Teaching Abstract Ideas Visually

Anan Zeevy (2010) Red Apple

In English there are many abstract concepts that can be taught visually, or aurally, to avoid having difficulties teaching students who may not be able to read or speak English very well. Looking at how to teach them to students from different backgrounds is an interesting way to expand our teaching styles and methods.

I will be looking at how to teach student about similes in a modern day English classroom, where some students may not have strong backgrounds in the English language.

 

Georg Schwalback (2012) 1968-1973 Opel GT (09)

Similes are a great place to start, because they lead into many different facets of English, metaphors, poetry and many others. In my lesson, I would plan to have 2 piles of images that can be said to be ‘like’ each other. In the example to the right, I’ve provided a picture of a red car, and a red apple. Places these two images on a white board or SMARTBoard, I would announce to the students that the apple, is like the car. Then I would ask students to talk in groups, about why I may have said that. Then coming back to a class discussion, I would ask students to present their ideas on why I said what I said. I would expect to get answers like “Because the car and the apple are both red”, “because the apple and the car are both shiny” and “because the apple and the car are stationary”. The diverse range of answers the class could give, will leave the class open for a discussion on why I used this terminology, and didn’t just say, the car is red like that apple, and so forth. It is possible to lead the students into even more abstract ideas, such as that the apple is like the car, because I want the car and I want the apple; leading into some of Shakespeare’s more abstract poetry.

This way of teaching is instruction and enquiry based. The initial and concluding teaching will be by the teacher, but the bulk of the lesson will be from student discussion.  I am unsure where this lesson would go on a Blooms Taxonomy scale, because the students are doing something I consider outside Blooms, but it could be seen as evaluating the question, but with out the lower levels of Blooms to build up to it.

Anan Zeevy (2010) Red Apple [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ananzeevy/4456311551/

Georg Schwalback (2012) 1968-1973 Opel GT (09) [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/geralds_1311/6840451042/

Explicit Teaching - How to/Why not

The teacher in this clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h4q-bok644&feature=player_embedded#!) uses many good techniques, she returns to what she has already said, paraphrasing herself, to make sure all the students hear, and understand what she has spoken about. She let’s the students read along with her when she reads, so they can learn both visually, and aurally. She also uses feeling words rather than exact words, so saying that she ‘feels’ a word should included, rather than the fact is definitely should. This shows the students that there is no right or wrong way to summarise, because with summarising, as with many things in English, it’s not always the case of having all the answers.

She gets the students to talk with their learning partners, I would prefer, this early on in the lesson, for the students to be engaged in a whole group discussion. Although, whole group discussions obviously work better with older students, and this is a younger class.

In the second video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yStzJjLXdxM&feature=player_embedded#!)

, the teacher’s idea to let students have self study time, where she is able to help, and give feedback, is an interesting and, I think, great idea. The fact that she also tells students what is expected of them by the end of the lesson, is also interesting and useful. This lesson isn’t very interactive though, and you can see from the student’s faces that they are bored by the lesson. Whilst she requires student interaction, in is minimal and uniform. The students repeat what they’ve been told and students are not individualised or asked to be creative in anyway. On a blooms scale, this lesson only catches on to the lower bars. Not teaching anything higher than applying. Where as the first lesson makes students analyse the text, and evaluate the words they’ve chosen.

Group Work and Social Skills

Design a cooperative learning activity for students in your curriculum area.

Students are to prepare one scene from of Medea by Aristophanes to present to the class at the end of the fortnight. This activity is to be done in groups of 3-4. Whole group participation is expected.

What social skills are required for students to participate in this activity?

Social Skills needed:

L-Listen to other ideas and opinions

R-Respect everyone’s ideas and opinions

C-Contribute to the group and to learning

How will you address the necessary skill development for your students?

If each student listens to the other ideas, respects those ideas and inputs their own, anything in group work is possible. It is important to make it apparent in your class that everyone’s ideas and opinions are valid and that no ones opinion is better than another’s. In English there is rarely one right answer and this can be used to teach students about the many differing values and opinions of people in the classroom, and it the world. Students should learn to listen, through teacher based learning, as well as whole class interactions and students will all be required to contribute daily to the class, increasing their skills in these areas.

To me, LRC represents all I want students to do in their groups. If they all respect each other, listen to each other and contribute to the learning, then every group should be able to easily work on a play, or any other piece of group work, in a cooperative fashion.

Can you outline a set of 'social skills tips' for your students that explicitly explains and coaches the required interpersonal skills in cooperative learning?

Listen – Be quiet when other students in your group are talking, listen to what they have to say.

Respect- Value all ideas that are put forth, everyone is just as valuable.

Contribute – Put forth your own ideas and opinions on the group work.

These explain what each of the three skills are, but it is in practice that students will be ‘coached’ into learning these stills. It is not something I believe can be taught outright, such as math and spelling, but something that must be practiced to be learnt.

1 + 1 = 3

“So class, that is why 'act' can be used both as a verb AND a noun.”

“That means it can be an adverb!!!”

“Well Julie, I’m not sure, why do you think it could be used as an adverb?”

“Because adverbs are just an extension to a verb!”

“You’re right that adverbs are used as extensions to verbs! How about we look at some examples and try and put adverbs where a verb would normally be and see whether act can really be a verb, a noun AND  an adverb!”

Whilst this is quite a low level student I’m dealing with in my imagination, I believe that the same process could be used for any student who presents a ‘wrong’ answer. I understand that you can not take the time to rebut every single wrong answer a student presents but in cases like this it’s important to understand the student might not be the only one with that answer. So you’re not just helping one student, but all students in their quest to find the ‘right’ answer.

It is also important to remember that there isn’t always just one right answer and there can be many different responses in the humanitarian studies, especially in poetry and literature evaluation and analysing.

I was unable to test this exact technique on any of my friends (I feel it may be patronising if done out of a teacher to student relationship). I have previously used this technique with my friends in disagreements. Most recently on whether the letter Y is or is not a vowel. It relies on logic and experimentation but it works to prove whether the answer is right or wrong and you never know, you could be the one that’s wrong.

P.S: Y is a sometimes vowel.