De-Fossilizing our Teaching

I have said many times that this TTC blog is mainly about switching off our autopilots. Partially, it is about “defossilizing” our teaching, our teaching routines and our stereotypes.

Often we keep doing some things repeatedly in the class even though we know they are wrong.

Possibly, we have done them so many times that they just sound right to us.

It is probable that we simply learnt these things wrong.

We tend to “make our teaching mistakes” again and again despite correction.

We can correct what we do or do it differently when focused or forced (e.g. by an observer).

However, it is high time we changed our teaching for ever!

The same applies to our students´ fossilized mistakes.

  

What do you think makes a mistake become a fossilized mistake? What causes the process of fossilization?

What can an experienced teacher do to avoid them or to help students get rid of them?

Look at this little poem grid and try to complete it. You can adapt it as much as you wish. Looking forward to your ideas :)

Those ugly fossilized mistakes come to their long-lived life

due to __________, ______________  and the lack of ______________.

Those wicked fossilized mistakes reoccur in our class because our poor students

need more ______________, ___________________ and ________________.

Those tiring fossilized mistakes! Why don´t we ______________ or ________________?

Let´s fight them from Monday to Friday to free our class :)

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Well, now you know all the important things about fossilized mistakes. Here are my important rules:

• Prevention is more powerful than defossilization afterwards.
• Teachers must work with fossilized mistakes in a systematic way.
• “An apple a day keeps a doctor away,” says the proverb. Working with fossilized mistakes once a term is not enough!
• Students must be made aware of the mistakes and take an active part in the fight.

What do you do when you decide to rid your student of a fossilized mistake?

It´s Banned

You can draw a “forbidden sign” containing the expression you would like your student not to use any more, e.g. We was. Any time they make the mistake, point to the sign. Lower your TTT!

Nowadays, you can use a personalized word cloud to make the correct version visible to your student. It works great with typical spelling mistakes (e.g. accommodation) or Czenglish expressions (e.g. on the cottage, childrens).

Copy it Thousand Times

Harry Potter had to copy a sentence thousand times using his own blood. Do the same with your students J Ask them to use the key phrase or tense in personalized sentences. E.g. ask them to finish the sentence I have never been to … in at least ten different ways. You will see that you get a nice English poem at the end.

Fossilized Dictionary

I have realized many times that in order to recycle vocabulary, I should make my students note down new words. I should make my ADULT students note down new KEY words. Similarly students must become aware of the mistake they keep making. Make them make a list of mistakes to get rid of. Only then can they really succeed.

Snowball fight

Students write three sentences about themselves using some mistakes from their lists CORRECTLY. Crumple up and have a snowball fight. Pick up the snowballs. Guess who wrote it.

I Want to Make you Make it

Students look at their own lists of mistakes. They try to make their partner make the same mistake by creating sentences using the mistakes. Instead of the mistake, they use the word “banana”. Their partner has to guess the word and say it correctly/avoid the mistake.

E.g. I am (banana) English. (good at).

We (banana) in the mountains  last weekend. (were)

Many (banana) are badly-behaved nowadays. (children)

Use new technologies to help you with the fossilized mistakes. Launch a wallwisher/padlet wall and your students can post sentences using the “mistakes” correctly. Or, use a fotobabble.com to comment on your student´s writing and highlighting fossilized mistakes.

Above all, play games with mistakes.

Make the mistakes visible and the corrections even more!

Try to use the following prompts and think of an activity which would help you work with FOSSILIZED MISTAKES:

• Dice
• Board game
• Fly swatter
• BluTack or Post-It notes
• Kitchen timer
• Mr.Bean´s Teddy Bear
• Ball
• A sheet of paper
• Mobile phone

Here is your final task for the following two weeks. Focus on the fossilized mistakes in your courses. Which mistakes would you like to help your students get rid of? How? Let us know.

See you soon with the topic of creative writing.

Katka