The Demo

What goes into a demo class? I have no idea. You have no relationship with the students, no rapport, no history, nought but a generic outline of the syllabus, and no time. What can you even do?

Do you have a general plan for your demo classes? What do they look like?

When I did corporate training I did demos from time to time. Some companies on the fence would request a demo before signing a contract with us. The point of the demo is really to show your teaching style. The demo we did was always the same (giving opinions and agreeing/disagreeing). It lasted about 35 minutes.

The company would usually bring in about 8 - 10 staff to take part in the demo and then I would be watched by about 3 - 4 HR staff and some other high level management staff, sometimes foreign managers.

They usually went smoothly. I remember this one American company though. They brought in 18 staff to take part in the demo. The entire HR staff was there to watch as well as 10 foreign managers (I kept thinking, does anyone have any work to do here ). Anyway, while I was asking the students questions like "Can anyone tell me one what kind of language can we use to give an opinion?" The American managers kept putting up their hands to answer my questions

So...

Introduce self
Setup activity (with some q&a process because it show engagement)
Class does activity / demo teacher monitors, relates, impresses
Wrap up with a joke???


I literally have no idea for demo structure. I can plan classes in general, but they're 2x45 minute chunks that build themes and processes over 16-18 weeks of contact. Stripped of that background and shortened, possibly even to be delivered to staff rather than students, I don't know how any of my usual class tactics can make sense of anything.

How old are the students?

If I ever ended up demoing for some place, it'd likely be a high school, or with high school aged students. I don't have any demos in my immediate future though. And I really am more of a university teacher so I may never end up doing one. But I do want to know how even though the theory of having demonstration classes makes no sense to me.

I doubt a high school or university would ever require a demo. Training centers do them every week to try and stir up business. The demos are usually the same and last about about 30 minutes. It's really just to show teaching style.

As part of a job interview process: submit a cv, have an interview, do a demo.

My paranoid self thinks a demo at that stage of a job interview process is a fallback position for an interviewer - as in, well we like you, but we can't make up our minds, how about do this extra song and dance? I am told though, demonstration classes are a real thing for, say, international school positions or jobs with high schools that want more than the China job seekers usually offer.

Two universities I have taught at have used it / required it in the past, at times. Not universally but it is certainly one of the things they have used.

So what do you do? I know what my teaching style is: plan a shit ton of structure, make the students go through the structure, alter the structure to address issues as they arise. Issues arise in terms of how well or poorly the students as a whole are demonstrating control of this or that concept or this or that method, whichever it is I'm trying to teach. I don't see how to demonstrate that. I don't know what to put into any given 20-30 minute display class if that class is *not* part of some wider syllabus. Possibly I don't know what a demonstration class actually is.

What do you put in your demo?

You're probably right about it being a fallback position for interviewers who are afraid to make a decision. Especially when they observe and hire by committee. Maybe they've been burned before by bad hires?

I guess I can't say its my favourite demo, because I've only done it as a demo twice. It's a variation of my first lesson. Grammar focus is on modals of permission, prohibition and requirement.

 The structure is on the blackboard, in that I have questions on one side of the board, new words on the right and a quotation to start the class across the centre top of the blackboard. (I can do it with powerpoint as well, but not as effectively. my ppt skills suck)  The title of the show is the quotation: "May I see your identification please?"

 The class starts before class starts, as I always keep the last half dozen or so students out of the room while I get the bulk of teh class to rehearse that quotation, then I let people in one at a time, do a security check (class monitor gets to wave a ruler over them looking for who knows what), and have the whole class ask the incoming Ss for identification. Then I get into a dsicussion of requirements, prohibitions and permissions at the airport. Then, I apply the same grammar to discussions of my expectations in a classroom.

This works as a demo for the same reason it works as a first class. I seem a little off the wall (well I am), but I have a way of engaging Ss and I actually do have a plan and a structure. It shows in brief how I like to structure my classes.

Aha! An achievable!

That's to say, I may have been underthinking this. If there's something that I believe I am teaching, then presumably there is some idea of progress within a given class, which ideally one can write down as a process - the steps from here to there that are this "progress" - a lesson plan. If one is aware of their lesson targets, what they are "trying to teach", then perhaps developing a particular lesson as a demo isn't so hard.

If that's a bit abstract, what I meant was I had an A Ha moment reading the description of your demo lesson, Late. Especially the sentence "[Grammar] focus is on...." A Ha, I thought, lesson focus! What's the intended achievement! And for a demo lesson, what targets do I want to show off!


I still don't know, of course. I think for the non-language classes I do, the target is "the 4 skills", so perhaps some demo around introducing and using those. Bingo!