Being Prepared in the Groovy Woods (that said, Cas is the scout... not me)

Q2)

I think it’s really quite difficult for EL teaching to take place with class sizes of >40. For that matter, anything > 25 is ridiculous. The situation, as many have described, can be dire. Let’s take the worst case scenario of >40 students, who are weak (probably ESL or EFL). It is practically impossible to have a homogenous group of students in any one class. As such, the engagement of learners will have to be done in such a way where all students are engaged and gain something out of lessons. Part of the motivation comes in the fact where students are constantly frustrated by their own lack of progress as well as other students who may function as distracters as well.

I have to say that I was extremely lucky at TP. I was only assigned 1 EL class, 2E1 – the “best” class in the stream. There was a resource package from which I had to teach from, and supplement with my own (or colleagues’) material, should I choose to. Motivating the students was not a problem. They knew clearly what was supposed to be covered as the resource package (which replaces a textbook) states clearly. The activities are scaffolded, i.e. the structure of a formal letter; practice writing the format of the letter; address format; salutation format, etc. So I really just needed to deliver a lesson. Scaffolding was well thought out in the design of the package and the activities are manageable for most students. Occasionally a question or two comes up, or I spot an error as I walk around the class to monitor the students’ work and clarify it with the class as a whole.

I find that students, when given advance notice of activities (through subtle means such as resource packages), put up no resistance when the lessons occur. They know that they need to do what they need to do and they just do it. Resistance is, after all, futile. But scaffolding and advance notice does help them prepare psychologically for the lessons and material contents / grammar which is going to be covered. At the same time, the more industrious ones would read ahead and can help clarify doubts of the rest of the class if they have understood concepts/definitions etc which are taught/going to be taught and this helps with lesson progression.

While not all schools have resource packages in lieu of textbooks, I guess the main learning point of the matter is to adequately prepare your students in advance of lesson in any way possible, and when the lesson is to occur, they know the mindset they are supposed to adopt (i.e. letter writing or free writing or reported speech etc) and learn or at least try to.

- ACLHL