18/100: Reflecting on Penny Ur’s Teaching Tips – 9. Homework

Good things can be hard... Naomi's Photos
Good things can be hard…
Naomi’s Photos

This is part nine of my blogging challenge.

As a veteran teacher it is easy to fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because I’ve done them that way for years, without remembering the reason why. 

I’ve decided to set myself a blogging challenge – reflect on one tip from each of the 18 sections that compose Penny Ur’s latest book: “100 Teaching Tips”, so as to dust off old practices that may have remained unexamined for too long.

Tip Number 47: Check homework has been done

Oh yes, yes and again yes.

Whether or not you should give homework, how much to give and in what format are issues I’ve explored a lot on this blog. I’m still conflicted over these issues, even though Alfie Kohn was kind enough to refute the advantages I found and explain why I shouldn’t be giving homework  at all (“Squaring Alfie Kohn’s Reply with my Reality”) .

But that’s not the point of this tip.

If you do give homework, the students have to know that you care if they have done it. Most students will not work if their work goes unnoticed.  Penny Ur emphasizes an important distinction between checking to see that the homework has been done and checking the actual quality of the work.

I’m not the one to reflect on the various strategies suggested in the book for managing the issue of checking homework in large classes. I don’t teach large classes.

When I give homework, I check it. All of it.

Do you?

P.S: Those classes of adults that I taught? With the 38 students? I didn’t know any better (and hadn’t read the book!) so I took their homework home and checked it. All of it.

18/100: Reflecting on Penny Ur’s Teaching Tips – 8. Options

Together but different Naomi's Photos
Together but different
Naomi’s Photos

This is part eight of my blogging challenge.

As a veteran teacher it is easy to fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because I’ve done them that way for years, without remembering the reason why. 

I’ve decided to set myself a blogging challenge – reflect on one tip from each of the 18 sections that compose Penny Ur’s latest book: “100 Teaching Tips”, so as to dust off old practices that may have remained unexamined for too long.

Tip Number 42: Give basic task plus options

This is a tip from the section on teaching heterogeneous classes. I decided to pick the one tip that doesn’t quite work for me. At least not in the way described in the book – give everyone a task that is considered doable for everyone , and then have extra options for those who find it easy and complete it quickly.

Let’s take my video lessons as an example. As anyone who uses my video lessons knows, I have all the students watch the exact same video, but I prepare several versions of worksheets / activities tailored to different levels. That works really well. The video is the part that students comment on (or notice when they are curious about what their peer is doing at the computer station) and it isn’t an issue that the related worksheets / questions are different. Which is important when working with a class of special needs students at wildly different levels.  Generally speaking, they tend to be very sensitive. The rule of thumb is not to make it easy for students to compare.

That being said, students usually like getting options. It gives them a satisfying feeling that the worksheet / activity is shorter if there is something to skip over. In such a set up, all students do the same amount of items, but they are not of equal complexity.

Why “usually“?

Choosing an option requires the student to read more…

What happens in your classroom?

18/100: Reflecting on Penny Ur’s Teaching Tips – 7. Pair Work

Quite a pair! Naomi's Photos
Quite a pair!
Naomi’s Photos

This is part seven of my blogging challenge.

As a veteran teacher it is easy to fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because I’ve done them that way for years, without remembering the reason why. 

I’ve decided to set myself a blogging challenge – reflect on one tip from each of the 18 sections that compose Penny Ur’s latest book: “100 Teaching Tips”, so as to dust off old practices that may have remained unexamined for too long.

Tip Number 34: “Use pair work a lot”

This tip is so validating!

I’ve always found pair work to be more effective, since in groups some students always seem to be taking the back seat. There are some that take over right away while others more or less wait for the dominant ones to come up with the right answers.

I found this to be particularly true in the courses I taught adults (normal hearing but struggling learners with a lot in common with the weakest of my deaf and hard of hearing students). Classes of 35-38 adults to be exact. Dividing them up into groups went quickly enough but I simply could not get them all to participate equally. Some were wasting time.

One student even complained that I wasn’t making him stop using Facebook!

Frankly, I ascribed the fact that students were much more focused on their tasks during pair work (as opposed to group work) to my background as a Special ED. teacher. I assumed it worked better because I had more practice with pair work. Groups can be very tricky in mixed level special Ed. classes.

It seems my background is not the only reason I prefer pair-work!

Do you prefer it too?

 

 

Saturday’s Book: “The Nowhere City” by Alison Lurie

 (Naomi's photos)
(Naomi’s photos)

 

I’m aware of the fact that I have lately become more critical when it comes to books, but this time my problem is a bit different.

I found the writing to be skillful and rich, the characters well-built and they develop as the story progresses. The first chapters were engaging and drew me in quickly.  In fact I would be willing to try reading another book by this author. The back cover mentions a Pulitzer Prize for one of the author’s other books.

However, after reading half the book I simply felt bored.

Perhaps it is because the story feels so dated ( it was published in 1965). The young couple who , in the 1950s, leaves New England to go to California. As far as their friends are concerned they have disappeared into oblivion. There they encounter people who are supposedly free of the constraints of the straight-laced life in New England, people with minimal clothing and different values & morals. Many seem to be living in messy homes with lots of pot but they are, supposedly, somehow, more real. Lurie uses terms like Beatniks and Starlets and seems trying to explain to a reader, who hasn’t yet met the sixties, a thing or two.

I just really couldn’t work up an interest in what happens to this couple any further and abandoned the book…

18/100: Reflecting on Penny Ur’s Teaching Tips – 6. Grammar & Brevity

Avoid obstructions Naomi's Photos
Avoid obstructions
Naomi’s Photos

This is part six of my blogging challenge.

As a veteran teacher it is easy to fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because I’ve done them that way for years, without remembering the reason why. 

I’ve decided to set myself a blogging challenge – reflect on one tip from each of the 18 sections that compose Penny Ur’s latest book: “100 Teaching Tips”, so as to dust off old practices that may have remained unexamined for too long.

Tip Number 26: “Keep {grammar} explanations short”

Can I have students read this tip about keeping grammatical explanations short and expanding as needed, when needed? Please?

This tip reminds me of what September is always like in my mixed grade learning center. Can you picture the following? I’m sure you can!

Naomi (to a really struggling learner in the 11th grade, T.): “Well done T.! You remembered to use the “ing” because it’s happening now!”

T.  flashes a big smile.

New 10th grader (sitting nearby): “MY teacher in my OLD school called it the Present Progressive, and said we could also use “ing” to express events in the future and for something I think was called Gerunds. Here T. I remember all the rules by heart, do you want me to write them up for you in your notebook”?

T.  Smile is gone. Body stiffens. Expression darkens. Stops working.

Naomi inner voice:  Oh no! How do I get you away from T.?! Now! 

Naomi out loud (to new 10th grader): Your old teacher would be so proud of you that you remembered that information. It’s really nice of you to want to explain it all but T. is doing brilliantly and why don’t we get back to what you were working on? You can use “ing” in your answers and show me how much you know”.

T.  Relaxes. Starts working again.

Can you picture it?

 

 

 

 

 

18/100: Reflecting on Penny Ur’s Teaching Tips – 5. Learning-Rich Games

Looks can be misleading! Naomi's Photos
Looks can be misleading!
Naomi’s Photos

This is part five of my blogging challenge.

As a veteran teacher it is easy to fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because I’ve done them that way for years, without remembering the reason why. 

I’ve decided to set myself a blogging challenge – reflect on one tip from each of the 18 sections that compose Penny Ur’s latest book: “100 Teaching Tips”, so as to dust off old practices that may have remained unexamined for too long.

Tip Number 22: “Check games are learning rich”

A teacher can never be reminded too often of this tip. It’s so very easy to be seduced by an attractive looking game that has English on it, only to discover that it should have come with a warning label: “Can be played without understanding a word of English”.

Students, especially those with a learning disability, are experts at playing games using cues that aren’t the practice target. If you want your students to actually practice identifying the prepositions, make sure that all the pictures that correspond to the preposition “on”, don’t have a dog in them while all the pictures corresponding to “in” have a cat in them. Picture cues or color coding are a dead giveaway.

If you use a board game with activity instructions printed on the board itself, (instead of on cards which can be shuffled) the game may become useless after the first round. The students are quick to remember “if you land here you go forward three, if you land there you go back two…) and then they stop reading the English on the board completely.

A tip to bear in mind each time one plans to use a game.

 

18/100: Reflecting on Penny Ur’s Teaching Tips – 4. Errors

Smiley Crane (Naomi's Photos)
Smiley Crane
(Naomi’s Photos)

This is part four of my blogging challenge
As a veteran teacher it is easy to fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because I’ve done them that way for years, without remembering the reason why.

I’ve decided to set myself a blogging challenge – reflect on one tip from each of the 18 sections that compose Penny Ur’s latest book: “100 Teaching Tips”, so as to dust off old practices that may have remained unexamined for too long.

Tip Number 17 : “Do Correct Mistakes”

Yes, yes and again yes.
Yes with struggling learners, students with special needs and adults who have had years of negative experiences with English.
Correct gently, be sensitive, mix with lots of encouragement and praise what is good, but do correct.
Why?
Here’s what I have found.
Correcting means attention.
Students crave attention, particularly those learners who are having a hard time.
Correcting means you listened to them or really read what they wrote.
Exercises with an auto correct function on the computer can be helpful, but in small dosages. The students want to know that I am paying attention to what they are doing, that I noticed they finally remembered to add “ed” after having to correct it so many times, etc.

Note: Corrections are most effective within a short time!

This is a tip close to my heart and day by day experiences in class! What are your feelings about error correction?

18/100: Reflecting on Penny Ur’s Teaching Tips – 3. Interesting Lessons & Discipline

Don't turn your back on me! Naomi's Photos
Don’t turn your back on me!
Naomi’s Photos

This is part three of my blogging challenge.

As a veteran teacher it is easy to fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because I’ve done them that way for years, without remembering the reason why. 

I’ve decided to set myself a blogging challenge – reflect on one tip from each of the 18 sections that compose Penny Ur’s latest book: 100 Teaching Tips”, so as to dust off old practices that may have remained unexamined for too long.

Tip Number 13: “Make the lesson interesting”

A big YES along with a “but…”

Of course I wholeheartedly agree that the more students (each and every one of them!) are involved, interested and engaged in the lesson, the less opportunities there are for discipline problems. Bored students are a recipe for trouble.

That is a tip I certainly always strive to apply, though cannot honestly say I succeed every single day and every single lesson.

However, that’s not the “but”.

This tip strikes a raw nerve. Still raw even though it harks back to my first months as a teacher back in 1985!

I started teaching elementary school after beginning my third year at the university. Not ony hadn’t I graduated yet, the university courses taught us many things (such as normal and abnormal language development) but classroom management wasn’t one of the topics dealt with in any meaningful way. The message I did get, very very clearly though, was that if the lessons were interesting, I would not have discipline problems.

Naomi's Photos
Naomi’s Photos

But I had discipline problems. Lots of them. The kids saw this young teacher’s lessons, who only taught them 3 hours a week, as an opportunity for “party time”.  Back then there were no cochlear implants and when a deaf child chose to ignore the teacher and not look at her, the situation was very difficult (no visual contact, no communication).

And I couldn’t understand it. I worked harder and harder and brought in amazing visuals and activities. I found out what the kids were interested in and tailored my activities to their level and interests, taking into account the students with additional learning disabilities and handicaps.  I thought the main problem was me not being able to create interesting enough lessons.

My “aha” moment came after a lesson where I had truly outdone myself. I have no recollection of what I actually did in the lesson, but I remember carrying lots of bags with me on the long bus ride (three busses, actually) to work. And I will never forget that every single one of those eight misbehaving children came to me at the end of the lesson and thanked me for the lesson.

I was sure I had it nailed. Now they knew that lessons with me could be awesome and they would give me a chance to teach them the next day.

Ha. Little did I know. The next day was business as usual. Or lack of it.

That’s how I learned the lesson that first the students need to know that you mean business, that their behavior will be reported to the home room teacher / the computer system / the parents / the grade system and that there is a clear system of consequences in the lessons with this teacher too.

THEN, when your lessons are interesting, you will hardly need to activate any of these consequences…

 

18/100: Reflecting on Penny Ur’s Teaching Tips – 2. The Right Answer

Multiple lines Naomi's photos
Multiple lines
Naomi’s photos

This is part two of my blogging challenge.

As a veteran teacher it is easy to fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because I’ve done them that way for years, without remembering the reason why. 

I’ve decided to set myself a blogging challenge – reflect on one tip from each of the 18 sections that compose Penny Ur’s latest book: “100 Teaching Tips”, so as to dust off old practices that may have remained unexamined for too long.

Tip Number 9: “Allow lots of right answers” 

Clarification – in this section the author is referring to coursebook grammar and vocabulary exercises, which usually have one right answer for each item. She suggest ways in which to change the exercises to allow several right answers.

I may fall back on Penny Ur’s statement in the introductory section of the book: “…be aware that not all {tips} may be right for you” .  I think this one falls under that category.

I don’t use coursebooks very much. That has a lot to do with teaching in the format of a learning center. But when I do have the students do the grammar and vocabulary exercises from a book, they do them on their own, in class, while I work with some other students.

In that situation I’m happy that there is one right answer for each item, so I can quickly pop over, see what the students are doing and then let them continue.

In addition (and I think this bothers me the most), is the crazy complexity of having the students ignore the instructions in the book and do the exercise in a different way (even though it is more fun and provides more practice!). When working with deaf and hard of hearing students, getting students to pay attention to the existence of instructions, to read the instructions and actually follow the instructions is an ongoing “battle”. Case in point: the drawback of my entire “fun/enrichment” corner in the learning center is the time wasted by students who will not read instructions for an activity, even if they are in mother tongue! Note: that’s the advantage of having a multi-grade classroom, one can always send an older student over to give them a nudge in the right direction…

The comforting thing about those grammar and vocabulary exercises in the coursebooks is that what is expected of the student is usually familiar and then the students get working right away, on their own.

Not going to adopt this tip at this stage, but at least now that I have thought about it, I know why! What about you?

18/100: Reflecting on Penny Ur’s Teaching Tips – 1. New Material

Which way to go? Naomi's Photos
Which way to go?
Naomi’s Photos

As a veteran teacher it is easy to fall into the trap of doing things a certain way just because I’ve done them that way for years, without remembering the reason why. 

I’ve decided to set myself a blogging challenge – reflect on one tip from each of the 18 sections that compose Penny Ur’s latest book: “100 Teaching Tips”, so as to dust off old practices that may have remained unexamined for too long.

Tip Number 4: “Teach new material first, review later”.

Oh yes!

Yes for all of my deaf and hard of hearing students. An even more emphatic YES for those who I would call struggling learners

In the book, Ur refers to the structure of a lesson, but for me, in my class structured as a learning center (mixed grades, mixed levels) this refers to the plan for the school year.

We always begin the school year with something new, something slightly more challenging. Despite knowing without a doubt that the new 10th graders need a review of the basic tenses, of the “WH” questions and much more, we start with a grammar topic they hadn’t encountered in junior-high (the passive voice, the first conditional), a new literature piece, writing a short letter, etc.  The 11th and 12th graders also start with something new, whether or not they have completed all the material the previous year.

When the students begin the school year by working on new material they feel that they have gone up a level, made progress, are respected as being older. Then they don’t really notice that a lot of the material they are working on for the new topic includes serious review of basic material.

Self esteem is so important for success.

The only time I have a major problem when applying this tip is when it comes to absolute non-readers. For deaf and hard of hearing students, reading is the main source of exposure to the foreign language. In the (thankfully) few cases I’ve encountered where the 10th grade student  felt physically ill from just looking at any sort of review of the letters, I’ve resorted to starting with short sentences (or four sentence paragraphs) and an electronic dictionary. Then backtracking. However, I prefer using an organized methodology for teaching reading first.

How does this tip work for you?