This is an adapted version of the talk I gave at IATEFL 2013. All the slides with text were added for the reader here, and did not appear in the original talk.

1. The Eureka
Moment
Naomi
Ganin-Epstein

2. My Three Degrees
B. A B.E.D
M.A
Ms. Frizzle

3. I am Naomi , the teacher who has been at it for 27
years, with three degrees, none of which is a P.H.D
* Being born on the same day as Helen Keller (though
not quite the same year!) led to a B.A in Education of
the Deaf and hard of hearing
* Being the “American Student Teacher” got me hired
as an English teacher BEFORE beginning (and
completing!) my B.E.D in EFL.
* Finally, not only do I look like Ms Frizzle from the
Magic School Bus but I share her passion to get the
kids learning in an active way so much that I just had
to have an M.A in Curriculum Development.

4. The
first
law of
holes:
If you
are in
one,
stop
digging!
Who’s there?
Denis Healey

5. All teachers are familiar with the kind of students we
will be referring to today – the struggling students who
seem to do everything in their power to remain that
way, because they believe that they can’t possibly
succeed. These are the ones who have given up on
themselves. “English and I don’t get along” or “English is
not for me” they say.
This is true for both children and adult students.
Obviously, what these learners need is to be in a
situation where they can experience success, one which
will afford them “a Eureka Moment”. We all know the
saying that success breeds success, right?

6. Oh, I hear you!
What about everyone else?

7. Having struggling learners experience success conjures
up images of hours of work spent creating special
worksheets, giving up lunch breaks or good old
fashioned tearing your hair out.
What about the curriculum? The course book? The
exam schedule? What about the other students?
Aren’t their needs just as important as those of the
struggling learner?
The point of this talk today is to point out that
commonly used techniques used for teaching EFL to all
students, which are suitable for the whole class, can
ALSO provide the struggling learners with A Eureka
Moment, if one looks at the techniques from a
different angle. Let’s look at some examples.

8. The Friendly
Eraser
Scott Thornbury
Mike Harrison
Jason Renshaw
“Disappearing
Dialogues”
“Reverse
Reading”
“Live Reading
Passage
Composition”

9. The Friendly Eraser
This wonderful technique has many names, (see previous
slide) and sooo many different ways in which it can be
utilized. I am grateful to the blog posts of those three
who set me on the path to exploring the options of
utilizing this method (all links in blog post).
I personally favor the name The Friendly Eraser as one of
its many appealing aspects is that you can use it when
unexpected things happen in the classroom and your
original lesson plan sails out the window. Picture the
following:

10. 5 minutes before the first morning bell there is a
strong downpour. The teenagers in my first lesson
don’t believe in umbrellas and (and to be honest
even I got wet WITH an umbrella). All they were
interested in was comparing notes regarding how
wet they were. So I looked at Sara, who was
complaining loudly about the state of her pants.
Sara entered high-school with a dismal level of
English. She did not apply herself to her schoolwork
as she was sure it wouldn’t make any difference
anyway. She couldn’t do it and that was that. So I
wrote the following on the board:

11. What Happened to Sara This
Morning?
• I wrote the title and didn’t say a word. Someone
shouted out – why did you write that Sara is
happy? Can’t you see that she is wet? I pointed
out the difference between happy and happened
and began asking Sara questions about the
morning’s events. The class quieted down to hear
Sara’s tale of woe. Whenever she reverted to
mother tongue I either elicited the word from the
class or supplied the word myself. I didn’t
pressure her not to use mother tongue and
expressed interest in the events told. This is what
we came up with: (see next slide)

12. What Happened to Sara This
Morning?
• Sara got up at 06:15.
• She left the house at 07:15.
• Sara didn’t take an umbrella.
• When Sara arrived in Yehud it was raining
hard.
• Sara got wet.
• Sara wants to call her Dad.

13. We read the story straight through. Then I began
erasing. First round – one very easy word from each
sentence. I called students to the board to fill in the
missing words. For this round I purposely erased the
“times” mentioned and the word “Dad” so that the
students would check with Sara.
If the student at the board needed help, the class
assisted with the spelling. Each round I erased more
words, more challenging ones but did not call on Sara
to fill them in at this stage.
As the students were filling in the words, I quickly
copied the story onto a piece of paper. Then I erased
the entire story and said:

14. “Ok class, lets see how well you remember Sara’s
story. I want you to answer the following questions
about the story. Sara, you come here and stand by
me. Class, if you can’t remember a detail or
spelling, ask Sara”.

15. NO TEXT ON WHITEBOARD!
• What time did Sara leave the house?
• Who does Sara want to call?
• What didn’t Sara take?
• When did Sara get up?
• Where was it raining hard?
• Why did Sara get wet?
• Is this a true story?

16. Now I had my class doing what it didn’t seem like I could
get them to do when the bell rang - working on
answering reading comprehension questions correctly.
Meanwhile, Sara had the text in her hand. Her first
reaction was - I can’t read all of this! But I reminded her
that she knew what was written there. After all, it was
HER tale. So, every time a student asked her for
vocabulary help (“what’s the thing you didn’t take called
in English?”) she went back to the beginning, whispered it
to herself and then knew which word to answer. She
spelled out the words for those who needed that - she
was “the teacher”.

18. Now here’s a brief shout out for giving homework
online. The rest of the class had had enough of Sara’s
tale. Sara needed more.
Since the students don’t know I’m giving extra support
or occasionally, a different h.w task to certain students,
no one feels embarrassed or gets ridiculed (or
complains that the level of the class is too low for
him/her).
I sent Sara the word cloud of the story and the
questions she didn’t answer herself in class, but was
involved in helping others do. She could do it! Over the
next week, in class, whenever students were working
individually I had Sara read her story again.
SHE COULD DO IT!

19. A Word of WARNING

20. When you see how well students remember things
from texts they created, from things they are personally
invested in, there is a temptation to venture too far and
tread on very thin ice. When THEY share it, it is fine to
milk it for all its worth. But don’t try to mine personal
details out of a student. Particularly beware of that with
teenagers.
In addition, DO NOT plan your Eureka
Moment based on the student’s
cooperation.

21. When I was a first year teacher I had a fifth grader
obsessed with magic tricks. I wanted to use those tricks
as a tool to get him more involved in class. So I sat with
him during several breaks over the course of the week, to
plan a certain trick he would show the class on Friday,
which I would fit into a lesson complete with related
worksheets. On Friday he showed up with a completely
different (and unsuitable!) magic trick. He wasn’t
interested in that trick anymore, was all he said.
Another student simply didn’t show up (note the empty
bench) in class on the day which we had designated it to
be her “special day”. I remember those lessons well.

22. The Choral Power of CHARTS
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Oct.
1
Oct.
3
Oct.
5
Oct.
8
Oct.
10
Oct.
12
YES! “Choral” as in “chorus”.

23. Now for a completely different kind of example. Charts are a
very powerful motivational tool and there is a great deal
that can be said about them. But for now we’ll focus on the
“Eureka Moment” aspect. Let me show you how its done.
As people here speak many different languages, I thought
one language that for sure you wouldn’t know is Israeli Sign
Language. Here’s what we’ll do:
Please write today’s date under the first column. I’m going
to show you seven words, one by one. If you think you know
the answer, say it out loud. Then I’ll flip the flashcard and
show you the answer. If you were right, fill in the first box,
then the second box, in today’s column. If you didn’t know,
don’t. etc.

24. (Two of the Signs I used during the talk
were easily guessed by all).

25. (The Sign for this word was guessed by
some of the people present.)
You can see the word being signed (by a former student!) here:
http://www.signpedia.org/sign.php?id=179&r=1274045989

26. (The Signs for these words were not
guessed by anyone.)

27. (Here’s what many people’s chart
looked like)

28. Now we’ll pretend to have a time machine. It is
two days later. Please write the date under the
next column. I will shuffle the cards and we’ll try
them again.
(The way
many
people’s
chart
looked after
second
time.)

29. So what happened here?
True, kids will say they knew some words when they
didn’t. Many exaggerate, but to a limited degree. I
haven’t met a single student who said they knew all the
words when they didn’t.
It is also so true that some kids are shouting their
answers out in delay so as to hear others answer first.
But that’s O.K.
It’s not a test. In this manner they have to be on the ball,
focused and catch the word quickly so as to look good.
Repeating the answer in real delay would stand out.
And then the thing that never ceases to amaze me
happens (even though I’ve seen it countless times):

30. STUDENTS ASK TO BORROW THE FLASCHCARDS
SO THEY CAN STUDY AT HOME!
The rising column on the charts is SUCH a
satisfying feeling that they are prepared to
work to get it.
(People at the talk also used the words
“satisfying” “feels good” “encouraging” after
the second column).

31. I owe a huge debt of thanks
to this program, YALP (and
the counselor Judy Yaron)
which was designed for
individual work. It
introduced me to the power
of charts. I adapted it to
“choral group work” and am
delighted with the results.

32. THANK YOU FOR READING!