Freedocumentaries - watch, learn and uderstand

The most common belief about teenagers and young adults you come across these days is that they are easily bored, spoilt and not interested in anything.

It is very difficult to make them express opinions and engage in debates as they have, sadly, very little to say. Sounds familiar?

With the communicative approach knocking on the door of every EFL classroom, it has become extremely hard for teachers to come up with intriguing and captivating material that would eventually make students open their minds and mouths.

A few years ago I was working on a summer camp teaching English to adolescents from various backgrounds. Some of them came from broken families, some from very well off ones. Yet they all had something in common – they did not want to speak English and take part in discussion me any my colleagues were laboriously preparing.

The theme of the camp was Travelling broadens the mind and we really wanted the kids to learn something about the world. Unfortunately, interesting (in our opinion) articles about different countries, colourful pictures of fascinating (for us) places, games and group work did not work for them at all.

We spent hours searching the internet but in the end we found what seemed to be perfect. www.freedocumentaries.org is a website featuring a lot of free and full length documentaries touching upon a great deal of controversial issues. As my students were doing a project about India, we watched ‘Born into Brothels’, a wonderful film about children of prostitutes from Calcutta, whose lives changed after learning how to take photographs. And yes, it worked this time! More than that, it worked like magic!!!

I still have not seen all the documentaries on the website but there are some definitely worth recommending:

·        ‘Born into Brothels’ (take a look at http://kids-with-cameras.org/home/ and use it as an extension to the film)

·        ‘Invisible Children’ about children suffering as a result of abduction during the war in Uganda (also see http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php)

·        ‘Jesus Camp’ about religious camps for kids in the US

·        ‘Super Size Me’ about an experiment conducted to prove that eating fast food is harmful

·        ‘Ghosts of Rwanda’ about a civil war in the country

·        ‘India. The Land of Missing Children’ about kids kidnapped and sold as slaves to carpet factories

Be sure that seeing documentaries from www.freedocumentaries.org will enliven your classrooms. They are shocking, thought provoking and will stimulate a great deal of productive discussions. 

The most enchanting spot in Turkey

I decided to live in Turkey because I love to travel, discover and explore. Perhaps the most important reason that made me choose this particular country was that it is a fascinating blend of modern and exotic. Many tribes and nations have occupied the territory of Anatolia and traces telling their history are to be found in almost every corner of the country.

To me, the most enchanting spot in Turkey is Ani.

This early medieval city, located in the north-eastern part of Turkey close to the border with Armenia, is now ruined and uninhabited.

It was once the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present day Armenia and eastern Turkey. The city is located on a triangular site, visually dramatic and naturally defensive, protected on its eastern side by the ravine of the Akhurian River and on its western side by the Bostanlar or Tzaghkotzadzor valley.

Called the "City of 1001 Churches", it stood on various trade routes and its many religious buildings, palaces, and fortifications were amongst the most technically and artistically advanced structures in the world.

At the height of its glory, Ani had a population of 100,000 - 200,000 people and was the rival of Constantinople, Baghdad and Cairo. Long ago renowned for its splendor and magnificence, Ani has been abandoned and largely forgotten for centuries.

(source www.wikipedia.org )

I visited Ani in May 2009 and since then have not found a place with more charm and character. It takes at least three hours to walk around the still preserved, grass covered streets of Ani. With hardly any people visiting it, you can easily travel back in time and imagine what the city looked like at the time of glory.

Ani must have been truly magnificent. Anyone who pays it a visit will be simply flabbergasted.

Alternatives to whole class feedback

Last year, looking for some ideas about giving feedback, I came across an article written by my CELTA tutor, Amanda Gamble. Here is what she has to say about the often neglected idea.

What are the drawbacks of whole class feedback?

• The teacher is in control and decides when to move onto the next question.
  
• The teacher is probably doing most of the talking.
  
• Just because the teacher has heard someone say the answer it doesn’t mean that all the students know what the correct answer is.
  
• This method doesn’t help weaker students – they often get lost during the feedback, especially if they have a lot of incorrect answers.

More importantly, it doesn’t tell the teacher what problems the students had with the activity or if they need further practice. However, the most crucial factor is that students don’t learn anything from this kind of feedback – all they get from it is ‘He drank orange juice’ is correct. They don’t learn WHY it is correct or why, for example, ‘He has drunk orange juice’ is wrong.

There are different types of feedback:

• Giving students an idea of how they’ve done after a speaking activity – looking at both their errors and the good things they have said.
  
• Asking students what they think about an activity they have done or to reflect on recent classes.
  
• Checking the answers to activities the students have done.

Let's concentrate on the third one. So students have completed an exercise and now the teacher wants to check the answers. What alternative ways are available to us? Take a look at the following ideas:

1. Give the students an answer key or put the answer key on the wall or the board.

2. Give each student the answer to one or more questions – they read out for the class to check.

3. One student has the answer key and plays the teacher.

4. Get students to write the answers on the board.

5. Get one student to read out his/her answers – the rest of the class see if they have the same.

6. Coursebooks sometimes encourage students to listen to the answers.

7. Give the students a reading text with all the answers in.

8. Students nominate each other to say the answer.

9. Do it as a competition – students work in teams to check their answers and then get points.

10. Teacher monitors while students are on task and makes a note of common problems to concentrate on in feedback.

Why do these?

1. To encourage learner autonomy – the teacher won’t always be there to provide answers. If you put the key on the wall, it also gets the students out of their seats for a few minutes. You can make it more fun by getting them to run to the walls, find the answers and go back to tell their partners – a bit like a running dictation OR give half the answers to one person and the other half to their partner. They share their information like an information gap activity.

2. Although the teacher provides the answers, the students are in control of the feedback.

3. I saw this done really well in an observation. The student with the answer key has to be able to answer questions asked by the class to make it more effective.

4. This is a good way to deal with early finishers.

5. This works well if students have different answers to questions because they can discuss the answer and come to an agreed conclusion.

6. A good way to introduce intensive listening into your classroom with a real purpose.

7. An alternative way to get the students reading in your class. It practises scanning skills and, like 6, has a real purpose.

8. A student-centred version of whole class feedback. It works better if students choose the questions to answer at random as it keeps them on their toes and encourages them to listen to each other.

9. Makes the feedback more interesting and fun and could help to change the pace of the lesson.

10. This saves time going through answers which the students have got correct and gives more time to work on the answers they got wrong and think about the reasons why.

To read more, please visit http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?catid=59798&docid=155374