[susan53]

One of the things I focus on when I'm working with teachers on setting up activities in the classroom is the need to realise that things that we take completely for granted as teachers are not necessarily obvious to students. The classic example is when you set up an info gap activity like a find the difference picture activity but forget to make it explicit that the students mustn't look at their partner's picture but must talk about it - and them find them with both pictures on the desk just pointing to the differences.
Well, just to show that however aware you are you still fall into the trap - I've been doing exams over the past couple of weeks, and the final task in one of the elementary level exams was : Write about 75 words describing your job, your responsibilities and your daily routine.

Now think about that and what you would expect the students to do, then scroll down to see what one of them gave me ...







Keep thinking ....





and scrolling.....



And here's what I got :


1. Secretary
2. Office
3. Computer
4. Telephone
5. E-mail
6. Photocopier
7. Boss
8. Colleagues

and so on - right down to number 75. I suppose I can't fail her for vocabulary ...

[HUE]

Nice one! If this doesn't explain the need for laying out each step clearly, getting confirmation, going through an example, and confirming once more before beginning an activity, I don't know what does!

I'm always surprised when the most obvious activity goes pear-shaped because I didn't want to patronize my students with an explanation I thought obvious.

And I have to add, your student's vocab must be pretty good... 75 words on work!

[michèle 2]

[... 75 words on work![/quote]

WOW !!

[mesmark]

I had an exam where students where supposed to describe what they saw in a picture. They were pictures from the textbook. I specifically wrote, in Japanese, that they were to write about the picture, about what they see.

20% of the class gave me the dialogue from that page!

I'm not sure more explicit directions always work

[HUE]

I've noticed that people (myself included) often don't read the directions, at least until I'm completely stumped and don't know what to do! That's why I always walk my students orally through the directions of an activity or worksheet, confirm, go through an example with the class, etc. Will someone still get confused? Probably, but it also means that I won't have to stop an activity because so many students are doing it wrong. I also won't have to worry so much about jumping from group to group in the beginning because half the class is doing something entirely different.

I won't bother commenting on when students do an activity differently, and it ends up being a greater success...!

[emile]

Some people respond better to oral instructions. Also, for beginners, some instructions could be in their own language.

[Eric]

That is hilarious! I think it's a good effort on her part. It's so hard to write 75 word vs. writing 75 words in a sentences. Bonus points from me!