Just a little, but enough to Stepping Out of the Standardized Box
A brief article on exploring meaningful direction in your teaching.
More and more we are living in a prescribed world, where we are expected to follow certain procedures.
Some teachers relate well to this and happily use the provided materials and methodology as they skillfully carry out the execution of their classes.
Sometimes, though, if we really want to reach our students, we have to do more than follow the current formulas.
The standardized systems have limited success in that they provide direction for all concerned, but not all concerned can feel the benefits of such a system.
Like it or not, people are different, and that includes how they learn or how they are open to learning. Even avid followers of a particularly well-acclaimed system or methodology will acknowledge that not everyone can achieve their hopes and objectives through it.
And this is where teachers as individuals comes in.
- We can still accept the general system and use it as intended, more or less. But we don’t have to allow it to define everything we do.
- We may have a very heavy syllabus that is unrealistic in its demands. This is one consequence of many bureaucracies.
- We know there isn’t time for the students to learn everything as expected or marketed.
- We continue to struggle in our attempts to find ways to help the students become better language users. And that is part of the challenges we face in our daily work.
- We can blindly follow that set syllabus and go into each class with the idea of teaching to the masses, doing what we are supposed to do, and leave the class at the appropriate time.
- We can still responsibly follow the course program but set aside a little time in every class to pursue some lines not directly covered in the syllabus.
Where does that extra time come from?
Well, if we don’t have enough time to teach everything well anyway, we can accept that some areas will definitely be covered superficially. We can also eliminate the odd activity in the student book which doesn’t seem to add to the students’ learning or time invested in it.
I am suggesting to dedicate a small portion of each class (at least whenever it can be worked in) to attending to both the students´ and teachers´ needs and interests, beyond what is presented in the standardized student book or course syllabus.
Here are some ways that time could be developed:
1- Allow the students the space to have fun or explore something when the occasion spontaneously arises
That little extra time could be not rushing through an activity or exercise and really notice how the students are reacting to it.
Maybe they are going off on a tangent and a brief class discussion gets them actively involved and participating, contributing their opinions and responding to others, all done in English.
They may not have covered one or two other themes or activities outlined in your lesson plan, but many of the students may leave the class feeling it was a particularly good one.
And you, having made the judgement call to give them their freedom, at least on this occasion, feel good about that decision.
Perhaps it gave you some insight or ideas on how to approach some future classes.
2- Explore your teaching, and develop it further
Another possibility could be to experiment and explore areas in your teaching.
Perhaps you don’t feel very comfortable with an area or two such as pronunciation work, teaching grammar, or even classroom management techniques.
- You have your lesson plan which represents what the school wants you to do, but you can add a little twist to it.
- You think a little like a scientist or a researcher.
- You come up with an idea which you want to test.
- You try to define it as clearly as you can so you can see and evaluate if a goal has been reached, or to what degree.
- You might create a control group by doing things in the regular way with a different class of students.
- You set it up, execute your plan, and evaluate & reflect on the consequences. We learn lots from experimenting, including from our mistakes. We can get a better idea of what works and what doesn’t, thereby becoming a more effective teacher.
3- Develop your own materials or ways to approach the suggested activities
Many teachers feel this latitude taken to pursue and develop themselves professionally is essential to teaching and to appreciating themselves as true professionals.
Some take it further and develop their own materials, cleverly crafted to accommodate the needs and interests of their students who they are coming to know better.
Those teachers try out their materials and take note on how they are received and how effective they are.
Usually some adjustments are in order and when an opportunity comes along in another group, the teacher tries out the latest version.
Perhaps it takes longer than originally anticipated, but after some investment of time and effort, the teacher becomes pleased with the results, as do the students. And the teacher has begun to expand his or her skillset and insights into learning, which helps the teaching.
4- Build student confidence and strength in one specific area
Many students get through the system ‘successfully’ yet feel less confident with each new level passed.
The courses are usually very defined in content, but don’t help the students with their confidence.
There simply is not time, especially with very dense and ambitious syllabi.
The recommendation here is to decide on one structure or area that the students will focus on every class (on top of the regular expectations for the course).
For example, conditionals can be used for any theme of discussion, and learning how to use them with greater ease will contribute to building student confidence.
The teacher could set aside a block of time in one of the first classes of the course to go over the relevant points. Then the next several classes will have one or more speaking activities where the students practice using the conditionals, perhaps in a limited or controlled way to some degree.
When the students become more familiar in using the conditionals in their speaking, the teacher could deliberately incorporate speaking activities to follow up a reading or listening or vocabulary focus as the students explore the related theme.
Over time the students become accustomed to always using at least one or two conditionals in almost every speaking activity.
By the end of the course they have covered the mandatory material, but they also leave with greater confidence in being active users of conditionals when speaking.
5- Stylize the activities and tasks to encourage and motivate your students
Sometimes one or a few students have a particular need or request.
Obviously a teacher can’t give simultaneous private classes to each student in a big group, but there can be occasions where some individual attention goes a long way.
Maybe the course requires the students to write a cover letter as one of the set writings and a student mentions she is going to start applying for work soon.
Rather than writing a cover letter to be a security guard at a rock festival as suggested in the student book, she would like to write hers for the job she’ll be applying for.
You could make sure that the basics are covered (what the school might want the students to learn when doing such a task) and allow her to write her version.
Other requests can be made during the course, especially if the teacher is approachable and encourages it. By stylizing some of the activities to better meet some individual’s needs, the student feels better (and so does the teacher).
This can be done when considering several or even the majority of students. Perhaps you have a teens group but the listening in the student book is not that suitable for the group so you find another one, perhaps a YouTube clip which could be used to reinforce the past simple and past continuous ideas for that lesson.
You could also conduct your own needs’ analysis and find out what interests your students. From that gathered information, you could have a source of ideas to decide where and how the students can explore using the language.
The bottom line is, sometimes, no, typically, some extra time and thought has to be invested to make things better, and trying something new doesn’t always work out successfully.
Keep in mind that ‘nonsuccesses’ or real disasters can also provide you with insight you might not normally get.
Over time, there are usually a good number of successes and experiences, and one feels a much greater satisfaction in doing meaningful work.
Finding ways to customize your classes, to meet your students’ individual needs, and your own personal professional needs are all very important.
You can still follow and support the existing established system, but make room for a little of your own direction and ways. And that little can sometimes mean a lot in the long run.
Happy teaching!
Max Maximchuk
If you would like to read some articles on enhancing your students’ speaking, lesson planning and using video in class, to name a few, you might want to check out Articles on MEC, located in the black footer at the bottom of the homepage of Max’s English Corner.
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