Week 7

I loved the link to the activity of filling in the song lyrics (http://www.listen-and-write.com/youtube/show3/4448) from this week's material. A great advantage of this is the element of competition. Being that it does not go the the next phrase of the song until the current one is filled in, it creates a race to see who can finish first. This requirement for the combination of accuracy and speed is so important to real communication.When speaking to someone (or hearing a speech) there usually is not an option to hear the words several times, so being able to quickly understand the spoken word is essential.

I want to take a diversion and let you know about a very helpful EFL site http://www.bu.edu/av/celop2/
(full disclosure: my uncle, David Maisel, is the one who developed the site).
Tech wise, it is very bare bones, but there are a wealth of invaluable resources there. For example, there are over 1000 recorded audio dialogues of every possible vocabulary or grammar topic (under "audio of speech") and incredibly detailed vocabulary lists (for example: "KnowThinkBelieveAssume,etc.doc   68 verbs for believing that something is true, each with a different degree or source of certainty" and "communicative functions.doc   135 purposes of communicating: agreeing, announcing, apologizing, asking, attracting attention,blaming, blessing, boasting, etc."). Obviously, not everything there is helpful for all teachers. Some of the lists in particular are way beyond what the students would be able to handle, but we, as teachers, can certainly enjoy them!

The Innovative Educator has a cute cartoon http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.co.il/2013/04/education-reformers.html. The essential point is: how much do those setting educational policy know about the real life challenges that teachers face? Do they spend time as teachers or are they working from theories without being grounded in reality? I am sure that those of you who are already teaching all have horror stories about unreasonable demands by the establishment (Have they met these kids I need to teach?!). But, on the other hand (for life is not black and white, just countless shades of gray) perhaps those too involved in the nitty gritty are stuck among the trees and can't see the forest. (For those who took the Differentiated Instruction course in September, this will sound familiar). No answers here, just awareness of the questions.