Facilitation

As a teacher, I feel my role is always one of facilitation.  I cannot force anyone to learn, but I can definitely facilitate the process.

In the past couple of months, however, I've really had to rethink what facilitation is and how it works.

The modern definition of facilitate, from Dictionary.com, is

1. to make easier or less difficult; help forward (an action, a process, etc.): Careful planning facilitates any kind of work.  
2. to assist the progress of (a person).

Have you ever noticed that facilitating some groups is easier than facilitating others?  I have recently been working with students of all ages:  preschool, elementary, high school, and primarily retirees.  In the past as well, I often worked with very disparate groups: usually business people, graduate students, and elementary school students.  Each time I've noticed that even if we're covering the same ideas, the facilitation is wildly different.  I don't have to spend any time at all getting my little ones to laugh and have a good time, but getting some business people to perform a complete audit would be easier than getting them to smile.  Similarly, getting mature (read "over 18") to slow down is no problem, but getting a group under twelve to pause is barely possible.

But this last month or so, I have really been blessed to note how facilitating my retirees is actually more allowing them to facilitate me, which is when I realized that all of "my" best lessons have essentially followed this pattern. 

Put simply, I am an expert on the subject matter primarily--that is why I'm the teacher.  I am not, per se, an expert on the other aspects of life.  But my students are.  Often I facilitate best when I allow my students to shine, when I allow my students to exercise their own expertise while they are mastering their subject matter.  My facilitation is to find ways to make the subject matter applicable to them--to help them see how it fits into what they're doing and where they're going.  Sometimes that's not always possible entirely, but the fact that I have allowed them to demonstrate their prowess for me opens them to hearing what I have to say--and to trying out what I'm introducing.
 
Sometimes this hands-off facilitation feels a little like flying by the seat of my pants, but in reality it is planned in such a way that allows flexibility.  It anticipates expertise and then, with a small amount of thinking on one's feet, it matches one area of expertise with another.


Below is an example of facilitation when expertise matches content across three very disparate age groups:


For example, I may want to teach the rhythm of language.  If I have elementary students, I need to think for a minute about what their areas of expertise are and how the rhythm of language fits into it.  I remember the chants on the playground, common forms of teasing, and games/chants to pick who should start.  I prepare in my mind similar English games, and, if I know their songs well enough, match natural English words to some of their own rhythms.  When my young students come in, I ask them to demonstrate their games.  I let them go on for awhile.  I play with them.  Then I choose to teach them an easy English version.  I let them play with it.  I let them feel it out.  I invite them to change the words--all the while playing because they are experts at play--until they have felt a real connection and usefulness with this material.


What about rhythm of language for business people?  I have often had business people stage an argument on a topic of their choosing--first in their own language--and have other people pay attention to how each person interrupts, states their point, sympathizes, etc.  They note the natural rhythm.  Then we come up with some stock phrases for working into an argument ("But," "I don't think," I disagree," "I see, but...," "Don't you think...,"  "Oh," "No!"), and allow them to do it again, half in English and half in their home language.  Finally, we work on some actual content and do the whole argument in English.  They are sustained by the topic that they picked as well as by paying attention to the rules of interrupting and the rhythm of trading comments--an esteem issue that they are experts at navigating.


Finally, for my older group, well, we're not studying ESL, but rhythm of language has a lot to do with the writing that they're studying.  How do I make it relevant?  They're grandparents (not just generally, but most of the ones who would benefit from this lesson are literally writing for their grandchildren).  They are experts in lullabies and telling scary stories--both prime examples of rhythm of language.  We tune into this (ask for examples), remember this (allow them to share), let them spend time working with it (allow them to rewrite words or weave the and then transferring it to the paper).  When we get to the rewriting, I want to eventually turn them away from the typical topics of lullabies and focus them on an aspect of their lives.  Again, they are experts on babies, children, and grandchildren as well as accomplished lullaby-singers and campfire storytellers.  It's just a matter of harnessing this expertise and providing another outlet for it.

Take Charge of Education 1

So often we say of our students that we want them to be self-guided, to know what they need, and to take charge of their own education.  Lamentably, I find that very few teachers really teach thoughtfully--although I must say that current curricula increasingly are building thoughtful teaching into their plans.

Anyway, I want to point to another method of students' taking charge: unstructured time.  Unstructured time is important in life and in teaching.  When I first began using unstructured time with my students, they hated it.  They had no idea what to do with their time.  They constantly sought approval from me.  And they whined.  I hate whining.

But I kept at it.

"You should tell us what to do!" one of my older students told me.

"If you planned better, they wouldn't be so rambunctious," suggested my husband.

Twenty minutes a week isn't much, but for those who had never been allotted free time, it seemed interminable.

"What do you think you could do?" I would counter student after student.

"Huh?" was always the answer.

"Well, what do you do if you come in early before the other students?"

"Read a book."

"Okay.  So you could read a book. What else?"

A blank stare.

"What do you do at home if you don't have anything to do?"

"I always have something to do."  And this was the problem.  It took time for them to discover that they could play games, look up topic-related videos on the computer, discuss their favorite music in English, or read and re-read their favorite books.  They could write or watch plays.  They could sing.  They could create their own videos.

They learned what they liked and what they were good at.  They learned to choose something to do.  They learned to create, to laugh, and to explore.  And it's a step toward taking charge of their own lives.

Just Do It

A number of experiences lately have brought me back to one of my fundamental principles of understanding (not just teaching or learning):  do it yourself.

There is simply no better way that I know of learning, of understanding, of developing empathy, or of evaluating.

I often find holes in my homework or materials when I attempt to do it.  I find other realms of inquiry, new areas of vocabulary, grammar that might be necessary, and examples that might be helpful by trying it myself.  I discover issues in timing--homework that is too long or assignments that fail to provoke a long enough contemplation of the point to be useful.  And perhaps most important, I find problems of unfairness.  I find bias.  I find areas in which I ask questions that my students lack the skill to answer or cannot answer due to social constraints that I hadn't thought about before I did it myself.

And maybe the most effective (not most important) consequence of doing it myself is providing modeling and earning the respect of my students.  If I learn another language in the same way I teach English to my students, that carries weight with them.  If they see me write the same essay that they do and then pick apart my own work in editing (and I do this because I largely doubt the effectiveness of peer review at the lower levels until the students have really been trained BOTH EXPLICITLY AND BY EXAMPLE how to edit), then I have convinced them that I am not wasting their time on busy work.  Furthermore, for young students, it is the beginning of teaching them to be colleagues, and for adult students, it is an innate acknowledgment that I know that they are intelligent even if they can't communicate what they know in my language.

And I have found that this level of respect flings open the doors to learning faster than anything else that I have seen with the exception of bodily care.  People want to be seen and heard.  We can better do that when we take a few moments, stand in their place, and do what they do.

Stuff That Works 1

Okay, so I have a bunch of ideas about how things "ought" to go, but none of that really matters unless you can see it working.

So here is one of those lessons that I have pulled out in Korea from time to time that just goes really well every time.

Lesson title:  When You're Slidin'

Age of students: elementary school - preferably 2nd-5th grades

Size of class:  2 or more students.  For larger classes, separate the class into groups of 3 or 4.

Student level: high beginner and above

Equipment/supplies needed: tape recorder, CD player, or computer with internet access and speakers

Objectives:  Introduce age appropriate vocabulary (baseball and potty talk), reinforcement of the rhythm of English through the rhythm of the song, (in the Korean context) differentiation between when/if, guided application of rhythm and grammar.

Length of lesson: Approximately 45 minutes.

Warnings: This lesson is an appropriate lesson for a free day or a relaxing moment after a test.  The topic of the lesson is something parents hate but kids love, making it risky to do by itself but very effective in terms of student motivation, long term recall, and real life application.

Activity 1:  Fill in the blank listening.
Time:  Approximately 7-8 minutes

Take the lyrics from "The Diarrhea Song" from "Parenthood" and type them out, leaving some blanks.  Make enough copies for every student and distribute them to the class.

 Be careful which words you choose to eliminate.  What have you been working on in class?  If it's rhymes, then eliminate the words at the ends of the lines--but provide a word bank because the words are obscure.  If it's potty talk (unlikely, but...), then eliminate the words of the bodily functions.  If sports, eliminate baseball words.  If noun markers, eliminate possessive pronouns, etc.

Play the song, which can be found on Youtube here.

Have students fill in the blanks.  Repeat listening as necessary--I usually give two to three opportunities, but it will depend on the number of eliminated words and the level of your students.

Activity 2:  Singing/Role Playing
Time:  Approximately 10-15 minutes

Discuss the meaning of the text.  Allow students to translate if needed.  Trust me, at this age, once the words have been translated, they will use the English and never resort to the home language again.

Allow the kids to sing and/or act out the song.  The actual singing is important because it reinforces the rhythm, which is one of the problems with the acquisition of English by speakers of several other languages.

Allowing role playing as well adds an entirely new dimension to the work.  Now, we have not only engaged linguistic and musical intelligences, we are also adding bodiy kinesthetic and the personal intelligences.  It puts the kids in touch with their feelings and their bodies and relates them to the words.

This is HUGE.

First, this group is in the concrete-operational stage of thinking.  The doing is just incredibly important for the recall, and it is actually equating this meaning with this grammar--which is generally acquired either through memorization (needing far more practice than is usually allotted) or through logic (which is a formal-operational function--something our 2nd to 5th graders are not entirely ready to do).

Secondly, the vocabulary is age appropriate.  Since 2nd to 5th graders care VERY MUCH about potty language and the more grotesque functions of the body, the MEANING carried with the grammar will make learning the grammar attractive to them.

Thirdly, this is a moment of connection and belonging.  We are talking the second tier of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and this is especially problematic in ESL/EFL classes because there is a lot of alienation between students and teacher.  Two things allow bonding here.  First, the teacher has shown true interest in a something dear to the students and has given them free reign (or at least limited reign) to pursue this interest, and, secondly, the students are tapping into their own emotions.  This is very rare in early EFL/ESL classrooms because the cognitive energy required to translate/formulate what they want to say often buries their affect.  You can't bond with someone when you're always wearing a mask.  The goofiness of this role play allows that mask to come off.

Finally, back to the grammar, in a Korean context, it is very difficult to break the when/if translation.  Koreans will usually translate "if" for future or imaginary hypothetical situations in which Westerners primarily use "when."  Through the use of something as memorable and entertaining as "The Diarrhea Song," you can break the translation by providing a pattern.  Koreans, in particular, will use these patterns in formulating their thoughts in English.

Activity 3:  Rewriting
Time: 20-30 minutes

In their groups, students rewrite the song using their own games/problems.  For example, they can still use diarrhea, but maybe they set it up in their hagwon ("When you're on the hagwon bus and you feel a big warm rush, diarrhea...diarrhea") or they could use a different problem like being out of their allowance ("When you're picking up the phone but you hear no dial tone, out of money...out of money.  When your stomach starts to growl but you can't buy kimbap now, out of money...out of money.").

Have the groups perform for each other.

This provides both practice and relevance, both of which are necessary for the acquisition of the grammar and the vocabulary.  It also makes the song and its content the students' own.  It doesn't just belong to English class any more.  This is about them and their problems (and jokes).

In addition, it straddles Eastern and Western cultural differences.  Presenting your work for the others is often considered arrogant showmanship in Asian cultures, BUT working together is perfectly normal and making your classmates laugh is improving everyone's mood--something many Asians, and Koreans at least, are taught to do from birth. Therefore, this simple activity helps Korean students in particular begin to overcome cultural barriers which often stand in the way of success in Western situations, and it does so in such a way that the students do not have to compromise their own cultural beliefs.