In teaching, you learn quickly that no plan goes accordingly. You could have an airtight lesson plan filled with objectives and clever transitional steps leading you to the next activity. Of course, you've planned brilliantly! It's what we had to spend a month to a year training to do. Yet, life always finds a way to wreak havoc on your plans. Especially, when dealing with human nature (specifically young children and teenagers. They have their own agenda.)
 |
| When your plan is failing. |
For you, maybe, students have a very weak awareness of the past participle verbs during your present perfect lesson. Or a good chunk of students have missed lessons and you have to update the others to carry on to the next unit.
Or worse, the internet shuts off. The computer decides to have a rest day and you are unable to use the tips and materials I have for you here. Ultimately, a complete nightmare with 13 to 25 students staring at you for instructions into what to do next.
Either way, disaster is known to strike. So prepare for the worst and pray for the best.
If you can't get anything to work out the way you've planned, its time to channel your creative flexibility.
As such, teachers must learn two things: when to divert from the plan and how to create an effective learning activity. Thus, welcome to my segment: A Change of Plan.
(Refers to the time before lockdown. Some nostalgia and words of wisdom for when we can go back to a normal classroom.)
I have an hour every Monday dedicated to B2 students who want extra practice in writing and/or speaking. Usually, I get anywhere from 3 to 8 students showing up. But last week I only got 1!
Personally, I can't stand tutorials. For one since it is only you and a student, it means you need a stack of material to work with. For two, you have to rely on one student to generate ideas that you guide them into. If you have a quiet or shy student, this can be like pulling teeth. And three, a tutorial turns out to be having a conversation for an hour. I don't talk to my closest friends for that long! Imagine doing that with a teenager. Plus, I'm sure its hell for the student too.
So what do you do when you find yourself in an impromptu tutorial? I took my creative writing plan. I sat next to her and we did it as if I was a second student. That lasted 30 minutes and this is with me going off-topic and talking about random things in my life and in her life.
Then, before I wondered what tv series I could show her on my Netflix account, I had an idea. I went to a teacher with B2 students and asked to borrow a student for 10 minutes.
Back in my class, the student heard the story and gave ideas to make it better. Our on personal Beta Reader. A Beta Reader is used with independent novelists who need someone to give notes on the content of the story. They say what works, what is good and what should be changed. I use it as a version of peer revision.
When my single student made the changes, I grabbed another Beta Reader. After the second round of changes, we had 5 minutes left so my student read the story aloud and we discussed what she thought about it.
Tutorial disasters avoided by stealing students from other sources. You may not be in an academy where this is easy to do. Or maybe you have private classes where other students are not in your area. In these cases, I suggest making Tic Tok or Powerpoints or memes with your one student in the publishing/independent producing stage of your lesson.
Either way, there is another activity put to in your teacher's toolbox which helps when the lesson plan has changed.
And if you like to know about some more FREE opportunities, sign up for our FREE newsletter and get monthly updates by email about:
- *find out which new worksheets, lesson plans, craft sheets, flashcards, games, tips and so on have been added to https://forteachingesl.blogspot.com/
- *ESL teaching tips and ideas about teens and kids.
- *materials and resources
- *promotions and offers on resource books
No comments:
Post a Comment
This is a resource for teachers in ESL. To help the community, please leave comments about other ideas that have worked for you, or how some of these ideas have been successful in your classroom. Thank You.