Sunday, December 6, 2015
Friday, August 14, 2015
Total Physical Response in Polyana's classes in 2015/2016
Many educators have a very narrow minded view of what TPR is. I can say from experience showing my work to other educators that they failed to realize it's more than just commands. In 1996 I had a group of kindergartners in Brazil to whom I taught English. They were all ranging from 2 to 4 years of age. I used to sing songs with them in English and use 15 minutes of the lesson (which was 45 minutes long) devoted to TPR activities.
We would sing ''Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'' and point to the parts of the body we were touching and we would do drawing dictations in which they had to get up and run to the board to draw the body parts I was saying out loud and they had to touch each other's HEADS if I said ''heads'', ''toes'', etc... I had games of musical chairs in which the kids not only played the game in its original form, but also sang out loud different kid songs that had vocabulary in English for them to memorize.
I showed videos of these classes to another educator and the only thing she commented on was: ''Oh, that video of you telling them to STAND UP AND SIT DOWN.'' The students I had were Brazilian speakers of Portuguese and for these little 2-4 year olds to recognize over 150 words in English and be able to pronounce them, use sentences with them and participate in these activities was a lot more than just standing up and sitting down.
The year was 1996 and it is 2015 now. I have been teaching since 1991 and I have taught people of all ages from 1 to 65 (my oldest student ever was 65 and often took longer periods of time to grasp certain concepts and the 1 year old baby I taught English to once fell asleep in my arms learning colors in English). The experiences as a teacher have taught me that every group is heterogeneous because people learn in different ways. This is why I use TPR allied to other techniques and methods. I can't ONLY USE TPR activities in every class. I also realize that there are groups that simply cannot benefit from these type of activities at all. The difference between 1996 and now is that I don't have young children as students at this point and TPR has taken a different role in my classes.
I think of Total Physical response as a way of connecting your physical actions to the language items your brain is acquiring at the moment learning takes place. What you SEE, TOUCH, EXPERIENCE FULLY WITH YOUR BODY AND CONNECT TO YOUR BRAIN is not easily forgotten. A person can attend a lecture and forget most of the content, not absorb any content at all. When this same person experiences the same content through a total physical response set of activities, he or she will remember much more. These are beliefs I hold strongly to heart as a teacher and that I have corroborated through personal experience with teaching the same content in different ways.
I am preparing recycled-paper flashcards for a series of activities I will be using with my 8th and 9th grade classes. I wish I could video tape my classes and create a video blog, but I would probably have to get waivers and a multitude of permission documents in order to do this. Norway is a very beaureaucratic country and way too paper-oriented. I have to say, however, I like the fact that this country is not as litigious as the United States. For the time being, I will have to describe through the written word all the work I do with TPR and other types of approaches and methods.
We would sing ''Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'' and point to the parts of the body we were touching and we would do drawing dictations in which they had to get up and run to the board to draw the body parts I was saying out loud and they had to touch each other's HEADS if I said ''heads'', ''toes'', etc... I had games of musical chairs in which the kids not only played the game in its original form, but also sang out loud different kid songs that had vocabulary in English for them to memorize.
I showed videos of these classes to another educator and the only thing she commented on was: ''Oh, that video of you telling them to STAND UP AND SIT DOWN.'' The students I had were Brazilian speakers of Portuguese and for these little 2-4 year olds to recognize over 150 words in English and be able to pronounce them, use sentences with them and participate in these activities was a lot more than just standing up and sitting down.
The year was 1996 and it is 2015 now. I have been teaching since 1991 and I have taught people of all ages from 1 to 65 (my oldest student ever was 65 and often took longer periods of time to grasp certain concepts and the 1 year old baby I taught English to once fell asleep in my arms learning colors in English). The experiences as a teacher have taught me that every group is heterogeneous because people learn in different ways. This is why I use TPR allied to other techniques and methods. I can't ONLY USE TPR activities in every class. I also realize that there are groups that simply cannot benefit from these type of activities at all. The difference between 1996 and now is that I don't have young children as students at this point and TPR has taken a different role in my classes.
I think of Total Physical response as a way of connecting your physical actions to the language items your brain is acquiring at the moment learning takes place. What you SEE, TOUCH, EXPERIENCE FULLY WITH YOUR BODY AND CONNECT TO YOUR BRAIN is not easily forgotten. A person can attend a lecture and forget most of the content, not absorb any content at all. When this same person experiences the same content through a total physical response set of activities, he or she will remember much more. These are beliefs I hold strongly to heart as a teacher and that I have corroborated through personal experience with teaching the same content in different ways.
I am preparing recycled-paper flashcards for a series of activities I will be using with my 8th and 9th grade classes. I wish I could video tape my classes and create a video blog, but I would probably have to get waivers and a multitude of permission documents in order to do this. Norway is a very beaureaucratic country and way too paper-oriented. I have to say, however, I like the fact that this country is not as litigious as the United States. For the time being, I will have to describe through the written word all the work I do with TPR and other types of approaches and methods.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Dictations
More than thirty five years ago I remember my teachers announcing the activity for a particular day and whenever it was a dictation I would be as happy as a little kid would be by receiving a bag of candy! I used to enjoy the challenges of the more complicated sentences and I loved getting feedback from my teachers. I do realize that kids nowadays are different in a few ways such as living in a world where instant gratification is key.
I use dictations in the language classes I teach by giving them tasks that go beyond just copying the words they hear. I leave key words blank for them to fill in after finishing the dictation itself. Sometimes I give them alternatives to fill in with and I encourage creativity and imaginative activities.
More than thirty five years ago I remember my teachers announcing the activity for a particular day and whenever it was a dictation I would be as happy as a little kid would be by receiving a bag of candy! I used to enjoy the challenges of the more complicated sentences and I loved getting feedback from my teachers. I do realize that kids nowadays are different in a few ways such as living in a world where instant gratification is key.
I use dictations in the language classes I teach by giving them tasks that go beyond just copying the words they hear. I leave key words blank for them to fill in after finishing the dictation itself. Sometimes I give them alternatives to fill in with and I encourage creativity and imaginative activities.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)