Week four

At the moment, I have seen little student interest in meeting with me to discuss grammar issues. I assume that this is partly a result of unawareness of where their own issues lie, coupled with possibly the sense that with study all that which is now confusing will be made clear. I am curious whether come results of the first exam, students become more willing to make contact. We will certainly extend the invite, but how many will take that opportunity?

From conducting groups, I see that some students are confused by basic concepts, and though the size is 10 instead of 27, those who are struggling, I believe, hide their confusion out of not wanting to have others perceive them as falling behind. I might need to make time to speak with some of these students (or maybe I wont if the test grade tells a different story) and offer to work with them one-on-one.

Third Week

This class benefits from group work because the groups are led by a teacher who maintains the direction of the conversation. There is no worry that the content of the group work will be dominated by what you did over the weekend? As one teacher, however, it is difficult to maintain that same focus when assigning group work in a class of 27 students . Even if the teacher monitors the activity, there are always intervals when she is not and when the students can shift away from the activity given.

Now if the students are not familiar with each other, I think it is easier for them to keep on track, but when they know each other and it is a small group, then it is easier to get sidetracked. In a big class, if group work is introduced at the beginning of the semester, there will probably be in every group people who you are not familiar with and so though having a friend might distract you if you were working with just him, being part of this bigger group will keep the conversation on the assignment. As the semester continues, the students become more familiar with each other, but by that time they should have established the group activity as one focused on the assignment and not an opportunity to converse about things outside of class.

I still prefer having teachers leading the groups. It ensures that the activity will be followed through. But if you do not have the luxury of added teachers in the classroom, group work can be done if a group culture is established that is concerned with completing the work. And that can be done by making students understand that the groups will be asked to present to the class after they have finished.

Self-Assessment for February 17th

Self-Assessment Questions: Please comment on the following areas:

1. Your presentation of concepts in areas of of morphology and word formation processes. What worked well? Where is improvement needed?

I thought opening the class with a discussion of nonce words was useful in leading into a discussion of morphemes and connecting the conversation to "truthiness" was a useful way to contextualize the discussion and provide a constant referent for processes we were discussing. Similarly, the handout with word formation processes was also useful as a reference tool and allowed students to transfer examples that they and I thought up to the page.

However, I did a poor job differentiating between inflectional and derivational morphemes, and I should have had examples for each process of word formation on hand instead of trying to recall what I had read. I need to emphasize more the point that we have different prefixes and suffixes in English that allow us to create different class words, resulting in people who have never met each other possibly ending up creating the same word (though possibly with a different usage)

2. The homework assignment. What worked well? Where is improvement needed?

I did not assign homework, but I did ask students to come in having read a number of articles. Only about half the class did what was asked. And while I was not dependent on the readings, I think that had they did read they would be able to put the information in a context that would allow them to comprehend more of the lesson.

3. Your communications with students: What worked well? What areas need improvement?

I felt that students were participating and asking many questions, and that when I did call on them, they were not cut off or corrected, though I did pose additional questions to them and challenged them on their statements. What I wish I had not done was dismiss without following up the question about allamorphs. Also I expected too much that students would give me the answers I was looking for and so I was not well prepared to deal with answers that were tangentially related.

4. Your use of the computer and internet: What worked well? What areas need improvement?

I wanted to use the computer to look up on the OED, but that was met with technical difficulties. I did explain how to get on OED, but that would have been better accompanied with visuals. I also got wrapped up in answering questions and discussing morphology that I never actually showed the Colbert clip. I think that a visual would have broken up the dynamic of the lesson in a good way and allowed for the students who had not seen the clip or read the article I provided, to get a sense of what we were talking about.

5. Your one-page flyer on word formation processes. How effective was this flyer for presenting the concepts to students? Could the flyer be improved? If so, how?

The one page flyer was useful in giving students a referent for the information. I originally thought about adding examples for each process, but I do not think that would be a good idea. I think it's better to have the students think about examples and then use the space provided to write them down. This way they are actively engaging the material but there is information on the page that is acting as a guide also.

6. Additional materials that you might have prepared for this lesson. Would you prepare any additional materials if you could teach this class again? What would they be?

Yes, I would prepare a list of nonce words which would both help students to see what such words look like and provide a generated list of words to play with when we start discussing processes for word formation.

7. Student learning: How can you judge student learning during this session? Could anything be added to the lesson to help you assess your students' learning? Or to help them assess their learning?

When students gave examples and asked questions following up on what I had said, I could see that they were listening and that they were responding to the information that I was providing. If I had given them a worksheet where they would have to look at words and see which process for word formation is taking place and then collect it, I would have a better sense of what still needs clearing up for each student.

8. Student participation: How would you rate student participation and engagement in this session? What worked well? In what areas is improvement needed?

Many students were participating. But I wish I was not going to the same students for answers. I did sometimes ask students who were sitting quietly but for the most part, I went to the ones who were raising their hands. I need to make all students feel that they need to be listening and ready to respond, and the way I see to do that is to ask those who are trying to avoid the discussion by sitting behind others, or sitting in my periphery.

8. Overall assessment of the class: How would you evaluate your lesson overall? Which areas are you most satisfied with? Which areas are you least satisfied with?

I thought the structure of the lesson was good and allowed for ample opportunity to interact with the class. I do wish I could have better assessed the class by having them complete a worksheet (maybe I should have assigned that as homework since the lesson was not designed for group work, which is what I would have set up if they were to do such an assessment in class). In the future, I need to be better prepared to answer questions about peripheral morphological terms that might be brought up, and I should better differentiate between inflectional and derivational morphemes, maybe by creating a handout on them. What I fear is that students became confused by my lesson, though I believe if there is a positive to this lesson, it is that the students had an opportunity to talk about words at their inception, and to think about words in terms of trends and not as ever present in our dictionaries.

Second Week

A student had asked why the perfect tense is called perfect and we had no answer. I still do not have a definitive response, though the explanation might be in the fact that "complete" is one of the definitions to the word. Nonetheless, the question raises a couple of issues for the teacher.

The first of which is that the script that you have prepared will be challenged, often by questions that veer so tangentially from the direction you were going that an answer for their question is not at the ready, and if it is, it is often a long one that would eat up the clock. In response to this situation, I see two things needing to happen: (1) there must be consideration taken for unexpected questions when creating the lesson plan; one must think about how students process the questions you pose, seeing how they might interpret and respond to them. Also (2) there needs to be a culture established in the classroom of having students act as equal participants in the discovery of information. It should not be the teacher's job solely to provide the answer; students need to know that some questions are theirs to research, and that the answer they do discover is welcomed and encouraged in the classroom.

The other issue is potentially being frustrated by the question, and because of that fumbling the rest of the lesson. A teacher needs to learn to shake off a bad moment and continue with the game plan. And most importantly the students need to see that the teacher is in control of the class and that though questions are welcomed, those questions wont derail the lesson, though there probably would be occasions when an abandoning of the lesson in favor of restructuring the class around a question that is posed is OK.

First Week

I understand the importance of introductions: familiarity goes a long way in making the environment conducive to learning. But for most of my time in school, those introductions have been structured within a dynamic that creates a separation between teacher and student. The teacher would introduce herself and then have everyone introduce themselves to the class, though it would always be directed to her given the arrangement of classroom space. There would not be that extra step taken to have students interact with each other, becoming acquainted with a person who would act as the first tether connecting the student to the rest of the class. And so without that social element, the comfort space which comes with really knowing your classroom peers would not be established. This is not to say that students whose personality tends toward introvert would suddenly become active talkers, but the familiar space would create an atmosphere that was removed of some of the timidity that comes with first day orientation.

That was the case in this class. Students seemed far more relaxed and willing to listen and respond after they had introduced themselves to other students. Though the conversations with each other were brief, it allowed for a more intimate getting-to-know-you. This idea of knowing your classmates was further reinforced with the arrangement of chairs in two semi-circles which created a space where students had an easier time seeing each other (though not everyone) and though the students often would still address the teacher, the fact that the traditional arrangement of space was broken at least added a different feel to the class, though I'm not sure whether it will impact their learning.

Your Blog

Hi Garri,
This is a good place for you to post your lesson plans for upcoming teaching dates. I can respond to your lessons here and you will have a running record of our dialogue
Please post comments from Weeks 1 and 2 and continue to post at least one observational comment here each week (during the week). I will check your blog for your comments and respond to them regularly.
Barbara