GENUINE STUDENT TRANSFER of the FIVE STAGES of LEARNING

A couple of years ago I came up with a theory that involves teachers and students using the 5-STAGES of GRIEF as a model for their own learning. It sounds a bit grim, but if you click on the original post, since published in ETAS, you can see where, and how I took it for use as a type of an autonomous-student formative assessment in my workplace.  The reason for today's post is that we witnessed a student using the model to complete a presentation he did over the bayram holiday.  We had not asked for the Five-Stages analysis, but he chose to include it, himself, which real autonomy, dedication and awareness of his own understanding.

Holiday Assignment...

The homework project involved the students watching a film that we had given them to view over the holiday.  We made sure that there was a purpose to the activity, otherwise we knew we would get the students either not watching it, or just the beginning, then watch a trailer on youtube.  The objective, therefore, was for them to watch the movie using English subtitles, then they had to take a snapshot of 6 important scenes, and describe in reasonable detail what has happened up to and including that point.  They then had to make a ppp showing the scenes, a description of events, and the reason why they liked that scene.  The bullet pointed objectives below outline what the benefits of doing such an activity are:

• Listening practice
• Reading practice with the English subtitles
• Identifying the themes set out in the screenplay
• Empaythizing with the protagonist   (& antogonist in this case)
• Using technology skills to display the findings
• Present in English to the class on their return

The student who blew our minds this morning was a kid called Emre.  It was so good what he had done, I asked if I could use his example on the blog.  He dutifully agreed and here is what he produced:

THE FIVE STAGES OF PAKU

STAGE ONE: DENIAL

He denies the baby girl's arrival when her father, Poro, gives her the name, Paikea.

STAGE TWO: ANGER

He gets very angry when Poro leaves his daughter, now called Paikea, with his father (the tribal leader), so he can go to the city to become an artist. 

STAGE THREE: BARGAINING

He tries to change the girl's name, by getting agreements from his villagers.  He prays every day for a boy to save the village and tribe.

STAGE FOUR: DEPRESSION

He stops talking to everyone and cries to the spirits and his ancestors. He moves to a secluded area of the village. He continues to prey for help.

STAGE FIVE: ACCEPTANCE

When he sees that his grand-daughter does indeed have a special connection to whales, especially after his wife gives him the whale bone only Paikea could get from the sea bed. She is then celebrated as the village and tribal leader by Paku. 

(note: I tidied up some of the syntax for your reading pleasure. However, all of the ideas are his.)

This image shows the final scenes where Paikea makes a spiritual connection to the whales.

Much more than just a successful project, but we witnessed true investigative student-enquiry (over a holiday) that highlighted how this kid has really understood the conceptual theory of the 5-Stages of Learning. I have to be honest when I say I was totally proud this morning, to be a teacher of Emre.

A Holiday Voice Recording Activity

My colleague and I absolutely love our IPhones.  We constantly use them in and out of the classroom to stay connected with each other, as well as with the students. (Check out David's recent post on making a What'sApp group for your students) We also take photos or shoot videos of our students in action several times a week.  Yet, when it comes to students using their mobile phones in class, we can still be a bit conservative.

The primary reason for this is that we are extremely lucky this year in terms of technology in the classroom.  All of our students either have a Macbook Pro or MacBook Air.  Therefore, most of the technology time in our curriculum is based on getting the students more skilled at using them.  Secondly, though, is the fact many students get so easily distracted when it comes to having their mobile phones in class.  Since they are continuously getting instant messages from their friends and families, students can quickly lose focus when doing a M-learning activity.

Nonetheless, we are not totally against using smartphones for a classroom activity from time to time. We know how much our students enjoy using them.  Plus, there is an abundance of apps that are available for smartphones, yet not available for the Macbooks.  One such app that we occasionally use is called Voice Record Pro, and we used it just last week for a speaking and listening activity about the upcoming holiday here in Turkey.

What Are You Doing During the Holiday?

  

This activity starts off with this simple question, and the students write down a short paragraph in their notebooks as the first step.  It doesn't need to be very long in length, just somewhere around four to five sentences.

When they have finished, we tell the students to get their mobile phones and open Voice Record Pro. We then have them go off to find a quiet place outside of the classroom to record the paragraphs that they have just written about their upcoming holiday.  If they have written four or five sentences, their recordings should be around 30 seconds long.  With that in mind, we tell them that they have a maximum of five minutes to get their paragraphs recorded and come back to the classroom.  Even though that is more than enough time, many students can be shy or embarrassed about recording their voices, and thus, often make three or four recordings to get something they are happy with.

While the students are away making their recordings, I organize the students into pairs.  You can do this manually, or by using the brilliant teacher resource, Triptico.  Once the students come back, you display their pairs on the board.  Their task now is to send their voice recording to their partner (and vice versa), then make notes in their notebooks of what his / her partner is doing during the holiday while listening to it.  Finally, once everyone is finished, we then have each person share his / her findings as a whole class.

It is a simple and fun activity to do, yet there is definitely an academic objective to it.  There are various English skills practiced while doing it, as listed below...

GRAMMAR: The students practice using the present continuous tense to talk about the future.

WRITING: The students practice writing the present continuous in paragraph form.

SPEAKING: They have to speak calmly and clearly while recording so that their partners can understand it.

LISTENING and NOTETAKING: They have to listen carefully to the recordings, and take notes of what was said.

Give a try next time you are close to having a holiday, and let us know how it goes, or if you have your own variation of the activity.  We would love to hear it!

TIN TIN Helps & Encourages Students to Talk

As a young lad growing up in Scotland we were never spoiled by quality children's tv on the weekends.  That means we were encouraged to explore our own locus and do what young boys do best: football, play mischief and explore the WW2 abandoned gun turrets at the local beach.  However, every summer, BBC Scotland would play re-runs of Hershey's Adventures of Tin Tin, and that magnificent French animated series showing a young lad living in a world of intrigue and mystery helped formulate my love of visual imagery that plays a pivotel role in my teaching forty years on.

The activity that I have used with TIN TIN is a very simply set-up class activity where the students watch a 2 minute clip from the Hollywood movie, and dub over the extract with their interpretation of what happens in that scene.  However, in order to use this media for enduring understanding in an academic context, not just as speaking-practice, is to have the students analyze the clip by considering the classic academic organizational model, S.P.R.E. (Situation, Problem, Response, Evaluation) to use as the basis for their dialogues.

So, the students have to decide on the organization of the clip, yet without interfering with their creativity.  Of course, they have to consider how the director takes the scene, but we give them freedom to make Tin Tin whoever they want (as none of our Turkish students knew who he was). The scene I chose also has Captain Haddock and his trusty jack russell, Snowy.

DUBBING

Our students are now 95% iphone owners, with the rest Samsung. Therefore, there is a great opportunity to use Mobile Technology in the class for a affective activity. The students love to use their phones in their learning, so it is already a winner.

The recording app we have been using, and one that we recommended that the students download for free is, VOICE RECORDER HD (although there are hundreds to choose from).

It is important to remind the students that before they start to record their dialogues that they have made sure there is not only coherence for their voiceovers, but a strong SPRE cohesive sense for logic and accountability.  This is a challenging aspect of the activity, and students need to not only get over their embarrassment of being recorded, but also that their finished video makes sense for the viewer. 

Once the students have made their recordings it is then a simple case of adding the audio to Windows Movie Maker or IMovie timeline and merging the new clips for a whole class viewing experience.

PenzuClassroom Offers Up Quality Writing-Feedback Opportunities

Several years ago I started doing some serious data collection for my MSc TESOL dissertation.  The topic was Video Feedback in the Writing process.  It meant I used the data from my grade nine class, and I found the best way for collected student work was by using an online journal. I came across Penzu, and I used it then and up until 18 ago. The reason I say 18 months is down to the Penzu team creating something even better for teachers and students around that time. It means I don't have to rely on antiquated emails, word files and a messy desktop with scores of files ready to get sent to each individual student. You know what happens, things get mixed up, confusing and extremely irritating in your gmail inbox. It all adds to the already far-too-long process of weekend feedback and marking. Therefore, I give you the awesome:

The Penzuclassroom is all in the cloud, therefore you never need to save as it is done automatically like in Googledrive.  That is such a revelation for the forgetful and stressed out teacher.  Anyhow, the next amazing function of Penzuclassroom is that once you set up your classroom and share the code with your students (you can have as many as you want for the 50$ sign up, so it is cheap per student), the student then simpğly writes on Penzu, like they have always done, and submit it to the class.  It then arrives in the teachers administrator classroom window. It has time of submission, the students who sent and its size.

So, once the students submit, you simply open it up and give your feedback.  Now, this is where the title of this post comes from: Feedback opportunities.  I came up with this last week, and shared it with the Penzuteam. They liked it and are working on making it a feature for teachers. It involves Color-Coded Highlighting for Feedback on Errors.  You can note at the top of this last image there is a line of macro-icons.  This is where you can find the highlighter for marking on the students journals before you return them.  The colors available on the site struck as something that could cross-over into our teacher-toolkit.

So, I thought about all the acronym-symbols we have been shown over years. But I believe the color-coding works better, as do my students, who took to it immediately.  It encourages them to think about their errors, and not just accept what the teacher has changed for them. THEY NEVER LEARN proper writing that way. Teachers seem to think it can help, but it really doesn't! The students must have autnomy in their writing, if they are to rise to levels needed for Academic expectations throughout high school and university. 

So it is as simple as it looks:

ORGANIZATION is Orange, LOGICAL IDEAS are Lemon, GRAMMAR is Green, BAD VOCABULARY & SPELLING are Blue, with PUNCTUATION bringing up the rear in Pink.

Click this video tutorial which shows the platform and how the highligter looks

I really hope you take the opportunity to sign up for PenzuClassroom. I guarantee your efforts will be rewarded with quality engagement from your students, and your boring-marking times will be enhanced with this addition to your ICT-in-ELT toolkit.

There is (an) WHAT'S APP for that...

Now that we are all aware (and in acceptance) of the huge numbers of mobile apps available to us all as consumers, it surely makes sense, as teachers and students, to Adopt and Adapt educational apps that can help to facilitate learning?  One such app that has become ubiquitous in a reasonably short time for free messaging on mobile phones is WHAT'S APP.  That is why we have started to use it with our new intake of preparatory students this year to communicate, share and practise English out of class time.

In fact, it was one of our students, Sinan, who initiated the class forum. Once he had each class member on board, he asked if my colleague and I would be interested in participating.  We accepted his request, but with some guidelines for an effective platform:

All communication has to be in English

Every student is encouraged and reminded to join in

No posts that could fuel iritation (football or negative teasing)

Polite and informative chat is the primary consideration

Here are some snippets that show how responsive our students have been to the forum:

Students greet each other in English

A Student enquires of others where their class peer is

A student uses it to arrange a Saturday hook-up

It's always important to remind them it's English-only

Students Request & Receive 24/7 Homework-Support (from Trs & Sts)

Another interesting find, and use for this service, is how the students use it to find out about other subjects such as Science and Turkish. Remember, these are native Turkish fourteen year olds with limited English.

The final exciting use of WhatsApp is how the students can also post audio files of a message they want to share. This will improve speaking and listening, plus build a lot of self-confidence.

Now after three weeks, we have seen over 1000 posts of English communication.  It is an authentic place for practice, development and communication.  It also leads to great self-confidence, which students starting off in a foreign language so desperately need.

I will say that anyone who reads this and thinks it could only be an irritation for you to be receiving notifications on your mobile phone as a teacher.  That is a simple fix.  DON'T OPEN the APP if you want to stay off at any time.  It is a small price to pay for getting further in contact with your students for educational purposes. Switch it to silent for notifications and away you go.  We have had over 1000 English posts, from less than twenty students.  I reckon the numbers speak for themselves, and I urge you all to try it.  

Critical Thinking Music Videos

Music and English learning go seemingly hand-in-hand. All around the world, songs are used to teach language, especially in primary schools.  It is fantastic way to keep young children engaged. The problem, however, is that as the children get older, music becomes less and less used in any of the school subjects syllabi, despite the fact that teenagers are listening to music all the time on their smartphones. For those who teach high school students, the reasons for not including music in a curriculum are quite clear. Very few teenagers would ever sing in class in front of their peers. They are too cool for that now.

My colleague and I had this very discussion a few months ago, but we were still determined to find a way to get some music in our program. There are simply too many brilliant songs that we could use to engage our students, most of whom have no idea that songs could be about something other than just love, dancing or partying. A perfect example of this was when our students had to make a presentation about their favorite English songs. One young man chose to present Maroon 5's international hit, 'Moves like Jagger', but when I asked him who the song was about, he had no idea!  

After several more occurrences such as this (several students who had never heard of U2), we decided to give it a go. However, seeing that there too many genres of music to choose from, we knew that we would have to narrow our focus down to songs that we could use in an academic context. Therefore, we finally decided upon finding songs that would make our students think. In other words, we would use songs that have various underlying themes, such as the environment, bullying or war, just to name a few, to lead us into a whole class discussion on that particular topic. We would also add several thematic consideration questions to help students better understand the lyrics, as well as help move the class conversation along. Then, for homework, the students would write their ideas and opinions of the song and discussion of it on our class PLN, Edmodo. 

Finally, to take it even a step further, we would try to match up songs that share the same theme(s) as the readers and novels in our syllabus. After serious brainstorming sessions, and many hours spent on putting the videos and discussion questions together on Blendspace, we have come up with a list of more than 50 songs that we believe will get the students thinking and talking, and we call these Critically Thinking Music Videos.

To give you a better idea of how these mini-lessons work, here is an example of one of the first music videos that we discussed with our students, 'Another Day in Paradise', by Phil Collins. At the time, our students were reading the ESL version of A Christmas Carol. While working on the reader, we focused a lot on the underlying themes of poverty and homelessness, and introduced the subject of Dickensian era workhouses to the students. For this reason, we felt the addition of Collins' song would really get our students to empathize more with those who live in these dreadful situations.  If you are not familiar with the song, watch the music video just below.

We left a 15-minute space in the last period to do the activity, which was a nice way to end a busy day. After introducing Phil Collins and basic information behind the song, we showed the music video to the students. Then, we asked them how they felt about the song, followed by the thematic questions we prepared on the Blendspace, pictured below. I was genuinely surprised when, during our class discussion, the majority of our students were engaged by the song. They simply couldn't believe that there could be a hit song about poverty and homelessness. It was not something they had ever heard before. These feelings were further reinforced that night when they wrote short responses to the song on Edmodo for homework. Our critical thinking music videos were a hit, or so it seemed.

Unfortunately, not every music video we have shown since then has been as successful. We teach a fickled group of 14 to 15 year-olds who typically enjoy doing something new the first time, as with Phil Collins, but when the second time comes round, they get bored very easily. Moreover, if the sound or rhythm of a song does not appeal to them, they automatically switch off. This happened when we showed U2's famous ballad, 'Where the Streets Have No Name'. Just two minutes into the song, they all stopped listening. We learned that it all depends on the student group you have. After the U2 debacle, for instance, we started choosing more upbeat music videos that would appeal more to them. 'War' by Edwin Starr was another winner. 

In the end, these music videos have overall been a positive addition to our curriculum. They are a brilliant way to break up the day, and introduce the students to songs they would have otherwise never listened to. The activity leads to a engaging discussion where all students are involved. As with all new additions, though, it takes some time to find out which of the songs work best. The links to our videos can be reached below, or alternatively, they are always available on the right side of the blog. Try some out, and let us know if your students enjoy them or not.

CRITICAL THINKING MUSIC VIDEOS ON BLENDSPACE

Don’t cover the syllabus, UNCOVER it...

In 2011, I was asked if I would write a guest post for Adam Simpson, a fellow English teacher here in Istanbul.  I chose to write about our schools transition into UbD (Understanding by Design).  Now two years on, and thankfully we have continued to implement the template and ideology in order to make our curricula stand out and provide better Understanding for our students.  In fact the new intake of staff this year are having a workshop, today, on the subject.  So, when I was surfing the net for a new image to use in my ppp, I came across this post.  Now, as I read it, I see how enthusiastic I was (and still am) for the UbD model for Curriculum design.

Don’t cover the syllabus, UNCOVER it… 

Adam Simpson writes: "I’m delighted to be host to this fantastic guest post by David Mearns, a fellow English teacher here in Istanbul. I first met David more than a decade ago and have always been amazed by the energy and enthusiasm he has for this job. Enjoy…"

In Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s marvellous educational text book, Understanding by Design, (Pearson, Merril Prentice Hall, 2006), educators are invited to reflect on their curricula and syllabus and decide whether what they are presenting to students is really being understood or not.  It is their firm belief that the reflections of educators unfortunately bears out the latter across the board.  They, thus, propose an approach to education that asks teachers to considerBackward Design as a springboard to improving teaching practices, curriculum content and assessment, so that students experience truerunderstanding of the subject matter, materials and take control of their own learning.

On being invited to blog for Adam’s highly active & informative ‘ELT-(cyber)space, A Year in the life of an ELT Teacher, andnow that I have been bitten by this interactive-caring-sharing ‘elearning-bug’, I considered what I would like to share with him and his readers.  On reflection of my initial ramblings, I realised they have been centered around ITC and Web 2.0 considerations, and I thought that it would be good to share some of my experiences as a seminar participant and subsequent practitioner of Understanding by Design (UbD), so that I can address some sort of balance in my own approach to ELT and education, and not give the impression that I have forfeited everything pedagogically in favour of technology in and out of the classroom.  Therefore, although I embrace technology with open arms, I will only briefly allude to that passion, as this post will outline a particular approach to organising the way I intend to present a video to the Hazırlık class (sts preparing for high school after eight years).

So, to begin with, a bit of background about how we teachers at Hisar Schools have begun the huge task of changing the design of our curricula and approaches to content therein.  We were introduced to UbD as core-team members towards the end of last year with the aim of developing the ‘understanding’ of what UbD means.  It was proposed that once we had understood the basic premise(s) and underlying principles, we could transfer that to our colleagues through workshops and seminars.  In all respects of PD it was a rather considerable learning curve for each member.  Although much of what the authors are relaying is entrenched in our own prior-knowledge of “what we need to consider” and “how to plan good educational unit” paradigms, it is the clarity and simplicity of knowledge transfer with which UbD excels at uncovering what we all need to do in order to transfer information, knowledge and pedagogues to our students, that makes it such an interesting and viable working framework.

After six months of the part-time course at Hisar with our PD-leader, Paul Morgan, where we were introduced to the basic theoretical principles as outlined in the original publication, it soon became very clear to all the participants that we were on to something very special for our truer understanding of what it is we need to teach our students in order for them to have a more fulfilling educational experience.  I will give examples of how I have transferred that pd to my my own working practices a little later.  But suffice it to say, the most telling understanding that struck me, and has stuck with me throughout all of my own UbD pd, and to which I owe the phraseology to a very dynamic dynamic and thought-provoking educator from the States, Margo Guilott, who works closely with the authors in spreading the UbD word through on-line education and out-in-the-field seminars, is: “It’s not about covering the syllabus, but uncovering the syllabus.”

When Margo uttered this wonderfully illuminating sentence to our core-group of teachers, via a video link in June, I was hooked on the concept and ideology of Understanding by Design.  Too many of us as teachers are only too willing to go with what has been written for them, or what they have written before as the ‘best’ way to approach planning and lessons.  Typical comments like, “Well, it kind of worked last year, so I’ll go with it.”,and “The students have to do it this way.  If they don’t get it, what am I supposed to do?” or “My students always answer the questions I give them.  They definitely get it.”, have always left me cold, and unfortunately I have been guilty of those responses as wellL.  UbD offers educators the opportunity to remove such thoughts by getting to what it is students actually need.  Teachers  are expected to look at what it is they are teaching and find out what are the best outcomes from the topics covered and assignments undertaken; not to mention the move towards formative assessment as an integral part of the syllabus.

Allow me to show by example of how my colleague, Brentson Ramsey,and I, have gone about revamping and uncovering our Hazirlik syllabus in order to give a much more complete and satisfying learning experience to our students.

UbD Template used by teachers to outline their objectives and learning outcomes, assessments and tasks to be implemented.

When presenting videos to students many teachers are under the false impression that the only outcome they can hope to achieve is that the students “have fun.”  Many others will only use video as a means of pacifying their students and for filling in time at the end of the lesson, day or semester.  I propose that this myth can be busted (thanks Adam Savage), so that video can be an integral-pedagogical part of our lessons and syllabus.

Our current trend for visual feasts via youtube and the like in the sober social past-time constructs has made our lives as teachers more interesting.  I write this as someone who has always appreciated visual stimuli as a student, but now I believe that the inclusion of more video for instruction (see my blog on Dave Dodgson’s that proposes the use of video for feedback in the writing process) opens up a world that you and your students will experience a much more satisfying and engaging learning experience.

The video that I want to show you in this blog involves a dog who retrieves a ball from a pool.  As you watch it I’d like you to think what both teachers and students could learn from it:

A DOG IN THE POOL

Now, clearly, this is a “fun” video.  Definitely one that will get your students laughing and talking,  as well as being engaged for sure.  This is your first teaching moment.  Here you have a cute dog, a ‘clever’ dog with an unusual ball retrieving style; here your students can relate this to their own lives.  Most of them, if not all, will have a dog or at least know a dog whose attempts by its owners to teach it to do tricks have succeeded or failed miserably. Enter: ICRD (Immediate Connect, Reaction & Discussion) [an attempt to add yet another acronym to the ESL-community J] It is so important that your video of choice engages your audience.  It cannot be that it only satisfies You because you think “They will like it, and have fun”.ENGAGING YOUR AUDIENCE NOT JUST “FOR FUN”

So, you engaged them through their prior knowledge and interest in their own child-love of the pet dog-trick world.  Is this now an end to the video?  Absolutely not!  Discussion is important for sure, but it is the further-follow up that will procure more learning and understanding of what it is videos are and should be used in the classroom.

As I wrote above, the follow up to  video is what will get the truer understanding of the visual media presented.  In our case we plan to use penzu.com as a means to get students to write journals in response to the videos they will watch every Friday afternoon.  In terms of the UbD template we see that the opening box asks for justification of: “students will be able to independently understand…” this is the strength of the overall outcome: identify, respond, write, display confidence & communicate their own message.  This strong-verb consideration is tantamount to success in the teachers’ overall planning of a unit.  This particular video lasts only one and a half minutes, yet it has some very deep and thoughtful considerations for students highlighted and asked by Brentson and Myself.

The next section, and my particular favourite, is the “UNDERSTANDINGS” section.  This is where we expect students to have thought way outside the box in order to fully benefit from such media (or any mode of teaching and learning for that matter).  Students will understand that thematic investigative enquiry and personal opinions can be shared.  By responding through writing and doing it as a homework assignment where the students have to rethink or review the video is surely meaningful for getting students to better understand?  The final consideration moves away from the surface of the video and what the students think and into what goes on behind the scenes and into the director’s (or in this case dog owner) frame of mind.  Of course we or the students can never know that for sure, but it is the investigative enquiry and subsequent belief in what they have seen that leads to a better understanding of the content.

The final section leads the teacher and students into the style of questioning we are all very accustomed to.  It follows on in order through the Blooms Taxonomy sense of enquiry by starting with surface and recall, and moving onto more thought-provoking questions.  Essentially, thinking outside the box.

• · Why is there a mattress in the pool?
• · What’s the motive of the owner?
• · Is it possible for dogs to do this with conscious thought?

As you read through my proposal for video in the classroom, and a (very)brief explanation ofWiggins and McTighe’s excellent work, ask yourself whether you believe that by getting students to think past the obvious-surfacelevel is an impractical way to get them to understand anything you may want to present.

• Why is the mattress in the pool?

Well, it shouldn’t be; Why would there be a mattress in the pool?; Who keeps a mattress in a pool? Has the mattress been there since day one of the trick?

• What’s the motive of the owner?

She wants her dog to do a trick?; Has she set it all up to get herself (and dog) on tv?; Is she trying to win 50$ from a “funniest videos” tv show?

• Is it possible for dogs to do this with conscious thought?

Of course not, dogs don’t have that, do they?; can the dog differentiate between a mattress or any other floating island in a pool?; would/could the dog find a way without the woman having put the mattress there in the first place?; How is the trick any good without a mattress lying in the family pool? etc etc…

In what I have shared with you in this blog I would hope it that it makes you believe in video-for-the-class as a viable option for really engaging pedagogy.  Of course, it needs to be thought out well and properly organised.  UbD allows for us as all to investigate and self-reflect on our preparation and practices for designing syllabus.  UbD is not prescriptive in What you teach, but asks you to consider How you plan, prepare and teach (PPT- another acronomic newbie?).  By asking Essential Questions to initiate thought, before in yourself, and later in your students through a Blooms-style approach of enquiry and investigation will ultimately lead to outcomes-of-Understanding(s) that undoubtedly give students the opportunity to own their learning truly autonomously and effectively.  Always remember the wonderful addendum made by my American colleague I referred to earlier,