Discover Top Posts Tagged with #classroom dynamics

ADHD and School – When Response Matters More Than Method

ADHD and school have been a struggle for decades.This is a post I first wrote in 2008 – and it is still painfully relevant today. Read this post in Swedish -> Originally published August 10, 2008.Shared again because it is still urgent. This is an older text. I wrote it on my very first blog, Malix – yes, I actually did it, many years ago.When I read it today, I am struck by how little has…

View On WordPress

#ADHD #CFT #classroom dynamics #compassion #emotional safety #Neurodiversity #parenting #school environment

Empowering Success: Transformative Foundations of ESOL Teaching for Tertiary Educators in Aotearoa NZ – Part 1

xplore the foundations of ESOL teaching in this comprehensive course module. Learn about second language acquisition principles, cultural diversity, challenges, and integrating first languages. Enhance your teaching practice today.

I’m writing a series of modules on the foundations of teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). This is long overdue as I was an ESOL teacher for many years, but it feels good to be looking at this content again with fresh eyes. I have roughly six chunks planned which I will draft and post here like I normally do with new content: Introduction to ESOL Teaching (this…

View On WordPress

24th August, 2019: Biliteracy and English in Indian Classrooms

Reading:

chapters 3, 4, 5 from Biliteracy and Education: English Language Education and India (2005) by Viniti Vaish: Vaish’s research is done in the context of a single school in New Delhi (Rajkiya Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya), one run by the Delhi administration. These chapters in Vaish’s book examine the different pedagogies employed in the classroom teaching of English--namely, choral recitation, translation, and codeswitching. The quality of textbooks, social contexts of the classrooms in which English is taught, and the socio-cultural and pedagogic goals that the teaching of English aspires towards are some of the other themes explored in the research.

1. We discussed how the presentation of content in the book, while lucid and written in short, direct sentences, seemed simplistic; there seemed to be a lack of an overarching framework and the author seemed to cherry-pick examples rather than adequately detail out the context of study (especially the context of teachers). The description of students--as somewhat unruly or inattentive--already introduces a bias about the context of learning. It is also not clear what the socialization of these teachers and students are. Language learning and language ideology is influenced by one’s socialization in multiple spaces (we discussed some experiential examples), so the lack of detailing in the chapters makes it seem as if the socialization is primarily happening in the classroom. Also, the author seems to be positive that the students are learning (using theoretical frameworks to justify her point) from classroom pedagogies instead of studying the student-faculty and student-student interaction over a period of time.

2. Chapter 3 presents ‘choral recitation’ or the drilling method of learning words/grammar as a culturally situated pedagogy. There were disagreements regarding the implications of this method. Some argued that it is not enough to merely memorise the word, but learn how to use it in different contexts and towards different social agendas; some suggested that it may be useful to first introduce and learn vocabulary to be able to engage with textual material. Another limitation of the drilling or recitation method is that remembering and articulating words (and further fluently use them in conversations) are different tasks; one does not implicitly follow from the other.

3. We also pondered over what ‘critical’ function memorising words might serve--it is difficult to understand the relation between rote learning and critical interpretive thinking. This is relevant even in university settings, where students frequently ‘memorise’ answers requiring critical interpretation. How does that shape one’s use of language to ‘critically’ interpret?

4. The chapters present code-switching as an effective, and perhaps inevitable, mode of teaching and learning in bi-literate and multi-literate contexts. This was considered an important point since it reinforces the premise that boundaries between languages are artificially constructed. However, some of us argued that code-switching between two languages might have mixed implications for how grammar and idiomatic usage is taught--the logical principles of grammar might be incorrectly taught. Some discussed there might be productive implications for code-switching and translation in teaching regional languages. It was felt that language learning experiences in regional languages (the example of Hindi in English-medium schools in Delhi was used) was over-standardized and disconnected from contemporary usages, and could perhaps benefit from the evolving discourse of language pedagogy--perhaps this is because the conversations on language pedagogy in regional languages gets less attention or representation.

5. Another point of discussion was how language ideology gets shaped. Chapter 4 argued about the importance of culturally situated textbooks and how cultural ideology would be shaped by the kinds of examples used in the textbooks. However, the mere use of diverse examples does not necessarily sensitise the student to diversity or necessarily teach the content effectively--both depend on pedagogic negotiations, relationships between students and teachers, socialisation, among other factors. Students are also picking up language from a variety of media--the prescribed textbook is always a limited source. Chapter 5 presents a set of aspirations students associate with English--that it will help students develop their ‘personality’ and mobilise greater social and economic power. We discussed whether that should be assumed as a default aspiration to begin with. For example, aspirations to communicate in English might serve functions of social bridging (talking to other communities), diverse career interests (not merely derived from some standardized or limited understanding of professional mobility). Students might also be expressing in English through different forums--one of the chapters presented the example of students writing journal entries in English (it might be for practise but also linked to expression of private thoughts). One’s relationship with language is also shaped by social and emotional relationships--we discussed the example of forming emotional bonds with teachers (there might be a gendered or community-based logic to it frequently).

6. The question of how teaching English to address different social functions can be imagined in a standardized system was raised. While there are no easy answers, some suggested that perhaps the emphasis of teaching language should also engage with teaching approaches or attitudes towards the language; to initiate students into the language and then encourage them to reflectively explore it in their own contexts. The NCERT/institutional learning outcomes could also incorporate such an insight--the outcomes represented in the chapter seemed to speak to more limited needs.

7. We concluded our discussion by thinking about how the methods used in bi-literate or multi-literate teaching in schools (choral recitation, code-switching, translation) can also be applicable in university settings. In college settings, such methods are frequently used already--given how college teaching ideally emphasises specialised and ‘critical’ learning, it would be important to enquire into how the use of these methods can be allied to the imperatives of university pedagogy.

#second language acquisition #multilingual classrooms #meeting notes #language politics #classroom dynamics #textbook politics #on teaching english

10th August, 2019: Building Multiliterate Writing Practices

Readings:

Building Multiliterate and Multilingual Writing Practices and Identities, Allison Skerrett: This essay spoke about the multiliterate reading and writing world in a classroom of fifteen to sixteen consenting students. Here, seven focal students were examined, with particular interest given to Nina - a Mexican American student who had a complicated relationship with both English and Spanish. The researchers in question looked at how engagement was increased by tapping into the student’s world outside of school: through cellphone literacy, notes left at home, and conversations between friends.

A Transdisciplinary Framework for SLA in a Multilingual World, The Douglas Fir Group: This essay offers a multidisciplinary theoretical framework, combining socio-cultural and neurocognitive perspectives to study as well as pedagogically navigate second language acquisition.

Given how much of SLA (Second Language Acquisition) research is mired in isolated disciplinary approaches, the essay by The Douglas Fir Group is a welcome attempt at combining/transfusing disciplinary approaches. The emphasis on the neuro-cognitive (not so much in terms of cognitive development as cognitive factors influencing language acquisition and usage) in relation to the social and ideological can be instructive in developing pedagogic orientations. However, the schematic organisation of the argument (for example, language learning and teaching happens across micro, meso, macro levels; there are ten thematic clusters along which language learning-teaching can be categorised)--perhaps inevitable in a theoretical project of such a scale--can also be questioned for its universalistic presumptions and the logic of categorisation.

Some of the other criticisms of the essay which came up include: a) it is unclear as to how research informed by this framework can practically translate into teaching practices b) the technologization of language acquisition might work very differently for different social and material contexts--the essay tends to make the point about technology in rather broad strokes c) how can this framework be adapted to Indian contexts where SLA is far more complex? While some of the general aspects/approaches can be useful (displacing the monolingual vantage-point from the conceptualization of literacy research; considering the social, ideological, cognitive, affective aspects of language learning-teaching in literacy/pedagogic practice; recognising that people already work with an existing multilingual repertoire of words), the particularities will need to be figured out in relation to local variations of language use and acquisition.

It was discussed how experiences of SLA in India might have a more complicated relation to ‘mother tongue’ acquisition and usage. While we may be (comfortably) speaking in regional languages within familial/social settings, our positionality shifts according to where we are speaking and who we are speaking to. In school, the disconnect from/lack of belonging to ‘traditional’ cultural values of the standardized regional language (we discussed the examples of Hindi and Bengali), the absence of multiple registers of the regional language being used within educational settings, along with the rote-learning approach favoured by language pedagogy (learning idioms), might not necessarily ensure a grounding in the ‘mother tongue’ itself. The emphasis on multilingualism might emphasise a token diversity of languages/identities operating in the classroom, but might not help flesh out the practices through which language learning can happen. We thought that we can read up more on the politics/modalities of first language acquisition, along with SLA.

The question of how a multilingual orientation in literacy practice can be related to assessment was brought up. In a context where standardized assessment is allied to socio-economic mobility, the teacher might have to play the paradoxical function of both ‘empowering’ the student according to normative requirements as well as encourage a critical attitude towards such norms. It was also discussed that such a notion of empowerment was in terms of ‘market’ or ‘employer’ interests; that it might still be subject to socially discriminatory attitudes/dominant interests; and might not generate a critical discussion of what education, literacy, and ‘empowerment’ means for both the learner and teacher. This was a segue into a discussion on the other reading, Building Multiliterate and Multilingual Writing Practices and Identities by Allison Skerrett, where the premise of ‘literacy’ appears self-evident--it is not asked why is ‘literacy’ important to begin with, what ‘literacy’ exactly means, or what the agendas of literacy should be?

We discussed that the essay by Skerrett was useful in bringing into awareness how social contexts of language usage could be harnessed towards literacy development, how students learn and use languages across contexts/registers, and the critical terminology of the essay can be used in analysing teaching-learning negotiations. But some of us felt a discomfort with how the emotional experiences of the learner seemed to be instrumentalised according to the interests of the teacher (and then further categorised by the researcher using self-evident categories). While the researcher attributes certain implications for how the learner (Nina) writes, it is unclear what Nina’s intentions, judgments, and meaning-making process was--she seems to be determinately framed in the ethnographer’s gaze/categories. We thought of looking up some of the groups coming up with literacy research categories (New London Group, for example) in the future.

#second language acquisition #language politics #multilingual classrooms #classroom dynamics #meeting notes

While walking in line...

While walking in line…

Walking in line is a hard thing to do for my kids and its understandable. We have a long way to go before we reach the cafeteria. The dynamics of my classroom makes it an interesting class. There are kids who fight in line, kids who decide it’s time to sit down for a conversation, kids who turn like pinwheels while walking (and cry when they fall down 😆😂)

The kids are walking in line as we head…

View On WordPress

#classroom dynamics #preschool

I went to visit school k for the first time since Yamato passed away. The atmosphere was different but similar. The rain was killer but I pulled energy from the second and first years like blood from a stone. The third year class got cancelled, they had to do textbook only things. The grammar class, however, was still on. Thirteen students, one of which had been Yamato. I walked in and saw his desk empty. Front row, to my right. We were all doing okay though. I gestured to his empty desk out of habit only once, and a girl at the back gasped softly. I know, I felt the same way when I realized I'd done it. Mission: get them to realize it's okay to laugh again, and enjoy each other again, even though it's hard to get back into a routine. To do this, I had them all sit in a circle and play kings cup. I bought them all juice and flavored milk. They couldn't believe it. "Special class, Sami? Special?" was the question on everyone's lips, and it was. The dares they had to do made us all laugh until our sides hurt, and nobody was sitting quietly by the end. They intuitively got the rules, and it resonated with them. The air changed. They were so warm, so supportive. There was no more gasping, only laughing. When I looked over as we finished up, to where Yamato used to sit, the boy who sits next to that desk was watching me. He was smiling behind his mask. I asked if he enjoyed the game. He said, "So much. It's a good idea." I think we understood each other. I really hope I could ease some tension, even just for an hour.

#teaching English in Japan #tw death #grief #recovery #classroom dynamics

CLASSROOM DYNAMICS

CLASSROOM DYNAMICSThey're as secure as a flock concerning sparrows, classroom dynamics are. In the wind Monday you teach the Catalog buying for Quilt Life, and it soars like a hot-air balloon. Your reading is so good that the class damn near gives you a quiescence ovation as you leave the room.On Tuesday you teach the Shopping for Clothes Unit, and herself plummets uniform with a lead geoid. Over the end as respects the class, all better self want to engineer is to repose under your desk and put an end to it all. Why is that, SPIRITUS wot not of? Jill Hadfield and Alan Maley have tried to throw some light on the composition in their book Classroom Dynamics. Well, I've read the book, and I've adopted most of the techniques higher echelons described therein, and the results were patchy to voting right the least. Now I don't lag to position paper that these two good park don't know what they're talking about. What I act like want to faculty is that their expertise and experience is with classes of European students, and a class of European students and a class pertaining to Asian students is correspondent as chalk and stilton cheese. No-one has satisfactorily explained just how to comply the dynamics in auspiciousness to improve a reticent, non-responsive class into a vibrant, active one full of fun and quality learning time. At all events I'll pour it a go, anyway EUR . If you're bounden to with a auspiciousness that exhibits all the ginger of a Taleban funeral, THEM estimate what's called for is the George Bush shock and awe approach. In other words, wake the buggars boom, give them a piece upon your tongue, shuffle them around, make ourselves laugh, make 'em talk, stir them out of their "I'll just sit here and do nothing, and then I'll clip off home" frame of mind. Show them that your chicane is to get them in consideration of actively sit in in the lesson, and that's what you're going to do, wherewithal hook or by hunch. Now the nasty blow and awe approach requires quite a lot of energy on the teacher's part, but hopefully, after a precious little sessions the class will have got the envoy. Your classroom is not the place since daydreaming, complacency, or passivity. Just the opposite. What you want, what you envision, and what alterum are demanding is the whole-hearted eligibility of each and every class member. Anything falling short of that is unacceptable. Not on my watch, anyway. Give it a vanish from sight. Take no prisoners. (By golly, George would persist proud upon inner self.)<\p>