418 class 082407

Today is the third class of 418. It was raining hard. I got wet and late for my class for several minutes. It was not a pleasant beginning. I went to class upset.

The class turned my mood around. I got very smooth when delivering my lecture and I think students were engaged. I spent about 40 minutes on the PowerPoint, where I plan to spend 20. Students are slower and less enthusiastic to respond then I anticipated. All of them are Asian students. However, it is a pleasant class. I think I successfully create a non-threatening environment. I point to a corner of students, usually 3-4 to respond, rather than pointing to a particular student.

There are several reasons that I can think of about the lack of students' response:
1. Students are from Asian culture where students' role were passive and teachers dominating the lecture.
2. My lecture, or me, may give the students an impression of rushing through. I do have an agenda. I can not wait for 10 seconds before calling on someone every time. However, this may students the impression that if no one respond, I'll just quit and answer the question myself instead.
3. For non-native speakers, they are probably afraid about making language mistakes in responding to content questions.
4. They did not read the assigned reading, and maybe afraid to answer completely wrong, which is obviously the case of my of my student today.

Solutions:
1. Give students discussion questions in advance, and give them the option to select only two or three to answer.
2. Encourage students to not be afraid of making mistakes.
3. Ask fewer questions and give students longer wait time for them to respond.

I had only 5 minutes left in the end to talk about the chunking tool. Students liked my example it seems but they still seemed uncertain. I would if I were a student--there is no example, no instruction on discourse analysis--the instructor is rushing when explaining the homework. I end up finishing my chunking tool example and send it to all the students.

Next class, I can discuss with my students as how to use the chunking tool with language learners and generate workshop ideas for my students.

It may also be a good idea to generate a list of common grammar points for students to use in their chunking tool. Otherwise, when they see a grammatical phenomenon, they may not know how to call them. Teachers don't need to be grammarian but they should have some knowledge of pedagogical grammar. I think I can read Shaw and Liu and generate a list from there.

I felt happy when I walked out of my class. Teaching is profound to one's spirit.