My follow-up article about video is now up on the OUP blog in preparation for the BESIG conference in Croatia…I’ll be talking on this topic on Saturday.

http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2011/11/15/the-power-of-business-video-part-2-key-uses-of-video-for-business-english-teaching/

Training Teachers to Use Technology

Like a digital tidal wave, the techno-revolution has swept across classrooms worldwide and left laptops and smartphones in its wake in many places. While US schools have eagerly embraced teacher workshops to instruct science and math teachers how best to use new software and online resources, many English language teachers are not provided such training, and have searched high and low for meaningful ways to teach grammar and literature with computers, only to come up empty-handed. However, technology can of course play a meaningful role in the English classroom. With the proper training and professional collaboration, it’s possible for American English and language arts teachers to avoid the pitfalls
of poorly-executed technology lessons and merge English activities with technological innovation in ways that will reach students and create lasting moments of learning.

The Training

In the US, most public school districts take a “one size fits all” approach to training teachers to use technology in the classroom. If a SMART Board is available for use, every teacher gets the same lesson plan. The same can be said of PowerPoint presentation design, web searches, and educational software. Very rarely is training tailored to the subject, and most training that is so focused is usually in science or math.

However, there are a number of programs available at either an online school or traditional campus during the summer that seek to address the unique needs of US English teachers. For instance, EdTechTeacher.org, one of the leaders in
teacher technology education, offers a three-day summer workshop in Massachusetts titled “Teaching English with Technology,” which includes website and software education and instruction in how to use Web 2.0 technologies like
wikis, podcasts, blogs, and social networks. Similarly, many school districts provide online seminars for teachers at little to no cost, and often teachers from other districts can also arrange to attend these seminars.

Useful Tools for the English Classroom

For those who already have a handle on education technology basics, or who don’t have the time or resources to attend a seminar, there are a number of websites designed to help English teachers incorporate technology into the classroom. For instance, Western Michigan University’s English Education Program provides educators with everything from instruction on how to create a class website to listings of electronic text archives, as well as helpful tools. The site also features lesson planning advice to help teachers design web quests (guided explorations of themes related to a particular topic) and helpful tips for using the interactive components that are now a part of many textbooks.

Once again, EdTechTeacher.org is another great site that allows English teachers to explore how other language arts instructors are integrating technology into their curricula. Some of the many resources found on the site include links to
websites created by teachers, classroom blogs, and even podcasts showcasing the oral presentation talents of students. It also includes a section for interactive projects that can serve as inspiration for classroom activities. From student-run collaborative newspapers to creative writing posts requiring multimedia research, these projects offer students the chance to interact digitally while learning more about language, literature, and what it means to effectively communicate.

An Important Thing to Keep in Mind

With some schools in the US pushing to cram as much technology as possible into every lesson plan, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that not every lesson needs technology. Indeed, technology is only as good as how it is used. If students are learning the ins and outs of English grammar, there are plenty of technological tools to make the task more enjoyable, but marking a written text for word choice and sentence structure can still be an effective lesson. Teachers anywhere
shouldn’t let technology run the classroom. Instead, it should be kept as a tool to help enhance lessons when appropriate. At the end of the day, students should remember the lesson, not the technology that was used. If there isn’t an
apparent way to incorporate the technology in a meaningful way, don’t use it. By the same token, teachers shouldn’t eschew technology simply because they don’t have any ideas for its incorporation themselves. For English teachers in
America, this can be difficult in the absence of subject-specific technology training. US teachers often must collaborate with other teachers and seek help from their schools’ computer technology departments to obtain for themselves
the guidance and instruction in education technology that elsewhere has become a matter of course.

Teaching English with technology doesn’t have to be scary, and it doesn’t mean breaking away from writing, reading, and the other primary functions of language arts education. Rather, when technology is merged effectively into the English classroom and students are allowed to be active participants in generating new information through exploration, it is a way to create a richer, more meaningful experience.

Lesson plan observation

A simple but effective technique is for the observer to try to recreate the lesson plan that the teacher is following. The lesson plan pro-forma in Example 3.1 in Chapter 3 can be copied for each observer. With pre-service teachers observing experienced teachers, this is a useful way of drawing attention to the  structure of a lesson. The observation instrument is the lesson plan, which can be analysed afterwards or can form the basis of a discussion with the teacher,  if possible. If the teacher has also produced a detailed plan, then the two documents can be compared and differences can be explained or discussed. It is also good training for writing the aims of a lesson or highlighting to what extent the aims were achieved or defined.

Team observations

With more than one person or peer observing the same lesson, assigning the same instrument has the benefit of encouraging all the observers to meet afterwards and compare their notes, which can also be integrated into an input session on the topic of observation. However, you can also assign different observation instruments or tasks so that one lesson gains from being observed in different ways. This provides the basis for wide ranging feedback and/or discussion. You may also wish to offer a bank of different observation tasks to the observers. The observer then selects an area in which they are personally interested or one which they would like to develop in their own teaching.

Self-generated observation instruments

More experienced teachers can be required to create their own observation instrument. This has the double benefit of the observation itself and the process of researching and developing the instrument beforehand. The teacher selects a particular area of interest or weakness in their teaching and then develops an instrument to address the issue. This type of exercise can prove highly motivating and one training examination board makes it a formal part the coursework:

‘… The candidate devises an observation instrument that must be reviewed at least twice from its original version on the basis of experience of observations … The instrument and its revised versions must relate to one theme, e.g. error correction. The assignment shows, therefore, the development of the instrument and how this affected the results of the observation, and the candidate’s evaluation of the results.’

(from LTCL Diploma TESOL, Trinity College London, Syllabus, page 42)

Self observation (video and audio recording)

One other format for observation is to advise a trainee of this tool to record their lesson and then watch the recording. Opinions vary on the value of this, and there is a danger that the observer may become more concerned with irrelevant idiosyncrasies rather than viewing the whole picture. While video is not a substitute for observing a ‘live’ lesson, some trainees find it useful to observe themselves at least once. Again, a task can be assigned in order to focus the observation or the video can be watched with the trainer who might choose to stop and start sections of the lesson or fast-forward the video to illustrative moments. Audio recordings can also be appropriate, especially where the focus is on, for example, improving a teacher’s instructions.

So that’s it for this series on observing. I’ve run out of things to say on the subject…

The example below shows a form designed by a trainer to encourage inexperienced teachers on a pre-service course to focus on how new language is introduced. The first three columns require some kind of straightforward reporting back of what happened but the fourth column demands a response from the observer and in this way it begins to develop the observer’s evaluative skills.

Here is an extract from a rows and columns observation form that the observing teacher has started to complete:

 Here’s another example but this time it combines ideas from other types of observation forms (see previous posts in this series) and puts them into the rows and column format.

With this type of proforma, you write the two opposites at the top and then use this as the basis for the scales throughout.

 How else do you use scales when you observe?

 (T = teacher, SS = students working pairs)

 This example might show that the teacher has put the students into pairs but the teacher’s position may suggest no monitoring is taking place. Another type of diagram observation can reveal where the teacher tends to focus most attention during the different stages of a lesson. In this example, the teacher spends a great deal of time interacting with students at the front on the left-hand side. This may serve to highlight the fact that certain students are demanding more of the teacher’s time and perhaps why students in the rows behind may not be taking any interest.

A graph or chart is another visual tool for reporting back on an observation. For example the horizontal or X axis can represent time during the lesson. The Y axis can represent an aspect of teaching such as one student’s involvement in a lesson, the use of a coursebook, student talking time, or the pace and authenticity of a task. When these aspects increase or decrease, the trend line rises or falls. If you have more than one observer of the same lesson, then assign the same graph but set two different areas of focus.

 The example below shows a graph observation where the observer has marked periods of teacher talking time. After the lesson this presents an instantly accessible record of the teacher’s activity. The observer could also note on the graph what purpose the ‘peaks’ of talking served. Another observer could have been set the task of marking student talking time on the graph and then the two can be contrasted.

Tomorrow, I’ll continue the theme of visual observation feedback and look at ways of using scales.

Another example of a ‘copying observation’ would be when the observer writes down word for word what the teacher says. This is helpful where we want to focus on, for example, teacher instructions. It either highlights when a teacher is not being clear or it emphasises effective instructions. The transcription can be studied in more detail after the lesson either with the teacher in question or among a group of observers as a piece of real classroom data. A similar observation activity that uses copying is to draw what is on the board at each stage of the lesson. This either serves to illustrate how to organise the boardwork or to help the teacher realise that they need to plan the boardwork more carefully.

 Tomorrow I’ll extend the idea of ‘copying’ into the area of diagram observations.

To start of with, the best-know type of observation form is once that follows the lesson chronologically. The typical form has three columns with a place to note the time and then two columns for notes on what went well and what to work on next time.

 This kind of chronological observation is easy to use and makes a good reference point when discussing the lesson afterwards. One possible downside is that can make you both obsessive about timing in the lesson and it encourages subjective comments about a lesson in that the observer interprets what they see and passes judgement. From the point of view of the teacher, I remember how I used to look at the final column immediately. If it looked fairly empty I knew the lesson had gone well. Lots of comments indicated a disaster! In fact that doesn’t have to be what the third column means. It can literally be the place where you write ‘Points to consider’ rather than saying something was wrong. Try writing a question or suggest something for the teacher to observe in someone else’s lesson.

Tomorrow, I’ll suggest some variations for this type of observation form.