Affective Teaching

Discussion task #2: I have a reasonably high-level adult class who I recently did a writing task in class with. The whole 2.5 hour lesson up to that last half hour of writing was about the language of memories. We read a similar story (taken from a magazine) in the text book. They all read it individually to familiarise them with the style, format and length – short and full of rich description. And then I asked them how it made them feel. Then we took a break for them to reflect. After the break I asked them to close their books and listen and I read them the story aloud again. I turned off the AC and read expressively. (Here, I could/should have had them close their eyes and visualised...) Then, in pairs they reflected on the discussion questions in the book. The one that caused the most confusion was, interestingly, the one that asked whether the article had been written in an appropriately 'chatty' style for a magazine audience. But we discussed who we expected to read it e...

Discussion Task #3: Ten questions I still have: What is the history of affective learning? When and where did it come from?  What's the difference between an affective and a humanistic language teacher? How popular is affective learning and where is practised, by who and in what kinds of environments and institutions?  How do I default to an affective style for planning a lesson for YL whenever possible? How do I make finding/identifying the moments in delivering a lesson when an affective approach would be the best? How do I balance the dual and mostly opposite demands of affective learning planning, delivery vs. curriculum completion?  How do I use affective learning with older YLs i.e 11+? How do I assess learners when using an affective learning approach? Are there hard 'don'ts' in an affective learning approach? What are they? Juan mentioned that in affective language learning it is important for life to m...

I realise that we are beyond Week 3, but as this is somewhat/tangentially Week 3-related and it just made me LOL...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU ...  (not for the faint-of-heart!) ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU

Does anyone have any guidelines for washing school supplies/keeping them clean: Especially when used by/for young learners e.g. puppets. Any useful links anyone knows of? Would be grateful if anyone could share.

Discussion Task 3: I guess I would go for the sock puppets given the practicalities. My first thought is that I would ask ,y 6-8 year old kids all to bring in a clean old sock the week before and then also bring in some extras myself in case any forget.  I have we could then spend half of one class decorating them - perhaps watch a video on how to do one - I could show one already made up and perhaps tell a story with one. And then have them stick on eyes and noes and spots and stripes and glitter and noes and mouths and stuff and then lay them out to dry for the next week. And then the next week use them for the vocaublary or grammar. We could name each of them = have a box for them to live in - and then when we have e.g. the daily activities which we have just finished doing we could have one of them get up, have a shower, have breakfast, go to school, have lunch, go home, etc. and then they could have dialogues with friends - do you, do you like etc...it would perhaps get over the b...

Discussion task #3: Building puppets with students for a specific purpose...Please watch the Funtastic world of puppets video .......... My goodness! 32 different types of puppet (and Elton John and Paul Young to boot!) Some of those I would never have thought of as puppets - like the stones and or push puppets. And some I had just thought of as models - like the potatoand balloon ones. The black light theatre ones remind me of vague memories of my pre-school TV programmes, the marionettes bring back one of my favourite childhood films The Sound of Music   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za7dAJtYXwo  and then the other rather less lovely puppet-related memory was also from a random film that I saw as a child on TV when I was on Kuwait as a child with these rather terrifying puppets  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za7dAJtYXwo   I do actually really like a good ventriloquist and Jeff Dunham is really skilled  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYAqQGEHg7I

Discussion task #1: Getting ready for storytelling   Storytelling is a memorable moment in which learners establish strong connections with the language. What aspects are important in your opinion to take in consideration when planning a storytelling activity? How do they affect the moment in which we are with our students?  I think creating anticipation is absolutely vital.  Your voice, your tone, facial expressions, your level of interest, body language and the quietness and comfort of the classroom...and giving them a reason to listen.  Having enough time, not rushing it. Experience this week... My 11-14 year olds (they are supposed to be 11-12... but our age categorisation is wonky and they age out by the end of the school year anyway) and I are talking about crime (pickpockets and such) and associated vocabulary at the moment - so we did that vocabulary last week and they all wrote stories for hw.  Then we played 'remember, remember' where we all stood up and they had to m...

Glad the working week is over. Spent the last two days with YLs - twas fun :) Didn't get a chance to do puppets - but chose to tell a story with two sets of 11-14 year olds which worked quite well :)

Hi all. Sorry I had to leave before the end of the session today. Juan, I just wanted to follow up on that question I asked about the practical needs of a curriculum/course book to teach to vs. an an affective learning approach. My question was:   One thing that really strikes me about your teaching style, Juan is that it is not rushed. You take your time. I always find myself myself thinking I have to get through this stuff in the curriculum today...how do you balance course book/curriculum dictates/requirements/ confines versus affective learning? Looking forward to hearing from you, Juan and from anyone else who has any other ideas :) Yasmin

Hello all :) My name is Yasmin and I am introducing myself late, but I only joined the course this week..I did attend the second live session tho, thanks to a nudge from my colleague Ayat (thanks, Ayat!)  So, I work at the British Council in Cairo, Egypt and have only been an EFL teacher/teacher for 2.5 years (this has been a career change for me. Which I am really enjoying). I did my CELTA in July 2013 at IH Vancouver and then worked in Paris for 15 months teaching mostly Business English and some exam prep classes, and then in Jan 2015 moved to Cairo, Egypt to teach General English. I've only been teaching Young Learners since September 2015, but I enjoy it very much and this course has already opened my eyes to so many ideas and techniques to try. I'm very glad to be part of the community!