Wed Mar 4 - LAB

Objectives:

- Identify which listening strategies would be useful for watching the movie

- Take notes / answer questions while watching the movie

Well it was all a bit of a farce this day - the lab computer wasn't equipped with the movie-watching programme, as i'd been informed it would be. So in between putting it on the two smaller TV screens and then deciding to watch it via a different computer, it took a lot more time than we had - the movie is LONG!!

I felt flustered and out of control, and more so when we discovered that the speakers were only playing one half of the sound - the music and sound effects, but hardly any dialogue! MORE fixing and struggling. So in the end we had about an hour of movie to watch when there was about 1 1/2 hours left of it. I was very disappointed, and it meant the students had to do more reading comprehension than listening comp, which had been the aim of the exercise. It was not very enjoyable and also as a result the sts missed a number of the questions on the handout. Still, we decided to finish watching the movie on Friday's class "con calma".

Mon Mar 2

Objectives:

- Conceptualize different infinitive and gerund forms by creating a top 5 list.

- Identify listening strategies used and attempt new strategies when listening to a text.

The journal writing today went a bit longer than expected, but was interesting for the sts. They were given a series of eight songs/pieces of music, and were asked to write down whatever came into their head - descriptions of the music, memories, thoughts, feelings. The music was quite different and one was positively scary, so there were many different entries. People were walking in late, though; so as we went through the music at the end they had to sit and wait. Perhaps in the future we could discuss each one, one by one. I had thought of doing this but decided it would be better to have them write more continuously.

We went to p. 89 and looked at slightly more difficult infinitive and gerund forms (passive, perfect and continuous). This time we just went through the language summary at the end of the book. I guess we did the exercises fairly quickly as I didn't want to spend too much time on this again. However, being more difficult to grasp for Spanish-speakers, they needed practice so we did practice 1 and half of 2. Then the sts, in small groups, made lists. Half did "5 things to worry about if you're a CELE student". The other half did "5 things to be happy about because you're a CELE student." I made the error last time I taught this level to only do the "worry" list which made everyone feel bad at the end. So having half look at the negative things and half look at positive things was much more positive overall.

I handed out some reference material on verbs that are used before gerunds and infinitives. Some sts were concerned that they had to memorize all the verbs, but I assured them it was just for reference!

The next activity was very worthwhile. I got the sts to listen to a text and "make notes" on what they thought it was about. I deliberately didn't give them any more instructions than that. After finishing listening to the first part (an interview about love and romance) the sts stated the listening strategies they had used to understand the text. I wrote these on the board. Then I gave the handout on listening strategy use, and the sts filled it out with their own information as we went through it slowly. I encouraged the sts to use different strategies while listening to the second half of the text - particularly key words, not translating, making predictions, and listening to specific details.

After finishing listening and discussing the main points, the sts noted that they had understood a lot more the second time. This was very encouraging for me.