Lessons for teachers: lesson 1

When I started teaching, more than three decades ago, I could not possibly have imagined what the journey would have been like and to what extent it would have moulded me into what I am at present.

Lesson plans, seminars, keeping up with developments in methodology, backing them up with the psychological theories on which they were based, preparing material of all kinds all went towards ensuring I did more than enough to convey knowledge and motivate students.

Looking back, however, I would say that the most invaluable aid in my professional and personal development was offered by my students themselves. Attending to their learning needs and trying to tailor my teaching accordingly, working out their individual circumstances and making a mental note of their differences in approaching English, observing and taking account of class dynamics have enriched and informed my teaching in so many subtle ways that I would not have even dreamed of when I started out.

Thanks to my students I have reviewed so many beliefs and preconceptions that made up the baggage of the profession. I have learned humility from difference; I have learned flexibility and rejected standardization.

Perhaps the ultimate lesson I have learned is that there are as many ways of learning as learners -- depending on interests, intelligence, motivation, stimulation, personality, outside influences and so many other factors that we are not even aware of.

Learning one or more foreign languages is not simply a process that has its own rewards, practical and intellectual. It encourages -- because it presupposes -- memorising, comparing, ordering and reordering information constantly and assessing and reassessing the significance of new input.

If this was at all possible, it would be an absolutely fascinating experience to watch the workings of the brain while language learning takes place. But even thinking about it is mind-boggling. Whoever has not tried to learn a foreign language has certainly missed out. If nothing else, foreign language learning allows you to gain insights into your first language by examining it from a different perspective and subjecting it to comparisons with other languages.

By trying to understand how students tackle learning, what facilitates comprehension and what inhibits it for each one of them, unwittingly we build bridges with them and forge long-lasting relationships. And this is the essence of life.

A Bridge: a multiple- intelligence approach to presenting poems

A Bridge: a multiple- intelligence approach to presenting poems

As a teacher, I purposely avoid using certain terms because to my mind they are contradictions in themselves. One of them is “lesson plan”. Not any lesson plan, mostly ready-made lesson plans.

When I started teaching, long time ago, I never walked into a classroom without having planned my lesson. Very soon it turned out that my plan often went awry for a very simple reason: teaching is a constantly readjustable process. Of course I am not suggesting that I don’t prepare for my classes—quite the opposite. I am simply saying that the term lesson plan is redolent of standardization, and I am suspicious of “standardized” activities and I am also convinced that the make-up of your class requires on-the-spot fine tuning which can only be accomplished by being receptive to the needs of the learners.

Therefore, my presentations are simply guidelines for thinking teachers who will judge whether they suit their needs and will adjust them as they go.

This post focuses on a poem called A Bridge by Stanley Cook.

It is a children’s poem though it might well appeal to teenagers or even adults provided that the presentation and practice are adapted accordingly.

I normally use it with children so I will make a few suggestions about how to introduce the topic and read the poem.

There is a powerpoint presentation (see next post on this blog), which can be used as a visual prop to the poem. The last slide shows the activity which the students have to do after being introduced to the topic kinesthetically, visually and, preferably, aurally. It is a blank-filling activity which tests the understanding of the situation and helps focus on coherence, consistency and reference issues.

For convenience reasons I cite the poem highlighting the words which are left blank for the students to fill:

A Bridge

A bridge is a giant on hands and knees

Kneeling down to fill a gap

And let people cross it on his back.

A bridge is a giant of stone or steel

With a back so hard he doesn’t feel

The prodding of sticks or hammering of heels.

A bridge is a giant who carries the road

And the lorries on it with heavy loads,

A giant who stays there night and day

And never gets up and goes away.

By Stanley Cook

I assume children know the word “bridge” already so you may want to capitalize on their kinesthetic intelligence by asking them to make a bridge with their bodies. When they start reading the poem they will be able to complete the first two gaps simply by mentally reconstructing their body posture when making the bridge.

You could do a bit of “prodding” while the children are arching their backs both to show the meaning of the word and to enable them to fill the next gap: “feel” when they move on to the activity.

If they get stuck with “road”, you can ask them what “it” refers to in the next line or where you can find lorries(on roads).

The last gap is a bit tricky so if there is no response, you can elicit it by asking: can a bridge go away?

If you have dyslexic children in your class, it would pay to embed a reading of the poem with a pause for each gap.

On the other hand if I was to present this to teenagers or adults, I would start by discussing the use of bridges practically and figuratively. Connecting is bound to come up and there are endless possibilities for which way the discussion could go.

Your students could read the poem several times in chorus—it encourages poor readers to join in.

Vocabulary extension depends on the level of the students. You could ask them to think of vehicles going over a bridge. If they are adults, they could think of how a bridge is built (ask them to research the question on the internet).

Another idea is to ask the students to think of or search for bridges in films or to name famous bridges around the world. It could be a group project in class.

If I can stretch it a bit, you might even be able to practise Conditional Type 2 by asking what would happen if the giant went away. Get the students to think of a conditional chain:

If the giant went away, the lorries would fall.

If the lorries fell, lots of people would get killed

If lots of people got killed, …

It is not necessary or even desirable to do all the above in one lesson; the whole idea could be spread over a couple of lessons allowing the teacher to continue with the course they use in their class.