What do you think about positive feedback?

I wanted to share with you something that happened with my third graders... So, every day they had to write four lines:

Today is Friday, September 14th.

Yesterday was Thursday and tomorrow will be Saturday.

It is a cloudy and warm morning.

I feel ......

This last Friday (7th) was the last time that I copied those four sentences on the board. Why? because I had told them that from Monday (10th)  they were going to do it alone.

I was scared and nervous as there were many students who do not want to work alone as they are shy or believe that they can't do it.

I made this big poster so they can write the sentences.

The BIG MOMENT came... so on Monday I told them that they had to write the four sentences. 

Many of them immediately took their folders and started writing.. I was

Wow!!!! they can do it alone... I was soooo happy

But there were some of them who were struggling.. so for them I prepare a card with his/her name on it and with the four sentences (they only had to complete with the days of the week, the weather and how they felt)

To my surprise.. It worked perfectly. As soon as they took their card, they sad and were able to write everything. I remembered the smile of one of the boys .. I was so proud of him and I told him that :) he is confident now and he feels so much better.

You may be thinking

Well.. I was thinking that we (teachers) need to encourage and give positive feedback to our students. They need to feel that we believe in them and that we know they can do it. And even the smallest thing they do, we have to congratulate them. 

I found this video which explains how giving positive feedback is good for our students.

He mentions 4 important characteristics:

1) Specific feedback means to be precise when you tell your student what you think.

2) Actionable feedback means to emphasize what they could be done differently next time.

3) Timely feedback means that we show do it immediately and frequently.

4) Respectful feedback means to look for the good! something concrete that the student did. 

Something else.. if you give positive feedback,

• your students will be motivated, 
• they will feel more confident,
• their affective filter will be low,
• and most importantly,, they will love to participate and to take risks 

Now... after reading all this. What do you think about positive feedback?

(I would love to hear your experiences in the classroom!!) 

Hi everyone!!

We are starting a new month today and I wanted to reflect a little bit about these last two months.

I was in a roller coaster these two months.. why?

To begin with, I had to sit for a final exam in july and that was my official ticket to be a teacher of English! I was anxious, nervous, excited, tired, happy.. imagine all those feelings together...hahaha.. my brain was a roller coaster (poor my husband that he had to put out with me)

Fortunately I passed and now I can say that I am a teacher of English!!!

I don't know why but after that I felt strange.. maybe a part of me was shocked because I was actually able to finish (part) of a career that I had started many years ago. And perhaps I couldn't believe it .. don't know. What I do know is that I felt sad and didn't celebrate it or felt happy...but well... this experience made me reflect about many things and I am still thinking about them.

August came and I had to continue studying... at the beginning I felt that I wasn't going to be able to finish all the subjects. But then I thought that I could try to live, work and study little by little (eventhough It's really difficult, I'm doing my best). I'm just going step by step..

So.. I was thinking that I want to share with you..

Does it happen to you that sometimes you just want to give up or stop studying or working in certain places? Sometimes it's frustated when you feel that you are doing everything you can and you have people that tell you that it's not good enough.. or when they don't give you any compliment (specially at school) at all and they just tell you the bad things you are doing. 

So I thought about my students and I didn't want them to feel the same way that I was feeling (frustated and not happy) so I changed my point of view completely and focused ONLY on positive things.. for instance

When I enter a classroom and they are smiling,

When I enter the school and some of them come quickly and hug me,

When they feel sad and after I talked to them, they feel better,

When they enjoy routines and they can't wait to do them all,

When they feel they can do something by themselves and I celebrate it,

and many many more...

Now I have a question for you... How do you cope with negativity or frustrated situations where you work/ study? What is your point of view?

Hi everybody!! i have a question for you... have you ever wonderer how babies acquire language?

Well, there is a theory for describing their first language acquisition and it was developed by Noam Chomsky who is an 89-year-old American linguist.

He believes that children have an innate capacity to learn the rules of language. They have a LAD (Language Acquisition Device) which facilitates language development. But how do they learn? well.. there are stages which children follow until the age of 5 or 6 when they have acquire a linguistic competence. 

These are the stages that they follow: 

In this video you will see a two-year-old boy who is able to form full sentences, name animals and to ask questions to his mother. Why? because he is in a Telegraphic stage and it means that he has the ability to do all this things. 

But what happens if you want to learn a second language? Do we acquire a second language in the same way?...... nop... do you know why? because when we learn a second language there are many factors which play an important role in a second language acquisition process.

Here you have some of the factors:

 Age

 Time
 Motivation

 Culture

 Learning styles

 L1 influence

 Personality
 Context
 Teacher

As you can see there are many factors. And you may think..

Think about it and later I'll explain Second Language Acquisition theory.. stay tuned :) and enjoy your weekend 

This week I had to prepare an oral presentation about Jamaican accent with my fantastic partner!!!!! I  was amazed by Jamaican people as even though they had suffered a lot, they are always happy and thankful. They have a great philosophy of life... completely different to ours (Argentinian people) I think that something we have to stop complaining about everything and start enjoying life.

It might sound cliche but I think it's true. What do you think?

Happy day to all my students who are firefighters!!!!! I had the pleasure to have some students who were firefighters and to know that they devote their lives to it.. it something amazing!!

Hi everybody!! Who loves winter? Who thinks that it’s the best season? Who thinks that it’s sooo much better than summer because you wear more clothes and that’s it? On the contrary, if it’s sooo hot... you feel exhausted, angry all the time, tired, sticky, etc, etc… well… the answer will be…

 

Today I want to share with you a fantastic piece of news that I had received four weeks ago. The Head from one of the school where I work told me that I was going to have a new course, a new group of students. Let me tell you that I felt soooooo good that I couldn’t believe it. It was one of those moments when you feel that you are doing a good job and people see it. It was amazing.

So, on Monday I went with my flashcards, markers, copies, etc to the school to meet this new group. They were in 1^st year. I felt butterflies in my stomach because you don’t know what’s going to happen until you are there.

The students were great, they were so enthusiastic and eager to participate. I love them. The second and third class I made flashcards with questions and they have to match them with the correct answer (some answers were missing so they have to do the flashcards) and we also played the cd and complete the course book. Again, they were so excited and they seem to enjoy the class a lot.

I am so grateful and I always try to do my best and to show my students that I care about them. I want to prepare my classes thinking about them and to see that the effort has its rewards… it’s marvellous.  

I think that if we (teachers) concentrate on planning our classes, knowing our students’ needs and giving our very best… that’s it.

Right?

What method do you prefer?

Hi everybody! How are you? I was thinking about the different methods that teachers had to teach a language in the 1970s and 1980s. Do you think that they were the same methods that we have today?... nop… they don’t.

There were four methods which called my attention...

The first one is community language method.

I think that we may use this method nowadays in some schools at the beginning of the class. We may called it "circle time". I remember that I worked in this way in a school with 2nd grade students. We sat in a circle and they told me what they did during the weekend or something that they wanted to share with the class. 

Another method is The Silent Way where the teacher says as little as possible. It's a student-centered method. 

The Silent Way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUPPGrnrJv4&feature=youtu.be

As you can see in the video the teacher mimes all the actions and let the students talk and answer.

Another method is Suggestopaedia where students' environment is essential. Students should be confortable and relaxed so the affective filter is lowered.

There are three main parts: 

1) oral review

2) presentation and discussion of the new material

3) listen to relax music while the teacher reads the new material

I use music in my classroom and I can say that students enjoy listening to instrumental music. They are relaxed and after some classes they get accustomed to it.

The last method is Total Physical Response where students respond physically to the language they hear. Here is a video to show you one activity using this method.

Total Physical Response 

https://youtu.be/6x9Cr1hU9to

I hope you enjoy my post and I think that many teachers today use some of this methods in their classrooms.  What do you think? Do you use some techniques of this methods?