At the close of the last semester I was entering grades and looking over past student work and exams ad nauseam. The process was highly instructive. Off the top of my head, here's what I learned along with some general truths I've picked up during the previous months (in no particular order).
- There was general improvement the more students were writing. Writing is a very independent process -successes and failures are dependent upon the individual. Greater responsibility was likely felt and therefor motivating.
- Every assignment (especially writing) should focus on one aspect of correction. For example, just spelling or just a very specific grammatical point.
- Projects are great learning tools. It gives the student something to work on and to be proud of. Autonomy can leave very little to hide behind.
- Group work has it's place. From my current perspective though (and grade level), when it comes to speaking related skills it is not so much a way to learn English. Typically the activities end up a bit zany and unproductive. Group work related to writing gets along better since there is much more structure and tends to be easier for me to manage.
- This said, I have not given up. I've noticed definite weak points in speaking skill related activities, primarily, they just aren't as structured as they need to be.
- I would estimate that 75% of my students pretty much can't read English. The rest either are very good or just so-so. To be brief, the school does not have a formal reading program. Both of these facts hit me around the same point in time and made me realize why learning has been so difficult for so many of them. If you can't read, you can't help yourself. If you can't help yourself, learning is very, very, very, very difficult.
- A reading program for my students (and school) must be implemented every day in a way that does not impede the core curriculum too much. Balancing the big picture (core curriculum) with one skill (reading) is necessary. That said, I believe now being able to read (or catching up the ability) is just as, if not, more important than the core curriculum. Unfortunately, some things are not so simple.
- Point systems make classroom management very easy. Once refined, things only get easier still.
- I am convinced that a classroom of any size can be managed by one person, it's just a matter of figuring out how. I think of a military officer barking at several dozen recruits, neatly in line, doing as they're told (yelled). There's a way, find it.
- Praise and encouragement truly are wonderful motivators. The difficulty was finding how to make my praise and encouragement actually motivate. It didn't matter if I meant it. What mattered was if the student cared that I meant it. In other words, if a student doesn't like me or respect me, my praise and encouragement is meaningless.
- Conversely, disappointment and apathy are wonderful motivators. If a student is failing me and therefor themselves, if they like or respect me when I show disinterest in them or disappointment because of a shortcoming they will be motivated to be more.
That is all.
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