how to be positive

Although with business classes you are used to early morning or late evening classes, at the university you feel you have a choice and so do students. At the beginning of a semester, I  was shocked to realize that Scholarly Writing, the most difficult course I held, was scheduled early in the morning. By "difficult" I mean for the students. The course promised to be painstaking, because it involved a serious, creative process, writing -- both on the spot and in the form of home assignments. And students tend to agree with the quote, from Dorothy Parker, I like starting the course with:

"I hate writing. I love having written."

Foreseeing the troubles students were going to have, with the nature of the course and with the early hour (which at this age is a very serious problem), I decided to apply some of the methods I use in non-academic classes. I spent a couple of days brainstorming to find the appropriate warm-up activity that students would like and the course could use as a start. Eventually, I picked the popular and broad concept of music. The idea was that we start each class with a short piece of music (up to 5 minutes) that one of the students brings. This way, we get to know each other a bit better, we can build a stronger community, and we would overcome the problems specific to the start of the class, namely sleepiness corrupting concentration and late arrivals interrupting the flow. I tested the idea among my student-aged friends and it was approved.

You might ask how I integrated this task into the classes. Most of the times we had some short writing task connected to music, so students could feel this intro was not only about fun but also about work.

By now you must be dying to know how it went. I must say, it had a huge success. Students remembered and recalled it as a pleasant experience even way after the course ended. Because, as many students admitted, they "couldn't live without music." Apparently, I found a soft spot. 

Of course, I wouldn't be fair if I hadn't acknowledged that, while overall my choice was a success, it involved some less fortunate moments as well. It was just when I was exposed to its operation in practice that I realized how risky it was. Imagine, you have 15-20 students, each one different, with a different taste in music. And I handed the power of starting the class (that is, defining the tone of the class) to someone, whose mood and personality will influence us a great deal. For example, one student brought "Smack My Bitch Up" from Prodigy. It was not a positive start, but due to its extreme and well-known violence many people could isolate themselves from it, so the class was not wasted. One other time, however, someone's choice was a beautiful but devastatingly heart-breaking soundtrack. It killed us all. This was when I asked the group to pick something "positive" for the sake of all of us. Next class this is what one of them gave us as a positive start:

I love this song ever since. :-)

self-reflection

Like I wrote before, the end of the year calls for summary and closure. With children, I tend to find that creative frameworks work better, also for such a "serious" task as summarizing and visualizing the progress achieved in a period. With adults, however, more straight-forward methods seemed appropriate. First, I wanted to write, efficient, but I realized that would be an overstatement. Why? Because I experience that these self-reflective summaries have a very limited efficiency. Some people are more willing and able to observe (themselves) but a large majority just settles for what they think the teacher wants to hear.

I keep repeating that these evaluation forms are important to take seriously, because it is self-reflection that provides the most realistic feedback about their weekly efforts, serving either as an impetus or as a heads-up. And by the way, the assessment can be a source of valuable information for the teacher, the facilitator of those weekly efforts, as well. 

Funnily, the most useful feedback I received in these feedback forms was from a guy who didn't have the courage in any other way to ask me to call him not Andris (Andy) but András (Andrew).

dear john

When I teach writing, may that be academic or business, I like to demonstrate the importance of something students like to hate and neglect: punctuation. After this task they usually take it more seriously. (Of course, to know how to use punctuation is another story, but learning always starts with getting interested to make efforts.) So, let's give it a go, shall we? Please read the following excerpt, lacking punctuation, and indicate the appropriate punctuation marks.

dear john i want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men i yearn for you i have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart i can be forever happy will you let me be yours marsha

Are you done? Was it easy, was it difficult? Usually, depending on the level of the competence, it takes more or less time for the students but everyone manages. It is just occasional that someone stops, looks up at me suspiciously, and cries out that I fooled them. Because it is ambiguous. It has two solutions. The love letter you most probably made this text into (misled by the color of the post) is just one of the solutions. See? Depending on how you use punctuation, you may end up in a break-up with someone you (would have) wished to marry.

Dear John, I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart. I can be forever happy. Will you let me be yours? Marsha

Dear John, I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn. For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we are apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours, Marsha

Love it or hate it, admit to being impressed! :-)

once upon a time

In an extraordinary context, even the most boring task can be fun. Imagine having to practice the holy transformation of affirmative into negative and interrogative. Imagine an adult learner that has difficulties adopting to new knowledge and is stuck on failure. What do you do? 

What I did was blindfolding her and taking her into wonderland. She found herself in the middle of a tale -- an eagle talking to a fox -- which was so fantastic that she forgot to worry and started to enjoy. This is the story she made up between a certain Ms Eagle and a naughty boy named Foxy.

the child in us

My beginner adult learner is progressing nicely. I realized not only is she motivated but she is also diligent. To keep her going, all I need to provide is enjoyable and simple tasks. Irregulars and "but"s don't work with her competence (she is not used to learning) and for her goal (in 2 months only survival, not perfection, can be the realistic aim). So, I started thinking: what would kids like doing? Pictures, colors, manual activity. Every time we need to practice a certain structure, I try to place it in some visual context, for example.

 

This above was an intro to the use of "be", which, in our native language is practically non-existent; therefore, it needs repeated clarifications and drilling. With the first pictures, she was still hesitant, but by the end she amused herself with the handsomeness of the fish.