Student writing

So recently, we found from some test reviews and data collection that our students' weak areas are reading and writing.  Having weaker areas is, of course, totally fine.  It provides an idea what to work on and can even inform how precisely to go about it (increased spelling test frequency and focus, or sentence structure teaching, or what have you).  Depending on the issues, they can be addressed with just some minor tweaks in teaching approach, or even something as simple as homework assignments.

This is all fine and good.  But it dovetailed with my recent project to update some of our unit tests to be in line with the activities and demands of the Cambridge Young Learner Exams (YLE), sort of a gold standard of English learning assessment.  As I've been comparing the YLE writing tasks to those found on our tests, it turns out we're actually pretty far ahead of those tests - where the YLE only asks for words and a couple full sentences, we expect a full paragraph on every unit test (and on some, two).  The expectations are higher because if you set the bar above your goal, even falling a little still results in success.

So we find that our students' writing isn't quite where we want it to be.  This, unfortunately, is where the trouble begins.  Because there is only one way to work on writing, and that is by writing.  And yeah, the same can be said of reading, listening, and speaking.  But listening, speaking, and sometimes reading can all be done in active, engaging ways.  There are relatively few ways to make writing anything but a slow activity.

A major part of classroom management is energy balance, or what I tend to call 'orchestration.'  My term draws from theatrical directing, where orchestration refers to the highs and lows of a scene, act, or production.  Good orchestration can keep an audience's attention because it allows both times of tension and times of release - not quite relaxation, but a kind of rest nonetheless.  Classes need this same orchestration; a common industry term is 'stir and settle,' where an activity will bring students up and get them moving (physically if possible), and another will allow them to lower back down.  If you've ever sat through a meeting, sermon, lecture, or speech where you were yawning, nodding off, or just generally losing focus, it's because of a lack of these elements.  With lectures, of course, there's little you can do to get your audience physically active without risking some attention loss when you settle again.  But a lecture will also be dealing primarily with adults.

Classrooms of children need that active element, that 'stir' side, because without it they get tired, restless, distracted, or frustrated.  Sitting for forty minutes is torture to a child.

Long story short (I think I'm well past that by now), my next task is to work out how to include more writing practice, as well as direct instruction, into my classes while still maintaining a good stir/settle orchestration.  Which means finding more stir activities that can still support my lesson objectives.  When I first arrived, full of energy and lacking particular experience and such, I had a lot of ideas.  Trying many of them resulted in a dampened enthusiasm and creativity, unfortunately, as most of them flopped for one reason or another.  Add in a heavier class load and some very persistent insomnia, and I find I can't come up with anything especially interesting lately.  And since I'm lacking good stirs, I'm hesitant to add more settles.

The challenges of a teacher, I suppose.  I have a goal, though, and that's a pretty crucial step.

Zaijian,
-L

Ice and Snow

So my grand intentions for festival posting faltered.  It's amazing how little you can want to do when you have almost nothing you have to do.

But I did finally make it to the Ice and Snow World.  Because I have 64 pictures from it, rather than the in-line link format I've previously used, I'll just dump the link here and you can peruse at your leisure.

As of this coming week, I will be teaching 14 classes for a total of 25.5 teaching hours per week.  So my posting rate here will, sadly, not be improving much.  It's a manageable, but very substantial work load.

Zaijian,
-L