What did you do: good question, because it’s a shared point of reference
Make sure that “transactional” language is as clear as the rest: avoid colloquialisms, shortened forms (“gonna”), phrasal verbs (“figure out”): set the stage with more clarity, modeling, and scaffolding. Go slowly here especially.
Contextual language lessons: gonna is informal, e.g. ‘Cause, gonna, wanna…’ make sure they know those are not for formal situations.
Good explanation of “the”: specific, we can touch it vs. idea we can’t touch
Rather than say “that’s right,” repeat it loudly for those who might not have heard.
Make sure in readings that all terms (?) are understood. Recasting is getting better (rephrasing)
Give concrete examples of definitions. Beach vs. bitch: “beach is a place with sand while bitch is not very nice.” Too abstract.
Use minimal pairs for these linguistic contrasts.
“What else?” is too abstract.
Scaffold more with pictures, hands, phonetic symbols, rubber bands…
Great past tense song: Norwegian Wood
I gave a thumbs up when they didn’t deserve it.
I did some good redirection to make sure people got the difference between the past tense endings t, d, ed. Scaffold so they can remember better. Get them to write stuff down. Write a whole heap of words for each category, so that they can start to see patterns rather than to try to teach them rules. Elicit them. Write them down
Give enough breaks.
Recast and scaffold more. Make them second nature.
I referred to “hidden treasures” as the valuable clues to the story.
Speak more loudly and confidently, particularly when recasting.
Engage the class more by getting them to speak up. Give the listeners some kind of task while others are reading/talking.
Use lots of examples for everything: patterns rather than isolated items. And make sure explanations are concrete, not abstract. “hold has many meanings.” What meanings. [not sure I agree with her comment here]
The power of context to explain a concept/definition/etc.
She liked my assignment to write a short poem because it involved recasting, review, creativity and ended class on personal note. Also, I’d written my own poem as an example first.
Don’t trust books.
Play with register: I’m your teacher versus I’m your friend.
Move from the realm of the abstract to tangible.
Personalize sample sentences.
For past tense I could have cards with lots of words. I say them. Then they paste them in correct column of the three colums.
Harry Potter idea: Pull from a good text and have people circle all the past tense verbs.
Don’t simply; increasing scaffolding. If someone misses a point, recycle it at a higher level, with a new twist in the format or content.
Prolingua’s book Grammar Links?
“Unpacking” = examining a structure to see what’s inisde.
Break: ask them to give me a sentence with a key word in it.
Here’s how I remember things best. How do you remember?
Remember the ecological approach.
Let’s Play. Blink! [What are those???]
And always remember the form, meaning, use pie chart, especially when recycling to higher levels.
