My WhatsApp Project

I’ve been teaching English for almost ten years; most of them dedicated to private classes. During this time, I’ve developed close relationships with my one2one students by ensuring confidentiality, through the golden rule of never mentioning who I’m teaching to other students.  However, as the number of business students increased, I noticed that my learners had professional goals and backgrounds in common.

These backgrounds and professions benefit already from day to day business networking but seemed that language lessons may also offer a wider networking opportunity. As networking is a vital skill in all business sectors and industries I began to design a new class to foster both learning and language skills through networking. This would greatly enhance both areas, as well as offering increased benefits to all students over and above basic language lessons.

As most of my teaching is conducted on one2one students, none of the students who participated knew each other to begin with.

The project started with two main objectives:

• Provide my B1 students with specific language training to improve business networking skills
• Enhance and develop student’s productive skills, in particular, their written work – this would allow for detailed error correction.

In the initial trial, I set up 4 different whatsapp groups and encouraged my students to start introducing themselves and share anything they wanted to about their professional lives.

At this first stage I purposefully didn’t interact with my students beyond introducing them to each other. Once a connection had been established, I began to monitor and start to correct the mistakes as, and when, they came up. However, since the main objective was enhancing communication, and to ensure a realistic feeling of networking for the students, I chose to employ a style of delayed error correction.

This allowed students to initially reflect on their own conversational errors, focusing on how spelling affected their legibility. Then, at a later stage, pieces of text from different participating groups were given to them to critique and correct grammar accuracy.

This second stage was vital as students not only had to correct others mistakes but also provide constructive criticism and account for their corrections. This ensured enhanced learning and wider networking amongst the groups.

Subsequent classes have now moved the training focus to focus, specifically, on my students’ communication skills. Building on the initial stages of the project, I started to encourage students to not only correct mistakes but to pose follow and clarification questions. These questions, and their responses, were then examined in the lesson by using the white board white board to provide helpful examples and to manipulate the language the students were constructing.

From these initial trials, the ‘networking’ lesson plan structure was highly successful in fostering professional networking who have been studying English as second language, Business English and language accuracy for over a year. Students remained highly engaged with the ‘real world’ nature of the lessons and felt they benefitted them more as they were practicing and training in skills that they used every day.

“Bad Tidings”

After a long hiatus (since June!) of almost 6 months without posting a single line, I’ve decided to come back. The reasons I stopped writing are gone now. So here I am sharing an interesting class story with you.

Most people don’t know that I love art! In fact, I was an art history student during my years in Buenos Aires. Therefore, it would only be natural to use art in my lessons. As a teacher, I find it important to go beyond grammar and vocabulary as well as nurture critical thinking regardless of the topic.

I won’t dwell on “What’s art?” or whether new exhibitions should or shouldn’t be considered art. I would rather focus on how art can be used for educational purposes: as a social tool or, as in my case, a language tool. Current discussions have shown how important museums are. What’s more, art is a rich and vast field worth talking about, as well as bringing it into an English class.

Being a teacher is a full-time job. Whatever you see can potentially be used in a class. It was during my visit to Rijiks Museum that I saw a painting from 1932 called Bad Tidings. Within minutes, I designed an activity, took a picture, and sent it to my students with the following question: What’s written in the letter? All my students replied that I should be having fun instead of sending homework; after all, I was on vacation. Except for one student! He took the task to a whole new level – he wrote the letter.

What you will see below are extracts from his text without corrections, the way it was sent to me. No way am I here to criticize my student’s work.  Regardless of his mistakes, it is an exceptional piece of writing. For starters, he answered the question and it highlighted his creativity. Also, his use of connectors was excellent – we had worked on a list of conjunctions weeks before – and I could see that he has grasped the subject.

Miranda was the writer who has sent a letter to Brazil. Although all Amsterdam’s citizen was depressed in that days at the time, Miranda was completely hopeful because she has given the letter to Mr. Johnson, and he was travelling to Brazil…

…Dear Mr. Wanderley,

In spite of you don’t know me, we have a lot of things in common. Indeed, I didn’t express myself correctly, in fact, we have a huge familiarity because your father was mine too. Evidently, you might understand nothing, but I’ll try help you….

…First of all, our father has died. He passed away a two month ago and the reason was his depression, because he went bankrupt as a result of the Wall Street crash – the worst economic crises of the world in 1929…In brief, the reason I’ve written this letter to you is that I would like to know you in person, after all we are blood brothers…

…In conclusion, we have many stories to talk to each other, don’t we?…

Undoubtedly, most of my students’ mistakes derive from L1 interference. But, why does L1 interference have to be bad? Why don’t we use it as an aid in our classes? Many analogies in L1 work in learning a new language and help students to internalize some structures. It’s part of the teacher’s task to raise learners’ awareness of the effects of L1 on L2 and help them avoid unhelpful effects and benefit from helpful ones (Lewis, Michael. Implementing the Lexical approach).

I’m very careful when it comes to error correction. All aspects of students’ efforts should be taken into account since there’s a thin line between providing constructive feedback and demotivating students. Mainly because the idea of making mistakes is somewhat linked to a negative aspect of the learning process. Evidently, every teacher has their own method and beliefs regarding error correction. Personally, I believe in self-correction, and oftentimes my students can identify their errors. However, for those who fail to spot them, I use codes such as WO (word order) Gr (grammar) or WW (wrong word) – which they are very familiar with. This proved to be very efficient since it has given them autonomy, in other words, they now share with me the responsibility for their learning.

To sum up, keep a positive attitude towards error correction. Because that’s how I see mistakes: as new opportunities to make things right.

 

https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/e-is-for-error/

Lewis, Michael. Implementing the Lexical Approach. Heinle Cengage Learning.

Lesson Plan: Can a 6-year-old Girl Be a Judge for One Day?

Last week a video of a judge from Rhode Island went viral when he asked a six-year old to help him. We all know that a judge must uphold the law, but Frank Caprio went above and beyond by being fair and candid.

Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02Y2y2U5ENs

Since my students love talking about what’s going on online, I thought it would be interesting to review conditional sentences and introduce crime vocabulary by using a real court case.

I hope you enjoy the lesson!!

Warm up:  Write on the WB the definition of “Judge”

Have your students guess whose noun that definition belongs to

Lead-in: Gap fill exercise (Vocabulary exercise)

Have your students complete the text using the words given. I personally loved this exercise because it would involve all the vocabulary used in a real courtroom and could be easily seen/ used in this particular scene.

CRIME VOCABULARY

Watch the video

After watching the video elicit from the students:

• What was the crime?
• What were the options given by the judge?
• What would you have done in the little girl’s shoes?
• Have you ever been fined?

Reading

Then move on to a reading activity which is an article about Judge Frank Caprio and a 5-year-old boy “judging” a case.  I’ve prepared two different activities to deal with the vocabulary from the text. For my B2 students I’d use the exercise as a Pre-teach vocabulary exercise. For my A2 students, I’d use as a post reading exercise as it’s a simple matching activity.

You can also take some time to ask your students their opinion on the matter.

• Why do you think the judge invited the boy to his bench?
• How would you feel if you were the father?
• How would you handle the case if you were the judge?

Judge_Dad’s punishment

PTV_Judge_Dad’s punishement

PTV_Judge_Dad’s punishment_Vocabulary EXE2

 

Both the text and the video show examples of conditional sentences type 1 and 2. Elicit from the students examples, if they can’t remember, play the video again and write the sentences on the board.

Grammar

Once again elicit from your students which one is real and which is hypothetical. Use their answers to manipulate the sentences.

Oral/ Written Practice (Freer)

In order to practice both constructions, I would encourage my students to write down new options for the girl to choose from.

Once again write their answers on the board and use them to manipulate language. In that stage I would introduce “whether, when, as long as” and other connectors that can replace “IF”

FEEDBACK

What I learned from my first BT event

I’ve been teaching English and Portuguese to speakers of a foreigner language for almost ten years now. During this period I’ve gathered good and bad stories to tell… It was in 2008 that I moved to Buenos Aires and was offered my first Portuguese class. Since I wasn’t familiar with teaching, my coordinator invited me to a friendly chat to discuss methodologies and show me some materials. After seeing her amazing handouts, I asked her if I could use them; and to my surprise she said: “No. They’re mine. It’s not my job to provide you with materials. Get your own.” I’ve always thought that a language coordinator could be anything but selfish. It’s not a matter of being or not able to prepare the lesson, sometimes the only thing you need is direction. From that day on, I’ve prepared everything that I use in my classes myself.

That experience has accompanied me throughout the years and it’s emphasized by the way I’ve been working since that particular meeting: I don’t have a website, I don’t work for a language institute and I find most of my students via word-a-mouth – which is great, really! – But also makes me a loner. Or I thought, until yesterday.

I went to my first Braz-Tesol last Saturday. I was amazed to see that we’re such a huge community. As a loner, myself, I’ve been quite resistant to attend this sort of event, but I’m glad I finally did. I met motivated and generous people who were there to share: share their experiences, their doubts, their fears and their lessons. Because that’s what teachers do:  SHARE, we are givers.

The second talk I attended was “Learning English: a Reflection through practical activities that contribute to memory retention” given by Andreia Fernandes. At first I thought if it wouldn’t be rather unfair only to mention this talk. However, since the reason I’m writing is to cherish those who share valid activities for students, I believe I’m doing the right thing here! Besides, there was something about the way she talked that made me feel welcome. I wonder what kind of atmosphere she creates in her classroom, a homely one (for sure!).

She started off by showing some pictures, that eventually would take us to the earliest of our childhood memories, and explaining how the brain works. Then, she moved onto the memory and how people retain information. Andreia also mentioned that our five senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste) play a major role in memory retention; therefore, if we want to make our lessons memorable, they should be present in our classes.

From the activities she presented, without a doubt, my favourite was the “Dice” – which I’m going to test as of Monday with my eight-year-olds. This is how it works:

• Write a word in a slip of paper
• Students take turns to roll the dice, and
• Students finally follow the instructions based on the number on the dice.

It’s perfect to review/recycle vocabulary taught in previous classes and it involves using at least 3 senses: visual – because students read the paper and the instructions. Touch – students touch the slip of paper and roll the dice. Hearing – students need to pay attention to their classmates. What’s more it’s fun!

Andreia’s main point was to provide activities for a memorable class and it was certainly for me. Her kindness and selflessness convinced me that I don’t need to be a loner anymore because there is a community ready and willing to help one another.

Old video, new class!

I first saw this video last august during the Business Course I took in London. It was suggested by my tutor Alan, who enjoys using TED to teach teachers. So, it was originally his idea, but I took it and made it my own.

Source: TED Talks  https://www.ted.com/talks/nilofer_merchant_got_a_meeting_take_a_walk

Materials:  Word cloud and Mark Powell’s book (page 41)

Warm up:

• How often do you exercise?
• What kind of excuses do people give in order to avoid exercising?
• How many hours per day are you sitting?

Lead-in:

Explain to your students they are going to read a short text. Have they write down what’s the text is about based on the word cloud.

Have them share their ideas and write some of them on the WB.

Reading:

Have the students read the audio script and check if they got it right

• What’s your opinion?
• Would you consider walking and talking with a client?

Imagine you have to sell this idea to people at your company. How would you pitch this philosophy? Explain that they can read the text.

Record your student’s performance.

Tell them that someone presented this text in a conference and we’re going to watch it.

• How was her performance?
• Did she get your attention?
• What can you tell me about her intonation?
• Why does she do that?

Listen to the student recordings, compare and ask what they would do differently and why.

Present:

Go back to the text and have students underline in which words the stress lies. Are all the words stressed? Why not?

• Provide examples of unstressed words from the text.
• Call their attention to “that” x “that”
• Prepositions/ personal pronouns/ verb to be are not stressed.

Practice:

Have student complete written task (controlled practice)

Have student complete oral task from Powell’s book – My favourite for Presentations!!

Elicit from your students stress within words: such as /ed/ sounds or the schwa

Have them find at least 5 words that contain a schwa in it.

Provide feedback on the WB

Oral Practice:

Have student read the text and record their voices again to check changes in their intonation patterns.

 

 

 

 

 

Business Class: Dealing with Numbers

I’ve been thinking about designing a lesson about Brexit for a long time. But I’ve never come around to doing it. Thanks to my beloved friend Cecilia, who encouraged me to start writing and sharing Business lessons, I’ve finally finished it. I hope you like it!

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39337693

Materials: Handouts for PTV and numbers (BBC Market data chart – great resource)

Aim: Dealing with figures

Level: B1/B2

Warm up:

• Do you read about Politics around the world?
• What’s Brexit?

VIDEO: From The Guardian

Post listening:

• This situation has brought uncertainty to people who live in the UK and outside. How many complex issues did he mention?
• Can you write down at least 3 questions?

Reading:

• Pre teach vocabulary

Have the students decide if the words have been defined correctly

Have students read the article (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39337693)

Post reading:

• What’s happening on April 29?
• When is the UK triggering the article 50?
• Do Leave and Remain voters want the same things?

Dealing with figures

Have students identify the figures in the text

Have students write them in full

Teacher provides feedback on the WB – I always give feedback on the WB to manipulate useful language.

Teacher can also provide more examples:

• 1994
• 58% = 0.58 nought/ zero point five-eight percent
• Is it 1,300, 402 or 1.300.402?
• $1.5m – One million dollars or one and a half million dollars
• 1/3 one third or a third
• 2/3 two thirds

Have students complete gap fill exercise (BBC Market data chart)

Note 1: If you are teaching groups, you can have students in pairs. In this case, you should provide two different charts so that they can ask one another the missing numbers to complete them. This is a great opportunity to monitor students and use question order mistakes for error correction.

Note 2: If you teach one-to-one, dictation is the way to go. Provide your student a short piece of news with some gaps, read it aloud and have your student complete it.

What I personally like about this last exercise is that it leads to a next class on describing trends.

 

VOCABULARY

Decide whether the definitions below are true or false and account for your answers:

• Cabinet: a private room on a ship or boat (  )
• Pollster: one that conducts a poll or compiles data obtained by a poll (  )
• Trigger: to separate into parts with suddenness or violence (  )
• Regret: to be very sorry for (  )
• Painless: to make suffer or cause distress (  )
• Restrictions: having no boundaries (  )
• Draft: a preliminary sketch, outline, or version (  )
• Ratify: to approve and sanction formally (  )

 

Let’s talk about Failure…

Admitting to yourself that you weren’t good enough for anything is hard, let alone admitting it to the world. But sorry to break the news: Failure happens to all of us.

There are only two ways to look at it: you can sit down and cry or learn from it.

My first failure was the Michigan exam – I failed beautifully. I’m not embarrassed at all. In fact, I keep the report with my borderline and fail grades in the same place I keep my certificates. Why? Because it’s equally important. It’s a constant reminder that I can always do more.  When I became an English teacher in 2007, I knew I had to study hard and try to take the best courses – I truly believe that a good teacher has to be an excellent student. That is the only way you can improve your teaching skills and your students’ learning process. So I decided to apply for CELTA. And I failed. Twice! Yes, it took me two attempts to be accepted as a CELTA trainee. Since I wasn’t ready to give up, I asked my tutors-to-be what I needed to do in order to be accepted and I spent the following year ticking items from the list they kindly wrote to me.

For those who give up easily, here’s my advice: Don’t! Believe in yourself. You have to trust that you’re good enough. What if I had given up when the CELTA tutors said no? I wouldn’t be here telling you my story. Failure only means that you still have room for improvement, it means that you haven’t achieved your full potential because if you put your mind to it you’re always going to be successful.

My first post!!

My first post!!

I’ve chosen this picture to be the first entry in my blog! Since I’m going to be writing about students, lesson plans and business classes, it’s only fair to share this moment with those girls who encouraged me!

Last Saturday I was invited by my good friend Cecilia Nobre to attend the launching of this fantastic SIG called VOICES.  It’s going to be great for networking – she said. But honestly, it was more than that! It was about meeting great teachers, great women who are there to help one another and more importantly, about women who know their place in the world.

Thank you!