Reflection At The Chalkface

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|Reflection at the chalkface |
|by dalecoulter|
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|"Oh my gosh that was an absolute disaster, I lost complete control, they (the children) were running circles around me" - |
|[pic]An extract from my journal in December 2011, written after the YLs Iteach on Thursday afternoon had a particularly rowdy hour. They |
|were chatting (in Italian), distracted, not engaged in the lesson had absolutely no respect for their teacher. |
|"Little brats, why won't they just behave themsevles" |
|"They are absolute terrors"|
|It was quite unfortunate that these were the thoughts occupying my mind on the walk back to school. Why, you may ask, were they so negative?|
|It is perhaps a defence mechanism employed to mask whose responsibility it was to resolve this[pic] situation. In these cases, it is |
|tempting todeflect blame onto the easiest targets. Fortunately, the brisk walk back to work was enough to cleanse my mind of these |
|thoughts. By the time I arrived back to school, my thoughts had refocused on how I could take proactive steps to change this situation. |
|What is the cause of this problem?|
|How can I change my classroom to encourage more positive behaviour in my classroom? |
|In contrast, these are much more constructive thoughts, wouldn't you say? With this question in mind, I set about preparing a rough action |
|plan. First I identified a few salient points to improve: classroom management, use ofmaterials and grading of language. I figured that the|
|reason for the lack of students engagement in class was because the language was too difficult, the lesson pacing was too quick, the |
|structure of the lesson was not 'stir-and-settle' and tasks lasted too long. |
|In addition, without any system of giving feedback in place -I was relying on verbal feedback, which was useless, given that the learners |
|are more or less absolute beginners - students had no way of knowing how they behaved. |
|More engaging materials |
|Classroom layout|
|Lesson pacing |
|Feedback ||More engaging materials |
|The language school where I work is a veritable library of materials to use with YLs; they have everything from jazz chants to CLIL |
|activities. What is more, the teachers I work with are seasoned pros when it comes to teaching young...