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.
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.
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.
