Essential questions: technique put to the test

Today, I tried using "Essential Questions" with my classes and put this technique to the test.

The lesson was a reading activity. The text is about the queen of soul, Sade. It talks about her life and why she avoids publicity and prefers keeping a kind of privacy. I started by asking the question: Do you want to be a celebrity? Why? What is the price we pay for being one?

First, we talked about the brighter side of the story: my students said that celebrities have all the commodities and the privileges we may dream of, like being famous, being rich, being able to travel to many countries, being able to have fairy-like weddings, etc,.. I wrote down the answers on the board under the heading: Good side.Then, I asked: Can you think of any bad points? Are all celebrities happy? My students hesitated for a moment. So, I showed two pictures: one is a recent photo of Britney Spears shaving her hair, the other one is for Michael Jackson hiding his face from journalists and photographers after the trials in the American courts.

So, my students started talking about pop stars going to rehab because they have psychological problems or because they are addicted to drugs or alcohol. They also mentioned the fact that some were harassed by lunatic fans. We talked also about paparazzi and how they made Maradona loose control and almost kill one of them. I wrote these and others on the board under the heading: Bad side. Later, my students sat in groups of four and started writing about being a celebrity. They only jotted down a few more ideas and I asked them to keep them for future reference when we will write about this topic.

When we moved to the reading activity, my students were equipped with a valid background and a good range of vocabulary that they would come across in the text. It was clear that the debate we had made my students appreciate the text and they enjoyed the reading activity as a whole.

I think essential questions are great because they can involve students and provide them with a real context and a reason for learning the language as these questions led them to broaden their knowledge and awareness of current issues. However, I think it is not the only way to make students adhere more positively to the learning process.

Coming posts will talk about other compelling techniques that can be as interesting as essential questions.

Technorati Tags: teaching technique,reading,speaking,involve students,motivation,essential questions

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Essential questions

Question: How to make students engage in learning? How to make a unit/lesson look more relevant and more meaningful?

Answer: One of the problems faced by teachers is when the topic taught seems irrelevant or devoid of a meaningful context. The students seem indifferent because the content, at first sight, looks rather severed from their needs and backgrounds. This is often the case in our schools because teachers become more concerned with covering the whole curriculum rather than mediating a learner-oriented content.

Becoming a better teacher: eight innovations that work by Giselle O. Martin-Kniep addresses this and other problems as well in a comprehensive and thorough manner.

To make sure that students identify with the subjects that are taught and engage in the curriculum, teachers can use what Giselle calls "essential questions". These questions "allow teachers to tackle the curriculum while helping them treat it as something to be discovered and negotiated." They can help generating debates and raise the level of discourse in the classroom and can also serve as a good way to relate previously taught topics to the currently taught one.

Giselle argues that these questions have the following criteria in common:

• They are universal
• They are never fully answerable
• The more we grow mature, the more we discover we still have more to learn about the answers
• They lead to the realization that knowledge is an ongoing process and one that makes life worth living

Here are some examples by the author about what essential questions look like:

• Are we really free?
• What is the meaning of life?
• Do we have control over our destiny?
• If we are so alike, how do we explain our differences?
• Can there be good without evil?
• Are all cultures equally valuable?
• Can you win and lose at the same time?
• When is cheating not bad?
• Is education essential for success in life?

How can we use these questions? It depends on the topic or unit that is going to be taught. For a lesson talking about the merits of the Internet, one may start by asking the question: Is technology a foe or a friend? The question: are humans inhumane? Can provide a framework for a lesson about "crime", etc..

Side note: Do you have any comments? Please add them here.

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Poetry in the classroom

Using Poetry in the classroom is not something you want to miss. There are various reasons to preach teaching poetry: First of all, believe it or not: kids and students love it. They love rhymes and the music inherent in poems. Besides, I think poetry lessons can make students love the language as they are encouraged to use it creatively. Moreover, it urges students to learn more vocabulary as they look for words that would rhyme with other words.
This can be also used to consolidate the recognition of the stress in words..
I used to avoid teaching poetry at first, to be honest, because I thought students will not be involved and they won't love it. Then, I read a few articles about teaching poetry and wanted to try it myself. The results were more than reassuring. My students are pre-intermediate learners so I avoided going into much detail: we talked only about rhymes. I asked some of my students to provide any words that they can think of in English. The others tried to find words that rhyme with them. Then we wrote down the words on small seperate cards. I asked my students to put them in groups: some words belong to the School group. Other words belong to the Food group,etc..Then I told my students that this is how poems are written basically. I asked them to write a simple poem about one of the groups using the rhyming words provided.. I did not talk about scansion or difficult stuff..I think this is what they need for the time being..The result was more than satisfying.. I also encouraged my students to be creative as to the presentation: I showed some examples i printed from the net.. Some wrote their poem on a piece of cloth..Others on a paper shaped as a green leaf,etc..
So, I am not going to miss any opportunity to use poems in my classes!
For great links on how to teach poetry:
http://www.netaxs.com/katz/teachers.htm
http://pdfs.voya.com/VO/YA2/VOYA200404PoetryContagious.pdf

NB: This entry was originally posted in http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
Here is the link : http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk/polls/poetry-classroom#comment-423

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How to encourage beginners to use English while sitting in groups?

This is inspired by Victoria's comment on a previous post.
Students should be encouraged to use English not only to do a task but also to interact with one another while they are doing the task.

Step1:
For instance, you can start by teaching them how to ask for their turn if they are playing a language game or doing something together. Think of unchallenging phrases like:" Now, it is my turn", "is it your turn?", "who is next?",etc… You can start by asking how your students say it in their language. Then you provide the equivalent in English. You can write the expressions on the board and have your students repeat after you.

Step2:
Next, you can teach them how to encourage each other during an activity or when they finish it. Think of expressions like "Nice Job!", "Excellent", "that's good", "Well done", "Perfect!" etc...

Step3: sitting in groups
After that, you can ask your students to sit in groups and give them flash cards with the expressions in step1. Some of the flash cards will have the words in English written on them. The others will have the words in the students' native language or pictures/illustrations, etc... Explain that the students have to match the phrases in English with those in their language. Make it clear that they should encourage each other using words from step two. To encourage this behavior and make them refrain from using their native language, you may tell your students they will only get points if they use English. Keep a checklist/ form (grading/points) and go from one group to another to make sure they do use English. Remember that you can model this by encouraging your students in English when you go from one group to the other. By habitually doing this, your students are more predisposed to learn it.

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The dynamics of group work

Problem: Whenever I assign a group work activity, the classroom turns into a disorderly panic-stricken place. How do you manage to control yours?
Answer:

Step 1-Before starting
Before starting a group work activity, we should make sure our students are aware of the benefits of working together and relate this to real life: we can start by telling a relevant story or a local proverb. Group work is a kind of social interaction. Therefore, we have to make sure our students can communicate with each other in English. Relevant questions that are going to build the students' interactive skills include:
What do you think of...?
Do you think that...?
Why is it important to....?
Do you agree that....?
What is your opinion concerning....?
Do you share his opinion?
These questions are only examples. What students will need depends on the task in question and their level.

Step 2-Assigning Roles
For our task to be successful, we have to make sure that nobody is left out of the group and that everyone will have a simple defined role: many teachers have come up with different names for those roles but they are basically the same. Here are a few:
Note Taker or Secretary
Presenter ,Spokesman or Reporter
Timekeeper
Idea Generator
Noise Watcher
Speech Organizer
One can use these or invent her/his own roles. Nevertheless, we should always make sure that the roles do more or less fit the members' personality and level and that they are not similar. Asking the shyest person in the group to be the spokesman may not always the best bet.

Step 3- Tolerating Some Degree of Noise
Noise is not always supposed to be negative. In fact, it can be tolerated as long as it is kept to a low level. If it interferes with and annoys the other groups, one group is said to be "negatively" noisy.The noise will be there inevitably. But it has to be controlled and kept to a minimum. One good way to reduce noise is to ask one of the members to be the noise-watcher. The student will keep eye contact with the teacher and tell the group if they are exceeding the permitted limits. Some teachers keep a whistle to signal the level of noise is too high. Keeping colored cards to draw attention to the level of noise is also another conceivable option. A red card means the group is too noisy.

Step Four- Less Interference is Better
While the groups work, we should try to keep our presence as imperceptible as possible. Interfere a lot and you will make the groups less concentrated on their task. Interfere less and they are more productive. Does this mean we just sit down and "let the kids play"? No, the teacher has to go from group to group, listening, helping, giving feedback and making sure they are not loosing interest or ignoring the activity. We may want to be unobtrusive because we want to make the students take responsibility for their own learning, interact using English, and try to solve their problems by themselves. We may want to be there, however, in case they began to loose focus, they need more clarification, or have problems that they cannot resolve by themselves.

Step Five- Time management
It is important to set a time limit. We ought to make sure the task is feasible within that time limit. Doing a group task that will never be presented to the class because the bell rang is as detrimental as doing nothing at all. So we must let it be clear that the students have to finish in time. When they finish, the reporters will "report" their work to the rest of the class. After that, we can thank the groups for their efforts and make them see the worth of their cooperation. This will encourage them to make more effort and enjoy it when you decide to do more Cooperative Learning later.

Step Six: Fair grading
Fair grading is a major concern for teachers especially when using Cooperative Learning. How can we decide whether all the members worked evenly during a group activity? What should we really grade, the students' work as a whole or their individual contribution to the group work? Generally, group work should not only be about the product. It is also about the process. We shouldn't only grade the product because it may not reflect the members' contributions to the group. We have to make sure to include a kind of peer assessment form using a simple point system. The students are required to assess the involvement of their peers but they may also be asked to assess themselves. This will help the teacher to decide whether the grades are consistent later. Having our own group assessment form with the names of the groups and the members and assigning points as we go from group to group will also help us get a more accurate grading system. This, added to the product itself, will make a good basis for a fair grade.

References:
Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching by Diane Larsen-Freeman (Second Edition)
(For a short and snappy explanation of what Cooperative Learning is about + a practical example)
Cooperative Learning: Resources for Teachers by Spencer Kagan
Cooperative Learning (Second Edition) By R. Slavin
A Guidebook for Cooperative Learning by D. Dishon and P. W. O'Leary

Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, "Commonly Asked Questions about Teaching Collaborative Activities

From the Internet:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/

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