Ah, November. The time of year when students’ general goodwill towards school has shrunk a bit, there have been sports events and field trips galore pulling your kids out of class, and you might just be feeling a lil tired. I know this is the case for me, so this post is about taking the time to develop a plan of attack further so we are prepared for days when things are starting to feel tough.
I’m writing these as reminders mostly to myself, but I hope they help you in whatever you may be struggling with to make this time of year (aka…DEVOLSON).
I can also tell you that some of these reflections come straight from the hearts of my students: though I was recently in a negative head space and worried that students would tear me up, I again asked for student feedback on my teaching (using this form) on the Friday after Halloween (gulp). I learned that 1. things were so much better than I catastrophically had thought to myself and 2. that young people will truly surprise you with their helpful insights…if you just ask!
So, here we go!
Develop Your Vision
Do you know exactly how you want your class to look, moment to moment? This is a bigger, long-term mental project, but when you run into moments in the classroom that are irritating to you, ask yourself, “Why?” How do those moments divert from your vision of how class “should” be? I find that I often haven’t expressed to students a specific expectation that I take for granted, so it would be almost miraculous for them to just meet it. We all know that students can be very…inventive…with their behavior, so we can be the ones to express a vision of fun productivity that truly works in everyone’s favor. I’ve been writing down specific items of behavior that I envision, and then explicitly teaching to those expectations.
Tell Them Why
Language is so different from typical school subject matters that it needs to be taught in a very different way. This can be disorienting from kids who have learned how to “play the school game,” and then get into a language class where we “just talk all the time,” so explicitly stating why we do any given practice can help students understand and meet with our visions. I’ve been repeating since the early weeks of school that “we learn languages by hearing and reading messages we understand in the language,” so when I explain that talking English isn’t helping our language acquisition, kids are like…oh yeah, that’s right. But then! I give them alternatives that allow us to stay in the language as much as possible. They’re more likely to use these new mental/communication tricks if they understand why they are necessary or desired in the first place.
Energy!
When things are going right…tell them. And telling them can look like different things. Strong choral response after pumping them up? “(in L2) Yes, class! Wow, y’all are so intelligent. You’re getting it.” Long stretch of whole class interaction uninterrupted by L1? “(in L2) Wow, this class speaks a lot of [L2]! And so well!” Or save it for the end of class: “(in L1) Y’all, in the middle of class, we had a stretch where it was only in [L2], and it was so glorious. I could tell so much [L2] was going into your brains, and you are going to be the super awesome, multilingual citizens of the future. BAM!” And also: never discount the power of a high five, eye contact with a smile, a covert thumbs up…
Go SLOW
If I keep in mind that my desired purpose in each class period is, at its core, communication with the people in the room, I get better at looking for evidence that communication is actually happening. Am I learning new facts about my students and verifying them with their classmates? Are students reacting to those learnings and sharing more about themselves? Am I sharing new information about the Target Culture and gathering students’ reactions to it?
I must look into their eyes, check their comprehension, and speak to them in ways such that they understand. (Check out this post by Martina Bex about ways to make that happen.) This often involves going much slower, using lots of gestures, pausing, and taking the time to savor silence. This is a long-term struggle: I have literally presented at conferences about the importance of SLOW, and more than one of my level 1 students asked me to slow down a bit. It is important, and difficult! So, I will be slowing down in the name of comprehension and real communication.
Self-Interrupt
If I’ve shared how languages are acquired – hearing comprehensible messages – then I can just interrupt my own speech if a student starts to talk out of bounds in L1 while we’re talking in L2. I try to scan my class broadly as I do this, so as not to come off too aggressive with the student or students who spoke out of turn, but I do try to go back to them and give them a wink or a nod as we carry on.
Just Walk On Over To the Rules
This is a trick I learned from Tina Hargaden: just stop, saunter (really, saunter) over to the class rules, and indicate which has been broken while scanning the class with a smile. Because it’s so calm and quiet, students tend to get uncomfortable and push each other to quiet down a bit.
Get Feedback
Ask students what activities are working best for them, as well as what is a change they might make to class that would help them learn the L2 better. Most of the time, students are reasonable and helpful in their suggestions, as long as I frame the feedback giving as something that will help us have a more successful, fun class.
After getting the feedback, positively acknowledge that you have considered their feedback, and then try to incorporate their suggestions as much as possible. It turns out my level 1s love stories – let’s do more of those! Level 3 asked for me to actually be more strict about not starting side conversations in English after every sentence, so I know that there will be students in class that will help me out when I am managing towards a more L2 environment. If I am able to incorporate things that students have suggested, then bam! Goodwill towards the class that will help us be more productive and successful, and I will hopefully grow my influence as a classroom manager of their time.