- Home
- Prez. handout sets
- Non-English majors (warm-ups & tasks)
- ELT & the Science of Happiness (Positive Psychology)
- DIY Neuro-ELT
- Physical Activity in the ELT class
- Energy breaks
- Extensive Reading
- Reading aloud
- Questioning comprehension questions
- Language Learning & the Senses
- Task Planning
- Innervoice
- Imagination (mental imagery/guided journeys)
- Mind Maps
- Speaking tasks (dialogs)
- Talking about Japan
- Misc. fluency tasks
- English in 3D (a fresh look at traditional tasks)
- Engagement
- Firsthand, misc
- Odds and ends
- Learning to embrace rainy season
- Songs for kids' classes
- My students teaching kids
- John & Marc's BBQ
- Contact Marc
- Thanks, Mike!
- Extensive Reading
- Listening Links
- transfer
- Tohoku ELT EXPO2019
- Aomori BOE resource page
- Making learning visible Firsthand
- Christmas Party 2013
- Teach your passion
- Think page sign up
- •••
- TYS
- Kansai JACET links
- Marc's morning routine
- The History of your Future Success
- Mindsets: fixed & growth plus the Power of YET
- EF song project
- EF2 song project
- PELT
The "quick access" URL for this page is https://tinyurl.com/visibleFirsthand
This page is for links for my presentation at Pearson Japan's "Visualizing the Outcomes of English Language Teaching in Tokyo & Osaka, July 2019.
Background on "Making Learning Visible." Dr. John Hattie (Univ. of Melbourne and Univ. of Auckland) is well-known for his "Making Learning Visible". project. He has synthesized over 1600 meta-analyses including 60,000 studies and over 300,000,000 students to find out what works in the classroom. It turns out that nearly everything does – but not equally. He is looking at what works best. HERE’s a link to his most recent book on Amazon.co.jp
Project zero at Harvard University Graduate School of Education has identified five of Hattie’s items as critical. Click HERE for a link to their work.
This webpage looks at ideas we have included in English Firsthand and way teachers using other books can use the ideas in their classes.
Background on "Making Learning Visible." Dr. John Hattie (Univ. of Melbourne and Univ. of Auckland) is well-known for his "Making Learning Visible". project. He has synthesized over 1600 meta-analyses including 60,000 studies and over 300,000,000 students to find out what works in the classroom. It turns out that nearly everything does – but not equally. He is looking at what works best. HERE’s a link to his most recent book on Amazon.co.jp
Project zero at Harvard University Graduate School of Education has identified five of Hattie’s items as critical. Click HERE for a link to their work.
This webpage looks at ideas we have included in English Firsthand and way teachers using other books can use the ideas in their classes.
Meaningful (clear goals)
- • Write the day’s goal(s) on the board.
- • Focus on “Can Do” objectives.
- • Even if you are focusing on the grammar, look at the function (what that bit of grammar is actually used for).
- • Do ongoing assessment instead of 1 or 2 big tests each semester
- Don’t overtest. Students need more PRACTICE than assessment.
- Get student BUY-IN. Make the class relevant, especially for non-English majors. Click HERE for links to sources of warm-up and expansion activities for a variety of majors.
Learning is social
- • Use pairwork and groupwork as much as possible.
- • Even if an activity wasn’t designed as pairwork, you can always have them do it in pairs.
- • If listening activities are difficult, have them do it in pairs. That way, learners often focus on sharing what they did understand rather than what they didn’t.
- Humans are not designed to sit all day. When you are making pair, have the students stand and move around the room. Movement gets blood (and oxygen) to the brain. For more “physical activity in the ELT classroom activities, click HERE.. For the Energy Breaks (exercise) page, click HERE. (I’m including this with “social” because when we move together, we develop “motor empathy” [rapport]).
Representational (don't just explain. Give Models.)
- • Don’t explain, DEMONSTRATE.
- • Don’t confuse “descriptive knowledge” (“knowing that…”) with procedural knowledge (“knowing how.”) To be useful, knowledge of English needs to be procedural. That’s why the monkasho is insisting on “Can do” statements.
- Make sure the students have a clear language model.
- Be sure to “model” the activity itself so the students know what to do. Do this either by:
- Directing one pair/group through the example while everyone watches.
- Model the task yourself. You are one partner. A student or the whole class is the other.
- Focus attention on the language model by making some key words (grammar or key vocabulary) blank. Use correction tape to blank-out the words and make copies. Or write the target language on the board with blanks.
- Focus attention on the language model by doing INTERESTING pronunciation work with it (not just “repeat after me "). Click HERE for lots of multi-sensory pronunciation activities.
Empowering
- • Point out their progress (completing the goals mention earlier). This triggers serotonin (a positive mood chemical) in the brain. Serotonin is related to both improving mood and happiness. And happy students learn more.
- • Get “art supplies” like colored pencils and marker, scissors, colored paper, etc. to make it easier for student to do more than “write your answers.” 100 yen shops are a great source of class sets of supplies.
- Encourage creativity. Mistakes and failure can lead to better learning if we have the right attitude. This is part of a growth mindset.
- Remember: FAIL = First Attempt In Learning. Encourage students to try new things.
Emotional
- • Most textbooks avoid emotion, especially anything that is deep or not happy. But most of us love stories/ movies that touch our heart. Tell stories. Encourage emotion.
- • Encourage emotion as your students practice:
- • Have them rate questions/ topics using smile emojis. They start with the most interesting questions.
- When practicing dialogs, have them had physical and voice variations. Download the task cards HERE.
- Have student think about the “innervoice” (what people are thinking/feeling) of characters in dialogs or stories. For more on innervoice, click HERE.
- Visit my website www.ELTandHappiness.com for dozens of free, photocopiable positive psychology + English teaching tasksheets, posters, handouts and ideas.
- If you are using English Firsthand, HERE is a syllabus tie-in for positive psychology ELT tasks. If you are using a different book, you can use the functions listed on the tie-in to figure out how to supplement your book.