Redundancy, Repetition good or bad?

I would safely say, "Not all repetition is bad for you", from the very book I read recently " Everything bad is good for you".
The very most common issue that bores students especially ESOL learners, is the repetition and redundancy of materials that has nothing new for them but that they have to master it, and will they?!

Well, they come close, but it takes a while.

Now, if we look at life, it is all redundant and it IS all repetition. The trick is how to fascinate ourselves with less of repeated but creative materials so we have more hope for future.

Now, in this regard, Classes taught online, bear a heavier shoulder in taking matters seriously. A class taught traditionally has more freedom, of exploring and playing around in other words. But, in an online class, you have to be creative. you have to present the redundant materials in a flashy attractive way to engage students to participate, or else, the class would be more of a passive environment with no interaction from the learners' side.

Giving such tasks to students to design their class, like searching website for content materials, linking to audio or video files, and using annotation tool bars to draw,write and answer questions, working in groups, using camera to connect with peers and in a word creating a virtual world of living environment, not only simulates a safe environment for learners but affords them with real scenarios that they can empathize, synchronize, give meanings, tell stories, play and finally design their own learning styles. (D.Pink )

Last week, I was teaching Car related issues, such as Car Rental, Auto Mechanics, and Roads & Routes to my students of level one adult foreign language learners.
The designing from my side was creating communicatve lesson plans on powerpoints, so they could use in class and I had in mind to engage them verbally as much as I could. It turned out that they all had better exciting stories to tell, when it came to sharing their experiences on road, and the problems with car. Not only the class moved on naturally and in an amazing fast speed, but rather it was not me, trying to engage the students but they themselves had taken control. I was only there to correct their sentence orders or pronounciations.It was time to fade away,though!

The Twilight Zone (1/2 hr) - I Sing The Body Electric

The Twilight Zone (1/2 hr) - I Sing The Body Electric
I sing the body Electric and Bicentennial man, the two print we had this semester and their differences with film form, encouraged me to practice a new method and desing in practicing video lesson plans in my class.
This time I had a class of kids around 4-6 years old, whom we used to watch and practice Nickjr shows in order to develop their preschool learning and also the target language.
The difference this time in my class was providing them with the Print copies of activities after watching the show and YES! it did made a big difference. Even after two weeks after the class, kids were still talking about the show, had kept their print copies, done and RE-done the activities and wanted more!

So next time, I asked them to choose a show and the activities they wanted to practice and they all wanted to have both the print and film ( movie ) format of the show. As if when they had the print copy in their little hands, they could touch the characters and they could communicate and get in touch with them closer. They had more fun in class and they even went that far of Encoding and playing the show out!

Movie Theater

when I was a young girl,I used to take extra classes after school learning English as a foreign language in a Language school. There they had this big movie theater which to me at that time, was like a real big cinema, where girls were not allowed to go on their own. But this one was school's and they showed current and old movies in English. Students of higher levels used to go with their instructors to watch the movie and discuss afterwards. I was in a lower level class, so we had to sit and memorize the new vocabulary or repeat drills or listen to our instructor explaining about grammar and its Exceptions! Thanks to them all, ( I myself am a instructor now, and now how it feels to be under-appreciated for all the work you do )but it was boring, way boring for me.I sometimes skipped my class and instead went to that movie theater and sat on the very first rows,One, because nobody could see me and Two, I could absorb the film with all my body and mind.It was as if all the screen was mine and I was part of the movie and I listened and I watched..... with all my heart....
This is mainly the way I learned my English langugae. I used to watch a lot of movies in native language, I used to listen to a lot of tapes ( at that time we only had cassette tapes ), and I used to find any means of cultural connections with that language.
When I was in China, also, though I took a few courses in Chinese, but I mainly picked my Chinese with the random daily conversation I had with the people on the street, or from watching a lot of Chinese original movies.
There were times, where I was criticized for showing my students movies in class, and wasting students' time for watching just! movie. I didn't take them seriously because I believed in what I was doing. Learning a language is nothing but listening and absorbing the culture of that language into your lungs. At times, I asked my students to grab a movie in English, and watch it and write the expressions down, write the summary of the story and come back to class, presenting the story to class. It was not in the curriculum, but at the end the result was much better compared with other classes, if not in written or grammar, but in real conversational English, the reason they had registered in those classes after all.
Today, I am teaching my own native language to students here, and I am still asking them to try to watch movies in the target languge as much as possible. Talk shows, comedis, sitcomes, news, reports, films and any means of listening and cultural activities. Sometime they themselves, bring a movie to class, and want me to work on it with them. It is not only me teaching, but them designing their class the way they want it and learning what they want to learn.I just watch them, guide them, and by the end fade away. I hear them in the next door, sitting around the table and discussing the topic in the target language.

Halloween behind the screen

While it was no time for Halloween and custom desinging , last week our class had a remarkable time designing its costumes behind the screen.
The task was to create outfits of different culture and clothing styles among diverse group of people all around the world. The challenge was to make this possible behind the webcam in the virutal class of Online FL training. Where as adults usually are indolent in taking assignments seriously in classes, This task was taken rather more into thought.
We had learned different names for clothing within the first and second sessions of the week, with formal clothing, Casual clothing and Seasonal ( sizing, material,...). For the third session of class students were asked to participate in a Halloween parade behind the screen and wore different clothing.Not only did they wore clothes of different styles but also had made masks ( The task for the week before on presenting facial features)presenting them behind their cameras. Working on their computers, students could see their peers through webcams, voting on the best . Judges were also announcing the pieces worn and the winner of the best outfit was chosen.
The class though virtual had all the elements of a traditional class and all the students had consciously participated in choosing their outfit and have also written a description of their clothing before class.

Easter and Picnic Day

As a foreign langugae teacher, I have always bringing traditional holidays and customs into curriculum teaching students about the differences and similarities that divers cultures carry with themselves.
Just recently, my class was assigend to work on holidays around the world, describing each holiday, their occasions and dates and what people do during those days.
Students in my class worked together in groups of four, each assigned four different holidays from four different country. They were given resources on the web to search and organize materials in this regard.
The tools they used to design their artifacts were modified images from internet explainging about holidays, pictures of different people around the world celebrating their special days and graphic paint/draw images bringing the people around the globe all together to celebrate the Earth Day..

They also created Greeting cards, saying in two languages congratulatory messages to their friends for holidaysA group had also worked on a 3D artifact, creating colored eggs for Easter in collaboration with other group who made baskets for Picnic day on the Persian calendar

Students using tools to design their learning!

When it comes to designing it is not only the architects or business sktechers and not only the Teachers, as we have been talking so far that design , but also Children, our Kids, our Students too.
From the very early childhood, kids learn the way they want it and use the tools they want to implement in learning. Scaffolding and guidance though helping them a lot for creation of they have imagined, it is them, who decide how to play and how to design their acts one by one.
I have been teaching different grades and levels of students for many years and with each level, I have experienced different learning path and tools and now that more of computer and technology of online teaching integrating into students' lives!Learning as well as teaching has gone through a big a change.
Isn't this great? Having the comfort of your own chair and desk at home and sitting by your computer and learning. It is beautiful how our lives have been affected by computer and how teaching and education is going to be affected even more.
The class I am teaching online now, addresses a higher level of audience of adult learners. Fortunately, they all know how to use their computers and basic tools: Browsing, Exploring, Word processor, and most importantly the ease of audio and video teacher-student virtual class, where they can do anything they can do in a real physical class outside.

The tools the students use in this class are far more than just typing or reading the articles. They can collaborate with each other in group work activities with annotation tool bar allowing them to work on charts or graphs, calculating and analyzing the data and concluding to get to solve the problems of an authentic task.
In the next posts I am going to explain more on these tools and their affordability.