from hearing too many girls mumbling "Eigo dekinai" (I can't do English) to themselves during class.

I tend to see the glass half-full more than half-empty in most situations, and therefore when I was thinking about a 中３ theme, I wanted to appeal to their sense of "never surrender". Having survived puberty in 中２ and become top dog in the JHS, they start 中３ in an interesting psychological state. They are actually likeable again and almost ready to handle being negotiated with. In the past few years I've gotten more head nodding from the 中３s during this theme presentation than most other classes. They seem to believe that I'm on their side and speaking the truth (i.e. your life will be HELL in high school English class if you don't buckle down this year and make some progress - and I know you CAN do most anything if you put your mind to it).

Your comment makes me want to emphasize the reality of 'keeping up' in 中１ and 中２ even more than before. Thanks a lot.

You said:
In the high school I worked at the theme for 高III would have been "study, study, study for the exam".

I say:
Point well taken. Yes, the university exam takes almost all of their attention, for almost all of the year. For years I felt like I was adding to their stress rather than supporting them during this stressful time. So, a few years ago I changed my syllabus to focus more on 'self-awareness' and 'make yourself the best you can be'. I promised to try and make the two periods a week an 'oasis' from exam study, a place to "enjoy using all the English that you've learned til now". I do many personality tests, Show and Tell, movie scene-acting, poster presentations, impromptu speaking, simplified debating, poetry, warm fuzzies, the enneagram, 100 things about me, You teach a lesson, chicken soup stories, more psychological quizzes, etc.

The 'polish, polish' was a wimpy translation of "migaku, migaku" which has some meaning to most of the students via their mothers or teachers, that the more they become 'polished' young ladies, the brighter their future will be.

My batting average is about .750 using this approach. Happily, about 75% of the girls really do look forward to our class each week. Unfortunately, I lose the other 25% almost completely, either mentally or physically.

You said:
Just out of curiosity, what kind of school do you teach at?

It's a 80 year-old private Catholic girls junior and senior high school. We are not as academically oriented as we are holistically oriented. That being said, we certainly support all the girls - from those who want to go to national public universities to those who want to go to a trade school.

If you look around my blog, you'll find my school's HP.

You said:
Regarding your new theme, what do you mean by the right balance in life? Balance between work and play?

Yes, or risk/safety, excitement/boredom, challenge/comfort, praise/criticism, highs/lows - anything at all that we feel that we want more of or less of in our lives.

The older I get (soon 44) the simpler the formula seems to be. Everything in life works best when in balance. That's not to say that we need to live within a very narrow prism of experiences. In fact, my 'foreign-ness' cringes at the sometimes perceived sheltered life of many of my students in Japan. However, when I compare it to the ugliness of the reality that many Canadian kids have to face at such a young age, I always think the best scenario falls somewhere between the two extremes.

Being in Japan for 18 years, I've also realized few things in life are black and white. For example the differences between Japan and Canada are not good or bad, they are simply different. When we can take the best of both worlds and balance them together, we will be happier.

You said:
I am looking forward to hearing more about your new grading system and how it works out.

Thanks. So am I. I'm convinced that if we reward EFFORT, explicitly and consistently, we can reach the vast majority of the students who are not intrinsically test oriented. If we can then show students the relationship between EFFORT and improvement, the system will begin to feed into itself.

I would love to hear anyone's experience with this kind of approach.

If you're still reading at this point, thanks for your perseverence. I'm realizing I tend to babble...

Cheers,

Steve

Two secrets to life and learning English

Every year I try to pick a theme for the first day of classes. They are sometimes related to news events, "Welcome to the Major League" when Ichiro first went to the States or "Just Talk" based on a home-made video of a bar full of foreigners all riffing on the word TALK. The past few years I have used one phrase for each grade:

中１- Think Big!,

中２ - Be an 'I can do it' type,

中３ - Last Chance (to get the basics),

高I - A Fresh Start (your turn to lead),

高II - Express Yourself (speaking and writing),

高III - Polish, Polish (step into the world)

This year, I've decided to go with one theme for all six grades. I guess it's the result of all the reading I've been forced to do for the MA TEFL course.

I'm just starting to work on it now but it'll be something like:

In Life,

1. If you make an EFFORT the RESULTS will follow.

2. If you find the right BALANCE in your life, you'll also find HAPPINESS.

In Learning English,

1. If you make a big EFFORT in my class you'll get top marks.

2. If you can BALANCE English KNOWLEDGE and English USE you will be successful. School will give you plenty of KNOWLEDGE about English, but many people in Japan fail because they don't have any balance; you must also USE English in order to improve.

I'm hoping to change my grading system in such a way as to maximize points for EFFORT and minimize points for test results. This is based on my belief that tests are motivational for maybe 20% of the class and de-motivational for 80% of the students. I will claim that if students truly make an effort, the results will come naturally.

Any comments or suggestions are certainly welcome...