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Reflective Journal: Three Weeks in China

3/13/2013

9 Comments

 
This is my third week teaching in Hefei, China. I'm journaling a lot these days -reflecting on the rationale behind my lesson plans and their implementation and trying to understand the way I perceive students are participating and learning from our time together in class. I think I needed these initial three weeks to feel more grounded in my view of this curriculum I've created and I'm fine-tuning as I go. 

During those 7 weeks I had to prepare to come here, I was really worried I wouldn't have enough materials and I'd be stuck without the 'comfort' of an office stocked with books and resources. Not having a textbook as the backbone for these classes was scary at first! I'm glad to say that in reality, not having a textbook to follow has been a blessing in disguise. I am able to be creative, think about what really suits my students and my teaching style, adapt materials around me, and set our own agenda! Having a textbook would not allow me to do this. Of course, I'm not coming up with everything from scratch. I use 4 different books from the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers and I also use some books for speaking (and listening) activities. In addition, I've been starting to adapt articles from the web and create my own materials by using Ted Talks or texts from NPR and the BBC. Again, the challenge here is the fact that these are multi-level groups and I need to learn how to work with students who are beginners and others at an advanced level all in the same classroom. One strategy I've used so far is assigning different types of questions to check for comprehension. I'm also trying to be very deliberate about the way group work is conducted in class.

Anyhow, here are some thoughts about what has not worked as I expected, what has worked well, and what I still need to improve or figure out. I'm hoping that by comparing my expectations to what's actually happening, I might be able to learn more about my teaching and the needs of a program such as the one I am working with right now. Any suggestions or comments on these reflections will be greatly appreciated! Teaching in a new scenario can be a pretty lonely act and I do much better when able to socialize ideas and teaching plans.

Original curriculum includes:

-Weekly themes or topics so that all materials and activities are connected by a common thread.  

-Daily routines to aid classroom management, which I anticipated would be an issue in these large multilevel classes (22 and 35 students ranging from A1 to B2 under the CEFR*)

-Project-Based Learning to motivate students to be autonomous learners, creative, and practice expressing their own opinions. 

-Task-based learning with differentiated tasks according to the students' level.

-Self-evaluations in the form of individual learning contracts for students to set their own learning goals and take responsibility for their learning.


How has it worked so far?

-The weekly topic worked well the first two weeks. For Week 1 we did “Getting to Know Each Other and Asking Questions.” Week 2 was “Learning Styles and Diversity.” This week, however, I felt as if I still had work pending from last week and I couldn't figure out what the theme should be. The students are still practicing how to ask questions, and revising learning contracts. I've also had 3 periods less than usual. In addition, today I spent a whole period showing students how to navigate through our class websites and how to check their grades on Engrade. This was my test day to learn how to use their computer lab. In conclusion, there is no theme for this week. I worried at first, but it's not really an issue since I'm learning what works best. I'm still planning on having a theme next week (family matters? food? spending habits?) but what matters the most to me now is that students have a clear understanding of what the expectations are of them as students in an academic setting in the U.S.

-The daily routines have been a great help to save time in class and help students become more organized. Since here in China they use lots of workbooks in class, students are not used to taking notes or having a dedicated notebook for class work.

I have not done the 'exit tickets' I envisioned at first (not enough time!), but I do write new vocabulary each day and keep a log for myself so I'll remember to recycle it in future lessons. I need to find a good way to briefly review what we’ve done in class each day. Currently, students are keeping a vocabulary log and writing sentences to practice using these words. I still need to incorporate them in larger tasks, but it’s hard to tie it all together in something coherent. For now, this is their default homework if I don't assign anything else. I will continue to evaluate this vocabulary log strategy, but for now at least provides a way to practice the language we’ve used in class and it is a set routine we have. Each day I take 10 index cards with the students' names each day and check those notebooks only. That helps manage my time with these large groups. Another routine I have been very consistent about is writing objectives and activities on the board each day. I ask students questions about the objectives and hope this is a reminder for them about the rationale behind class activities. I'd like for them to realize that there is always an immediate purpose for everything we do in class.

-I have not been able to start our projects, but plan to introduce them next week. Again, I think I needed these first three weeks to get a good understanding of who I'm working with and what resources are available. This week I finally got a computer room for both groups. That will make a big difference in terms of having time to do research and conduct Project-Based Learning (PBL) in school.

-We have done lots of task-based learning (TBL) and very little language without a communicative purpose. However, I need to plan more authentic tasks.  

-I don't know if the self-evaluations are really working, but students have written down specific things they think they should do in order to make improvements in their English language skills and study skills. We revised these today with my younger students and will be writing new learning contracts and doing a more formal self-evaluation in two weeks. More about whether this is working or not then!

All right, this is a long blog post. If you are still reading, please know that I really, really value all and any feedback I can get!

Will be checking in again soon…

Laura Adele.


1. CEFR = Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/elp/elp-reg/cefr_EN.asp



 

 



9 Comments
Patricia
3/13/2013 01:44:38 pm

Laura, I sure do appreciate your take on things! Reading through this entry made me (fondly) think back to the similar deliberations my grad school classmates and I had years ago.

Thanks for sharing so very much of your experience!

Reply
Laura Adele
3/16/2013 07:21:52 pm

Patricia,

Thanks for your comment. I'm glad this post brought you good memories... perhaps we can continue having discussions such as these at some point in person. Missing having such a smiling coworker saying hello every morning :)

Laura Adele.

Reply
Sam
3/14/2013 06:15:58 am

Thanks for sharing your reflections! As Patricia said, it's refreshing to hear all the theory and practices I learned about in grad school. I also remember the benefit of "being free" over there and enjoying the prospect of relying on my own creative ability to design lesson plans. Looking forward to reading more of your experiences!

Reply
Sam
3/14/2013 06:22:09 am

Thanks for sharing your reflections! Like Patricia, it's nice to hear how you apply all the theory and practice I learned from grad school. I also enjoyed the prospect of "being free" from textbooks or pressures of level standards. I learned I was quite creative as well designing a lesson when I only could rely on myself.

Reply
Laura Adele
3/16/2013 07:33:13 pm

Thanks, Sam! Right, it's amazing to have the opportunity to come up with materials and objectives based solely on your evaluation of the students' needs. Looking forward to trying out some of our study abroad module materials ;)

Reply
Tracie
3/17/2013 01:26:07 pm

I like the way you so conscientious about evaluating yourself and what you are doing I the class. I think it was good for you to have the first weeks to adjust - for the students also. I just had a thought about the student self evaluations. You might think about having them write their goals or anticipated learning for whole you are there ( three months?) and then keep what they write at the beginning and then give it to them toward the end of your stay and let them see if they accomplished that. Something like that might be a fun way for them to measure their progress.

Sounds like you are doing great job!

Reply
Sam
3/18/2013 12:49:55 am

Sounds like you are doing great. The learning contracts, daily routines, and self-reflections (go geoducks) should actually help prepare these kids for some of the differences between their school and ours. To review what you've done today, you could use an idea web on the board or even a PowerPoint slide with an outline. As to self reflections, if the students are highlighting the things they need to improve and explaining how they will improve, I call it good.

Reply
Katrina
3/27/2013 02:54:26 pm

Awesome posts Laura!

Reply
Sam Cooke
6/26/2013 08:39:36 am

Like the other commenters touched on, I am impressed by how much planning, reflection, and self-evaluation you do. I almost never write these kinds of things down. I guess I sometimes express these kinds of ideas through after-work conversations with my coworkers, as you probably remember.

Reply



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    Laura Adele Soracco is a teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) who has mainly worked at the college/university level. She has a master's degree in TESOL from the New School University in New York City.


    Currently blogging from Ankara, Turkey.

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