Post by Lukas on Nov 3, 2016 18:42:15 GMT 8
First of all, I think that motivation is an issue for most of our students (almost all of them) as usually they get dragged to school by parents or grandparents, they don't know why they're there.
Solutions 3 and 4 are equivalents of our lesson and study plans (short- and long-term goals). We do lesson plans for ourselves and study plans for the parents. Maybe, we should make it more clear to the students what we're trying to achieve (I can't see that working with 3 year olds, but slightly older kids might come up with a specific goal to achieve, for example: understanding a song, watching a cartoon, helping their parents while abroad, etc.
We might not be able to set a long-term goal in a class, to do that I think after-sales questionnaire would be useful. Ask them about their interests, hobbies, things they don't like etc, this would help to make classes more interesting and the whole learning process more effective.
I actually used a modified version of solution 2 in my classes before. There were 4 students in a class, 2 of them bright and 2 not so much. I used to pair them according to their levels brght one with a slower one. Give each group a name and an avatar, like Team Apple and Team Banana (they choose the names). The star system is still in place, only they earn stars for a group , not individuals. The tasks are usually individual, but a teammate is allowed to help. The motivation here is their team's victory and they are willing to cooperate with each other and the slower kids are trying harder, because they don't wanna let their teammates down.
One more thing, solution no 5 - I like the idea of videos done by the students. That's what Jack was talking about in Chengdu. The students would get motivated if they saw the faces they know, their peers, on the telly speaking English. It seems to be a good solution to the anxiety our students experience, being under pressure to perform perfectly every class.
Solutions 3 and 4 are equivalents of our lesson and study plans (short- and long-term goals). We do lesson plans for ourselves and study plans for the parents. Maybe, we should make it more clear to the students what we're trying to achieve (I can't see that working with 3 year olds, but slightly older kids might come up with a specific goal to achieve, for example: understanding a song, watching a cartoon, helping their parents while abroad, etc.
We might not be able to set a long-term goal in a class, to do that I think after-sales questionnaire would be useful. Ask them about their interests, hobbies, things they don't like etc, this would help to make classes more interesting and the whole learning process more effective.
I actually used a modified version of solution 2 in my classes before. There were 4 students in a class, 2 of them bright and 2 not so much. I used to pair them according to their levels brght one with a slower one. Give each group a name and an avatar, like Team Apple and Team Banana (they choose the names). The star system is still in place, only they earn stars for a group , not individuals. The tasks are usually individual, but a teammate is allowed to help. The motivation here is their team's victory and they are willing to cooperate with each other and the slower kids are trying harder, because they don't wanna let their teammates down.
One more thing, solution no 5 - I like the idea of videos done by the students. That's what Jack was talking about in Chengdu. The students would get motivated if they saw the faces they know, their peers, on the telly speaking English. It seems to be a good solution to the anxiety our students experience, being under pressure to perform perfectly every class.
