Entering and Exiting:
The Importance of Beginning and Ending Lessons Well.
#ELTchat
Summary for Wednesday 5th March 2014.
This was a lovely structured topic,
as the writer had prepared a series of questions he wanted answered.
Marisa_Constantinides started us off by asking where we were, what time it
was and what we had just been doing. As we were based in a variety of different
countries and time zones, this was an interesting exercise. It showed the value
of a simple question to set the ball rolling- and demonstrated a small talk
technique which can quickly include the students.
Adi_Rajan mentioned research which suggested that students
are at their most attentive at the beginning and end of lessons. This was
reiterated by Marisa, who also
included the mid-point of the lesson when she quoted Nigel Barlow. It stands to
reason that teachers should be made aware of this, and could then exploit
the fact and plan their strategy accordingly.
Do you like to be in your classroom when the students arrive? Why, why
not?
The point was made that although this is the ideal, it isn't always possible, due to schedules and other commitments. When it can be done,
the teacher is in place to meet and greet the students as they arrive. teacherphili mentioned that working with classroom
layout made it preferable to arrive first.
Others agreed with this point of view, and suggested that the time before the
students arrived was ideal for moving the furniture around (bealer81) Shaunwilden
and joannacre like the horseshoe
–shaped class setting, while teacherphili
prefers to establish his class with islands.
kevchanwow had some
fun ideas. He said that he was then able to direct the students to their seats.
He used ideas such as: people wearing blue sit on the left, stripes next to
skirts, in a circle from tallest to shortest, or telling one student the rule
and getting them to coordinate the others. He suggested that it made a warm-up
as well. adi_rajan used playing cards
and organised students to sit in suits of cards. patrickelt sat his students according to their birthdays, or how
many languages they could say hello in.
Do you write your lesson topic on the board at the start of the lesson?
I asked whether the others wrote their lesson topic on the
board. I have colleagues who do, and some who don’t. The answers were mixed:
adi_rajan
wanted to know what the topic would be. The context of the lesson or the
language item you're teaching?
OUPELTGlobal: Topic or
task or what students will learn how to do.
HadaLitim: I used to when teaching YLs
but not any more
bealer81: Not a big
fan of writing the topic on the board. It can often be met with a rolling of
the eyes or a collective sigh! BobK99
agreed.
OUPELTGlobal: A good
idea with adult learners especially –they like to know what is going on
Teflgeek: lesson
menus can help keep focus and demonstrate goals
bealer81: I prefer
periodic recaps and a spectacular summary at the end.
HadaLitim: With EAP
and IELTS classes I find it's good to have the aims on the board
adi_rajan: That might not give you much scope for
eliciting the topic from students.
How and when do you do the roll call/registration?
Teacherphili: Always
seems too formal at the beginning, but necessary.
OUPELTGlobal: Registration?
Do you mean roll call? I send around a piece of paper if large class, if small,
just look round and note
Michaelegriffin: Is it
necessary? If so, why? And can it be done during other moments?
SueAnnan: Unless you
have an enormous class, you should know your students' names, so why do you need a roll
call?
patrickelt: Yes but what if it is a new class or you are covering for
someone. Shaunwilden: To get the
paperwork out the way?
What if the students are late?
Joannacre was
interested in the others policies for accepting latecomers. There appeared to
be a difference in reasons for lateness. Some students came at the end of their
working day and others used spurious excuses to explain their reasons for not
arriving on time. Saudi women have difficulty as they are not permitted to
drive. HadaLitim works around the
problem as well as she can. As bealer81 said, his students pay for lessons and
do their best to turn up, even if it is 45 minutes late. OUPELTGlobal
thought that rules on what would be acceptable could be negotiated with the
class, or the establishment. She lets her students in, but marks them as
missing if they are later than 15 minutes. adi_rajan
uses punctuality raffles, where he gives the students a ticket each time they
arrive on time, and then does a lucky draw at some point.
How do you make your entrance each day?
This set off the ‘all the world’s a stage’ gags. Actually we weren't quite sure what was meant here.
teacherphili
offered us the monologue "All the world's a stage..." from
Shakespeare’s As You Like It http://t.co/kuxCliGc5x
bealer81 and BobK99 agreed that we should enter with
a smile, head up, shoulders back…. We
agreed that it doesn't do any harm to be a bit of an actor, using the classroom
as our stage.
As joannacre said:
Gotta keep the audience engaged!
What does the start of your lesson look like?
OUPELTGlobal: students
come in, get the vocabulary box and start flipping through, testing each other
on vocabulary.
Teflgeek: I always
chat to my students, big or small, about their lives when they come into the
room.
mary28sou: Students
search Google images for thought for the day
teacherphili: music can
be a useful way to set the tone of the day.
Though ShaunWilden
suggested being aware that not everyone will like it.
SueAnnan: I often
start with a question, sometimes rhetorical to get students thinking.
bealer81: I always
get them to recap the last lesson. Slow going but it gets them thinking.
Joannacre: a bit of
small talk like : what have you been up to guys?" Then they ask me.
HadaLitim: I work
with pictures and videos - that sets the tone well too
adi_rajan: I was inspired
by @Shaunwilden to ask students to share an Instagram or Vine vid or picture
they took on their mobiles
bealer81: Jeremy
Harmer talks about writing a weather forecast and displaying that for the students.
Describing your day, thoughts and feelings. Students read, react, ask Qs and
then do the same.
jas_thor: Nice idea
to start with the weather and How is your day? It's conversationally useful.
HadaLitim: I like
spending the first 5 minutes going over useful real-life vocabulary based on
the day/context such as: someone's sick - what do we say?
Has anyone tried Scent?
An interesting aside here. Aromatherapy oils on the radiator.
The negatives are the cost of the oils, and the possibility of interference
from cosmetics worn by other students. However, there was some anecdotal
evidence that students were more relaxed in class and better able to
concentrate.
Shall we move to the end now?
Are you the
last one out of your classroom?
If the teacher has time to chat to the students at the end of
the lesson that’s a bonus. Some have to run to their next class, or have other
commitments to honour. Often the students hang around chatting, but the teacher doesn't always have that luxury.
How do you
wrap up?
Some of us (OUPELTGlobal,
AbdullahAlger, mary28sou) like to recap structure or vocabulary with a game, a
quiz, or a song.
Others prefer to summarise the lesson. This works
particularly well if the students do the summarising. Marisa told us that, as a beginner in Turkish, she loved the
5-minute written reflection she was asked to do at the end of each lesson. The
discipline helps students to vocalise what they have achieved and can provide
feedback about what they enjoyed, or didn't like about the lesson. This provides teachers with a means to modify
future sessions to suit the learning styles and preferences of their students. Learners
can offer topics they would like to work on, and teachers can give advance
notice of future lessons, or give notice of homework tasks that students could
carry out in preparation for the next lesson. This could whet their appetite
for the session, or allow them to bring material to class.
We have to remember that this could be conceptually difficult
for young learners, but they would certainly be able to draw their feedback.
If setting homework, time needs to be set aside to organise
the information correctly. Writing down the details in their notebooks rather
than quickly circling the pages is preferable, but requires more than the usual
rushed few minutes at the end of the lesson..
Marisa suggested
asking the students to rate their course book, or to advise the author on ways
to improve a future version. This makes them revisit the page too, which is
sneaky J
Finally, kevchanhow
always ends by thanking his students and telling them about one thing he
particularly enjoyed, learned or had occasion to be grateful for because of the
class. This is something we could all do easily, and it will leave our students
feeling that we value them as members of the group.
LINKS
Marisa_C: Nigel Barlow in PET Vol 1 No 2 1980 - oldie but
goodie "Memory and the Language Teacher"
adi_rajan: I've also used http://t.co/VURl0eoEA3 in my business English classes to kick-off by
discussing trending news items.
Adi was thinking about using whatsapp as a means of getting
feedback. Shaun suggested the socrative
app as it has an inbuilt feedback questionnaire.
Marisa_C Couldn't find the article on memory but found this
one on pattern notes - nice for an end of lesson summary http://t.co/t7QQBDx6sF