Two Students, One Book

It used to annoy me when my students would forget their books. I'd then have to pair the student without a book with a student that had a book so they could share. However, I began to notice a curious thing-- the partners that shared books were generally more communicative and more on task than those that did not share a book. If each partner had their own book, they tended to work silently and alone  (usually out of shyness or discomfort), even if I asked them to work together. The partners that shared one book had no choice. They had to collaborate.

I then realized, if that be case, why shouldn't all students share books? Now there is the odd rule in my class that partners will occasionally work out of one book. This requires partners to confer on answers, discuss where they disagree, and explain or justify their knowledge. Rather than providing the option to work together, it creates the necessity to work together. In a communication class, I try to place more emphasis on how students communicate--how they go about getting an answer--than circling the correct answer.

This does not mean that finding the correct answer is not important. Once students have finished an activity, I'll check their work. If there is an error, I won't point out the error overtly. Instead I might circle three questions in the book. Two will be correct and one will contain the error. I will then tell the students that one of those three questions are wrong. It is then up to the students to discuss where they think they made their error and correct their own mistake.

Using these methods has helped take what might be individual and non-communicative assignments, and change them into collaborative activities.

Do you have any strategies for creating a more communicative and open atmosphere in the classroom? If so, I'd like to hear them.

Competition Vs. Non-Competition: You Decide Who Wins!

One unhappy participant 

When I first started teaching elementary school in Korea, other teachers would tell me how much the kids liked to compete. Competition sounded like the ESL, elementary school teacher's holy grail-- a way to get the students excited, on task, and behaving. So we played games for a bit; however, I found not all was well in the land of competition. For all those students that got energized by the competition, I also encountered students that became frustrated or just apathetic. After a game of telephone, I had half of a third grade class crying because they had lost. It was then that I took the sage advice of those before me and gave it a second thought.

That didn't mean than I got rid of games. I love the way games coax and trick us into learning; however, I stopped playing up the extreme competition, winner take all, aspect of games. I also stopped pitting group against group. I changed the games to be individual against other individuals with board or card games. There was nothing more on the line than just finishing the game. I also turned to game-like activities. "Draw the Monster" is probably my most successful lesson plan and activity with elementary school students. It can be downloaded on the Resource page on my site: Active ESL. In this activity, there's dice, there's surprise and chance, there's sharing and communicating, but there's no competition and the children love it.

A proud student with his creation

I find that younger children can take competition too seriously and older kids (6th grade and up) can easily dismiss it. Everyone has their own teaching style and will have different results; however, I've found competition to be a mixed bag.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words... and a Few Laughs Too

There's been quite a bit written in education circles and in the ESL community about lowering the affective filter. I've always found this term to be a bit cumbersome--lowering the affective filter? It sounds like something you might do when cleaning a pool or landing an airplane. This is just a fancy way of saying that the more comfortable a student feels in class, the greater quantity and quality of work they will produce.

If you look at my site, you'll see that I'm a fan of Power Point. This is partly because of it's ability to display images. Over the years, I've collected some goofy pictures that work well as conversation starters. The pictures have a two fold purpose. One, a funny pic lightens the mood and helps lower that affective filter. Two, these pics are great for intiating conversation and driving home grammar points. The picture on the right is classic that works well for the theme of opposites and using the present progressive tense: "What are they doing? The large monster and the small boy are yelling."

One tip I have for beginning teachers-- if you like to use Power Point and often use pictures, start a collection of your own useful pictures. There have been many times when I've found that perfect picture, lost it in the maze that is my hard drive, and then spent way too long scowering the internet for the same pic. Creating a picture gallery will ensure that the useful pics you find will always be handy.

Have a look at the pictures I've collected at Active ESL. Go the Resources page and look under Templates. For an example of a Power Point using some of these pics, go to the Resources page and look at the Scare, Scared, and Scary--English Survival Skill PPT in the Adult ESL section.

Also, I'd like to know about any resources you have for finding good, conversation inducing art. How do you use visual media in the classroom? Drop me a line if you have the time.

English Survival Skills

When I first started teaching university, I noticed gaps in my student's knowledge. We would be learning about the second conditional or something like that, but my students wouldn't know what a verb was; or they'd mix up words such as fun and funny, scared and scary, bored and boring ("Nathan, you look so boring today!" they might say). Out of this need for review, I created English Survival Skills. These are small mini-lessons that I present at the beginning of class. They are designed to briefly review some prerequisite knowledge. The students know many of these points but have forgotten them and need the review. I try to make these mini-lessons as quick and entertaining as possible. I was somewhat surprised when I gave my students a survey about the class and many students said that the English Survival Skills were the most helpful part of the class (maybe I should just teach the English Survival Skills).

For examples of what I'm talking about, head to the Resources page of my site and look for English Survival Skills PPTs in the Adult ESL section of the page. I think these would work equally as well with elementary, middle school, or high school age students as well.