Elisa L.

I anchor my pedagogy primarily in two interrelated principles as below, which constantly remind me how to become a language teacher/ tutor whose teaching styles and techniques are evolving daily and who, leading by example, adopts the perspectives of a perpetual learner. The first one is to adopt an individualistic teaching/ evaluating approach. I value the individuality of each one of my students, which allows me to use different teaching methods in my lesson. I use texts, pictures, podcasts, peer assessment, or WebQuest to help students be more engaged in my class and explore the ways that students are most comfortable with to help them achieve the best result more efficiently. The second one is to create a two-way dynamic with international mindedness. Instead of simply giving lectures about my understanding of the texts, I always ask students to freely express their interpretations of the texts first, then guide them to formulate their arguments and evaluation. As a lifelong English language and literature learner and teacher, I strive to be student-oriented, flexible, and aware of individuality both in and outside my classroom. It pleases me to see that sharing my experience can also help students grasp the information and build a bridge between their world and the outside world.

A typical reaction from my students after the first lesson with me is usually, "ah, my school teachers didn't mention those details as you did," "I didn't know I could analyze a text this way," or "I think it's still not too late for me to get a better score. I feel more hopeful now!". My goal has always been to accommodate students' immediate learning needs. During the first lesson with them, I would ask them a few questions (both open and semi-structured questions) to find out their prior knowledge and what they're struggling with, such as reading, writing, or analyzing the texts. I believe it could be an enriching experience to learn the rubric, i.e., to understand what IB examiners expect of students (knowing your "enemies"). Walking them through the rubric is an effective way to help students better evaluate their work from the perspective of an IB examiner, based on which I help them make a study plan to target their weak areas specifically. In this way, students can make the best of their time and energy to make improvements more efficiently. Then I will use a text to analyze together with them. I will use various tools to highlight the essential points, such as making annotations, color coding, etc. In our first lesson, during our analysis, I'd often ask students to write a few sentences to comment on a particular authorial choice. I will provide my feedback using the rubric standards. This could also help me see what level they're at. Then I'd use different colors to help them improve the sentence to show the gap between their current level and the expected level from the IB and, most importantly, make them understand how to narrow and bridge the gap.