As teachers, we need to find ways to empower our students - many who come from diverse backgrounds and abilities. The best way to do this is to provide unique learning experiences that engage students from the VERY beginning of a lesson and for that matter, from the first day of school. When we are able to do this consistently, we can also help guide them to become more self-directed.
If you need help empowering your students - or you'd like to like to make better use of your time in the classroom, use this checklist to evaluate how you can build these systems for success.
1) Remember the Three R's - It rarely happens that you find the students at the right level - our expectations are always higher. Teaching is a process of "ups" and "downs" - but it doesn't mean you've wasted your time. It just means you need to review, repeat and reinforce the material again and again and in motivating ways. These are the three big R's in education and even more important with today's 21st century learner.
2) Be Flexible! As teachers, we should constantly work on the idea that we and only we are the bosses of the situation in class and whatever happens in class, good or bad, depends on us and our vision of how to go about it. We can ignore a misbehaving student and go on, or take advantage of the situation and make it a teachable moment for both us and the students. But the key word still remains - "flexibility" or "playing by the ear" should be a teacher's motto. Of course, you can only be flexible if your lesson is prepared thoroughly and only if this particular lesson fits nicely in the chain of lessons you taught before and are going to teach.
3) Zoom into what your students already know - Our students know a lot about many different things. Spend at least 5-7 minutes at the beginning of the lesson digging into that pool of knowledge. Use open-ended activities such as brainstorming. The more you engage them in the beginning of the lesson, the fewer discipline problems you will have.
4) Create a classroom community - Many of our English language learners may feel culturally and socially isolated in a classroom and don't feel connected to the classroom community. They also lack the listening, speaking, and reading vocabulary they need to understand complex ideas between words and texts. Provide activities that allow them to interact with other native English speakers. By understanding the struggles English language learners experience, you can help these students succeed by structuring activities a bit differently for them.
5) Be enthusiastic about what and how you teach. There will be some days when you aren't overly enthusiastic about the textbook or a unit and that's okay. The trick however is to use a variety of methodologies such as authentic instruction, communicative approaches and information gap activities. If the book you are using is boring or too difficult, supplement the book with other activities. Better yet, encourage your students to suggest a different unit or additional activities and then have the class take a vote. By offering students a choice, you give them autonomy over their own learning.
6) Connect to the child and with the child within yourself. Children are born naturally curious but somehow that curiosity fades away during the later schooling years. Keep both your own and your students' sense of wonder alive!
No comments:
Post a Comment