How important is structure in your lessons?
This piece is all about having structured lessons and how this can be taken to extremes.
OCD alert
For those with even a mild form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, this question is a bit of a no brainer. Still, it's interesting to explore examples of being structured when teaching and the thinking behind such fastidiousness. Or it just a subconscious form of keeping control? If you take away a sense of order, then, at least in the mind of some individuals, there will be complete anarchy, which, even solely on a hypothetical basis, would be entirely inconceivable.
A bit chaotic now and then
With regards to this subheading, the unfounded comment (with no concrete evidence to back it up mind you) arose during a mid-term evaluation and seemed totally absurd to the teacher. It couldn't possibly be so when order, structure and being well-organised were some of his most prized attributes. Paradoxically, he even receives positive evaluations regarding these qualities on a regular basis. So how could this misperception have occurred? Perhaps it was due to a student not being forthcoming and asking for help when needed. After all, once the class has just finished a grammar task is not the time for a student to suddenly admit that he/ she doesn't get it. Otherwise, things come up from time to time that are unexpected, which, ironically, can be expected in EFL (English as a foreign language) lessons. This is an irrational thought or distorted perception by the beholder that sets off a chain reaction of cause and effect in the ‘victim’. What could it possibly be? Not realising that the word wellbeing can be one word without a hyphen? Or could it have been getting a student’s name wrong? Was it allowing one pupil to give up too quickly when she couldn’t do a business vocab task? Maybe it was retribution from a young lady who had to be asked four questions before she could (finally) answer one about travel during a questions and answers speaking task. Who knows. Who cares. All this negativity and disbelief is unwelcome. ‘Let it go’ he told himself. He was then told he was ‘a great teacher’ and he ‘inspired’ an advanced student on another course that just finished, which certainly helped to boost his self-esteem and gave him a much needed, if only subliminal, display of appreciation. The average score on the evaluation of the teacher was 8.4 from a total of 7 students. The overall score for the course after three lessons was 8.2.
Order, order
Lessons have a certain order to them. As outlined in the introductory lesson (L1) and in the course programme, students always know how lessons will go and what they have in store for them from lesson to lesson. Further, they are informed in L1 that it's most important that they understand everything and spend as much time as necessary doing so. If they, as a class, don't complete everything, that's OK. They should see the programme as a guide. The schedule for each lesson is put up for all to see and after the ice breaker. the class is walked through what will be covered during that session.
Corrections are done in a certain way. The idea is to try to get the students to find the answers themselves (elicitation) or they are given clues. If all else fails, they are told the answer. Interactive skills allow the brain to rest after more intense activities, i.e. grammar, and the teacher corrects mistakes at the end of a task. They monitor and change the interaction patterns. With an eye on students' needs, the educator stands open to questions; although not at the precise moment when instructions are being given. Take presentations, by way of illustration, giving peer feedback must be done in a certain way and this is closely monitored. Using criteria, which are allocated to non-presenters, peers positively analyse specific areas, i.e. body language or visual aids, and perhaps a suggestion for improvement. It must be in this order to focus on positivity.
One more for luck, the homework email is structured in such a way that the class can see skill by skill what they need to do, how long they need to spend on it and any miscellaneous info i.e. how much should be written, i.e. writing, if it needs to be brought to class on A4 paper, that there are no submissions, any extra resources, links or recommendations for useful TV programmes (under thee listening & reading section) to name but a few. There is no room for error in the instructions, which is why no students have queries about their contents. The only ‘mistake’ some have made is not reading details regarding assignments carefully enough, i.e. write about one of the following, and they choose both options instead of just one. As a remedy, when this has happened, the word one is put in bold and underlined. It's clear as day that there is no disorder in these lessons. There is so much structure, which they get from the beginning of the lesson to the end, that those who live unstructured lives may even feel suffocated by this level of order. Conversely, the question arises as to whether too much structure could ever be a bad thing?