You
might have heard a mention here or there that we should “know our
students” - discuss how the use of a variety of activities helps us out
with this.
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In a lot of activities, the students have to provide information about themselves (the teacher also has to provide personal information so that the class can get to know them as well). When asked about themselves directly, some students become very reticent either because they are embarrassed to speak, have a cultural taboo to overcome or think they do not know how to express themselves appropriately. Activities take some of the "spotlight" off of people, and it becomes less threatening to respond when everyone else is laughing and sharing information. The focus shifts from the individual to the group. Activities provide a medium for language learning that doesn't 'feel' like language learning. I have learned more from listening to what goes on during activities than speaking directly one on one with my students, many of who are really shy about speaking English with the teacher.
ReplyDeleteIn activities that require the teacher and students to share a little bit about themselves we can learn some things about our students, but I feel the majority of the explicit personal information given in these activities isn't really the most important information we need in order to know our students. If during an activity I find out that my student is married, has a pet dog, and likes chocolate, what do I really learn about them? While the activities like that are great ice-breakers and can be used for many purposes, I feel like the information we really benefit deeply from knowing about our students emerges unsolicited by observing their participation in class activities. We can learn who excels in which activities and infer things about their learning style from that, or see how a student works with others. Without variety in a classroom, there may be some people who never really discover much about their learning style, and therefore can't grasp the content as well. The use of a variety of activities in the classroom ensures that everyone gets to do an activity that they are really good at, or that they benefit most from.
ReplyDeleteActivities usually bring out the “normal” or “inner” person of a student. Since there is no pressure, you can see that everyone is participating, etc, then it might really encourage students to take part and open up a bit more about themselves. Also, the activities’ feedback can tell you what students like or don’t like (ask them afterwards what they thought of the activity, if we should do it again, etc.). Moreover, you can see how creative students are, and maybe something surprising (like the background music and singing in the story telling activity). You can discover new things about your students while simply watching them during activities, because it’s not just sitting at a desk and processing information in your mind, there is very little interaction (or output) this way. Activities really open up the space for the more active side of students.
ReplyDeleteSome of the activities require some information about the students which is a clear short cut to knowing about their life such as the “last man standing” “pennies” and” who am I” activity But, to know about the students’ personalities activities like “the puzzle”, “ telling a story” , “Tri-bond” and the alphabet soup” could really help. The teacher can just walk around while the students are engaged in these activity to determine who is the leader, the thinker, the introverted , the extrovert, the competitive, the supportive, the proficient, the weak, the quite, the creative and the cheerleader. Then, the teacher can plan a strategy to group the students in a way that would make the class be more effective.
ReplyDeleteKnowing our students is important for activity planning as well as grammar instruction because if an activity is inappropriate for the student audience, then it woud be better to skip it all-together. For instance, if your class is inclined to talk amongst themselves and be loud, it would be better to stick to groups of 2 or 3 rather than 5 or 6 where it could get rowdy. Or, if you are teaching a culture that would find it rude to act "silly", certain activities should be avoided as well. I think the key is to be productive. If you choose an activity that is obviously failing, stop the activity and pull an old reliable one out that could actually be of use. Learning is more important than the teacher's ego or sticking to a lesson plan.
ReplyDeleteActivities that entail some sort of personal information of course help us to know our students personally. For one thing, that will help us be aware of possible sensitive subjects for future lessons. For example, during an activity once, I found out that the entire family of one of my refugee students had been killed in a really awful way and that she was the only one who escaped. I'm so glad I found that out early on and in a non-threatening way - and that it wasn't as we were learning about family and I had everyone draw and present their families as I normally would! Knowing that information allowed me to handle potentially uncomfortable situations in a more sensitive manner. I knew which topics would be hard for her and planned activities she could participate in.
ReplyDeleteThe use of a variety of activities also helps the teacher know where students are strong and weak. This works on an individual level and on a class level. You can observe very easily how well your students have internalized the lesson or if they need some more instruction and practice. On an individual level, you can see which students are strong in writing but need more practice speaking, etc. This allows you to push them in the areas they're weak but also encourage them in their strengths. You can also help the students see how they can help one another with their weaknesses.
-Debby Adams
We always hear that we must know our students. For one aspect, we need to know the basic personal information about them. Like in the introduction activity, both teachers and students need to provide their own information. For another aspect, teachers should know the various abilities and characteristics about students. In the class activities, teachers can easily see some students are more active and talk a lot but some are not. So teachers can design some activities which needs each student presents their ideas or prepare some easy questions fro them to answer in order to build confidence and encourage them to participate more actively. I remember Debra has a very typical activity which requires teachers to know about students’ different levels. In a class with both higher level and lower level students, the activities should be both care various levels.
ReplyDeleteActivities teach us much about students from simple ice breaker type activities that tell us about students’ lives, backgrounds, and self-identity, competitive & cooperative activities which show us students’ personalities, cleverness, creativity, and even character to group games which show students’ abilities to interact and work as a team, revealing their values which in turn are a reflection of the macro and micro culture from which they come.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the key values of activities for teachers, that besides teaching students the material, they teach teachers about their students and how to teach them if we are observant enough to see and learn from our students’ body language, words, and actions. For example, if a class really enjoys one aspect of a game such as competition, personal sharing, or working in teams, then this shows the teacher what motivates her class enabling her to use that method to help students learn.
When using a variety of activities you can see which students thrive and which students struggle through certain activities. You also get to see which students are your talkers or natural leaders. From there you as the teacher can tweak your activities and lessons to help the struggling students and challenge the thriving students. And using a variety of activities keeps the students guessing and keeps boredom away!
ReplyDeleteStefani Goode
I think it is very important to know your students. I don't think this necessarily means knowing personal information about your students, although that can be helpful. I think this means figuring out where and how each student excels. Every student is different and benefits from different activities and environments. One student may be great in individual activities, but is shy and quiet in group activities. Some students excel in grammar exercises, but fail at creative/free language use. As a teacher, we need to figure out where our students succeed and where they need improvement.
ReplyDeleteProviding a variety of group activities is a good way to observe students. Some of the activities requried a lot of talking, some of drawing, some of writing, some of listening, etc. I think teachers should always be walking around and observing how the students are interacting with one another. This is a great way to figure out what kind of students you have. Also the number of people per group is a good indicator. Some students feel comfortabe with 1 or 2 people in their group but are too intimidated with a group of 4 or 5. Some students may feel uncomfortable around the opposite sex. Also, using a variety of activities will help you as a teacher determine what kind of class you have as a whole. If you have a loud/rowdy class, perhaps smaller groups would be better. If you have a quiet class, perhaps starting out in pair work(students HAVE to talk in pairs) and working up to larger groups would be best. Activities almost always have to be tweaked according to each class. No class is the same.
Good activities do take much of the stress of being a student out of the equation. Quite people feel a bit relaxed and communicative. There is also the added advantage of actually getting to know the students one on one. The more interaction between student and teacher the more beneficial the experience of attending class. The more a teacher interacts with students the finer they are able to tune activities that will serve to increase student success. I think that one on one interaction is very important even if it’s during an activity. Listening to other speak about their teaching experienced there seems to be a lot of material that has to be covered in a typical ESL class and that one on one interaction can be lost in that kind of environment. A small activity during class seems extremely beneficial.
ReplyDeleteActivities can allow us to better know our students in several ways. First, the activities themselves may encourage the sharing of personal information so that we better understand them as people. Second, activities can allow us to better understand our students' personalities by giving us the chance to observe which students are the first to speak, which are leaders, and which are the shy students who may need more encouragement to interact in class. Third, activities allow us to diagnose the true competency level of each student. As we walk around and observe what is happening in groups we can both see and hear how confident and competent our students are in their production of English. I also agree with my classmates that beginning with small groups and moving up to larger group activities may be a good way to go when beginning a new class, since students will be more comfortable in smaller groups and it's also easier for the teacher to notice and diagnose communication challenges when students are in smaller groups.
ReplyDeleteJarrod Duarte
ReplyDeleteThe mantra of "know your students" is always applicable in a multitude of ways. Language is about communication and in order to create a "safe" atmosphere to foster this, it helps for everybody to actually know each other outside of general basic information (this includes student to student and teacher to student familiarity). Another way in which knowing your students helps is that this knowledge will help you tailor certain activities for your classroom that will play to their strengths or even weaknesses regarding language acquisition.
Jarrod Duarte
Well, some students may be EXTREMELY shy and not want to play something so outgoing. Others may be at the opposite extreme and get out of hand if you let them be too free. This may not apply so much to the adult crowd but when talking about ESL it seems that culturally you have to be sensitive of your students background and take that into account. Also, maybe remembering if your students love or hate a certain game would be important because they will not learn very much if they are so focused on how much they loath the activity they are making you do.
ReplyDeleteI have to know what the students’ interests are. Maybe they don’t want to do a blindfold drawing activity. I have to know their level. I don’t want to make an activity that is a bit more complicated than others. Like Debra said, I might need to think about how the students interact socially. I liked how she talked about extending the socializing process for weeks to get a certain person talking to others. I learned that I have to think about where the student is really coming from to prepare appropriately. That is something I’m learning with my conversation partners. I’m just now figuring them out. Knowing them means that making step towards more engaging conversation, thus raising my chances of yielding better results.
ReplyDeleteIt helps in a few ways but two in particular. It helps us know our students better in that in watching the students, particularly in activities like the ones that involve sharing true things about themselves, we can learn about our students as individuals. We can learn about their lives and goals which then allows us to tailor our class towards those goals and more in line with their lives. It also helps us know our students better in that we can see how different types of activities work with our students. Having a variety of activities allows us to see that perhaps our students are more successful with one type of activity than another. This then allows us to provide more activities that our students will benefit from, allowing them more success.
ReplyDelete