Wrapping up the group lessons at work consists of a final exercise to review all the different skills and activities that the students learned over the course of the class. In pairs they introduce themselves in a business style, make an appointment via telephone, give each other directions to places, and more. I made a series of cards that they draw from, and then they have to do the activity with their partner.
Yesterday was the first class to do that review activity. It went horribly.
Maybe that is overstating it. One student put in zero effort, but the others did their best. Often times they found that they had forgotten something, and so I urged them to go back to the text and review what they had forgotten. But the zero effort student was terrible. The card said, “Talk about your company for 30 seconds”, so he started talking one word every five seconds to try to avoid the assignment. Another card said to talk about what is on your desk, and he pretended to not know what “on” meant. Then he just drew the objects and made his partner actually say the English.
He was like this the whole term. I can understand being shy, or the student not understanding how to say something or not remembering how to do some activity. It is the lack of effort that really kills me. Not even trying, avoiding speaking, and putting the load on someone else – that is just weak. Thankfully it was my last class with him, and unfortunately for the other students in his class they had to deal with him for six months. Hopefully he is a better student in the future.
