CORE Unit 1 Classroom Management Section 2: Classroom Management - Monitoring & Feedback Introduction Monitoring & Feedback In a communicative and student-centred language learning classroom the learning is usually based around tasks. We use the term 'task' loosely here and it includes the following and many, many more •
a ga!-fill e"ercise
•
a team game - race to the board and circle the item the teacher says
•
answering #uestions about an audio cli! that comes with the course book
•
skimming through $ short, authentic news articles that the teacher has collected and co!ied, and deciding which one would be the most interesting to read in more detail
•
underlining all the %-ed words in a te"t and answering #uestions about %!ast sim!le
•
writing a short story
•
working as a grou! to design a !oster
•
designing a survey and then standing u! and interviewing all your classmates
•
chatting with a !artner about your !lans for the weekend
s such, a language teachers role is not not so much e"!lainer-lecturer e"!lainer-lecturer as it is coordinator-facilitator. coordinator-facilitator. (eachers (e achers need to be able to effectively set u! a variety of tasks, to monitor and listen to the students while they are doing each task and to !rovide a!!ro!riate feedback on the task, the l earners success success with the task and their language use. )owever, monitoring monitoring is not sim!ly walking around and *oining in on the odd conversation and feedback isnt *ust telling the students which sentences they said incorrectly. incorrectly. +o what do these essential as!ects of the teacher's role actually involve
Monitoring A. Which of the following should a teacher teacher do while monitoring? Read through the list, make a note of your answers and then compare with the suggested answers on pages 4 and 5. .
heck hec k that that all the studen students ts underst understand and the the task task and are doing doing it. it.
/.
+to! the class class if more more than 012 of of the students students dont unders understand, tand, and and clarify the the instructi instructions ons again.
0.
3oin in in to make make the final final !air !air when when there there is an odd number number of of students students..
4.
3oin in some some of the conver conversatio sations ns if it is a s!eaking s!eaking-base -based d task. task.
$.
)el! )el ! the the weak weaker er or or slow slower er stud student ents. s.
5.
6ncour 6nc ourage age lear learner ners s to use use 6ngl 6nglish ish only only..
7.
6ncour 6nc ourage age the stu studen dents ts to to s!ea s!eak k more more..
8.
+to! the class class briefly to give give them them some some ideas ideas of your own.
9.
+it or s#uat down when when interact interacting ing with with individuals individuals:grou! :grou!s s who are are seated. seated.
1. +it back, back, stare stare out the window, window, and let them them get on with it. it.
. orrect language mistakes. /. Make notes of some of their mistakes. 0. Make notes of some of their good language use. 4. Make notes of some of their ideas ;related to the to!ic or task, not the language<. $. =iagnose their listening, s!eaking, reading and writing abilities as a!!ro!riate to the task. 5. +ee how far away they are from com!leting the task. 7. Make a note of which students have the correct answer for each #uestion. 8. =o the task yourself so that you have the answers ready. 9. Mark any homework tasks that they handed in earlier in the lesson. /1. >re!are the ne"t ste! of the lesson.
Suggested ns!ers 1 & (he first thing you should do after setting u! a task is to #uickly but #uietly go around the room checking that all the students understand the task and are doing it. If a cou!le of students:grou!s dont understand you can hel! them individually, but if there are more than this you will save time by going over it with the whole class again. (hen, considering that they didnt understand the instructions the first time, you will !robably want to do a full demonstration of the task yourself ;either on the board if it is a written e"ercise or writing task, or with a student who did understand if it is a s!oken task? even a listening task can be done on the board by writing out the first !art of the task, listening to the first !art of the audio, and doing it on the board<.
!, 4 & 5 It is im!ortant that you do not *oin in any tasks. (here is a lot that you need to do when monitoring, and if you are !artici!ating you arent doing those other, more im!ortant, things. @f course, if a weaker or slower student needs a bit of hel!, you should work with them briefly until they get back on track. (ry not to let this take too much time, though, as you have other students to consider as well.
" & # It is good to encourage them to s!eak more and to use 6nglish, as long as this is done with a light touch, !olitely, and un-intrusively a very #uick, ABou know how to say that in 6nglishC with a smile and move on to the ne"t grou!, for e"am!le.
$ =o not interru!t them *ust to !rovide your own ideas. (hey need the !ractice and the focus, not you. If you are !roviding the ideas then it *ust means they have less to do, and whether that means less interaction or less cognitive effort, it results in less language develo!ment. If they genuinely arent coming u! with any suitable ideas, then make a note and think about how you can im!rove similar tasks for future lessons. (his does not mean sitting back and doing nothing, though. It means listening attentively to each student:grou!, and taking notes if !ossible.
% & 1 (ry to maintain an e#ual !hysical !osition when interacting with individuals:grou!s. +it down when the learners are sitting down. In fact, it can hel! to do this even when you are not interacting with them directly - it takes you out of that %controller !osition. good way to do this is to sit to one side of the
room and listen from there, getting u! and wandering #uietly around every now and again.
11 ' 15 >erha!s the most im!ortant as!ect of monitoring is diagnosing learners' use of 6nglish, in terms of systems ;vocab, grammar, !ronunciation, discourse< and skills ;reading writing, listening, s!eaking<. Bou need to !ay attention to what language they use inaccurately, and when they could be using different language ;i.e. more subtlety or more variety<, so you know how to hel! them im!rove ;through correction in this lesson and:or through re-clarification and !ractice in future lessons<. Dnless they are doing a task that focuses s!ecifically on accuracy, it is best not to correct the language there and then, though - more on this when we talk about feedback. Eote down some key errors and !ut them on the board after the task. (his way, they can focus all their attention on the task and the communication, and are more likely to be successful. It is im!ortant that you note good use of language, too. @ften when they use language accurately or use ocabulary or structures that their classmates might not know yet, they dont actually know that theyve done this. Gy highlighting good use of language, you are both encouraging them and reinforcing the fact that those words:!hrases:constructions are useful. Bou also want to make note of their ideas - the overall aim of language iscommunication, so by commenting on their ideas you let them know that the task had a valuable aim and that their communication was successful. Finally, !eo!le with good vocabulary and grammar arent necessarily good at listening, s!eaking, etc. Make sure you diagnose which as!ects of the skills they need more !ractice or hel! with too.
1" & 1# Monitor to see how long students need to com!lete the task. If about 512 of the students have finished or have nearly finished, you should sto! the task. (he longer the task continues, the more bored the #uick finishers will be, and the further behind the slow finishers will feel ;i.e. a student who has only com!leted / out of 7 #uestions can feel comforted in that the student sitting ne"t to him:her only finished $, but the same cant be said for someone who did 0 when their !eers have finished com!letely<. If they are all a long way from finishing, then you need to issue an e"tension on the time-limit and start !lanning how to ad*ust the rest of the lesson to allow for this. While doing this, take note of which !arts of the task the weaker students have com!leted a!!ro!riately. (hat way you can call on them during feedback for those s!ecific !arts, ensuring they !artici!ate in feedback without being !ut on the s!ot with an answer they dont have.
1$ ' s !reviously stated, there is a lot that you need to do when monitoring. If you are doing the task yourself, marking homework, or !re!aring for the ne"t stage of the lesson then you are not doing the other things you need to be doing. )omework should be marked during office hours, not class hours. nd you need to have the answers ready and each ste! of the lesson !re!aredbefore the lesson ;i.e. do it when you are doing your lesson !lanning<. @f course, if its something brief like wi!ing the board clean to get it ready for feedback, or having a #uick skim of the ne"t ste! in your !lan to refresh your memory, it is better to do it while they are working on a task than while they are all watching and waiting for you - *ust make sure that most of your time is dedicated to listening, watching and diagnosing the learners 6nglish.
In summary, when monitoring you •
+tart by checking that students understand and are doing the task.
•
=ont get overly involved with any one individual:grou!.
•
>ay attention to Hood use of language.
•
reas where use of language could be im!roved.
•
•
istening, s!eaking, reading and writing abili ty.
•
Ideas and successful communication.
•
(ake notes for feedback and error correction.
•
=e!ending on the aims of the task you might do some on-the-s!ot error correction.
•
If necessary, encourage interaction and use of 6nglish.
•
+ee how much of the task each student has com!leted.
•
=ecide when to sto! the task.
Feedback +o, before the task the teacher sets it u!. =uring the task the teacher monitors. What does the teacher do after the task (here are two overall reasons for giving feedback. @ne is to consolidate the task and check answers. (he other is to !rovide feedback on use of language and to correct errors, if a!!ro!riate. We will look at consolidating tasks and checking answers before looking at feedback on language use, but first there is one thing that nearl y always needs to ha!!en *ust before whole class feedback. Aheck with your !artner:neighbour:in !airsC should be one of the most common e"!ressions a teacher uses. fter any task that is done individually, students need the o!!ortunity to check with a !artner. If the students listen to an audio cli! and #uietly answer a true-false task while listening, they need to check with a !artner. If they do a ga!-fill e"ercise - check with a !artner. fter dictation - check with a !artner. %word-search - check with a !artner. 6tc. (his is beneficial in a number of ways •
+tronger students are able to hel! weaker students.
•
If two learners have succeeded at different !arts of the task, by combining their answers:ideas they end u! with a more com!lete task.
•
Where they have contrasting ideas:answers the ensuing discussion leads to more in-de!th understanding for both !arties.
•
(hey are more willing to share in whole class feedback, because they dont feel !ersonally res!onsible if it turns out they were %wrong ;i.e. the grou!:!air takes the heat off any one individual<.
•
It means feedback and consolidation is mostly done in a student-centred way ;which e#uals more active:involved learning and more o!!ortunity to !ractise communicating<.
•
It fosters an atmos!here of coo!eration and shared success.
•
It gives the teacher more time to monitor and assess how they are doing.
•
When you are using a cassette !layer, it gives you a chance to rewind the cassette before !laying it again, without making the students wait. +tudents usually want to check with someone first ;and may do it even if you dont allow time
•
for this, resulting in them missing whole class feedback or whatever the ne"t stage is that you have !lanned<.
Whole group feed(ack ' dos and don)ts .
If feedback is to !rovide a feeling of com!letion only, it should be very brief and general. Most of the time you should ask about three students to !rovide a #uick summary of their task or discussion. sim!le, A(Which job did your group choose? + We chose the doctor” is enough.
/.
hecking answers should also be #uick and sna!!y. Dsing the board with a sim!le % - c, %/ g, %0 - a a!!roach is clear and efficient. (here is no !oint dragging things out when it is *ust not necessary. common argument for a slower a!!roach is, AI like my students to read each question and answer out loud, in full, because they need practice saying whole sentencesC, but if you want to give them this kind of !ractice there are much more effective ways to do it. +ave time here by making feedback #uick and efficient, then use that time on another task - one that s!ecifically focuses on giving all the students !ractice saying whole sentences.
0.
If students dont have the answer, give it to them. @ften the answer becomes obvious once they have it, and this is enough. When they really dont understand its good to s!end a little bit of time hel!ing them to understand, but if it takes more than a minute, or is too heavy in teacher explanation, it is often best to make a note of it and !re!are a better way to clarify the !roblem in a later lesson.
4.
Monitoring hel!s you to make the feedback stage efficient. Gy the time you start the feedback you should already have a good idea of which answers they have right and which they have wrong or dont have. Bou can confirm which ones they have right #uickly, saving time to focus a little more on those they had trouble with.
$.
It is tem!ting to add e"!lanations to students answers, even if they got the answers correct, but what this does is use u! time that could be better used elsewhere. )el! them with the one or two they didnt get, and move on... and if there were a lot that they didnt get, then make a note and !re!are more achievable tasks for ne"t time.
5.
=ont re!eat everything the students say. If you are not s!ecifically focusing on !roviding an accurate model of !ronunciation, or some error correction, then re!eating after a student has little benefit and a lot of downsides. onsider the following •
It can sound !atronising.
•
+tudents who are used to teachers re!hrasing as !art of error correction will often assume they have made a mistake ;and may result in them avoiding what was actually good language, in future situations<.
•
It reinforces the idea that only the teacher is right.
•
It removes the need to listen to each other.
•
If
they are s!eaking
too #uietly or not
clearly enough, getting them to
re!eat themselves gives them a clear indication of this, and leads to clearer !ronunciation as a result. When the feedback is on ideas:communication, some genuinely interested follow-u! comments are great ;eg. A)mm... thats interestingC? A@h, no, you didnt, did youC? A@h, I do that too.C etc.<, and if sim!ly checking answers then sim!ly Ayes, goodC:Anot #uiteC is a good a!!roach. 7.
Make sure you nominate students during feedback. It is good to nominate a strong student first, to break the silence, but make sure you follow this u! by nominating some weaker or #uieter students too. If you are checking answers, then monitoring should have indicated which answers the weaker students got, so nominate them for those !articular #uestions.
8.
Feedback stages are not a good source of listening !ractice. +tudents very #uickly lose interest on what the one or two s!eakers are saying and their attention may drift off com!letely. Juick and sna!!y is the key.
*ore ideas for feed(ack We've looked at some basic rules of thumb for whole-grou! feedback. )ere are some additional ideas for more e"tended feedback:revision e"ercises.
2 " # Sel$-Correction While monitoring the teacher notes down a number of good e"!ressions:sentences that the students !roduce, es!ecially good use of language that has *ust been introduced, and a number of errors. s the task is coming to an end, select ;i< the / best e"am!les of good language use and ;ii< 4 errors that are most re!resentative of the most common mistakes. Write them u! on the board. When the task has finished, !rovide some brief consolidating feedback and comments on ideas and communication first. (hen draw attention to the 5 sentences on the board. et the students know that / are good and 4 need to be corrected, then have them work in !airs for /-$ minutes discussing which is which and making corrections as necessary. Finally, check with the whole class, erasing the errors and writing u! the corrected versions as you go through them.
%eer Correction If you have 0 or 4 large grou!s, while monitoring clearly note down some good and bad language use on se!arate sheets of !a!er for each grou!. When the task is finished, give grou! s language use to grou! G, grou! Gs to grou! , and grou! s to grou! , for e"am!le. 6ach grou! discusses the e"!ressions:sentences they have been given, deciding which are e"am!les of good language and making corrections to the others. When they have finished, the sheets are !assed back to the grou! that !roduced the language originally, and they discuss any changes. Finally, the grou!s can ask the teacher #uestions about anything that they are still unsure about.
Reision 'oard (ame @ver the !eriod of three or four lessons, make a collection of inaccurate language use. s !re!aration for the ne"t lesson, go through the many e"!ressions:sentences noting which ones a< are most common? b< are most likely to cause misunderstanding or !revent communication? c< are related to grammar or vocabulary !oints recently taught.
hoose $ from amongst the e"!ressions:sentences that fit those three categories, then build them into a /1-01 s!ace board game ;s!aces without e"!ressions:sentences include blank s!aces and a cou!le of %move forward:backward s!aces<. (ake some dice to class, and students use !en-lids as tokens. When they land on a s!ace with an e"!ression:sentence, they try to correct it. If the other students agree that they were right, that student moves ahead one s!ace - otherwise they stay where they landed.
'oard !ork (he board ;whiteboard or blackboard< is an e"tremely useful tool and can be used in many ways. What different !ur!oses can you think of Make a list before com!aring with our suggestions below.
Our suggestions: •
!ictures for conte"t
•
!ictures to illustrate conce!ts:meaning
•
charts:gra!hs:diagrams to clarify conce!ts
•
s!elling of new words:!hrases
•
grammar relating to new words:!hrases
•
!ronunciation of new words:!hrases
•
grammatical structures
•
e"am!le sentences to illustrate grammar !oints
•
#uestions for students to answer
•
answers to #uestions or other e"ercises
•
demonstrations of tasks or e"ercises
•
error correction
•
e"am!les to highlight good language use
(here are many more, but these are !robably the most common uses you will have for the board. In a ty!ical lesson, a combination of 4 or $ of the above, with some being re!eated many times, can mean the teacher writes or draws on the board more than 1 times during a lesson. @bviously, that makes the ability to use the board effectively e"tremely im!ortant. !articularly useful a!!roach is to get into the habit of using different sections of the board for different things. (his can de!end on the lesson, but often it means having 0 main sections.
In a grammar lesson, you will often want to have the following •
!lace where the grammatical structures can remain for the whole lesson.
•
!lace where new words:!hrases can remain for the whole lesson.
•
!lace for everything else ;!ictures, answers to e"ercises, etc.<, that is regularly wi!ed clean.
In the middle of a lesson, it might look something like this
In a s!eaking lesson you might want to have •
!lace where new words:!hrases can remain for the whole lesson.
•
!lace where %useful e"!ressions can be left for the duration of each s!eaking task.
•
!lace for everything else that is regularly wi!ed clean.
In the middle of a lesson, it might look something like this
Holden Kules of Goard work. .
sk the students to 'hel!' you with things you write on the board, in order to kee! them involved. 6licit things like the s!elling and the !ronunciation, or the answers to #uestions, from them.
/.
From time to time, call u! a student and ask him:her to write on the board.
0.
Dnderline a stressed syllable or word, or !ut a small circle or s#uare above the relevant vowel, to hel! students with stress.
4.
It is im!ortant that you use ca!ital letters naturally - at the beginning of sentences, !ro!er names, etc. earners need to see how ca!ital letters are used in 6nglish - everything else should be in lower case.
$.
Write word classes in abbreviated form e.g. ;nlus it's much #uicker.
5.
=raw a line down the board, leaving a section ;say 1-/12 of the s!ace< down one side for vocabulary that comes u! during the lesson.
7.
If something will take a long time to write, have it !re!ared on a trans!arency for an overhead !ro*ector or on handouts - you'll be too busy to do it during the lesson.
8.
Bou should draw !ictures even if you think that you are terrible at it. Eo-one e"!ects you to be a brilliant artist, and besides that, good drawing usually takes too long. Juick !ictures are often the very best way to e"!lain something.
9.
It can be very hel!ful to !lan what you are going to write u! and where to !ut it in advance.
1. It is im!ortant to !rint clearly. If you want to give students !ractice reading 'tricky handwriting' then it should be in a carefully !re!ared task, not in board work that is im!ortant for them to understand. . olour can make what you write on the board more memorable and clearer. For e"am!le, when introducing a new word, use black to write the word itself, red to indicate the word class, and blue to highlight the !ronunciation. /. Bou need to write #uickly and efficiently. Het the information u! on the board as fast as you can, while remembering that it has to make sense and be legible.
