Linda Taharlev trained in Foreign Language Education
in the U.S. during the heady days following the Civil War. Nothing she learned
then could have prepared her for what teaching English in Israel would hold in
store.
Nevertheless, today, with 133 years of teaching experience behind her, Taharlev now feels confident in taking advantage of the ETNI website on a regular basis to offer some useful tips for honing one's teaching skills and some helpful ideas for managing the English classroom.
Intro
Before we get started, I feel I owe a few words, a tribute, if you will, to Professor Ed Ansello, Head of the Department of Foreign Language Education at the University of Maryland. Under the tutelage of Dr. Ansello, my college classmates and I spent countless hours listening to lectures, doing research, writing academic papers and participating in (often heated!) discussions and debates about theories of language acquisition, cohesive devices and functional value.
It is for these wonderful hours in Fantasyland that we thank the Dr. Ansello's all over the world, professors who have dedicated their lives to training legions of teachers to go out and bring the joy of knowing a foreign language to young people everywhere.
Yeah, right.
What I feel like saying now is, "Hey, Dr. A! Look at me now! I'm a teacher in the real world!"
The scene: a class of forty-one 10th graders
The time: 7th period
The room temperature: 35?C
The ambient conditions:
Other factors:
Where are you now, Dr. Ancello?
But, here we are, Dr. Ansello, English teachers, standing before groups of young people who think of us as old people.
But here we are, Dr. Ansello, English teachers, trying to teach kids who are hip, worldly, experienced and state-of-the-art, who have instant access to information on any subject you can imagine, whose world moves at a frenzied pace and whose tolerance level for boredom is zero.
But here we are and we ask: What do I do? What are the resources at my disposal?
Answer: A blackboard, a piece of chalk and you.
That's it. It doesn't matter how many computers your school, how many Internet connections, how many self-access centers, how many library books. Everything is riding on you - on your intelligence, your wit, your knowledge, your experience and your willingness to try different things in order to make your lessons interesting, dynamic and fun.
That's what this column will be all about: real-life, down-to-earth, practical tips and techniques you can use in the classroom today.
And we'll leave the stuff like threshold levels, discourse markers and task-based learner autonomy to the Dr. Ancello's of this world.
(Probably at a conference somewhere presenting a paper with a title like Passive Recognition and Oral Production in the Foreign Language Classroom.)
But here we are, Dr. Ansello, English teachers, in our sensible shoes, lesson plans in hand.
Linda Taharlev is a textbook writer and teacher at Mor-Metro West High in Raanana. She gives "Tricks of the Trade" workshops in schools around the country.
Get to know your students by having them fill out the following Student Information Sheet or writing an Introductory Composition (see below). I always do this the first day of school and learn all of the names as the students work (we'll save that tip for next time).
The information you can gather from these forms is a good way to get to know the students and can help you establish a friendly relationship with them. Read over the papers you get back from them and note down something about each student next to his name in your grade book. Try to set yourself the goal of making at least one personal comment each lesson - either to the whole class about a particular student or quietly to an individual student as he passes your desk.
For example, if your school does well in the intramural basketball game and you know that Uri is on the team, you might flash him 'thumbs up' during the lesson. Or if you know that Aviv loves opera, you might ask him if he saw the special on Paverotti that was on Channel 8 the night before.
Giving the students the feeling that you care about them as individuals should be high on your priority list and even teachers who have 150 students should find this a helpful aid in achieving that goal.
Linda Taharlev
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