Week 6: Large and small classes teaching Techniques
I have thought of some techniques and technology that could help when teaching small and large classes
Teaching large and small classes is very linked to classroom management, as we all may know, the best number for a class is probably 12 Ss because they can be divided into different groups, for instance, we can make 4 groups of 3, 3 groups of 4, 2 groups of 6. Having 12 Ssas the average numbers of students in class makes it a lot easier for them to hear one another in a whole-class activity. Unfortunately, we cannot choose the number of students in our classes. Most classes are large and I think that the larger the class is the more necessary is to implement technological tools is, one of the differences between large and small classes is the time we have got to monitor students, I think even having 30 students we can still walk around the class during the lesson and spend a few moments listening to each groups and take some notes but with a larger class so we should keep track of which groups we have not got time to listen to in one lesson so that the next lesson we will pay specially attention to those, another interesting technique that works is to rearrange the students and where they sit, in my opinion., it is better to sit students close so they can hear each other when talking softly. A lot of students talking loudly make a lot of noise in class.
When teaching students in small classes, they tend to be more teacher-dependent, waiting for praise or encouragement while they talk or do something; I really think that as teachers, we should avoid becoming part of the group and encourage students to answer their own question as we move from group to group instead.
Technology could certainly help a lot in large classes. Personally I believe that Webquests and blogs are great because students can identify real-world feedback. Moreover, students can also do it offline; they can conduct a class survey on their favorite band or use email, polls and questionnaires interviewing colleagues, friends and family. Just like Webquests, PBLs are also an engaging and stimulating introduction as a lead-in to the quest itself, it gets learners involved from the outset and draw then to a conclusion that clearly demonstrates what they have covered and that rounds of the quest off satisfactorily.
Teaching large and small classes is very linked to classroom management, as we all may know, the best number for a class is probably 12 Ss because they can be divided into different groups, for instance, we can make 4 groups of 3, 3 groups of 4, 2 groups of 6. Having 12 Ssas the average numbers of students in class makes it a lot easier for them to hear one another in a whole-class activity. Unfortunately, we cannot choose the number of students in our classes. Most classes are large and I think that the larger the class is the more necessary is to implement technological tools is, one of the differences between large and small classes is the time we have got to monitor students, I think even having 30 students we can still walk around the class during the lesson and spend a few moments listening to each groups and take some notes but with a larger class so we should keep track of which groups we have not got time to listen to in one lesson so that the next lesson we will pay specially attention to those, another interesting technique that works is to rearrange the students and where they sit, in my opinion., it is better to sit students close so they can hear each other when talking softly. A lot of students talking loudly make a lot of noise in class.
When teaching students in small classes, they tend to be more teacher-dependent, waiting for praise or encouragement while they talk or do something; I really think that as teachers, we should avoid becoming part of the group and encourage students to answer their own question as we move from group to group instead.
Technology could certainly help a lot in large classes. Personally I believe that Webquests and blogs are great because students can identify real-world feedback. Moreover, students can also do it offline; they can conduct a class survey on their favorite band or use email, polls and questionnaires interviewing colleagues, friends and family. Just like Webquests, PBLs are also an engaging and stimulating introduction as a lead-in to the quest itself, it gets learners involved from the outset and draw then to a conclusion that clearly demonstrates what they have covered and that rounds of the quest off satisfactorily.
Posted by Marisol
ReplyDeleteJavier, if we can choose the number of students, especially in our Ecuadorian universities would be great, but often, our classrooms have a lot of students, so I agree with you when you say that a great help is to be near them, to listen to their production and to clarify our ideas about their learning.
What do you think if we use pair work and group work to do this? These kinds of arrangements could help to maximise our students participation, and we can monitor them easily, if we add technological aids we are going to do a better job, of course the activities should be clear, with specific instructions. Another idea at lower levels, is to use Chorus reaction, for example if you screen some pictures at the end of the class with a “re-tell story”, half of the class could say the first part and the other the last one.
Your suggestion about blogs and web-quests are nice because teachers could be sure about their student´s work, this is a clear evidence about it, I like this idea if we want to assess our students too, because it gives us an evidence to assess in order to have validity.
Marisol