Language Learning Centre – Conversation Club 11/22

We had 9 students join us for our conversation club this week. They were mostly intermediate students. The topic was on shopping and gift giving. I started off by greeting students as they came in and going over the outline while waiting for other students. I asked the students whether they preferred shopping online or in stores and had them elaborate on their answers. They did very well in talking about what they liked about either shopping online or in stores in their responses. Next, we talked about which holidays they give gifts for and whether they gift money in their culture.

In the breakout rooms we had good discussion going as usual. All of the students said that they didn’t like it when someone greets them and offers help when shopping and were able to give detailed explanations. We talked about who they shop for during Christmas and other holidays or occasions and whether they liked shopping for gifts. They enjoyed the activity of trying to find people who shop at the same store as them and though it took a while, at the end I got them asking and discussing with each other without my help.

Overall the pace of the lesson was good and I’m glad we had a few people volunteer answers this time as they get more and more comfortable sharing their ideas in this format, and I’d like to incorporate some of the feedback including aiming for less dependence on us so our lessons can gravitate toward more student-led conversations and typing in shared notes some of the mistakes we hear as a form of assessment and to help with language proficiency.

Language Learning Centre – Conversation Club 11/15

This week our conversation club’s topic was Parties and Festivals. We had only four students join us once again as the students that join us most of the time had presentations this week and were busy.  They were a mix of beginner and intermediate students.

We had a variety of related topics to talk about as well as used several online functions to keep things interesting. In the intro Matthew talked about upcoming holidays and showed a video clip of an office party. Students discussed if they thought it was a fun party or not and then used the interactive whiteboard to talk about what parties they have been to or thrown before. Building on last week’s topic about home countries, we talked about festivals from different cultures briefly and then led to class discussion with several questions about their experience with going to parties and festivals. This was designed to be a breakout room activity but as we had fewer participants than expected, we made it a whole group discussion instead.

For my portion I got students to take turns coming up with things to think about when planning a party such as decorations, music, people to invite…and so on. I did a poll to see who has hosted a party and asked them if they thought it was hard work or not. For the ones that have not thrown a party before we talked about whether they thought it would be fun and whether they would like to have a party in the future. Next, I got the students to tell everyone one thing they liked or didn’t like about a party they went to and activities they did at the party. Some shared that they love arranging surprise parties or having gift exchanges and one girl talked about the barbeque parties she has been to. This was my favourite part of the lesson because they got to have the most uninterrupted talk time.

I concluded the lesson by playing Two Truths and a Lie. As there wasn’t too much time left, we didn’t get to finish but I thought it was great to have a different activity and told them we would play it again another time if we have time for it. The game could have gone better in the beginning if I had modelled my own answers, as one of the students was confused about the game and took up more time (she went twice giving her sentences too, so I quickly told her to guess someone’s answer instead), and I had students type their answers in shared notes and called on them for the guessing part but forgot that I had meant to ask them to use the ‘raise your hand’ function as well when guessing. I liked that the students had a chance to learn some new terms such as hosted / threw a party and to practice having conversations on several topics relating to parties. I think my talking speed and choice of language were good and had natural responses to keep their conversations going. Overall I’m happy with how I did and what went well was that with the small group it was easy to make sure to call on different people and get everyone to participate as much as possible. Through the conversations we got to know these students even better.

Language Learning Centre – Conversation Club 11/8

This week’s topic for our conversation club was “Your Hometown”.  We only had four students this time as many of them had the same teacher who was sick and had to cancel classes for the day. We had Yuka and Ran, who were Japanese, as well as Talita and Maria, who were from Brazil. They were intermediate students. The good thing with such a small turnout was that we were able get to know them a little bit and had a lot of speaking practice with each. The topic was generated from last lesson’s feedback, as we had a student mention that she enjoyed learning about different cultures through our conversation clubs.

At first when we had only one student, I asked some icebreaking questions while waiting for others to join. We talked about Tokyo briefly and how long she has been here. When more students joined, we started with the first activity which was having the students talk about which part of the world they are from – the city, country, and continent. Then we proceeded to the breakout room activity (but stayed in the main room since we had a small group). We talked about the languages they speak in their countries, festivals and holidays they celebrate, and some differences between their hometown and Canada. We all learned how to say ‘thank you’ in Portuguese and Japanese. We did a poll to see whether they miss their countries and one of them said no because she just came in September! They had a good time describing differences in culture and were able to answer in detail when I asked them what they miss the most. The students also talked about the activities they enjoy doing in their hometown and what their city or country is famous for. They were given categories to choose from (Food, Sports, and Brand) and a couple of them picked food while some others picked brand. At the end we talked about which country we would visit if we were to travel now, and there was also an exit ticket where they could draw one thing about their country.

It was very easy to have everyone participate, given the circumstances. Feedback from the assistant teacher was that the lesson was very organized and that we kept the students engaged. I liked that me and Matthew did a great job with pacing and ensuring we had enough content even though we had only four students. I’m glad I prepared questions to ask and had an idea of extended topics to talk about, such as at one point I asked the students about how the metro system or buses are like in Japan and Brazil, when the conversation naturally led to it, or asking if they are planning to visit soon when talking about what they missed most about their hometown.

Language Learning Centre – Conversation Club 11/1

We had 10 students join us again today for our online conversation club. Our topic was about the Internet and Social Media. We had a few minutes in the beginning while we were waiting for more students to join so I asked if anyone knew about the Halloween incident in South Korea from the news. News and current events could actually be an interesting topic to do in the future.

We had good engagement with this topic. The students were able to talk about what social media platforms they use and share information they know about different social media sites. We had a poll to make things interesting and I used the interactive whiteboard for them to talk about what they have used Instagram or Facebook for. I tried to have follow-up questions after each person’s answer to extend their talk time and I provided explanations whenever necessary so everyone can understand. In the breakout rooms we asked the students to discuss why they use Google, Twitter, Tiktok, etc.  They were able to practice reasoning in English when they explained that they like to look up information or watch videos for entertainment. We also discussed which app they use to chat with family and friends.

In the breakout rooms we talked about social media use such as whether they use social media when they are out such as at school, and the answer was a resounding yes! They seemed to enjoy talking about which social media they like and dislike. Like always, some participated more than others but as I’m using the system of checking off students’ names, later on I was able to choose students who haven’t had a chance to speak as much. We went into the breakout rooms too late this time and I had too many students so not everyone got a chance to have good conversation time. For the next one we will be going into the breakout rooms right after a warm-up and I anticipate that it’ll be great as more of a main activity while providing as much speaking opportunity as possible for our students. We will also be trying out a different format where I lead the first half of the lesson and Matthew takes over the second half and assist each other with the online tools such as polls and creating breakout rooms so it’s more efficient and seamless.

I had our students share some feedback and suggestions for future lessons at the end. It was great to know that someone enjoyed learning about different cultures through our conversation clubs and find out that a student wants to talk about what to do in Kamloops. I look forward to taking these ideas into future lessons.

Language Learning Centre – Conversation Club 10/25

We had around 10 students join us this time for our 4^th online Conversation Club. They were in various levels. The topic we prepared was “All About Halloween.” Some of the questions we asked the students in the beginning did not have as much response as we would have liked, as the questions all had to do with their experiences. It was hard for some of them to answer questions such as “What costumes have you worn?” since many of them have not celebrated the holiday before. It was great that the feedback from our sponsor teacher included this point. I loved her idea of having an introduction at the beginning talking about the traditions of Halloween.

I personally like to switch it up and tried to include different ideas and exercises. I had one slide with four people wearing interesting costumes and asked them to share which was their favourite. I introduced the idea of scary costumes vs. creative costumes, and I enjoyed hearing their answers and how they expanded their answers by explaining why they prefer the ones they chose. Next, I had them play a Would You Rather game where they chose between things like walk through a graveyard or have nightmares for a week. Some students were able to give well thought-out answers like “I would rather walk through a graveyard because it’s for a short time, but I can’t stand having nightmares for a long time!” I felt the activities I planned were quite interactive but for future lessons I need to pick on people right away if there are no volunteers. At the beginning sometimes I gave a little bit of time for them to circle or write their answers, but I found that it dragged on a bit and seemed to slow the pace down. Later on I tried to have people share their answers as soon as they were done while waiting for others who took longer.

I didn’t like that we stuck to a formula as I like to take time planning really good lessons that would engage and encourage as much conversation as possible. I didn’t enjoy this lesson as much as many of the questions were just borrowing previous lessons we did, with the same type of questions and same formula for breakout rooms and exit tickets. I think there’s extra challenge with working in a team as you need to learn to work with one another’s ideas, but I welcome the challenge and am working on effectively communicating my ideas. I plan on adding time for students’ feedback for our class soon and hope they will share their thoughts with us.

Language Learning Centre – Conversation Club 10/18

We had about 9 students join us for today’s Conversation Club. This time they were in various levels. Our topic was “Let’s Talk About School.”  Matthew started off this time and did a poll to see if our students liked school when they were kids. This section did not take as much time as I would have liked. For my part, I asked them what are the classes they are taking right now at TRU. There were some active participants and then after that I started calling on students. This topic was easy to answer and I would try to comment on each, asking things like “How do you like that class?”or “What’s different between your writing class and grammar class?” I asked the students if they knew each other and had some good engagement going there. We also talked about which subjects are easy and hard for them. They wrote on the interactive whiteboard so it was easy for us to pick something and have whoever wrote it share.

In breakout rooms we had small group discussions on 2-3 classes that are easy or hard for us and then we had the students explain why. For example, for many of them a lot of homework might be one of the reasons that makes the course difficult. There was one student whose level was much higher and I talked to her about what she finds stressful about certain classes as I could tell she was trying to use more advanced vocabulary.

Something I started doing is writing down everyone’s names in the beginning so I can check them off when I have called on them. This worked well but we went through the first half of the lesson too quickly so not all of the names were called. Everyone did get to talk in the breakout rooms and also at the end for an exit ticket activity, we had them write on the interactive board something they want to learn that’s not taught in schools and we had students actively talking about these. This was the first time we had gone through all the topics with a few minutes to spare so I asked Matthew to share his answer as well. I’ll be sure to always include a couple extra slides in the future in case we need more content. Other things to work on are to always be aware of the words I’m using to make sure everyone can understand and I would like to put in more creativity into the lesson planning to have as much engagement as possible.

Language Learning Centre – Online Conversation Club 10/11

Today’s students were again beginner to intermediate. It was my second time leading the Conversation Club with Matthew. Our topic was “All About Movies.” We started with a poll on whether or not the students watch movies as a fun way to introduce the topic. I tried to think about points to talk about ahead of time to use throughout the lesson for more conversation topics. I had to call on students a lot this time, so I think some of the questions on the slides might not be engaging enough. We mostly used ideas from previous slides and added some ideas of our own for this one but starting from next time we’ll be making our own slides.

I asked for movies they have seen and got many good responses. I also tried to put in follow-up questions such as when someone replied that they watch movies from their country, I asked if they prefer them to Hollywood movies? The topic on favourite movie snacks was fun but seemed to be too brief. I noted to extend these topics next time by tagging another fun activity with it. The breakout room was the best part with the most engagement for me. We were able to discuss at length about “If you were to make a movie, what would your movie be called?” “Who would be your lead actor?” and “What genre of movie is it?” I encouraged the students a lot and we had fun talking about our favourite series on Netflix as well.  It would be a great idea to continue including one breakout room activity for all future conversation clubs.  

We ran out of time for the last part so I tried to fit in the last activity quickly because I really liked the topic. I provided three tips for learning English through movies and asked them which of them they think is useful, except I stumbled over my words a bit being so time conscious. I really wanted to end on time as I know the students mostly have other classes to go to afterwards.  Next time I will move a favourite section to the front so we don’t run out of time for it.