TeachingEnglish
Zero Resource classes
Submitted by carladelia on 11 March, 2009 - 18:53
Despite the fact that I'm a technology enthusiast and love devising personalised activities for my students, I also enjoy teaching zero resource classes. I consider them to be very challenging and the teacher has to reflect a lot while preparing his/her classes. What do you guys think about teaching with no resource? If, during a six-month course to elementary students, you had to teach 2 classes without using any resource at all, not even the coursebook, how would you do it? How would you proceed? How would you create a communicative class?
Best Wishes,
Carla D'Elia
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Hi Carla & Everyone
Thanks for bringing this up. Every time I talk about technology and why you should not take it for granted, people tend to think I'm a dinossaur or a reactionary. On the other hand, people who know me and my work think that actually I live in cyberspace, because almost all my (many) projects and professional activities involve an online component and I'm an addicted blogger.
However, we have to be careful not to take our own accessbility for granted. A friend of mine has just returned from a week in Nepal and even in the capital city there is no electricity during the day... and people do teach and learn English there. There were over 700 teachers at the conference. I know places in some regions of Brazil where there is one computer with dialed connection at the school and that's all. In many public schools there are no textbooks available.
In such circumstances teachers have to be resourceful and creative and work with zero *standard* resources. They have to live without internet, data show projectors, wikis, SL ...you name it. Options: create your own resorces, posters, cut out pictures and letters from old books, magazines and newspapers, make your own flascards and above all, use your students' knowledge and creativity as your main material.
Cheers - Chris
Dearcarladelia ,Response to Zero resources,
It's a nice topic that all of us may one day face with it.
I have experienced this matter many times and there have been some course books that the students do not like or find them to be very monotonous. Here using our initiatives will help us a lot.
In a conversational class, I remember that one day I had left my course book at home before coming to the class but I had a good idea in my mind, without hesitation I wrote some sentences and new words relating to the interesting topic of inflation and buying a house. Students were all grown-ups, some of them married and most of them did not own a house. I was on the right track as the students told me later that acutely they were ready and interested to share their ideas with me on a topic that was of their daily concern. I couldn't believe that I have started a topic that not only lasted for the rest of that term but continued in another term.
As teachers we have to anticipate these situations .Maybe the computer doesn't work properly because of a virus or the light goes out. A teacher becomes sick and we must teach his or her students without being prepared for that class and there may come other out of control instances that we are forced to run a class without any resources.
If we organize all the said events we may write a new course book.
Best Wishes and many thaks for the nice topic you raised.
Ali asghar Mazinanian
Shahrood, Iran
Niranga Abeyakoon
Hi,
Sometimes it is challenging to work without any standard technology and resources, but it can be quite enjoyable as well.For example, When I was teaching in a university, what I observed was that the learners paid more attention to what they are learning when I was using the White board with alot of colours rather using the projector and explaining. I think they really disliked the projector! so I always tried to be discrusive and animated. Sometimes you really don't need the white board as well. with a simple picture, you can carry out a lengthy discussion or with a piece of paper and a pen, you can let the learners create wonderful stories by guiding them to use nouns, adjectives, adverbs etc.
As a teacher, you should have your own resources and aids. if not, get the students involved in preparing flash cards, picture dictionaries, collect essays from news papers etc. No matter how old they are, they realy like to contribute towards their learning.
Also it is important to plan your lessons in a student -centered manner. In that way , you can always let them do alot of work while you only have to instruct and guide them.
I really enjoyed the lessons I did without any resources. If you are a dreamer, then let your imagination spread among your learners!
Regards,
Niranga
Hi Cardelia,
In my opinion, I believe the only cases when you could actually have a session with no resources at all would be either a revision of language previously studied or a speaking activity (hard to keep going for a whole lesson). Otherwise, one needs, at least a picture or something to based the lesson on.
I teach English / Skills for Life in the UK. Something that I tend to do is to have up my sleeve a set of resources I call 'Monday File', which has ready-made activities and literature in English such as Take-Away menus, time-tables for trains and buses, a map of the tube, newspaper articles, pictures of people, etc.
These resources should not require photocopying and should be enough to be shared amongst large groups.
I am not sure whether you can have access to this, but it would be handy if you could get hold of a number of authentic literature (leaflets, applications forms, flyers, etc), that goes straight to the bin everyday in this country. Perhaps you could start putting together your own file. It might take you time, but it will be worthwhile in the long run.
Regards,
Ender
I couldn't agree more, Chris! Social conditions in many countries prevent us from using technology and in some cases even textbooks. In Brazil I must confess there are problematic situations, especially in public schools, where some students actually don't even have a textbook to work with and teaching Portuguese (our native language) is also a struggle. Therefore, when I decided to bring up the subject, I really wanted to share with you guys that it is possible to offer great classes regardless od the material you have in hand.
Best Wishes
Carla D'Elia - English Teacher
Dear Ali,
Thank you for the compliment! I believe teachers muast never forget to use their creativity, with or without standard teaching resources. I must confess that I have already been to the same situation as you.
Best Wishes
Carla D'Elia - English Teacher
Thank you for your comment, Niranga. I loved it when you said that you can actually have an enjoyable class by using your imagination. Having technology tools or not, we must definitely focus on the quality of our classes and how relevant and enjoyable they can be.
Best Wishes
Carla D'Elia - English Teacher
Dear Endre,
Thank you for your great contribution! I agree that it can be very hard to teach with no resources. And I agree with you that we have to be adaptable to be able to transform anything into a great resource for our classes. Authentic material adds relevance to the class and I simply adore using a real newspaper, poem, leaflet and so on. We actually don't need photocopying to use them and a simple prop, even our old pencil case, can work as a valuable resource during class.
Best Wishes
Carla D'Elia - English Teacher
First of all, let me apologise for getting your name wrong last time. Mind you, you got mine wrong too:(
I can now recall an amazing lesson given by one of my tutors in my teacher training course,a few years ago. The way he approached it was quite astonishing.
Firstly, he started off by setting a context in an old house with shabby and tatty furniture, broken windows, damp walls, dark rooms, etc, rather unpleasant. He was eliciting all this information from the students, drilling and concept checking throughout.
Then, he moved onto a group discussion about who might live in this peculiar place. Students came up with some ideas, in the end the teacher told them it was an elderly lady who hadn't been looking after the place properly, therefore, she was going to get evicted by the council. This was a context to tech the function of 'YOU SHOULD/NOT' to give friendly advice.
He moved onto Meaning, Pronunciation and Form, drilled a few examples and wrote the structure on the board.
Finally, as he did not have any photocopies, the practice he thought of was of a communicative nature. He divided the class in two, half of the class role played the members of the council, the other half the lawyers defending the lady.
Council members had to tell the lady thing she should/not do before leaving the house. Lawyers had to give her advice on what to do to avoid being evicted.
The activity worked a marvel. The lesson only lasted for 45mins. My tutor/trainer had over 30 years experience. I have not attempted anything like it myself, as I tend to prepare very well before each lesson.
What do you reckon? Would you have a go at something like this?
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Ender
Dear Ender,
Sorry for getting your name wrong the last time too :)
What a great activity, huh? There are definitely some activities which are unforgettable. Once I was in a training course and all we had was a sheet of paper and a pencil. The teacher asked us to do the following:
1) Draw a road
2) Using symbols (no words or numbers) , we should draw an important event in our life. Our drawing skills were not being evaluated, of course:
3) After drawing we should get together with a partner and show him/her the drawing and tell him/her about the event.
That activity was suggested for a first class, so students could get acquainted with each other. However, I have adapted it in many ways so that I could use for other purposes, such as working with specific functions. I.e.: To practice the present perfect (talking about life experiences), I got my students to draw things they have done in life.
Thanks for the tip! I really loved it!
Best Wishes
Carla D'Elia - English Teacher