Finally it's March

The weather remains refreshingly appalling.

February dragged on and on and on. Term didn’t start marvellously well not only because I was so very ill (long before it became fashionable), but also because the inspectors called early on, and they called with an agenda. I may teach in a school, but I’m not a school teacher, trained or otherwise. I’ve always done things in my own way, taking cues from colleagues now and then. My method, which has no scientific rigour, cannot be complete rubbish because the exam results haven’t been so bad as to suggest that I was going about my business in the wrong way. I suppose the results can be attributed to the native wit of my pupils; I’ve never really supposed that I can claim any genuine responsibility for their success. The ones who are doomed to U’s will never strive to better themselves, and I’ve been teaching the brats of the Empire long enough to know that the old adage “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” is true.

But I wasn’t doing things in the approved style. It’s all meant to be about determining whether learning is taking place. (Well, that’s why the gods invented tests and exams. “How do you know that’s the answer?” I’ve been asking. Probable answers: a. Lucky guess. b. Someone else told them. c. Utter lack of comprehension of my question.) It’s meant to be exciting. (What? Intermediate level English exciting?) There should be critical thinking. (This isn’t that sort of course. All the intellectual content has been stripped out because the assessment is of the students’ ability to use English at an intermediate level. They’re not here to raise questions about the motivations of speakers or writers, for example.) (Actually, to parenthesise again, the term “critical thinking” is being decidedly misused here; the inspectors are really thinking about the assessment and evaluation of material.)

I also wasn’t starting with some introductory exercise or finishing with some summary or including all four skills in between. I’ve been trying the first; never remember the second; and there isn’t reasonable time for the third without being superficial about it.

Nor was I clearly identifying the aims of the lesson. Now that I have been doing that, I find that there’s a different aim for every exercise, and that aims divorce pupils from a clear picture of what they ought to be doing. They need to know they’re doing Ex. 5; secondarily, they should be aware of the aim of the exercise, but about the latter, they honestly don’t care.

My concern at the start of term was preparing students for the final exams, but all this business about aims and student learning has derailed that as I try to get used to a new means of doing things. I’d rather not be teaching to the exam, but that’s really what I ought to be doing. I am concerned with what skills they need to do the various exam exercises, and contrary to the inspectors’ beliefs, I do cover that. It’s the responsibility of the students to take on board my advice and suggestions, though I should really have them review what I tell them.

There is room for improvement in how I do things, but I am less concerned with aims because I don’t believe students can connect them to the exercises; less concerned with immediately knowing whether students are learning anything; and less concerned with student engagement because learning takes place of necessity regardless of whether the little darlings want to learn or not, or find the material interesting or not.