Week 6. The week that was lost

As a graduate student, you get used to counting time in weeks at some point. Moving on from one big assignment to another definitely affects your everyday routine, the way you structure your time, and your actual perception of time.

The opportunity to dive deeper into the learner analysis allowed me to see again how important it is to be aware of your students' needs and wants, their background knowledge, fears, and expectation in order to create the most efficient instruction for your classroom.

I am exploring Backwards Design at the moment and find it absolutely fascinating and applicable to any sphere of your life. This Institutional Design Model includes 3 stages of design - identifying desired results, determining acceptable evidence (developing assessment), and finally planning learning experiences and instruction. After trying out the ADDIE model and iterative design as part of my other courses, Backwards Design seems to be a little bit incomplete for me as an ESL instructor. The element that is missing there is definitely taking a closer look at what the actual learners want and what they think and feel can hinder their progress. Teaching a foreign language involves having a conversation with your learners. A language instructor has many opportunities to learn a great deal of information from observing their learners, noticing their behavior and analyzing what they talk about while participating in various activities. However, if you are teaching a hybrid course or an online module, it is possible to use an empathy map as a tool to know more about your learners' thoughts, feelings, fears, and expectations. As I have already tested this tool being remotely, I can assure you that it definitely works.

If it is not possible to have your learners write their thoughts on post-it notes because you do not get to interact with them in any other way but remote, it is possible to create a questionnaire with 6 questions corresponding to each section of an empathy map. The next step would be eliciting the main ideas from those answers and putting them on the sticky notes. This way it becomes so much easier to single out themes, needs, and insights! Such practice is crucial for creating both in-person and online learning experiences and the instruction that is tailored to the individual needs of the learners.

If you want to know more about Backwards Design or using empathy maps, please check out the following links.

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Well, going back to the name of this post, it was incredibly hard to feel that overwhelmed because of all the projects I am working on and still drag my focus back to the GOOD things around. However, it worked out, and here's a list of the things I am grateful for this week: finally finished my 3D modelling project (those who started their BLENDER journey will understand the struggle), having dinner with my friends during the work week, and watching a new season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and rediscovering Sarah Michelle Gellar as a wonderful motivational speaker!