Student Practice Reflection - Day 7 (Error Management)

     Today, February 15th, was my last day of observations at the Trilingual School of Warsaw. I can't believe how fast this experience has gone by. Obviously I still have microteachings and conducting lessons to look forward to, but the observations went by way faster than I expected. As someone with no prior experience, I feel like I learned a lot in a very short amount of time. I experienced many ups and downs so far, but I feel prepared to take on teaching. Watching my mentor and how he conducts lessons, his behavior, how he interacts with the students, and all the other aspects of the lesson - I've taken it all in and I am now ready to try doing it all by myself. I am sure I will need to learn a lot firsthand, but I feel ready and much more confident than at the beginning of this experience. For now, here is the reflection on my last day of observations. 

Error Management

    The topic of the last set of observations was error management. It was definitely an interesting topic to observe, because the level of English in this classroom is very high. A lot of the kids speak at a level that is almost native-like. That being said, there were still certain mistakes to be observed. First of all, something that the teacher always corrects is how the students ask if they may leave the classroom to leave to the bathroom. The teacher is very persistent in his conviction that they should use the word 'may', which I found very interesting. The kids often use the word 'can', which the mentor always corrects or rather asks them "Can?" and they already know how to correct themselves. I found this very strange at the beginning, but now I understand it. In a classroom at such a high level, it is important to dig deep. Similar words have different underlying meanings and it's important to sensitize kids to those. 'Can' indicated the ability to do something, while 'may' relates to getting permission. Such distinctions might seem unnecessary for such young learners, but it's not about age - it's about their skills and they're definitely ready for such discussions. Most of the mistakes that the kids make are logical mistakes or mistakes connected to the topic, not their actual language. There's definitely discrepancies between different students and there's some, who still make quite a few mistakes. The teacher always makes sure to praise and compliment them before correcting to not discourage them for speaking up. After the positivity, he will usually suggest how the thing should've been said properly. This has definitely taught me that the most important thing is not what we correct, but how we correct. In order to not discourage kids or to make them defensive, we need to sandwich the feedback in positivity. That way the kids do not feel attacked or like they're not doing well and they take criticism better. Also, instead of actually pointing out the mistake, it's better to repeat what the student said with the correct pronunciation/grammar/word choice. It gives the illusion that the teacher is just adding something or making the sentence even better without having to embarrass the student by pointing out they said something wrong. This is probably my favorite technique I've learned. It's so easy to make someone feel bad for not being perfect, so it's important to find ways to correct with the best delivery possible. Finally, I've also noticed that the teacher will also sometimes give the better version of a sentence as a second option. What does this mean? If the kid says something wrong, instead of going "no, this is how you should say it", you can say "ok, that's good, but we can also say this ... ". Once again, we're giving the correction and educating the students without making them feel bad. I feel like that's been the greatest takeaway for me - presenting feedback in a positive way. I've always been interested in building a strong and positive relationship with students, which contributes to a productive and friendly learning environment. This observation definitely helped me find ways to turn error management into something positive.

    My observations at the Trilingual School of Warsaw have come to an end. Seeing lessons conducted in person, especially at such a unique place, has been eye-opening. I'm interested to see how I'll adapt these techniques into my own teaching style and how me conducting lessons will go. I feel ready and prepared, so hopefully everything goes well until the end of this practice.