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and Snakes in
the Classroom
A Visual and Active Method of Teaching
Steve McCrea
Recommended: a visual approach to pronunciation
PronunciationPatterns.com
FreeEnglishLessons.com
VisualAndActive.com
Did you hear about the adrenaline The rat will swim around the edge
experiment? What role does for a long time, until eventually he
ventures out and by chance bumps
excitement play in helping us
into the platform. The next day,
remember new information?
he'll find the platform a little bit
faster.
Oops. After watching Cary Elcome and after taking the RSA CELTA
course, I learned what we all know -- the language learning takes
place inside the student, not in the classroom. Here are some tips that
I think Cary would tell you if he were here and if he weren't modest.
2. Video record your lessons at least twice a year and analyze your
method. Cary used to record the audio of his lessons and hand out the
cassette to students who wanted a dictation.
4. Give them errors. Let the learners find the solution. He loves gap-
fills (fill in the blank) and he
9. Stay current with the learners. Find out about their music. Use
their lyrics in the classroom.
11. Make use of the people in the room. Of course ask learners to
read the instructions in the book or to begin the day with "What's the
news in your country?" Cary looks up articles so that the busy learner
(who hasn't had time to find a juicy piece of news) can say something
interesting, perhaps about the growing and persistent market for
manatee meat in Venezuela.
15. Break time is learning time. Cary arrived early, stayed late, ate
meals with students, and met them at least once a week for an
evening of talk on Las Olas Blvd, and never spent break time in the
teacher's room. He was always interacting with students. "When they
are OUTSIDE the class, that's when the real mistakes emerge," he
believes.
16. Keep in touch. Cary was an early adopter of email but he was
slow to take on the role of technology guru. He had a laptop but didn't
know how to make web sites or make a network. He used it to write
lessons on his computer and he was an avid explorer of the Internet.
I say some of this in the past tense because Cary is no longer with us. He's
in Asia. Sometimes he feels "gone" and when asked to give training to other
teachers, I just think, "What would Cary say?" and he's alive for me again.
We're having a hard time meshing our lives over Skype because he's out the
door at 8 am (7 pm the previous day for me) and when he is ready to talk at
5 pm, it's 4 am for me!
I've learned about right/left, male/female brain tendencies and the role of
adrenaline in the formation of memories -- all since I met Cary. However, his
basic training help me to daily deal with challenging situations -- not the new
bells, whistles, laptops and CDs. It's still nuts and bolts, in this ESOL
industry, and it's still people to people. Cary is a good mentor and hi advice
is timeless.
If I am pressed to state the visual and active method in a paragraph, I say the
following:
2. For tests, many students prefer to make a video. "I don't like to
write" or "I can't spell very well" -- so make an audio recording using a
digital camera. The camera does not need to point at the student.
3. Students learn most quickly when they are laughing and when they
are surprised. (See the October 31, 2004 article about novelty).
4. Students learn the things that they want to learn. If they are
interested...they will remember more. So why not let students choose their
subjects?
5. Let's create projects and homework that are REAL, not just
paperwork. Let's make websites and blogs and write emails -- let's build
bridges. Let's make videos and send the news to other people. (Source:
Dennis Littky)
Novelty:
In a column called “Science Watch” (Sun Sentinel Oct 31, 2004), Sandra Blackeslee
(NY Times syndicate) reported that “anything that is novel grabs the
brain’s attention system by tapping directly into reward pathways
in the brain.” Marketing organizations are interested in this
technology. “Being able to see how the brain responds to novelty and
makes decisions is potentially a huge step forward for marketers,”
according to Tim McParlin, who works for Lieberman Research Worldwide in Los
Angeles (quoted in the article).
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The photos that appear in this
document come from Suzy Lima’s
class in Curitiba, Brazil. She was
looking for a way to make her ESOL
class more vibrant, and I suggested
an activity that I use (based on the
insights presented by Dennis Littky
in The Big Picture) make it
persona.. Ask the students to
perform their understanding. I’m a
lazy author (I have difficulty matching
captions to photos), so I asked that
the photos include the caption, which
is why the students are holding
pieces of paper. Some captions are
in Portuguese to give the reader a
translation of the English and
This is a flat world, as Thomas
practice in another language. Go
Friedman says, and we need to have
ahead, learn something new and
more than scholastic success to
keep the brain active and young.
prepare for competing in a global
economy. See Dan Pink’s
Many thanks to the students of Suzy
arguments about design. In other
Lima. I encourage you, dear reader,
words, there are five doors for
to send an email message to
success (LASSIE): Languages,
suzylimab@hotmai.com and ask
Academics, Social Skills, Inherited
your students to send letters to Suzy
opportunities and Experience. We
so she can find one of her 789
teachers can’t change what our
students to create pen pal
students inherit and we know that
correspondence.
achievement in school is not the only
door for success in many students’
lives (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and
other entrepreneurs dropped out of