Comments on: Wait! Don’t Tell Me!

By: Lynda

Lynda — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:46:16 +0000

Great reminder about wait time! I tend to be a little “agressive” in questioning, and sometimes I actually count off 5 fingers behind my back to remind myself to wait…also, did you know that there is a comedy newsquiz podcast named “Wait, wait..don’t tell me!”? Maybe that will be the new theme of my class this year

By: ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival « An (aspiring) Educator’s Blog

ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival « An (aspiring) Educator’s Blog — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:09:32 +0000

[...] bootcamp. The focus of this bootcamp session is wait time. Check out her video and instructions in Wait! Don’t Tell Me! posted at Teacher Boot [...]

By: shellterrell

shellterrell — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:32:46 +0000

marama28,

Videotaping is a great idea for self reflection and evaluation! I will have to try this soon! I will admit I was guilty of not allowing enough wait-time when I first started teaching. I thought the students did not understand till I realized I should be giving them more credit and time to create the response. Lesson learned! Perhaps, you will post a blog about your experience evaluating yourself through videotaping? I’d like to read it!

By: marama28

marama28 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:22:41 +0000

Great post! I filmed myself teaching today, during an oral language lesson, to see if I allow enough wait time. A great new book written by a cool kiwi educator is Expanding Oral Language in the classroom, By Jannie van Hees. Her first chapter talks about her observations of teachers where wait time is often forgotten. I am gathering up some courage to analyse the video … eek!

By: shellterrell

shellterrell — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:11:28 +0000

Johanna,

I think you bring up a good point about directing students on how to use wait-time. It is important to let them know how this strategy works so they can use the strategy in other classes as well.

I also agree with your advice on allowing students more time with fluency activities.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:35:31 +0000

I really enjoyed reading this posting. I think a lot of teachers are afraid of silence in the classroom and that’s why they are reluctant to give learners enough time to answer. Teachers (including me) also worry that one student will always shout out the answers before others have had time to think. But usually if learners are told that you don’t want them to answer yet they will wait.

Also I think we should give them more time to prepare for fluency activities. We sometimes expect learners to be able to talk about a subject straight away. But in my experience if you allow them a few minutes to prepare what they want to say (with the opportunity to ask you for language they don’t know) you get much richer conversations in terms of content and language.