It has been a long, looong while since I’ve last written here, in my blog. And before the last time it had also been a long while. I could use this post to explain the reason for the hiatus (which initially I attributed to too much work – which is true – and later I reflected it could have another, a more philosophical one. But that’s a topic for a whole other post, I hope.) But that would make this post too long (and too boring??!?). And I can’t let that happen. Something pushed me to go back to writing today, and I feel if I don’t write about it today the moment will be lost.
Do you believe in magic? (image by http://stillinlovewithu.deviantart.com/art/do-u-believe-in-magic-314637726
Today I had THAT lesson.
How many of you have once (or more than once, or maybe even more often than you’re willing to admit) felt beat? I mean… Feeling demotivated and tired. I wouldn’t go as far as say I felt burned out, but it’s been quite a demanding semester (classes, courses, projects, work-related trips and presentations… all very exciting but also strenuous). Right now we’re just after midterms and we have a shorter semester due to the Football World Cup that’s taking place in less than two months. I had a long day today, full of work, marking, meetings, rushing around, preparing material. Sounds like a lot? Now picture I did all that after having pinched a nerve on my back a couple of days ago. You could say I was wishing for the time of the day where I could go home. I’m not proud of it, but it happens to all of us eventually (especially after 20+ years as a teacher, I suppose.
And then I went into the classroom to teach a group of teens (13-14 years old, about A2 level). It was “report card day”, and I’m pretty strict with grades, so I wasn’t expecting a great class. In their midterms a good portion of the learners had showed some difficulty with the past participle form of the verbs, so I had planned a simple warmer. A tic-tac-toe.
Standard procedure: 11 learners split into two groups. Each number corresponded to the base form of a verb, each group (taking turns) called a number and wrote the past participle form of the verb under it (using a different color – I’m very visual!). After confirmation (by me) that the form was written correctly learners had to (orally) use the verb in a sentence. They got the space if the sentence was correct. I had planned the activity to last about 15 minutes. Nothing much to it, really. Certainly nothing new or exciting.
Oh, yes. I almost forgot. The winning team would win chocolate kisses (Easter surplus).
Give way to a moment? Photo taken from http://flickr.com/eltpics by Dace Parualins, used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
What followed was just magic. I have never seen that group of learners so engaged, excited or – most importantly – speaking as much English as I did. I have no idea why today (maybe a sign from God, wonders the Catholic girl in me?). But they went wild. Groups really interacted at each turn. They negotiated and voiced their opinions, they contested other learner’s suggestions, they ran to stop each other from speaking to then bring the group to confer again. Opposing teams kept talking and discussing spelling and possible sentences while the other was taking its turn. They were on their feet and cheering (in English!) when they were right, they were mumbling and taking guesses at what was wrong when they made a mistake (expecting the other team to make a mistake as well).
Bottom line? The activity lasted 45 minutes. I just let it go. I didn’t get half of my lesson plan done (please do keep in mind I’m on a tight schedule, thanks to football!). Learners didn’t feel time pass. They spoke English naturally and because they had a need they wanted to fill. I even took the time to do a meta-cognitive feedback after it, to elicit from learners what skills (other than English) they had practiced during the activity (e.g. collaboration, negotiation, flexibility, critical thinking, etc…) and share the reason why I had let an activity planned for 15 minutes last for 45 (more, considering the meta-cognitive feedback – and our lessons only last 75 minutes.)
I left the classroom feeling like a million dollars. I was renewed. THAT is the reason I’ve become a teacher. For lessons like this. For seeing learning take place naturally and willingly. For seeing language being needed and found. For helping my learners develop other skills other than the target language (though through it.)
The great feeling did not prevent me from wondering (and these are the questions I post to any of my readers for I’d love to see other outtakes on it):
- Was I right to dismiss my initial plan with very specific teaching goals (and new language) in favor of fluency development?
- How much of the past participles and their use will learners retain?
- One of the 11 learners did not really join in and was mostly just listening to his group. Would he have benefited more from a “normal” lesson?
- What “language gain” did the learners have?
- Why is it that within 5 minutes into the activity I decided I would let it go for as long as it took, as opposed to following my carefully planned, pedagogically-based lesson plan? Was it experience or feeling that gave me that intuition / gut-feeling? How do we know when to stick to the plan and when it’s more beneficial (?!?) to learners to “go with the flow”?
Last thought? Learners didn’t even remember the kisses – even though they were glad to get them! And those chocolate kisses gave me a super sweet, unexpected and yet much needed, teaching moment. Who would have guessed?
By the way: During the hiatus I’ve become a regular blogger – once a month – at Richmond Brazil’s Teacher Share blog. These are the posts I’ve written, if you’re interested:
– Intelligi…What? (about dicovering ELF pronunciation at IATEFL)
– Mind the Gap (about the gap between theory and action in ELT teaching)
– The Invisibility of Being a Teacher (about the depreciation of being a(n ELT teacher)
Box of Chocolates 
Hi Cecilia,
Loved your post! Yes, it’s absolute magic and for some reason it does appear when we most need it as teachers. 🙂
I personally think you did well sticking to it seeing how well it was working out, despite that one student who wasn’t engaged in the activity. Who knows, the other way around there might have been more than one.
The thing is, not all game like activities or those with a “prize” at the end get this much excitement out of students, so when it works you have to keep it going.
In learning, like anything else in life, a great experience, a nice day out, a fun b-day party, a moving song or play leaves a positive print on our emotional memory where everything other than words is kept.
I find it really important that students have these kinds of experiences within their classrooms, specially when like you said they had been having some difficulties. It lifts them up as regards their motivation and self esteem towards learning.
Furthermore, I am also a firm believer that theses kinds of review activities do have a positive learning outcome. They are dealing with knowledge they have already acquired but which might have been a bit blurry or left behind and certainly these kinds of games make them feel like it all makes a bit more sense.
It’s just fabulous to watch 🙂
I love using games in class. In fact, I just posted on how I use Taboo a bit differently to review vocab.
Here’s the link in case you’d like to have a peek. Would love to hear your opinion.
Congratulations on your magical moment!
Laila Khairat
Hi, Laila!
Thanks for the comment! I agree with your comment about not having prizes for every activity/competition, and I rarely give them something 🙂
I totally agree with you on the moment aspect (or the positive print, as you say.)
Thanks for supporting the feeling it was positive pedagogically as well! It feels really good to know I’m not alone at thinking it was a good teaching/learning moment. (I love Taboo too, btw, and have adapted it to themes quite a few times!)
Thanks for the link to your post. I’ll take a look at it soon!
Cheers,
Cecilia
Hi Cecilia,
I’m writing to you from Laos because your post resonated strongly with me. I feel like each day I’m making the type of decisions you wrote about and it is reassuring that others are asking these same types of questions.
Going with the flow in a situation like this makes a lot of sense to me, especially with the ‘unpacking’ you did at the end of what skills and dispositions had been focused on in the class. It seems to me like the students were learning through using the language not learning about it which will have far greater and longer term impacts. I like the reminder a colleague once said that I should focus on ‘teaching the students, not teaching a lesson plan’.
It’s great to have found your blog and I look forward to reading through other posts you’ve made and will make.
Cheers,
Kris
Hi Ceci and welcome back!
I have had many lessons like this over recent times (in fact, the seem to be getting more frequent these days!) Like you, I often had doubts about whether it was better to go with the flow or follow and more structured lesson with specific aims and language foci.
But I think it’s also important to think of the bigger picture. Sure, you may think that this one lesson was enjoyable but perhaps lacking a single identifiable point of progress but what about the fact that most of the students were fully engaged and enthusiastically participating? Will this have a long-term impact on their motivation and desire to learn English and be a part of your lessons? Maybe that one student who stayed quiet has been thinking about this lesson and how we would like to contribute more next time…
Do these kind of lessons often enough and I think the students start to become more confident and more moitivated… and that makes all the rest (target langauge, covering ‘new’ topics, and so on) much easier 😉
No answers to your questions I’m afraid – I really feel only your teaching intuitions could tell you such things (though of course you are right to question those instincts as well). Just wanted to say so happy I came back so soon after you did post again and thanks for the link to the Richmond blog, looks like a good one.
[…] excerpt from Cecilia Lemos’ blog, A Box of Chocolates, really caught my eye. It truly captivates that feeling. The feeling that you get when you have […]
You are experienced and know when to trust your “gut”. It was rejuvenating for you AND for them, which is really important for everyone. As long as most lesson plans get done, ignoring some is really effective. Way to go!
What a wonderful post! I really think that the decision to just up and leave your lesson plan all for the sake of the kids’ learning was a great move. I think it’s hard sometimes to decide what to do with our plans. I mean, how do we fulfill our goals when students are grabbing at the chance? How might we get them started? Your post gave me hope that all kids, even when they aren’t dying to learn, can learn. I have come across similar situations teaching in a classroom where the kids have no enthusiasm for days and one day you do something out of the ordinary and they take off, reading and racing. You know, those are the times that teaching becomes the perfect and most fulfilling job.