Student-Centred Classes with Adult Learners

Helping adult students become independent in class is not an easy task. They don't usually like being independent. They like to see the teacher at the front. They like taking notes of what teachers say. They like to be told what the next step is. They also like receiving feedback and instruction all the time. Finally, creating and inventing something in class is not in their comfort zone. All these facts are things that EFL teachers deal with on a daily basis when teaching adults. At least I do, and that is precisely why I decided to conduct an experiment with Google Tools for Education to help them be in charge of the class and in charge of their own learning in class.

I decided to create an 'itinerary' of steps which they would follow and which would allow them to work collaboratively and without having to refer to me all the time. The object of this blog post was my third attempt. I believe the first two ones were not so successful for two mistakes I committed:

• The activities described in the itinerary steps were not as quick for students to do as they should have been. Adults take their time to do things. Unlike kids and teenagers, they don't like making mistakes and they are perfectionists while learning a new language. Therefore, we need to make sure that the steps can be done quickly. Because of this mistake, I could not finish what I had planned for that lesson.
• The activities described in the itinerary steps were not always connected to a central theme or topic. Adults are not as spontaneous as kids and teenagers. They are the ones that need scaffolding the most, or else they feel completely lost. For that reason, if there is no connection between one step and the next, they will take twice as long to assimilate what they are supposed to do.

In my third attempt, however, I made sure to pay attention to these challenges. I did it in a Flex Expert 1 class about vacation spots, as you can see on the book page below. This was the theme of the class and, thus, I thought I would take them on a journey. This is how I did it:

1. I booked the Experience Space and took my students there. When the first students arrived, I asked them to let the others know in their Whatsapp group, since saving time with adult groups is essential.
2. At the Experience Space, I had my students sit in groups and use the ipads I had set up on their tables to access the link bit.ly/fxgroupjourney. This was my class itinerary.
3. The groups went on following the steps, at times together, at times individually. I think something important was the fact that I signalled in the doc the interaction pattern of each activity/step. That made it clear for the students how they were supposed to work.
4. As you can see it yourself by clicking on the link above, the steps were short and made the students stand up, move and sit down at different moments. I believe this made the class dynamic and made them feel more connected to its theme: vacation spots.
5. It was funny to see that students would sometimes finish one activity (step) and become inactive. They would finish it and start looking at their phones, waiting for somebody to give them some other instruction. They did this even though I had already told them that they should finish one activity and move on to the next. This has shown me that these students are used to being told what to do. They are also used to a format that does not allow each of them to move at their own pace and harness their own potential.
6. The whole experience reached its climax in the final step: a really hands-on, maker activity in which students had to create their perfect vacation spot, just like the ones they had seen on the slides (step 2). For that one, I selected photos from lots of magazines the Resource Centre staff had and made them available in categories (food, activities, Airbnb spots and places). Each group had to create a poster by combining different photos and creating their own description of their invented place.

Being completely honest, what was easy to do about this whole experience?

• The steps I described in the itinerary and the online resources I created were actually everything you can see on the book page. So, I didn't create anything. I copied it.

Still being honest, was there anything difficult to do?

• Preparing for this class obviously took some time and demanded some manual work.

What is my conclusion? Was it worth it?

I felt extremely rewarded for having conducted this lesson. I won't lie to you, though. Doing something different has always made me tired, but also happy. It always gives me insights that help me understand my students better and help me become a better teacher.

I also think that the core of this class is actually really simple, which means that the same effect can be achieved in different ways. It is not necessary to use tablets and Google Docs. That was just my way to do it. Teachers can get the concept of student-centred classes and be creative. They can stick 'itineraries' on the walls. They can create stations in numerical order. They can do whatever they think will work best for their students.

Two reactions from students made me smile. One student, before the class had even started, stepped into the Experience Space, looked around and asked: 'Are we in a bar?'. Another one, at the very end of the class, holding the magazine photos and working on her group's poster, looked at me and said: 'I really liked this class'.

Helping Students See the Point of Writing

The title of this post is also going to be the name of a workshop I'm going to give soon. For this workshop, I'd been thinking about so many activities I had done before, but today, however, this one worked so incredibly that I just couldn't give its post some other name.

Last night, I was thinking about how I would teach nine-year-olds the lesson found on pages 130 and 131 of Spotlight on English 3 (Thomas Bilíngue 5th grade). You can see the pages in the picture below. It is a writing lesson. They are supposed to write an editorial at the end.

I was sure that the best way to allow such young students to learn a little and be engaged in this lesson of mine would be to have them experience the real thing. After all, if writing isn't real, it means nothing to the students. I googled a bit and found this cool website with interesting Google Doc newspaper templates. Then, the idea stroke me.

Still in class, as a pre-writing activity, we sat on the floor and I showed them the template I decided to use (the second one on that web page), asking them whether they knew what that was. They looked at it and easily came up with the word "newspaper". We had a chat about what an editorial is and how it must be based on facts, not opinions. Then, I had them do some mind-mapping on a poster with these slips I printed and cut out. They came up with the name of their newspaper and the facts to support the topics they wrote about. I brought some suggestions of topics and they decided which one they would write about.

Once they had their editorial jotted down on their poster, I took them to the Resource Centre at the main branch. They accessed a shortened link I had made for them to access the collaborative Google Doc (bit.do/tb5editorial) and started working on their editorial columns. They did everything: they chose the name of the newspaper, they wrote their columns, they selected the pictures on it. Please, access the link and see what it looks like now.

I honestly don't feel that I had a lot of options and I decided to be innovative. To me, this was the only option. I was definitely going to make my students create a newspaper and write an editorial on a collaborative Google Doc. Only after the lesson had finished, when I saw what they had made, did I realise how amazing all of it had been. The process. The experience they went through. How they collaborated with each other by proofreading what their buddies were writing. After all, my students...

• made something and learned as they made it.
• produced something unique and in their own pace.
• got engaged in an authentic and meaningful activity.
• collaborated with each other by alerting their peers on punctuation and spelling mistakes (21st century skill).
• had their voice heard by creating something that can be published and read by other people.

Now, I'm trying to find a way to have the newspapers printed out so that my students can take a sample home and so that we can also make their work available in the Resource Centre for people to pick and read.