So I read this interesting article today: “How Action Mapping Can Change Your Design Process.” (Go ahead, take a few minutes to read – I think you’ll agree that Cathy Moore has something important to say to teachers, even though she is talking to instructional designers.)
What I took from it:
1. Become better at identifying ‘business goals.’ Could this be an important leap for us? We’re not just here to ‘teach English.’ And, by the way, what does that really mean? To teach English? Perhaps we should look at it as ‘we help other people communicate effectively in English.’ Perhaps we should add: ‘We help our students meet their communicative goals.’
As Moore points out: you can’t help students meet those goals if you don’t know what they are in the first place. So…big question I have started really paying attention to for all of my classes: ‘What are my student’s main objectives (personal/professional) goals for learning English?
There’s an important shift there. It’s not just my objectives. It’s not the course book’s objectives. Students have objectives too. Do you know what they are?
Hint: ‘My goal is to improve my English fluency’ – a phrase that would have me retired last week if I had gotten paid a peso every time I have heard it, is NOT a learning objective that you can work with. It’s not specific enough, and it’s not really measurable. (How will you and your students know when ‘fluency’ has improved? What does that look like? What does that sound like? )
More probing and question asking needs to happen here ON YOUR PART.
1. Improving Fluency: questions to create concrete objectives – Ask your students: 1. What does ‘improved fluency’ really mean to you? What specific things do you want to be able to do that you CAN’T do well now? 2. What do you want to be able to say or communicate that you have trouble with right now? Be specific. Write it down. Be narrow – ‘I want to be able to explain the company’s investment strategy for 2012 in English ‘ is likely too much to chew on. Help your student narrow this big objective down to: “I want to be able to explain the projected Inflation and Exchange rates for the first quarter of 2012.” That’s far more workable.
Ask them: How do you want to be able to explain this? What words are important for you to dominate as you explain this? Do you need to communicate this in writing or speaking? (Can you think of better or other questions for this?) When do you need to be able to explain this?
This specific information will give you ‘success indicators.’ You’ll know that you’ve reached your teaching objectives when Johnny can: ‘X’ and can “X” like this…. . The more specific behavior oriented information you can glean from your student, the more planning fodder you have for your class prep. And the more solid and measurable your objective, the easier it will be for both you and your students to know if you both have succeeded.
2. Planning: what activities and practice sessions can you develop with your students that will help them specifically develop skills around meeting their objective? How can you get your hands on specific material that is directly related to what their objective is? (Likely won’t be in your course book.) And another question to ponder: how do you do this in a group where there are people with different production needs in English?
I’m asking you this, because I’d love to know how you would deal with it. How would you develop classes that are more focused on specific objectives like these if you had a group of five people from different areas?
Have you already been doing this? How has it been working for you?
Photo: By visualpanic
