It was on Wednesday the day I taught my last class in intermediate
English II. This time, I had to explain the use of the quantifiers since the
topic was countable and uncountable nouns; it was the grammar part. For us,
this might seem something which we get effortless; however, being at that level
the situation changes. More than explaining, I tried to exemplify each
quantifier. I had words such as much, many, a few/ few; little/ a little;
several, plenty of etc. To start the class, I asked the students to tell me
general information about countable and uncountable nouns to see how much they
knew about it. After that, I invited them (the students) to tell me some count
and some noncount nouns they knew; I took like 5 minutes to do this. It was the
warm up.
To get more in depth, I asked my students to take out some material
that my tutor had already provided. I must say that I changed and personalized
a little bit the lesson. I start explaining the material and, to some extent,
it was pretty hard because some students did not get what I was saying. The
topic was sort of tough for them because for some quantifiers such as a few/
few and little/ a little, what changes is the meaning and not the structure.
So, explaining that the difference is in the connotation/ meaning we give to
the sentence was hard as I saw some students that could not really understand
it, and, for sure, there were some others that understood the point quickly.
Though the material was digestible for them, I tried to make it even clearer
adding some other examples. What I also saw was that some of my students were
not paying attention and, when giving me feedback, I commented that situation
to the teacher and he told me that In that case students have to be aware that
there are moments in which they must be there in class and know that they are
responsible for their own learning. I had never called the attention to my
students, but this time I had to do it. Moving on with the explanation, I also
want to say that 50 minutes were not enough to explain a topic like that.
Probably, if I had had more time, I would have felt more satisfied; anyways, I
think I did a good job in general terms. I organized the content in my own way
and I could see students liked that because the way it was established was a
little bit complicated for them. I show a chart in which every word was sorted
according to the usage. Sometimes it is necessary the fact of making the
content the easiest possible to the students; remember that we have to think
the way they think. Here I leave you a chart that I used to explain the topic.
Hello Jorge!
ReplyDeleteThat´s good that you are done with your classes in this period!! Well that is true, some of the students feel like they are lost when they do not understand very well the topic, that makes us to explain again and provide them with more examples in order to make the topic clearer, the same happened to me. You all right when you say the time is not enough to explain many things in the grammar notes and for the activities! to organize the lesson plan in your own way is helpful to have a better class!! Good job, congratulations!! i know you are going to keep on working that way!! Thanks for the chart, it will be helpful for us too!!
Blessings!! :)
Hello Yorchhh!! It is nice when a teacher diagnoses before starting the class, I like your warm up. I am glad to know that you consider you did a good job and that you put your effort to personalize part of the lesson plan, that is very good!I know you are a better teacher every day. Thank you for sharing your chart, as Maggie said, it could be helpul for us. Keep working hard my friend!! Congratulations!!
ReplyDeleteHello George what the teacher told you is true. Students must be aware that not everything is going to be a game or easy to digest as you say; for that reason, they have to be as twice as focused on clases if they want to learn.
ReplyDeleteGood way of explaining the quatifiers. As we know is better to show rather than tell. Sometimes we can't have the exact words to explain something, there is when the teacher work begins, to figure it out the best way to make the students understand something.
Of course if we had more time, we'll do better things, but what you did in 50 mins is great.!!!!
Wow George, when I started Reading your blogg I visualized myself during the gramatical explanation in the class...as the tutor told you, the ss (as their natural condition) will never pay all the atention required for the explanation, but because of the commitment we have with ourselves, we must encourage them to be as attentive as possible during the hardest part of the class wich is "grammar explanation". As you said my friend, I think we share the same idea related to make the class as easier as possible including several examples, explanations, etc. moreover, these are not warranty of a successful class, also the time always will be our worst enemy...but for this period you can say Mission Accomplished my dear friend!!!! keep walking ok!!!
ReplyDeleteHi brother. you had a really exciting challenge teaching grammar. i know that it is so difficult for us, but i know that way you work and i am sure that you did it well. Now we are ready to teach differents things. I like the activities you did with your students, they were motivated for the students. Congratulations brother!!
ReplyDeleteHI MY DEAR JORGE ZARCEÑO! I CAN SEE THAT YOU ARE GOOD AT TEACHING. I LIKED THE WARM UP BECAUSE YOU USED A BRAIN STORMING AND THAT'S NICE, YOU CAN KNOW YOUR STUDENTS' KNOWLEDGE AND YOU KNOW HOW YOU CAN START OR EXPLAIN THE TOPIC.
ReplyDeleteTHE TOPIC SEEMS EASY, BUT IT IS NOT BECAUSE AS YOU SAID, A SIMPLE WORD OR LETTER CAN CHANGE THE MEANING OF A SENTENCE.
LET ME CONGRATULATE YOU BECAUSE YOU CALLED YOUR STUDENTS ATTENTION, AND IT WAS REALLY NICE BECAUSE IF THEY ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION, IT DESPERATE YOU, AND AS A RESULT YOU DO NOT TEACH A GOOD CLASS.
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ReplyDeletehey chorch!
ReplyDeleteThere is something I really liked here in your blog and I'd like to point it out! The thing about the grammar points...it is better to exemplify rather than explain. I got some ideas from here and recognize that the deal is not to explain, but exeplify! You did a great job Chorch. The time....well this is a factor that always is going to play against us, so we have to move in and never get stuck. It is hard when students don't pay attention and it is even harder to get counscience of the fact that in that very moment WE are the teacher and we have the right to call their attention. I know that for us is not so comfortable to do so, but sometimes it is really necessary. Good job dude!
Hi George.Every time I read a blog entry I realize that a class is not a hundred percent perfect.I think of myself as a student and I´m concious that learning also depends largely on the student´s interest.Why do I say this? Because you mention that some Ss were not paying attention despite the great effort you were making.But great job, you included examples and that´s good since they are essential in any learning process.
ReplyDeleteHi my friend!
ReplyDeleteLet me congratulate you for what you did with the lesson plan. A teacher must know that is not necessary to follow a specific order when teaching, we are free to make modification by adding or deleting information. A teacher knows what students really need, so we decide what to do with this. Good job George. blessings...