My Experience Spacing Out in a Lesson

I have been taking tennis lessons for over ten years here in Japan. I initially started to improve my Japanese ability, and it eventually grew into a "love of the game".

Photo by J. Schiemann on Unsplash

It's been more than 10 years off and on of this Japanese language learning strategy. It is helping me understand more vocabulary in tennis and kinesiology, but it is also reinforcing what good, inclusive teaching looks like; albeit through non-examples.

Definition from DuckDuckGo, attributed to Wordnik

Non-examples are examples that are shown for a clearer example, ie, it's not this, but this. The first time I saw it was in the Frayer Model and I think it fits in well with this tennis lesson since the lesson was not designed to be inclusive.

In this lesson:

Non Example 1 - Not using Visuals

The coach mostly spoke his directions and pointers. Occasionally he would draw on the sand to show positioning, but that was for whole-group instruction.

Non Example 2 - Not Modeling

Only occasionally would the coach actually do what the skill was we were practicing. Modeling how to move your body when you hit the ball, where on the racket to hit the ball, and where to position yourself on the court are all things that I think could have helped me understand.

Non Example 3 - Long Explanations

Sometimes the explanation went long. During these times I found myself thinking about other things -- important things I might add -- and suddenly, we were told to get into position. At these times, I was often lost. It made me think about how often I get mad at students who are not "paying attention" in class. However, since transitioning to a learning support role, I have noticed how long explanations have been in some classes. Teachers could be more effective if they limit their delivery.

Non Example 4 - High-Level Vocabulary

Along with long explanations, using high-level vocabulary is a way that can confuse learners. It has happened, that I will be in a lesson, and the coach will use a word I do not know. Sometimes when that happens, I try to understand the word I did not understand. This happens to some students as well. 

Non Example 5 - Not giving us time to practice

Sometimes I will be corrected in how I hit the ball. (Actually, this happens often.) When this happens I need to practice what I had been shown to try to understand the coaching. It does not always happen and I am often left to try to remember what was said.

Non Example 6 - Low Volume

The tennis club I attend has three, indoor courts. With the fans, AC, and other lessons happening when the coach is speaking, I can sometimes miss what is said. Modeling and using other non-verbal methods of teaching could help with the low volume during the lesson.

What they do well - 

The above aside, I have learned a lot from the way these lessons are run. The two best methods they use are station rotation and repetition.  

Station Rotation Model

The tennis lesson is broken into 5 parts.

1. Warm-up - stretching
2. Warm-up - hitting
3. Station Rotation - one of the stations is the "teaching point" for the day where the coach can "confer" with the participants.
4. Rotation Game
5. Game

The majority of the lesson uses a kind of station rotation model. This gives students a chance to practice many skills in a shorter amount of time. It also gives the coach a chance to confer with students and give them more individualized instruction. 

Repetition

Each lesson follows the same structure - the station rotation model I outlined above. This helps me to predict what will happen in the lesson and decrease the cognitive load I need to understand the directions. 

While I think that repetition is important, I also it is important for students to maintain their cognitive flexibility. 

This post was meant to help me better think about UDL and how it could fit into my own experience.

A Second Look

I am currently taking the Senia Certified Educator Level 1 series of courses. In the last course, or maybe it was longer ago now, we were asked to make presentations we could take to the staff to give them more information about different disabilities (autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.). Since we [inclusion support teachers] are taking the Senia course as a team, internally we divided the topics so we could start building a library. 

I was hoping to get dysgraphia, but when I chose, last, there were only a few left. I don't remember what they were off the top of my head, but I ended up with executive functioning.

I made it for the course, but when it came to what I was going to present to the staff, I had to think of how to make it effective with the 5 minutes I was given to talk. 

Yeah, 5 minutes to talk about executive functioning skills and how to teach them. 

When thinking about how to organize my presentation, I wondered how I could be most effective. How could I convince my colleagues to act on what I was telling them. Afterall, unlike the other presentations about learning needs, this was something a little more actionable than just to sit and listen.

My flow was along the lines of:

1. Introduction where I showed why they are important
2. Showed the data that teachers had been submitting themselves
3. Made the connection for them that if you keep submitting requests for support for a kid who doesn't have organization skills, maybe it is time to start teaching them
4. And hey, organization is an executive funcation
5. Here are some other executive functions

My intent was to grab their attention and convince them to look into the data they are collecting on their own students. A few teachers told me they enjoyed it. I was uncomfortable giving it to them because of how it might be taken. 

So, if I were to do it again, I might rearrange the presentation to lead teachers to their own conclusion then nudge them toward my conclusion. 

After:

Overview

Why they are important

Talk about them

When you look at the data, what could you look for?

Do you see any EF you could teach to?

Allow for practice with feedback right away

Photo by Richard Sagredo on Unsplash

In my tennis lesson, we were using a kind of station rotation model. When I was working with the coach, he gave me feedback on the way I was hitting the ball. Right after that, I rotated to a different station and did not have a chance to practice what he had told me.

I felt a little cheated.

I wasn't mad at the coach, I understand his predicament, but I wanted to use the feedback he gave me, right away, so  I would not forget what I had been told. 

Then I wondered about my own students. 

Am I giving them time and space to act on my feedback? 

Or do I simply give it to them and send them on their way at the end of class?

How can I utilize technology to give feedback in a better way for students?

This would probably mean sitting with students to make sure that they understand the feedback as I give it and send them off to practice after giving it.

In other words, the workshop model.

Playing tennis in Taiwan on a hot day.

My Language Learning and Teaching Story

The following was something I wrote for a course I took last year. I just found it again.

###

I am currently working at Osaka YMCA International School as an Inclusion Teacher in Grades K-9. (An inclusion teacher is a learning support teacher.) I work with Tier 2 and 3 students to help them meet the expectations of the classwork. I also work with teachers to modify instruction to meet the needs of all the students in the class to help the class run more smoothly. I feel the de Oliveria, et. al. article sums my position up with the quote, "teachers need to be able to create inclusive learning environments where all students have the opportunity to succeed." (2019) This is exactly what my goal as an Inclusion Teacher.

I am a native speaker of English having been born in the USA. For the majority of my adult life, I have lived in Japan. I was about to write that I have studied the majority of my time here, but thinking back on it again, that would not be a true statement. As I have gotten older I have become less interested in studying.  

In 7th Grade, I chose to study Spanish. That was what all my other friends were taking and it was something I heard around from time to time. Thinking back at the classes, I can see how the teachers were trying to teach and the pedagogy they were using, but still, I was not engaged.

I have been abroad for twenty years now, with most of my time being in Japan. I came here as a university student thinking that a semester would get me fluent. I joined an aikido club and I went out with people. I found that people wanted to hang out with me because of my English. This would come up again. At the end of my trip abroad, I was not fluent but felt like I had a good handle on the language. I transferred to another university and was placed in Japanese 101 because my prior classes did not count. I spent the next two years unengaged for the most part. 

When I moved to Japan, I started learning Japanese. I studied in a number of ways: by myself using textbooks, reading, and trying to use the language as much as possible, informally in a coffee shop with someone who was interested in teaching me, more formally in a language conversation school, and finally went to school full-time to study the language. My progression went from focusing on grammar in a Skinnerian way (Rojas, 2023) to using it interpersonally, and back to the rote form of learning. 

I suppose a teacher who knows more about the grammar and rules of a language could be more creative and therefore more effective. I just wish that my own teachers had “broken the fourth wall” more in their teaching to give me insight into what teaching methods they were doing and why they were doing it that way.

I currently only speak English and conversational Japanese. I have been living in Japan for 20 years, aside from a two-year stint in Taiwan. When I first came here, I studied very hard. I had a goal of becoming a translator. I did pass the JLPT N2 test (supposedly business level) but did not pass the N1 test (native level) - twice. I feel embarrassed to tell people how long I have been here. These tests were focused on input skills, rather than truly assessing one's mastery of the language. 

A few years ago I accepted a job in Taiwan and was able to study Chinese. It was very similar to my experience learning Japanese with a textbook, verbs, and phrases being thrown at me. I was able to pick some things up more quickly since I had the background knowledge of kanji, or Chinese characters, from my Japanese study. I found many of the readings of the characters had the same sound as the Japanese. This was very helpful. 

All this taught me that learning, like feedback, should be applicable and actionable as well as the importance of background knowledge. Language learning in a social context works well when in the beginning stages of a language. Feedback has also been shown to show students where their strengths and weaknesses are (de Oliveria, et. al., 2019). 

When I first came to Japan, I was teaching adults basic English conversation from a textbook. The adults came from a rigid grammar-based language-learning experience in Junior High School and High School. Older adults here I found, felt more comfortable when they understood the grammar rules. I find that is similar to all adult learners; we adults want to know processes, while children are unencumbered with rules.

I do not like calling myself an expert because I am learning every day. So I will focus here on experience. In my teaching experience, I have used many cycles such as the Inquiry Cycle, the Design Cycle, and the Writing Cycle. I feel that the Teaching Learning Cycle (TLC) falls somewhere in between these. As an elementary homeroom teacher, I was taught to model for the students when teaching them. I still find that true today. Whether working with teachers in a technology workshop or working with students who are learning to write, humans learn better with a model. I think it is more than just a model. I think the multi-modality nature of the task allows us to better understand and remember what we learn.

That brings me to some possible areas of research. I am interested in learning more about Universal Design for Learning and how to apply it to my position. I am interested in researching the adult learner and how to effectively use language-learning apps. I think, though, that I am most interested in motivation and [language] learning. Seeing my own motivation start to wane makes this one timely for me. Another possible option I just thought of is how to best study. These options appeal to me to help students, yes, but more selfishly for myself.

The Gatekeeper of Ideas

Photo by Jehyun Sung on Unsplash

I was recently watching a video on YouTube. The person was telling an anecdote about Vince McMahon. Years ago, when he was running the WWE/WWF, he was be the deciding factor when creatives pitched their ideas. 

All ideas ran through him and he solely had the power to approve or reject ideas.

I think overall he was very successful, but the person narrating said that he would sometimes approve poor ideas that would eventually tank or be unsuccessful.

It goes to show that there should be check on one's power by committee.

What happens when the committee is ineffective?