November 29, 2010: Preparation for first semester exam

November 29, 2010: In preparation for the students' first semester exam, I decided to deviate from my normal lesson plan and have each student answer specific questions in topics that may possibly be on the oral test. For the first question, I asked them to describe one of the following:  best friend, father, mother, sister, brother, teacher, grandmother, grandfather, or worst enemy. Unfortunately in one class, they were each like a deer in headlights -- an absolute freeze appeared on their faces when I asked them to respond. I prodded them with questions to get things started but they seemed at a loss.

The answer to the second question I asked them came more easily: "What makes a student successful?" For their answers, two of the three classes immediately replied that doing homework was a significant factor, so I took a poll to see how much time the students spend doing homework and learned in general that those in these two pre-intermediate classes spend between one to two hours a night doing homework of which about ten minutes is devoted to learning my dialogs. In the third class, however, the students did not mention anything about homework or studying at home as a reason for success in a student. Instead they focused on the teacher as the person responsible for seeing to it that the students are successful. No matter how I structured my questions to them, no one talked about doing homework as a key to their success, so I flat out asked them about homework and they replied that it's not important and that it's the teacher's responsibility to make classes entertaining for them to learn in. In particular the students pointed out that grammar was no fun to study and that the teacher should make it more interesting.  I conceded that teachers do try to be entertaining in class but that there are some necessary drills and work that must be done by the students regardless whether they like it or not. (This is when I wrote "Suck it up" on the board and explained that this is what they need to do.) I then took a poll of how much time each of these intermediate students spends doing homework and was I shocked to learn that all but one student spends less than 30 minutes doing homework. Many even reported that they do theirs between classes so they don't have to take anything home! Needless to say, this lesson was probably more educational for me than it was for them. I now have a much greater understanding of the motivations of the students and will be prepared to deal with them as I continue teaching them.