Monday, March 10, 2008

Reacting to Student Concerns


It’s the first day of a new schedule today, and I wonder what the students think about it. I know that the administration here in the EAP program thought a lot about how to address the concerns of the students and create the optimal conditions for learning, and this is what they came up with. Basically, I am now teaching each writing class for about five hours per week, and the other teacher is going to teach the grammar class for about five hours per week. We are going to alternate the days that we teach so that the students can have a full two hours with one instructor on any given day.

It will be interesting to see how this works. On the one hand, I like the idea that I now have a full two hours to focus purely on writing. There is a lot of work that we can get done in an hour. I’ll also have more opportunities for writing in class. On the other hand though, I used to like the flow I sometimes was able to create from the one hour grammar portion of the lesson to the one hour writing portion of the lesson. While I totally believe in teaching grammar, I like to mix it up and take an untraditional approach to teaching the grammar in that I do a lot of activities that force the students to use the grammar structures I am targeting that day rather than traditional “grammar exercises”. It is almost like we are doing a lot of different activities, and the students are unconsciously focusing on the grammar targets for that day because of the activities themselves. After that, I like to then see if the students can apply the grammar I have been targeting in their writing. If I notice that the correct grammar structures are being produced, then I can move on. If I notice that the correct grammar structures are not being produced, then it is time for either more activities, or even some old fashioned grammar lecturing where I explain the grammar rules to the students on the board. More than any of that though I also like forcing the students to come up with their own questions about the grammar. The sneaky thing is that half the time I don’t answer their questions. However, I like to set up the conditions where the students are able to articulate the questions and truly understand what it is that they don’t understand. Once they really know the questions, they should be able to find the answers on their own. I need to do this, because once the students are working by themselves in their regular university courses, they aren’t going to have the benefit of a grammar teacher to answer their questions, so they need to teach themselves how to learn on their own. Additionally, it is impossible to truly understand the “answer” if you don’t really know the “question”. Remember . . . . the answer is 42! What is the question?

Anyway, despite what I have written above, we’ll try this new schedule and see how it works. Naturally, there are arguments for the other side that say that some pure focused and concentrated grammar instruction is just what students need if they wish to speak English accurately and fluently. Anyway, I’d love some feedback!

14 comments:

We will,we will rock U!! said...

"42", interesting answer. There must be some interesting stories behind it, eh?

Oksana said...

Hi Scott,

We'll be missing studying grammar with you. I know that for sure! Even though it's sometimes boring to study grammar, we have never been bored during your classes.
However, we have to try broccoli in order to know how it tastes, right?

Martin said...

Diversity is the keystone of every good learning experience...

Jason said...

"42" is a interesting answer, like the movie "Number 23". I am sure everyone has his or her own opinion about the new schedule. some people like it, and some people don't. However, I agree with Scott, do it and see how it works. I remember Murry said that most professors in U of C are good at their subjects not teaching skills, so we have to get used to it and develop self-study skills. Sometimes, change can possibly make things better.

Nahid said...
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Jason said...

However, 2 hrs grammar is gonna to be heavy duty for me, and I hope new teacher can make the class interesting for us.
Cheers

hjm.huang said...

Scott, Scott, We miss you so much!!!!

Please come back!!!

We love your smiling face; we miss your charming and nice voice!! You are the angel in our study!

Please come back!!!

Please do not leave us!!!

We will die if you abandon us!!

5555555555

Jack said...

Haha, "42" is interesting~~

Behzad said...

I was happy that after all miseries of last semester we have a great instructor who can help us. Thank god that EAP 3 is the last one :)

Fan (*^__^*) said...

You know what Scott,
what matters is NOT we like other teachers or not.
it's we like you , we need you.
please don't leave us.
we feel like young children left by parent....
please.....

Helen said...

hohoho~~~ Now I can see your face through people's heads....~~~
Anyway I wannna laugh because your face is very serious when you look others' blogs.......:)

Li said...

yeah, i think it's better that teaching grammar thru writing...but...at least we got a half of scott ...yeah!

anna said...

What is the main idea to split grammer and writing courses?

Nahid said...
This comment has been removed by the author.