An experiment: Connectivism (part 3)

After the first 3 months, I asked students for feedback through google forms, and through 1:1 chats. They had just taken their end of term exam, and offered me quite a bit of useful feedback which I could act on. I dropped some of the activities they didn't like so much and introduced some new ones. Students seemed more open to change now and there were noticeable differences in achievement.

Results so far
Students seemed to be making big strides forward in speaking, listening, and writing. Students seemed to be coming along fine with reading, but still struggling with pronunciation. I decided to look at this. Students also informed me that they would like to be introduced to the IELTS, have more speaking and pronunciation practice, and wanted to feel more confident with listening.

Changes made
Pronunciation: Students were introduced to pronunciation apps, and Siri! Pronunciation apps helped students with words and sentences in their free time.  Siri helped with grammar, and Pronunciation. Students had to ask questions in class and Siri would reply. This made students more conscious of mistakes, and they refined their speech more. It also produced some funny situations we could all have a giggle at. In addition, students could use Siri to find out information for grammar tasks.

Speaking: Siri, Skype buddy, IELTS speaking mini lessons, and English language meetups. A stated above this was an area of real growth in the last term but students were wanting more. As classes are already communicative I decided to focus on things students could do outside of class. Skype buddies, and English language meetup events in the city became useful. I found a list of events and my students picked one they were interested in and went. They loved it. I also worked with another teacher in Spain and paired my students with hers. In class we also did some mini IELTS speaking lessons. This also appealed for the reason below.

IELTS practice: The IELTS is a huge achievement here in Vietnam and can really open doors. It's no surprise that although my students weren't ready, they wanted to know more. To respond to this I created some mini lessons for different parts of the speaking and writing exam. These involved looking at model answers, watching the exam, and learning skills and strategies. These were graded to the level, and really helped students to connect with writing more, and to challenge themselves to speak better.

Other things I introduced

Tea party - Students are given questions but only one answer, They must mingle to find and write down the other answers.

Field trip - we went on our first field trip to a modern art space. In the at galley students were given questions and had to discover the answers. After this we brainstormed what we had learnt, and used it to discuss the topic. This also really gave students tons of materials for an arts project we did where students made an art exhibition and curated using passives.

British Council Learn English - This website gave some really good tried and tested materials which were often a hit.

Guardian, BBC, Short story websites - The videos, articles, and stories really provided fantastic authentic activities.

Things I wish my teacher knew -  Students anonymously give feedback, saying things they feel i've overlooked or feel embarrassed to say.



Other things
Projects are going better, as are all activities except video. Confidence is improving but there are still some issues.