γεια σας !

A few months ago, I suddenly decided I needed a break from my normally intensive focus on all things "teaching English".  I've still been teaching, but I've been using my blogging, course-taking, textbook-reading, blog-reading time for other things!

For one thing, I've been exploring an opportunity to peer coach other teachers of adult ESL learners.  The pace for that may pick up (or not) when the new fiscal year begins in July, depending on the budget for that program. In the meantime, I'm mostly learning the ropes.  A lot of the work will be online, but I believe that an unplugged approach can still be taken and that it's ideally suited to this task.  As (if) I get into it more, I'll surely comment here.

I have also taken on two private learners who come to my house for lessons twice a week.  We knew each other from another context and they asked if I offered private lessons.  I think they were surprised, though, to discover that my home office is actually set up as a mini-classroom!

This enterprise is a delight.  The two learners have taken up the reins and are driving each lesson in full unplugged mode!  We have conversation and pause often to beat the heck out of some language point, mostly at their discretion.  I find that I do little lesson preparation, though I do spend about an hour after each session writing notes and "post-planning". They repeatedly comment on how happy they are with what they're learning and how it's helping them outside the classroom.  It's truly quite rewarding for me too!

I usually serve a bit of coffee and one of the learners will sometimes bring a snack.  There's a bookcase with reference tomes to the right and a printer to the left. (These are rarely accessed, actually.) You can see from the whiteboard that in this session they wanted clarification on the present perfect tense.  The question also came up: what does XOXO mean?  I used Google images to look up a recent publicity campaign for Philadelphia tourism and we used those as the "text" for that part of our discussion. And I warned them not to write OXOX (hence the pictures of oxen on the monitor)!  The lamp and pictures and a nearby couch and chairs make the setting quite "social" but there is a good learning infrastructure in place to use as desired.

On a more personal level, I took up running.  For the last year or so, I've been doing exercise walking and it got to the point where I wanted to increase effort but not time.  So I now run for some of my sessions. Feels good to be in (somewhat better) shape!  I will be breaking from classroom teaching over the summer (private teaching will continue) and hope to do a lot of outdoor stuff with that extra time.

Finally, I've taken up learning a new language myself!  I've made friends with a former student and his wife and felt odd that I knew exactly one word of Greek (γεια σας = hello).  It seemed as if I should at least get somewhat familiar with this giant dimension of their lives.  I don't expect to become fluent or even get a lot of practice because we have no real need to use Greek (they're both highly proficient English speakers). But the personal connection does provide motivation and it's also an excellent opportunity to be sensitive to the rank beginner's experience (to strengthen compassion for my learners).  Until a few weeks ago, I didn't know a jot (a word of Greek origin!) about pronunciation, grammar, reading, writing, listening, vocabulary, culture ... anything!  It's an ego-tamer, that's for sure.  And since I have all sorts of opinions about what makes a good learner, it's a chance for me to a) test things out from the learning side of the equation and b) put up or shut up!  

Whiteboard Organization: an Idea

New thought:  if learners are going to copy what's on the board into their notebooks, then board organization should be sort of notebook-shaped, shouldn't it?  If a learner starts taking notes on the left page, then he or she has two pages that combine to about the same aspect ratio as my whiteboard.  So, what if I organized my board with that two-page format in mind?

This is an imaginary situation, but it's based on past real discussions.  I imagine a lot of conversation about the names of computer keys and probably some brainstorming.  We might talk about using "the" with the names of keys, since each one is unique on a keyboard.  I could see shifting to a discussion about the birth of compound nouns and how their spelling changes as they become solidified in the language (space bar, space-bar, or spacebar?). Lots of sloppy scribbling might happen in the working area of the board, but I imagine pausing to clean it all up ... maybe small groups could compare their notes and develop a summary for that space themselves, then share and compare as a class.   Maybe there would be a graphic organizer, a Venn diagram, or a table.  Language conclusions would go in the lower right corner.  Learner-selected words to study (chosen from the many discussed) would get copied to the right.  In this dream-lesson, learners decided to highlight compound nouns, since that's also the form we discussed.  They chose "space bar" because it's got a special name other than "key" and they chose "tab key" because it's an example of the way to name most of the other keys on the board, plus the word "tab" was new.

This is just current thinking ... I thought I'd share the two-page idea right away, for what it's worth.  Note that the "pages" are labeled 1a and 1b.  That's so we can take pictures of half the board and be able to put the pictures into the correct order later (after erasing, the next board would be labeled 2a and 2b).

I'd be interested in feedback!

The Evolution of an Organized Whiteboard

If you use a standard board (not electronic), you probably take pictures before you erase?  I do. It's interesting that this habit has turned into a feedback loop that is causing me to improve my boardwork in general. At first, I just snapped pictures of parts of the board that I specifically wanted to remember (usually incidental vocabulary).  That resulted in my cordoning vocabulary off  on the right in its own little section. And I have always written the date on the board (twice: once using a complete sentence and no abbreviations, then again using the abbreviation for the weekday and the American-style abbreviated date format).  It eventually occurred to me that including the date in my photos was helpful in organizing, so I adjusted slightly for that too.

I missed it, but this would have been my entry to this contest!

That was the extent of my improvement for a while, because it's hard to predict what will come up in an unplugged lesson and I didn't know how to organize "I don't know what" ahead of time!

But one day last month, a learner asked if she could have the pictures from a lesson that she missed.  I created a class livebinder and posted there so that anyone could copy them if they wanted to. (Actually, I'm not going to let that become a habit ... I would rather create a learner-driven livebinder and let them ask each other to post pictures if they miss class.  They could even post pictures of their notes, if they want to. More on livebinder coming soon, I hope.) Anyway, the request made me realize that even if I can't predict what I'm going to write ahead of time,  I need to come up with more of a method for how I write on the board so that someone who wasn't in class can follow along.

I surfed around for ideas, and then I made some small changes to my board organization.  After I write the date at the top, I also write the name of the class.  I then draw a line across the board below that with a little space above it.  That area is not to be erased and will include reminders to myself, notices to the class, etc.  In the remaining space below, I draw a vertical line reserving the right 1/3 of the board for vocabulary.  The other 2/3 is for whatever comes up in class.  It can be erased (but only after a picture is taken!).  I explained what I was doing to the group and I could tell they liked the idea.

The new organization.

I've also made a couple of behavioral changes.  First, I tell myself to slow down.  There's no reason the class can't wait a few seconds for a board that's more neatly written.  Second, I'm trying to write smaller.  The room is small and all of the learners are relatively young with good eyes!

Of course, there is much more improvement to consider.  Here's a board from last December at my previous assignment.  I was using a lesson idea from 52:A Year of Subversive Activity for the ELT Classroom (Clandfield, Meddings).

The PARSNIP activity was first, the dialog-writing was second, and the common phrases emerged from discussion after both activities. (Incidental language, to the right, is not in the picture). I think the activities should have been recorded in the order they happened. It would also be helpful to have included a summary of the instructions for the PARSNIP activity and to have written more detailed instructions for the dialog. (Partners will write ..., then rehearse and perform.) Note that I erased the date and I failed to include the labeling at the left in the photo! I wonder: wouldn't it be OK to take a moment to tidy up spontaneous board work -- even rewrite it neatly -- before taking a picture (and before stepping aside to let learners copy it into their notebooks)?

I also want to think about conventions for mapping out grammar forms and jotting down vocabulary words.   I have a few, but I don't use them consistently.  I also love to use colors but, again, it's not well thought-out. I want to come up with some ideas to try on my new group when we begin at the end of this month.

A request: do you have specific, organized conventions and abbreviations that you use for representing language points and vocabulary?  If yes, please comment or tweet or something?

If I can come up with a plan,  I'd like to propose the whole shebang to the group and ask them to discuss with each other, then offer feedback and suggestions. When we all agree, it would be reasonable to ask them to follow our mutually agreed-upon format in their notebooks too.  Then it will be easier to share with each other (see above)!

A final note:  In looking through the pictures I took, I concluded that they didn't look so bad, actually.  Then I realized that I don't even bother to take pictures of my most hideous boards!  If they're not worth taking pictures of, maybe they're not so useful to the learners either?

Here are a few of the links that I browsed for ideas:

https://sandymillin.wordpress.com/tag/boardwork/

http://eflrecipes.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/tweaking-your-boardwork/

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/improving-my-board-work

http://eltcriticalmoments.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/the-importance-of-boardwork/

http://eltrantsreviewsreflections.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/confessions-of-an-unrepentant-yet-slightly-defensive-unskilled-user-of-the-whiteboard/

http://eltexperiences.com/2013/09/22/the-white-elephant-in-the-room/

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/using-board

http://eltstew.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/board-with-aims/

Unplugged Homework

Now that my intermediate summer intensive course is finishing, I'm ready for some reflection!

I wish I were faster at getting a new class into "unplugged" mode.  The summer session went by so quickly and, although we "uncovered" a lot of material, I feel as if we have just hit cruising speed!  I usually devote at least a week solely to building community and that goes a long way.  It was also nice that the group was just seven learners and they all started on the same date (no walk-ins).

On the other hand, I didn't have full attendance each time, and learners did not do much in the way of homework. If someone is missing when the rest of us hash out a language concept, then he or she has really missed a lot! Even if I take that as an opportunity for review and ask the others to share what they remember, it's not the same as the original discovery experience. And I love to use learners' homework as the base for reinforcement activities, etc.  (Since this course focuses on speaking and listening, it's also a way to sneak some writing practice in without using up class time.)  I didn't ask for much because I know they're busy adults and we met three times a week.  But few put in the work.  I can definitely do more to encourage homework next time.

Since our lessons were largely unplugged, homework was often given on the fly.  I would create an assignment and write it on the board, but I don't think that's enough.  I think I should have a generic "homework" worksheet.  In the last 5-10 minutes of class, hand it out and ask the learners to copy the instructions onto the sheet.  Also, elicit some starting material and walk through one example (which they should also copy onto their sheet). For example, we studied the passive voice, including some of the situations where it is typically used (news stories involving damage or injury, historical facts, describing cultural traditions). I could ask learners to choose one situation (news story) then elicit some recent true examples (earthquake in California, fighting in Israel, a local car accident, etc.).  Choosing one of these, elicit or create an example sentence: Hundreds of homes were damaged and several were destroyed [by the California earthquake].  Learners now have a clear understanding of what's expected, they have worked out an example, they've had a chance to ask questions, and they have seeds for their own work in the elicited material we didn't use.  When, in the next lesson, I get to use their writing as a base for later activities (or even quizzes), I hope that will further reinforce that their homework is an important part of our lessons.

I just had an unplugged thought: after everyone gets used to the worksheet routine, I could  break the class into two groups and have them prepare a homework assignment for the people in the other group.  They would have to walk their group through the assignment as above, of course!  But let's get Part 1 going first, heh, heh!

My cat ate my homework!  (credit: Mystic-Cat-Goddess)

I'm not big on compliance, so I'm still thinking about how to encourage the best attendance possible without casting a punitive aura.  (You must attend at least 75% of lessons in order to get your certificate.  Ecchhh!)  I know that when the unplugged atmosphere is in full swing, learners will bend over backwards to get to class because they see it as a social event not to be missed.  (Not to mention the fact that you might miss some valuable insights on language that "you had to be there" to really appreciate!)  The learners who missed some classes this time around are trying to carve out time from jobs, studies and family, so I think I just need to be patient and think of other ways to get the unplugged experience going quickly.

Next: improving my boardwork (a work that is very much still in progress!) ...

Bye Summer!

This week sees the end of the summer intensive course with my intermediate learners.  I've approached this course with a mostly unplugged attitude, using occasional excerpts from a textbook only to introduce learner-selected topics and/or as a springboard to reinforcement activities.  Today, learners will help me decide how they should be evaluated and we'll do that on Friday (plus snacks and socializing to celebrate the completion of the course).

I was very happy to see the bulk of these adult learners pick up on their freedom to help drive the class.  One (a former teacher) never really got into it.  Another seemed willing, but on the fence.  But the others started coming in with language questions they had observed outside of the lesson, and stopping our discussions to ask about specific turns of phrase, etc.  Toward the end, they began to really sense that they could also press toward whatever discussion topics they wanted.  I hope some of them continue into the fall so that we can take this and run with it!

Some quick notes on my own performance (before I ask the learners next time):  I worked on improving my boardwork and plan to post on that soon.  I don't have the right sense of pacing for a 90-minute class yet (after teaching three hour classes for five years!).  Generally, I plan for too much in one session.  I did well (IMO) in getting learners to ask "What about this situation?  Would I say it like this? [example sentence]" and then writing their sentence on the board verbatim for the class to analyze, propose solutions, and debate.

I hope to post some reflections on the course over the next few weeks, because I should have more time!

New Experiences Ahead

On Monday, I will begin teaching an intermediate class at my new gig.

The first year or so that I taught in a classroom, the focus was ESL.  Lesson goals were based on life skills: "students will be able to check their grocery receipt against what they actually bought and report a discrepancy to a clerk or store manager".  Lessons were supposed to include a balance of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, but the default emphasis was (in my opinion) on reading.  A lot of the speaking was actually reading aloud, a lot of the writing was related to completing exercises, a lot of the listening involved reading along.  I had been taught to develop a lesson around a grammar point that would be needed or useful in the context of the life skills goal.  The lesson format was essentially PPP.

The remaining three years of classroom teaching saw a shift.  Lessons were to revolve around US Civics topics, with language learning as needed for this purpose.  I really liked this, because I could respond to whatever language needs arose as we explored together.  It was easy to include discussion sessions (speaking practice) and we regularly watched videos related to current events (listening practice).  Learners also researched and reported on topics (writing, pronunciation).  Vocabulary-building took a larger role as well.

I would like to have expanded to project-based learning.  My thinking was to involve the learners in a real civics activity of some kind.  Perhaps organize a snack sale to benefit our host (the library) or maybe other students at our agency (GED graduates who can't afford a cap and gown, or the fees for taking the exam). Another project might be to write a language learners' newsletter to distribute to other English classes (and maybe solicit contributions from the other learners!). And, of course, learners might bring in a need from their own neighborhood. The group would think of possibilities, choose one, plan it, execute on it, and then do a post-mortem.

I hope we get more out of conversation than this! (credit)

In my new assignment, the emphasis will be on speaking and listening. Current events or a civics project remain possibilities ... if learners are so inclined.  No matter what, as long as I am not working with a fixed curriculum I will be letting the group drive the content of our lessons.  I'll be doing this indirectly by observing what they seem to be interested in and what their language needs are, and directly: asking them to discuss and choose.  New for me:

- working with a fairly stable cohort
- shorter lessons, three times a week
- teaching a course of exactly 21 lessons

It's possible that some (all?) of the learners are continuing from past courses.  They may already know each other and have expectations based on their experience with a different teacher.  So, a big part of our first lessons will be sharing a lot about myself and how I teach (unplugged!) and learning as much as I can about them. If they don't know each other, then we'll all be in the same boat!

I think the unplugged approach will go over well because, after all, this is a conversation-based course.  I'm really excited about this chance to explore spoken English more thoroughly!

Changes Afoot

As the fiscal year draws to a close at our agency, I've decided to make a change.  I will be moving on to new teaching adventures in July.

I'm extremely grateful for the last seven years at the Center for Literacy.  For two years, I tutored a small group of three to five high-intermediate and low-advanced learners.  During that time, I was able to make a lot of mistakes in a very forgiving environment. I was also able to confirm that teaching English was truly what I wanted to pursue as my second career.  I then took an intensive (and I mean intensive!) certificate course at Lado International Institute and applied for full-class teaching.  I'm so thankful for being given the chance to learn the ropes at CFL.  I learned from my peers -- which included some seasoned pros -- and had access to internal, city, state, and national professional development opportunities.  Lead by a skilled program manager, our team of English teachers collaborated over the last few years to build a framework-style program which was designed to assure that we met our grant's requirements while allowing each teacher quite a bit of flexibility in how individual lessons were planned and taught. (A great way to merge traditional goal-driven management with the more dynamic kind of management that's needed in a classroom).  Each year, we built on that foundation and it showed in our data.  I'm so proud of our group!

But things change.  Now that I've ushered my learners to the end of our program year, I'm ready to try something new.  I just committed to volunteer-teaching conversation classes at International House Philadelphia.  The focus is on speaking and listening skills, so the principles of unplugged teaching should serve these classes well.

June 2012: heading for new places!

Stay tuned for updates on this new phase in Free-Range English Language Teaching!

Emergence in Action

credit: Steve Garfield

A friend on Facebook recently said:

Google Hangouts needs a universally accepted verbization.  You could IM or message someone, or text your friends, or PM them, or FaceTime them. You used to ICQ a person. But you can't Hang someone Out. It's just too awkward.

True!  (And old timers like me can phone someone!)

Hangout is a noun derived from the phrasal verb "to hang out". The verb is intransitive when used to mean "spend time casually with friends", so it does sound awkward to say, "Hang me Out when you get a chance."  Not only that, it brings a common idiom to mind: "to hang someone out to dry".  That's not a good association, since that means to leave someone alone without any support! (There's also a similar idiom: "to leave someone flapping in the breeze.")

I would use one of the examples she provided as a model for a new verb.  My first thought was "HO me" but that has funky associations too!  It evokes either Santa or a wanton.  So, in her comments, I suggested "GH me."  What do you think? Is there already a verb being used for this meaning?

PS: I like my friend's coinage "verbization" too!  Would you say this?  Or would you say "verbification"?  Or something else?

Traffic Jam

In the course of reading about extreme weather in the region, we ran into references to ice jams on the river.  Two learners were familiar with the term "traffic jams" and made the association.  I let them explain to the others and it was a good discussion.  I thought it would be fun to bring in James Taylor's "Traffic Jam" as a reinforcing activity, so I went home and began to prepare an activity around that.

thanks to EJP Photo

But in the meantime the news lit up with talk of traffic jams!  In case you're not up on our local news (ha ha!), the Governor of New Jersey was accused of creating a gigantic multi-day traffic jam on the world's busiest bridge as payback to a mayor who didn't endorse him in the last election.  Email evidence proved that his staff did do this, so he sacked some folks and followed up with a two-hour image control session (oops, I mean news conference).  Since there's been a lot of talk about this guy running for president in 2016, this scandal has gotten more attention than usual.  The story was capped off with a parody of "Born to Run" that hit Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

We gotta get out but we can't

We're stuck in Governor Christie's Fort Lee, New Jersey traffic jam!

I had new learners joining the class last week so I had a rather planned lesson, but I did  transcribe the clip and play it in the concluding minutes.  What I like is that it's a current, local event that not only reinforces "jam" but opens up a number of civics topics for further discussion.

- Local politics: who is Chris Christie, what are his political aspirations, and will this scandal and the video have any effect on them? 

- Popular culture: who is Bruce Springsteen and why is this particular parody video so cutting? (Because Bruce is "the Boss", the song is the unofficial anthem of NJ, Christie worships Bruce.)

- Freedom of speech: a mayor should be free to endorse or not endorse a candidate without fear of retribution, political figures can be held up to humorous scrutiny in our media.

Earlier in the lesson, we had discussed "hafta/hassta", and the difference between "get to do something" and "gotta do something".  Several learners noticed "gotta" in the parody, and also "wanna".  Next time, we could examine Springsteen's choice of register and whether it was appropriate for the topic.  Maybe learners could rewrite some of the lines into more formal English!

Discovering Patterns

Thanks to recent reading on the topic of "grammaring", I have a much better feel for how to discover (and help learners discover) language patterns in whatever text we're using.

We had some unusually frigid weather around here recently, so my higher level class had a couple of unplugged lessons about the extreme cold. We looked at part of a news article and analyzed the language used to describe cold, icy conditions, and changing temperatures.  Learners then looked at other news articles and discovered a lot of repeated language (treacherous conditions, black ice, temperatures plunging).  They also found a pattern: when talking about general weather conditions, the word "temperature" is used in the plural. The singular is reserved for talking about a specific measurement.

What's the temperature?  It's 46.

We'll see rapidly falling temperatures this evening.

Between lessons, I used COCA to examine some of the language we uncovered and I tried to include some of what I found in the next lesson.  I had limited preparation time and I lack experience, so I didn't go as far as I wanted to (discovery activities using examples from the corpus) but when I get some time I'll return and work out what I might have done!

A Look to the Future

A while back, I realized that I needed to guide myself more when it came to my personal professional development efforts.

They're all attractive, which one(s) should I choose? *

I started exploring specific subjects in more depth rather than reading whatever interested me at any moment. Thanks to learning opportunities that came up, I chose to examine "vocabulary teaching" first. That included joining a book circle, reading other books on my own, and collaborating with other teachers and a researcher to teach vocabulary-focused lessons to one of my classes for 6 months.  The books:

Vocabulary Myths - Keith Folse (book circle)
Teaching Vocabulary to English Language Learners - Graves, August, Mancilla-Martinez (related to our project)
How to Teach Vocabulary - Thornbury (my choice)

I'll just share a quick comment on each: Folse really did make me rethink my assumptions about teaching vocabulary.  It was a good book start with, as it kind of shook my mind open.  Graves focuses on teaching ELLs (kids in the US schools system) which is not directly relevant to me, but I especially liked the chapters on teaching word learning strategies and promoting word consciousness (both promote autonomous learning). Thornbury backs up almost every concept with concrete examples of how to apply it in the classroom and introduces corpora as a tool for teachers (and even learners).

A conclusion I came to about vocabulary teaching (especially from Thornbury) is that it's difficult, and maybe doesn't really makes sense, to teach vocabulary (or grammar, or "the facts") as separate entities.  That inspired me to put (or keep) these topics on my queue:

Corpora
"Grammaring"

The Lexical Approach

While the vocabulary project was going on, I also had a chance to take a state-sponsored course on teaching EL-Civics.  That took 3 months, all told, and involved online course material, developing lesson plans, using them in class (my class that was not getting the vocab-intense lessons got the honor), reflecting on the lessons and sharing with other teachers.  The online material, funded by the US government, is available free to anyone who's interested.  Topics that arose from this are:

Content-Based Learning
Task-Based Learning
Curriculum Design

The first two are supposed to overlap with Dogme in a number of ways. They both also seems like naturals for EL-Civics, since the goals of the program are to improve English skills while becoming familiar with American civics topics and to learn how to connect with and contribute to the community.  I also want to examine more formally other ways to explore topics with learners than the standard PPP approach.

Grammaring is next!  I finished my first pass of  "Uncovering Grammar: How to Help Grammar Emerge" (Thornbury) over Thanksgiving and that was good preparation for "Teaching Language:  From Grammar to Grammaring" (Larsen-Freeman), which is now in progress.  Reading is not enough, of course.  I'll have to try things in class, refer back to both books, and reflect.  It will be a little different without other people (collaboration does impose a bit of discipline, ha ha!).  Let's see how it goes.

* photo courtesy of Peter Stevens

End of Year Thoughts

A belated happy birthday to my blog!  Three years ago this month, I posted its birth cry.  That was about one year into my classroom teaching experience, but I didn't really get going with posts until the blog was about a year old.

credit to Will Clayton

Frankly, my first two years of teaching were so crazy, I didn't have time for blogging anyway!  There was not only my basic lack of experience, but my free-range status meant that I was spending a lot of time on the road shuttling between home, the main office, and several widely-separated class sites.  I eventually was able to consolidate my classes into one site on the same days, and I began trying to minimize the frequency of my trips to HQ for photocopying. I also spent a lot of personal time developing a spreadsheet for tracking and reporting attendance and assessment at the teacher level. At the time, we were doing that work on paper!!  That situation is in the process of changing at our agency, but in the meantime the spreadsheet liberated a lot of time that used to be spent adding up numbers and putting them into manager-digestible form. And accuracy is better too!

As time was freed up, I found myself browsing ELT blogs more often.  Hooray for everyone who posted reflections so freely and honestly!  While ESL is nowhere near as isolating an experience as EFL can be, teaching offsite and hitting the main office for an hour every two weeks really limits contact with other teachers, you know?  It's so nice to have access to insights, ups, and downs from other real people who love ELT.  I can't express how valuable it has been.  It inspired me to blog more wholeheartedly myself, so there you have it!

One major discover from blog-browsing was Dogme, or teaching unplugged.  Obviously, less dependence on materials would benefit a free range teacher!  But that wasn't actually the main appeal for me.  It was the compatibility of its main principles with practices I was already trying to follow in other aspects of my life -- in short: paying attention to "now", viewing life as a dynamic process that I don't control but I may influence by my choices, not being attached to "stuff" (or to not needing "stuff", for that matter!).  And there's the connection to linguistics research supporting the notion of learning/language as a dynamic process.   I feel as if I'm making progress with unplugging my lessons and am working on a post about that to get the new year going.

In the meantime, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!  I'm heading to the shell-strewn beaches of Sanibel Island for drinks with paper umbrellas and maybe some birdwatching ...

from Ken Douglas

PS: while I was writing this post I noticed that Teaching Unplugged is now a Kindle book!  I can stop carrying my battered paper copy around, yippee!!  If you're unfamiliar with the book, you can browse it a bit at the link.

Unplugging (Again)

In my higher level class, we recently completed a 12 week vocabulary-focused program.  I really appreciated the opportunity to give so much attention to vocabulary -- it's interesting and learners like it.  We're still wrapping the program up, but  I hope to comment on it more sometime in the future.

One thing I really missed over the last 24 weeks or so has been ... unplugged teaching!   I mean, I steadfastly maintained an unplugged perspective  and took advantage of unplugged moments whenever they arose, but the lesson plans were fixed and that was that.

Root Veggies (courtesy of Muy Yum)

I'm afraid that when I was finally able to throw off the chains, I went Full Frontal Dogme on my learners, ha ha!  Last week, one of the lessons included the PARSNIP activity from 52:A Year of Subversive Activity for the ELT Classroom (Clandfield, Meddings).  Learners were really engaged, but it did seem kind of naughty to be examining the taboos of textbook-writing!  (Credit to this clever group: they did come up with all of the components of the PARSNIP acronym, though the second P came as a tossed-off joke from one of the Muslims in the class!)  It might have been worthwhile, though, to ease into things more slowly, shifting expectations gradually.

Thanks to CarbonNYC)

Near the end of our last meeting, I did comment about my teaching style and this set off a nice discussion. As is to be expected, several learners have a strong "right/wrong" perspective when it comes to language learning.  One learner stated what others may also have had in mind: that he needs to hear me speaking and to have me correcting him, otherwise he will learn "wrong" English.  I tried to assure him that he will hear me, the other learners, and himself and, if it's genuine communication (mostly comprehensible but with a few sticking points), his brain would work things out just fine. I would be listening, and my job would be to accelerate that brain process however I can.  Another learner mentioned the need for grammar points and I ask everyone how many years they had been studying English.  I speculated that, between them, they might know more about grammar than I do!  I noted that we would be paying attention to form, but it would be driven by the sticking points -- the situations that arise and call for attention to language -- and that we all needed to keep our eyes open for these opportunities.

I could see that some were skeptical but others appeared to be curious and inspired and that heartened me!  This is a well-educated and talented group and I think they'll enjoy this approach once we really get going.

(From Hani Amir)

You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. -- Jon Kabat-Zinn

I'd like to mention that I still have a lot to learn about teaching unplugged, so I'm thankful to all of the learners who've been trying it with me.  Lately, I feel as if I've moved to a new level with the whole thing.  I'll elaborate on that feeling in another post soon ...

Slow Learning

After (admittedly only a little) exploration, it seems to me that unplugged teaching is a form of adaptive leadership. (See word cloud for other recent posts.) Exploring a bit more over the last day, I've discovered "complexity leadership" which poses a way to introduce and support adaptive leadership in an organization. The teachers (in the case of ELT) promote emergence while more traditional leaders do administrative stuff and another type of leadership supports the interface between these two (if I understand my skimming, that is). Very interesting! Here's the PDF by Uhl-Bien, Marion, McKelvey. Some quotes from the introductory material:

"Complexity science suggests a different paradigm for leadership—one that frames leadership as a complex interactive dynamic from which adaptive outcomes (e.g., learning, innovation, and adaptability) emerge."

"Adaptive challenges are not amenable to authoritative fiat or standard operating procedures, but rather require exploration, new discoveries, and adjustments."

"Leadership, however it is defined, only exists in, and is a function of, interaction."

Creatively re-used stuff (and me). Magic Gardens, Philadelphia

And, in a slightly-related discovery, here's an interesting article by Atul Gawande from the New Yorker. It proposes that some good ideas propagate into common use more slowly than others:

"[many important but stalled ideas] attack problems that are big but, to most people, invisible; and making them work can be tedious, if not outright painful. The global destruction wrought by a warming climate, the health damage from our over-sugared modern diet, the economic and social disaster of our trillion dollars in unpaid student debt—these things worsen imperceptibly every day."

In the case of language learning, a learner's situation doesn't worsen, but unplugged teaching may not be readily adopted or supported because a learner's improvement changes imperceptibly every day. Traditional teaching produces something that's easier to measure (it's not necessarily language learning, though!).

Gawande comes to a familiar conclusion:

"Every change requires effort, and the decision to make that effort is a social process."

He's involved in testing this idea via a project in north India where mentors work with nurses on a personal basis to encourage the taking of a simple step to improve newborn survival rates. This isn't a complexity issue. The problem and its solution are clear. But it's interesting that it still seems to need a social solution because its effects are invisible to the people who need to practice it.

The Teacher-Leader

When a patient comes to a surgeon, the surgeon's default setting is to say, 'You've got a problem? I'll take the problem off your shoulders and I'll deliver back to you a solution.' In psychiatry, when a person comes to you with a problem, it's not your job actually to solve their problem. It's your job to develop their capacity to solve their own problem.

These are the words of Ronald Heifetz, a professor of public leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School, as found in this article  by Shankar Vedantam from this morning's broadcast of Morning Edition on NPR.

If language teachers are leaders, which kind of leadership should they offer?

My thinking is both, but mostly the second type.  That is, the "problem" of learning a language is complex and highly personal.  There are sub-problems, such as needing to learn how to pronounce a specific sound or having to pass a particular exam, that may benefit from targeted application of the first kind of leadership.  But the actual job of learning a language is up to the learner. 

Maybe many of the problems facing our public school system today are also in need of the second kind of leadership?

The Master doesn't talk, he acts.

When his work is done,

the people say, "Amazing:

we did it, all by ourselves!"

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 17, as translated by Stephen Mitchell

Frédéric Glorieux

A Textbook for Autonomous Learners

I know, I know, the "t" word is something of a no-no for fans of the unplugged approach!  But I don't think that education-oriented books should be banned completely from the lives of English learners.  (Deep breath ... hear me out!) I read textbooks for information and inspiration as I work on improving my teaching skills.  Why shouldn't English learners use them to support their efforts as well?

Four pages of this.

Of course, I'm using a broad definition of the word textbook.  I'm NOT referring to those books with a "scope and sequence" at the beginning!  In my opinion, those are written for teachers and administrators.  Just skim the 10-20 pages at the beginning of one such book -- if they were addressed to a language learner, they would be in L1, no?  They basically promise that if you follow the steps in the teacher's guide and the student follows the steps in the student book, the student will produce something that correlates to the requirements of funding providers. (I accept that that something will include some learned English.  My point is that the book is written to serve teachers, not learners.)

What I'm thinking of is the kind of book that has readable chapters with questions and other activities for discovery and reflection, suggestions for trying out new ideas, and a good list of references. These are the books that I (a dedicated self-motivated learner) use myself.  They can be used alone for reading and reference, they can be used as a textbook in a formal class, and they're very effective in an informal book circle arrangement.

Such a book does not pretend to be teaching English.  It can be in the learner's L1 (although, if it's addressing advanced learners it might be in English).  What it offers is support for a transition from student to learner. Some ideas:

How to be a learner.  For those who are not already skilled at self-directed learning (any kind, not just language learning).  Especially for those who have many years of training as "students" and who believe that a tutor or teacher must tell them how to reach their goal. It might address identifying personal goals; noticing, evaluating and taking advantage of resources; finding and asking for help; reflection and self-assessment; learning from undesired or unexpected experiences; setting up a network of supporters; making time for practice, etc.

Two pages of this.

How to be a language learner. The learner applies the skills above directly to language learning.  What are the habits of a successful English learner and how can they be acquired?  Is a language class necessary?  If so, what kind of class?  What do you intend to get out of it?  How can you check that you are getting what you need?  How can you help the teacher, other learners, and even administrators to help you reach your goal?   If language class is not needed (or not available), what resources do you have available and how can you take advantage of them?  What is the best dictionary?  How do you use a corpus?  How can you analyze a text for readability?  What is the pedagogical relevance of certain activities and drills?  And so forth.

How to be a [particular L2] learner. This should explicitly address issues that are unique to various kinds of learners (for English: EFL, EAP, ESP, ELF, ESL, etc.).  In the US, for example, folks who are here on an F-1 visa should know that they can't attend free government-funded classes (it's illegal).  They would do better to find (or contribute to setting up) a conversation "meetup" in a coffee shop.  Wouldn't it be nice if they had tips for going about doing this and the confidence to try?   Hmmm, learners might be better served if this were a subscription e-periodical so they would get access to regular articles and advice on different topics and learners could discuss with each other, share tips, etc.

I've been mulling over ways to untrain students into learners for a long time.  The motivation to put it in writing came a week or so when I stumbled on a book that is effectively a prototype for How to Be a Language Learner.  It's a Peace Corps document called On-Going Language Learning Manual (free PDF!).  It's written for people who are in a foreign environment and want to learn the language, even though they don't have access to a teacher or class.  In other words, it's a set of instructions for autonomous learning!

Four pages of this.

One gem:

Try to learn grammar every day from listening to people talk. You will come to recognize patterns of sounds and the meanings they carry. You can begin to figure out the rules from the many examples you hear in everyday speech. In fact, eventually you will become aware that you are internalizing many of the rules without giving conscious thought to them.

Another priceless aspect is the idea of having a "language helper".  A volunteer might find a native speaker who is willing to answer questions, model authentic speech, etc.  The learner is clearly directing and controlling what he or she wants from the helper.  For example, here is one tip:

Ask your language helper to accompany you on your learning adventures to observe or “coach” you, but only when you need and want help.

This book could be edited slightly, translated to other languages and offered to every learner who finds themselves in a place where a new language is spoken and who wants to join in.  And its ideas can be used for untraining now.  I will be borrowing from it for my lessons as soon as possible.

Just to set the record straight: I think teachers and English classes play a valid role in the learning process.  In fact, classes would be more effective if learners and teachers know from the outset what they want and need from each other and everyone in the room is working together to make it happen.  Even books like the one pictured here could play a role (thought neither the teacher nor the learners would be snaking through it mindlessly, hoping to push other-defined "success"  out at the end)!

Agents of Fortune

Still thinking of the past these days ...

In my senior year of high school, I bought a couple of tickets to a rock concert as a gift to my boyfriend. The headliner was Bachman Turner Overdrive. They were late and their show was ... bleh. But the warm-up act was some no-name bunch of guys called Blue Öyser Cult and we were wowed! Their album, Agents of Fortune, went on to be part of the soundtrack of my freshman year at Virginia Tech.

The album title came to mind because last week my lesson plan called for discussing suffixes of agency with my higher level learners.  Bottom line: a verb can often be changed into a noun which describes the performer of the action (the agent).  We mostly use -er to form these nouns, but verbs with a Latin heritage are likely to end up with -or.  Examples are: painter, writer, reader, creator, actor.  (My plan included touching on -ist and -ian because they would probably come up during brainstorming, but the focus was to be on the -er/-or ending.)

click to view a few pages of this book

Here's where "fortune" came in: when I arrived and began unpacking for class, several learners were already waiting.  We meet in a library and one of the learners had selected some children's books for reading practice.  I have no idea what motivated her choices, but as we were chatting I picked one up and paged through it, discovering that the text was completely devoted to the -er suffix! Out went any planned remarks ... most learners had arrived, so I held the book up and turned the pages and volunteers read them aloud.  We paused for discussion when unfamiliar language turned up ("puddle stomper", for example) and when we were finished, small groups discussed what the language had in common from page to page: a noun phrase in the form of "object verb-er". Actually, one page ("A make-believe critter") did not fit the form and this worked out to be a good comprehension check and point of further discussion. All of this lead naturally to partners thinking up more examples and we then examined the text from our last lesson, as I had originally planned.  How fortunate that this book found its way into our class!

This was not an unplugged lesson.  I'm committed to a rather fixed plan with this group through October.  But I just couldn't pass up this opportunity (see Thornbury's "A is for Affordance" here).  It was also nice to acknowledged and accept the initiative of the learner who brought the books into the classroom, and it encouraged noticing -- primarily of the affordance the book offered for learning, but also of the form in the book itself.

Lesson Plans

I need an outlet for some minor venting!

My organization has implemented a new policy where teachers must submit lesson plans to a shared area at the end of the week before the lessons are scheduled.  I'm all for lesson plans; I never walk into the classroom without one.  However, my plan is heavily dependent on

a) the lesson before
b) current events, including information that may be in the news on the day of the lesson
c) feedback from the students (my higher level class is posting to a wiki this year, so I can see feedback between classes)
d) last minute inspiration

I can certainly see a number of benefits that accompany the collecting and sharing of lesson plans. It's always helpful to look over another teacher's approach and take inspiration. I can even imagine good reasons for posting ahead of time. If a teacher is working with a coach or mentor, that person may want to offer suggestions before the teacher takes it into the classroom.  And an administrative benefit would be for substitute teachers -- any help with understanding where the learners are and what they're needing would probably be appreciated.

But what about a lesson where the "text" isn't known until the learners produce it?  And the "target language" is similarly not available until it emerges in the classroom?

I can see an opportunity here for some learning.  And maybe some teaching.  Can I find a compromise that satisfies our administrative requirements?  At the same time, might whatever I document demonstrate some unplugged principles and perhaps inspire someone else?

Still puzzling ...

Meanwhile, I'm planning (yes, there's a plan) a lesson on Thomas Edison soon.  I'm taking a course and am required to produce what is essentially a PPP plan and use  it in class.  Actually, there will be 3 plans when all is said and done.  Here are some pictures I took at Mr. Edison's laboratory in Fort Myers,Florida. How would you use them? (And, by the way, feel free to use them!)

Random Stuff

A more deliberated post to come, sooner or later, but in the meantime ... Here are some videos that could stimulate conversation in an unplugged classroom ...

 A black bear comes unexpectedly close to a human observer ...

thanks to Yellowstone National Park

The question I would ask: Who is invading whose territory?

A little boy realizes where his food comes from ... 

thanks to Junho Jung

I don't do "isms", so I wouldn't call myself a vegetarian ...but this kid asks some good questions.  How do your students answer them?  (Without pegging any answer as "the correct one" ...)

ETA: the video of the little boy is no longer available on YouTube.  I found it elsewhere and changed the link.  It involves watching a commercial (sorry!).  And it may not last for long, such is the world of Internet videos ... sigh ...

I Can't Help Noticing

In our program, classes continue without a formal break throughout the year. But it's not exactly a walk-in situation. We limit new enrollment to the first class day of a month when the teacher feels there is room for new group members. Recently, more than half of my afternoon group stopped coming for various reasons, so we're down to six -- with two of them only able to attend once a week. I've put the word out: new learners can start attending on February 5th!

In the meantime, I've had the opportunity to work with a different group dynamic. We definitely can't break up into small groups and even pair work is limited. I don't use a lot of materials anyway (thanks, unplugged mentors!) but what there is is easier to produce. I always try to sit when I can, because I feel that it equalizes and informalizes. Now, with only three or four learners, we all sit at one small table for almost the whole lesson. (I recommend keeping a lap board, marker and eraser right there at the table.) I have the impression that eye contact is more frequent and of longer duration, and it seems that discussions take off more easily. I do think lessons are a bit more intense. Three hours is a long time with only three or four learners!

I'm also sensing the learners shifting with the dynamic. I think everyone feels more responsibility for helping to keep things going, so people step up and take initiative more often. One learner opened up her smart phone and, to my delighted surprise, began asking a series of questions about language. I had encouraged the group some time ago to notice the language they hear around them, to take notes, and to ask about them in class. Apparently, she had been jotting them into her phone for several weeks. I guess she felt more free to ask about them in our smaller, more intimate group.

She asked (effectively), I know there are some verbs which can be followed by a gerund (stop eating), some verbs which can be followed by the infinitive (need to eat) and some verbs which can be followed by either (love to eat/love eating). I heard this sentence and it doesn't seem to fit the rule: I look forward to meeting you.

After some discussion and clarification, one of the learners hit upon phrasal verbs. We found "look forward to" in a reference book, confirming that it is indeed a phrasal verb. The conclusion was, then, that "to" is not actually part of an infinitive construction ... and this phrasal verb can be added to the list that takes gerunds. That's all explicit grammar and it's OK, but I especially enjoyed seeing that the noticing bug, which had already infected one learner, was beginning to spread. As we went about other activities, verbs followed by gerunds seemed to pop up quite regularly!

Of course, it was just that we were now sensitized to that structure. (When hubby bought a Prius recently, we started seeing them all over the place!) I would call that incidental noticing. Except for the one learner who is now taking notes, I think it will fade quickly ... or will it?

courtesy of YST aka kryptos5

The term "noticing" is also used in mindfulness practice. It's the same idea: we try to pay attention to what's happening now. In practice, especially for beginners, what really happens is that we notice for a few seconds (we're sensitized to it when we first sit down) and then our minds wander off to who knows where! Periodically, something wakes us up and we begin again.  Some practitioners of Zen suggest using sounds of daily life as "bells" to wake you up and bring you back to the present:

we can use the ringing of our telephone, the local church bells, the cry of a baby, or even the sound of fire engines and ambulances as our bells of mindfulness (from the Plum Village website)

When I pause the lesson to pay attention to language, maybe it's ringing a bell of language-mindfulness.  One learner has joined me.  Since this group is so small, I think there's a good chance that the rest will pick it up too ... when new learners begin in a couple of weeks, maybe we'll already have a language-practice going!

By the way, I used verbs followed by gerunds seven times above.  Read again: do they pop out? :-)