Fostering a student-centered classroom to maintain student interest and participation Abigail...
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Fostering a student-centered classroom to maintain student interest and participation Abigail Bruhlmann English Language Fellow CELI (Center for English Language Immersion) 27 th Annual Panama TESOL Congress September 21-22, 2013
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Transcript of Fostering a student-centered classroom to maintain student interest and participation Abigail...
Fostering a student-centered classroom to maintain student
interest and participation
Abigail BruhlmannEnglish Language Fellow
CELI (Center for English Language Immersion)27th Annual Panama TESOL Congress
September 21-22, 2013
Student-Centeredvs. Teacher-Fronted
O Teacher-fronted classrooms:O Teacher is the “sage on the stage”
O Student-Centered classrooms:O Teacher is the “guide on the side”
Why is a student-centered classroom important?
O -Lessons more interesting
O -Lessons more memorable
O -Students held accountable for their learning
O -Enables more informal assessment
O -Caters to different learning styles
Student expectationsO Prevailing “student is an empty vessel to be
filled with knowledge by teacher” model?
O Students may be used to a teacher-fronted classroom
O Teacher must explain concept of student-centered classroom
O Students might need some time to adjust
1. Needs AnalysisO Who are your students?
O What do they want to learn?
O How do they want to learn?
O Why are they studying English?
2. Throw things at your students
O Stuffed animal ball toss to self-regulate participation
Grammar quiz –subject/verb agreement
O 1. I love/loves teaching English.
O 2. Why do students use/uses their phones in class?
O 3. One of my students give/gives me an apple every day.
O 4. The teachers is/are learning a lot at the Panama TESOL Congress.
O 5. What a relief that this activity is/are over!
3. Use interesting material
O If you are bored, the students will be too
O Use material relevant to the students’ livesO Ex) Facebook posts, Twitter feeds, articles
about their country/city
O Don´t use the textbook exclusively
O Ridiculous websites?
Ridiculous websites!O www.theoatmeal.com
O Funny (edgy) grammar and punctuation cartoons
O www.hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.comO Funny, illustrated, autobiographical blog
O www.urbandictionary.comO Slang dictionary
4. Personalize contentO Use students’ names/life experiences in
example sentences
O Sally took a bus to the conference.
vs.
O Diego took a Diablo Rojo to the TESOL Congress.
5. Use student-generated materials
O If you want to have students describe a picture, use a picture of your students
vs.
6. Change partners often
O Students get to know all their classmates
O Match-ups to reinforce class content:O Vocabulary words and definitionsO Pronunciation minimal pairsO Questions and responses
sheep
ship
wheel
fill will
feel
7. Involve the students in grammar explanations
O The Question Hand:
O Great for teachingquestion structure
O Have the students trace their own hand
(Question Hand courtesy of Aaron Corbin)
8. Use manipulatives to reinforce concepts
O Vocabulary review in partners/small groups:O “Memory” gameO Hang the spiderO Partner fill-in-the-blankO Chain stories
P , A , F
_______ ___E____ _______ ___O___ ___L___
9. Give students resources to practice outside of class
O Students take charge of their own learning
O Share info they discover with the class
Other ideas?
