Wonderful modelling and great lessons

This past week we received the visit of an English teacher at Orioko Ikastola, where one of our classmates did her school placement. This teacher actually brought her class to our school last week, for one of the lessons conducted by us students, but since they went with the other group of classmates, I didn't have the opportunity to watch them.

Lucky enough, our teacher invited her, so we all got to learn from her. She teaches English in pre-primary and in the first grade of primary, following the same method used in the school where I did my placement (Artigal in pre-primary and Eleanitz in primary). Still, the videos she brought showed children who were more fluent and accurate than the ones in my school. I especially liked the fact that they used very actively the language; they really made the most of what they knew, and since they spent most of their time touching their limits, that encouraged them to learn more. Having your students walking on the edge of their knowledge without feeling frustrated isn't easy, and she did it just great.

I particularly liked the story children created collectively, in a purely Rodari fashion. It was absolutely great, and you could sense how engaged they were and how good they felt about themselves. It was great to give them back a very accurate measure of what they knew by having the story written down and drawn on a booklet; physical evidence of the achievements made is truly important to boost motivation.

We also learned that believing in yourself and in your students is vital. This teacher didn't stop to think if children in the second year of taking English lessons would be able to tell in English what they had done over the weekend; she simply believed they could, made them believe it could be done, and it happened. Creating the kind of atmosphere where students will feel confident and at the same time not pressured to be perfectly accurate is a key to success.

She also taught us to focus on what is really important; she spent a whole lesson introducing the visit to our university, creating the conditions for a successful lesson, anticipating with students what they would experience and who they would meet. Finishing all the unit's activities or even all the units for the academic year didn't seem to rank on top of her agenda. Instead, she recorded her class often and showed colleagues and parents what those children were able to do with the language. And that was enough.

She seemed to be telling her students and us "don't be afraid to try, nothing too bad can happen, really". And she is right; leaving aside sick ideas directly intended to make students feel miserable, nothing too bad can happen if you try something in education, provided that you are honest and assess the process and the outcomes regularly. This is not brain surgery or sending rockets to the moon; we are talking about small steps in a process which doesn't have only one right way, as happens with most things in life. So, if you believe children can communicate in English from day one, learn as much as you can about how that can be done, and go for it! I really loved this talk.

Now, I must return to the lessons lead by our classmates. Unfortunately, I could not attend the day when feedback was given on the lessons of the previous week, but my classmates told me afterwards that what was said was pretty much in the line of what I wrote last week, so there isn't much to say on that. This week, we had two more lessons, both with the same group of fourth graders.

The first lesson was on prehistory, the same topic our classmates worked on in the first term, but adapted to a different age. In my opinion, the lesson was absolutely fantastic. These are the things I liked the most:

• Our classmates introduced the topic using a mind map that they had drawn on the board, which had several gaps where the students placed the flashcards that were on a side of the board, guided by the questions posed by our classmates. It was simple and worked just great, ordering concepts and new vocabulary. You don't need the fanciest technology, sometimes good old chalk is enough.
• They used an old French TV series (Once upon a time... man), and played it stopping when the concepts they had previously introduced were mentioned, to make sure they were noticed by students.
• Students took part very actively during the whole lesson. They were paying attention, following with interest and engaged.
• Our classmates proposed two activities in the large group, a quiz and a mimic game, but they were short, so students didn't get bored and it allowed them to finish the lesson on time. If you are going to have several activities, they must be short; otherwise you will be in serious trouble to finish within the 30-35 minutes the lesson should last.
• The whole lesson was very consistent; it dealt with the same vocabulary and concepts along all activities, from beginning to end, giving students confidence. It was a solid and sound lesson, with limited and clear ideas.
• Finally, our classmates gave students a time warning while they were doing the activities, allowing them to gain control over what they were doing. This is a small, but very important thing that can really make a difference in a lesson.

Among the few things that could be improved, or I would bear in mind if I were to do a lesson like this I would mention the following:

• The flashcards could have had words printed in a larger size, in order to be easily read by students. Using a generous size and a font which is easy to read is very important. I remember that one day in my school placement the English teacher used a font where some letters were easily confused, which made children feel very frustrated.
• Children didn't understand the initial bit on going back on time and a time-machine, but it didn't matter, because what they understood was much more than what they didn't understand. Besides, teachers didn't go over and over those things; they just jumped to the next, not making a big deal out of it. As long as what is understood during the lesson is more and more important than what is not understood, it is alright.
• The quiz consisted on multiple-choice questions. Only questions were read aloud, leaving some of the answers not understood. It would have been better to go over the questions and all possible answers.
• The last activity was the only one done individually and in writing. It was perfectly fine, but it made me think if it could send the wrong message to students, something like "important things (written exercises) are done individually, while trivial things (games) can be done in group". If we always design our lessons in this way we might be reinforcing this idea about games being stupid things and writing being something where real learning takes place. It reminded me of a book I am reading, where a literacy teacher tells an anecdote: a headteacher went to watch a lesson in order to assess a teacher, and when he saw that the teacher was telling a story, he left saying that he would return later, when the teacher was "actually teaching"...

The second lesson followed after a break, and this time our classmates actually changed the topic of the lesson, compared to what they did on the first term. This lesson was about senses, and since it was with the very same group of students, it gave us the chance to see that the proposal for a lesson really makes a difference in the outcome, since this time students weren't half as confident and active. The things I liked the most about this lesson are these:

• The topic, senses, is very interesting and can lead a very diverse and attractive activities.
• The five senses and the organs related to them were introduced clearly by our classmates.
• Students had a real purpose to do the activities, as they were detectives facing challenges to solve a problem. This is a great way to engage students.
• Our classmates spent time with the five groups of students while they were doing the activities, although they couldn't stay with one group all the time, because there were three teachers for five groups of students.
• They used a virtual friend to introduce the problem on the screen, which can be an attractive way to start the lesson. We have seen things like this before done, for instance in the project Reconstruyendo a Miró, and it can be really great.
• They used a song, which always helps to create a joyful atmosphere and provides a fun way to memorise vocabulary.

The things I think could be improved, or I would take into account to design a lesson like this are the following:

• The video with the virtual friend explaining the problem was very difficult to understand. As a matter of fact, only one student managed to understand it. It would have been better to record their own voices in order to control the flow of speech. Tellagami allows to do this, and would have produced a similar video.
• When our classmates explained that they would be solving challenges in order to get clues about where Nina's glasses were, they handed out the sheets before they finished with the explanations. As a result, students started reading and discussing, instead of listening. One must make sure to give all instructions before handing out attractive material!
• The instructions for the game weren't understood. Some children went to ask their teacher for help. Something didn't work there. As a matter of fact, the two teachers that cam with the group of students took part in the lesson, when they hadn't done so in the previous lesson, which proves that they felt they had to.
• The scents for the first challenge were cinnamon, coffee, vinegar, strawberry, perfume and vanilla. I reckon students were likely to know the names of two in English, and one of them they wouldn't even know what it was exactly in Basque. They were way too difficult, although finding scents to give to students was very difficult itself. Maybe it could have been done with more familiar material, like common food items or things used at school.
• The second challenge, a puzzle made up of pieces of a sentence which had to be placed in order, was also a bit difficult if the objective was to get it done quickly. It took so long that they actually didn't give the feedback about the answer, and the clue it lead to.
• The song in the third challenge was way too difficult again, with plenty of vocabulary that they hadn't worked on before. They sang very fast and the text was too long. Students decided to forget about listening to the song and concentrated on trying to fill in the gaps using information from the context, but they needed a lot of help from their teachers and our classmates to finish the task. They should've either chosen an easier song, or used only the most familiar vocabulary (senses and organs) for the exercise. Besides, not even all of our classmates knew the song, which didn't help much.
• Our classmates didn't use the flashcards they had put on the board, nor the cards with drawings that they had given students at the beginning of the lesson. Showing material and not using it causes confusion to students, I think, because one expects that they will be used and is waiting for that moment.
• There was a feeling of rush during the whole lesson; teachers and students weren't relaxed. This was very obvious after the previous lesson, where the atmosphere was much more relaxed. Running behind is a bad thing in an English lesson, and it must be avoided at all cost. It is better to forget about doing several activities once you realise that there will not be time to do them all. In this case, it would have been a good idea to give each of the five groups one or two challenges on one sense, and then have them share the results with the rest. That way, you would create an information gap and make the production of output more meaningful.