Learning: A Continuous Process

'Learning is a Continuous and Lifelong' process.

A child or adult is constantly in the process of learning. The only difference is that, in children, learning happens unknowingly. Also importantly, for children, learning is a way of life.

In the case of an adult, learning is a deliberate process. For an adult, there is an intention behind learning. Adults tend to learn only what interests or benefits them.

How to Adapt Activities to All Levels

Teaching English in Egypt is one of the most complicated jobs today. It demands broad knowledge of subject matter, curriculum, and standards; enthusiasm, a caring attitude, and a love of learning; knowledge of discipline and classroom management techniques; and a desire to make a difference in the lives of people. 

The two main qualities of a good teacher are enthusiasm and patience.  A teacher needs these two qualities to develop and help his/her students develop. 

 Even an English teacher  with a 'bad' method can get material across to students if he/she has enthusiasm for the subject and doesn't go a pace that suits only a few. A teacher needs to acknowledge that maybe the activity, level, or even  the pace doesn't suit all and needs adjustment/modification.

  

When an English teacher can smpathize with the weakest student then he/she will be successful in really helping his students improve. 

There is so much we have to do to help our students learn. We are always trying to find the best way to help them even if it's not quite following the curriculum. Sometimes, not following the curriculum is not an option for many teachers and for those that do have some flexibility are within certain boundaries.

As for me I think the main features for any teacher: to be skillful,competent(to be able to teach), to be positive, to be an example to motivate your pupils and students!This is what we learned in PCELT. We applied what we learned with elementary level. Some of the activities we learned can be easily adapted to adults others cannot, what do you PCELTers think how can all activities be adapted to all levels.

Writing

The writing process can be epitomized in the following quotes:
 AI believe in miracles in every area of life except writing. The only thing that produces good writing is hard work.   Isac Bashevis Singer.

Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he will eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer.  Ray Bradbury.

Exercise the writing muscle everyday, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry, whatever. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.   Jane Yolen.

People on the outside think there is something magical about writing, that they go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit back on the type writer and you work, and that it is all there is to it.  Harlon Ellison.

Words are a lens to focus one's mind. Ayn Rand.

Writing is its own reward. Henry Miller.

Great is the art of the beginning, but greater is the art of ending. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

It is perfectly okay to write garbage- as long as you edit brilliantly. C.J.Cherryh.

Half of my life is an act of revision. John Irving.

Prose is architecture, not interior decoration. Ernest Hemingway.

Dictation: New Methods, New Possibilities

A very interesting book about using dictation in a creative way is Dictation: New Methods, New Possibilities.

The book is full of interesting activities all related to dictation. The is very interesting as it raises teachers' attention to:
Who gives the dictation? To whom?
Who controls the pace?
Who chooses or creates the dictation?


Two interesting activities are the mutual dictation and elicited dictation ( like reading a text on fast food and filling in a chart according to the dictation.)

The dictation can add life to a class that is about to sleep and give students' motivation.

Listening

Listening is a skill that can be developed. A way to make listening interesting is to make it personalized. This can be done through pre- or post- discussion of the listening.

 Decrease the teacher talking time.
Ask instruction checking questions and concept checking questions.

Praise the students for their efforts.

Remember the Pre-, During, and Post- activities.

Heinemann Hits is a very interesting book that gives us a lot of helpful ideas using songs.

You can use the listening as a warm up.

You should prepare the students before the listening.

You can also use the listening while teaching reading or grammar to introduce or enforce what students learned.

You can use the map activity to introduce the students to the place the singer comes from.

Active listening is what we aim at. Give them a sheet of paper to fill in while they are listening to a presentation or a lecture.

There can be more than one recording and they can listen to each other recording.

Students can fill surveys before or after the listening.

Hats Activities

Hats can be used to introduce a number of activities. Hats of fears, hopes, and expectations. It can be used to introduce vocabulary set they need to know.

They can be used to introduce pop up questions or pop up version s of quizzes.

Feedback

On Feedback 

  Feedback is of two types: ego involving (focusing on the person's position in the class), and task involving. Teachers should provide tasks involving feedback instead of ego feedback. Good feedback causes thinking When a student faces a task he makes a choice: to protect him/herself or to engage and grow. If a student protects himself we have to give him feedback that he/she should try the language.  We must always make learning within a class a win-win situation. Every student needs to understand that their progress is as important as the progress of the next student.

If a teacher wants to make a huge impact when giving feedback, a teacher should refrain from giving ego feedback which will only make the students feel good or more elite than the other students.  Instead, teachers are supposed to give task feedback to help the students learn and be better at their task. 

Not giving feedback is better than giving ego feedback.

Remember: 

• Feedback can be interpreted as either based on an activity or on one’s sense of self-worth.
•    Feedback is an important factor in progress.
•   Grade comparisons can effect confidence.

 

Feedback also involves:

• Purpose and Forms of Assessment
•  Measuring student’s learning and progress.
• Improving teaching strategies.
• Improving the quality of teaching programs. 
• Raising students' achievement. 
•  Reporting on students' progress.
•  Encouraging intrinsic student motivation with feedback. 
• Raising students' awareness of their progress.