I tried a new method of giving lessons, culminating in the first "success story" today. First, during one lesson, I gave the information for 3-4 lessons. This gives both me and the students a nice break from thinking. Not that they're usually wracking their brains, but the variety is good!
And so for the remaining lessons, I stand up and explain the material in as many different ways and being as interactive as humanly possible. After doing this just once, I can see the positives and negatives.
For the students who usually listen and are interested in the lessons, they learn a lot more and are able to participate much more actively. But for the students who see Biology as time to fill, I seem to have no chance. I could see this trend shaping up, so I took some immediate action today. Seeing one of my troublemakers spaced out, studying another subject, I decided to use her as an example. I knew her number (every student is assigned a number within their class or turma), and so I pretended to think of a random number, then said "eleven", looking around aimlessly. The students started to laugh when they realized she'd been caught red-handed and this started to help with other students. But it's all too easy to not pay attention when you don't need to write anything down.
I also gave a multiple-choice quiz today. What a pain in the ass it has been to explain how to do a multiple-choice test. But they're getting it, and it's a good scientific technique to know I suppose.
Peace
John
