Re: Help me teach this class
Posted: August 31st, 2015, 2:50 am
Jonathan,
You were over prepared and had plenty of time. Well done! My two biggest weaknesses, you avoided. I tend to be underprepared and have "too much WHAT for the WHEN," as the Dialogue Education (TM) people say.
I would think having separate objectives would be difficult. You might consider a take home handout that would give advanced students something to chew on and address the advanced objective for them.
Don't assume that advanced students will be bored or disinterested in practicing a lower level objective.
Two TPRS guidelines come to mind. The TPRS people preach 'teach to the eyes' and 'teach to the barometer student.' Regarding the former, they mean, look in the eyes as you teach/speak the target language. You will be creating more genuine communication by doing so.
Aside from eye-contact producing better communication, you will be seeing comprehension or lack thereof. In this way, you will discover your "barometer student." This is the student who is having the most trouble. TPRS gurus would say "Teach to the barometer student." Teach at his level and all will be getting comprehensible input.
Will the others be bored and not advance? Not likely. The people at Latin Best Practices, Blaine Ray's book, and my own experience (as both teacher & student) has convinced me that advanced students benefit greatly from lower level exercises. In one case (I think, quoted in Ray's book???), half of a class of Year 3 Spanish students were put together with Year 1 students. The class was not modified, but taught at Year 1 level. The other half of Year 3 were taught at Year 3 level. At the end of the year, those Year 3 students who were taught together with Year 1 students had made better progress.
If anyone can remember reading that anecdote about a mixed Year 1 and Year 3 Spanish class, please let me know. I can't find it in Ray
As an aside, Jordash Kiffiak was a key teacher at the first BLC workshop I attended. He was a great example of using eye contact. He could communicate to a circle of thirty people and make each feel that he was talking directly to them. He would speak a bit of Greek and rush around the circle, making intense eye-contact, head nodding, engaging everyone. It was masterful! Acting skills play a role in the art of teaching of any kind, but especially when using the "Comprehension Based Approach" communicating a language (or "Communicative Approach," or, whatever we call it). It's true what Blaine Ray says that you don't have to be Steve Martin to use the TPRS method, but in general we teachers do not err on the side of being too animated or too dramatic.
You were over prepared and had plenty of time. Well done! My two biggest weaknesses, you avoided. I tend to be underprepared and have "too much WHAT for the WHEN," as the Dialogue Education (TM) people say.
I would think having separate objectives would be difficult. You might consider a take home handout that would give advanced students something to chew on and address the advanced objective for them.
Don't assume that advanced students will be bored or disinterested in practicing a lower level objective.
Two TPRS guidelines come to mind. The TPRS people preach 'teach to the eyes' and 'teach to the barometer student.' Regarding the former, they mean, look in the eyes as you teach/speak the target language. You will be creating more genuine communication by doing so.
Aside from eye-contact producing better communication, you will be seeing comprehension or lack thereof. In this way, you will discover your "barometer student." This is the student who is having the most trouble. TPRS gurus would say "Teach to the barometer student." Teach at his level and all will be getting comprehensible input.
Will the others be bored and not advance? Not likely. The people at Latin Best Practices, Blaine Ray's book, and my own experience (as both teacher & student) has convinced me that advanced students benefit greatly from lower level exercises. In one case (I think, quoted in Ray's book???), half of a class of Year 3 Spanish students were put together with Year 1 students. The class was not modified, but taught at Year 1 level. The other half of Year 3 were taught at Year 3 level. At the end of the year, those Year 3 students who were taught together with Year 1 students had made better progress.
If anyone can remember reading that anecdote about a mixed Year 1 and Year 3 Spanish class, please let me know. I can't find it in Ray
As an aside, Jordash Kiffiak was a key teacher at the first BLC workshop I attended. He was a great example of using eye contact. He could communicate to a circle of thirty people and make each feel that he was talking directly to them. He would speak a bit of Greek and rush around the circle, making intense eye-contact, head nodding, engaging everyone. It was masterful! Acting skills play a role in the art of teaching of any kind, but especially when using the "Comprehension Based Approach" communicating a language (or "Communicative Approach," or, whatever we call it). It's true what Blaine Ray says that you don't have to be Steve Martin to use the TPRS method, but in general we teachers do not err on the side of being too animated or too dramatic.