Did I accidentally plan a writing lesson?!

We’re all familiar with the drill. You consult your Scheme of Work for some idea of where you should be. You open a blank lesson plan and then get a cup of tea while you actually decide what you’re going to do. And then… eureka! The ideas come crashing down out of nowhere and you've got your lesson sorted.

Or at least it goes something like that.

For this lesson, my eureka moment came when I started to think about the exciting world of vocabulary. I've been covering Speaking and Listening with my E3 Functional Skills group, and I needed to think of a way to get them to use more interesting words. I decided to use the warmer activity Tonia showed us - the star with 'I can', 'I like', 'I used to' and so on. They really enjoyed this and were openly discussing facts about themselves and engaging as a group. There was a lot of laughter when I asked them to state something about their partner (they were keen to spill all of their partner's deepest secrets to see who they could embarrass the most) but overall the lesson got off to a great start.

Next, I decided to recap the skills of a good speaker and listener. For this I used a DVolver some funky cartoon characters and asked them to identify the skills they saw as well as discuss any that weren't included:

Katie's DVolver 

This worked well - good stuff. But the next part is where it gets really crazy. I read them a story and asked them to think about the way vocabulary was used. Was it interesting? Could they identify any words that they would change? Why? They responded well to this (although the story I chose wasn't great - I'll rethink that for the future) and seemed excited when I asked them to write their own stories...

However, I didn't just tell them to write. I gave then a blank cartoon strip (see below) and asked them to use it as a basis to write their story in groups. We talked about synonyms and common words that were banned from the task (nice, great, good, boring, big). Can you guess what happened? They loved it! The stories they came up with were simply fab, and there were constant shouts of 'Miss, is there a better word I can use for (insert word here)?'

So, where's the problem, I hear you ask? Well, my original aim was for them to have a chance to use vocabulary creatively, and then apply the process of using more imaginative words to the context of a group discussion. This is where they struggled. When I started to bring them back round to the idea of speaking and listening, all of their enthusiasm for fun, exciting words had disappeared. Perhaps I should have foreseen this. Looking back, what I had planned for was a writing lesson, and I'm not disappointed with how it turned out. It was great to see them so engaged with a writing task and actively seeking better ways to write things.However, I'm still on the hunt for a way to use better vocabulary in group discussions!

Demand-high teaching

I thought I would have another go at writing a blog post on a Saturday night when I really should have better things to do but my brain has gone numb watching 'X factor'.

I read a while ago about an approach to teaching and learning called "Demand High Teaching". I'm not sure whether to describe it as an 'approach' but I am going to label it as that for the time being until I come up with a better word. In fact, the advocates of such an 'approach' describe it as a "meme"as described here:  "we are not asking to throw out infant and bathwater.  We are proposing a small course correction to our current direction of travel – or whatever direction of travel you are taking in your teaching approach." (Underhill and Scrivener - http://demandhighelt.wordpress.com/).

So, what exactly is meant by 'demand high teaching?' The basic premise is demanding more from learners: not accepting incorrect responses; encouraging learners to push themselves; walking away from learners when they speak quietly so they are forced to speak up rather than the teacher going towards them; only giving praise when it is warranted; leaving more time for responses rather than feeling the need to fill silences, etc. If learners are forced to challenge themselves, deeper learning is more likely to take place. So far, so good. This seems pretty sensible to me.

However, I was wondering how ESOL learners might react to this. I'm sure we have all been in a situation when we have asked a learner a question, there has been what seems like an interminable silence and have felt the need to stop the torture: "Anybody else help?" etc. I once taught a Japanese learner who would put her head down and refuse to look at me when she didn't know/didn't like a question. It didn't matter how many times I rephrased the question or gave her more thinking time, in the end I just had to change tack and topic. 

Nevertheless, I like the idea of encouraging learners to take risks and to be creative and experiment with language. I find that some ESOL learners can be too dependent on the teacher and expect him/her to do the work for them, to clarify and reformulate language for them rather than 'forcing' them (OK - encouraging) them to do the work. This may be down to a lack of confidence and I think it is wise to tread carefully and cautiously. Learners have different expectations of a teacher and it may take time for them to adapt to a more 'hardcore' approach. Small steps leading to, hopefully, better results.

If you are keen to read more about demand-high teaching, you might want to have a look at these observation tasks which encourage you to critique some of the key issues involved with the approach/meme or what ever you want to call it! Let me know what you think.

http://demandhighelt.wordpress.com/observation-tasks/