Maria
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Posts: 28 
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Post by Maria on Oct 26, 2014 12:45:44 GMT -5
Read the ESL lesson. Pair work is used several times throughout the lesson, what are the postives or negatives of having ELL students partner up? If some pairs are silent, or only one person is doing the work, what should the teacher do? Explain your answer and give exmples if possible.
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Post by kristine14 on Oct 28, 2014 21:43:15 GMT -5
After reading the "classroom observation" in Chapter One, I noticed a few things the teacher did. I like the way the teacher started the lesson with "small talk." This allows the students to feel comfortable and contribute to the conversation. Next, the teacher activates the students' prior knowledge on movies. This allows the students to make the connection and anticipate the following lesson. When discussing movies and genres, I feel that the teacher should have given the students examples of each category.
Back to the question.. =)
I think pair work is great for ELL students. Sometimes students are able to explain a concept better to their peers than the teacher (Students learn from each other). Students need to be able to collaborate with others. This is a great skill for working in the "real world." Students need to be able to learn to get along with EVERYONE, not just their friends. Another reason is that more ideas/creativity emerge from different perspectives. I allow my students to work in groups because I feel that they benefit from hearing different ideas. They are comfortable with their classmates, making it easy to ask for assistance.
Some downfalls of working in a group is that there might be disagreements. Students have different opinions/perspectives and they may vary from student to student. Teachers should set group rules/expectation and enforce that all ideas should be respected, and it's okay to disagree! Some students may not get along with others well, or they work better alone. The teacher should monitor during group work to see how students are interacting with each other, and if necessary the teacher may intervene or facilitate. |
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Post by ayteama on Oct 29, 2014 19:24:43 GMT -5
Pair work is a very effective way of learning as they maybe friends so they really feel more comfortable communicating and thinking out of the box whatever the communication language is. Also, they learn more from each other and help each other achieving tasks. Being two is easier than being a group as groups may have alot of disagreements.
But, it really has a dark side once one student is lazy or relays more on his partner but, at least the lazy one still learning by observing the active one or imitating him.
The best solution for this is to divide the task into two small parts and after minutes, the teacher ask them to switch tasks so that s/he may guarantee that both of them participate.
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Post by nancy27c on Oct 30, 2014 14:28:37 GMT -5
Pairs are comfortable for students to work in because the feedback that they get is productive. Even if one student is silent, the teacher can prompt the more talkative student so that the silent one gets more directions to be able to communicate. The teacher can also directly prompt the silent student until response is given after appropriate wait time. The teacher may also want to switch partners to facilitate a more comfortable pairing.
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kara
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Post by kara on Nov 6, 2014 23:55:25 GMT -5
I think for some students who have some social discomfort with speaking and listening, pair groups can be more relaxed and less formal. Feeling comfortable with peers who are willing to help them can be a great tool for students to start opening up more in the American classroom setting, which is typically very oral. The pairing of students has to be done carefully in my opinion and from what I have personally encountered. If you have a group of students in a group whose personalities clash or if they are all quite shy or in the uncomfortable phase with their speaking abilities, then the group learning becomes wasted. Before hand a teacher should be aware of how their students learn and behave, and pair them up to their best knowledge.
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Maria
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Post by Maria on Dec 9, 2014 0:20:23 GMT -5
Yes kristine14 i agree too that the teacher did a great job starting the lesson off, making the classroom environment feel open and welcoming. That's great that you use group work in your classroom cause i also feel it's a great tool to let students share ideas and bounce ideas off each other. Unfortunately students aren't always going to agree on everything but that can possibly lead to some good discussion and healthy debate. ayteama i like your idea of dividing the task into two parts to ensure that both students participate in the activity because very often you'll come across the issue of one student doing all the work. It's always important for the teacher to talk with students to get feedback like you said nancy27c. Switching partners can also be a good way to have students exchange their ideas with others, or possible push them out of their shell to participate further. I completely agree kara, students are much more likely to speak in a more relaxed and personal setting instead of speaking out in front of an entire class. Sharing ideas with peers can be much less scary than talking to the teacher, it lessons the fear of being wrong. It's always important to know your students so that you can figure out which type of learning environment works best. |
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