I will evaluate my teaching during the video using PPiPP (Preview/Present/isolate/Practice/Produce).
For this activity I did not do a PREVIEW.
However, it would have been quite easy to do one. The target language was using "What would you do if..." for questions and "He/she would.." for answers.
For a preview I could have simply stated at the beginning "What would I do if I won the lottery?" and then answered my own question by saying "I would buy a big house in the countryside. Or I would give all my money away to charity." Then I could have asked a few students through individual nomination or invitation to bid/reply "What would you do if you won the lottery?". This would have alerted the students to the target language and gotten them to start thinking of things they would like to do especially in regards to dreams and wishes (activating schema).
As was discussed with reflection 8 I need to and I am therefore endeavouring to reduce my teacher talk regarding directions and vocabulary at the beginning of a lesson.
For this activity I took almost 2 minutes to read and repeat the activity's directions. After that I did a very thorough model with actions and a student helping me do the pair work. Considering the level of my students just modeling would be sufficient. Since the students are only completing five "What would you do if..." questions with their own words it is very easy for them. It is also possible that mnay Middle School students could do it without verbal/written directions and then modeling. Only modeling might work if the modeling is done properly.
In addition I would not repeat the directions verbally. Asking a few ICQs (after the modeling) would be much better as it would test their knowledge of the activity not mine. I am also trying to not ask "Any questions?" anymore. Again, an ICQ would be much better. And to be honest - almost nobody ever asks a question after I say "Any questions?". No one did in this video.
At least I did not spend 17 minutes on directions/modeling/vocabulary like I did in the previous video.
I did do a PRESENTATION of the target language during the modeling (both questions and answers) as examples of correct completed questions were given (What would you do if your students were too noisy?) along with possible answers (I would scream louder than them).
I still have a little difficulty fully understanding ISOLATION or explanation. When the students individualy complete the questions with their own words - is that isolation? My understanding is that isolation involves controlled mechanical practice. Is isolation when we use the target language in a very simple way that is similar to filling in the blanks?
For this activity there is definitely PRACTICE. During pairwork the students will read their questions to their partner. The partner will verbally reply with "I would..." and the asker must write down their partner's answer onto the paper (He/she would...). Five questions and answers are down by each person.
This activity is missing any PRODUCTION. For production (using Blooms' revised taxonomy of higher order: analyze, evaluate, create) I could try the following: have the students survey their classmates using the questions they created. After the survey each student could write a paragraph or more describing the results of their survey. "What answers were common?", "What were some unique answers?" and "Did anyone think the same as me (have the same answers)?" Students could present their findings in groups of four. Or students could compare themselves with only their partners. Ask each pair to make a poster with two circles showing what was common and what was different. Common answers would be where the two circles overlap and differences would only be in their own circle. The students could also be asked "Why?" they gave the answers they did in a written assignment or in group discussion.
During individual work and pairwork I did not give time limits. I find that with higher level students, such as my current students, they can keep talking for a long time with just a few questions to get them started. Time limits might not be necessary as I can monitor them and see when everyone is finished. You will notice that I almost never stand at the front. I am constantly monitoring the class giving feedback, reading their answers and listening to their discourse. Now with middle school and high school it might be necessary to keep time for activities lest the students get bored (takes too long), the better students finish quickly and are bored, or it takes too long to wait for some slower students to complete the task. When teaching in public school in Canada I did time activities whereas in my current job I am often very flexible with time (except for public speeches: 2 to 4 minutes).
In this video we can see that I most likely gave them too much time for the pairwork (minute 12 to 29 for a total of 17 minutes).
Onto next week and more evaluation :)
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