Over the Wall of Silence

20 Over the Wall of Silence

Without a Progress Sheet, the teacher must choose a student and match their face with a name on the class list, or vice versa. This can waste precious class time, and often breaks the rhythm of the class. Progress Sheets allow the teacher to wander the room and interact with students on the spot . The fact that any student could be tested at any time creates the perfect level of suspense. Students are kept on their toes, but not over-intimidated, because they can see the point of the exercise and know that they can succeed. You have probably already discovered this in your teaching, but when students receive a grade which is recorded in front of them, it has a huge psychological effect. After experiencing this once, they see how easy it is to do well in the class, so motivation naturally rises. Students really do appreciate clarity and fairness. A quick word about the name. “Progress Sheet” doesn’t do justice to the role of this simple piece of paper. They are used to track a student’s progress, but that’s not all. Just having one in front of a student makes them “open for business” at literally any mo ment. The teacher can also use Progress Sheets for class manage ment: collect them from all students, shuffle them and assign pairs or create groups. It’s remarkable how much quicker students move into pair work when they are assigned a partner with a random draw ing of Sheets than when they are told to “find a partner.” B UT HOW CAN I TEST SPEAKING DURING CLASS ? Tests can take a wide range of forms, and are done for a variety of reasons. They can be used to rank students, evaluate their pro gress or motivate them. In this book, we are most interested in the last -the ways in which tests can motivate students and direct their