Professional development | In Treatment night three at WSI

Role-playing therapist and patient (with attitude of their choosing)

Think about your lesson and answer the question.

• What happened according to plan? we discussed the series and what happened in the previous episode. Learners made predictions based on an introductory scene of the current episode. We created a mind-map of vocabulary related to attitudes, I gave examples, clarified meaning, and drilled pronunciation. We listened to a scene, completed a gap-fill and improved listening for specific information. We listened again and answered some gist questions. Learners took a few moments to decide upon three words to describe the character's attitude. I further clarified some of the vocabulary from the board. We role-played a patient-therapist situation like the one in the episode, and therapists tried to guess the chosen attitudes of their patients. We finished more or less on time.
• What didn’t happen according to plan? 1) I hadn't checked the video was ready and as a result when I went to look for it discovered the computer, where I had copied it, is set to do an automatic clean-up upon reboot, and I found myself having to search for it on YouTube, and alas, being copyrighted, I could only find a shorter documentary version of it, which sufficed to provide listening for about three-quarters of the text. 2) Because of a 'difficult' encounter (level checking class) before this lesson, I used my set time for it and not to prepared photocopies, this delayed things – the photocopier became jammed midway through printing the last page of the worksheet and as a result learners had to share before the last listening task. 3) Owing to these delays, the post-listening task that I'd planned to run 17 minutes lasted more like 7 minutes. 
• What happened that I didn’t expect? The photocopier jammed. Twice as many learners than I expected showed up. I apologised for the lack of worksheet copies. I had to leave the room once or twice to arrange more copies.
• What would I do differently next time, and why? I'd be a little less relaxed about preparation. The problems with the video and worksheets completely changed the pace of the lesson so that in between stages learners, I think, might have switched off somewhat, and we didn't make it to the post-listening stage with enough time, at least to mix pairs / roles. I'd like to keep up a good rapport with the class for the rest of these series of lessons.

Statement	Evaluation
1 I achieved what I was aiming to do.	0  1  2  3  4  5
2 I managed the class effectively.	0  1  2  3  4  5
3 I Involved the learners.	0  1  2  3  4  5
4 I used the time effectively.	0  1  2  3  4  5
5 I used the materials / aids effectively.	0  1  2  3  4  5

Cooking class posters – WSI

'In treatment' lesson poster – WSI

In this series of classes Ss watch a 25 minute episode of HBO series In Treatment, which portrays the troubled lives and psychotherapy sessions of a varied set of interesting characters. Ss answer questions to develop listening skills, while also increasing Ss' awareness of vocabulary related to human emotions and attitudes. More significantly, by using video Ss will see the language in use, match intonation to facial expressions etc., and also be shown via demonstration what may be needed in a role-play activity.

this poster was displayed at the institute and on the institute's blog and Facebook page

Raining On The Rock – WSI

Though a lesson from a long time ago, I wanted to upload some students' writings I found today going through my papers, to keep record of.


This was the exercise

the writings

Professional development | Aviators Castaways Jigsaws & Pyramids – WSI

The survivors of Castaway reality TV show & one intensive
task-based lesson for a Friday evening.

A communicative focus. Aim: learners developed oral fluency and confidence through solving tasks or problems; subsidiary aim to develop listening sub-skills.

A 'pyramid' discussion in which students decide on items they believe would be necessary for survival on a desert island (the theme of the lesson). They must agree first in pairs, then threes, in groups, and finally as a whole class, in the hope of stimulating debate, negotiation, teamwork and problem-solving.

I showed a short video of my own voyage to a small island in the South Pacific, The Cook Islands, and animated map, to engage the class and personalise the topic. 

In building a discussion of the topic and in encouraging early communication I played a short listening text. North American record-breaker & aviator Amelia Earhart was a castaway with co-pilot on the remote Pacific island of Nikumaroro. The listening text was used with a simple jigsaw task. Jigsaw task: learners  listen repeatedly to the report, gap-filling, piecing together a short transcription of it in separate groups, then put findings together as a class to understand the whole 'picture' of Amelia's story.

Useful language during the lesson was

I handed this out during the pyramid discussion.

The lesson, task-based, follows a fluency first approach: a communication -> language focus -> practice -> communication.

narrative

I created A and B worksheets which contained different parts of the report (pictured below; the 'jigsaw'). There were two recordings of the news report, I cued those at different points.

We began on time – with only two late arrivals – and I showed the class the video of the Cook Islands. I told them by the end of the lesson they would get to travel to an island. I chested the worksheets and checked understanding.

I assigned groups, handed them the worksheets, and we moved into separate rooms. I staggered instructions asking them to sit on their hands during the listening and only complete the gap-fill after listening to it. I started the two-minute listening. Each group listened three or four times before their once skeletal report and gap-fill was now fleshed out.

This was only preparatory to the communicative focus of the lesson shape and designed to stimulate early communication. I took some work to get everyone back together and to segue from this into the language-focused stage.

The whole class seemed to be engaged and close to the materials. They successfully de-fragmented the report and gained a full understanding of it. It was good to feel redundant (!) at this point as they discussed the text without my help using the language. 

Jigsaw tasks are great for comprehension, sharing information in order to close a gap.

I only monitored to correct slips, to concept check and get feedback ready. Minimal teacher talk (TTT) is good in language lessons, especially communicative-focussed.
    
We broke up again into original groups, filling the 3 tables in the classroom. The class seemed highly engaged.

I congratulated the class for being successfully selected for a reality show 'Castaways' and welcomed them to the 'TV studio'. 

The new audience gave a round of applause!
    
They chose only eight items to take with them to a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean from a handout. The prize was one million dollars. I gave three minutes for the task to work individually. They began deciding together. I announced a change of plan and that they would live in pairs on the island, and must now decide on eight items to share between them. I handed out useful language (above) for justifying their selected items during this stage. I elicited examples with the language before moving to another table.

I interrupted to say they would live in groups on the island. In groups they debated quiet a lot over the items they would take. Meanwhile I drew a box on the board labelled 1 though 8 on the outside (pictured below). I fetched some leis I had stored away.

I put the leis around the neck of one candidate nominating her as co-ordinator of the final 'event'. I asked everyone to stand around the board to decide as a class unanimously on eight items: the whole class would win the prize money if they could live on the island as one happy community, content with the eight items they should choose..

Some short plenary feedback and the lesson ended.

• I was happy with the way the jigsaw activity (the transcription of the radio news piece) worked really well; the way students worked in groups to piece together the almost 'skeleton' text I gave them.
• I wasn’t so happy with the way gaining attention was hard, to signal instructions between stages.
• Next time, I’d either take away the worksheets or notify pair at a time we were about to form a whole class again
• I learned that jigsaw tasks are quite effective to stimulate discussion.
• I learned that Friday night lessons, after long weeks at work, don't have to be cumbersome. 

1= because it was difficult to regroup between tasks

from Oliver Twist by Dickens

This bitter disappointment caused Oliver much sorrow 

and grief, even in the midst of his happiness; for he

had comforted himself many times during his illness, with

thinking of all that Mr. Brownlow and Mrs. Bedwin 

would say to him: and what delight it would be to tell

them how many long days and nights he had passed in 

reflecting on what they had done for him, and in 

wailing his cruel separation from them. The hope 

of eventually clearing himself with them, too, and ex-

plaining how he had been forced away, had buoyed him

up, and sustained him, under many of his recent trials; 

and now, the idea that they should have gone so far,

and carried with them the belief that he was an impostor

and a robber – a belief which might remain uncontra-

dicted to his dying day – was almost more than he 

could bear.

The circumstance occasioned no alteration, however,

in the behaviour of his benefactors. After another fort-

night, when the fine warm weather had fairly begun, and

every tree and flower was putting forth its young leaves

and rich blossoms, they made preparations for quitting

the house at Chertsey, for some months. Sending the 

plate, which had so excited the Jew's cupidity, to the 

banker's; and leaving Giles and another servant in care

of the house, they departed to a cottage at some distance

in the country, and took Oliver with them.

Who can describe the pleasure and delight, the peace

of mind and soft tranquility, the sickly boy felt in the 

balmy air, and among the green hills and rich woods

of an island village! Who can tell how scenes of peace

and quietude sink into the minds of pain-worn dwellers

in close and noisy places, and carry their own freshness,

deep into their jaded hearts! Men who have lived in

crowded, pent-up streets, through lives of toil, and who

have never wished for change; men to whom custom 

has indeed been second nature, and who have come

almost to love each brick and stone that formed the

narrow boundaries of their daily walks; even they,

with the hand of death upon them, have been known

to yearn at last for one short glimpse of Nature's face;

and, carried, far from the scenes of their old pains and

pleasures, have seemed to pass at once into a new state

of being. Crawling forth, from day to day, to some 

green sunny spot, they have had such memories wak-

ened up within them by the sight of sky, and hill, and

plain, and glistening water, that a foretaste of heaven 

itself has soothed their quick decline, and they have 

sunk into their tombs, as peacefully as the sun, whose

setting they watched from their lonely chamber-window

but a few hours before, faded from their dim and feeble

sight! The memories which peaceful country scenes 

call up, are not of this world, nor of its thoughts and 

hopes. Their gentle influence may teach us how to 

weave fresh garlands for the graves of those we loved:

may purify our thoughts, and bear down before it old

enmity and hatred; but beneath all this, there lingers,

in the least reflective mind, a vague and half-formed

consciousness of having held such feelings long before,

in some remote and distant time, which calls up solemn

thoughts of distant times to come, and bends down pride

and worldliness beneath it.

A select home screen of ELT apps . . .

Grammatical Gender Assignment

commentary

In French a noun may either be feminine or masculine, be it inanimate, conceptual, or living. These are either/or semantic opposites: the thing implied must be of one gender or the other, as follows:-

le for masculine nouns, les for plural (le canard, les canards);

la for feminine nouns, les for plural (las vache, les vaches).

(indefinite articles:- un, une, des)

This is not exclusive to French, but a part of all Romance languages. However this apparently arbitrary classification came to be is cause for wonder, even for French speakers.

The subject interested me as, being a speaker of Castellano (Spanish), I sometimes struggle to use the correct grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or (scantly used) neuter. It spurred me to think a little more on how it is used. 

Unlike French, the conundrum is not quite so great in Castellano since a large many so nouns end in either a or o (feminine; masculine). See 'LESSON II - GENDER' from my first instruction in Castellano via the Teach Yourself series:

LESSON II - GENDER from Spanish by N.Scarlyn Wilson, first printed and published
in 1939  by David McKay Co. Inc. (predecessor to Random House) 

Difficulties aside there are clear advantages. For instance, take an everyday utterance ripe with nouns, pronouns and possessives,

el techo de mi casa y el de la que Ud. compra;

the roof of my house and (that of) the one you are buying.

Immediately you can see the Castellano is shorter; the roof is masculine, the house(s) is(are) feminine, such that when they are referred to again at the end it is clear which stands for what: – el, the roof, and la, the house. 

Incidentally, 'that of' may well be left out entirely in spoken English. In which case doubt is cast over whether it was the house or the roof the two the second speaker was buying. In Castellano we can see 'that of' is masculine and 'the one' is feminine, both are singular, and easy to understand. 

In addition to this, the items to which el or la stand for are not always obliged to reside in the same sentence. They can be repeated in order to summon that previously mentioned thing (masculine, feminine, singular, or plural). 

    

One has to admit the demonstratives shown in the example above are neater and yield greater capabilities than does our poor gender-less English.

ventanas; windows

el techo y las ventanas de mi casa y las de la que Vd. compra.

Now we see by las that it is the windows which the speaker is referring to and NOT the roof. 


A full phrase,

Fué el baño, los techos y las ventanas de mi casa y las de la que Vd. compra también que se dañaron, no la suya ni aquella;

It was the bathroom, the roofs and windows of my house and those of the one you are buying, too, that were damaged, not hers nor that one over there (yonder).

From the English phrase we can't properly determine what 'those', 'the one', 'hers', 'that one', 'yonder' might be, and the bathrooms, houses, roofs, and windows are all ambiguously mixed into one (headache!). Here, new prepositions, repeating the nouns, or an altogether rephrasing of the example would be necessary in order to be clear.  

Well, in making a long story short... wait, that's precisely what we can't do! Okay, maybe it's not all that and your reader will do well to coax it straight out into something more coherent, but it will never be made to reduce to the succinctness of the Castellano.

Marcos's English Corner

Private tuition: Marcos Rodriguez (Economist, Rural Development)

Lesson No.1 

Comparisons practice

find the magic word

Lesson No.2

Phrasal Verbs practice

Comparisons with gerunds

Lesson No. 3 

Reported Questions & Speech

make sentences with 'he said...' or 'he asked...'

Lesson No.4                                                                                                materials (PDF)

listening with BBC's Blue Whale

Lesson No.5                                                                                              materials (PDF)

Qualitative Assessment 

Lesson No.6

Speaking with Role-play & Cambridge Proficiency Exam discussion 

Lesson No.7

Qualitative Assessment 

Lesson No.8                                                                                                        materials (PDF)

Suffixes 

e-mail, not email

commentary

We don't write ubend, aframe, oring, abomb, hbomb, alist, blist, bboy, bside, csection, dday, hhour, ebook, ecommerce, fhole, fnumber, fstop, nor as much fword, vsign, tshirt, gstring, yfronts, tback, vneck, tzone, gspot, and certainly never ldriver, lplate, tjunction, uturn, uey, sbend, vsix, tbar, tbone, tcells, svideo, xrated, or xray, so why do we write email?

It's probable that the dash has been lost in the mail, as it were, as the word has moved itself out of the computing lexicon and into common everyday usage. However, whether this mail issue actually owes to a form of slovenliness within the male, is out for speculation . . .

And while we're sorting through it, 'mail' has always been uncountable. So that:

'I have some mail (or "post"†)'

is in high frequency, but not,

'I have three mails'!

'I have three e-mails' has become frequent – I have three electronic mails?

A verb, yes: 'we mailed it to them'. letters, pages, sheets, leafs, folios, postcards, memos, memorandums, newsletters, notes, cards and messages.

From the 2011 publication of the Oxford Dictionary of English:-

message /'mɛsɪdʒ /► noun1. a verbal, written, or recorded communication sent to or left for a recipient who cannot be contacted directly: if I'm not there leave a message on the answerphone. 

■  (also mail message)  an item of electronic mail.

At current, 'email' scores an 11.06 billion uses on the web versus a 6.19 billion uses of the hyphenated 'e-mail'.

Users, junk email and keep 'e-mail' if we're being presecriptive.

I suppose 'mail messages' has more syllables than mails.

† 'mail' is Standard American English when used with reference to the postal system e.g. you can order by mail. In British English, you can order by post.

English Language in Argentina