Module 1 "Light Switch" (Week 3 Reflections)

This week I think I am finally starting to understand what I am promoting in my classroom. I am promoting monologic discourse throughout the entire lesson. I really wonder when this change happened to me as I switched from an elementary school teacher to an ESL teacher. In elementary school (Philadelphia) I taught subjects by using minimal teacher centered lessons and gave a majority of the control to my students. The student-initiated interaction was exciting and meaningful to the students and myself. So, why have I not done this in Korea? Maybe in my mind I when I'm teaching low-level learners, I want to give them as much knowledge as possible. But by doing this, what kind of learning am I promoting? By now, I'm sure that many of the students expect the monologic discourse that is present in every lesson we will do. So, I am actually creating a group of robots that memorize phrases and not even know why they need it.

A lesson this week on numbers proves that my classroom is teacher dominated with little dialogic discourse. I taught my 5th graders numbers 1-30 this week with the phrases "How many ____ do you have?" and "I have #  _______." Not once during the lesson did I initiate any referential questions to the students. The students all sat and made  sure to memorize the key phrases on the board. I barely activated any type of  schema for the students. I only showed slides that had numbers with objects (i.e. the number 1 with an apple picture) and then asked the students to repeat "one apple".

I realize now so many more things I could have done to help the students make a connection. The next lesson I will try a silent role playing to help activate students schema and promote student-initiated conversation.

Homework, Preparation and Attitude

For my 3^rd and 5^th graders my co-teacher and I have a homework, preparation and attitude chart in the front of the class. The students are broken up into teams. Each team has the responsibility to do their homework, bring their pencil cases, notebooks and textbooks. If the students have these things they can have check marks for homework and preparation. For attitude marks, the goal can change from each class. For example, one class will gain marks for their concentration in listening, others can gain points for just turning to the correct page in the textbook. So, the attitude points are based within the mood of the class that day. 

The point of all this is to gain “magic balls” in their classroom jars. If you receive marks in homework, preparation and attitude for the day, the team will receive a sticker for each goal. At the end of the week, the team that collects 6 stickers will have gained a “magic ball” for their class jar. Unknown to the students, there will be a special reward at the end of the month for the each grade that has the most “magic balls” in their jar.

My co-teacher and I choose this set up so it holds the students responsible for doing their homework, preparation and to participate. We hope that this helps promote a long working effort for the students to better themselves each day. Not only does it provide teamwork, but also healthy competition among the teams within the class and the grades. 

So far, the system is working and they students are becoming prepared and raising their hands more during class time. I hope the moral message being sent is that each person’s hard work can benefit others as well. Also, working for a long term goal instead or being rewarded instantly helps them gain an internal perspective that the best things are ones you wait for. 

At this moment, the biggest obstacles are students that do not participate or are dominated by more advanced students. Rules in this case can be changed for the students who do not actively participate. I could pick random “star” students from each team (making sure it was a low-participator), and the “star” student can gain 2 bonus points every time they try to answer. This way, they know that they are important and try to help their team.

New After School Classes = Burn Out

In week 3 of the young school year, I am still trying to adapt and pace myself. This year I have been given 4 after school classes (two on Tues. and Wed.). The classes are  relatively small (about ~20 students), but the real tough part is that the students are all young learners. I find myself for the last 3 weeks stressing due to the fact that my lessons plans have to be simple, relevant, fun and productive. The biggest hurtle is that I do not have anyone to translate English for me, so body language is a must in this case. Thankfully, my training as an elementary school teacher is slowly kicking in, but not fast enough. I realized that spending years in Korea as an English teacher rather than teaching a K-6 curriculum has drunken my skills as a teacher. It's time to sober up! Wednesdays seem to be the worst with having 8+ hours of full teaching (6 hrs school + 2 hrs tutoring). Hopefully, I will be able to get adjusted to everything that's been going on.

Changing the Discourse Dynamics.

After watching my warm-up #1. I found that I often rushed the students in producing speech. In my transcripts, the last student I was helping was having a hard time following the script that I had given them. When I approached the student, I saw myself dominating the dialog, almost allowing no appropriate time for the student to process and produce any thought. So, this week I tried to let my students have some more time after a question was asked or an activity was explained. This hopefully allowed my students to have more time to comprehend what was being said or asked of them.

During one activity, a student was not able to remember what sound the letter 'M' made. So instead of correcting the student right away, I gave him some time to listen again as I said "monkey" two more times. As I waited, I told him he could ask his classmates for help. A classmate was able to help him out and he then produced the correct sound. I liked the fact that I waited and that I only gave hints instead of giving him a direct answer.

Sometimes, the thought process is more important than the product.

Co-Teacher Interview + Transcription

I had a chance to interview my co-teacher during her busiest moment of the day! Here are the questions I asked with paraphrased responses (full answers are in the video):

1.     What’s your name?

A.    My name is Galam Kim.

2.     How old are you?

A.    I am 27.

3.     Where were you born and what’s your nationality?

A.    I am Korean and I was born in Korea, in Seoul.

4.     What is your profession now?

A.    I am an elementary school teacher. And I currently teach English.

5.     What grades do you teach?

A.    3^rd graders and 5^th graders.

6.     What is your native language?

A.    Oh yea, Korean.

7.     Do you speak any other languages?

A.    I speak… I can speak English and a little bit of Chinese.

8.     Did you learn English is school?

A.    Yea, when I was young. When I was in middle school, because when I was in elementary school, we didn’t have English subject in curriculum. So, I started learning English in middle school… officially.

9.     How old were you when you started learning English?

A.    Like personally I started learning English when I was ten years old, because my mom bought me some English video tapes… so I watched it like animation movies… yea.

10.  Why did you start learning English?

A.    Why? At that time I didn’t have like special motivations. That was just one of subjects that I have to study.

11.  Can you describe a typical English class when you studied in school? What did the students do?

A.    In middle school and high school… ehh… an English teacher just explains grammar points and some special important idioms, or vocabularies. And he or she explains how to translate it in English and all the students just write down in the notes. Not… really. But teacher can ask some questions, and what is the answer and the students will raise their hands. Answer A, answer C, multiple choice like unfortunately, I didn’t have that teachers.

12.  What do you do now to learn English?

A.    Yea, I listen to some English radio programs in my free time and sometimes I try to read English newspapers, or news articles on my I, my phone.

13.  Do you speak English with your siblings or friends?

A.    Eh, no at home with my family but sometimes when I meet my like foreign friends, yeah, I speak English.

14.  If I were your English teacher, what would you want to tell me about yourself, about how you learn best?

A.    If you were my English teacher. Eh… My interests is like traveling and movies and music so when it comes to traveling or movies or some words. Yea, I’d like to, love to talk about it. So, I hope to learn about those topics in English, and also I’m like a visuals learner, I like, like, watching movies or some pictures, so yea. If you use that.

Full Transcription of Warm-up #1

Victor: March 8^th, when you’re ready… nice job… oh ok team 3! Alright good job, now…

Victor: Now Domo, this is Domo…

Co-Teacher: Put your hands down.

Victor: Two… We have to bubbles.

Students: Bubbles?

Victor: A and B. Okay?

Co-Teacher: Victor is A, Lena is B.

Victor: So, follow along. Victor is A.

Victor: Hello, nice to meet you.

Co-Teacher: Hello, nice to meet you…

Co-Teacher and Students: Too.

Victor: Ahhhh… My name is Victor. What’s your name?

Cot-Teacher: My name is Lena.

Victor: Oh, can you sign.

Co-Teacher: Oh, sure.

Students and Co-Teacher: [speaks in Korean]

Co-Teacher: [restating task to students]

Victor: In the game, there are five bombs.

Co-Teacher: [repeats what I said in Korean]

Students: [ask in Korean]

Victor: Oh! Teams! Let’s practice one more time.

Co-Teacher: [repeats what I said in Korean]

Victor: I need a helper. I need everyone to help. Please you’re gonna listen and repeat. Your “Domo”, I’m “Bunny”.

Victor: Ready… Hello, nice to meet you.

Students: Hello, nice to meet you, too.

Co-Teacher: [asks the students if I sound like a bunny]

Student: [in Korean] No.

Co-Teacher: You have to, say in bunny voice. Alright? Please be bunny. Practice one more time.

Victor: [in more bunny voice] Hello, nice to meet you.

Students: Hello, nice to meet you too.

Victor: My name is “Bunny”, what’s your name?

Students: My name is [kids say own Korean names].

Victor: Yeah! Kim-do Yeong.

Co-Teacher: [in Korean, tells students to switch roles]

Co-Teacher: Ok, one more time.

Students: Hello, nice to meet you.

Victor: Hello, nice to meet you too…Ready?

Students: My name is “Bunny”, what’s your name?

Victor: My name is Victor Domo!

Victor: And then you can say, please, please sign my paper.

Students: Please, sign my paper.

Victor: …And sign the paper.

Victor: Is everyone ok? Yes?! Yes, everyone’s ok?

Co-Teacher: Ready, stand up please.

Victor: Annnnnd…

Co-Teacher: Ready? Everyone ready?! 3…3,2,1. Go!

Students: [starts to ask each other questions from dialog]

Student 1: Hello, nice to meet you.

Victor: Hello, nice to meet you, too.

Student 1: My name is Young-do Yeon. What’s your name?

Victor: My name is Victor.

Student 1: Thank you.

Victor: Does anyone need help?

Victor: Ready? You wanna go?

Student 2: Hello, my name is…

Victor: Oh, hello nice…

Student 2: To meet you.

Victor: Nice to meet you, too. My…

Student 2: Name is Jae Rim.

Victor: What’s.

Student 2: What’s your name?

Victor: My name is Victor. Alright, let’s sign this paper.

Student 3: Ahhh! What’s your name!

Victor: Ah! Ok, ready? Hello…

Student 3: Hello, nice to meet you.

Victor: Nice to meet you, too.

Student 3: My name is Jung-mi. What’s your name?

Victor: My name is Victor. Ah, let’s sign…

Student 4: Hello, nice to meet you.

Victor: Nice to meet you, too.

Student 4: My name is Jae-eul. What’s your name?

Victor: My name is Victor.

Student 4: Sign.

Victor: Eh, “yo-gi”.

Student 4: Thank you.

Student 5: Hello, nice to meet you.

Victor: Nice to meet you, too.

Student 5: My name is Chae-young. What’s your name?

Victor: My name is Victor. Let me sign.

Victor: My… good. Good job.

Victor: Oh, me, me, me. Hello. Ready?

Student 6: Hello, nice to meet you.

Victor: Nice to meet you, too. My name…

Student 6: My name is Dong-ah. What’s your name?

Victor: What’s…

Student 6 and Victor: What’s your name?

Victor: My name is Victor.

Victor: Nooo?

Student 7: Hello, nice to meet you.

Victor: Ah, nice to meet you, too.

Student 7: My name is Kim-do. What’s your name?

Victor: My name is Victor.

Student 7: Victor.

Victor: Wow! Look at this.

Victor: Oh, ready? You want to go? Ready? Hello nice. Hello.

Student 8: Hello.

Victor: Nice to meet you. Hello, nice to meet you. Ready.

Victor and Student 8: Hello, nice to meet you, too.

Victor: Hello, nice to meet you, too.

Victor: What. My.

Student 8: My.

Victor: Name.

Student 8: Name.

Victor: Is.

Student 8: Kim Soo-yeon.

Victor: What’s.

Student 8: What’s your name?

Victor: Ah, my name is Victor.

Student 9: Hello, nice to meet you.

Victor: Ah, nice to meet you, too.

Student 9: My name is Chae-eul. Your name is.

Victor: What’s your name?

Victor: My name is Victor. Ok, good.