Michael Cullup: A SENSE OF ORDER
In some English classes the teacher is desperately attempting to enforce order over increasing chaos. But why is this? How do such situations come about?
The solutions to the problem in such particular classrooms are partly to be found in the teacher's own notions of what order actually means.
First of all, we should see the classroom as an empty space which we can construct to suit what we intend to do in it. We ourselves construct it according to our own design. Into this mental design we introduce the facilities that we need to carry out our teaching or learning intentions. We are creating a model.
Next we do our plan. We need to decide what teaching English means. Where does it end, both for us and for our students? We need to know the nature of the subject and what teaching and acquiring its content demands.
The plan we devise will be some sort of the progression from the simplesto of the beginnings to the complexities of the advanced knowledge and proficiency.
To complement our ideal model syllabus, we need a supply of ideal materials suitable for the different stages of the syllabus. Next, we need other resources: tape recorders, TVs, videos, etc.!
By now, we have a model of the perfect learning environment. But what about assessment?
We next, then, move towards the various tests and examinations, which we insert at appropriate stages of our syllabus.We have to remember that they need to cover all skills.
When all this has been planned, we have nearly completed our model. But the one element missing is our students. We need to imagine the range of types they can be expected to fit into. ( Age, sex, abilities, personalities…)
The last and final step is the most important of all. We have to deliberately destroyeverything we've created. Our vision would crash destructively with the realities we are confronted with. But the idea of order we have in our minds is a permanent value.
Failing teachers in noisy disorderly classrooms suffer from a lack of purpose. They have found themselves teaching than deliberately chosen the profession. They lack the vision which makes the job possible and the sense of order which sees beyond the current difficulties.
AUTHENTICALLY ENGLISH
Issue 4, 2002