Week 2.0 - Warm-Up with CI reflection

1-to-1 class.
Materials: Article.
Student requested "discussion with accuracy correction"

This was not exactly the most ideal situation as I'd asked the student if we could film the warm up for the course and she'd agreed. Then at the last moment had changed her mind. That left me with audio only.

I'd based the Warm-Up on some pre-reading I had given her. It was about lying and how to spot liars.

My goals for the warm up were to check her comprehension and to get her familiar and comfortable with using the basic vocab and collocations for the subject of the lesson.

I started with some general chat by asking her about her week, just to try and "turn on" the English part of her brain.

Next, I asked her to summerize what she had read (Comprehension Check, 1) and tried to elicit self-correction (Error Correction, 5) by looking confused if the error was severe enough. At other points, I recast the error as a correct sentence which she, for the most part, repeated before moving on (For example, "You're not FAMILIAR with the expression".

I also used direct correction (Error Correction, 1) although the sentences were short enough and the student high enough that chunking wasn't necessary.

I feel I achieved my goals to some extent. However, with recasting and on-the-spot corrections, the student still made similar errors later in the class. It seems the original error wasn't quite "washed away" so it will maybe require a more permanent (eg, on the WB) correction.

Week 1 - First impressions

Here's my first post for the SMU-TESOL program. I'm not much a journal keeper and even less of a blogger. In the past, I had a Korean indie music website that I kept up quite frequently but eventually died a death. I can't even remember the password any more.

The course got off to a good start for me. The overviews looked like they had some meaty subjects which is what I wanted. I need to get into the brain-straining elements of teaching as the basics don't feel enough any more.

It's been 11 years since I last bought an academic textbook (I'd forgotten how expensive they are!) and I hope with the extra 11 years of maturity, I can maintain my initial enthusiasm right to the finish line. As I'm planning to continue on with the Masters, that finish line seems quite a long way off at the moment. More of a steeple chase than a marathon. What'll be the first water hazard?!

Unlike my Bachelors degree, this course not only has real-world uses, but has immediate real-world uses that I can start incorporating into my day job. Quite different to studying English lit.

So, in short, a good start that'll hopefully reinvigorate my teaching and give me the boost to get me back into academia sharpish.