Getting [...]]]> I apologise for forcing you to read the last post with little guidance, but could you figure out the aims, measurable objectives and possible instructions on an assignment handout? Did you consider how you might take elements of it for your own student projects?

Figure 6 – I had a whole paragraph about seeing people out and about, but it didn’t fit the overall argument well enough, nor could I find much online to support it, so I had to cut it out of the final product–a process students must experience too.

Getting students interested in writing is one thing. Having them employ research, summary and paraphrasing strategies into their academic writing is an even harder task. Further beyond this, ensuring those who aim to do the least amount of effort to complete the tasks possible gives me headaches.If we simply ask them to demonstrate these in a standard academic writing assignment, we’re surely to be disappointed by superficiality of arguments and students are frustrated by having a lack of schema to have anything “new” to say. Personalising the topics, at least early on in the year, while incorporating mobile tech might help to accomplish all three of these in one shebang. In the assignment below, I’ve attempted to operationalise these strategies without them really knowing it.

The previous post is an exemplar of such a writing assignment. Below are what it aims to accomplish.

Aims

1. Provide students with opportunity to demonstrate introductory application of concepts needed to compose research papers.
2. Engage students in the writing process for research papers.
3. Give students motivation to explore their local surroundings.
4. Ensure student exercises adequate, individual effort in the writing process.

Measurable objectives

• Students can effectively narrow down a topic to argue for one main point i.e. thesis.
• Students can differentiate several distinct arguments to support this main point.
• Students can incorporate relevant material from outside sources through summary and paraphrasing.
• Students can demonstrate meaningful connections between arguments and materials included from outside sources.
• Students can reference appropriately to avoid plagiarism.

Student instructions

In this assignment, you will compose a short paper on your blog about experiences in Toronto over the course of the next month. You need to define an overall argument that you will aim to prove through a series of no fewer than 4 different experiences. Each experience should:

• be at least one, logically organised paragraph in length
• clearly support your overall argument
• include a reference to and commentary about (e.g. summary and relationship to your point)  a related article or statistics available online
• be documented by an original photo (with yourself included in at least 3) of the experience over the course of the month

Did I succeed? Did you in selecting the possible aims, measurable objectives and student instructions? Where do you think it might not be adequate?

This exercise is framed for teacher trainees to analyse a product to determine how successfully the assignment was planned and executed according to that plan. Does is accomplish all those things? Would a student produce a similar product to the previous post (with at a reasonably expected language level) given the instructions?

I argue that though this is framed as a teacher training exercise, it is also highly effective to give students as a model of assignment before they know anything about it. We can ask students to uncover the elements of the product to see what may be expected of them in terms of skills–task-based teaching, one could call it. Having students see the final product and dissect it has raised awareness in my students (as writers) of the elements required for an Arts-related paper at the university level and in this application, done so in a meaningful topic first, before being challenged on a more academic nature.

May is when vegetation in Toronto makes its swiftest change in appearance and visibility. On a chilly, rainy late April afternoon, tree buds just begin to appear. Within a week into May, full green [...]]]> Torontonians can almost always count on May to be where spring reliably emerges, bringing with it emotional renewal and visible transformations.

Figure 1: A tree transformation outside New College over a 10-day period

May is when vegetation in Toronto makes its swiftest change in appearance and visibility. On a chilly, rainy late April afternoon, tree buds just begin to appear. Within a week into May, full green leaves emerge as though summer has arrived (see Figure 1). For those with floral blooms,  the appearance and replacement with leaves happens so suddenly and at different times during the month, depending on the type of tree. High Park hosts one of the more stunning displays–Sakura Hanami or “cherry blossom viewing”–which if not attended during the best week can be a year-long wait. In fact, High Park Nature Centre suggests the peak time to see them at their 100% bloom may be during the week of May 6.¹

Figure 3 – Enjoying a Tim’s iced cappucino

Another refreshing transition is evidenced in the types of drinks available and ordered at coffee shops throughout the city in May. It is during these early warmer weeks that Torontonians begin ordering cold drinks, like Tim Horton’s iced cappucino. The greater volume of warm days occurring in spring may directly contribute to the greater volume of cold coffee-related drinks sold. While in May 2011 Toronto experienced 7 days above 23°C (average: 25.6°C)², in 2012, these warmer days doubled in number (14) and average temperature (26.7°C).³ In fact, Tim Horton’s revenues in the second quarter of 2012 reported an increase of over $80 million compared to the previous year⁴, which in part is reflected in the strong sales of cold-drinks during this time.

Figure 4 – Friends at  a Duke of York patio

A related outdoor beverage activity that May first affords in terms of frequency is consuming alcohol on patios. Patios in downtown Toronto are widespread in number⁵ and provide local restaurants and pubs with increased sales. Torontonians notoriously relish the opportunity to move out from their indoor confines when weather permits, even in months when normally this would seem impossible. On January 12, 2013, record temperatures of 15°C prompted “several bars and restaurants [to take] the patio furniture out of storage so customers could enjoy a drink or two in the outdoors.“⁶ Despite this passionate patio culture, a city-wide bylaw requires patios to close at 11PM to curb residential noise complaints. Fortunately for some, this bylaw can be circumvented by neighbourhood councillors, resulting in closing time variances between the bylaw requirement and 2AM.⁷

Figure 5 – Loulou and I enjoy the sun at the park

Apart from transformations in scenery and consumption, May in Toronto gives the ample number of dog-owners and their canine companions a first opportunity to spend longer periods of time outdoors. Throughout the winter months, cold temperatures, snow and salted sidewalks make it challenging for both pet owners and their dogs to enjoy for any duration. Toronto has over 30 official off-leash dog parks in the downtown core alone⁸, and discussion continues on whether or not to allow free run in all Toronto parks between 9PM and 9AM.⁹ Regardless of the final decision, it is in May, however, that warmer air and dryer outdoor spaces result in a plethora of dog communities to emerge for the summer.

Though this list of reasons is not exhaustive, one can easily argue that transformations can be seen and they have a renewing effect on Torontonian attitudes after a long winter.

¹ High Park Nature Centre. (2013) ”High Park Cherry Blossom Watch,” High Park Nature Centre.
² Environment Canada. (2011) “Daily Data Report for May 2011,” Environment Canada.
³ Environment Canada. (2012) “Daily Data Report for May 2012,” Environment Canada.
⁴ Johnson, J. (2011) “Tim Hortons profit rises on franchise revenues and stronger sales,” Financial Post: August 9, 2012.
⁵ blogTO. (2012) “Toronto Patio Guide,” blogTO.
⁶ CityNews. (2013) “Spring-like weather hits the GTA,” CityNews: January 12, 2013.
⁷ Winsa, P. (2011) “No patio culture in your ‘hood? Thank your local councillor,” Toronto Star: May 20, 2011.
⁸ Toronto.ca. “People, Dogs and Parks Off-Leash Parks Listing,” Toronto.ca: Parks, Forestry & Recreation.
⁹ CBC. (2012) “City to study dogs running leash-free in parks,” CBC News: November 1, 2012.

As you read through this post, can “teacher-you” see the assignments aims*, measurable objectives* and instructions* from which this emerged? Could these questions be asked of our writing students instead?

In Post 2, I’ll take you through what they are and you can tell me if I succeeded.

*aims = global aims that you want the exercise to achieve for students
*objectives = assessable skills practiced by students doing the exercise
*instructions = what you would write on an assignment sheet given to students

TESL Toronto Spring 2013 Conference (TOSCON13) is right around the corner–May 24 & 25, 2013–and as conference chair, I’m extremely excited that registration has finally opened and all the planning over the last 8 months is beginning to materialise into a real event, with real people and real activity. Here’s 7 [...]]]>

TESL Toronto Spring 2013 Conference (TOSCON13) is right around the corner–May 24 & 25, 2013–and as conference chair, I’m extremely excited that registration has finally opened and all the planning over the last 8 months is beginning to materialise into a real event, with real people and real activity. Here’s 7 reasons why I’m particularly excited for this year’s conference!

There are 2 days of events!

Every year previously, our conference has been held on a Saturday in May, usually right around Mother’s Day. Much of the time, there have been two sessions, ending the day after lunch. Though we expanded to three sessions last year, we are trying out two days this year, Friday & Saturday! We just have SO many contributors with excellent sessions this year (we could have made it three days). Besides, I always questioned applying the term ‘conference’ to a one-day event. Now, it feels somehow more justified.

Lindsay, Thomas, Luke & Julia!

Though Friday’s event is still limited to fewer attendees, one could suggest it’s a bit more exclusive, special, and based on our speakers, an amazing opportunity.

Lindsay Clandfield – What can I say about Lindsay’s enormous contributions to our industry beyond what’s said here or here or here or by himself here or here or here? From Toronto, now living in Spain, Lindsay is truly global–a fitting title for his most recent (and Duke of Edinburg ESU English Language Book Award winning) course series from Macmillan. On top of everything, he formed the round with Luke Meddings after “a series of conversations about bridging the gap between blogs and books – and about the difficulty of placing innovative, niche or critical materials with the big ELT publishers.” Great, for people like me, who always feel course book content is a watered down white wash for mass appeal. His talk on “Rediscovering Writing” will be a hard one to miss!

Thomas Farrell – It was during Thomas’ plenary talk at TESOL France that I was first really drawn to reflecting on reflective practice in teaching. I’ve blogged for three years now about teaching, and it’s through this exercise that I really learn about my own judgements, beliefs and how to use them to develop as a language teacher. Thomas is the expert in explaining, informing and guiding teachers in reflection. An engaging speaker and author, Thomas’ session “Reflective practice for language teachers” will be one of the most insightful and enlightening sessions of the conference.

Luke Meddings - Not many people can claim they started a movement with Scott Thornbury that has swept over the language teaching community with a great deal of passionate disciples and equally passionate opponents, but Luke can. In 2000, he and Scott opened a Yahoo group to discuss the virtues of a stripped down approach to language teaching, and 13 years later, it’s known worldwide as Dogme ELT. Luke & Scott wrote about it in the British Council ELTon Award for Innovation winning Teaching Unplugged (Delta Publishing), have given talks about it worldwide and been written about countless times since. I met Luke in person in Paris at TESOL France last November, and can’t wait to hang out with him again. His talk, “Unplugged: The Ripple Effect” will be an awesome place to learn more about and experience teaching unplugged with others who share this philosophy!

Julia Williams – Out of all four, Julia is the person I’ve spent the most time at conferences with over the last 5 years and the teacher most directly related to my teaching context, EAP. Having authored one of the first EAP course books based on her program at Renison College, Learning English for Academic Purposes (Pearson), Julia’s insight into “Trends and Textbooks in EAP” will certainly give us a valuable look at how our EAP programs are (or aren’t) hitting the targets our international undergraduate students are looking for in pursuing their studies at Canadian universities.

Historic Hart House!

Never before has TESL Toronto held an event in a more elegant, historic and absolutely gorgeous venue as Hart House. For a couple years, the program I teach in at University of Toronto has held receptions for students in their Harry Potter-esque gala rooms, and there is no substitute for the castle-like architecture, hard-wood features and impressive atmosphere Hart House provides. Friday’s sessions are here, followed by a catered dinner altogether in a room that can’t be missed.

More diverse workshops than ever!

The response during our Call for Presenters for Saturday was bigger than ever. We had nearly 50 submissions, ranging from successful local presenters to first-time leaders with fresh ideas and a continuation of international contingents. Though it was a hard call, this range gave us such diversity of topics to create a well-rounded conference for everyone from all sectors and teaching contexts, from settlement to general English to EAP to ESP to exam preparation. Plus, if you like fast sessions or longer chances to participate, there are lots of both 60-minute and 90-minute workshops. I’m so proud of the offered workshops this year. Our only problem this year: choosing which ones to attend!

Zero pressure!

Whenever I have to choose the workshops I want to attend when I’m registering for a conference, I always feel an uncomfortable pressure to make the right choice too quickly. If I take time to figure out what’s best for me to see, the session might fill up before I register. If I register as soon as registration opens, I might overlook a really good session I read more about later. This is NOT the case at this year’s conference. All rooms hold over 60 people, so we’ve decided not to force your hand. Instead, spend the next month reading through the conference program (PDF / Online) at leisure. Plus, now presenters can promote their workshops. Pressure be gone!

$50 coupons towards any exhibitor!

You heard me. We’re flipping the traditional book draw on its head. This year, instead of the books being donated by the exhibitors, we’re drawing $50 coupons that can be spent at any of the exhibitors on Saturday by lottery. It’ll be YOUR choice as to what book you take home if you win. What’s better than putting the power into the hands of those who should have it?

“Our version of subversion”!

Did I mention everybody gets the opportunity to see Luke & Lindsay in action on Saturday too? One of the (many) highlights I’m so stoked about is our first-ever joint plenary by these two globally respected English language teaching experts! At 3:00PM, after following our individual paths all day, we can all come together to end the conference at this titillating plenary based on their coauthored e-book, “52 (one subversive topic per week)”, published through Luke & Lindsay’s progressive, creative collective, the round (yep, no capitals are needed for this creative company). I love the concept here: a collection of activities for increasing engagement with our learners on authentic topics that don’t always make the cut in traditional coursebooks. We’ll be giving away up to 150 coupons for this e-book to anyone who wants one, so if you think about heading home early, you absolutely may not! ;)

I can’t wait! Can you? No, I didn’t think so. See you in May

(I hope). :D

USEFUL LINKS
TOSCON13 registration: http://bit.ly/register_toscon13
TOSCON13 website page: http://tesltoronto.org/conference
TOSCON13 Facebook page: http://bit.ly/toscon13
TOSCON13 online program: http://bit.ly/toscon13program
TOSCON13 downloadable PDF program: http://bit.ly/17dHDuf
TOSCON13 poster: http://bit.ly/toscon13poster
TOSCON13 invitation letter template: http://bit.ly/toscon13_invite

PS – A big shout out to our main sponsors, the International Foundation Program at New College!

I would once have thought I had a larger working vocabulary than the average person. I’d even have gone so far as to suggest I was articulate. However, living through MA studies involves a certain degree of humility regarding one’s knowledge of English vocabulary. This, one might argue, is relative to how a [...]]]>

I would once have thought I had a larger working vocabulary than the average person. I’d even have gone so far as to suggest I was articulate. However, living through MA studies involves a certain degree of humility regarding one’s knowledge of English vocabulary. This, one might argue, is relative to how a non-native speaking student who felt English was simple and fun in their home country might feel once entering undergraduate study at an English speaking university.

To celebrate this acceptance of humility, I present two vocabulary lists to you: (1) recent vocabulary from my MA studies and (2) favourite vocabulary I use, but has rarely if ever been included in any language class I’ve taught. Most definitions are my own, unless followed by a reference.

Tyson’s MA academic vocabulary list

affordance n. The qualities of an object that provide opportunities for some behaviour. (van Lier, 1996) //rel. afford v.
e.g. The affordances provided by the selected web tool should be considered when determining its appropriacy for a particular lesson.

cogitation n. thoughts we have that we spend a long time considering
e.g. My cogitations regarding the most concise yet effective ways to word something help me do so concisely and effectively, in cases other than this.

dialectic n/adj. Use of logical arguments through exchange to investigate and arrive at truth
e.g. A thorough dialectic between major news networks is needed before any reports are presented as fact.

espoused theory n. The actions, methods, etc. teachers claim they are doing in class // opp. theory-in-practice n.
e.g. The espoused theory and theory-in-practice are often not the same, to the surprise of the teachers involved.

exigency n. An urgent need or demand.
e.g. The exigency of our current situation is for truth and justice regarding Boston.

Tyson’s frequently used but rarely taught vocabulary

asinine adj. absolutely foolish or idiotic
e.g. It’s asinine how stupid the dribble by CNN commentators is and doubly for those that would hear them and agree.

cognisant adj. show knowledge of and keep in mind
e.g. We need to be cognisant of the effects of what the news reports has on un-dialectic listeners.

harbinger n. sign or symbol foreshadowing events or trends
e.g. Our bottle of wine bursting inside our suitcase before we boarded was a harbinger of things to come during our vacation.

incidentally adv. used to preface a remark unconnected or loosely connected to the current topic
e.g. During the ARC in-class discussions, groups work together through their roles to improve their comprehension. Incidentally, there’s a talk on group work at the university next week.

takeaways n. among many items or ideas from a forum that spoke specifically to you
e.g. The takeaways for me this year were a lack of motivation and recognition of skill transferability among students.

Where am I going with this post? Well, I’m not sure. It may be to instigate a little reflection on what we consider is useful vocabulary to discuss with students in class. It may be to reconsider how influential word frequency is for learners above the intermediate level. It may be a discussion on how our vernacular affects students. It may also be a (indirect) commentary on the correlation we tend to value between vocabulary size, intelligence and success. Or it may just be my last post in 5 in 5 days and my brain is fried.

Comprehension is often not what it appears to be. I think we’ve proven this (in a post here, for example). When students believe they are showing their comprehension, they often are just regurgitating words from the text. Equally troubling, this may include plagiarised segments [...]]]>

Comprehension is often not what it appears to be. I think we’ve proven this (in a post here, for example). When students believe they are showing their comprehension, they often are just regurgitating words from the text. Equally troubling, this may include plagiarised segments or at minimum, senseless strings of quotes. Where we could simply practice answering comprehension questions continually, I’ve found it worthwhile to show how different answers indicate different levels of textual comprehension.

Take a paragraph from any reading. The one I’m using is from Toronto Life, a popular magazine focusing on local issues with articles varying in length and complexity. This particular text centres around the changing attitudes towards mixed-race individuals, a visibly relevant feature of the multicultural Toronto. While I do activities to build background knowledge among students, here I’ll focus on just the comprehension side: I give them excerpts that include more academic elements and appropriate complexities to focus on. You can find the full text here. Here’s an example of how I use this text (for students / for teachers):

Hune-Brown (2013:40) discusses the changing attitudes towards children of mixed-race couples from his experiences as a “mixie” in the 1980s and those in Toronto today:

Instead of being seen as tragic individuals, the mixies of today are being talked about in a far more romantic light. Mixed-race people are portrayed as the harbingers of a utopian future in which “race,” that petty construct, ceases to exist and we all live in harmony—beautiful and content in our exotic, beige-ish glory. Some studies have made the dubious claim that mixed-race people are biologically more attractive, turning those old eugenics-based theories [controlled breeding based on desirable genes] on their head: the same “hybrid vigour” that creates a good sorghum crop apparently also produces healthy, symmetrical beauties like Halle Berry and Keanu Reeves.

Question: What change has occurred regarding how mixed-race individuals have been regarded by society as a whole?

Here, students take the chance to write out their idea of a good answer on their own. After, students exchange answers with a partner. Next, we begin to discuss three different types of answers as a class. After each, students look compare their partners’ answers to identify weak or strong areas.

a) Meaningless quote: People used to see them as “tragic individuals”. Now they are shown as the “harbingers of a utopian future in which ‘race,’…ceases to exist and we all live in harmony.”

After showing this, I elicit its characteristics: correctly answering the question using two direct quotes. We discuss if the answer shows that meaning is understood. The answer obviously is no, because what is inside the quotes is the meat of the meaning–”tragic individuals” and “harbingers of a utopian future”. Without understanding these key concepts, the rest of the text makes little sense. Simply quoting, though perhaps lucky this time, does not demonstrate understanding of these key concepts. The danger in promoting this use of quotes ismisquoting or using them out of context in essays.

b) Poorly paraphrased sample answer: Mix-race people appear as tragedy before but now they are a harmony society.

Another issue that demonstrates a lack of comprehension is a poorly paraphrased answer. This sometimes results from students clinging to taught paraphrasing strategies (e.g. use synonyms, different word classes, etc.) and other times it’s from oversimplification. Still here, students can see how this is as meaningless (and even more harmful for an essay) as the first. example. Of course, it’s easy to use this as a error correction exercise between students too.

c) Strong paraphrase for comprehension: People used to regard mixed-race people negatively; however, they are now viewed as a sign of a harmonious future where race no longer matters.

Unlike the previous two, this answer uses good paraphrasing of key concepts from a) to answer the question in a way that shows not only the right answer but that the writer understands meaning. I ask students then to compare this answer to the previous two and discuss how they are different. This results in a variety of responses, ranging from the lack of quotes to the fact that the phrasing explains those quotes by relating it to the context of the paragraph.

I love it when the light comes on in students’ minds between the comprehension garbledegook exercise in the post mentioned above and these paragraph examples. Not everyone gets it, but with repeated practice and focused feedback, improvement in comprehension does come.

The remainder of this activity is below. Feel free to download, modify and distribute to anyone.

Mixed Me Paragraphs

**This blog post is part of 4C blogathon – 5 days. 5 blog posts. Willing to try it?

What are the skills our students practice in our classes if not transferable? By definition, transferable should include anything from our classroom to something in our students’ lives. From the most survival-skill role-play to the abstract lost-in-a-jungle-with-only-three-items activities, we design them so students [...]]]>
Why am I left behind when so obviously useful?

What are the skills our students practice in our classes if not transferable? By definition, transferable should include anything from our classroom to something in our students’ lives. From the most survival-skill role-play to the abstract lost-in-a-jungle-with-only-three-items activities, we design them so students practice and acquire the language (and academic) skills needed. I’m guessing I’m not the only teacher, however, who feels the sting when a student doesn’t recognise what even seems like the most obvious transferable skill.

It’s the very end of the academic year, 26 weeks of academic writing with the same students gone by. In October, we began the writing process: brainstorming, choosing a topic, researching…outlining, drafting…submission; you know the drill. Through a number of smaller, we encouraged (hand-held) students through this process. We showed benefits of instructor feedback on drafts. We showed the correlation between thorough process and final grade. We gave them some autonomy to choose this process on a bigger assignment. Most did. All seemed on the up and up.

Cut to the last week of the term and meeting with a worried student about their grades, specifically their content credit-course grade in History. I check their grades (I can do that as coordinator of the program) throughout the term and find a failing grade for her term paper with a note that she hadn’t handed in a first draft, and thus not received feedback from the instructor, nor met her during office hours. A conversation ensues:

I ask, “Why didn’t you go through the writing process for your History essay?”
She responds, “I had some mistakes when I wrote the first draft so I wanted to fix them.”
I ask, “But part of the process is to get feedback from your instructor if available. They can help you find those mistakes and give you suggestions for the right path.”
She responds, “I didn’t think it was that important to hand in a first draft.”
Perplexed, I state, “Why? In our class we’ve been practising the writing process over and over since October. You’ve done it. I know you know how to do it. Why wouldn’t you do it for your History essay too?”
She responds, “I thought it was just for your class.”

Her apathetic tone cut through me. Her unapologetic disregard for transferability slapped me in my face. I was stunned. I wanted to shake her and exclaim, “What do you mean you thought it was just for my class!? Why do you think we have been doing this process with every single writing assignment!? When the reason you take my course is to directly support you for success in the History course, how could you think anything we do is isolated to my course!?” But I didn’t.

Clearly along the way I had not explicitly shown how useful the skills taught were to other courses. Or perhaps somewhere she had decided they weren’t.

The question then really becomes what are the best ways to demonstrate the practical transferability of skills from our programs to the needs of their lives outside our courses, be they their university courses in my case, or perhaps their work or daily lives in yours. In #EAPchat today, we discussed this and through griping camaraderie, we agreed that collaboration with content course instructors in choosing the skills that best apply to their courses is vital. I’m lucky enough, however, to already have that collaboration. It hasn’t seemed to work well, at least not for all students.

So what’s the answer? I think Susie Cowley-Haselden (the EAP archivist) had the best suggestion today:

Ask the students themselves, “when will you need to do this on your degree?”

Wise idea.

*Please visit #EAPchat blog to read more about this topic from today’s chat.
**This blog post is part of 4C blogathon – 5 days. 5 blog posts. Willing to try it?

Scenario 1 – Monday morning after a long weekend. 24 weeks completed. Last week of classes before final exams.

Teacher: Good morning (sombrely).
Students: Good morning (not in unison or even all students).
Teacher: I have some announcements to begin class with. Your other teachers and I have decided to set an [...]]]>

Scenario 1 – Monday morning after a long weekend. 24 weeks completed. Last week of classes before final exams.

Teacher: Good morning (sombrely).
Students: Good morning (not in unison or even all students).
Teacher: I have some announcements to begin class with. Your other teachers and I have decided to set an example for the rest of the students this year and those coming after you next year. We need a new legend to be passed around for years to come. Due to the overwhelming plagiarism I found yet again on your term papers, we have decided that this entire section will fail the year. Sure, not everyone’s grades have dropped below the pass line because of it and I know you may not think it’s fair, but in the long run, it’ll benefit more students than anything else will. Sorry, but try to think not of yourselves and your plans to attend University of Toronto next year, but rather the greater good. Remember that term? We studied it earlier in the year.
Students: (gasps)

Scenario 2 – Monday morning after a long weekend. 24 weeks completed. Last week of classes before final exams.

Teacher: Good morning (cheerfully).
Students: Good morning (not in unison or even all students).
Teacher: I have some announcements to begin class with. After long consideration over the weekend, we have decided that the majority of you will be exempt from the final exam because of outstanding improvement over this term! Sure, our policy states that you need to have over 85% for the year before the final exam to be exempt, but I think you all deserve a break given the amount of stress you’ve been under lately. Well done!
Students: (startled, glimmers of hope increasing)

Final word from teacher in both scenarios: April fools!

Which is worse, I wonder: Being led to believe that you have failed the year, in many cases unjustly, only to realise it’s just a joke and everything will be ok (except for those students who legitimately will fail) OR being led to believe that you’ve suddenly had quite the stroke of luck by not having to study for or write the final exam, only for this hope to be dashed by realising it’s just a joke.

I didn’t do either of these things, but I have to admit, if I’d had a class today, I’d have been tempted. It’s one of my favourite special days. For a lot of this type of trickery, of the reading kind, check out the Onion on a daily basis. Another wonderful April fools trick:

Have you done any April fools tricks on your students? Did any of them figure it out before you let them in on the joke? Is this custom justification for exposing our students to such torture? Part of me thinks yes. Perhaps it would break the tension of the last few weeks of the academic year. One could argue that it’s a listening test. ;)