Jan 8th 2007 - First Class

I teach English as a Second Language to adults. The first class of a new semester is the hardest. You need to establish the control of and the tone of the class. I also believe you need to be a good improviser because sometimes the makeup of the class does not always fit that planned class lesson. Sometimes the students are not really ready for the level of your class even though they are placed in your class. Sometimes they are more advanced and your class lesson is not as challenging as it needs to be. Luckily this class and my class plans are in sync.

I put a lot of emphasis on the tone and structure of the class specifically during the first few classes. For example, how do I react if a student doesn't do his or her homework? If I want the class to take homework seriously, the class needs to see this in how I respond to those that haven't done theirs.

I use a mixture of humor and sternness. For example, like children, the adult excuses for not doing homework are the same - I forget to do it, I left it home, etc. When I get a poor excuse, I ask the class to help the student out. Help him or her create a more exciting and better excuse. This gets the class thinking and gets them to exercise some vocabulary.

Of course the student is not off the hook. If the homework is writing a composition, for example, What I Miss About My Country, I interview the student in class. They have to answer questions about what they miss about their country. If the homework is a grammar exercise, for example, identify the nouns in the following sentences, I'll ask the student to explain what nouns are and the student answers more questions than if they did the homework.

I do it in a humorous manner so the student knows I'm not insulting him or her, but they also know they are not getting a free pass. I also observe the students and make sure that I'm not challenging a student where the challenge will do more harm than good. For example, some students are initially nervous or afraid, they may not understand something and because of previous experiences are afraid to ask. In these cases, I speak to them privately and they begin to open up.

Knowing when to back off is important. I had one class where a student always refused to read out loud. She spoke well, was not shy, but refused to read. Each class she refused and I continued with the other students giving her a chance to see that other students had more pronunciation problems than her. I also gave her the chance to see that I was helpful and strictly warned any student that laughed when another was reading. After a few classes I was more adamant and the class tried to encourage her. She refused. At the end of that class, her friend hinted to me that the student was illiterate. She spoke well but could not read or write. I was glad that I backed off.

Unfortunately that student left the class for different reasons. She didn't drive and the friend who drove her to class couldn't continue because of changes in his work schedule.