Teachers' Zone 9

Dear English Language Teachers,

Welcome again after such a nice break. I am sure all of us are (too) busy preparing lessons, keeping fingers crossed for our graduates taking their most important exams these days, checking  tests and assigning new ones and … counting down to holidays.

Yet, before it comes I would like us to  stop for  a while and  reflect on our every day work. The thing I would like to  recommend is feedback.  I have already discussed the issue in one of my previous workshops but  those of you who could not attend  the meeting   are welcome to implement some of the described ideas in practice. Having read the article on https://horyzontyanglistyki.pl/artykul/nie-taki-feedback-straszny-jak-go-maluja-czyli-o-skutecznym-podsumowaniu-roku-szkolnego  I am personally encouraged  and convinced of their efficiency.

Why is it advisable? Feedback  is a great source of information on our work, applied methods, students’ needs, motivation both for our students as well as  for us. It can also indicate the ways of our self-development.  Here come a number of exercises, which is just a sample of what you can find in the article.

The easiest way is to create a survey or a questionnaire, preferably on-line. The number of questions and the questions themselves, depend on what we are particularly interested in, whether it is a single lesson or  a module or the whole  school year.

Another way worth trying out, as suggested by the author of the article, is asking students to write a letter. In this way we can kill two birds with one stone- practise writing as well as receive feedback. The instruction to the letter could be as easy as this one:  The school year has just finished and you are writing a letter to your English-speaking friend. In your letter write: 1) how the English lessons usually looked like; 2)  which English lesson you remember the most; 3)  how your English has improved thanks to the lessons;4) what your expectations  concerning the next school year are.

What I loved the most and what really worked in  case of my students is the exercise in which students are asked to draw their palm hand and on each of the fingers answer the questions, such as 1) What has been the biggest advantage of the lesson? 2) How would you describe the lessons to your friends? 3) What has been the biggest disadvantage of the lesson? 4) What would you change? 5)What have you learnt?     

The answers my students provided me with  a few weeks ago  have convinced me that it is worth trying and doing your best. It has also proved that our students do pay attention  to what  we do and how we  conduct the lessons, they do appreciate the effort and to put it simply- they want to give us the message that we should keep working hard.

The article  is  a must-read to all of us who strongly believe that while teaching we are also learning all the time and that such lessons  at the end of the day contribute to our feeling of satisfaction.

I hope you feel a bit inspired and you already know how one of your June lessons may look like.

See you in 2 weeks!

Katarzyna Nowak