Learners' motivation and course tailoring

Scenario

Learners’ motivation and course tailoring

The Learning Challenge – Narative

Keeping your students’ motivation high will always prove to be a challenge and a continuous course tailoring will be needed in order to achieve that. The simplest way to achieve a higher participation rate is done simply by asking the learners what they wish to learn and incorporate that into the lesson plans. Additionally, the course would need to be more interactive and for that reason many strategies can be employed such as use of audio-visuals, hands-on demostrations, gamification, group activities, reward systems etc. Finally, making lesson plans is a must, especially if you choose to follow a certain teaching methodology, as it enables you -amongst other things- to have a clear overview of the activities you want to include in the course and assess if they are suitable or if there’s enough time to cover them all.

Solving the Problem: Activities for Learning Groups

Title of activity

Weather forecasts (ESA Methodology)

Working on the activity – Suggestions

Summary: By utilizing the ESA methodology (Engage-Study-Activate), structure the lesson plan accordingly with a topic of your choice. In this scenario, the activity takes place during an English lesson for foreign learners in an inclusive classroom.

Objective: The learners to be able to use the language associated with weather forecasts.

Description: Design a straight-arrow ESA lesson plan.
Firstly, in the Engage phase, discuss with the students about the weather in their countries throughout the year. Also, discuss any variations that occur between the weather conditions of different countries. Ask them about weather forecasts and where they are available for perusal.
In the second phase, the Study phase, try to elicit from the students the weather forecast related vocabulary and then distribute in taks sheets or write on the board various matching and fill the gap activities.
In the last phase, the Activate phase, have the students write on cards the name of a country (excluding their own) and a month. Collect the cards, shuffle them and then distribute them back to the learners. Each learner, with the card they have been dealt, will have to prepare and present a typical weather forecast.

Suggestions: If the students seem to lose interest, you can choose a patchwork ESA lesson plan and include, for instance, more Activate sessions in order to keep them motivated.

Learn more

ESA methodology: https://barefootteflteacher.com/blog/what-is-engage-study-activate

Title of activity

Storyboard that lesson (Comic Strips)

Working on the activity – Suggestions

Summary: Enhance learners’ participation with the use of an online comic strip creator tool, either at the beginning of the lesson and can serve as the main activity or towards the end which can serve as a consolidation activity. In this scenario, the activity takes place in an inclusive classroom in which language barriers may also be present.

Objective: For the learners to consolidate the knowledge obtained by presenting it in the form of a comic strip.

Description: This example will serve as a consolidation activity.
Supposedly a lesson is (or needs to be) quite theoretical, like a history lesson. After concluding teaching the main parts of the lesson and answering learners questions, have them draw a comic strip of the main events of the history lesson or something (from the events) that impressed them. For this reason the free online tool Storyboard That can be utilized as it is very easy to use and has many features to offer for creating very detailed comic strips. The educator can then collect them all and assess their content, while the learners took part in a creative activity, got in touch with new technologies, produced an artistic outcome, consolidated their knowledge and became more eager to pay attention and participate during class.

Suggestions: If there is a computer classroom available, the learners can conclude this activity on school time. Alternatively, it can be done as a group activity in the classroom, having all discussed and decided on what they are going to make, in a single computer by taking turns operating it or, more traditionally, on paper (making a big panel so that everyone can work on it simultaneously).

Learn more

Storyboard that: https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboard-creator

Title of activity

Those who tell the stories, rule the classroom

Working on the activity – Suggestions

Summary: The low rates of student participation are usually due to lack of motivation, either for personal reasons or because of boring lessons. The educator can intervene to the second cause and remedy that by introducing more energetic activities or adopting various teaching methodologies. Variety is the key. In this scenario, an activity that deconstructs well-known stories will be introduced and that alone can arouse the learners’ curiosity.

Objective: For all the learners to participate in the discussion by expressing and validating their own course of action.

Description: This activity can serve as a “surprise” to the learners as it deviates from the traditional process of conducting a lesson and spark their interest. Those who tell stories rule the world is an activity that its goal is the deconstruction of popular stories, legends and myths by identifying different aspects, especially when it comes to the problems faced by the main charcters. It is used to promote analytical thinking, listening skills, imagination and compassion. For example, a popular similar activity is the re-telling of the story of the Red Riding Hood from the aspect of the Big Bad Wolf.

Suggestions: Use stories that their central theme is close to the topic you are covering in class. Additionally, you can ask the learners to contribute stories and analyse them all together -it doesn’t have to be well-known stories after this practice has been enforced multiple times.

Notes

The activity has been used in italian learning environments and no english resource is available online.

Solving the Problem: Self-reflection (educator’s reflection)

Exit slips
One effective way to check if the strategies you have chosen to employ have been successful is by taking feedback from your students. It can be done quickly by utilizing exit slips. Exit slips are reflections that students write after a lesson or an activity. They don’t have to be long, even sticky notes can work as exit slips. The important element is to have the learners choose the prompt they want to write about (they can be “something boring”, “something interesting”, “what I enjoyed”, “what troubled me” etc.) and then take their feedback into consideration and make the appropriate changes.

Scrapbook reflection
Scrapbook reflection can be used after a group activity on a larger project. It will be solely the responsibility of the students and it can be filled using pictures of the whole process of their work until the end result, including learners on their respective roles inside the team. Each member of the team can showcase their part in any way they like and reflect on their role, the process of collaboration, their impact on the groups success/failures, and on the learning that was derived from the project’s completion. After it is completed, the educator can assess the students’ reflections and evaluate the group dynamics.

Making of a moodboard
The educator can start making a moodboard. Usually young teachers do it at the beginning of their careers, but you can start anytime. The moodboard is the reflection of your dream (always in regards to teaching) and you can include inspiring quotes, people you look up to, successful projects, mementos from throughout your career and so on. It serves as a constant reminder to never give up and always strive to be the best educator. It’s a reflection board where you can track the changes in you and plan your future accordingly.

Points for Discussion with your Organisation

The first step, when becoming a part of an organization’s team, is to learn about the organization’s policies (if you haven’t done already before joining them). So, after studying the policies, you can arrange for a meeting with your coordinator/supervisor to discuss any possible issues or enquiries you may have and what aspects of school life you can control (such as school time). You can ask about the way they want to handle problematic situations and their preferred strategies. You can contribute your own insight as well and judge from their reactions if it’s welcome or not. In either way, when an issue arises do seek guidance if it’s too much to handle.

Suggested Training Course available online