First Reflection
Description
(What I plan to write usually changes in the act of writing. As I write I remember more details and see that the moment didn’t happen quite as I remembered in the emotional first recollection.)
This is a higher-level first-year Oral English class for English majors. There were 8 students in the class in the first semester. One other student joined from September.
Moment: a listening exercise from the textbook. Students listened to 3 people describing the contents of their fridges and checked the items they heard on a picture in the textbook. 8 students were present, so the students were arranged in 4 pairs to check their answers together.
Two students (one of them was the student who just joined the class) repeatedly were not checking their answers. After the first listening, three of the four pairs were on task and checking their answers together. The fourth pair was talking (in English) about McDonalds and how fat Americans are. After the second listening they were once again not on task. This duo had been paired up previously in the lesson and similarly had not been on task. They chatted in Japanese, spoke loudly and disturbed the other students.
After the third listening I had students pair up with the person on their other side. The two noisy students were separated and settled down and focused on the lesson.
Analysis
(I find that ideas generate ideas when I’m writing out my reflections. I might have one interpretation in mind when I start, but others pop up as I continue.)
According to what I know about these two students (since I've taught the new student in another class) Both are the kind of student who seems unaware of the effect of their behaviour on those around them. They both have quite high levels of English even though neither of them have spent as much time studying overseas as their classmates have. They seem less able to focus on a lesson after a warm-up of free chatting time.
According to what I know about control and initiative, some students can stay on task with more initiative while others drown in the freedom. They might not be used to doing what the other students are doing and tend to simply do their own thing during pair work. Higher level students to whom English always came easy in junior and/or senior high school haven’t always developed the work habits necessary to be successful in college. If they’re not used to paying attention in high school, they won’t necessarily know how to do so in university.
According to what I know about people and their differing personalities, coming into a new class (as R did) or having the class members change (S) in the middle of the school year can cause insecurity that results in “acting out.” S has always had days when she’s been rather hyper and unaware of the effect of her actions on others.
According to what I know about setting up tasks, people process information in different ways. Just giving instructions verbally will probably not reach all the students – especially if they’re used to “tuning out” the teacher because of their previous classroom experiences. But I did give the instructions verbally and visually as the students were looking at their textbooks as I explained the task and the other pairs knew what to do.
Plan of Action
(based on the analysis of the moment)
Keep R and S apart during pair work. They get along fine, but don't work together very well.
Make sure that the tasks are clear in two ways: what the students have to do & why they're doing it. I know that I'm more motivated to do something if I know why I'm doing it. "This activity will help you to see if you understand the difference between countable and uncountable nouns." It wouldn't take much to state the purpose of the activity. It would also help me make sure that I'm not making the students do "busy work" that doesn't help their learning.
Help the students connect the content of the lesson to the goals they made at the beginning of the semester. Have them look over the page/unit and note what they know about the vocabulary, grammar, structure or other content of the lesson. Find out what they want to learn/remember/review.
Learn more about the students' learning styles by giving them a VAK (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) self-assessment test that will help them determine their preferred learning style. Knowing their own learning style will help them make plans to reach their semester goals and it will help me plan lessons that will engage each student.
