During the degree and the Minor, we have often discussed how important it is to use texts suited for the audience we intend to reach. I have come across a tool that can help in this sense, a website named "Analyze my writing", which gives a set of readability scores for any sample text you copy and paste into it. It offers details about the readability indices it includes and is very easy to use.
I have given it a try with a quite informal text for my self-assessment on a unit in the Minor, the autobiographical story I told a group of fourth-graders during the school placement, and with a sample from my dissertation, and the scores are quite different.
I think it can be useful to test the difficulty level of texts before taking them to the English class, as well as to check that we are producing the right type of texts for our most formal assignments, like the dissertation.
2015/04/27
2015/04/18
Dissertation, what's that?
I have hardly touched my dissertation since we went back to our university lessons back in February. It's been almost two months now.
I am not terribly worried yet, but I need to get back to it as soon as I can. I am finishing off some last assignments now, and once I get that out of the way I will take out the piles of articles and books again.
This long break has some advantages and disadvantages. I will need to re-read many of the articles, because they are not fresh in my mind any more, which is a bit of a pain. That's the worst part. The good side is that I should be able to have a more objective view on what I have done so far, which is also dangerous, because I might decide to change many things. All in all, I think the break will be for the better, because having finished too early would have made me forget what it was all about by the time I had to present it, and it would have been much harder to maintain the tension I still need to keep until the end of June.
Right now, my body and a good part of my mind want to rest, believe it's all done, and relax. But this is not over yet, and I need to continue thinking day by day for another two months. And regarding the dissertation presentation, our last group presentation of the term reminded me that I need to hope (and work hard) for the best, but prepare myself for the worst at the same time. So, yes, there is plenty of work ahead.
I am not terribly worried yet, but I need to get back to it as soon as I can. I am finishing off some last assignments now, and once I get that out of the way I will take out the piles of articles and books again.
This long break has some advantages and disadvantages. I will need to re-read many of the articles, because they are not fresh in my mind any more, which is a bit of a pain. That's the worst part. The good side is that I should be able to have a more objective view on what I have done so far, which is also dangerous, because I might decide to change many things. All in all, I think the break will be for the better, because having finished too early would have made me forget what it was all about by the time I had to present it, and it would have been much harder to maintain the tension I still need to keep until the end of June.
Right now, my body and a good part of my mind want to rest, believe it's all done, and relax. But this is not over yet, and I need to continue thinking day by day for another two months. And regarding the dissertation presentation, our last group presentation of the term reminded me that I need to hope (and work hard) for the best, but prepare myself for the worst at the same time. So, yes, there is plenty of work ahead.
2015/04/16
Last reflections on the diary
We have been asked to reflect on the experience of having kept a diary for one of the units during the whole academic year. I have been keeping a diary during the whole degree, which I have used as a learning tool, so it is obvious that I find it very useful. To me, the diary has great benefits:
I am clearly a great fan of the diary, although I can understand that it might be useless for others. Compared to the rest of the diary, where most of the posts were only written for myself, and not for my teacher to read (except for the posts on the school placements), I have to say that there is little difference between the diary I have kept for this unit and the rest. I have been as honest as I am in the rest of post which nobody needs to read, even though there have been times when I thought it wasn't particularly wise to do so. If I had written the diary only for myself, I would have probably described the warmers in detail, and create a label for them, so I could retrieve them easily afterwards, but I think that is about the only difference I would have introduced. Well, and most probably I wouldn't have written about every lesson. In that sense, having the diary as a requirement for the unit has helped me a lot to be more constant, and I am very grateful for that, because when it isn't an assignment, it tends to be left for last.
- It shows me "how much" I have learned. I like to have physical evidence and record of what I learn, and the diary gives me that. Besides, since I am afraid I will forget things, it acts as an external memory to which I can come back.
- It reflects the process of my learning, my struggles, my mistakes, my interests, my fears. They are all there, very clearly stated. That's why I don't like editing posts once I have written them, unless it is to add a few things I realise I have forgotten to mention soon after closing the post. What's done, is done, and if I change my mind, or I need to go into something deeper, I do so in another post.
- It helps me clarify ideas, arrange them, "digest" them, as it were. Writing forces me to think better and slower, it is a good exercise for me.
- It gives me an excuse to summarise. In several units where we have had no exams and no assignments which required us to summarise all that we had learned in the subject, I have done that summary in the diary, and it helps me a lot to see the general picture. The diary is a good companion to the notes I take during the lessons, which I also keep.
I am clearly a great fan of the diary, although I can understand that it might be useless for others. Compared to the rest of the diary, where most of the posts were only written for myself, and not for my teacher to read (except for the posts on the school placements), I have to say that there is little difference between the diary I have kept for this unit and the rest. I have been as honest as I am in the rest of post which nobody needs to read, even though there have been times when I thought it wasn't particularly wise to do so. If I had written the diary only for myself, I would have probably described the warmers in detail, and create a label for them, so I could retrieve them easily afterwards, but I think that is about the only difference I would have introduced. Well, and most probably I wouldn't have written about every lesson. In that sense, having the diary as a requirement for the unit has helped me a lot to be more constant, and I am very grateful for that, because when it isn't an assignment, it tends to be left for last.
What next?
The visit we received yesterday from former students who graduated last year raised questions and comments about our nearest future once we finish our degree. In her last words, our teacher encouraged us to continue sharing our practice with other teachers, to discuss, to question, to challenge, to collaborate.
She also mentioned something which troubled me. She told us that she really liked the way Artigal linked things which apparently had nothing to do with education, while he watched a film, an opera, or listened to a song. I picked on her idea of how great it was that he was constantly thinking about education, and I felt terribly guilty, because thinking about work all the time is just the opposite of what I intend to do if I start a new career. Ricardo Semler explains quite well in this talk my reasons for that:
There are two things he mentions which I liked a lot in his talk: the fact that nobody in their deathbed will be wishing they had spent more time at the office, and his advice to ask three consecutive "why"s to ourselves when an automatic answer comes to our minds.
When our teacher encouraged us to do the same as Artigal and to share our experiences with each other I thought "what on earth will I share, that I am some lazy teacher not willing to stay late to prepare some exciting material for I don't know what?". I have friends fighting cancer, others who died even before we finished our first degree. I already regret having a niece who will turn one soon and whom I have seen half a dozen times, even though she lives across the river. I want to try live as if I were to die tomorrow, and to work as if I were to live forever; and not the other way around.
Thinking about it later, I have come to the conclusion that maybe that is what I will have to share: the experience of somebody who tries to be a good teacher and finish work at 16.30 at the same time, which is one heck of a challenge, come to think of it.
She also mentioned something which troubled me. She told us that she really liked the way Artigal linked things which apparently had nothing to do with education, while he watched a film, an opera, or listened to a song. I picked on her idea of how great it was that he was constantly thinking about education, and I felt terribly guilty, because thinking about work all the time is just the opposite of what I intend to do if I start a new career. Ricardo Semler explains quite well in this talk my reasons for that:
There are two things he mentions which I liked a lot in his talk: the fact that nobody in their deathbed will be wishing they had spent more time at the office, and his advice to ask three consecutive "why"s to ourselves when an automatic answer comes to our minds.
When our teacher encouraged us to do the same as Artigal and to share our experiences with each other I thought "what on earth will I share, that I am some lazy teacher not willing to stay late to prepare some exciting material for I don't know what?". I have friends fighting cancer, others who died even before we finished our first degree. I already regret having a niece who will turn one soon and whom I have seen half a dozen times, even though she lives across the river. I want to try live as if I were to die tomorrow, and to work as if I were to live forever; and not the other way around.
Thinking about it later, I have come to the conclusion that maybe that is what I will have to share: the experience of somebody who tries to be a good teacher and finish work at 16.30 at the same time, which is one heck of a challenge, come to think of it.
Last lessons
This week we have had two talks by Josep Maria Artigal and Saro Manrique, creators of the methods and materials for learning and teaching English applied in two fee-paying Basque school groups: ikastolak, and the religious schools. Unfortunately, I could only attend the first one, by Artigal.
I found it very interesting and enlightening, after having done my school placement in a school that applies this method. In summary, I would say that Artigal creates a setting for the foreign language lesson which is directly based on narrative, being the basic structure used by humans to construct meaning. Children can construct meaning in a foreign language starting from day one, when they can hardly take advantage of purely linguistic cues, because it is conveyed within a supporting system they are already familiar with: the story. Artigal shared with us how he thinks stories need to be told in order to function properly as scaffolding elements in the foreign language learning process. He also stressed that it is only when students retell stories that they actually learn the language. That made me realise that what I experienced in my school placement was very far from what he intends, because we didn't give children opportunities to retell the story themselves.
Still, there is something too audiolingual in what he does, in my opinion. Why so much emphasis on repeating after him when he performed the German mini-lesson with us? Is that what he means by retelling? But I wasn't retelling the story as I repeated after him, I was only repeating sounds that made no meaning to me in isolation, although the general meaning was clear.
Artigal was also a very good speaker, as several classmates pointed out in the discussion we held yesterday, on the last day of class. He made us experience first hand his method, he used metaphors and plenty of visuals, which made it easier to understand what he meant, even if the contents of his talk didn't follow a very linear order.
My overall impression on his method is that if you only read his teacher's guide, like I did, you will most probably get it wrong. Besides reading his texts, you need to attend his talks. I don't know if this is due to a commercial strategy, because we can't forget that at the end of the day he runs a business, or he has improved his message over the years and he hasn't taken the time to write it down, but whatever the reason is, I am very grateful we had this talk.
I could sense that our teachers were a bit disappointed with some of the comments that were made on the two talks. There was certainly a lot of negative feedback. I agree with our teacher, when she told us that we should have said those things during the turn for questions after each talk, and that if after a talk we feel that the speaker didn't tell us anything we didn't know before, maybe we should wonder whether they had explained it so well that it seemed too simple. Nevertheless, I have to say that personally I wouldn't dare share some of my doubts with an expert who is a stranger, when I am aware that I don't know enough about the topic to say much. It is much easier for us to share those thoughts with our teachers, who are also experts, but close to us.
The very last day of class we received some guests who gave us interesting information on a Master's degree, and we also had the chance to see what some of our classmates did on their school placement. We learned about interactive groups in Orokieta Herri Eskola, which I found very interesting, and about how they manage to get students to talk English among themselves in Txantxiku Ikastola by turning it into a collective challenge.
Both experiences were fabulous, and terribly inspiring, and they reminded me of how bad I would have liked to do the school placement somewhere where exciting things are being done, and with supervisors working on action research, which I have been interested in since the first year of the degree. Instead, I had to choose my school with a very practical objective in mind: being close to work, because I needed to work for a bit over six hours everyday. I know I did the right thing, and I think I learned very useful things, but when I see things like the ones our classmates brought I can't help to think that I would have loved to be there.
I found it very interesting and enlightening, after having done my school placement in a school that applies this method. In summary, I would say that Artigal creates a setting for the foreign language lesson which is directly based on narrative, being the basic structure used by humans to construct meaning. Children can construct meaning in a foreign language starting from day one, when they can hardly take advantage of purely linguistic cues, because it is conveyed within a supporting system they are already familiar with: the story. Artigal shared with us how he thinks stories need to be told in order to function properly as scaffolding elements in the foreign language learning process. He also stressed that it is only when students retell stories that they actually learn the language. That made me realise that what I experienced in my school placement was very far from what he intends, because we didn't give children opportunities to retell the story themselves.
Still, there is something too audiolingual in what he does, in my opinion. Why so much emphasis on repeating after him when he performed the German mini-lesson with us? Is that what he means by retelling? But I wasn't retelling the story as I repeated after him, I was only repeating sounds that made no meaning to me in isolation, although the general meaning was clear.
Artigal was also a very good speaker, as several classmates pointed out in the discussion we held yesterday, on the last day of class. He made us experience first hand his method, he used metaphors and plenty of visuals, which made it easier to understand what he meant, even if the contents of his talk didn't follow a very linear order.
My overall impression on his method is that if you only read his teacher's guide, like I did, you will most probably get it wrong. Besides reading his texts, you need to attend his talks. I don't know if this is due to a commercial strategy, because we can't forget that at the end of the day he runs a business, or he has improved his message over the years and he hasn't taken the time to write it down, but whatever the reason is, I am very grateful we had this talk.
I could sense that our teachers were a bit disappointed with some of the comments that were made on the two talks. There was certainly a lot of negative feedback. I agree with our teacher, when she told us that we should have said those things during the turn for questions after each talk, and that if after a talk we feel that the speaker didn't tell us anything we didn't know before, maybe we should wonder whether they had explained it so well that it seemed too simple. Nevertheless, I have to say that personally I wouldn't dare share some of my doubts with an expert who is a stranger, when I am aware that I don't know enough about the topic to say much. It is much easier for us to share those thoughts with our teachers, who are also experts, but close to us.
The very last day of class we received some guests who gave us interesting information on a Master's degree, and we also had the chance to see what some of our classmates did on their school placement. We learned about interactive groups in Orokieta Herri Eskola, which I found very interesting, and about how they manage to get students to talk English among themselves in Txantxiku Ikastola by turning it into a collective challenge.
Both experiences were fabulous, and terribly inspiring, and they reminded me of how bad I would have liked to do the school placement somewhere where exciting things are being done, and with supervisors working on action research, which I have been interested in since the first year of the degree. Instead, I had to choose my school with a very practical objective in mind: being close to work, because I needed to work for a bit over six hours everyday. I know I did the right thing, and I think I learned very useful things, but when I see things like the ones our classmates brought I can't help to think that I would have loved to be there.
2015/04/14
Ereindako hazitxo batekin topo
Atzo arratsaldean iloba zaharrenaren bila joan nintzen eskolara, ikasturtean lehen aldiz. Lau eta bost urteko gelan zegoenean bere eskolan egin nituen praktikak, ondoko gelan. Hortaz, atzo haur horietako batzuk ikusi nituen.
Bat gerturatu egin zitzaidan kasu egitera. Ez zuen nire izena gogoratzen hasieran, baina lehen silaba esan nionean etorri zitzaion burura. Sobra ere, nire izena ahaztu arren ni gogoratzen ninduela adierazi nahi zidan, eta honelaxe esan zidan: "zuk egun batean paper bat eman zenidan, eta luma bat zuen itsatsita, eta luma berdea zen", eta jarraitu zuen azaltzen, airean lauki bat marraztuz "honelako baten barruan liburua zegoen, eta horrek zituen lumak". Gero agur esan, eta lagunekin jolastera joan zen.
Aurreko ikasturtean ipuinaren tarterako egin nuen zorroaz ari zen haurra. Haur honek ez zituen ipuinak gustuko, ezta irakurri eta idaztea ere orokorrean. Lau urteko gelan zegoela iritsi zen eskolara eta aurretik ez zuen euskararekin harremanik izan. Ipuinetako hizkuntza zailegi egiten zitzaion ulertzen eta normalean deskonektatu ohi zuen. Ikasle bihurria zen, gainera; beste haurrekin eta irakaslearekin gatazka mordoa izaten zuen horietakoa. Berak eta beste batek ipuina gordetzeko zorroari lumak kendu zizkioten, eta haien apalean gorde zituzten. Baina horrelako sekretuak ezin dira luzean gorde gelan, eta beste haur batzuk azkar etorri zitzaizkidan bi gelakideek egindakoa. Lumak "konfiskatu" nizkien, baina berriro itsastea ez zen posible, eta haiekin positiboa zen zerbait egin nahi nuen. Horrela, erabaki nuen haur bakoitzari praktiken amaieran idatzi nien olerkitxoan itsatsiko niela luma bana. Lumak bildu zituzten biek jaso zituzten txikitxoenak.
Hori guztia gogoratu nuen atzo, haurrak ipuinen zorroa eta lumen kontua azaltzen zidan bitartean. Eta pentsatu nuen haur horrek ipuinak bere gustukoa izan zen zerbaiti lotzeko balio izan bazuen, merezi zuela ipuinen zorroa egin izana. Iruditzen zait norberak atseginez eta gogo handiz egindakoa besteengana iritsi ohi dela, eta horrek eragin positiboa duela.
Bat gerturatu egin zitzaidan kasu egitera. Ez zuen nire izena gogoratzen hasieran, baina lehen silaba esan nionean etorri zitzaion burura. Sobra ere, nire izena ahaztu arren ni gogoratzen ninduela adierazi nahi zidan, eta honelaxe esan zidan: "zuk egun batean paper bat eman zenidan, eta luma bat zuen itsatsita, eta luma berdea zen", eta jarraitu zuen azaltzen, airean lauki bat marraztuz "honelako baten barruan liburua zegoen, eta horrek zituen lumak". Gero agur esan, eta lagunekin jolastera joan zen.
Aurreko ikasturtean ipuinaren tarterako egin nuen zorroaz ari zen haurra. Haur honek ez zituen ipuinak gustuko, ezta irakurri eta idaztea ere orokorrean. Lau urteko gelan zegoela iritsi zen eskolara eta aurretik ez zuen euskararekin harremanik izan. Ipuinetako hizkuntza zailegi egiten zitzaion ulertzen eta normalean deskonektatu ohi zuen. Ikasle bihurria zen, gainera; beste haurrekin eta irakaslearekin gatazka mordoa izaten zuen horietakoa. Berak eta beste batek ipuina gordetzeko zorroari lumak kendu zizkioten, eta haien apalean gorde zituzten. Baina horrelako sekretuak ezin dira luzean gorde gelan, eta beste haur batzuk azkar etorri zitzaizkidan bi gelakideek egindakoa. Lumak "konfiskatu" nizkien, baina berriro itsastea ez zen posible, eta haiekin positiboa zen zerbait egin nahi nuen. Horrela, erabaki nuen haur bakoitzari praktiken amaieran idatzi nien olerkitxoan itsatsiko niela luma bana. Lumak bildu zituzten biek jaso zituzten txikitxoenak.
Hori guztia gogoratu nuen atzo, haurrak ipuinen zorroa eta lumen kontua azaltzen zidan bitartean. Eta pentsatu nuen haur horrek ipuinak bere gustukoa izan zen zerbaiti lotzeko balio izan bazuen, merezi zuela ipuinen zorroa egin izana. Iruditzen zait norberak atseginez eta gogo handiz egindakoa besteengana iritsi ohi dela, eta horrek eragin positiboa duela.
2015/04/09
Closing up on feedback
I am taking it easy during our Easter holidays. I have mainly been practicing some "active rest", hiking and enjoying life outdoors. Four years ago I spent all Easter holidays studying for the university entrance exams, and after four years I deserve some rest, I need it, and I also owe it to my family. And I still can't believe I need to justify that to myself; self-imposed duties are too deeply rooted in me, and when it comes to rights, I am always last, and those closest to me come the ones before last... Just the opposite of what it should be.
Anyway, back to the diary. Out last week before the holidays was short, and the last lesson was a bit bumpy, due to changes in the schedule brought by another teacher. Nevertheless, we managed to close the feedback on the lesson we have been guiding, and to close off the unit before the Easter break. We changed the dynamics of the feedback slightly, so this time each group mentioned one thing they liked about each presentation, and one thing they would consider for improvement; then, the next group did the same, and so on. And our teachers also reduced the amount of aspects they mentioned as feedback. Before starting with the feedback on the last two groups, they did a general round up of all the lessons we have had, and they stressed that the outcomes were very good, that there has been a great improvement since the previous lessons in the first term, and that we all had to be very happy with our work. They also reflected on how feedback needed to be in order to be the most effective, and mentioned that they are still working on it, since they had noticed that some of us had felt a bit down after the feedback sessions.
I intend to close the topic on feedback myself, for now at least. Feedback and assessment have really interested me during this last term, and I have been thinking on why this was. I have come to the conclusion that my interest is mainly due to wanting to improve as a feedback giver. Being on the receiving end of the feedback process has helped me a lot to realise how much I have to improve when I am on the other side, and I have learned a lot.
To finish with my reflections on feedback, I would like to mention a very interesting point, which was made by one of our teachers during their reflection on feedback in general. When our teachers commented on the fact that they have tried to give us the maximum amount of feedback on our lessons, so we could learn more on the things we need to improve, and how difficult it was to do that while maintaining our motivation at the same time, one of the teachers mentioned that novice teachers make the same common mistakes. At that moment, I didn't think about it, as we continued with the feedback on the last two lessons, but that comment came back to my mind in the following days. It seemed to me that it implied that one of the objectives of feedback, maybe the most important, was for them, as experienced teachers, to point out mistakes in our lessons, so we could avoid them when we become teachers ourselves. That seems to make a lot of sense.
Then I thought of a different situation which resembles this in a way; let's imagine somebody very experienced in life giving advice to somebody much younger, maybe a grandparent and their grandchild. What would the grandparent's objective be, to point out all possible mistakes one can make in life, so the grandchild would know about them and thus avoid them? Is that actually feasible? Is it desirable?
I would say the grandparent might want to make the grandchild aware of some fatal mistakes, the sort of mistakes which will not allow them to grow in life, because those are the only ones which one really needs to try to avoid, and which might be feasible to actually pass on. To me, that is the real objective of feedback: to promote growth, to create conditions for that. Not to avoid mistakes. And, as a feedback giver, you always need to ask yourself if you are "watering" the plant just right, so it will grow at its natural rhythm, or you are trying to "speed up" its development using too much fertiliser.
Coming back to the feedback session we had that day, the things we mentioned are very similar to what I had written right after the two lessons, but there was a very interesting idea which I hadn't picked on, and I think is very important: the second lesson, the one on children's worries, dealt with highly emotional topics, which must be handled with care. The teacher needs to take enough time to give adequate emotional support in an activity where children are sharing personal concerns, so children will feel that their concerns are being given the importance they have for themselves, and not treated lightly.
It was also interesting to see that some of my classmates found the story that was told on the first lesson - a story about Easter eggs, close to the fable of the golden eggs - a bit too childish for fifth graders. It's funny, because I didn't, and some other classmates taking the degree on pre-primary teaching didn't either. I think that the last cycle of primary is a great moment to bring fairy tales, fables and other classics to the classroom, because children at that age enjoy discussing ethical and moral issues, and those stories are full of them. If we don't want students to feel treated as if they were toddlers, we can use versions containing "different" illustrations. Here are a couple which came to my mind, from Rébecca Dautremer and Marcia Brown:
Finally, we also took some time to give our teachers feedback on the experience of preparing and putting into practice lessons with "real children". We all agreed that it was a very good experience and a great chance to receive feedback on our practice, and that even if it involved a great effort to organise it, it was worth it with no doubt.
Our last lesson before the holidays started with a warmer called "hidden sentence", which was a lot of fun. It could be used in the English class once students begin to be fluent enough to produce a short dialogue on a given topic. We also went into some practical aspects about the last lessons after the Easter break, our teacher gave us very useful information on summer courses and options to continue training after we finish the degree, and we also discussed the items we should include in our self-assessment for the unit. She brought the items that students had used for self-assessment in previous years, and I found it very helpful and reassuring, because we realised we had listed almost the same items as others had.
Lastly, we received some very interesting feedback on the subject from our teacher. She brought back the "contracts" we had designed in groups at the beginning of the academic year, with a column for what we expected from the unit, and another column with what we were willing to offer. I have to say that I had completely forgotten about that. I only remembered it when our teacher called out the members of our group; then I remembered where and when we wrote it, but not the contents. Having the long school placement in the middle of the academic year has made me forget a lot of what we did on the first term, and I think that has caused a distortion in my perception of what we have actually learned. It was fantastic to go back to this lists, because it made me realise that what we have learned exceeds the expectations, but also that we had quite clear ideas on what we wanted to learn in the Minor. To me, this has been one of the best activities we have done in the whole year, because it has given me an accurate measure of what I have learned. I remember I was aware of the accomplishment at the end of the first year in the degree, but after that it was much harder to realise what we were learning each year, because it was built on top of what we had previously learned. I think giving students tools to measure their learning is a great thing, and this activity could also be adapted to the English class.
Anyway, back to the diary. Out last week before the holidays was short, and the last lesson was a bit bumpy, due to changes in the schedule brought by another teacher. Nevertheless, we managed to close the feedback on the lesson we have been guiding, and to close off the unit before the Easter break. We changed the dynamics of the feedback slightly, so this time each group mentioned one thing they liked about each presentation, and one thing they would consider for improvement; then, the next group did the same, and so on. And our teachers also reduced the amount of aspects they mentioned as feedback. Before starting with the feedback on the last two groups, they did a general round up of all the lessons we have had, and they stressed that the outcomes were very good, that there has been a great improvement since the previous lessons in the first term, and that we all had to be very happy with our work. They also reflected on how feedback needed to be in order to be the most effective, and mentioned that they are still working on it, since they had noticed that some of us had felt a bit down after the feedback sessions.
I intend to close the topic on feedback myself, for now at least. Feedback and assessment have really interested me during this last term, and I have been thinking on why this was. I have come to the conclusion that my interest is mainly due to wanting to improve as a feedback giver. Being on the receiving end of the feedback process has helped me a lot to realise how much I have to improve when I am on the other side, and I have learned a lot.
To finish with my reflections on feedback, I would like to mention a very interesting point, which was made by one of our teachers during their reflection on feedback in general. When our teachers commented on the fact that they have tried to give us the maximum amount of feedback on our lessons, so we could learn more on the things we need to improve, and how difficult it was to do that while maintaining our motivation at the same time, one of the teachers mentioned that novice teachers make the same common mistakes. At that moment, I didn't think about it, as we continued with the feedback on the last two lessons, but that comment came back to my mind in the following days. It seemed to me that it implied that one of the objectives of feedback, maybe the most important, was for them, as experienced teachers, to point out mistakes in our lessons, so we could avoid them when we become teachers ourselves. That seems to make a lot of sense.
Then I thought of a different situation which resembles this in a way; let's imagine somebody very experienced in life giving advice to somebody much younger, maybe a grandparent and their grandchild. What would the grandparent's objective be, to point out all possible mistakes one can make in life, so the grandchild would know about them and thus avoid them? Is that actually feasible? Is it desirable?
I would say the grandparent might want to make the grandchild aware of some fatal mistakes, the sort of mistakes which will not allow them to grow in life, because those are the only ones which one really needs to try to avoid, and which might be feasible to actually pass on. To me, that is the real objective of feedback: to promote growth, to create conditions for that. Not to avoid mistakes. And, as a feedback giver, you always need to ask yourself if you are "watering" the plant just right, so it will grow at its natural rhythm, or you are trying to "speed up" its development using too much fertiliser.
Coming back to the feedback session we had that day, the things we mentioned are very similar to what I had written right after the two lessons, but there was a very interesting idea which I hadn't picked on, and I think is very important: the second lesson, the one on children's worries, dealt with highly emotional topics, which must be handled with care. The teacher needs to take enough time to give adequate emotional support in an activity where children are sharing personal concerns, so children will feel that their concerns are being given the importance they have for themselves, and not treated lightly.
It was also interesting to see that some of my classmates found the story that was told on the first lesson - a story about Easter eggs, close to the fable of the golden eggs - a bit too childish for fifth graders. It's funny, because I didn't, and some other classmates taking the degree on pre-primary teaching didn't either. I think that the last cycle of primary is a great moment to bring fairy tales, fables and other classics to the classroom, because children at that age enjoy discussing ethical and moral issues, and those stories are full of them. If we don't want students to feel treated as if they were toddlers, we can use versions containing "different" illustrations. Here are a couple which came to my mind, from Rébecca Dautremer and Marcia Brown:
Finally, we also took some time to give our teachers feedback on the experience of preparing and putting into practice lessons with "real children". We all agreed that it was a very good experience and a great chance to receive feedback on our practice, and that even if it involved a great effort to organise it, it was worth it with no doubt.
Our last lesson before the holidays started with a warmer called "hidden sentence", which was a lot of fun. It could be used in the English class once students begin to be fluent enough to produce a short dialogue on a given topic. We also went into some practical aspects about the last lessons after the Easter break, our teacher gave us very useful information on summer courses and options to continue training after we finish the degree, and we also discussed the items we should include in our self-assessment for the unit. She brought the items that students had used for self-assessment in previous years, and I found it very helpful and reassuring, because we realised we had listed almost the same items as others had.
Lastly, we received some very interesting feedback on the subject from our teacher. She brought back the "contracts" we had designed in groups at the beginning of the academic year, with a column for what we expected from the unit, and another column with what we were willing to offer. I have to say that I had completely forgotten about that. I only remembered it when our teacher called out the members of our group; then I remembered where and when we wrote it, but not the contents. Having the long school placement in the middle of the academic year has made me forget a lot of what we did on the first term, and I think that has caused a distortion in my perception of what we have actually learned. It was fantastic to go back to this lists, because it made me realise that what we have learned exceeds the expectations, but also that we had quite clear ideas on what we wanted to learn in the Minor. To me, this has been one of the best activities we have done in the whole year, because it has given me an accurate measure of what I have learned. I remember I was aware of the accomplishment at the end of the first year in the degree, but after that it was much harder to realise what we were learning each year, because it was built on top of what we had previously learned. I think giving students tools to measure their learning is a great thing, and this activity could also be adapted to the English class.
2015/04/04
There is hope for the humour challenged
I can't help but bring this post with some proposals to use humour in the classroom, which are suitable even for those of us who are humour challenged.
I would love to be able to slip jokes when I talk in public, like the man who run a short seminar on speaking in public last week at university, which was meant to help us with our dissertation presentations. Unfortunately, I have no such talent, but I like the advice in the post, because I see things which even I would be able to do. I especially like the idea of having students bring humour into the class. It is always a good idea to invite more skillful people to contribute, and there are always a couple of students who are good at humour in each group.
From the pre-primary teacher point of view, it is a very important subject, as children start to develop their sense of humour in those years, and they enjoy a lot playing with humour. Besides, it helps them greatly to develop their language skills, as telling jokes is a difficult thing where you need to use rhythm, body language, memory, tone and others in an specific way if you want your audience to laugh. And humour is a great way to bond and enjoy life together.
There was a time when I created a tag for cartoons in the blog, and would bring some once in a while, but I haven't done it lately. I should go back to it. Even though it is not suitable for children, I bring a funny monologue by Rowan Atkinson welcoming his audience to hell. It could be used in an English lesson for adults, for instance. It can even be found with captions.
I would love to be able to slip jokes when I talk in public, like the man who run a short seminar on speaking in public last week at university, which was meant to help us with our dissertation presentations. Unfortunately, I have no such talent, but I like the advice in the post, because I see things which even I would be able to do. I especially like the idea of having students bring humour into the class. It is always a good idea to invite more skillful people to contribute, and there are always a couple of students who are good at humour in each group.
From the pre-primary teacher point of view, it is a very important subject, as children start to develop their sense of humour in those years, and they enjoy a lot playing with humour. Besides, it helps them greatly to develop their language skills, as telling jokes is a difficult thing where you need to use rhythm, body language, memory, tone and others in an specific way if you want your audience to laugh. And humour is a great way to bond and enjoy life together.
There was a time when I created a tag for cartoons in the blog, and would bring some once in a while, but I haven't done it lately. I should go back to it. Even though it is not suitable for children, I bring a funny monologue by Rowan Atkinson welcoming his audience to hell. It could be used in an English lesson for adults, for instance. It can even be found with captions.