Picture was divided into six. Each of the students described the corresponding part, and drawn the picture that they did not have by descriptions of other student. It was a kind of information gap activity. There is something in common with last activity in that students listen to descriptions of picture and draw it. The last time it was a pair work, but this time all 6 of us participated in the activity. It was pretty clear what we had to do, and this time, material host also let students know if we could ask questions before started. Through this activity, students can learn how to describe place and stuff also the expression related to size and direction.
The painting was the appearance of the classroom, but the it was too complicated. Instructor said it was her intent to make students speak as much as possible. However, I do not know if it worked. Some difficulties appeared during the activity.
At first, the student who start describing it had a very hard time. She could not explain the direction of the desk, so she showed it with a hand gesture. But instructor said she cannot do it. So other student give her instruction like "Is it North-west? or North-east?" Until that time she was not able to describe the direction. I hope Instructor to be a mediator to do such a thing, rather than a participant.
Also, it would have been better if at least the instructor teach or give students the word list about the direction before starting the activity. The word we used to describe the location, and the phrase used to describe the size.
At last, material host gave each students five minutes to describe a picture. There are six in one team, so when we finished describe it, the given 30 minutes was over. Even 5 minutes were not enough to describe the picture that we received. Material host intentionally picked the difficult picture, but I think it would have been more productive to pick the easier one. After finishing the description, we can gather together to talk about the picture and our describing method.
2. 20 questions -> What am I?
Last time, it was a game when a person came up with a word, the rest of the people found out the word by asking 20 yes or no questions. This time it was similar to last time in terms of matching the words that one person thought up, but the rules changed a bit. Once a word is chosen, the student writes the answer on paper and shares it with material host. And say three sentences that contain information about words.
The material host specified the category; PLACE, PERSON, ACTIVITY, FOOD, CHARACTER, ANIMAL, and OBJECT. The student picked one category randomly. Once the category is picked, share the it with the rest of the students.Last time there was a short debate about whether Snow White could seemed as alive or not. This time, when a student picked the PERSON, instructor avoided confusion by telling us that there is CHARACTER category.
Because the host knew the word, when the students told the uncertain information, she corrected it. For example, the answer was the church, and the student said, "I have never been here before." When students learned that the answer was a church, one student asked, "But it is a tourist attraction and historical place. How can you never been there?" The host helped that student by saying " I think she meant that she had never visited with a specific purpose like praying." For another example, there was a student whose answer was "hippocampus", when she said that its color is only orange, instructor quickly searched and corrected the wrong information.
It was nice to see that material host reflects some idea from the reflection. But the students still met the problem that what they should do or not was ambiguous. Whether the student can ask any additional questions after who picked the word spoke three sentences. Also, I wondered how many chances we had to figure out the words. For example, most of students picked words that were too easy to find out, for example, Robert Downey Jr., Firefighter, Lasagna, Professor Van Vlack, etc.) I wanted to try hard one so I picked up "Banh Xeo."However, then nobody could get the word. It was a word that nobody knew but just material host and me. I thought it was a bit of a waste of time to provide additional hints because it was a word that nobody knows. Thus, I think it would be better to set a rule like - to find the answer within 6 times.
Another problem is about having equal speaking time. The words were so easy that I got most of the answers. After finding out 5th words, I said that I would not tell the answer even I know it. It seems that everyone needs more opportunity to speak. It would be nice if all students had time to say the answer or discuss the answer after saying 3 sentences.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 6 Reflections for Super
This week, we had to modify our original activity to make it better or at least different. I was actually very much stuck on how to improve my activity because even if my first, original activity that I presented on week 3 to my group was not perfect it was kind of rounded. If it was not for the help of Taeeun and brainstorming together I would not have been to come up with an idea close to the original activity. So after thinking a lot what came out was that I wanted to keep the main objectives of my original activity: developing the ability to describe orally a picture which normally helps telling a story and listening to the main speaker and push the understanding on the paper to prove what they actually understood.
I changed the activity from being a pair work to a group work. The students had 5 min to describe their part of the picture so that all other students could draw what the speaker was telling them. The speaker has to use a strategy that might differ from their other partners to describe their part. So, for example some students organized their mind very quickly using terms relative to geographic directions north west when other rather use bottom left. They also had to mind-map to be able to chose what to say first also from what the other students said before them. As the listeners, the other group partners were able to ask questions (even though I forgot to say so in the presentation I made which is a mistake of the real life practice compared to just writing instructions; by the way I dont give the written instructions to the students for that reasons that they have to speak to the teacher if they wonder anything and also it pushes them to focus more on the meaning of what the teacher is saying). Asking questions is an important part of the task because that helps the speaker to be more precise and give details. When too much details, or words went missing for the speakers either the group would help them or they use another strategy to use a lot of words instead of using one only if they had the proper term(it is a square/ cubic object with water in it so signify aquarium). They have to learn through the task what is the better way to transmit what they have to say so it is a task-focused interaction: they have to reconstitute a picture and for that they have to interact. The activity is based on the description of a real-life scene so the students must use verbs and vocabulary relative the specific scene (that may be changed by the professor to make them practise new vocabulary). The main objective of the activity is to make the students practise story-telling but in a very detailed way so they can be over-skilled for real-life purpose.
I acknowledge that drawing might be a difficult part for the students because it may not be their strength and they might even feel uncomfortable to do so. So, the teacher in a real situation of teaching should make sure that the accent is not put on that part of the exercise. That part should be the fun part since all students have so little time to draw they should all have fun while reconstituting the picture together. Maybe the next step may be to find what was not well done comparing with the image they should have come up with. The original picture itself was voluntarily difficult because the more difficult the more detailed you can be and also the students are not expected to actually come back with the entire picture but better miss elements so they can see what they can improve to give more details and elements or what elements are important first to give to make sense to the picture.
What Am I?
What I am? is a guessing game is a game that I think that is designed for beginners or new intermediates but can be played by other level of students. The game is simple: a student picks a category and have to choose a thing to enter it that the other students have to guess. To guess it the student who picked the word has to give three clues and if not enough the teacher will help but the other students cannot ask questions.
The main change of the activity compared to the original one is that thanks to the categories it shapes the mind of the students to find out what the word to guess is. That made the guessing part of the game easier and not in a bad way. The thing that I appreciated less was the fact that the speaking exercise was focused on only one person at the time on a very simple way of enunciating things: once they were done speaking their three clues they were not supposed to talk again but the teacher would take in charge; but again I think I liked it less because of our level in English but for beginner students or new intermediates I think it would be great because they have to produce one big effort and then they are free from it. Plus, since the students are not allowed to write down their clues on paper they have to mentally construct the sentences in their mind and speak them out before going on the next clue and that exercise for beginner is very important because it helps them to be able to structure the language mentally and getting used to speak as they think. We can think that beginners unlike us would make mistakes and would try to correct themselves as they speak as a strategy to be understood and the teacher might help them to reformulate their sentence. The activity is concentrated on being able to give definitions and that is why it is one-sided speaking activity.
On the other side, the students that listen to the person giving definition dont have to do too much. They might use top-down strategy at first because from the category and what they know of the person speaking they will predict what that person might say and very fast move on to bottom up approach to confirm what they thought with the words and their meaning given in the clues.
Overall I really like this activity, thanks for preparing this activity.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 6 Reflections for Super
Reconstituting the Global Picture is the upgraded version of Pair Description, which is an activity that was hosted a few weeks ago by one of the hosts of the first week of materials hosting. While Pair Description was a game played in pairs, Reconstituting the Global Picture was a small group activity. As one can assume by the name, there is one global picture that is divided into pieces. In the case of our group, the picture was divided into six pieces because there are six members in our group, and each person has to get one piece. Once everyone gets their piece, it cannot be shared or shown to other members in the group. The point of this activity is to listen to others descriptions of what they see on their pieces and try to draw a picture from only the information you get from the person with the piece. However, unlike Pair Description, students listening to the descriptions were allowed to ask questions to the speaker if she wasnt clear enough. Even though the point of not being able to ask questions in Pair Description was to get the describer to use as many vocabulary as possible and be as descriptive as possible, as well as to make the drawer listen carefully to every detail, this new rule had its own benefits, too.
The first advantage of allowing students who are listening to ask questions was giving them the opportunity to speak. In Pair Description, only the describer was able to practice speaking, but this time, drawers were able to practice speaking as well. If more people can practice speaking in a round, it is more efficient. Another benefit that follows is the chance to have two-way communication. Students can practice having conversations and learn real-world communication skills such as asking for information. The second advantage is active listening. Although listening could be practiced in Pair Description, the only way the drawer used listening was to listen. In Reconstituting the Global Picture though, listening wasnt just for listening. Students have to listen to the describer and think of more information that is needed to draw the picture. This requires students to not only listen, but also to think if the information they received is enough or isnt, which is an important skill to have as students. The biggest example can be a classroom environment. When listening to the teachers lecture, students shouldnt have passive attitudes, but listen actively and think about whether the teacher is giving enough information, if they have clear understanding of the information given, and such.
Overall, this activity was a fun way to get students to listen and speak actively. If there could be any improvement or change made, the instructor should tell the students before beginning to be as informative and descriptive as possible because some students didnt give enough information like which direction desks are facing or even forgetting to mention some objects in the picture. Still, what I liked better in this activity that was a problem in Pair Description was the participation of the instructor. In Pair Description, it was unfair when the instructor participated because she was already aware of the pictures since she has prepared them. In this activity, however, the instructor knowing the global picture was helpful in that she could ask additional questions to the describer when the descriptions werent specific enough, since she knew the picture.
WhatAmI?
What Am I? is an upgraded version of 20 Questions which is the material I brought in for materials hosting during the first round. After reading all the student feedbacks, I decided to narrow down the range of words the it can choose. I did this by making cards with different categories: person, character, place, activity, food, job, animal, and object. However, there were still some minor problems to this. First, it made the game too easy for some students, but this is something relative so it is a comparably smaller issue. Another problem was that since students dont know which category theyll get to choose from, it took a long time for some students to decide upon their word. This made other students wait without having anything to do.
To prevent this quiet and meaningless time, the instructor couldve made students individually brainstorm some words for each category prior to beginning the activity. Another possibility is for the instructor to prepare not only categories, but also words for each category for students to draw from. In this way, time couldve been saved, the difficulty level couldve been adjusted, and students will be put into more pressure because they are not aware of which word would come out. This is good practice for real-world communication because you dont always know what youre going to have to say in real-life situations.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 6 Reflections for Super
Pair description -> Reconstituting the global picture
Group members were assigned a section of a completed picture. While one student was explaining her picture, the other students had to listen to the explanation and draw about it. Therefore, a detailed description of the picture was required. We could ask questions about the details of the picture if there was any confusion during the drawing. Questions and feedbacks about the details of the picture could be answered to reveal a fairly specific part of the picture. For example, the location and angle of the desk were explained.
When I explained the picture, I tried to use as many transition words as possible so that the group members could understand the picture easily and tried to explain it succinctly. Though, group members asked me questions about what they didnt understand about my explanation which served as an opportunity to practice in connection with the things around desk to explain the desk.
When I was listening to and drawing a picture, I couldnt see the picture, so I couldnt make a guess about the size, location and direction of the item that the group member explained. However, when other group members asked questions about this, and I asked questions and received feedback about the confusing parts, I fully understood them. I think group descriptions are better than pair descriptions when they need to be described in detail.
The host also participated in the activity the same as the group members. There were students who had difficulty with rather complicated pictures, and I thought it would be better for the host to become a facilitator and play a role in helping the difficult parts of the picture.
20 questions -> What Am I?
We chose words within seven categories, and did activities to get group members to guess this word. Once the group member randomly selects one category cards the host prepared, she had to select a word within the category and give the group members three sentences of information about them. The category one group member pieced should be shared with the group members, and the word they chose should let the host know. Since host knows the word we set, she played a role of mediator who led our guess to the right way when group members making the wrong guess. Also, she corrected the guess when we had the wrong information about the word.
There were not many words in the category that immediately came to mind, which led to the choice of words that were easy to guess. If the host prepare the appropriate level of words or pictures list instead of categories, the guessing time would be longer and lead more questions being asked by group members. Since most of the words and explanations of words were easy to guess, there were not many specific questions about words. The three sentences provided by the speaker were sufficient to guess.
Also, the rest of the group did not have chance to guess and ask questions because one group member with good guesswork answered most of the words. According to this point, I think that we need one more rule. If one member answered three words right, she would play the role of a mediator similar to host so that the rest of the group can guess the words.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 6 Reflections for Super
In this activity, each person was given each parts of the picture divided into six. After that, we described our parts one by one and needed to make the whole one picture. This activity was similar to top-down process, summing up the information of the parts of a picture and eventually completing the drawing of a one big picture. Students kept on thinking about what would the whole picture be based on the information about the pieces.
Overall, the picture itself and divided pictures were so hard to describe that we were not able to explain on pictures clearly, and we didnt drew the picture like the original picture. For example, I was not familiar with the words that can be used to described the picture, so I had trouble explaining the picture clearly to the students.
if you want work out this activity to the lower level of student, it would be better to provide vocabulary lists and sentence forms that can be used while describing each parts of the picture. For example, there were many lines toward many directions, and there were some furnitures that had different shapes. Therefore, if you provided the vocabulary lists of directions or shapes, it would have been better. It would not only help students explain on the pictures clearly, but also it would be helpful for students to focus on form and learn new vocabulry and sentence structures.
Moreover, I think you need to reduce the difficulty of the picture. The picture is too complicated to be described and drawn correctly. It would be better if you use clearer, and simple picture. To illrustrate, the picture of a face or an animal would be easier for students to explain and draw.
2. What am I?
We picked up one category card and we thought about a thing belonging to that category. After that, students asked some questions turn by turn to guess what a student was thinking of. All the four strands were balanced. While students were carefully reading the hints presented by the student holding the answer, they were able to carefully think about what was written. Through that process, students were able to acquire the vocabulries and expressions in the hint. Overall, the task was clear and the instruction was easy to understand.
To compare with your previous task, your task became more clear and at the same time it was not loose anymore. It kept students be interested in the activity. In your previous task, because the catergory was not set, it was a little bit difficult to guess the right answer. I think setting a category was a nice choice in that it makes the task clearer. Also, giving the hint to guess was good choice. By giving hint, students were able to consider the context. That is, while giving hint, students considered if their hints would be understandable or not, and modified the hint if the hint would not make sense or not be connected to their answer.
