Thurs Mar 11

Once again, as two TTs had not turned up on time, my first activity planned for OPP (creating objectives in pairs) was necessarily done in one pair. I'm getting frustrated but I'm not sure what to do - one TT comes in rushing from his studies at another faculty; and the other comes from work; but both always come late. I also gave the trainees a different activity to prepare for microteaching for next week to just our small group. I hope this will make the trainees come more on time!

I asked the trainees to consider the objectives that I might have written for each activity as it unfolded in class today.

For the level 6 class, rather than starting with free writing, we finished watching the last part of the Louis Theroux video and answering questions in small groups. They enjoyed doing this; and to complete the activity they then did free writing on what their opinion on hypnosis was. Some of them shared and they had created thoughtful ideas.

We worked on modals from page 98; I had a number of ideas to write on the board about the expression of modals: Good idea; possible, probable, ability etc. It was difficult to do in an orderly fashion, but I think it came out okay because I practiced on the board before beginning class. The practice exercise in the book is not so easily understood and it would be good to find a different activity next time.

We also worked on the word "wrong", which was fun because we not only did that but went to the section called "real life" and worked on vocabulary from there as well. This allowed them to see the application of "wrong" in more authentic situations. To finish with, the sts role played certain situations I gave them on a piece of paper. One person was the complainer, and the other had to solve the problem. There was some confusion at first and I must be clearer on my explanations while giving instructions. But once they understood they used many of the phrases and it worked well.

After class I asked the TTs what the objectives were; once again, one TT (C) had written objectives that were either very general, or very grammar-focused. I want to encourage her to use the taxonomy handout as a guide for understanding and choosing more appropriate words and ideas to express the objective behind the procedure.

Wed 10 Mar - LAB

Today in the lab we went through common errors for level 6 and I explained the idea of fossilization. While it did take some time for them to locate the errors in the handout, many attempts were still wrong, even when doing it in pairs. So I hope that noticing and correcting was useful for them. There are still a number of spelling mistakes they continue to make, so we'll be working on that in a further class. I gave them time to identify which types of errors they may be in danger of fossilizing.

As this took a bit longer than planned (although I'd given it 35 minutes), I wasn't sure whether to do the bookwork as planned or not. In the end we did, but it also took more time and I sort of rushed it to finish it quickly in order to make time for the last activity. As it was, I didn't finish the final activity and in hindsight it would have been better to skip the bookwork and go straight to that final activity. I had to finish the video task the next day, but it should have been done all together.

We watched Louis Theroux's "The Hypnotists" video - three excerpts from it, and I'd prepared a handout with questions on each. Some questions were inferencing; some were listening for specific information; and some were questions asking their opinion. I think they worked well.

Tues 9 Mar

We began OPP by attempting to write objectives for a reading comprehension exercise on page 96 of the textbook. The TTs came up with "Sts will create descriptions for mysterious situations", "Sts will relate mysterious situations with appropriate descriptions" and "Sts will exchange information about mysterious experiences". It seems to me that M and V are able to create fairly appropriate objectives for an activity, whereby C has difficulty not only finding what the objective might be but also knowing how to express it. This has been confirmed to me over time as well. I still also suspect she is severely distracted from concentrating properly.

I also asked the TTs what steps they took to prepare for a class. C begins with the grammar point and function, considers what vocab will be needed and how the sts can interact, and sometimes writes down notes for preparation. V basically follows the book without a lot of prior preparation. I might see if I can get him to prepare something from scratch so that he doesn't just depend on the book for everything. M was always given the material to teach and he hardly had to prepare anything, though he did adapt some activities. C didn't come until after 7pm as she was observing another teacher.

So in class today we began module 9 "Mysteries, problems, oddities" and they matched descriptions to the related stories/cases. The free writing was also related to this. We also watched a Weird Al Yankovic video called "Bob" which is full of palindromes. One student was able to pick up that the sentences were palindromes, which made for interesting viewing the next time round. They wrote down the ones they liked or remembered. I think I could exploit this video a little more if I had some more time - before watching the second time, to see which ones they remembered, or if they know of any other ones in English or Spanish. Then to take notes while watching a second time; and even to watch it a third time (it's not a difficult or irritating video to watch) and the sts can try to repeat as many as they can. After watching, I asked them to describe the video using some of the words we'd come across during the class.

One last st had to give his oral report; but he took much longer than he was supposed to, so we had about 25 minutes to check the first draft of their essays, then swap with a partner for feedback. I think this went quite well on the whole, although of course there were some sts who hadn't brought theirs, or who hadn't begun theirs, so couldn't swap with anyone. Still, for those who had, it was useful. I heard some good feedback being given. The final draft is due tomorrow.

Thurs Mar 4

Starting with OPP, once again only C and V arrived on time. We went through the Competencies vs. Objectives article. I think I should look for a better one for next time I teach OPP. I'm not even sure if it's Competencies or Competences.

We also began considering objectives for activities 1-3 on page 96 of the textbook (Mysteries, problems, oddities reading). By this time M had turned up and it is obvious that he has best grasped the concept of objectives, while the others still struggle. I suspect that C is distracted by personal issues she is having. Either way, we only did activity 1 before the class began.

The level 6 class was, again, mostly organised around the oral presentations. After about 45 minutes we finished the Larson activity, though; which provided sufficient distractions to not make it a totally boring class. Giving oral presentations can be tedious, especially when there are so many students to "get through", and especially when the last ones, as I'd mentioned, are not the best speakers. I wonder if I can get them to do this presenting it in pairs? Perhaps that will not only be more communicative, but also more interesting and less pressure for each st.

I had organised to listen to the Court of King Caractacus, but it'll have to wait till another day, as it wasn't possible to finish the presentations on time.

The OPP trainees after class discussed the importance of sts going through the process of creating a presentation: reading, choosing, summarizing and presenting along with their opinion. They also noted that the sts remained motivated and interested, despite the long time it took to go through each presentation. Still, I might reconsider how to do this for next time.

Wed Mar 3

I had organised a freewriting but in the end decided against it, and we began almost immediately with the oral presentations. This time I told the sts that their grade for this would only be worth 5 points, but that it would be graded out of 10 to make things a bit easier; and I negotiated with them what emphasis should go where. They decided on grading it in a way I wouldn't have done myself - putting more emphasis on Using language fluently and accurately & Expressing opinions with precision; and less on Communicating with good grammatical control & Summarizing an article. Having worked this out, some didn't give their opinion at all until prompted by me; hence there was some confusion for me as to why they had put more emphasis on this for their grade.

Still, this being the first day, the first students were visibly nervous and happy to get theirs out the way, but still did quite well. It seems to me that as time goes on and there are less and less sts to give their presentation, it is the final few that actually have more problems with oral production who wait till last, whether they're nervous or not. At least at this time, those who had major problems with pronunciation, mumbling, or ungrammatical sentences were the ones who hung back till the end.

Some of the presentations produced a lot of comments or questions, particularly from one st, who seemed to have an opinion on almost every topic. I think she was enjoying being able to say something on every topic, but after a while I could see that other sts were a little bit annoyed that she had a comment about everything. Still, others also participated as well.

We took a short break after about half an hour and read the hippopotamus poem, which was enjoyed by all.

At the end of another 40 minutes of presentations I then introduced the Larson activity, whereby the sts broke into 7 groups and had to create captions for the comics. I must be careful when doing activities like this, that there is not a group totally comprised of serious, quiet people who don't like to share, because they do have serious trouble being creative and suggesting ideas. It would be better to put them (subtly) in different groups. I'm not sure how to do this exactly without it looking too obvious.