The Turning Point in NOW!, A Reflection

 
I began my teaching career as a public school eighth grade social studies teacher in Baltimore, Maryland.  As the end of my second year approached, I decided that I wanted to move to Washington D.C.  Having spent some time in Washington as a college freshman, I knew that the move would place me in a more cultural diverse environment.  At that time, I was frustrated by the static Baltimore condition of heroine addiction and crime.  I was bored with the perpetual cycle of work, more work, sleep and work.  I was in serious need of some cultural, social and professional stimulation.  D.C. was going to be the remedy to my Baltimore blues, or at least that's what I thought.

When I saw a job ad for English teachers in Japan, I never thought I'd actual be hired.  I didn't speak Japanese.  I'd only been teaching for two years.  I'd never taught English and my major was History.  Despite all of my doubts, I had the confidence to at least try for the position.  The ad stated that the only requirements were a university degree and an interview.  I definitely had the degree and interviewing for jobs happens to be a talent of mine.  

Once I was hired to teach adult English classes in Kyoto, I immediately began to prepare.  I was saving my money and planning my new life.  I was exhilarated by all things Japanese.  My family was proud.  My friends were supportive and I was thrilled.  Then came the planes.  

My original flight to Japan was sometime in late September, 2001.  When I woke up on September 11 to the horrendous terrorists attacks on America, I was numb.  I was afraid.  A few days later, I was turning down the job in Japan.  Obviously, they understood my fear and assured me that the position would still be open if I changed my mind.  My mother was also understanding, but she encouraged me to go.  She told me that if God chose to take me from this Earth, then it would be; when it is your time, it is your time.  She told me to have faith that I would make it to Japan to start a new chapter in my life.  I never imagined that that chapter would evolve into a book.  

Johnston  talks about how teachers come across opportunities; some we seek out, while others just appear in front of us.  My first job as an English language teacher just appeared.  As I prepared for the interview, I really didn't expect to be hired.  I was looking for a new scene.  I was planning on moving to Washington D.C.  However, the opportunity that appeared was the one I chose.  The entire process from hire to teaching in Japan was the work of God.  He has a great influence over the choices I make in my life and career.  I am not suggesting that all opportunities that present themselves are the works of God, many are not.  It is my belief and faith that guide me to know the difference.  Also, I do not suggest that what it presented is always easy to obtain.  For example, when I decided to continue my education through STG, the process to begin was easy.  God put me around the right people.  He put me in the right job. He provided me with the right income.  Once I began the program, there was nothing easy about it.  However, my belief in God's plan kept me strong, positive and steadfast in this immediate professional goal.  

In addition to God, other factors have led to the professional decisions I've made in the past.  Family relationships, romantic relationships, the economy and self-doubt have all effected my choices for better or worse.  Just because I know what God wants me to do, doesn't mean I always do it.  Human will can be both constructive and damning.

The turning point of my career is now.  I am beginning to re-educated myself.  I will move to America in the spring and I will take any ESL language job that appears.  Most importantly, now I am beginning to truly know what it is to be a professional language teacher.  In the last few months, I have become empowered by all that I have learned and done as a student and teacher.  I am looking forward to learning more, doing more and teaching more.  The future is looking bright.

The Question of Marginalization: Queen or Clown
It seems that within Korean language academies NS teachers are marginalized by the students and sometimes the administration.  Korean teachers are taken seriously.  They are both feared and respected.  Whereas, often times, NS teachers are expected to be fun, interesting, tolerant, amusing AND informative.  At my first Korean academy I was criticized for being to concerned with teaching.  The students wanted to play hangman and other games.  The director told me that 50% of my time was to teach and the other 50% was to have fun and keep the students happy.  Although I was asked to renew my contract, I took a job at YBM.  I wanted to teach, not be the resident clown.  Fortunately, my experiences in Seoul and Bundang were quite different.  I have been fortunate to work in jobs where my skills were utilized and my educational views respected.  

As the teacher, I try to create an environment of respect.  The teacher should respect students and students should respect the teacher and their peers.  With this view comes challenges.  As mentioned above, students sometimes expect the NS teacher to be their friend and my behaviors may sometimes confuse them.  If I apologize or admit a mistake, they may feel that I am putting myself at their level.  I do not think Korean teachers in traditional classrooms do much apologizing.  Also, I may allow students to vote on which chapter or which question will be discussed.  In considering their perspective, I may undermine my position as the class leader.  Students sometimes become too comfortable with me and speak to me in a way that is inappropriate.  In such cases, I will explain my role and remind them to be respectful.  Fortunately, the director and Korean teachers at my present school do not allow for the disrespect of any teacher.  If I just mention one teacher's name, a disrespectful student will immediately apologize.

I do not feel that I must be a dictator in order to be respected and I shall not be treated like a clown.  Creating a classroom of mutual respect, that is educational and enjoyable requires daily reinforcement of expectations and consistent teacher practices.  This is what I work towards with each lesson.

Messages Through Movement, ICC MT Reflection

Throughout the world, dance is an expression of celebration for a successful harvest.  Although tools of technology have replaced the traditional farming methods of many cultures, many celebratory traditions have been well preserved.  One such tradition is that of dance.

The intercultural objective of this lesson is for students to notice a similarity between Korean and Zimbabwean cultures.  The similarity is the tradition of dancing in celebration of a successful harvest.  Another objective is for students to learn the differences in how each culture uses the body in dance and to understand how messages can be expressed through body movements.  Students are expected to physically participate in learning 'Dinhe', a Zimbabwean harvest dance, while practicing the instructions.  Finally, students create and teach their own dance moves, creating messages through movement.  

As I viewed my video lesson, I immediately noticed that I was speaking a bit too quickly.  I was eager to show as much of my lesson as possible and this may have caused me to be a bit speedy.  I hope that in my real classroom, I would be less hurried during the presentation and practice. 

While giving instructions I did well in facilitating student interaction by directing them to ask each other questions.  However, at one point Heidi expressed confusion about the term 'sow'.  While she did not ask a direct question, her reaction was quite realistic to what a real L2 student would do.  She repeated the word a couple of times after hearing it.  Through the inflection of her voice, she expressed unfamiliarity with the term.  I made a quick comment explaining that 'sow' and 'plant' shared similar meanings.  I knew that the following slide would isolate the term and that students would have a chance to practice the phrase 'sowing seeds'.  Still, I could have spent a few more seconds explaining the term when the student first noticed it as new vocabulary.  Another observation made during the viewing was that I failed to check student comprehension of instructions for the first listening activity.  I should have asked a couple of students to repeat the instructions before beginning the video.

I hadn't anticipated student difficulty in hearing the instructions during the first listening/viewing.  I should have, but I didn't.  I had seen and heard the video so many times, I took for granted the fast pace at which the instructions are given.  From the first instruction, "get grounded" to the last, "slightly tilt your pelvis", there is practically no pause.  During the MT, a lot of students were unable to complete the chart and these were NS teachers!  I immediately came up with a solution.  Although my plan was for the teacher to check student comprehension, instead I asked students to work together to compare and share answers.  In this way they seemed more eager to speak with one another because they wanted to complete the listening activity sheet.

I believe that my strongest teaching technique was the use of my body in expressing word and phrase meanings.  I positioned myself close to the board, so that I could point to relevant images.  Also, I used my entire body to help students understand terms, such as before, sowing seeds, bend, wide apart, slightly, relaxed, grounded, heavy, dig up, and jump for joy.  Using my body benefited both the students and myself.  Students were able to better understand the terms and I was able to warm up my body for the dances that were to be taught and learned!

This is a lesson I would really enjoy teaching.  I believe that students would embrace the activities and produce some interesting dances of their own.  Of course, this would be more likely once the students have studied with each other and myself for a while.  I would not teach this lesson during the first weeks of a new class.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to teach this lesson at my academy.  The classrooms are entirely too small.  However, it will definitely be implemented in a future curriculum.  The MT showed me that this lesson can be enjoyed by both children and adults.  I think my STG classmates had a good time, at least I hope so!

In Living Color: Reflection on a Pronunciation Lesson

This blog is a reflection of my last recorded lesson for Methodology class.  Although this is my final recording for STG, it is not my last recording as a professional teacher.  Not only have come to endure self observation, I have grown to value and appreciate the rewards of video reflection.  Here is my last video post as an STG student.

When the color pronunciation chart was introduced in Methodology class, I immediately realized the benefits of such a resource in my own classroom.  The following week I designed a color pronunciation chart for my first and second graders.  Every Friday, students have an e-library class in which books are read and discussed.  The books are not very challenging and have been described as 'boring' by more than a few students.  By incorporating the color pronunciation chart, I hoped to incite some student interest in an otherwise undemanding reading activity.  The proficiency of the learners in this class range between novice high and low intermediate.  

 

The objective was for students to understand and identify long and short vowel sounds of words that appeared during a story book lesson.  It was key that students notice that the sounds of English do not correspond to any particular letter or letter grouping.  Each student was provided with a copy of a chart.  On the top horizontal line were color names that represented the long and short sounds of the five basic vowels a,e,i,o,u.  Specific letters were underlined to emphasize vowel sounds. Each color name was highlighted in the color that was written.  For example the word 'mustard', representing short vowel 'u', was written in black (or white) and highlighted in a yellowish color.  Beneath each color word were ten spaces where students could write words of the same sound.  The colorful chart was of immediate interests to the students.

                                                         Part 1: Presentation and Practice
In the presentation, I gave very clear instructions.  I passed out the charts and students read the title of this new learning resource.  I wrote the word 'pronunciation' on the WB and asked the class to try to pronounce the words.  This groups has a very good understanding of simple phonetic structures and many were able to sound out the word pretty accurately.  I modeled the correct pronunciation of 'pronunciation' and the students repeated the word a few times.  I then directed the class to look at the chart, drawing their attention to the underlined letters of each color name.  We reviewed the long and short vowel sounds and I wrote an example sentence on the board to show them how to fill in the chart.  Once I felt that the students understood the purpose of the chart, I explained that they would fill in the chart while listening to and viewing the e-library stories.

                                                       Part 2:  The Activity (More Practice) Once I began the lesson, their were difficulties that I had anticipated and others that I hadn't.  The classes at my academy are extremely small.  There are too many chairs and table crowded into small spaces.  In an effort to accommodate the growing student population, it has become near impossible to move around the classes.  So when students began to complain about being unable to see the computer screen, I tried to re-seat students.  I anticipated having to move students around.  I did not anticipate having to stop the recording and actually re-arrange to tables and chairs.  In part 2 of my lesson, the tables have been pushed closer together bringing the students closer to the computer screen.

Also, I anticipated that students would struggle with differentiating spelling from sounds.  Some students were concentrating on story words with letters that corresponded to the color name letters as opposed to the color name sounds.  For example, one student wanted to write the word 'my' in the 'gray' column.  In this instance and quite a few others, I reminded students that in English words with similar letters do not always have similar sounds.

I did not anticipate the high level of student interest in this activity.  There are five short stories in the e-library reading lesson.  By the third story most students were standing, excitedly yelling out answers, "Dig is indigo!  Bus is mustard! Room is blue!"  It was an unexpected surprise to see such eagerness among the students.  It began to become a bit competitive so I asked the class to remain seated and speak with less volume.  I should have given instructions about behavior before beginning the activity.  But, really, who knew a lesson on pronunciation could be so much fun!

Since this lesson, I have used the color pronunciation chart in several other classes.  I have also repeated the same activity with this group.  Most students find the a activity enjoyable and are motivated to show their understanding of the task.  Students who struggle at the beginning of the activity, soon notice that English characters do not always represent one specific sound.  When this, "Aha!" moment occurs, there is a noticeable sense of student accomplishment.  Guiding students to these moments is my purpose as a teacher.

"We've got Annie!", ICC Lesson Reflection

In this lesson, my goal was for students to identify messages sent through body language. I used two clips from the 1982 'Annie' movie.  Common among musicals, scenes in 'Annie' are rich in body language.  I chose two contrasting scenes to show the different messages of adult characters.  The first scene was Miss Hannigan with Annie and the orphans.  The other was the scene when Annie first enters the Warbucks mansion with Miss Farrell., Mr. Warbucks's secretary.  

                                     

The lesson began with students looking at picture from their textbook, a sketch of two faces.  Students explained how the people felt and were asked to give reasons for there opinions.  Following a brief discussion, I taught the terms facial expression, gestures and body language.  One of the students knew the meaning of 'body language' and had been introduced to the word 'gesture'.  As I watched the video, I realized that I could have asked the students if they knew what the terms meant before going directly into explanations. I also noticed that when students were hearing a word or phrase for the first time, I did nothing to stimulate student understanding.  Phrases, such as 'facial expression, and words, like 'annoyed and confused', were stated without allowing students to repeat them.  I was too hasty.  As a result, it is unlikely that the new vocabulary was placed in short term memory.

Before the video clip activity began, both the students and I gave examples of different types of body language.   We tried guessing the messages that were being sent.  Sometimes the intended message of the sender differed from what the recipient understood.  These instances, were opportunities to point out how the messages one intends to send are not always what is received by the observer.  Unfortunately, I failed to point out that such misunderstanding is a common challenge in intercultural and interpersonal communication.  

                                  

When it was time to show the video clips, students had a good understanding of what they were looking for.  My instructions were pretty clear and the following discussion showed that students understood the goal of the lesson.  During the discussion, I returned to the clips and asked them to point out specific movements that sent the messages they received.  One student said that Miss Hannigan was drunk.  I asked her why she thought so and she said that the way Miss Hannigan was moving was how her father moves after drinking alcohol.  I was not surprised that she shared such personal information.  This is common amongst my students.   

                                                      
Continuing with the lesson, I pointed out several gestures and asked what messages were being sent.  In the first clip Annie and another orphan are hugging each other tightly as Miss Hannigan enters their bedroom.  In the second clip, Miss Farrell touches Annie's face and makes other gestures for expressing her message to Annie.  What I did not anticipate was that students lacked the emotion vocabulary needed to describe the messages.  I should have taught some terms before showing the scenes.  I could have asked students to identify which gestures matched the terms discussed before the viewing.



In observing the video I realized that there were quite a few missed opportunities for encouraging greater intercultural competence.  I also noticed that at times, when reacting to student comments, my voice carried tones of judgement.  When facilitating lessons of intercultural competence, I must be cautious as to how I use my voice in responding to student messages.  Voice inflection can send messages more explicit than the words themselves.  Also, I must accept that student viewpoints will not always correspond to my own and that this difference in understanding should be expected and encouraged.  If students are taught to answer according to what they think the teacher wants to hear, then the communication is dishonest and the lesson will be unsuccessful.

                                                         
This lesson was an introduction to understanding body language.  The gestures in the movie were obvious to read.  In the future I'd like to teach a lesson in which the cultural messages of body language are less definable.  Students should know that body language is not always easy to read and that misunderstandings occur when people of different countries use the same body language to express different meanings.  When I do teach a follow-up lesson, I will hopefully avoid the mistakes made this week.

The Rat in the Jet, Reflection on a Pronunciation Activity

In this activity my goal was for students to improve their pronunciation of short vowels 'a' and 'e', by noticing the subtle difference between the similar sounds .  This review activity was inspired by Harmer's chapter 15 activity 'Ship and chip' and Kelly's 'Minimal pairs and related activities'.  To guide students, I made a short simple poem using 7 three-letter words that the students had encountered in previous lessons.  Four of the words had the short vowel 'a' sound and the other 3 had the short vowel 'e' sound: bat, cat, rat, hat, jet, vet and bed.  

Before writing the poem on the board, I showed the class flash cards of each word and had them pronounce and spell the words.  I exaggerated my mouth to that students could see the difference in the wider mouth opening of short vowel 'a' as compared to the slight opening of short vowel 'e'.  After showing the flash cards.  I wrote two sentences on the board using two short vowel 'a' words and two short vowel 'e' words.  I used red to write the words of the sentences, except for the short 'e' words.  For these, I used a blue marker.  One of my students asked, why I had used two colors.  I was not expecting the question, although I should have been.  I'd like to say that I rarely use any marker color other than black, but the truth is that I can't remember ever using colored markers in this class.  Before I could finish explaining why I was using red and blue markers, the student and his classmates figured it out on their own; different colors were used for different vowels sounds.  I think that I should have held off on my explanation and asked the students why they thought two colors were used.  This would have been a great opportunity to incite more student-talk.

The activity was received well by the students, one of which added his own suggestion on how to make the reading more fun.  As suggested, I lead the students through slow and fast readings of the poem.  I was impressed when students were able to speak both quickly and fluently, but for the purpose of the lesson I kept most of the practice at a normal pace.  I used my hand to guide students through the reading, at several points asking them to identify sounds, by pointing from 'a' to 'e'.  I added two more sentences to the poem, making a four-line poem.

During this activity, all of the interaction was between the student(s) and myself.  This was necessary for modeling correct vowel sounds.  A few student initiated responses/ comments did make the activity a little more communicative. 

 
In my opinion this was a successful pronunciation activity.  Only half of the class was present, but it did not make much difference regarding my instruction.  This group, big or small, is pretty attentive and motivated when studying English.  I will incorporate similar activities in later lessons so that all students have the opportunity to notice their pronunciations.

To end the activity, I told students that there was one more short 'e' word and in blue ink I wrote a big capital E over the poem.  Once I added the second letter, all of the students shouted, "Excellent!"  I think we were all in agreement.  This activity was excellent.

Vocabulary in Action: A Reflection, from wk. 11

My lovely beginner students are the subjects of this week's video vocabulary lesson.  Three days of the week, this group of first and second graders are my first class.  As soon as they pass through the sliding door, these students are in full communicative  mode.  I become instantly inspired as they dig deep into their adolescent lexicons to retrieve every bit of English so that I, Tracie Teacher, can understand the information that they are so eager to share.  By the time class officially begins student affective filters are lowered and they are ready to learn. 

Unfortunately, when the camera is on, it is my affective filter that is elevated.   This was not the case in week 11!  I will call this my 'breakthrough lesson' because it is an honest representation of my teaching style.  More importantly, in this lesson I observed how my animated personality has been fused with newly acquired teaching strategies and how this fusion has increased the quality of instruction provided to my students.  

  

In week 11 my beginner class played Charades (acting game) as a vocabulary review activity.  The objective was for students to become more familiar with phrases of morning activities by using and responding to body language.  I have played this game in other classes, but it was the first opportunity for my young beginners.    

Although initially there was some student disapproval of my team selections, their objections were short-lived.  There were points to be won!  The class was divided into two teams.  One member went to the front of class and acted out a morning routine, such as 'brush my teeth' or 'wash my face'.  The other team members guessed what the student was doing, by answering in complete first person sentences, like "I brush my teeth."  The team received one point once the sentence was said correctly.  The class greatly enjoyed the activity and wanted to play longer than time allowed.

In planning this activity, I used the WB to present a question and record student responses.  I modeled the language and used hand and arm gestures to signify proper intonation.  When students struggled to recall certain terms, I used my entire body to show meaning.  While watching the recording, I was surprised at what I viewed.  Evidently, the camera was of little concern to me.  I was more involved in guiding students to comprehension and less worried about how silly I may appear.  

There was a minor flaw in my planning.  During the game, I realized that I had not anticipated a small problem.  The second and fourth students (Team 2) repeated the activities of the first and third students (Team 1).  This made it easy for members of Team 2 to guess the terms.  I should have explained that the same morning action could not be done consecutively.  

Another flaw was that I frequently referred to two female students by the other student's name.  The two girls are best friends who are equally polite, attentive and soft-spoken.  Although they do not express the dramatic disapproval common with most of my students, I should still be more conscious of to whom I am speaking.

Overall, I was very pleased when I viewed this 'breakthrough' lesson.  I observed how my expressive teaching style has been significantly enhanced by better teaching strategies.  This lesson is a true reflection of my growth as an English teacher. 

ICC Video Clip, Wk 10 - Building Socio-Cultural Awarness

The Lesson:
My objective for this lesson was for students to contemplate the emotions and reactions of a person upon first entering a culture greatly different from their own.  First, they compared a group of Japanese students to a group of American students.   As my students commented on clothes, hair style, hair color, skin tone and eye color, I recorded their observations on the whiteboard.  After a brief discussion about homogeneous and heterogeneous (I did not use these terms.) cultures, I posed two question to the class.  First, I asked, "How would a Japanese student feel if they were placed in this American class?"  I then asked the opposite question.  While most of my students agreed that the Japanese student would be scared and nervous, they thought that the American student would feel excited and nervous.  They believe that being from a racially and culturally diverse environment dissolves all fear of different cultures.  I wanted to discuss this idea more, but time was not on my side.  I am planning a follow-up activity that will hopefully widen their cultural lenses a little more.

The Students:
Before seeing this lesson clip, the viewer must be informed on my history with this class.  I have taught most of the students in this class for eighteen months.  When I first met these students, I was immediately impressed with their proficiency in listening, reading and speaking.  Although, they struggle with grammar usage, most of the students in this class are able to speak fluently and express their thoughts with ease.  This group of second and third graders are extremely talkative and highly competitive for my attention.  Random comments develop into group conversations that greatly detract from the lesson goals.  I have recorded this class on at least three other occasions and decided against posting any of the lessons.  Their constant playfulness and foolish comments were even more disturbing on video.

The  Reward:
I am constantly trying new strategies to manage this class more efficiently.  My daily goal is to focus their conversation on the lesson's topic.  

During this week's ICC lesson, students did just that.  Although student enthusiasm and competitiveness overwhelmed me at times and ridiculous comments annoyed me, I was greatly pleased with the contributions made during class discussions.  Unfortunately, the lesson was incomplete, as was my recording space.  

My camera did not record when students described the two groups as being either scared nervous or excited nervous (as mentioned above).  Nor was their any recording of the student who described the Japanese students as clean.  I really wanted more student output.  Inability to incite elaboration, of both perspectives, was not due to technical (camera) issues, but my lack of  class time and the unanticipated eagerness of student response.  Students were uncharacteristically focused on the task and I didn't want to stifle their voices.  In the future, I will facilitate a class activities that allows for more expansion of the topic.

Micro-Teaching, Major Improvements - A Reflection, Wk. 10: REVISED

My lesson objective was for students to understand  modals 'need to' and 'have to' in expressions of necessity.  Specifically, students were to understand the degree of necessity to which each modal is applied.  I taught this lesson to a class in my academy prior to the MT presentation.  My real students responded well to the lesson and the teaching goal was accomplished.  However, there were some unexpected answers to one question that I posed and as a result this question was changed for my MT.  

"I need to drink water."

Normally in this class, instruction begins with some form of lesson preview.  I may ask students to look at the picture or title and predict what the lesson will be about.  This usual follows a short discussion that relates the topic to their personal experiences.  What follows is a reading of a passage and assessment via textbook questions and/or task.  Although, I was allowed to teach the modal lesson I still had to give a test on this day.  So, following the test, students were told that they were going to participate in a special lesson.  Then I went straight into the presentation, just as I would during the MT.  I always use my STG lesson plans in my real classes.  In doing so I am able to involve my students in new and interesting activities while gaining insight to the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of my planning.

"It's urgent! I have to drink water!"

In my opinion, my second Micro-Teaching was a great improvement from my first MT effort.  During my first teaching I was nervous and it showed.  I looked uncomfortable and often stood with my hands folded in front of my chest.  My body language reflected uncertainty and the class responded with a lack of interests in my lesson.  Also, I did not use enough gestures, I spoke too often and I over-explained every instruction.  "Let's think about Chuseok...Let's answer these questions...I will be listening as you and your partner speak...I will ask you what your partner saw."  Too many of my words were unnecessary.  

In my second MT I was confident in my teaching and exact in my instruction.  Though I used my body by pointing, gesturing and acting, I feel that I could have been more animated during parts of the lesson.   When I showed a picture of a man whose mouth was on fire, students responded with interest.  If I were to teach this lesson again, I would act out the man's feelings with much exaggeration for better understanding of the target language. 

                                 


A significant improvement in my second MT was that I did not over-explain.  I, Tracie "Talks-too-much" West, did not over-explain!  When I wanted the students to do something, I used short, clear, comprehensive statements.  I was also allowing students to respond more often, limiting my T-talk by asking questions that were more open-ended like, "What do you see?" as opposed to "Does anyone know what this picture is?"  Through short open-ended questions, the class was able to provide a variety of responses and student interaction increased.  Simple instructions also made for better transitioning between activities.

Finally, utilizing the computer made a great difference in my second MT.   The large colorful drawings of my slide presentation immediately captured student interests and they were eager to comment.  I did not have to waste time taping pictures or walking around class with pictures that were not visible from the board.  During my first MT my back was sometimes facing students as they responded to questions.  My preoccupation with taping caused me to appear uninterested in student responses.   The convenience of the slides gave me more freedom to use my body in emphasizing meaning and more time to show interest in student contributions.  Although a few technical difficulties caused some moments of silence, I feel that overall my second MT went quite well and I am pleased with the what I was able to accomplish.

Student Written Role-Play, from wk. 9 MT LP

                                         

Like Beating a Dead Horse: Reflections on a Lesson in Intercultural Competence

                                                                

With the ICC lesson plan completed, I was eager to find out if my procedures were practical for my students. Through my lesson, I sought to heighten intercultural competence by leading students through a discourse analysis based on the common Korean perception that America is a country of 'White people'.  Even as I write this blog, I am unsure as to whether 'White' is the term I should use for this lesson.  This nagging uncertainty existed as I wrote the lesson plan and was further perpetuated when a student laughed at my use of the term 'white people'.  She pointed to a sheet of paper and said, "That is white."  From my experience, the terms 'white people' and 'black people' are socially and politically acceptable by most Americans. Yet, my student's reaction to the term 'white people', caused me to question the appropriateness of these terms when teaching Korean students, who tend to be overly literal.  On many occasions, a student has corrected me after hearing me call myself 'black'.  They tell me that I am brown.  I always agree and move on.  What I realize, at this very moment, is that I should be teaching my students honestly.  If they have a literal interpretation of 'white people' or 'black people', then I need to explain what the terms mean to the majority of Americans.  Korean students should be taught that 'white' and 'black' are words used to refer to groups of people who share common ancestries based on a shared ancestral continent.  They should be taught that the terms are NOT literal and that people in both groups are diverse in skin coloring.  The point is that I should be the one to teach them these facts.  I doubt that white teachers in Korea are faced with this racial dilemma in the classroom.  In Korea, a white American is called an American and a white Canadian is called a Canadian.  Black people are called African and nationality is always questioned.  The constant doubt of my nationality is rooted, not in antagonism, but in ignorance.  

                                       
                                        This is what my students probably wanted to say to me.

As I considered the different forms of discourse that could be used in my ICC lesson, I could not stop thinking about the posters, fliers and brochures that are used as advertisements for my academy.   I asked my students to compare the group of American students shown on our academy's brochure with pictures of real groups of American students.  I introduced the lesson by showing a food advertisement depicting Psy and students were immediately engaged.  As I went through the first half of my lesson, I was confident in my teaching plan.  The students were interested and responsive and learning the new vocabulary needed for the discourse analysis activity.  As I began the comparison activity, my confidence slowly began to diminish.  My greatest mistake was in the initial discourse task, "Look at the pictures.  Find the similarities and differences."   It was entirely too broad and the answers were based on moods.  Instead of asking a more specific question, I began to monopolize the discourse with further instruction for the same task.   It was beating a poor dead horse again and again.   At one point, I say, "Hmm, I have to change this."  The next question I asked was, "What do they look like?"  They then responded by describing hair color and clothes.  I was struggling as I failed to provoke the intended response.  I thought it was obvious.  The brochure shows a group of all white children.  The authentic pictures show groups of students of many different colors.  With my eyes on the clock, I said, "I'm going to have to change this again."   One student used the brochure to hide her expression disapproval.  The lesson was crumbling before my eyes and I said, "What color are these people?"  While I viewed the question as crass, I was genuinely interested to hear the answer to my final question. I realize the biggest fault in my planning was the impractical expectation that the students would be sensitive to the racial difference.  Secondly, my task instruction was too broad and greatly failed to incite the intended feedback.  Lastly, in my frustration I failed to be calm and monopolized the discourse.  In the future I must carefully plan my wording for task instruction.  I should spend more time thinking of every possible flaw in my planning and not be overly confident.  This is especially true when teaching new lessons or using new techniques.  

Once the students were able to recognize the racial contradictions of the two groups, I asked, "Why did [our academy] choose these students for the brochure?  Why not a group of many different colors? Why does the brochure show only light people?"  Although I asked too many questions and cut off a student as she attempted to answer the first question, once I closed my mouth my students had some very interesting responses.  The most interesting was that 'people of the world' like white people the most.  The student agreement on this point was extremely revealing, as it suggest that some Koreans view themselves in some way inferior to white people.  The short closing discussion ended with the consensus that no one group is better than another.  Even if the students are not convinced that this is true, I hope that our discussion has resulted in positive introspection.  I'll call this lesson, "baby steps."

...and the Academy Award Goes To......

After my last attempt to record a lesson I realize that when teaching youngsters, the 'greeting' phase of a lesson rarely follows a script.  I continue to ask students, "How are you today?"  The responses are rarely, "I'm fine."  It is more likely that a student will tell me that they are hungry and then proceed to beg me for snacks.  Often my students say that they are hot and then ask to leave class to get a drink of water.  Once a student told me he was doing great because his family was moving into a bigger apartment.  I was especially eager to hear about this student's experience.  During the week preceding the move, he was more talkative than he'd ever been.  The point is that it takes a while to get through the 'greeting' part of my lessons.

Normally, this free discourse is a welcomed aspect of my lesson.  I am building relationships with my students and I am truly interested in their daily experiences and consequent moods.  However, when the camera is rolling, I become very aware of the time restrictions of each phase of my planned lesson.  During this week's greeting phase of my recorded lesson, a student told me about her paper cut.  As she smiled, she expressed how bad she was feeling.  I knew that this student's comments were going to interfere with my allotted 'greeting time'.  I immediately felt anxious.  Then, almost as quickly, I got over it; I mustn't be overly concerned about the camera.  My student needed a little attention.  I wanted to show her that I cared.  I wanted to point out the smile that contradicted her stated misery.  So, I stopped acting and allowed myself to be the kind of teacher I needed to be at that moment.

Despite the thirty dollar battery and the fifteen dollar memory card I foolishly bought two weeks ago at Yongsan market, my damaged camera only recorded about twelve minutes of my lesson.  The class greeting included a paper cut, a Saturday bible test and a Saturday math test.  The rest of the lesson was one of the best I've had in that class.  Had I spent less time on the greeting, I would have recorded more of the PPP phases of the lesson.  Yet, I am happy with the result.

When I present this preview lesson to my STG classmates there will be many elements of acting.  They will be acting like novice adult students and I will be acting like I am teaching novice adult students.  However, when I am in my true classroom, it is best to do what is most beneficial for my students.  Ignore the camera.  Engage the students.

i + 1 + 100% = I 'heart' Krashen!

This week has been a great success for my beginners.  They astound me with the rate at which they acquire new language.  They motivate me with their eagerness to be heard and understood.  They stimulate me to learn more, to do more and to grow more as a teacher.  It is an honor to be a contributor to their English language accomplishments. 

When I first read about Stephen Krashen's comprehensible i + 1, I immediately thought of my first and second grade beginners.  Four weeks ago, in an attempt to create more order at the beginning of class, I introduced by students to the word "prepared".  I taught them what was expected in being prepared and sweetened the deal with a point incentive.  By the second week, most of the students had learned the target language, "I have my book. I have my pencil case. I have my homework. I am sitting."  I probably would have continued reinforcing this same language for months if it had not been for the simple yet brilliant comprehensible i + 1.

Last week, I added '1'  when I changed my questions from first person to second person inquiry.  Initially, when I asked one student if another was ready, the subject of the question would answer, "Yes, I am."  After a few days of modeling the language and letting students practice the language, they acquired the language and now they use it correctly.  So, this week I added another '1' and this was a big '1'!  It was time for them to tell me just how prepared they were.  Everyday, I drew a simple pie graph on the board and divided it into four sections for each of the four preparation expectations.  I taught them percentages: 25%, 50%, 75%,100%.  I then wrote on the board, "How prepared are you?"  They were taught to respond using the percentages.  For example, if a student had fulfilled all of the requirements the response would be, "I'm 100% prepared."  I was apprehensive before I taught them this new language.  Was I pushing them to much?  Would they become discouraged if they were unable to construct meaning from the new lesson?  To my great relief, I was able to present the language in a way that resulted in understanding.  Today was a great day.  Everyone was 100% prepared for class and 100% prepared to use their newly acquired language!

Reflections, A Week of New Strategies in the Classroom

So this week presented some challenges and successes as I began to incorporate in my classes what I have learned from STG.  I decided that I would concentrate on planning and leading lessons that were more dialogic than in the past.  This came with the obvious challenges a teacher expects to face in a content based class where the syllabus requires that student be passive receivers of information.  If I were to rely on the curriculum created by my school, I would have classes of purely monologic discourse as described by Xie.  I changed things up a bit in order to create a new classroom environment in which students are expected and encouraged to speak. I worked on my own patience and allowed for longer response time.  I asked more open-ended questions that required student elaboration.  I tried not to be obstructive, but constructive in my teacher talk, as suggested by Walsh.  Overall, I tried to allow the students to use their English with the hopes that they will better understand the language.

In one content based class, the students had to read a passage on the winter season.  Having taught the pre-requisite of this book, I was not impressed by the reading passage.  The language was far below their level and offered no challenge for the students.  This worked to my advantage, however.  The students and I quickly went through the compulsory routine of the book lesson before I introduced my own activity.  After drawing a Venn diagram on the board, I asked students to tell me what they knew about American Christmas and how it differed from Korean Christmas.  Student participation was great; students were interested in sharing their culture and inquisitive about my own.  The lesson ended with a white board full of information that was almost entirely produced by student statements or as a result of student questions.

In another class, I concentrated on turn taking and voice.  I have a really shy female student in a lower level class.  I'll call her R.  Often her best friend in the class attempts to speak for R.  I always discourage this and seek information from R when she has been addressed.  I noticed that R's best friend was not in the class on Friday.  So, when I asked R how she was feeling, she replied that she was sad.  Although, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was sad because her friend wasn't there, I resisted the desire to express this assumption.  I asked R to explain why she was sad and her response was not at all what I expected.  Friday was the birthday holiday for the school that both R and her best friend attend.  R was upset because while her best friend was at Lotte World, R's mother had forced her to attend all of her academy classes.  I was happy for myself and for R.  By giving R more response time and scaffolding when necessary R was able to express her full thought and I got to hear a much better story than what I'd hastily assumed.

What Cat?!, Week 4 SLA Video HW

This was such an enjoyable activity for me as well as my subject, Lucy.  She and I have worked together for 18 months and everyday we find something (or ten things) to laugh about.  Lucy's interpretation of the story was fun and insightful.  She noticed things in the pictures that I had overlooked.  I paid little attention to the cat.  Lucy impressed me when she concluded that the girl (Maria) thought that she could do as the cat did, and walk the ledge to her neighbor's home.  I look forward to seeing the other videos.  Was Lucy very observant or was I just oblivious?

                                         

Q1:
I do not notice a pattern, but a tendency to be inconsistent in verb usage.

Q2:
 My subject uses third person singular -s on present tense verbs ten times.  Her usage is correct on the two copulas as well as the two auxiliaries.  Of the remaining six verbs, Luci has three errors.  She tends to use -s correctly on copulas and auxiliaries, but is inconsistent on verbs.

Q3:
In the beginning of her story, she uses the word 'feels' correctly.  However, at the end of her story she fails to add -s on the same verb (feel) on two occasions.  I think that in the beginning of her story, Lucy is very aware that she is being recorded and therefore careful in her language usage.  As she gets to the end of the story, she seems more comfortable with the task and less conscious of her language usage.  There is no clear pattern in the telling of the story.

Q4:
Students at Luci's level may be more likely to correctly use -s when they are in formal or academic settings, but become lax when under less formal conditions.  I would share this inference with the student and implement activities that would provide him or her a greater awareness of the inconsistency.  A good way to do this would be to record a lesson and let the student see how and when errors occur.  I could also have a lesson that involved a pair of students having a conversation while other students observed how -s was used in the conversation.  The follow-up discussion could be a good reflective exercise.  This would have to be done with students that are accustomed to peer analysis/criticism.  Hopefully by becoming more self-aware, the student will begin to use third person singular -s correctly in both formal and informal settings.  In this way, the student's awareness could be a tool towards better language usage.