Twenty-Three Redo

Well, I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later:

Tonight, George Bailey, Mary Hatch, and the rest of the 1928 graduating class at Bedford Falls High School did the Charleston right into the gym swimming pool, in my EFL class.

When I came to Russia, I hoped that I would eventually have a chance to bring the big Charleston contest back into my classroom. And that opportunity finally came today, in an Intermediate class I teach at a company that manufactures automotive parts.

The last time I used the Charleston contest scene, I really had done it for no real purpose than my own desire to show video in class. I had learned about the video dictation technique (briefly, in a video dictation, half the class sees the video and describes it to the other half, who cannot see) in CELTA training and wanted a chance to try it out. But I had not really thought through what I could use it for, and the lesson that came out if it was highly botched.

Tonight's replay was totally different--probably a sign that my teaching skills are improving. I chose to use the scene with a class that I know has trouble figuring out when and how to use the past simple (I went), the past continuous (I was going), and the past perfect (I had gone). Giving it some thought this weekend, I decided the best way to clear up this confusing was with a bit of video. And so I started planning a way to exploit It's a Wonderful Life to clarify distinctions among these verb tenses.

This time around, I prepared slips of paper with everything that happens in the four minutes of video I showed and had my student (only one actually showed up tonight) put them in the proper order. Then I asked questions geared to getting him to understand a need for the past continuous or past perfect, as required.

All in all, I was quite satisifed with how this lesson progressed tonight. And this despite a couple of embarassing technical glitches: at one point, my laptop's cord came unplugged, and at another, my video player froze, requiring me to reboot the computer. At least my student is a good-natured guy who took it in stride. While I fiddled with my laptop, I had him chat with me about his work, which requires him to go on weekly business trips to Rostov-on-Don, Nizhnii Novgorod, and various other cities in Russia.

But I think this lesson really helped him. He said he will be doing some review of these tenses on his own, but I had the satisfying feeling, walking home tonight, that I had actually accomplished something. There is no feeling like it in the world.