5.2 Class: Story B and Listen & Say
The above video was filmed on Wednesday.
I tried to film a class today, but due to a serious classroom interruption filming had to be cancelled. Unfortunately asides from micro-teaching I probably won't have another opportunity to teach this class again. Although there are plenty of Story Bs and Listen & Says to teach, so not all is lost. I think working on a thorough Lesson Plan will help me better plan similar lessons in the future.
The class:
This is probably one of the best classes in the school both behavior wise and talent wise. Unfortunately they did 90 minuets of jump rope practice (asides from the girl with the broken leg who did a lot of the speaking) before lunch. We had a huge lunch (as always on Wednesdays), then it was English time. The students were sleepy and tired. They didn't want to move. They didn't want to think. They actually told me this during the activity part of class so my assumptions were correct.
Correct me if you think I'm wrong, but there is no use waking up a class after intense physical workout and a large meal.
The Lesson:
My coworker did a bit of a review preview with some flashcards and listen & repeat drills. She also reviewed in, on, and under using a puppet and a box. She then went over the TLC. This saved me a lot of effort. We started with Story B.
I started by discussing the pictures in the students' textbooks. The story is a version of Alice in Wonderland. I asked students about all 4 pictures each representing a scene from the story.
I then had the students listen to the story while looking at the pictures in their books.
I then asked them questions about the story. Most of the questions were comprehension questions. Some were a little more challenging and very difficult to answer without seeing the animation.
I then showed them the animation along with listening to the story (the screen was off the first time).
I asked them some more discussion questions that were even more challenging.
The Alice character has a dream she is in Wonderland. You could never know this without seeing the video. There are a few hints, but nothing conclusive. Also the character Mr. Hat has grey hair in the pictures in the textbook. In the video, it is clearly Lucy's father. He is a known liar throughout the textbook and he lies again in this story. The students missed this connection but I forgot to point it out.
After we did Listen & Speak.
The students looks at 3 pictures in their textbooks that are revealing screenshots of the video clip dialogues and discussed them.
They then watched and answered questions about the dialogue.
Here are the scripts:
Story B:
Scene #1
Lucy: Excuse me, Mr. Rabbit!
Mr. Rabbit: I’m late, I’m
late.
Lucy: Mr. Rabbit! Wait!
Scene # 2:
Lucy: Hi. I’m Lucy. Did you
see a white rabbit?
Mr. Hat: Yes, I did. But I can’t
see him now.
Lucy: Wow, there are many hats
on the table! How many hats are there?
Mr. Hat: There are twenty-one
hats.
Scene #3
Lucy: Is there a rabbit in the
big hat?
Mr. Hat: No, there isn’t.
Lucy: Is there a rabbit under
the table?
Mr. Hat: No, there isn’t.
Scene #4:
Mr. Rabbit: Oh, hi. What time is
it? My watch stopped.
Lucy: It’s 5 o’clock.
Mr. Rabbit: Thanks.
Listen & Speak:
Practice #1:
Girl: Excuse me. Is there a rest
room in the building?
Leo: Yes, there is. Go straight
and turn right. It’s over there.
Practice #2:
Olivia: Wow, there are many dogs
in the shop. How many dogs are there?
Man: There are twenty-three dogs
in the shop.
Practice #3:
Dennis: Is there a pencil under
the table?
Mina: Yes, there is.
Anyway If you want to find out more details watch the video.
Reflection:
My personal goal was to analyze the deeper themes of the video and ask more complex comprehension questions based on the context of the story.
I asked several questions that aren't immediately obvious to the students. The story was a dream. I tried to get the students to realize this before they saw the animation. None of them figured it out. I didn't point out enough hints. I did however ask some complicated questions.
Why did she ask about the hat? It moved
Did her father lie? Yes
I should have asked how do you know?
I did this in another lesson. The answer is only given when watching the video. He makes a stop motion with his hand. You can notice it in the scene 3 photo, but it's hard to notice.
I also asked about the hats? How many hats? You can count 15 or 16 by looking at the picture. When Mr. Hat says 21, it's obvious. A nice and simple comprehension check.
Although a lot of students didn't personally answer questions in English, many more did using Korean, or nodding in agreement. It is difficult to tell if it's just nodding or if they come to an understanding. I have to watch closely for clues. Ohhs and Ahhs are a good place. They did happen several times after I confirmed the answers to difficult questions. With the easy ones, it's hard to tell. I don't know if I'm being too complacent here, but I think answering in Korean or ohhing and ahhing is better than nothing and a decent place to start. I will work on better responses.
They did enjoy the story and they did like learning about the more complex actions of the plot. When they listened there were oohs and ahhs as non-obvious things we discussed were realized. When they finally watched the video, there were oohs and ahhs along the same regard as well. It is better than talking during the video, it means they are listening and watching.
I think they learned something. They learned that the teacher is not going to answer basic display and understanding questions only anymore. They also learned that the teacher is not going to only ask obvious questions about the dialogues' contexts. Hopefully diving into these deeper will make them appreciate the activities more.
The students did not actively contribute to the lesson. They were very tired. I should have had them speak to each other some more before asking questions. I realized when I give them this chance, they usually speak Korean to each other. I'm not huge on enforcing English only and neither is my coworker. Even if they chat in Korean their answers tend to be better.
One amusing/interesting part was when I asked them to count the hats. They just kept counting and counting. I said stop after I polled them for answer, but they kept on counting. The correct answer is difficult to get because it is about 5 more than you can count. I said "Stop counting, you are all wrong." It was a bit rude. I asked them to stop a few times before that. Even my coworker said it in Korean and English. These guys just wanted to keep on counting.
It was at that point that I realized, things would be difficult. They didn't respond well to the command to stop counting. I should have turned it into a counting lesson at that point and they would all have been happy as clams.
Generally the interaction was monologic IRF discourse with frequent F-stops. I'm an addict and I need to stop. It can get better, I'm slowly working on it, but it's hard to quit. There is also resistance from students particularly the older grades which won't try.
I need to make sure they speak to each other more often. During activities and practice they are alright, but in previews and presentations it's still rough. I need to work on this.
I hope by increasing the complexity I can have more students interested in the lesson material. I will then try to engage them in discussion more particularly with each other. My plan is to give them more to talk about than just TLC and obvious listen and repeat. I will then turn them lose on each other. Finally I will make them use English while discussing the finer aspects to each other. At this point I am happy if they discuss the more complex points using half-Korean. Of course feedback is all in English.
Speak Korean to the students Sean, it will encourage them. Okay, but now the gig is over, they know I understand Korean so they use it as a crutch.
It actually worked in another class, that is dialogic discourse. I decided not to teach the sing a long song to 4th grade. Instead I set them up to have a discussion. Unlike grades 5 and 6, grades 3 and 4 are extremely chatty. They tend to chat to each other throughout my lessons regardless or not. It's a better place to start and test my ideas. I figured with some guidance it would work. So I skipped the song and we discussed the themes of the lessons in greater detail as groups. I walked around with my coworker and they were making sentences and practicing away. I called it a speaking activity and the only point was to use the TLC. They bought it and enjoyed it. At the end, the bell rang and one student was angry that I didn't teach the song. He really likes goofing off during song time. Most students hate song time. I thought it was a good start. I will definitely do it again.
I think the reason it worked is because the younger students will more readily practice speaking with each other. Also they have had less experience in public school English classrooms, so they are more willing to go against the norm.
A more interesting thing happened in my worst grade 6 class. I decided to walk in there and actually speak Korean to them. They hate speaking English, so I thought well then we can talk about our personal lives a bit then what we should be doing in Korean. I thought of it as an attitude changing idea.
Anyway, I only spoke a couple sentences before they said get on with the lesson, we don't want to hear about your life or tell you about ours. So I did.
About midway through the lesson, I pulled the best F-move yet. I was using TLC and asked "How did you get to Gangwon-do?" They took a field trip there instead of attending my class last week, so it was a good personalized question. They immediately said by bus. Then I started asking all about what you did? What you liked? What would you rather do? etc. They started talking to much so I said okay discuss with each other and I'll walk around and ask you in groups. It worked. I think they went on mostly in English for about 5 minutes. My coworker was quite shocked, too.
I think they thought they were 'wasting' class time by doing this. I thought it was time well spent even though we missed the last activity because of this.
PS: I would like to give mad props to Andrew for designing my sick new logo. Hope you all enjoy.
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