First thing to remember is that the secret of success is success. Never take on more than you can achieve. Lots of learning a little means learning a lot.
I have found from experience that I teach better when taking on a new subject. Things I know well, I am apt to teach too fast. I am so frightened my students feel bored that I push on at breakneck speed, only to find that many students only have their actual lesson time in which to learn. They need the time to learn in class.
Do you know how you learn? Is your learning visual? or is it audio-learning? or even kinesthetic - do you learn by doing?
An excellent article on the many learning styles there are and how to recognise them in your child - or yourself - can be found on Peg Flint's pages on home schooling.
Another set of targets from Learning to Learn and ways of assessing your own style could help you focus your energies more successfully so that less effort might produce more learning.
It is fascinating to see how much all students absorb and learn in their first lesson in a new subject. Learning to carry forward that enthusiasm is the difficulty - especially when you are working at home and alone.
For the next ten weeks, I am aiming to reproduce my lesson plans and lessons given to a large and highly motivated Adult Education class. For this reason, the plans and lessons are only written in stone when completed.
Pre-planning, though vital both for teachers and learners, should provide a flexible framework. You will have no motivation to learn if you are not involved in the topic or vocabulary content of your learning task.
If you hate writing, no amount of persuasion that copying words helps you learn them will convince you.
If you only want to talk, you may not wish to read. You may do better listening to cassettes on the car radio or watching videos.
I have found to my cost that I need to write things down to be sure of remembering them. But I also learn better if I am actually performing the actions which go with the topic.
For this reason role-play is a good way for me to work. However it is not an available option if you are working alone unless you can work interactively on the net or are happy to fill in the blanks by talking to a cassette.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Anne Duguid's Portuguese topic, please visit the Discussions page.