Celebration

At ACEIA in Sevilla earlier this month, I spoke about ‘A Sense of Achievement’. I talked about the difference I see between achieving things and perceiving that things have been achieved. I posed the discussion question to the attendees: have you ever achieved something, but it didn’t feel like an achievement for some reason? The discussion was animated, because we all have. In this post, I’ll outline some of the suggestions I made in that talk to help our students feel that sense of achievement in both a lesson and over time.

Within a lesson

If we want students to feel achievement during a lesson, we need to consider a few factors:

• Clear success criteria… if it’s not clear to students what they have to do in order to be successful in a task or during a lesson, then it’s unlikely that they will feel like they have achieved something.
• An element of choice…choice is empowering. Lots of decisions are taken away from students in our classrooms and this is largely necessary. When we can give a little bit of choice back (this question or that one, etc.), this is very welcome and means that they can choose the task they will have been successful with.
• Doable tasks…the activities we ask them to do must be tasks they can do, but with sufficient challenge so as to ensure learning takes place.
• Regular checkpoints…students shouldn’t need to wait until the end of the lesson to feel like they’ve achieved something. Consider how you chunk tasks so as to allow for regular moments to offer some praise and constructive criticism before moving on.

Over Time

• Students’ own objectives…yes, the course book, the parent, the DoS has objectives for the students. But what are their own objectives? Is there a reason, a real motivation, that they are studying English? Get them to commit it to paper and check in with them about their progress.
• Check-ins…don’t just have to be tests and exams. They can also be conversations.
• Trackers…not spreadsheets hidden in the cloud, but in the students’ folders where they can track their progress and take ownership over it.
• For the younger kids, learning behaviours trackers … end each lesson with a quick reflection about what they did well (spoke only English, helped a friend, answered a question…). Have half a dozen that you’ll track each term and at that end of the lesson, review with them what sticker or coloured dot they earned.

Celebration

Finally, if there is an achievement, we need to celebrate it and here I offer some suggestions of what this might look like. Check with your institution and be aware of any relevant policies or procedures that you should be aware of before organising any of the following:

• Direct contact with parents…this might be catching them for a quick conversation at the door of the academy, a brief phone call or an email. Many parents don’t hear from teachers and when they do it’s about something negative. They are likely to be delighted to hear from you!
• Postcards…if that’s not possible, consider making up some A6 postcards (perhaps your students could design them) on which you can write brief notes to celebrate the successes of your students. Send it home with the student, who will be sure to pass on the praise to someone at home.
• Termly celebration events…is it feasible for the institution to put on a termly celebration? This could involve presenting certificates from formal exams, celebrating targets/objectives met, younger students singing a song, older students doing a role-play performance, etc. Parents could be invited and this might be a lovely way to round off the term.
• Celebration lessons…if that’s not feasible, something similar can be done within the group during the last lesson of the term. You were probably already planning something fun, so adapt that fun lesson further to include a prize giving or certificates.
• Certificates/Stickers…on the topic of certificates and stickers, don’t neglect the teens and adults. I find that stickers are common currency with our younger students, the older ones receive them rarely and this makes them all the more meaningful.