Journal: Passive Voice

Sorry for the blog hiatus.  We’ve been working on passive voice (i.e. “My wallet was stolen.”) for the last week and a half.  I can’t use the textbook’s materials because this topic is scheduled for next semester, not this one.  However, we needed it now, and they’ll need it again next semester.  So I’ve been working extra hard with no text to lean on, and it’s been wonderful but tiring.

Students: 12

One thing that went well:  Jigsaw reading.  In my attempt to not over-use it, I’ve been under-using it.  This time, I used two readings that were fairly long and hopefully high-interest.  The students read independently and worked on comprehension questions.  Then they got together into two same-story groups to discuss their stories: 1) main idea, 2) new words, and 3) what surprised them.  Then they split into different-story partners and shared about their story using the same three questions.  One or two groups finished early, so I had them compare and contrast the two stories.  That proved quite interesting – I wish I’d had everyone talk about it!  Two particular victories: I didn’t talk much, and it ended our class on an energetic and communicative note.

One thing to improve:  Eliciting student opinions.  I actually do it a lot – that’s not the problem.  The problem is that I’m usually met with ringing silence.  I’m clearly not framing it as well as I could, both leve-wise and culture-wise.

One surprise:  I gave a quiz in passive voice today.  I mostly left transitive vs. intransitive verbs off of the quiz – they’re important, but the class was simply not ready for a quiz on them.  However, I wrote a bonus question asking them to write a passive sentence with the verb “sleep.”  This is a trick queston because you can’t use “sleep” or other intransitive verbs in the passive voice.  My happy surprise?  Several students got it right!  It was very exciting.

Journal: The Verb +ed Common Thread

Students: 14

One thing that went well:   Yesterday felt very choppy, but today we were more focused.  We still worked on three different topics, but today the topics were related (-ed vs. -ing adjectives, pronouncing -ed endings, and reading a story that was mostly in the Simple Past).  I also did a much better job of having them practice rather than just talking at them.  One of the topics was in response to a pronunciation question they asked yesterday.  Though it wasn’t perfect (see the next paragraph for more on this), it felt good to teach a solid lesson based on something they asked about yesterday.  So I guess I felt that several things went pretty well today.

One thing to improve:  Although I think the lesson on the pronunciation of regular past tense verbs (think of the -ed in fixed vs. studied vs. interested) was pretty effective, I think I needed to more clearly tie what we were talking about to verbs ending in -ed and to pronunciation (as opposed to spelling).

One surprise:  We were reviewing the difference between adjectives for feelings that are made out of verbs.  There’s usually an -ed form and an -ing form and they mean different things.  Just think of “bored” and “boring.”  To help them practice this, I drew them a picture of me walking up a really long staircase.  I labeled myself “tired” and the stairs “tiring.”  Then I had the students draw pictures and label them.  Half the class did “interested” and “interesting,” and the other half did “embarrassed” and “embarrassing.”  I was surprised at just how useful it was for bringing out questions that solidified their understanding.  I was also surprised at how vehemently a couple of students either couldn’t or wouldn’t draw anything.  Incredibly useful but incredibly controversial.  Very surprising!

Journal: Comfort Food

Students: 14

One thing that went well:  Today’s long reading was about comfort food.  I think it went well from beginning to end: it started with students’ experiences with comfort food, modeling and practice of figuring out confusing words from context only, and munching the cookies I’d brought in.  The timing of the lesson was pretty good too, and we ended class with a nice, up-beat feeling.  No complaints from me!

One thing to improve:  Making writing less stressful to students.  I’ve been trying with process writing (as opposed to one-shot, get-it-right-or-fail writing), examples, and pointing out my own writing’s shortcomings in said examples.  But I think I need to focus on it even more, especially framing writing stress as something the students can exert a degree of control over.

One surprise:  I thought that a few students in particular would struggle with today’s writing assignment, which was basically to map out the purpose and main points of the letter they’ll be drafting tomorrow and perfecting (inasmuch as writing is ever perfect) next week.  I kept an extra eye on them, so I can proudly report that they did just fine!

Journal: Love Apples?

Students: 13

One thing that went well:  Jared did a voice recording for me yesterday.  He really did call me yesterday evening to tell me that his bike pedal broke off mid-commute and that he needed a ride home.  The recording he made for me was the message he would’ve left had I not been able to pick up the phone right when he called.  The class seemed impressed that it was really him and about a real situation.  And we all kind of got a kick out of it.

One thing to improve:  I talk too much.

One surprise:  Our long reading was about tomatoes.  (Apparently, in French they used to be called “love apples.”  So the title of our reading about tomatoes was “Love Apples.”  It was weird.)  It was surprisingly engaging.  The pre-reading questions, which are so often lame, actually led to some really interesting conversations and a debate as to whether tomatoes were fruits or vegetables.  Then, once the reading explained the biological definition of “fruit” (it contains the seeds), we had a great time thinking up surprising examples, for example, peppers and cucumbers.  I guess I would’ve thought the article about tomatoes would be mind-numbing, but it wasn’t at all!

Journal: Jigsaws and Shovels

Students: 19

One thing that went well:  Unlike yesterday, today I remembered to bring the DVD with the listening exercises on it!

Ok, that’s cheating.  

One real thing that went well:  We ended with sort of a truncated jigsaw reading.  I think the big success was the reading itself – it was really interesting! It was a magazine-style quiz with ten different scenarios.  Each scenario highlighted norms in different countries and cultures, and the questions were either, “What should you do?” or “What was your mistake?”  I gave each group two questions from the quiz, and they read them and discussed their answers.

Since we were short on time, I didn’t mix up the groups as I normally would in a jigsaw.  Instead of mixing up the groups for phase two, I had a volunteer from each group read one question to the whole group and give their suggested answer.  Then, I told everyone if the book agreed or not.  We also related it back to US culture.  This saved a lot of time (we were running a bit short), and it was also a great, high-energy way to end class.

One thing to be improved:  With grammar, sometimes I feel like I’m digging us into a hole rather than clarifying anything.  Today was one of those days.  We didn’t do too much – I cut it a bit short when I felt the shovel in my hands.  I hope to start to dig us out tomorrow.  Aside from making sure my points are clear, I need to do my best to steer them away from obsessing over exceptions and weird overlaps (i.e. “Have you eaten dinner?” vs. “Did you eat dinner?”).

One surprise:  We’re studying Present Perfect.  We also watched a DVD dialogue  in which one character said to another, “I never forget a face.”  A student asked why this wasn’t in Present Perfect: “I have never forgotten a face.”  She even backed it up: it emphasizes the past up to the present, and it’s about an experience (or rather, the lack thereof).  I thought it was a brilliant connection!  We talked about it being a normal phrase, and why it’s in Present tense, and the slightly strange tone it would take in Present Perfect.  But still, really great insight.

Activity Corner: Jigsaw Reading

(I thought it might be helpful to readers and myself if I described some of my favorite activities from time to time.)

"Scattered puzzle pieces next to solved fragment" by Horia Varlan on Flickr

In Jigsaw Reading, students read different sections of the materials and then share their knowledge with one another.  Their bits of expertise come together like the pieces of a puzzle.

In phase one, students to do a small amount of reading with a very high level of comprehension.  Different groups of students read different materials.  Each group becomes an expert on its single part of the materials.

In phase two, students make new groups and tell each other about their own sections.  This way, everybody learns about all of the materials.

Jigsaw Readings are a great way to combine reading with listening, speaking, and summarizing.  They can also make a great segue into higher-level learning tasks such as analyzing, evaluating, and even creating.

Process:

• Divide up the information you’d like your students to have.
  (i.e. different but related readings, or sections of one long reading)
• Divide the students into groups.  Give one section of information to each group.
• Have the students in each group work together to thoroughly understand the information.  Be sure to check for comprehension.
• Make new groups.  There should be at least one expert for each section in each new group.
• The students take turns teaching the others about their sections.
• Check for comprehension and better yet, use extension activities to further explore the topic.

Example (from Level 3):

I selected four short readings for the class – only a couple of paragraphs long each.  Each story was related to the theme (Personal Goals), but each one was quite different.

The class made four groups.  Group #1 received Reading #1, Group #2 received Reading #2, etc.  The students read their stories.  They all discussed their stories within their groups and answered the same three basic comprehension questions (provided on the board).  Thus the students in Group #1 became experts on Reading #1, and so on.

After checking their comprehension questions and asking for points of confusion, I felt satisfied that they could each represent his/her story to others.  Within each group, we named Student A, B, C, and D (there were 15 students, so I was able to fill in as the last Student D).  We then grouped the students by letter.  Our new groups had one representative with knowledge of each story.

Each student had about 2 minutes in which to tell the others in his/her group about the story.  Many students wanted to read the story to their group, but I encouraged them to talk about the comprehension questions instead (we’ll get into summarizing soon – this was an intro to that skill).

Then, once everyone had knowledge of every story, I asked them in their groups to pick which goal from the readings was the most important.  This was difficult and very interesting because all of the goals had merit.  The students formed their opinions, explained their reasoning, and tried to convince each other, both in their small groups and as a whole class.

Activity Corner: Dictation Relay

(I thought it might be helpful to readers and myself if I described some of my favorite activities from time to time.)

This is a fun way to get students to dictate sentences to each other and focus on the nitty-gritty details of writing.  It also gets students up out of their seats.

This activity is not a quick one.  For a quick activity, just dictate sentences to your students and have them copy them down.  They tend to love plain old dictation, by the way.

What you need: a sentence on a piece of paper taped just outside the classroom.

Here’s an example of how I used a Dictation Relay to review dates in my Level 1 class.

Modeling:  Note that you will need to do a lot of mock-running for lower level classes to be sure that they understand the instructions.

I separated my class of 16 into four groups of four.  I held up a folded piece of paper and said, “I have a secret.”  I then made a show of taping it to the wall outside the classroom.  (The secret was, “Today is Wednesday, September 8, 2010.”  We had just worked on this earlier in class.)

I named the groups A through D.  I said I needed one student from each group to run and walk.  One student from A will run, one student from B will run…. you get the idea.  I had the runners stand in the front of the room.

The runners will read the secret.  They will remember the secret.  They will run to their group and tell the secret. (I play-ran out the door and back in again.) The other students will write the secret.

If they forget, they can read again and again. (Yep, I ran right back out the door again and then back in).

All students will write the secret.  It must be perfect, 100% correct to win.

Runners, no pens and no paper.  You cannot write.  Writers, does everyone have a pen and paper?  On your mark, get set, go.

I had to remind runners not to write just a couple of times.  After a few minutes they were ready for me to check their work, and it often had little mistakes.  I told them when they were close and what words they spelled wrong or how many commas they forgot.  When one team won, we all applauded.

Other content possibilities:

• spelling – put some hard-to-spell words you’ve encountered recently into the dictation sentence.  It’s great practice.
• vocabulary review – be sure to meaningfully use at least one vocabulary word in each sentence.
• grammar – make sure the sentence includes relevant grammar, particularly if that grammar involves picky spelling rules (i.e. plural endings are either -s or -es)
• pronunciation – have your sentence be a tongue-twister to focus in on a sound or two your students struggle with (i.e. The fish has a thin fin.)
• reading – use a sentence straight from the day’s reading.  Make sure that the writers know not to just copy it from the story, but to listen to the runner.  Do this to review the reading.  Alternatively, pick an interesting sentence and use it to introduce the reading.  You can also have students scan the reading to locate the dictation sentence.
• low-beginning – just write a vocabulary word and have the runner spell it to the writers.

Activity Corner: Grid Activity

(I thought it might be helpful to readers and myself if I took some time to describe some of my favorite activities from time to time.)

I use The Grid Activity for several reasons.  The most obvious is that it’s great fluency practice – it requires that they talk to each other and gets the teacher out of the middle of it.  I also use it as a pre-writing activity, having students gather information that they’ll use to write full sentences later in class.  The activity also serves as practice reading a grid.

What you need: a piece of paper for each student with a large grid drawn on it (for Intermediate I often used one that had three columns and eight rows).

Here’s an example of how I used the Grid Activity to practice Present Continuous grammar.

I drew my own 3×8 grid on the board.  On the top row, I wrote in one question per box:  What’s your name?  |  What are you doing after class today?  |  What are you cooking for dinner tonight?

I then proceeded to have a conversation with my coffee mug (I named it Michael for the purposes of this activity) in which I asked it the three questions on the board and wrote all its answers in the same row.

Then I asked a student the three questions and wrote all their answers on the same row.

Then I told the students it was their turn.  They needed to interview each other.  Just like I did, ask other students these three questions.  Write the answers.

It was interesting because for some students, it was very easy.  A few students had trouble remembering how a grid worked each time.  And a couple other students (the students who had high speaking ability and much lower reading ability) would make up their own questions, usually completely unrelated to the grammar and/or content I wanted to focus on.

The point is that even after both modeling and explaining, you need to watch them very carefully each time you do the activity.  You can’t just assume that because they’re talking and writing that they’re practicing the language you want them to practice and that they use the grid correctly.  Not that it’s a disaster if they’re not doing it perfectly, but some gentle guidance can make it a richer learning experience than general conversation.

After the interview time (it can easily take 30 minutes), I asked them questions about their classmates’ answers.  This made them read their grids for specific information.

I also had them write full sentences based on the information they gathered.  The concept of taking the information from the grid and putting it into sentences is not necessarily obvious.  Even in Intermediate, you have to model this a lot.

Other content possibilities:

• alphabetics – just have students write down each other’s names.  They’ll have to spell their name out for their classmates.
• grammar review – use questions that use the target grammar.
  For example, “Where did you grow up?”  ”Where would you like to live when you are old?”
• vocabulary review – use questions that call upon target vocabulary.  For example, in a food unit, have them ask, “What are three foods you like?”  ”What are three foods you don’t like?”
• advanced – you can use more questions with more complex grammar and vocabulary.  This will take the interview process up to their level.  Definitely have them work with the information they gather, writing sentences, paragraphs, or even making graphs.

Activity Corner: The Flyswatter Game

(I thought it might be helpful to readers and myself if I took some time to describe some of my favorite activities from time to time.)

I use The Flyswatter Game to have students quickly match an input with something that can be written or drawn on the board.  It’s almost always review.

It can be competitive, and it has historically been known to get a little rowdy (I’ve heard of a staff meeting where people were jumping on tables playing this game.  Please note that this level of enthusiasm is neither typical nor necessary.)

What you need: two clean flyswatters and a large vertical writing space.

Here’s an example of how I used the Flyswatter Game at our end-of-session party to sneak in some review of our final topic, Present Continuous vs. Simple Present.

I wrote two phrases on the white board:  Present Continuous and Simple Present.

I prepared a numbered list of sentences before class.  Not surprisingly, they were all in either Present Continuous (PrCo) or Simple Present (SiPr).

I handed flyswatters to two students and had them stand at the front.  Their job: listen to what I read.  Is the sentence in PrCo or SiPr?  They should swat their answer as quickly as possible.  I read a couple of sentences for each pair.

After everyone has swatted, everyone goes again, but this time I relinquish my list of questions to the students, who will take turns being the teacher.

Other content possibilities:

• listening for certain sounds – write approx. four phonemes on the board, have Ss swat what they hear
• vocabulary review – write vocab words on the board, read the definitions to Ss, they swat the correct word
  NOTE: any worksheet with a word bank can become The Flyswatter Game very, very easily
• low-literacy vocabulary review – draw or tape pictures on the board, read the noun to Ss, they swat the correct picture
• alphabet review – write letters on the board, say individual letter names, Ss swat the correct one
• advanced scanning practice – project two longer passages onto the board or wall.  Read a sentence from somewhere in one of the passages; Ss race to scan the text and find the passage the sentence is from)