Bell Teacher Campus July 2018 From Mistakes to ”Protakes" Adrian Underhill Blog: adrianunderhill.com

The diversity of mistakes Introduction: We are “learning beings”. Curiosity & playfulness – natural attributes You as learner: What kind of mistakes do you make? What kind of assistance do you like? Distinctions: Slip v Error v Mistake Nuisance or Gift? Correction v Insight Mistake v Outcome You as teacher: How do you deal with mistakes?

Can we reduce mistakes AND exploit them better? Dictation Quick Tips: The Prof; Now get it wrong! Slow Down Finger Correction Using the Inner Workbench Ping Pong The anti blurt device Upgrade v Correction The last one to say it… What are some mistakes that your Sts repeatedly make?

Dictation Before: Ask Sts to choose a dictation text Sts predict words they will get wrong. “Are you sure you want to get them wrong? Sts check again Each St gives a number for the mistakes they will make… After the dictation “How many did you make?” Was it more, or less? Choose your best mistake. Interview it (Hello mistake? How did you get here? Where did you come from? Will you come again? Have you any advice?) One or two students tell the story of their best mistake.  

Three quick tips Appoint The Prof - St who keeps making the same mistake…  Appoint as The Prof  Or place the correction in a visible location Get it wrong and right – by choice Pron, Word stress, Word order, Grammar

Slowing down … Listen to this sentence but don’t repeat after me… How many words? Say it s-l-o-w-l-y but don’t change the sounds Re-shape it as needed Put the words back together. Add the stress, Say it normally … and fast Feel the unique choreography of every word

Finger Correction - 5 steps from slip to error Mistake occurs – 1. ‘Pause’ St, an opportunity to self correct 2. Load utterance on to fingers, including the mistake 3. Take St slowly through utterance 4. Take St to the mistake and ‘hold’ to allow recognition 5. Correct the mistake Make a short sentence with a mistake typical of your students. (Mistake can be grammar, vocab, pron)

Inner Workbench: Using inner ear & inner voice Ex 1 Vocab - don’t repeat after me…. Can you still hear it? Get ready to say it… but don’t ….! Now say it Ex 2 Make a 7-word sentence, eg from a fairy tale Prepare sentence internally Hear it, repair it, stress, join the words, Rehearse it in the inner voice, get ready to say it aloud…. Now say aloud. How does it compare? Integrating use of the inner ear, inner voice, inner visualisation and inner rehearsal is what I call: Using the Inner Workbench

Internal rehearsal of St response Questions after a text in class: “What happens to the person in the poem?” Find the words you want in your inner voice Practice silently inside How many words? Join the words together Where will you put the stress, How will you say it? Get ready to say it… but don’t ….! Now say it aloud … just for yourself… Now delight your neighbour with your view….

Say it aloud – just for yourself This enables the student to : Practice privately Notice the different fidelity of inner and outer voice. Encourages thinking before speaking – good anti-blurt device! During internal rehearsal Sts notice and correct their slips. And it’s a great way for Sts to identify and correct mistakes

Ping Pong Teachers sometimes accept the first answer. The T’s question is extinguished after only one response Get more value from your questions by Collecting several responses Bringing in more Sts. Create a meaningful reason to listen to each other. Let Sts change their minds. Ping pong V ping pong pong pong …. Getting the right answer and learning are not the same

Collect student responses Create a reason to listen to each other AND collect responses: What is your answer? And yours … And yours? Who has something different? Listen to each other as we go round What did she say? Did you hear him? Listen to the differences - Can you hear them? Is that the same as his? How many different ones have we got?

Invite class to examine their responses Is that Ok? Do you want to change it? Do you agree with that? Are there any mistakes in that? Yes? How many? Who likes this one? Which one more English? Can you improve it? Can you write yours / hers on the board? Let’s put all the different ones on the board… Now, one of these is correct…which one?

Correction v Upgrade A correction: Makes something ‘wrong’ into something ‘right’ “Correct” often means the right words in the right order An upgrade Improves whatever is offered (mistake or not) Invites the best each student can do at that moment You don’t need a mistake to do an upgrade: If there’s a ‘mistake’ - the upgrade includes it. If there’s no ‘mistake’ - we still upgrade anyway Everybody gets a personal upgrade, a little quicker, clearer, more interesting, but always DO-ABLE … In this way we remove the ceiling (of correctness) Upgrades allow diversity to flourish

Individual upgrades To St A: How many words …? To St B: Say it faster C Slower and more clearly, D Where is the stress? E Yes, now join the words together … F You need another word… G Take a word out… H Say it with interest!

Individual upgrades I Whisper it, J Make it a question, K Change it! L Change one word M Look at your pronunciation N That’s correct, but now In English! O All of you…find another way to say the same thing

T is the last one to say the item… Why might this be a problem? It invalidates the student effort / voices. It keeps the teacher IN CONTROL How not to be last? Leave the last St version hanging Agree how to improve it “Practise that this evening. We’ll come back to it tomorrow If teacher is last to say it then: Say it intentionally (not as ‘throwaway’) Get Sts to listen internally Leave it ringing … and move on

Attitude Playfulness The teachable moment The least that is sufficient Slip – Give the least that is sufficient to activate criteria Error – Help them discover/invent it from what they know or give it.

Bell Teacher Campus July 2018 THANK YOU! From Mistakes to ”Protakes" Adrian Underhill Website: adrianunderhill.com