Yesterday, the class took two tests: one on past tense verbs, the other on listening from the book. The past tense verbs test was dictation. Katie had made up sentences about individual students, each one containing a verb on their list. The students had to write each whole sentence, and would receive feedback on the spelling of all the words in each sentence. They would only be graded on the spelling of the past tense verbs in the sentences, though. I thought that was a fun idea.
To prepare them for the past tense verbs test, Katie had the students quiz each other in pairs. Most of them had clearly studied--it's a good class. One of them admitted he had not, however. It was evident from his attempts to answer his partner's questions. Katie has told me after class that she thinks he isn't as smart as the other students, and tries to cover that up. Many of the students think that by talking with the teachers before class and being polite, they can negotiate their grades. That may happen in Arab culture, but not here!
Katie has been telling the students all the time not to make excuses. She said the student who failed told her he had a headache. We laughed after class--people with headaches can still pass tests if they study! I think he, and some of the other students, give up sometimes when they think they can't do well in English. The Arab woman did the same thing last class. I'm going to give a long lesson on Monday, and there's a life lesson I think I'm going to try to impart. Maybe these students could cover up their lack of knowledge in high school, but that won't work in the real world. Furthermore, it shows real maturity for someone to admit he or she needs help and study harder. Perhaps these students don't realize that can happen in college and graduate school. It's a message that could even reach the good students, because everyone has something (English or not) that they need to do, but is hard for them.
I gave a pronunciation lesson before the test, too. I had told Katie that I noticed the students were having trouble, so I showed them how to shape their mouths for each vowel. She said I'm good at diagnosing the students' needs--it seemed that what I can work on is actually time management. It turns out that I think activities will take longer than they really do. On Monday, I plan to have a mental time limit for each activity.
To prepare them for the past tense verbs test, Katie had the students quiz each other in pairs. Most of them had clearly studied--it's a good class. One of them admitted he had not, however. It was evident from his attempts to answer his partner's questions. Katie has told me after class that she thinks he isn't as smart as the other students, and tries to cover that up. Many of the students think that by talking with the teachers before class and being polite, they can negotiate their grades. That may happen in Arab culture, but not here!
Katie has been telling the students all the time not to make excuses. She said the student who failed told her he had a headache. We laughed after class--people with headaches can still pass tests if they study! I think he, and some of the other students, give up sometimes when they think they can't do well in English. The Arab woman did the same thing last class. I'm going to give a long lesson on Monday, and there's a life lesson I think I'm going to try to impart. Maybe these students could cover up their lack of knowledge in high school, but that won't work in the real world. Furthermore, it shows real maturity for someone to admit he or she needs help and study harder. Perhaps these students don't realize that can happen in college and graduate school. It's a message that could even reach the good students, because everyone has something (English or not) that they need to do, but is hard for them.
I gave a pronunciation lesson before the test, too. I had told Katie that I noticed the students were having trouble, so I showed them how to shape their mouths for each vowel. She said I'm good at diagnosing the students' needs--it seemed that what I can work on is actually time management. It turns out that I think activities will take longer than they really do. On Monday, I plan to have a mental time limit for each activity.
No comments:
Post a Comment