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| Diagram of the blood-brain-barrier |
For some
reason that probably dwells somewhere back in my childhood, I tend to resist
change. Perhaps it was the confusion of an Asian upbringing (Endo environment) within
a Western culture (exo environment). Maybe I’m stuck between the SCT stages of object
as to other and object as to self. Gah. I wish the methodology would permeate the
blood brain barrier as easy as the anti-histamines I’m taking at the moment. But
I digress
.
The improved
CIs have seen action and have survived first contact. The aim was to get the
student talking to themselves, initially at whatever utterance level. It works,
but I’ve pruned a lot of other question-answer dialogic back. These are really
open and direct questions. Starters and salutations for real conversations
between L1 speakers but, I think the students don’t see the point. But the
students are talking to each other, and that is a stride towards a
communicative conversation. The next stop on this train of thought is to make feedback communicative. Have the students answer the mis-statement.
I
revisited my MT video and tallied up the TTT/STT ratio and the final figure was
10:4.5. Okay, it was a lot of instruction giving but, I’ve got to stop
responding to every student utterance. Everything that the teacher says is
processed by the student. Sure a conversation has utterances and confirmations,
and the flipside is that if the listener is utterly stoic, it lends the wrong
impression. But what is the right ‘exchange ratio?’ In the Vietnam war, the exchange
ratios were down to 3:1. Multi-million dollar aircraft were falling to
aircraft that were much cruder and much, much less sophisticated aircraft that
what their aircraft had been designed to fight. The US navy realized that the neophyte
pilots needed practice in air to air engagements. By the end of the war, the
ratio was back up to closer to 13:1. I consider myself going to a training
facility that makes good teachers better. (Please excuse the superlative). It’s
time to improve the exchange ratios.
Just a very quick comment to denote a shared experience, Jason, regarding "responding to every student utterance." This is something I noticed with my own smaller classes where it's harder to just turn things over to the students and 'disappear' for the bulk of the conversation unless someone's in a pickle or overtly seeks assistance.
ReplyDeleteI've sometimes set up activities by saying "For the next X minutes, I'm not here" and then physically hiding myself behind a sheet of paper or whatever's in my hand if I'm getting too much attention . . . but it takes a while to get them into the habit. Don't know if it would work with your classes or not, but man, have I been there too.
On another note, you, Sir, may be my new hero in the realm of metaphor.
For me, it is probably a matter of directed energy and my train of thought. Believe it or not I enjoy some parts of the lesson, and loose a bit of focus. Responding to students outpourings is a spin-off of that energy. Focus more, practice. Get it done. Turning over the role of conversing and conversation is something I'm practicing and it is also something that my students are doing badly at. However, they all have to start someplace.
DeleteThanks for the hat tip, Andy. Blogs are, in my mind supposed to be entertaining, otherwise, why bother? I maintain another blog, but it's not on teaching.
http://jasetv.wordpress.com/
Hey Jason C -- I just want to say that I (and more importantly you) are still waiting for a considered written reflection on your MT from Saturday. You've typed a lot of words here, about wrold Wars and Anti-histamines, for example, but the only point you make directly addressing the ten minutes of film in your possession (also not linked here in this post)is TT - ST ration. There were several questions on your self-reflection form which will help shine bright lights on your teaching, so that you can identify strengths and weaknesses. otherwise, yes, you are simply resisting change, and that won't lead to success. So -- let's see you give yourself some useful nourishment. Have a look at your colleagues' posts for a comparison, and I think you'll see my point.
ReplyDeleteWell, Gov', you've hit the nail on the head. I've re-learnt that I'm not very good at self-reflecting, the questions will certainly help on producing more meaningful output in this blog. I'll examine the question sheet and have another go.
Delete