tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post176921745246558120..comments2024-03-08T13:06:37.359-08:00Comments on The Joy of ESL Blog: PBLA - More ThoughtsKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08182881635816655061noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-13301372353705734582017-02-16T18:51:09.108-08:002017-02-16T18:51:09.108-08:00Phew! Coming up for breath in the middle of doing...Phew! Coming up for breath in the middle of doing a full-time LTO along with my little night class :-). I have to limit what I take on these days (a promise I made myself with this recent career change) and have much to learn. I benefit from the wisdom of several teachers in the area and continue to recommend your blog to those struggling to implement PBLA and maintain some kind of balance. <br />Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14863696295337655169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-69661598194000234182016-12-23T10:37:19.133-08:002016-12-23T10:37:19.133-08:00Elizabeth,
Thank you VERY MUCH for taking the time...Elizabeth,<br />Thank you VERY MUCH for taking the time to return here to answer my questions. I appreciate that PBLA helps you to keep your perfectionist tendencies in check. I'm looking forward to implementing PBLA in the new year in a way that does that for me, too.<br /><br />I agree with you that our learners need to be shown how to take more ownership of their own learning. That is one aspect of PBLA I value a lot! I also am coming to see the value of formal reflection. For example, on a recent task, I had the seniors reflect at the bottom of the checklist whether they had found the task to be easy, so-so, or difficult. I was absolutely astounded at how many of them had found it to be somewhat difficult to difficult considering that it was a CLB 2 task and they have almost all been assessed much higher (by another agency) in their listening skills. So this simple little reflection exercise ended up being a better formative assessment tool for me than the rubric itself, wherein they all "passed" and were able to tick off the correct information.<br /><br />I am going to blog about my planned approach to my 2017 classroom practice, and I want to get back to doing more with less. I like a materials light approach anyway. I love dogme and hope to be able to weave a bit of dogme into what we do in class. And, as you know, I like Back to the Well. It is, though, too easy to drift away from it. So from time to time I have to re-anchor.<br />Regarding the inventory sheets, I made my own simplified version for literacy and can share that on my website if anyone wants it. I also have made my own version of "My Story" with bigger font, more pictures, etc. I can post that, as well.<br />Would you ever consider giving a webinar? If you did give a workshop for any affiliate within 2-3 hours driving time of me, I would attend!<br />Thank you for being a part of this conversation. <3 KKellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08182881635816655061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-760254883626404492016-12-21T03:32:39.358-08:002016-12-21T03:32:39.358-08:00On the other side of progress reports and intervie...On the other side of progress reports and interviews, and on a good day, I think that PBLA gives me some structure and keeps my creativity / perfectionistic tendencies in check. I could spend hours and hours crafting a lesson, but PBLA reminds me to keep my focus on the students' goals. I like to think I always do this but it is easy to get derailed. I also like that, if laid out for students, PBLA does encourage students to take ownership of their learning. I know that this more democratic approach is off-putting for some students. Thinking about our goals and laying out steps required to achieve those goals is incredibly important, though, and I do think PBLA can help us have those conversations with students and foster some reflective practices. Tips? In my last career I was very much into creating a paperless work-space. Spending less and less time on the computer and then at the copier and reusing manipulatives is saving me time and reducing stress. Doing more with less and going slow to go fast are my mantras. I teach a 1-2 class that was reorganized mid-term and I got around to some things (inventory sheets!) more slowly than I had hoped. If I have to make a choice about time-management and realistic outcomes for a particular class, I ask myself what will maximize learning, go with that, and try to not stress too much. I do have supervisors who encourage teachers to take the long view of the PBLA roll-out and this helps, too. Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14863696295337655169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-38525975710096711262016-12-06T16:11:32.946-08:002016-12-06T16:11:32.946-08:00Elizabeth,
Thank you SO MUCH for commenting. Yes, ...Elizabeth,<br />Thank you SO MUCH for commenting. Yes, being able to do the creative and helpful work (and still have a life) is one reason I got into this field. Since you have days when PBLA helps you to do this, I would do just about anything for you if you would be so kind as to explain how. What does one of those days or weeks look like? Or could you share a tip or two that you consider to be the most powerful in terms of bang for your buck? And just how "pared down" are we talking? Glad to hear BTTW is helpful. John and Chirawibha will be pleased to know. --KKellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08182881635816655061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-73245383110100524762016-12-05T20:40:58.541-08:002016-12-05T20:40:58.541-08:00I will chime in as someone who was trained in the ...I will chime in as someone who was trained in the first cohort and who is now working in a different context with lovely folk trained in a different cohort. This is a second career for me and I left my last one partially because I could not do the creative and helpful work I wanted to do in the hours allowed and still have a life. This is a priority for me as an ESL Instructor. There are days when I feel that PBLA can help with this and days when I do not feel that way. Your blog has been immensely helpful, though, and along with trying to "Do more with less" your focus on "Back to the Well" has definitely informed my practice. I also agree that there are many factors that can allow one teacher to feel that PBLA is no big deal and another to feel that it's a real burden. My husband is a teacher. He often sees the (pared down "Do more with less") work I'm doing and shakes his head. So, yeah, something has still got to give. But ... what? Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14863696295337655169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-72681185639738947812016-12-05T19:02:11.981-08:002016-12-05T19:02:11.981-08:00Jen,
Thank you very much for joining in the conver...Jen,<br />Thank you very much for joining in the conversation here on this blog and not leaving me dangling out there in the wind. I appreciate the solidarity. Although you articulate it better than I know how, I have that same underlying feeling: the students are going to be shortchanged. I say "going to" because I'm not at full implementation yet.<br />Thank you again for speaking up. I feel less alone.Kellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08182881635816655061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-61090027267503381632016-12-05T04:23:28.501-08:002016-12-05T04:23:28.501-08:00I know what you mean about being a lightning rod. ...I know what you mean about being a lightning rod. The thing is, Kelly, is that *I* have heard the whole "it's going to take three years" and "don't beat yourself up" platitudes. And that's the best way to describe them: platitudes. Because then "they" strongly recommend the 8-10 artefacts be the minimum requirement for progression decisions. As has been posted recently in social media, that turns into 2-3 artefacts per week (for a 300 hour course. 20 hours per week). I've also heard the math work out to be for every eight hours of instruction, an artefact needs to be produced.<br /><br />For every 8 hours, per skill, you need to develop the real world task by isolating the competencies, finding relevant CLB-aligned material, creating relevant practice material in order to five formative feedback, and then creating the real world assessment task (with a rubric/checklist). In the meantime, we are still trying to do everything else that RESPONSIBLE and committed classroom instructors ought to be doing with our learners: providing them with a safe environment to explore/discover what it means to be a member of a diverse Canadian community. For some of our learners, school is their main point of contact with people outside of their immediate family or language group because they are still trying to figure out how to navigate the maze of our society.<br /><br />That means you may have negotiated a unit on "health" with the group a few weeks before, and are in the middle of the module, but something currently relevant and pressing happens (parent-teacher meetings, a local apartment fire, etc) and the class NEEDS to be able to discuss it. Not because we are trying to teach modals of necessity or the imperative form, but because it is what needs to happen. <br /><br />But don't sweat it. If you can't get the 8-10, your learners are not allowed to progress. Or maybe they are, depending on where you work and how prescriptive your PBLA wardens are.<br /><br />I am frustrated by the inconsistent messages and the unrealistic expectations. I *could* hammer out an artefact every 8 hours, but then I'd have to be okay with shortchanging my learners. And that's the thing: I'm not okay with that.Jen Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10896262804990991117noreply@blogger.com