Week 12

The focus this week for language was compare/contrast through Health topics. We focused on teaching connecting language on a sentence level and also from one sentence to another. Then we also worked on organizing information on a macro level like organizing a lengthier stream of speech with an essay style format with a topic sentence, three supporting data, and a conclusion.

Tuesday's class seemed much more successful in production of the target language, but still a struggle to have students "naturally" inclined to use it. It seemed that even though most students are in the intermediate level category, they almost seemed fossilized in using the language they already are familiar with. For example, when it came time to incorporate language that is crucial for comparing or discussing the benefits and negatives of a situation on Thursday, students ignored the target language and just read their points from the handout/notes. Even when the handout stated the words "advantages/disadvantages" and "pros/cons" with the target language also modeled on the PowerPoint, I heard many speakers ignoring the target language.

Thursday's class was complex. And instead of having a warm up and activities that function as being active and less complex, we decided to create the whole Thursday class as a giant scaffold to the last task since it incorporates unfamiliar content (removed from just their personal opinions on a topic but adding it to the context of modern societal habits) and organizing it in a cohesive formal way. The unfortunate part of the lesson was that there was a huge disconnect between the four groups in how they performed the activities. One group would almost always be on task both days while another struggled to use the allocated time to properly do the activity as instructed and modeled. What I observed to be the most challenging was not the language production of students nor the ideas they had, it was the interference of big sisters. A group that worked the most efficiently was one where the big sister allowed the students to take initiative in their work. She responded that she's mainly pushing them to use the target language. But one to two other groups had the big sister acting in a very teacher to whole group interaction. In this case, the big sisters didn't wait to intervene when needed but almost retaught the activity as they saw fit immediately after instructions. This was especially detrimental for Thursday's lesson because each step led to further developing their ideas to the final task. This is why my teaching partner and I decided to show the end task before we did the warm up survey activity. It was to help students see the purpose of each activity to lead to the complex and demanding final task.

At the end of the Thursday class, I took liberty to use up one minute of time for the survey on the AR on instruction in order to draw attention to the purpose of the task. There were many components to the task, yes. But I asked the whole class at the end ways they could have incorporated the target language in both roles as a blogger and health company empolyee. Perhaps if we had had more time I could have asked this question before they switched roles, but there was a lack of time so we felt rushed to keep going.

I think a lot of the time that students did not successfully complete an activity was because of time off task. During one set of instructions, I made eye contact with one big sister while making a clear point about the role of listening pairs in an activity after just finishing modeling what the talking pair did with pictures. They gave the cues of understanding confidently. When I returned to the group after half the allocated time had passed, both the listening and speaking pairs were holding pictures instead of just the speaking pair. So basically they hadn't started the activity with only half the time left. And on Thursday, the same group also took liberty to just talk about the lifestyle blog instead of using the handout we had given to write down their ideas and brainstorm a name with those ideas. There was only about 2 minutes left of 10 by the time the students received the handout from the big sister.

There were a number of other small errors that made the class difficult. When the final task occurs, we should all still be monitoring to check for correct language use. I noticed that some students were sharing their ideas in the role play of blogger as groups instead of individually when all throughout class I made sure to reiterate how they will be individually talking in the final task even though they plan together.

Most of the small snags that led to chaos (perceived chaos from observing two hours worth of reduced academic learning time than planned for) seeemd to be more big sister related. Outside class factors like our 3 comprehensive exams and end of semester mental/physical wear and tear very much influenced the class. But at times it seemed like the little sisters understood the purpose or direction of an activity while the big sister mistakenly guided them elsewhere. For the future, it would be better to let the students take charge. This is especially important if the big sister is uncertain of what the instructions are for whatever reason. And in my opinion, calling teaching partners over for clarification is not only acceptable, but expected. While it is good for the big sisters to be familiar with the activities, they can still ask the little sisters their understanding of the activity as a comprehension check. If something comes up that they cannot resolve themselves and with guidance by pointing to the PPT, then the big sister can intervene. If the big sister is unsure, ask the teaching partner or even take a look at what other tables are doing.