is the most widespread of all the myths...
Somehow, for some very bizarre reason, whenever you talk to teachers who don't get dogme
(because they couldn't be bothered to research? stand to lose something? love their textbooks too much to look at the folks in the room?)
the words
"well, dogme works for some classes, I suppose, but it won't work for mine because..."
comes slipping out of their mouths with a sheepish grin...
"See... the thing is (cough)
"I, er, teach..."
they'll continue...
"young learners
and they need order, structure, they won't know what to say
50 students in one class
how can I be expected to organize my classroom into smaller groups?! it's impossible
Chinese students
a cultural thing, see.. they're not a nation of talkers...
English for Specialized Purposes
all that technical vocabulary, I most surely have to know it all to teach them the jargon they deal with daily.. surely?
on Moodle
people need pop-up instructions to know what to do...
My students want grammar...
and Dogme teachers never teach grammar
My students want their textbooks,
and their workbook, CDrom, DVDrom, i-phone downloadable app, mousepad, pen...
They're doing the TOEFL
they've a lot of words to learn
don't ya know...
I'm a new teacher..."
Uh, huh...
Go on, Edu-bloggers, this is a special call for you to go on ahead and leave a trail forever:
Explode this myth sky-high!
Tell us how you work with all the above and any other excuses you've also heard: show us how you manage to keep your classrooms learner-centered, how you work with emergent language, how you provide scaffolding for all of these impossible classes... how you keep your students conversing despite all these "so-called difficulties" and provide them with quality education.
The Blog Posts Challenge #8
- Dogme with young learners by Sabrina de Vita (also in #3)
- Dogme with young learners by Dave Dodgson
- Not to be taken lightly by Dave Dodgson (also in #4)
- Planting the seeds of Dogme by Dave Dodgson
- Dogme and me or me and my dog by Patrick Jackson
- An overheard conversation by Evan Frendo
- Courage by David Warr
- A problem shared is now ruining someone else's life by Diarmuid Fogarty
- Religious fervour and pedagogical evangelism by Darren Elliot
- It's too difficult! by Candy von Ost
Other Related
- ELTchat, Dogme in school contexts
Read previous Challenge blog posts:
- Challenge #1 (Co-construction) + the list of responding blogs
- Challenge #2 (It's emergent?) + list of responding blogs
- Challenge #3 (Scaffolding) + list of responding blogs
- Challenge #4 (Materials light) + list of responding blogs
- Challenge #5 (Learners' voice) + list of responding blogs
- Challenge #6 (Myth 1 - NNEST vs NEST) + list of responding blogs
- Challenge #7 (Myth 2 - Technology, none?) + list of responding blogs
The Dogme Blog Challenge + links to the blogs discussing Dogme
The dogma of Dogme - background info & links
Dogme ELT - other stuff I've written on Dogme
Note for those new to this challenge: Dogme is not anti-coursebook, please see this video if at all confused: (here)
How to share on Twitter: use the #dogmeme hashtag
How to share your fellow teachers' blog posts with each other? Don't forget to add a link to the blog(s) which have been written on the same subject on your own post so they form a ring and your readers can travel on from yours to the other responding blogs.
How to respond?
Comment below with short thoughts
Go to your nearest yahoo!group and share your opinions
with like-minded teaching colleagues
Blog it:
Write a list or tell a story,
compare lessons: dogme and non-dogme,
relate an experience, a contrary opinion,
quote research, your own theory,
submit mere musings, rant...
share an idea, a paragraph, a dictionary's definition
a beautiful photograph,come up with a clever sentence,
a video-log
an article or draft the bones of an essay,
share examples from your own classroom experience...
In short, be dogmeic: personalize your response!)
Important URLs to quote/link to in your post (if necessary):
- Teaching Unplugged: http://www.deltapublishing.co.uk/titles/methodology/teaching-unplugged
- Scott Thornbury's website + articles: http://www.thornburyscott.com/
- Scott Thornbury's blog: http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/
- Luke Meddings' blog: http://lukemeddings.wordpress.com/
- Luke Meddings' on the Delta blog: http://www.deltapublishing.co.uk/author/luke-meddings
- Dogme ELT in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_language_teaching
Posts
I'll need plenty of blog posts to explode this myth! LOL
I don't like the tone of this post at all, Karenne... and when I have more time I'll tell you why.
Looking forward to what Darren has to say but in the meantime, I think this topic will run and run. I'm off to read your references.
I think you're employing that old politician's trick of rephrasing the question (or comment) to suit your answer. I can't remember reading people commenting that dogme was too "difficult" for a class, rather that it was not "appropriate." (or are you picking on a tiny sample of comments here?) I'm also not convinced by the common reply to such comments that the person doesn't understand dogme.
Are you really so convinced that dogme is the only effective answer to all teaching challenges?
Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
Olaf,
Socrates...
I always thought it was a quotation from Shakespeare, but maybe he stole it from Socrates. He pinched quite a few ideas if I remember rightly.