Category Archives: • Teacher feedback

• Final ESL Conversation Speaking Tasks:  Most Meaningful Evaluation Forms

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Oral exams PART 3 COVER REV

(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

In Part 1,   • Common Challenges and Goals for Final ESL Conversation Speaking Tasks , I described the challenges Conversation teachers face when deciding which students should be promoted to the next level. In Part 2, • Final ESL Conversation Speaking Tasks: Rating Three Methods I compared three different methods for determining this.

In this Part 3, I’ll share some final tasks for pairs and triads and evaluation forms that teachers can use to help them make the decision about the level each student should be in the next term.

My colleague was totally dumbfounded early in the term. Somehow some unprepared students in her Level 4 Conversation Class had been passed from Level 3. Then we found out how this happened. For the final task in Level 3, the teacher had students do presentations. Their final grade was mostly based on how well they had prepared and memorized their presentation monolog. Thus, students who had not developed actual conversation-skill techniques, like asking questions, using rejoinders, responding with details, and asking for clarifications, were able to pass Level 3.

In a truly student-centered Conversation class, most activities will revolve around students working in pairs, triads and small groups. Also, during the activities, they will be practicing techniques that will help them develop their conversation and discussion skills. Thus, it makes the most sense that their final task should mirror those two points.

Sample final task formats and evaluation forms.

(Notice: These could be used as a midterm and/or final exam.)

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• Don’t Give Grades For These In Conversation Class. Do This Instead.

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Cover shot don't grade pron

A former ESL student of mine, Teddy, came to my office for a chat. I asked him how his classes were going, and he showed me the mid-term exam grade from his intermediate-level speaking class that his teacher had just given him. First Bad eval form  I asked him how he felt about it. He said that he was feeling discouraged because he really tries to be active in conversation, not only telling his ideas and opinions but also responding to and including other. So he felt that he deserved a much better score than a 72%, which was a failing grade.

Then I asked him, from looking at this grade form, what he thinks he’ll need to do to improve his grade.

Grade three techniques

He felt confident that he could ask more questions and try to respond to others more with rejoinders.

But about the pronunciation and grammar grades, he said that he wasn’t sure.

Revised Grade just pron gram

He imagined that he might have some problems with “L” and “R” sounds.  And he thought that the grammar score was low because he always makes mistakes with prepositions. So he planned to think more carefully about those when talking.

The problem and the fix

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• Most Important Tool for Managing Classroom Behavior (Case two and Caveat)

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Classroom management

“David, Please report to the Director’s office as soon as your class finishes.  He needs to talk to you.”  A program assistant handed me a note with those sentences on it.  Gulp!

In the early 1980s, my wife and I, without much thought, accepted teaching positions on the Greek island of Lesbos.  It was a Greek island, so what could possible go wrong?

It was a prep school that high school students attended in the late afternoons/evenings after high school to study English.  Shortly after arriving, we met one of the teachers whom we were replacing.  He told us that the school had a lot of discipline problems because many of the students didn’t want to be there.  He said that the teacher-turnover was quite high as a result.  In fact, a couple of teacher had just disappeared a few months earlier.

On the first day of class, as we walked down the hallway, we could see students literally chasing each other around the class rooms and jumping on the desks.  My first class was with 16 tenth-grade students.  Although most of the students paid little attention to me but instead continued to chat as I started the lesson, there were three female students sitting in the front row appearing eager to begin.  Those three became the focus of my attention.  Gradually, most of the others started to engage in the lesson, while a couple slept or doodled or looked out the window.

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• Most Important Tool for Managing Classroom Behavior (First Case)

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African classroom

(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)

This “tool” has helped me remain calm in many stressful teaching situations.  Without this, I probably would have changed careers many years ago.  I discovered this tool during my first month of teaching ESL when I was in Africa in the Peace Corps.

Here is what happened that first time in Africa.  One day early in the term, I was conducting a lesson in a class of 35 students.  Sitting in the front row were two popular students, Kato (the class president) and his best friend, Abdula.  They were havig a good time privately whispering and laughing while I was explaining the lesson.  I could tell the other students had noticed them, so I knew I had to do something before the other students would start talking and I’d lose control of the class.  Because Kato and Abdula were popular, I knew that I could alienate the other students if I didn’t handle this situation delicately.  I could feel my stomach churning and blood pressure rising.   Probably many teachers would have had the same initial inclination that I had which would be to just tell them to stop talking.  But what if I did that, and they continued talking?  Then what could I do?   I decided to not say anything right then and to think about it after class.

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