Last week I shared the results of an evaluation completed by students in my ninth-grade mainstream English class.

Today, I had students in my Intermediate English class complete an anonymous evaluation, too, though some of the questions were a bit different.

I’ll first share the results, and then some reflections on them:

RESULTS

FAVORITE CLASS ACTIVITIES: The four top-ranked activities were field trips, working in the computer lab,  playing learning games in class, and reading in class.

LEAST FAVORITE CLASS ACTIVITIES:  The four least-liked activities were reading at home, doing homework,  writing essays, and watching videos (we do it by using an activity called Back to the Screen that practices listening, speaking, and writing skills).

ACTIVITIES WHERE STUDENTS FELT THEY LEARNED THE MOST: Writing essays was the top-ranking activity in this category, which is interesting since it was listed as one of the least favorite class activities.  The second-ranked activity was watching videos, another one that was voted one of the least favorite ones.  Field trips and reading in class were the other two top-ranked in this category.

ACTIVITIES WHERE STUDENTS FELT THEY LEARNED THE LEAST: Playing games and working in the computer lab were the two “winners’ here, which was interesting because they were listed near the top of which activities students liked the most.  The other activities in this category included vocabulary and reading homework.

RATING MR. FERLAZZO AS A TEACHER:

On the positive side, students rated me very high in patience, in spending time getting to know them, being friendly, being organized, and in working hard.

They also said that I should maintain better class discipline and that I talk too much.

All except two would like to have me as a teacher again.

PACE OF THE CLASS: All students said the pace of the class was “Just right.”

THE CLASS WOULD BE BETTER IF_____: The primary response was that students would have liked to spend more time practicing speaking skills.

MY REFLECTIONS:

I do find it interesting that students felt they learned the most from some activities they liked the least (writing essays and doing the listening/speaking/writing process with videos).

Students listed the computer lab as one of the activities where they felt they learned the least.  I believe that has more to do with my getting a bit “lazy” near the end of the year about how we used our lab time.  I believe that this ranking will change dramatically next year when I plan on having students more engaged in content creation and interaction with our international sister classes.

I need to spend time thinking about if and how I can make the vocabulary and reading homework a better learning experience (they were both ranked low by students in that category).  For vocabulary, students need to identify new words, create their own personal “dictionaries” and use them as a basis for a speaking activity in class.  For reading, they need to read a book of their choice for thirty minutes each night.

Our primary focus in Intermediate English is developing writing skills using the great Write Institute curriculum. There’s plenty of time to incorporate more opportunities for speaking practice in class, but it’s also easy to focus entirely on writing which, based on student feedback, we did this year. So, next year, I’ll need to be more conscious of incorporating speaking activities.

Any other thoughts?