new semester, new plans
I've just started week 5 of my second semester and after a lot of scrambling in the first few weeks, I think life is starting to steady.
::warning, teaching report follows, quite possibly boring::
In British Literature, I think the students have reached a trust phase where they're not afraid that suddenly I will turn out to be a monster and stuff scary indecipherable english literature down their throats. Actually, despite frequent mini-migraines on my part whenever I compare their textbook to what I'd like them to understand, things are coming together and I think the class is going really well. Week 1 was the Anglo-Saxons, Old English sounds and riddles, and Beowulf. Stop groaning... unlike lots of you, they actually liked Beowulf. Maybe it was my oscar-worthy reenactment of Beowulf's battle with Grendel. Week 2 we moved right along into the Middle Ages, Middle English, and Chaucer. Canterbury Tales was tough. Satire, much less satire originally written in middle english, proved a little tricky to catch. Week 3 we moved into the Renaissance: prose, poetry, and drama (The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus... yes, students, I know tragical is no longer considered a word). Week 4 we took a break with Romeo and Juliet, a movie, and the start of Hamlet.
They just wrote sonnets (so far, only one has tried to slip another of Shakespeare's sonnets in instead of her own), and will be acting out scenes from Hamlet at the end of the week. I'm very careful to always explain the value of the assignments to them. This stuff is really difficult, even if English is your first language, and I'm trying to help them really internalize some of the material as well as break it down with different ways of examining and learning literature.
My sophomores are preparing for the BAND 4 test at the end of April which represents a significant and quite difficult certification for them to achieve. As English majors, if they don't pass their major certifications, their degree will have very little value, making it even more difficult to find a position in a job market glutted with degree holders. Listening is just one portion of the test, but they think it's a very difficult section, so we're focusing on the listening as much as possible until the end of April (other teachers are helping them prepare for other sections like writing and grammar).
They have to complete their workbook, but I'm trying to use it as only a rough guide for in-class work. Sometimes we use their listening tapes, but if we're using them in-class, it'll be with different tasks or uses for the material. Every week we listen to an American song both as a cloze activity (fill in the blank), for introducing new vocabulary/expressions, and to have a small cultural discussion. Last week we did some Ani Difranco whose lyrics they really responded to. Watching the tops of 35 students' heads, headphones on, chins bobbing to keep time, mouthing the words, is a total pleasure. In those last hours of class each week, I can count on somebody breaking out into a silent drum solo above their desk, or maybe half the class will break into song when the chorus comes along, led by August, who is usually moved to start singing along barely half-way into the first listen. Each of them does it totally un-selfconciously.
My seniors are supposed to be finishing up their research in these next two weeks and starting to move into the writing phase of their graduation theses. For the most part my job is just guidance and feedback, though in the last few weeks of june it'll be more intense as final deadlines approach and they prepare to present.
::end teaching summary::
Outside of classes, life is pretty good, and filling up quite nicely. I go to two English Corners each week. The first, mandatory for me and not tremendously well organized, run by English majors, generally attended by enthusiastic freshman and postgrads. The second, also not tremendously well organized, but run by non-majors and attended by dedicated students who have a real passion for English and a real desire to practice their English. These students are my favorite, and among them are a few who I consider real friends here. In the first semester tons of freshman show up (over 150 students altogether), but by now, there is a core group of about 30 who come nearly every week. This group has very few resources, and no other native English speakers, and I'm trying to come up with ways to help them develop a more sustainable program through their English Association. I'm thinking some officer training, and maybe compiling a database of activities, information, topics, basic resources in order to make the weekly two hours most useful and fun for everyone.
I'm also doing very preliminary work to plan a weekend of lesson-planning and communicative method workshops for my junior english majors. Most of them will become teachers, though it's not necessarily their top choice of job. Their teachers do assign them to present mini-lessons to their classes sometimes, but as far as I can tell they aren't given the tools to know how to prepare or present these lessons. Several have come to me with material to teach (7 Steps to a Great Life is a popular topic... exciting stuff I tell ya), but no idea how to teach it. One other teacher offers this type of workshop I think, but the students have to pay. I'm hoping to do the planning work for some weekend in late May, but then recruit some of the other teachers, foreign AND Chinese, to help with the actual teaching, so we can share methodologies and be doing peer observation among our colleagues as well as serve as examples for the students.
The weather is warming up and I have been trying to eat healthier and exercise more... it's been going okay so far, and combined with the feeling that I am doing real and effective teaching this semester, things are good.
Interesting tid-bit from some freshman students: they told me last week that they actually were bored and rather depressed their first semester in college because of the lack of rigorous and full schedules, all the free time. This from students who take between 30 and 40 class hours a week! Imagine what their lives were like in middle and high school.
::warning, teaching report follows, quite possibly boring::
In British Literature, I think the students have reached a trust phase where they're not afraid that suddenly I will turn out to be a monster and stuff scary indecipherable english literature down their throats. Actually, despite frequent mini-migraines on my part whenever I compare their textbook to what I'd like them to understand, things are coming together and I think the class is going really well. Week 1 was the Anglo-Saxons, Old English sounds and riddles, and Beowulf. Stop groaning... unlike lots of you, they actually liked Beowulf. Maybe it was my oscar-worthy reenactment of Beowulf's battle with Grendel. Week 2 we moved right along into the Middle Ages, Middle English, and Chaucer. Canterbury Tales was tough. Satire, much less satire originally written in middle english, proved a little tricky to catch. Week 3 we moved into the Renaissance: prose, poetry, and drama (The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus... yes, students, I know tragical is no longer considered a word). Week 4 we took a break with Romeo and Juliet, a movie, and the start of Hamlet.
They just wrote sonnets (so far, only one has tried to slip another of Shakespeare's sonnets in instead of her own), and will be acting out scenes from Hamlet at the end of the week. I'm very careful to always explain the value of the assignments to them. This stuff is really difficult, even if English is your first language, and I'm trying to help them really internalize some of the material as well as break it down with different ways of examining and learning literature.
My sophomores are preparing for the BAND 4 test at the end of April which represents a significant and quite difficult certification for them to achieve. As English majors, if they don't pass their major certifications, their degree will have very little value, making it even more difficult to find a position in a job market glutted with degree holders. Listening is just one portion of the test, but they think it's a very difficult section, so we're focusing on the listening as much as possible until the end of April (other teachers are helping them prepare for other sections like writing and grammar).
They have to complete their workbook, but I'm trying to use it as only a rough guide for in-class work. Sometimes we use their listening tapes, but if we're using them in-class, it'll be with different tasks or uses for the material. Every week we listen to an American song both as a cloze activity (fill in the blank), for introducing new vocabulary/expressions, and to have a small cultural discussion. Last week we did some Ani Difranco whose lyrics they really responded to. Watching the tops of 35 students' heads, headphones on, chins bobbing to keep time, mouthing the words, is a total pleasure. In those last hours of class each week, I can count on somebody breaking out into a silent drum solo above their desk, or maybe half the class will break into song when the chorus comes along, led by August, who is usually moved to start singing along barely half-way into the first listen. Each of them does it totally un-selfconciously.
My seniors are supposed to be finishing up their research in these next two weeks and starting to move into the writing phase of their graduation theses. For the most part my job is just guidance and feedback, though in the last few weeks of june it'll be more intense as final deadlines approach and they prepare to present.
::end teaching summary::
Outside of classes, life is pretty good, and filling up quite nicely. I go to two English Corners each week. The first, mandatory for me and not tremendously well organized, run by English majors, generally attended by enthusiastic freshman and postgrads. The second, also not tremendously well organized, but run by non-majors and attended by dedicated students who have a real passion for English and a real desire to practice their English. These students are my favorite, and among them are a few who I consider real friends here. In the first semester tons of freshman show up (over 150 students altogether), but by now, there is a core group of about 30 who come nearly every week. This group has very few resources, and no other native English speakers, and I'm trying to come up with ways to help them develop a more sustainable program through their English Association. I'm thinking some officer training, and maybe compiling a database of activities, information, topics, basic resources in order to make the weekly two hours most useful and fun for everyone.
I'm also doing very preliminary work to plan a weekend of lesson-planning and communicative method workshops for my junior english majors. Most of them will become teachers, though it's not necessarily their top choice of job. Their teachers do assign them to present mini-lessons to their classes sometimes, but as far as I can tell they aren't given the tools to know how to prepare or present these lessons. Several have come to me with material to teach (7 Steps to a Great Life is a popular topic... exciting stuff I tell ya), but no idea how to teach it. One other teacher offers this type of workshop I think, but the students have to pay. I'm hoping to do the planning work for some weekend in late May, but then recruit some of the other teachers, foreign AND Chinese, to help with the actual teaching, so we can share methodologies and be doing peer observation among our colleagues as well as serve as examples for the students.
The weather is warming up and I have been trying to eat healthier and exercise more... it's been going okay so far, and combined with the feeling that I am doing real and effective teaching this semester, things are good.
Interesting tid-bit from some freshman students: they told me last week that they actually were bored and rather depressed their first semester in college because of the lack of rigorous and full schedules, all the free time. This from students who take between 30 and 40 class hours a week! Imagine what their lives were like in middle and high school.
posted by Kristen at
Monday, April 02, 2007
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