Monday 8 December 2014


This is what I offer my face-to-face students:

  • My students record themselves speaking English every class. Sometimes it is pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar practice, but each student records themselves re-telling a story and/or being interviewed every class.
  • I listen to some of these recordings and give very informal feedback twice a week.
  • I ask my students to select their best recording of them re-telling a story or possibly being interviewed and I give detailed feedback on one minute of their best recording every week.
  • My students write an email, a letter, a story, an article, or a description every week.
  • I correct all the errors in their weekly writing and mark 5 mistakes as being the most important to learn from.
  • My students send me a corrected version of their weekly writing for me to check.
  • I check their corrected version and make any additional suggestions for improvement.
  • In theory, my students add their best recordings and their twice-corrected writing to their e-portfolio each week.
  • My students read a simplified book every week (in theory) and write a two line comment about it for other students to read.
  • After reading 6 books at one level I suggest they try the next level. Ideally they will read books from four levels in the three terms.
  • I suggest homework from the workbook and DVD(s) but tell my students to be selective and say “ONLY DO WHAT'S IMPORTANT FOR YOU” as there is too much to do it all.
This is what I don’t offer my face-to-face students:

  • I don’t correct the homework from the workbook and DVD(s) in class or at home. But I offer to help them with any doubts they have about the answers to this homework.
  • I don’t correct all the mistakes my students make when speaking in class, but I do write a selection of errors on the board after most speaking activities.
  • I rarely ask individual students to give answers to questions in exercises. Instead, students do the exercises in pairs, while I listen and tell them if I hear that they make a mistake.
  • I rarely ask individuals to speak to all the class. I nearly always ask them to work in pairs or groups of three when speaking and record themselves.
  • I don’t tell my students their grade for their writing until they have sent me a corrected version, although I have given them a grade and made a note of it after the first correction.
  • I don’t correct worksheets my students do in class or at home, but instead, I give them the answers and ask them to correct it themselves in a different colour. Sometimes I collect the corrected worksheets to see if there is something I need to teach again.
  • I rarely say “Excellent!”, “Very good!” etc in class, but I’m always saying things like “Great!” to my students online.
We use English File Pre-intermediate and Intermediate 3rd edition. We have already done one term using the book and plan to finish the book over the next two terms. Our class is equipped with an interactive whiteboard and I use it a lot. We use mobile phones in class and the internet out of class.

No comments:

Post a Comment