{"id":617,"date":"2012-05-28T00:52:27","date_gmt":"2012-05-28T00:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=617"},"modified":"2012-05-28T00:52:27","modified_gmt":"2012-05-28T00:52:27","slug":"how-important-is-lesson-planning-steven-herder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2012\/05\/28\/how-important-is-lesson-planning-steven-herder\/","title":{"rendered":"How important is lesson planning? \u2013 Steven Herder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let a lesson plan stifle magical moments
\n<\/strong>Has this ever happened to you? You discover some new thing and suddenly you notice it everywhere. This happened with the first car I bought in university: a 1964, baby blue VW beetle. It was 400 dollars and had a homemade wooden floor. The funny thing about this, though, was that having bought a VW beetle, I suddenly began to notice other VW Beetles. They were, in fact, everywhere. This very same phenomenon is happening in my classroom with what I have coined, SLOW <\/em>moments.<\/p>\n

Slow down
\n<\/strong>These Spontaneous Learning Opportunity Windows (SLOW) <\/em>are serendipitous moments when everyone is suddenly focused on exactly the same thing<\/strong>. It may be triggered by a student\u2019s comment, a joke, a mistaken answer, something from the textbook, or something I just said. At that moment, everyone\u2019s brain has stopped and a small window has opened. If you are ready, it is very easy at that moment to slide something through the window and into the student\u2019s brain. It actually gets easier and easier the more you keep an eye open for these SLOW moments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Classroom interaction
\n<\/strong>The SLOW strategy can improve your teaching by exploiting classroom interaction during a class. Since these interactive decisions must be made on the spot, this technique takes some practice (Google Allright; Bailey; Wajnyrb; Tsui; or Nunan and classroom interaction for lots more).<\/p>\n

To get started, there are three things necessary to become adept at exploiting a SLOW moment: 1)\u00a0confidence<\/strong>, 2)\u00a0awareness of the syllabus<\/strong> and 3)\u00a0the ability to riff<\/em><\/strong> like a jazz musician. If you don\u2019t believe in yourself when you go off-script, you risk the students also not believing you. Secondly, you need to know the syllabus so you can make sure that everyone succeeds in being able to do what you ask them to do, using meaningful language that isn\u2019t too far away from what you\u2019re doing or have done in the past. Finally, riffing simply means improvising with some underlying intention. So, here are some examples of a few things that led to SLOW moments:<\/p>\n

Whining
\n<\/strong>Yuki complains that she\u2019s hungry (Onaka heta<\/em>). Yuki is always hungry, every week, like clockwork. So, I call out, \u201cYuki is hungry again. Yuki, this morning I had a big breakfast. I had 2 pieces of toast – one with peanut butter and one with honey. What did you have? Nothing? Really? Everyone – Why do you think Yuki didn\u2019t have any breakfast? (Elicit ideas and give feedback) OK, let\u2019s give Yuki some good ideas to help her fix her life. Yuki, I think you should _____. Anyone else? What should Yuki do?<\/p>\n

Reporting
\n<\/strong>Chikako reports, \u201cI went *to shopping and *studying English last night.\u201d I call out in a cheesy quiz show host voice, \u201cDouble chance!\u201d and suddenly we are all in the same moment. \u201cCan anyone find two small mistakes?\u201d Then, \u201cCan anyone else give me a two-verb sentence about last night?\u201d Can anyone ask Chikako if she bought anything cool?<\/p>\n

Worrying
\n<\/strong>Miki asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s on the test?\u201d I call out, \u201cMiki sure loves tests! Miki, what do you think is on the test? If you were Steven, what would you put on the test? Everyone, ask your partner, \u201cWhat do you think TERRIBLE Steven will put on the test?\u201d Ready\u2026 Go. (Time passes\u2026) OK, let\u2019s review what could be on the test.\u201d<\/p>\n

Killing time
\n<\/strong>Hiromi suggests, \u201cLet\u2019s play a game today.\u201d I call out, \u201cHiromi is the queen of \u201ckilling time\u201d What does it mean in Japanese? Yes, exactly, jikan wo tsubusu<\/em>. In this class, who else is good at killing time? Which teachers are weak against these killing time queens?\u201d \u201cEveryone, ask your partner, how do you sometimes kill time?\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing
\n<\/strong>Yuri writes, \u201cI take\u2026 *on the train to school every day\u201d while I\u2019m walking around the room during a writing assignment. When I see this mistake, I call out (knowing that this student will laugh rather than being embarrassed) \u201cWow, Yuri, you are a very macho girl. Everyone, do you know how macho Yuri is? Every morning, she takes on* the train (I gesture putting on a train like a backpack). There are two or three good ways to say this. Anyone? Yes, \u201ctake the train\u201d, \u201ccatch the train\u201d, \u201cget the train\u201d\u2026 great.<\/p>\n

Hidden bonuses
\n<\/strong>This technique is actually full of hidden bonuses: it builds extra rapport with students, it teaches students to learn from other students, it promotes consciousness-raising, and it encourages active participation. The more you invest time into observing what is ACTUALLY happening in your classroom, the better your lessons will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t let a lesson plan stifle magical moments Has this ever happened to you? You discover some new thing and suddenly you notice it everywhere. This happened with the first car I bought in university: a 1964, baby blue VW beetle. It was 400 dollars and had a homemade wooden floor. The funny thing about … Continue reading How important is lesson planning? \u2013 Steven Herder<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lesson-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}