I prepared a new activity this time. The name of the activity is guess game. The activity I prepared last time seems to be boring, so I prepared a whole different activity this time. I prepared 20 images. There were various pictures of food, animals, objects, and people. With the pictures, one out of six people knew the answer and the rest asked questions to guess what the picture was. Person who knew the answer could only answer yes or no. Because I had only 30 minutes, I prepared enough pictures, but it took me longer to get one right answer than I thought, but It got faster and faster as we went back. I guess it took longer because someone who knew the answer could only answer yes or no. And it seems that it took a long time for the students to ask questions, as there were many of them just saying anwer, rather than asking questions. I should have told the students with more strict discipline, but I felt sorry for not being able to do so. This is the last hosting time, so I don't have the next chance, but I felt that next time I became a teacher, I needed to be more strict if I provided these activities to my students. As an educational goal, I think the students got along well because they seemed to have had enough conversation.
Spot the Differences
It was a game in which two out of six players were paired and did not show each other with different pictures, only looking for differences in the difference in the painting. My opponents and I had similar pictures as a whole, but in terms of detail, there were quite a lot of different parts. It was important to know the terms for directions because we should have spoken without showing each other. We had to exchange information and write a sentence on a piece of paper handed out by hosting. But not only me, but also all the other students, there were fewer sentences written on paper than I thought because there were no strict regulations. I think they met their educational goals because they were activities to find answers through dialogue with each other.
Modify the Statements
The second activity was to redefine the three sentences and write the answer. But I didn't understand the meaning of this activity from the outset. Everyone seemed to be having a hard time, and at the end of the day, we ended up talking about personal things through one topic. There was a lack of explanation, and the activity itself was in line with speech and listening, but it was regrettable that it didn't seem to be done well due to the lack of explanation from hosting.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 13 Reflections for Dextrous
Our new guest had prepared a game, which is to guess what the picture is about. The host showed a runner a paper that contains the answer picture, and then the other members may ask to the runner about the answer in the yes or no question. Finally, when someone guess the answer, the game is over. Rule was simple and as we had done the guessing game several times, I feltcomfortable, not pressure this time.
Because of those several experiences, I thought it would be a piece of cake, but I was wrong. This host prepared the pictures that exist in the real world whereas I had prepared guessing game last time, but the pictures that I prepared was all about movie, especially animation. In the terms of level of difficulty, her picture was more difficult than mine, as the boundary of the category goes larger. Therefore, I thought my guessing game would be fit for the elementary schoolers, and her guessing game would be fit for the middle schoolers. It was a good activity that made me know and experience the differences of level of difficulty.
2. Find the differences and Modify the statements
Our last host had prepared two new games. First one is to find the differences in the given picture. The host made a pair into two person, and then she gave each person a picture, but at this time, partners got paper that contains slight differences to each other. Then, we took some time, and explain our each paper to the partner, and while explaining, we had to find the differences.
I like this game most among the activities that she had prepared in this class, because I think this game has a lot of pedagogical strength. We have to analyze the picture through the eye, and then we have to describe it through the mouth, and also we have to listen to partners description through the ear, and lastly we have to analyze the differences through consideration. This whole process needs lots of our organs to concentrate and work hard, which enhances our language skills.
Second one is to modify three statements written in the given paper. There were three statements that I mostly disagree, and we needs to discuss together, make the conclusion, and then change it into the sentences that we could all agree. To be frank, we had used our whole given time into discussion, so we cannot modify the statements, but our discussion was still passionate. We mainly discuss about the main topic sadly, and we shared our own experiences and opinion about it. It would be fit for the students who can consider deeply and logically and who can speak fluently and accurately in the discussion to make an argument and the persuasion. It was a fun activity,
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 13 Reflections for Dextrous
These activities are the last group activities, so our group did such interesting and wondeful activities
Guessing Game
Since our group member Sophie took a semester off, new member prepared this activity. This activity is similar with mine but a little bit different.
First, game host shows a picture to one student. The topics are very diverse: job, animal, character and so on. Second, the student should explain her character to other students. Third, Other students can ask any questions to her. Lastly, if a student guessed the answer correctly, now it is her turn.
In my activity, teacher can participate in this activity. However, teacher cannor participate in this guessing game. I think this activity is much better in this point because some students tend to get stressed because of teacher's participation. In my activity, I limited students asking chances. However, we can ask any questions to the student on this activity. I think it can be more interesting and exciting if the host limit the number of chances.
I think my and her activity is useful for ice-breaker or review session. As an ice breaker, it can break nervousness among the students. As a review session, student can learn lexical items by explaning some vocabularies. I think it is appropriate for novice or intermediate-low level students because the vocabluaries and the ways to express words are easy enough.
Finding the Difference & Discussion
These activities are the last activities in this course. First, we did finding the difference activities. The rule of activities are like this: 1. A group is divided into half and half. 2. Student get different pictures. Students in the left side get type A picture and students in the right side get type B picture. Students cannot see each other's picture. 3. Students expain their picture to their partner. If they find the differences between their pictures, they draw circle on the picture.
I think this activity is useful after learning places, colors, and shapes because the differences are about shape, color, and places. Moreover, it is approprate for intermediate students because it can be a little bit difficult to describe something.
Second, we did discussion activities. The rule of discussion activities is like this: 1. Students get some policy. 2. Students can change some policies by using some expressions on the paper. 3. Students can give their opinion to other students.
I think this activity is useful to learn debating skills. Also, it improves student's creativity and insisting skills because they have to think about the policy and give some opinion to other students. Therefore, it is appropriate for at least intermediate level students. It needs high level of speaking/debating skills.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 13 Reflections for Dextrous
The first session was finding the differences. The objectives of this activity was finding the differences between two pictures. The pedagogical purpose can be to use descriptive words and preposition for describing the pictures. It is a pair work and 10 minutes long. It seems to designed for intermediate level of learners because the pictures look childish and easy to describe. This activity requires negotiation between pairs by verbally communication including speaking and listening. The picture was kind of simple input to understand and there wasnt not many difficulties that can push us. The rule was simple. After assigned as a pair, we talked to each other and describe the picture, then find the differences and wrote down in the paper. It was kind of piece of cake and not let me lose interest. However, it led us to mutually speak and listen to each other. In my opinion, it would help to catch students attention, if the picture was interesting or more complicated.
2. Discussion
The second session was Discussion. The objectives of this activity was reasoning the statements. The pedagogical purpose can be to learn how to reason and back up my idea in discussion. It was a group work with 3 members and takes more than ten minutes. The time can be controlled if the host deal with the depth of the topic and the number of it. Also, the target level of proficiency can vary depending on the topic. There were three sentences and we were supposed to talk in three groups then, compare with other group. Basically, this was negotiation-based task. There were three topics we need to discuss and reason. Every Child has to have siblings. This was kind of familiar topic and very controversial, which indicates that it is worth to discuss. We had conversation back and forth and everyone was activated to involve in the discussion. The most distinguishable characteristic of this activity was that it focuses on the output rather than input. I mean this one is more independent from one single entity (guessing game) or picture (descriptive). It was so comfy to speak out my idea or experience. We think and connect our experience into the topic to make the sentences make sense. It is more practical in terms of real-world purpose. I enjoyed this activity a lot and I think I just like discussion a lot!
Juyoung
Guessing game
The last session was Guessing Game. The objective of this activity is finding out what the person think of in her mind. The pedagogical purpose can be to make as delicate questions as possible in order to get the answers yes or no. it was a group activity among five people and takes 30 minutes long. Time can vary depending on the difficulty of the topic. The rules are simple. One people saw a picture prepared by the host. And she got some questions from other members and the person only can say yes or no. In order to get more clues, people should ask sophisticated questions. We took turns in clock-wise and the pictures are not difficult but the range of topic was too broad so it was hard to guess. I would say it is kind of focusing on one-to-one interaction in terms that the person who asks interact with the person who going to answer. It doesnt require the negotiation skills among the members. It gave us chances to speak English and listen to it then think. For the real-world purpose, it can be practical when do we describe the thing when we cant come up with the word or idea. However, I guess there might be better activity for this reasons. I wouldnt say this activity is not good but I believed that we are kind of sick of this activity.
