Teaching: the Small Stuff that Actually Matters

If you want to see me live and in-person, come check out the Kotesol Busan-Gyeongnam Symposium on April 12th at Busan National University.  I'll be talking about my top 10 small things that actually matter in the classroom.  Leading up to that, I'll be taking the next 10 days or so to talk about each one individually. 

Small Thing #1: Where are you going?

People like to know the plan, particularly if they are the organized type like I am.  Even those who are generally not organized probably like to know as well.  In the classroom, students like to know what's going on.  What is the beginning and middle and end of a class.  And students seem to feel reassured about the whole thing if they know that the teacher has actually prepared.  I've taken some language classes where it felt like the teacher threw together some crap 1 minute before walking into class and was just making stuff up on the spot.  It didn't give me a happy, comfortable feeling. 

Anyway, in the classroom, I'll always write up the plan on the side of the board.  Just general stuff and this is maybe what is would like for a conversation class:

Today's Plan:

1. Warm-up: review game xyz

2. Simple past - pg. 12 + conversation practice

3. Listening - pg 13

4. Simple past board game

5. Homework: Workbook pg. 34

For my writing classes, it's usually much simpler and I just throw it up at the first slide of my PPT for the students to check out as they come into class. 

Book Review: Great Essays 4: Keith Folse

Great Essays 4 is the most fabulous book that I've been using this semester to teach Advanced Composition to English Majors, who are mostly 3rd and 4th year students.  I was given this book to teach and didn't choose it myself, but thankfully, it's one of the best writing textbooks I have ever used, if not the best.  Why is it so good? 

Because it's kind of a hybrid between the process approach to teaching writing (focusing on brainstorming/selecting main points/editing, etc) and the product approach to teaching writing (using a model text upon which students should use to base their own essay upon).  It's like the authors have selected the best from each approach and combined them into one, easy to use and teach book. 

The first chapter is an introduction to essays in general, and then subsequent chapters cover a certain type of essay (narrative/comparison, etc) in detail.  There is always 3-4 example essays and some questions to help the students analyze it.  The questions are helpful at getting the students to notice the subtleties of the text, but not too detailed that it's burdensome.  I've found assigning the reading of an essay and answering the questions an excellent homework assignment.  Then, I put the students in groups of 3-4 and give them about 15 minutes to discuss their answers together. 

The second part of the chapter is more focused on the actual process of writing, with things like writing good hooks and thesis statements, brainstorming, or vocab focus.  And then finally at the end there are some topics for that kind of essay, as well as a timed writing assignment.  I've been using the essay topics for graded homework assignments and the timed writing as in-class practice. 

Weaknesses?  I'm not sure I love the vocab focus.  While I like the idea of it, it's just one of those things that I never use due to time constraints and I'm really not sure it's the most important thing to focus on.  I also don't love the peer editing, for reasons mentioned in this other post about teaching writing, and the book seems a bit heavy on this.  I'd MUCH rather have some stuff in there about self-editing, complete with checklists, etc.  It's actually a major weakness in my opinion.

Anyway, Great Essays 4: you can't go wrong if you teach very high level students who are at the point where they are ready to write academic, 5-paragraphs essays.  And if they're not quite there yet, check out something like Great Paragraphs.  I've also used this book and was quite happy with it.

Essay Writing and Student Autonomy

One definition of autonomy (from the source of all things good: Wikipedia) is: the ability to take charge of one's own learning.

I believe that the current model of teaching paragraph/essay writing in most unis in Korea (and perhaps around the world where English is taught as a second or foreign language....I don't really know) does nothing to foster student autonomy.  This model is basically that the student writes something and gives it to the teacher, probably with very little in the way of editing.  The teacher spends ridiculous amounts of time editing something that in some cases is barely understandable, gives it back to the student and they make the changes.  Repeat the cycle endlessly.  This cycle can also be done with peer-editing, of which I am not a big fan of either.  In this model, the learner essentially takes very little responsibility for turning out a quality product on their own because they know that the teacher or friend will just make the changes they need. 

However, this is 100% unlike real-life.  When students are taking an English proficiency test that involves writing, there is no teacher or friend sitting next to them, helping them along.  Nor would they have this at any job.  They would just be expected to turn out a decent email or whatever they would need to write. 

So my system?  I'm attempting to teach students to self-edit by giving them check-lists with things like, "Check all the verbs: correct tense?"  and "What is your thesis statement?  Is it stated or implied?"  And, I'm not totally unkind.  I'll read essays and give general feedback like, "Your hook is quite weak....what about changing it to something like....."  Yes, it's challenging.  No, I'm just not lazy.  I truly think it will be better for the students in the end, even if they are not so happy about it.  Students generally hate what is not easy for them, but spoon-feeding has really never been my style. 

Youth Unemployment in Korea lesson plan

A little lesson plan that I made up for my "News and Current Events Discussion Club" that I have at my school.  The students are quite high level.  Youth Unemployment Lesson Plan.

Same test, different versions

So yesterday, I was talking to a guy who used to work at my university.  He was trash-talking the students saying they were all cheaters, etc, etc.   And yes, students in Korean universities will cheat on tests simply because there isn't the social expectation that they won't.  Nor is there any real punishment if they get caught.  Not really their fault, it's just the system that they're in.  Anyway, he asked me if my students cheated.  I said, "No, never."  His response was that I just simply didn't notice.  Yes, perhaps one or two have slipped by me, but I really don't think so because I do the following things:

1. For conversation/speaking classes, I will only do 1-1 type interview tests.  It's just me and the student.  I will give them a list of 8-10 possible topics or questions and then randomly choose three or four.  How you could cheat when you are having a 1-1 conversation with the teacher, including follow-up questions that are "off-list" is beyond me. 

2. For written tests, I will ALWAYS make 3-4 versions.  It takes like 10 minutes to do in Google Docs.  Just cut and paste and then change the numbers.  For a few questions, I'll change some of the vocab too. For example: "Write 2 sentences comparing a desktop computer (living at home) (Seoul) and a smartphone (living in the dormitory) (Busan)."  I very clearly write "TEST VERSION A(B) (C)," at the top.

Then, I make a big show about handing out the papers from various folders depending on seating arrangements and tell the students that it truly is futile to even try to cheat. 

3. I NEVER do multiple choice questions.  It's simply too easy to cheat (by sending answers to friends via text) or by looking at someone else's paper.  It's almost impossible to catch cheaters this way as well.  But, by expecting students to actually write out a sentence, it's much harder for them to copy it and it's much easier to catch them (ie: the same 10 sentences, complete with the same mistakes on 2 student's papers means that there certainly is a problem of some kind). 

4. For my advanced writing class, 50% of their final grade is the 2 tests that they physically do in class.  10% is attendance and then the other 40%: I guess they could cheat, but the majority of their grade is cheat-proof so the curve should reflect who can actually write and who can't.  I plan on giving the students a list of 30 or so possible essay topics.  To start the test, I will hand out of a piece of paper with their essay topic on it, so each student will be writing something different from their classmate.  How could you possibly cheat on this?

QR Codes

QR codes are those little boxes of squiggly lines that you see in stores or on the subway or bus that you can take a picture of with your Smartphone or Ipad using a QR Code reader from the app store.  You can embed information in them such as contact info or a link to a website or a survey or something.  They are extremely useful in Korea because almost everybody has a smartphone with a camera and in a class of 40 students, there's probably a 99% chance that every single student has one.

I use them in situations in class where I want the students to go to a website on their smartphone, but it's not an easy link for them to just type in (ie: a Google Doc file).  On my PPT, I'll post up an image of my QR code that I've made using a QR code Generator.  The students just scan it and then they can have the link to the Google Doc that I want them to use or look at.  Here is the PPT from my next week's Advanced English Composition class, where we're focusing on editing their essays that they've done for homework.  If you scroll down to slides 7 and 12, you see can examples of what I've done.

Good days and high-level students

Some days are fabulous at work, and other, well not so much.  Although I really can't complain this semester as I'm mostly teaching 3rd and 4th year English majors who are reasonably good at English and usually do their homework, etc.  Today was one of those really fabulous days.  Even though Friday is my day off, I got asked to do some overtime preparing students for an overseas internship in the USA.  Motivated students/fluent-ish in English/small groups/ high pay/ interview preparation/ business English.  Yes, I will most definitely work on my day off. 

And then after 3 hours doing that, I have a little "News Club" in my school's Global Zone, which basically means that I choose a current events topic or article and discuss it with 4-8 students for 1.5 hours.  An interesting topic of my choice (I use Breaking News English), mostly International Trade/Economics/ law/accounting majors who actually have opinions about things and are good at English?  Yes, I will most certainly do that one too!  I'm thankful to have such good students, especially since I spent a lot of years talking weather and hobbies and family at a very basic level.

Google Drive Power-point

You know I'm all about making my teaching life as easy as possible.  That's not to say that I don't spend a ridiculous amount of time doing prep: I do.  But, what I'm saying is that you really shouldn't spend your time doing things you don't really have to.  For example, I use Google Drive to make all my Power-points and then I "share" the folder so that the students can have access to it outside of class.  I have the students follow me on Twitter, so it's really easy to share the link with them that way.  Benefits:

1. Students don't have to print off stuff.
2. I print/copy basically nothing
3. If a student misses class, they can catch up really easily.
4. It's extremely easy to revamp stuff a wee bit if I have to teach the class/book again and save a lot of time on prep (especially in case of epic computer fail or changing schools, etc).

April 12th: Conference Presentation in Busan

My readers: come see me live and in person on April 12th in the most fabulous Busan. You could actually make a weekend of it, go to the beach, check out Beomeosa, etc, etc, etc. I'll be presenting at this conference: Busan-Gyeongnam Kotesol Symposium at 4:30.  There are some other fabulous speakers lined up starting at 2:00.

My presentation is called, "Teaching: the Small Stuff that Actually Matters."  Check out the details of the presentation here.  It's actually similar (but new and improved!) to the presentation I gave at the Kotesol International Conference back in 2012 and for which I received an extremely positive review from a blogger.

Some new ideas for classroom activities

If you're stuck in a bit of a rut and need some fresh, new ideas for your ESL classroom, check out some of this good stuff:

Speaking Activities
ESL Writing Activities
ESL Vocabulary Activities 
Top 5 Flashcard ESL Games

And of course check out one of my favorite books: Speaking Activities that Don't Suck