Hi everyone,
I do not know in how much crowded classes do you teach, but if you are teaching in a class where the number students are reasonable, you can try many different types of interaction patterns. I am aware that we should do this in any kind of class as much as possible, but it is a bit difficult when you have more than 30 in a small closet.
Changing the interaction patterns changes the atmosphere in the class and moods of the students. If we always occupy students with self-study, they get bored and feel the need to speak someone, which may result in misbehaviours in the class. Likewise, if we always ask students study with the same partner, they maight get bored. It is better to change the pairs in different activities so that students can get to know different people. Changing the parners is also good for letting weak students work with a strong students. Otherwise, weak students always study with each other. We can also organize different group works which will improve students establishing cooperation and collaboration.
I wonder what kind of interaction patterns do you use in your classes, especially in crowded ones?
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the magical word: interaction!
There was a Danish group of teachers who visited our university few weeks ago and they told that Danish Education Institution plans to add 'interaction' as one of the skills in language teaching. Interesting but not surprising if you consider the importantce of it in the class.
I usually divide them into groups but I ask them to choose the peers themselves so that they can study in a comfortable way. Sometimes, I choose them myself because I see that hardworking students are always gathered in two specific groups and the rest may not be as successful as them. My class is usually between 30-4) students and I think that's ok for me to manage them.
We rearrange the seating charts in our classrooms every month. In that way students regularly have "new" partners and groups to work in.
Good idea?
:-)CoffeeAddict
Using all methods work with my students. Varied, leveled and best buddies, depending on the task.
Thank you for sharing your ideas :)
I guess using different interaction pattern will strongly favor students ‘learning in class. For stablishing patterns we should take into account different kinds of assessment ( diagnosis, progress, etc). Based on this, I change with a certain frequency who my students sit down and work with.
Knowledge level differences are to be considered, a slow learner may be assisted by an advanced learner in class, even sometimes better helped than by the teacher. It is common that between the students themselves there is more confidence than between the teacher and the students.
It is perhaps important to highlight that teachers must previosly value the existing personal relation between the students he wants to sit down together.
Interaction pattern is not only matter of sitting students together; but also when it comes to work in pairs or group teachers should likewise make changes. I think that in a way a student interacts with different students, the scope of language learning goes wider. Nobody in class manages the language in the same way; anybody uses different structures, words, phrases and even pronunciation patterns, so for one student interacting frequently with a different student will simply making him able to enrich his language from varied sources, will favor peer assess and it will make finally the student to carry out a process of self-assessment that will lead him to self-correct mistakes and better up his language as such.
Axl Santos- Cuba