School Experience 2012-1

1
School Experience
Tutorials & Observations

DALE Department of
Arts & Languages in Education

Compiled by Dr Doreen Spiteri
SCHOOL EXPERIENCE TUTORIALS & OBSERVATION TASKS, DALE.
2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Discussion Task 1: The Communicative approach ...................................... 03

Discussion Task 2: Contrasting approaches ............................................... 05

Discussion Task 3: What should be included in a lesson plan? ..................... 07

Discussion Task 4: Lesson aims ............................................................... 11

Discussion Task 5: Lesson planning - aims ................................................ 12

Discussion Task 6: Evaluating lesson plans ............................................... 14

Discussion Task 7: Analyzing a Lesson Plan .............................................. 16

Discussion Task 8: Planning a sequence of lessons .................................... 18

Discussion Task 9: Using lesson plans ...................................................... 20

Discussion Task 10:Teachers' language: Instructions ................................. 22

Discussion Task 11:Questioning .............................................................. 24

Discussion Task 12:Critical analysis of teacher questions ............................ 26

Discussion Task 13:Schemes of work ....................................................... 28

Discussion Task 14:Group work vs. Individual work ................................... 32

Observation task 1: Teaching and learning roles ........................................ 33

Observation Task 2: Teaching skills and strategies: Presenting ........................ 36

Observation Task 3: Lesson planning ....................................................... 39

Observation Task 4: Classroom management ............................................ 42

Observation Task 5: The whiteboard as resource ....................................... 44

Observation Task 6: The learner as resource............................................. 46

3
Discussion Task 1: The Communicative approach
(Adapted from Gower, R., Phillips, D., and S. Walters, (1995) Teaching Practice Handbook Heineman)

Aim: The aim of this discussion task is to introduce you to the basic characteristics of
Communication Language Teaching together with some of the related terminology.

Background

The Communicative approach - or Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is the name
that was given to a set of beliefs, which included not only a re-examination of what aspects
of language to teach, but also a shift in emphasis in how to teach.

The 'what to teach' aspect of the Communicative approach stressed the significance of
language functions rather than focussing solely on vocabulary. A guiding principle was to
train students to use these language forms appropriately in a variety of contexts and for a
variety of purposes.
The 'how to teach aspect' of the Communicative approach is closely related to the idea that
'language learning will take care of itself', and that plentiful exposure to language in use
and plenty of opportunities to use it are vitally important for a student's development of
knowledge and skill. Activities in CLT typically involve students in real or realistic
communication, where the accuracy of the language they use is less important than
successful achievement of the communicative task they are performing. Thus, role-play and
simulation have become very popular in CLT, where students simulate a television
programme or a scene at an airport - or they might put together the simulated front page
of a newspaper. Sometimes they have to solve a puzzle and can only do so by sharing
information. Sometimes they have to write a poem or construct a story together.

What matters in these activities is that students should have a desire to communicate
something. They should have a purpose for communicating (e.g. to make a point, to buy an
airline ticket, or write a letter to a newspaper). They should be focused on the content of
what they are saying or writing rather than on a particular language form. They should use
a variety of language rather than just one language structure. The teacher will not
intervene to stop the activity; and the materials he or she relies on will not dictate what
specific language forms the students use either. In other words, such activities should
attempt to replicate real communication. The following activities are organized along a
'communicative continuum' (see Figure 1).

Non-communicative activities Communicative activities
no communicative desire
no communicative purpose
form not content
one language item only
teacher intervention
materials control

a communicative purpose
a desire to communicate
content not form
variety of language
no teacher intervention
no materials control
FIGURE 1: The communicative continuum

Not all activities occur at either extreme of the continuum, however. Some may be further
towards the communicative end, whereas some may be more non-communicative. An
activity in which students have to go round the class asking questions with a communicative
purpose, but with some language restriction, may be nearer the right-hand end of the
continuum; whereas a game which forces the use of only one structure (with the teacher
intervening occasionally), will come near the non-communicative end.

4
Information Gap
A key to the enhancement of communicative purpose and the desire to communicate is the
information gap. A traditional classroom exchange in which one student asks Wheres the
library? and another student answers Its on Green Street, opposite the bank when they can
both see it and both know the answer, is not much like real communication. If, however,
the first student has a map, which does not have the bank listed on it, while the other
student has a different map with post office written on the correct building - but which the
first student cannot see - then there is a gap between the knowledge, which the two
participants have. In order for the first student to locate the bank on their map, that
information gap needs to be closed.

Umbrella term
The Communicative approach or Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has now become
generalised 'umbrella' terms to describe learning sequences which aim to improve the
students' ability to communicate. This is in stark contrast to teaching that is aimed more at
learning bits of language just because they exist and without focusing on their use in
communication. However, while it has been widely accepted for some time that
communicative activities are a vital part of a teacher's repertoire, it is less clear whether it
is possible to pin down exactly what a communicative approach is. After all, most language
teaching aims to improve the students' communicative ability, whatever techniques the
teacher uses to promote this. And CLT has also included snatches of drilling and focused
language work despite the non-communicative nature of such activities.

Objections
Communicative Language Teaching has come under attack from teachers for being
prejudiced in favour of native-speaker teachers by demanding a relatively uncontrolled
range of language use on the part of the student, and thus expecting the teacher to be able
to respond to any and every language problem, which may come up. In promoting a
methodology, which is based around group and pair work, with teacher intervention kept to
a minimum during, say, a role-play, CLT may also offend against educational traditions,
which it aimed to supplant. We will return to such issues in detail in Hl (below). CLT has
sometimes been seen as having eroded the explicit teaching of grammar with a consequent
loss among students in accuracy in the pursuit of fluency.

Finally
Despite these reservations, however, the communicative approach has left an indelible
mark on teaching and learning, resulting in the use of communicative activities in
classrooms all over the world.
5
Discussion Task 2: Contrasting approaches
(Adapted from Parrott, M., (1993) Tasks for Language Teachers Cambridge)

Aim: This Task helps you to increase your awareness and knowledge of approaches to
developing learners' linguistic competence, and encourages you to consider the
principles underlying different approaches. The Task also encourages you to
experiment with alternative approaches.

Task: The following two examples describe different ways in which the attention of
learners may be focussed on new language and how they may be encouraged to use
it.

Read these and discuss the questions that follow.

Approach A

The following three stages are in chronological order:

a) The teacher draws attention to the meaning and form of one sentence, which provides a
model of a particular structure. The students repeat the sentence while the teacher
checks that they are saying it correctly. Using cues of some kind (pictures, word
prompts, etc.), the teacher then elicits further examples of the structure from the
students.

b) In pairs or groups:
- the students do written exercises to practise the structure
- they engage in narratives or dialogues prompted by written or visual prompts which
closely control the language they use, obliging them to use the structure.

c) The students engage in some written or spoken activity, which is designed to create the
opportunity to use the structure taught, but in which the primary focus is not on the
structure itself. This might, for example, involve a role-play or a discussion, describing
pictures or telling a story.

Approach B
The teacher sets up an activity where some students have access to information that has to
be communicated to those who do not have this information. For example, Student A has a
sequence of pictures which tell a story and Student B has the same pictures but in a
jumbled order. Student B has to arrange his pictures in the correct order by listening to
Student A and asking him appropriate questions.

At some point during or after the activity the teacher 'feeds' the students language
(vocabulary and/or structures) which facilitates the task. If this language is 'fed'
retrospectively, the task is repeated with parallel materials.

1. Do you recognise any of these ways of teaching from your own school days? Do you have
any personal preferences with regard to approaches to focussing on new language?

6
2. What assumptions about the nature of language and the nature of language learning
underlie each of these two examples? That is, how do the teachers who teach in this
way view language? And how do they think language learning takes place?

3. To what extent are the approaches these instances exemplify compatible/incompatible?

4. How might the following factors influence the teacher's choice of approach as
demonstrated in these two examples?

a) The environment in which learning is taking place (in a country where English is/is not
spoken).
b) The objectives of the learners in learning English.
c) The age of the learners.
d) The experience and linguistic competence of the teacher.

5. Imagine you are going to plan a lesson and your aim is that the learners (elementary)
should develop the ability to talk about future arrangements using the present
continuous (We're crossing over to Gozo on Friday).
What might be the content of a lesson using an approach that resembles Approach A and
one which resembles Approach B?
Think about:
a) the materials
b) the activity of the teacher
c) the activity of the students

7
Discussion Task 3: What should be included in a lesson plan?
(Adapted from Gower et al (1995) Teaching Practice Handbook Heineman)

Aim: This task aims to familiarise you with the kind of information that should be included
in a lesson plan, based on a series of logical steps.
Information to be included in a lesson plan can be considered under the following headings:
Aims; Procedure; Approach(es) and Activities; Materials, Aids and equipment; Information
about the students; Anticipated problems.

1. Aims
Questions you need to ask (and answer) are not only What do I, the teacher, aim to do?
but also
What do I expect the students to do and/or to have achieved by the end of the lesson?
What specific language will they understand and use? or What specific skills will they have
developed? - These are known as Learning Outcomes.

Example:
To present and practise Why don't you ...? for giving advice.
The students will understand that Why don't you + infinitive can be used to give
advice to a friend. They will be able to use the structure with: go (home), take (an
aspirin), etc. They will be able to give appropriate responses: OK, I will.

Often in a lesson you will have a main aim and perhaps a number of subsidiary aims. This is
particularly true, for example, in a lesson in which skills are integrated or when a listening
or reading text is used to introduce a language item. It is important that you (and the
students) recognize the main aim of the lesson and of each stage.

2 Procedure
This is the part of the lesson plan that lays out the steps - the stages - in the lesson to
ensure that the aim(s) is achieved.

You should indicate on your plan what will be done at each stage and why (the stage aim),
the approximate time, the materials you will use, and perhaps details of any complex
instructions you are going to give or questions you plan to ask.
In order to do this you have to consider how you will order the stages and the
approach(es), activities, and materials you will use at each stage. You will have to answer
these questions:

How much time do I have?
Approximately how will I divide up the lesson into stages?
How much time will each stage take?

You also need to ask yourself:

What will be the aim of each stage?
How will the stages be linked?
Example: For the presentation and practice of Why don't you ...? a lesson of 3S minutes
might be made up of the following stages:

8
Stage 1 (5 mins)
Introduce the structures. Context: giving advice to someone who has a headache, and the
replies to the advice.

Stage 2 (5 mins)
Check students' understanding and practise saying the model sentences.

Stage 3 (10 mins)
Guided practice, using cue cards - in open then closed pairs.

Stage 4 (10 mins)
Freer practice using a new context: giving advice about preparing for a test.
Stage 5 (5 mins)
Students make a record of the form and uses of the structure in their notebooks.

3 Approach(es) and Activities
For each stage you will have to think what approach you are going to use and what
activities the students will do to achieve your aims.
Questions to ask yourself may include:
If my aim is to present or revise a language item am I going to do it through a text, a visual
or oral context (perhaps a dialogue or pictures) or through a problem-solving activity, etc?

For skills development what do my students need before they can listen, read, write or
speak? How will I follow up the skills work?
How will I check that the students understand?
What type of practice activities shall I set up: speaking, pair work, writing?
Have I planned for a balance and a variety of activities and materials - recognizing that
different activities make different demands on the students and arranging it so an easy
activity is followed by a more difficult one, a very active one with a quieter one, etc? Are
the activities ordered logically - from more controlled to freer?
For each stage what sort of feedback is appropriate?
The approaches and activities you decide upon should be indicated in the Procedure part of
your lesson plan. Sometimes it is worth making a note of your intended seating
arrangements as well. Throughout the plan, perhaps in the margin, you can include a note
of the groupings and the interaction at each stage: teacher/students, student/student,
mingle, etc.

4 Materials, aids and equipment
The question you need to ask is:

At each stage which materials, aids and equipment do I need to achieve my aims?

You should make a note on your lesson plan of when you will use these materials and aids
and also include a plan of your whiteboard at each stage of the lesson.

5 Information about the students and the classroom circumstances
It is worth noting at the top of every plan the level of the class, the size of the class and its
composition, especially if it is mixed ability. You will be required to give more detailed
student profiles. You should also note how this lesson fits into the students' course
programme (the timetable fit) and what knowledge you assume the students will bring to the lesson.

9
6 Anticipated problems

Although you need to learn to be flexible in class, to be able to think on your feet and adapt
your lesson plan according to circumstances, you are less likely to be thrown if you give
some thought to some of the things that can go wrong. It is a good idea to make a note
on your plan of any anticipated problems - in terms of language or classroom management
- that could occur during any of the activities and any strategies you have considered for
dealing with these problems. It is particularly useful to include this on the plan you give to
your tutor. In this way you will be given credit for anticipating difficulties, whereas if you
mention such problems after the lesson it sounds as if you are making excuses!
You can anticipate what students will find difficult in a particular language item by
thoroughly researching the language you are planning to teach. Investigate, if possible, the
ways in which the Maltese language is different from English. For example, will your
students have difficulty with the th sound because it doesn't exist in their language? You
can also anticipate difficulties by finding out as much as you can about what the students
have done in previous classes - their individual strengths and weaknesses in skills work, for
example.
There are a number of ways in which the timing and organization of your lesson can be
affected. For example, it is a good idea to think about what you would do if:

the students take a longer or shorter time to do the activities than you had planned;
they find an activity easier or more difficult than you thought they would;
some students finish before the others;
there are some students who need extra support;
there are uneven numbers for a pair work activity;
some or all of the students have already met the material you have based your lesson
round: for example, they have already seen the video you were going to show.

Achieving a balance
It is important to be critical of your lesson plans - especially in checking your aims against
your planned procedures. You should constantly ask yourself What is my aim, and will doing
this in this way achieve my aim?

However, as in all things, you need to strike a realistic balance in the amount of preparation
you do. If you over prepare this usually means getting stuck in your plan and not
responding flexibly to the class; getting obsessed by your 'performance' - by your own
ideas and techniques; or not being sensitive to the students, what they are doing and not
doing. If you under prepare, this usually results in long silences while you decide what to do
next (demoralizing for you and the students!), unclear aims and underexploited activities.
Also, remember that although you influence what happens in the class it is often more a
case of 'managing learning' than teaching; it is the pace the students work at that needs to
be measured, not the pace you work at. You can exhaust yourself with a dazzling array of
new ideas you are determined to try out and then realize the students are doing hardly
anything. In fact, with some well-planned and well set-up activities you might need to do
very little in the classroom.

10

Sample lesson plan (Adapted from Harmer, J. (2002) The Practice of English Language Teaching) Fourth Edition

Date: Class/Form:
Learning Outcomes

AIMS RESOURCES
INTER-
ACTION
PROCEDURE TIME ASSESSMENT ANTICIPATED
PROBLEMS &
SOLUTIONS

11

Discussion Task 4: Lesson aims

Aim: This Task encourages you to explore the thinking which underlies and precedes the
detailed planning of lessons. It looks at different ways of defining aims, and questions the
extent to which it is feasible to specify in advance what learning will take place in a lesson.

Task

Section A General sensitisation

1 To what extent is it possible or desirable to anticipate or specify the outcome of a lesson in
terms of what students will learn or be able to do at the end of a lesson?
In what kinds of lesson is it more or less difficult to specify this outcome?

2 Would you define the aims of the lessons you teach in terms of the activity the learners are
engaged in, in terms of your assumptions about what the learners will learn in the lesson or in
some other way?
In how much detail would you specify aims?

Section B Evaluating lesson aims

Look at the examples of aims as expressed by six teachers (a-f) on lesson plans and answer the
following questions:
a. To practise reading.
b. To present and practise the present continuous for future arrangements.
c. To enable students to make excuses.
d. To help students to refuse invitations appropriately and confidently by referring to their
arrangements using the present continuous, e.g. I'm sorry, I'm seeing the doctor then.
e. To help students to become more confident about their listening skills by demonstrating to
them that they can infer and pick out key information from a text, much of which they
cannot understand.
f. Main aim:
To enable students to describe their daily routines using some of the commonest verbs in
the simple present (first person).
Subsidiary aims:
To develop a better class atmosphere by encouraging students' interest in each other's
lives.
To develop students' listening skills (listening to the teacher talking naturally while using
pictures to convey meaning). To sensitise students to rhythm and weakening of syllable
values, and to encourage them to attend to this in oral production.

1. Which of these aims 'do you consider to be most appropriately expressed?
2. Which teachers do YOU think define aims in an appropriate amount of detail?
3. Which teachers seem to think of the lesson from the students' point of view?
4. Which teachers are most likely to have modified the aims of their lessons in the process of
planning?
12
Discussion Task 5: Lesson planning - aims
(Adapted from Spratt, Pulverness and Williams (2005) The Teaching Knowledge Test Course,
Cambridge ESOL)

Aim: This task helps you understand better what learning outcomes and aims are and how to
express these clearly in your lesson plans.

Task:
Section A: General sensitisation

1. Learning Outcomes describe what we want learners to learn or be able to do at the end of a
lesson. How is a Learning Outcome different from an aim? An aim can take many forms
and have different foci; a learning outcome is focussed on the learners and what they will take
away with them from your lesson.

2. Aims may focus, for example, on a function or a grammatical structure, on the
vocabulary of a particular topic or on developing a language skill. Aims, especially for
young learners, may not always focus on particular areas of language. The aim of a lesson
may also be listening to a story for pleasure or encouraging a positive attitude towards
English.

3. To identify and select the most appropriate aims, we need to ask ourselves two questions:
What do my learners already know?
What do they need to know?
The answers to these questions will help us to make sure that the aims are the right ones
for a particular group of learners at a particular time.

4. Aims should not be confused with procedures. Procedures for example, listening to a
recording and answering questions about it are what the teacher and learners will do at
each stage of the lesson.

5. Aims should not be too general. To teach the past simple or to develop learners reading
skills do not say enough about the purpose of the lesson. More specific aims might be to
introduce and practise the past simple for talking about personal experiences or to give
learners practice in predicting content, scanning for specific information and guessing
meaning from context.
13
Task: Look at the table below. Can you work out the difference between main aims, subsidiary
aims and personal aims? Your tutor will help you.

?
? ?
To improve my organization of
the whiteboard; to give clearer
examples.
Grammar: to revise modal
auxiliary verbs. Functional
exponents: Could/would
you...? Vocabulary: to
consolidate lexis for travel,
accommodation. Phonology: to
focus on intonation. Speaking:
to give controlled oral practice.
To practise making polite
requests in the context of
making holiday arrangements.
Example exponent: Could you
give me some information
about hotels?

Task: The procedures in the table below show a sequence of activities for a lesson with the
main aim of developing intermediate students confidence and skill in informal conversation. The
subsidiary aims for the lesson (A-H) are in the wrong order. Put them in the right order so that
they match the correct procedures.

Procedure Subsidiary aims
1. Students move around the classroom to find
students with matching halves of sentences.
A. To give students fluency practice
To practise using target language in a
meaningful context
2. They talk in pairs about what they find
difficult in listening to informal
conversation.
B. To develop peer correction skills
3. They hear an informal conversation and
identify speakers, place and situation.
C. To listen for detailed information
To focus students attention on target
language
4. They listen again and fill in missing phrases
in the transcript.
D. To practise gist listening
To create a context
5. Repetition drill: students practise key
phrases. Pairs practise simple two-line
exchanges using key phrases.
E. To get students actively involved.
To put students into pairs.
6. Pairs write and practise their own
conversation from role cards, using key
phrases where possible. Several pairs
perform and record conversations.
F. To give students confidence in speaking
through controlled practice.
7. Class comment and suggest improvements
to grammar and vocabulary.
G. To review the whole lesson
To give the teacher feedback
8. Students discuss what they have learnt.

H. To raise awareness of what the lesson
aims will be
To encourage personal involvement
14
Discussion Task 6: Evaluating lesson plans
(Adapted from Martha Lengelin, Mexico and Emily Thrush, USA. The Teacher Trainer Vol 16 No 3)

Aim: It can be difficult to understand the complexity of lesson planning and the function of
plans as a device that defines the roles of the teacher and students, builds on a cohesive
approach to language teaching and learning, and constructs a specific culture for the
classroom. This task is helpful in building the skills necessary for lesson planning as well as
understanding the concepts and conventions behind what often seems to be just busy
work.

Task: Jigsaw Lesson Plan

1. Look at the sample of a good lesson plan whose 3 stages (activities) have been jumbled up.
The criteria for determining a "good" lesson plan are laid out in some detail in the checklist on
page 15, but essentially, a good lesson plan is one that has sufficient information for a reader to
evaluate the appropriateness of the activities for a particular group of language students and for
another teacher to carry out effectively. It is a guide or a map that structures the class and
facilitates continuity from one lesson to the next.

2. Study carefully ONE of the stages of the lesson and become an "expert" on it and make sure
you understand the goals and objectives, logistics and other aspects of that stage of the lesson
plan.

3. Then, taking turns, discuss your stage with the rest of the tutorial group. As a group decide
what the sequence of those stages should be, and put them in order to reconstruct the lesson
plan.

4. Once the sample lesson plan has been reconstructed, develop a template for lesson planning,
by identifying the elements in the sample plan, the purposes for each element, and the degree of
specificity needed (time limits for activities, for example, or indications of the skill area or degree
of difficulty of the activity.)

5. At this point, you can consider the variety of audiences for lesson plans, and consider what
elements are needed if the lesson plan is intended for a tutor, other student teachers, or only as
a guideline for the person who writes it and is going to teach it.

Sample "Good" Lesson Plan

Students: 30 students, Form 1 Area Secondary.
Skill level: Beginners class, although all Ss have been learning English in Primary school.
Recent work: present simple tense (affirmative, negative, and questions), frequency adverbs
(sometimes, often, never, etc.) in the present simple, themes of family and
occupations.
Goal: Students will be able to talk about their everyday activities.
Objectives: Students will be able to:

1. Form questions in the present simple about everyday activities and answer using an adverb of
frequency such as always, usually, never, etc.
2. Use adverbial phrases of times (once a week, twice a month, every day), practice the
questions How often. . . ? and answer with an adverbial phrase. 3. Ask the questions How often. .
. ? and answer with an adverbial phrase or a frequency adverb.

15
Activity No. ?
Time allotted: 15-18 minutes
Context: sports and doing exercises
Activity/class organization: Ss look at the picture of the man who is out of shape and finishing
a marathon on page 38 of their textbooks. T asks Ss what they think he is doing and to describe
the man. T asks Ss how often they do exercise. Ss look at the grammar box while listening to the
cassette. T draws attention to the adverbs of frequency. T then asks a couple of questions about
how often Ss practice different sports and elicits adverbial phrases. Ss answer questions in
exercise one, page 38 using the adverbs of frequency. T circulates to help. Then Ss work in
groups of two to ask and answer the questions using an adverbial phrase.
Materials: book, cassette for Interchange 1, and tape player
Language: adverbial phrases (every day, once a week, twice a week, etc.)
Possible Problems: Ss may not know some of the phrases such as once or twice. T may need to
explain these phrases.

Activity No. ..?
Time allotted: 20 minutes
Context: Ss' personal lives
Activity/class organization: "How often do you..." Board Game. Ss will work in groups of three
or four depending on number of students. Ss take turns rolling the dice and moving a marker on
the board. The player to the right asks the question written on the space on the board. The first
player answers the question with an adverb of frequency or an adverbial phrase. If the group
agrees that the answer is well formed, the player leaves the marker on the new space.
Otherwise, the marker is returned to the previous space. If a S lands on a space marked "free
question", then other players may ask any question that they like. Play continues as time allows.
The T asks which group got the farthest and congratulates this team. T gives Ss feedback and
asks a few of the questions to some of the Ss to finish the activity. T gives homework for the
following day: Interchange 1 workbook for Unit 5 exercise 3, 4, and 7.
Materials: set of dice for each group, coins for markers, copies of board game
Language: present simple questions with how often, frequency adverbs and adverbial phrases
Possible problems: Ss may not understand how to play game and may need clarification on
procedure. Ss may need explanation of vocabulary from other Ss or T.

Activity No. ?
Time allotted: 10-12 minutes
Context: Ss' own lives
Purpose: Review and Fluency building.
Activity/ class organization: Walk and Talk. Ss are each given one question about habitual
activities. Ss interview each other, exchanging papers with the questions after answering each
others' questions. They then find different Ss and ask the new question. Some of the questions
are:
How often do you play a sport?
How often do you go to the playing field?
How often do you do your homework?
For feedback, T asks questions to individual Ss.
Materials: pieces of papers with questions
Language: present simple questions and frequency adverbs
Possible problems: Ss may just be coming from another class and not arrive in time to
practice. Because this is a review activity, Ss will not miss valuable new information.
16
Discussion Task 7: Analyzing a Lesson Plan
(Adapted from Martha Lengelin, Mexico and Emily Thrush, USA. The Teacher Trainer Vol. 16 No 3)

Aim: To sensitise you to those types of mistakes that beginning teachers tend to make: poorly
developed activities, omissions such as lack of identification of the students' skill level, lack
of sufficient detail for an outside reader to understand the activity, as well as activities that
do not work toward the goals of the class and the syllabus, such as a lack of opportunity for
meaningful communication. You will also be introduced to a useful checklist for lesson
plans.

Task: Go through the sample bad lesson plan below and using the Checklist for Lesson Plans
critique this lesson plan. Discuss the problems with the content of the sample lesson (for
example, the lesson in Appendix B allows for no meaningful communication among
students) as well as problems with format.

Sample "Bad" Lesson Plan for Critiquing
Class: This class is big.
Recent work: We have done the first unit in the book and also the workbook.

Stage 1: Grammar explanations of the three grammar points that will be covered in the second
unit of the book.
Objective: To familiarize Ss with all the grammar that they will need to know in this unit. To
translate all the unknown vocabulary that is found in the examples of the grammar points.
Materials: The examples from the book, Maltese /English dizzjunarju.
Timing: Approximately 15-20 minutes.
Procedure: T explains in Maltese all the grammar points of this unit in order that the Ss have a
clear idea of what they will be doing before we do any practice exercises. T uses the dictionary to
look up any words the Ss do not understand and tells the Ss what the translation is in Maltese
and English. Ss are asked if they understand what the T has explained.
Problems anticipated and solutions: Ss may not arrive on time and the T will have to explain
any grammar points the late arrivals have missed.

Stage 2: Grammar Exercise
Objective: To reinforce all the grammar points that the T has just explained but in a writing
activity which is to fill in the blanks.
Language focus: All of the grammar points in Unit Two.
Timing: Approximately 15 minutes.
Procedure:
T has Ss open their books and do three fill-in-the-blank exercises. The T reads the instructions
aloud and then the Ss work individually.

Stage 3: Listening
Objective: Ss will practice listening. Language focus: any
Time: 15 minutes
Procedure:
Ss open their books to the page of the listening text and read along while the T reads the two
page listening text. After listening to the text, Ss answer the 15 comprehension questions and
write all the words that they do not know on a piece of paper. They give the words and answers
to the T when they are through. Ss may start some other homework as soon as they have
finished this activity.

17
Checklist for Lesson Plans
This Checklist can be used by trainees to evaluate their own lesson plans.

Yes/No
1. Mark the activities in your lesson plan according to which of the 4 skills each
activity is primarily intended to develop (Listening, Speaking, Reading or
Writing). Is the range of activities appropriate to the class you are teaching?

2. Mark the activities as Whole class, Group, Pair, Individual or Teacher
(explanations, reading aloud, etc.). Do the Ss work in a variety of
arrangements throughout the class? If not, is there a good reason for not
using a variety of groupings for this particular lesson?

3. Mark each activity as Fast-moving or Reflective. Does the plan contain
changes of pace? If not, will Ss become bored with the slow pace or too
excited to process the language?

4. Mark each activity for the intelligence that Ss will draw on or develop
(musical, artistic, linguistic, spatial, mathematical, etc.) If one day's lesson
draws primarily on one of the intelligences, what intelligences could be
addressed in subsequent lessons?

5. Look for transitions between activities. Will the Ss see an overall structure to
the day's lesson or does it seem like an unconnected collection of activities?

6. Do the activities include a range of level of difficulty?

7. Do the activities range in mood - including some light-hearted and some
more serious?

8. Mark the activities as Interactive or Passive. Are Ss going to be actively
involved through much of the class?

9. Does the plan include a warm-up: something to introduce the day's topic to
the Ss and get them involved in the class?

10.Does the plan take into consideration the age group of the Ss? (Older
students may need a lively activity to get them excited about the class, while
too much excitement can over- stimulate children and make it harder for
them to absorb new information.)

11.Does the lesson end with something that pulls the day's activities together or
provides a general conclusion?

12.Does the plan contain enough information for the intended reader (tutor,
another teacher) to understand the activities and carry them out if
necessary?

(Checklist adapted from Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge UP, 1997, and from Mary Ann
Christison, "Advanced Workshop in Multiple Intelligence Theory", MEXTESOL Conference, Aguascalientes,
November, 2000).

18
Discussion Task 8: Planning a sequence of lessons
(Adapted from Harmer, J. (2002) The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman)

Planning a sequence of lessons is based on the same principles as planning a single lesson. but
there are number of additional issues which we need to pay special attention to:

Before and during : however carefully we plan in practice unforeseen things are likely to
happen during the course of a lesson (as we shall see in Using lesson plans below) and so our
plans are continually modified in the light of these. Even more than a plan for an individual
lesson, a scheme of work for weeks or months of lessons is only a proposal of what we hope
to achieve in that time. We will need to revisit this scheme constantly to update it.

Short and long-term goals: however motivated a student may be at the beginning of the
year the level of that motivation may fall dramatically if the student is not engaged or if they
cannot see where they are going - or know when they have got there.

In order for students to stay motivated, they need goals and rewards. While a satisfactory
long-term goal may be 'to master the English language it can seem only a dim and distant
possibility at various stages of the learning cycle. In such circumstances students need short-
term goals too, such as the completion of some piece of work (or some part of the
programme) and rewards such as success on small staged lesson tests, or taking part in
activities designed to recycle knowledge and demonstrate acquisition.

When we plan a sequence of lessons, we need to build in goals for both students and
ourselves to aim at, whether they are end-of-week tests or major revision lessons. That way
we can hope to give our students a staged progression of successfully met challenges.

Thematic strands: one way to approach a sequence of lessons is to focus on different
content in each individual lesson. This will certainly provide variety. It might be better,
however, for themes to carry over for more than one lesson, or at least to reappear so that
students perceive some coherent topic strands as the course progresses. With such thematic
threads our students and we can refer backwards and forwards both in terms of language -
especially the vocabulary that certain topics generate - and also in terms of the topics we ask
them to invest time in considering.

Language planning: when we plan language input over a sequence of lessons we want to
propose a sensible progression of syllabus elements such as grammar, lexis, and functions.
We also want to build in sufficient opportunities for recycling or remembering language, and
for using language in productive skill work. If we are following a course book closely, many of
these decisions may already have been taken. But even in such circumstances we need to
keep a constant eye on how things are going and with the knowledge of ' before and after'
modify the programme we are working from when necessary.

Language does not exist in a vacuum, however. Our decisions about how to weave it through
the lesson sequence will be heavily influenced by the need for a balance of activities.
19

Activity balance: the balance of activities over a sequence of lessons is one of the features,
which will determine the overall level of student involvement in the course. If we get it right,
it will also provide the widest range of experience to meet the different learning styles of the
students in the class.

Over a period of weeks or months, we would expect students to have received a varied diet of
activities; they should not have to role-play every day, nor would we expect every lesson to
be devoted exclusively to language study. There is a danger, too, that they might become
bored if every Friday was the reading class, every Monday the presentation class, every
Wednesday was speaking and writing. In such a scenario, the level of predictability may have
gone beyond the sufficient to the exaggerated. What we are looking for, instead, is a blend of
the familiar and the new. While they need to know which books to bring when, we can inject
some innovations to break up excessive routine.

Planning a successful sequence of lessons means taking all these factors into consideration
and weaving them together into a colourful but coherent tapestry.

20
Discussion Task 9: Using lesson plans
(Adapted from Harmer, J. (2002) The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman)

However carefully we plan, and whatever form our plan takes, we will still have to use that plan
in the classroom, and use our plans as records of learning for reference.

1. Action and reaction

Planning a lesson is not the same as scripting a lesson. Wherever our preparations fit on the
planning continuum, what we take into the lesson is a proposal for action, rather than a lesson
blueprint to be followed slavishly. And our proposal for action, transformed into action in the
classroom, is bound 10 'evoke some sort of student reaction' (Malamah-Thomas 1987: 5). We
then have to decide how to cope with that reaction and whether, in the light of it, we can
continue with our plan or whether we need to modify it as we go along.

There are a number of reasons why we may need to modify our proposal for action once a lesson
is taking place:

Magic moments: some of the most affecting moments in language lessons happen when a
conversation develops unexpectedly, or when a topic produces a level of interest in our
students, which we had not predicted. The occurrence of such magic moments helps to
provide and sustain a group's motivation. We have to recognise them when they come along
and then take a judgement about whether to allow them to develop, rather than denying
them life because they do not fit into our plan.

Sensible diversion: another reason for diversion from our original plan is when something
happens which we simply cannot ignore, whether this is a surprising student reaction to a
reading text, or the sudden announcement that someone is feeling very sick! In the case of
opportunistic teaching we take the opportunity to teach language that has suddenly come up.
Similarly, something might occur to us in terms of topic or in terms of a language connection,
which we suddenly want to develop on the spot.
Unforeseen problems: however well we plan, unforeseen problems often crop up. Some
students may find an activity that we thought interesting incredibly boring; an activity may
take more or less time than we anticipated. It is possible that something we thought would be
fairly simple for our students turns out to be very difficult (or vice versa). We may have
planned an activity based on the number of students we expected to turn up, only to find that
some of them are out on a school activity. Occasionally we find that students have already
come across material or topics we take into class, and our common sense tells us that it
would be unwise to carry on.

In any of the above scenarios, it would be almost impossible to carry on with our plan as if
nothing had happened:

if an activity finishes quickly we have to find something else to fill the time.
If students cannot do what we are asking of them, we will have to modify what we are
asking of them.
if some students (but not all) have already finished an activity we cannot just leave those
students to get bored.
21

It is possible to anticipate potential problems in the class and to plan strategies to deal with
them. But, however well we do this, things will still happen that surprise us, and which,
therefore, cause us to move away from our plan, whether this is a temporary or permanent
state of affairs.

However well we plan, our plan is just a suggestion of what we might do in class. Everything
depends upon how our students respond and relate to it. In Jim Scriveners words, 'prepare
thoroughly. But in class, teach the learners - not the plan' (Scrivener 1994b:44).

2. Plans as records and research tools

Written plans are not just proposals for future action; they are also records of what has taken
place. Thus, when we are in the middle of a sequence of lessons, we can look back at what we
have done in order to decide what to do next.

Since we may have to modify our lessons depending on student reactions, we need to keep a
record of how successful certain activities were to aid our memory. A record of lessons can also
help colleagues if and when they have to teach for us when we are absent.

Our original written plans will, therefore, have to be modified in the light of what actually
happened in the classes we taught. This may simply mean crossing out the original activity title
or course book page number, and replacing it with what we used in reality. However, if we record
how we and the students experienced the lesson, reflecting carefully on successful and less
successful activities, not only will this help us to make changes if and when we want to use the
same activities again, but it will also lead us to think about how we teach and consider changes in
both activities and approach. Lesson planning in this way allows us to act as our own observers
and aids us in our own development.

22
Discussion Task 10: Teachers' language: Instructions
(Adapted from Parrott, M., ((1993) Tasks for Language Teachers Cambridge)

Aim: This Task looks at different ways in which teachers may give instructions and encourages
you to consider alternatives to these approaches. It also explores some of the problems,
which may arise in giving instructions.

Task: Section A A question of approach

1. Consider the following:

a) How carefully would you prepare the way you will give instructions in a particular lesson?
b) In what ways would you give instructions?
c) Example (With monolingual classes) The teacher may explain the procedure in English and
ask a student to translate this into the learners' first language.
d) What (if any) problems arise with regard to students understanding your instructions?

2 Comment on the following two points of view. Does either of them seem to be more
acceptable than the other? (If you feel that this depends on particular circumstances, qualify
your answer with specific reference to these circumstances.)

a) Teachers should aim to demonstrate to students as simply and as clearly as possible what
they have to do. Non-verbal instructions are often more effective than verbal.
b) The giving of instructions in the classroom is one of the few genuinely communicative acts,
which takes place. The teacher should thus exploit this opportunity by making her
instructions as natural as possible. If they are complicated and difficult for the students to
understand, learners and the teacher are consequently obliged to 'negotiate meaning' to
achieve an authentic communicative purpose.

Section B
Some common problems

Look at the following situations and identify what might have gone wrong. What else could the
teacher have done?

a) (Passage of any level) The teacher hands out a passage for the students to read. She then
tells them to read it very quickly in order to extract the gist. The students begin to read
painstakingly.

b) i) (Lower-intermediate class) The teacher wants to teach the question How long + present
perfect continuous. She wants the students to repeat 'How long have you been studying
English?' but, instead, the students answer her 'Six months'.

ii) (Lower-intermediate class) The teacher has drilled the question 'How long have you been
studying English?' and now wants the students to ask each other across the class and to
elicit the appropriate answers. However, the students simply keep repeating the question.

iii) (Elementary class) The class is learning and practising the simple present. The teacher has
drilled the question 'What time do you get up?' and now wants the students to ask other
questions beginning 'What time do you. . . ?' However, the students keep asking 'What time
do you get up?'

23
3 Evaluate the following instructions, keeping in mind any conclusions you may have reached in
discussing the previous question:

a)
Teacher: 'A. Now, I'd like you to get into pairs, A and B. A, I want you to ask questions to
find out what is in B's picture. B, be careful not to let A see your picture. OK, here are the
pictures. That's right Maria, turn away from Joanne so she can't see it. Everyone, look at
Maria and Joanne and see how they're sitting. That's right. Good.'

b)
The teacher gets the attention of the whole class. Then she gives a picture to Maria and
gestures to her not to reveal it to others. The teacher asks Maria three or four questions to
find out what is in the picture. She then gestures to Wang (who is on the opposite side of
the room) to continue the questions. She then uses gesture to divide the students into
pairs and gives one student in each pair a picture. She says, 'OK? Now you.'

c)
(Elementary class) The teacher wants the students to do an exercise from their workbooks
for homework. She explains that she wants the students to write the answers on a piece of
paper to hand in. In the next lesson, she discovers that most of the students have written
their answers in the workbook. She cannot collect these in because they will need them for
their next homework.

d)
(Advanced class) The teacher has asked each student to prepare a short presentation on a
topic of their own interest to give to the rest of the class. She discovers that many of the
students have written down the text of the presentation and feel unprepared to give it
without reading out what they have written.

24
Discussion Task 11: Questioning
(Adapted from Ur, P., (1999) A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge)

Aim: The aim of this task is to familiarise you with ways of asking questions in class, together
with the reasons for asking them.

Questioning is a universally used activation technique in teaching, mainly within the Initiation-
Response-Feedback pattern.

Note that teacher questions are not always realized by interrogatives. For example, the question:
'What can you see in this picture?'
may be expressed by the statement:
'We'll describe what is going on in this picture
or by the command:
'Tell me what you can see in this picture.'
So perhaps a question, in the context of teaching, may be best defined as a teacher utterance
which has the objective of eliciting an oral response from the learner(s)'.

Task: Reasons for questioning
There are various reasons why a teacher might ask a question in the classroom. Read
through the list of possible reasons shown in Box 1, and add any more that you can think
of.

BOX 1: REASONS FOR QUESTIONING

- To provide a model for language or thinking.
- To find out something from the learners (facts, ideas, opinions)
- To check or test understanding, knowledge or skill
- To get learners to be active in their learning.
- To direct attention to the topic being learned.
- To inform the class via the answers of the stronger learners rather than through the teachers
input
- To provide weaker learners with an opportunity to participate
- To stimulate thinking (logical, reflective or imaginative); to probe more deeply into issues;
- To get learners to review and practise previously learnt material
- To encourage self-expression
- To communicate to learners that the teacher is genuinely interested in what they think
-
-
-

(Note: Any specific question is likely to involve more than one of these alms; for example. It
might review and practise while simultaneously encouraging self-expression)
Cambridge University Press 1996

25
Effective questioning

There have been numerous attempts to identify characteristics of effective questioning techniques
in the classroom. Questions have been classified according to various different criteria:

what kind of thinking do they try to elicit (plain recall, for example, analysis, or
evaluation);
whether they are 'genuine' or 'display' questions (does the teacher really want to know the
answer, or is he or she simply checking if the student does?);
whether they are closed- or open ended (do they have a single right answer" or many?);
and many others.

However, in the present context, we will concentrate on a few basic principles that would seem to
characterize effective questions within the conventional IRF (Initiation Response Feedback)
structure, defining 'effective questions' in terms of the desired response. As language teachers,
our motive in questioning is usually to get our students to engage with the language material
actively through speech; so an effective questioning technique is one that elicits fairly prompt,
motivated, relevant and full responses. If, on the other hand, our questions result in long
silences, or are answered by only the strongest students or obviously bore the class, or
consistently elicit only very brief or unsuccessful answers, then there is probably something
wrong.
Some useful criteria for effective questioning for language teachers are suggested in Box 1.

BOX 1: CRITERIA FOR EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING
1. Clarity: do the learners immediately grasp not only what the question means, but also what
kind of an answer is required?
2. Learning value: does the question stimulate thinking and responses that will contribute to
further learning of the target material? Or is it irrelevant, unhelpful or merely time-filling?
3. Interest: do learners find the question interesting, challenging, stimulating?
4. Availability: can most of the members of the class try to answer it or only the more advanced,
confident, knowledgeable? (Note that the mere addition of a few seconds' wait-time before
accepting a response can make the question available to a significantly larger number of
learners)
5. Extension: does the question invite and encourage extended and/or varied answers? *
6. Teacher reaction: are the learners sure that their responses will be related to with respect, i.e.
that they will not be put down or ridiculed if they say something inappropriate?

*Occasionally - for example, where the emphasis is on listening comprehension rather than
speaking - brief single answers may be more appropriate; in such cases this criterion would not
apply.
@ Cambridge University Press 1996

26
Discussion Task 12: Critical analysis of teacher questions
(Adapted from Ur, P., (1999) A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge)
Aim: The aim of this task is to critique some forms of questioning techniques.
Task: Look at the exchanges in Box 1, which are loosely based on events actually observed in
classrooms. Can you identify what the purpose of the teacher is in questioning, and
comment on the way he or she went about it, perhaps applying the criteria suggested
above? See the Comments section on next page for more criticisms.

BOX 1: TEACHER QUESTIONING

Exchange 1
T : Now today we are going to discuss circuses. Have you ever been to a circus?
Ss: (Immediately) Yes, yes.
T: Yes. Where you see clowns, and horses and elephants and acrobats.

Exchange 2
T: Yesterday we learned various words that express feelings. Can you tell me...What does
'relief' mean?
(pause)
T: Well, when might you feel relief?
(pause)
Can you remember a time when you felt relief? Yes, Claire?
S 1: When my friend was late, I thought he wasn't coming and then he came.
T: Good...Denise?
S 2: I thought I will fail the exam, and then in the end I pass.
T: Good. Now: 'fear'?

Exchange 3
T: Right what was the story about? Can anyone tell me? Claire!
S: Man.
T: Yes, a man. What did this man do? Can you tell me anything about him!
S: He..married.

Exchange 4
T: Here's a picture, with lots of things going on. Tell me some of them. For example: the
policeman is talking to the driver, perhaps he's telling him where to go. What else?
S 1: The little girl is buying an ice cream.
S 2: There's a woman, old woman, in the middle, she's crossing the road.
S 3: A man . sitting....on chair.
T: OK, a man is sitting on a chair, there in the corner...What else?
Cambridge University Press 1996

27

Exchange 1
There is a problem of double messages here, since the declared objective is contradicted by the
questioning technique used. The teacher says explicitly that the intention is to 'discuss'; but the
introductory question, though clear, actually discourages discussion: it is a 'yes/no' question
inviting a single, brief answer, lacking 'extension', and not forwarding the declared teaching
objective. However, it is both interesting and 'available': the fact that the students answer
promptly and apparently enthusiastically indicates that they probably have something to say -
though they are given no opportunity to do so.

Either the teacher did nor really intend to 'discuss' at all and prefers to hold the stage herself, or
she is not aware of the inappropriate form of her questions; perhaps a combination of the two.

Exchange 2
The purpose of the exchange is, presumably, to review vocabulary learned the day before. The
obvious question: 'What does X mean?' though apparently clear, is unsuccessful in eliciting
answers, probably because it is too abstract and difficult; even a competent native speaker of the
language might have trouble answering. It is, thus, not very 'available', and certainly does not
elicit extended answers. This teacher, however, quickly realizes her mistake and rephrases, twice.
The question that demands a concrete example from experience is much better on all counts, and
predictably receives immediate and fairly full responses. But then, what is going to happen with
the next item?

Exchange 3
There is no indication of pauses after the questions, and the answers are basically correct in
content; the questions seem fairly clear, interesting and available to most of the class. But their
value in providing for learning is lowered because of the difficulty of the learners in expressing
their answers in the foreign language. The teacher might have been able to help by giving some
'scaffolding', or modelling answers', in her questions: 'Was it about a man, a woman, an animal
..? It was...Yes, Claire?'

Exchange 4
Here the teacher makes it very clear what kinds of responses she is requesting by providing
examples. She also implies that she expects a number of answers ('extension'). The combination
of these two strategies makes the question far more 'available': the sheer number of student
responses to the single cue looks like being relatively large, and the weak student (S3) ventures
a response based on the examples (of the teacher and of previous speakers) which he or she
would nor have done if only one response, without illustration, had been requested. The sheer
number of responses contributes significantly to the effectiveness of the desired practice of the
target language as a whole.

28
Discussion Task 13: Schemes of work

Aim: This Task encourages you to reflect on planning schemes of work. It also invites you to
compare and evaluate two examples of schemes of work.

TASK: Section A

Personal experience
A 'scheme of work' is an outline of the lessons planned for a particular class over a period of time.

1 How far ahead do you think you should plan?

2 In how much detail should you plan? Does this vary from class to class? What factors affect
the amount of detail you specify in your schemes of work?
3 How would you ensure that your classes got an appropriate balance of the following?
- activities aimed at developing the different 'skills' (listening, reading, speaking,
writing)
- fluency-orientated activities aimed at communication activities with a specific linguistic
focus

4 Would you show your schemes of work to your students?
Why (not)?
5 How might the following affect the organisation and content of a scheme of work?
- the level of the class
- the age of the learners

TASK: Section B
Analysing and evaluating schemes of work
Look at the two schemes of work on page 29 and 30. They are both templates for planning a
sequence of lessons, typically for each term and organized by week.

Compare and contrast the headings for the two Schemes of Work.

Ask for clarification regarding terms you do not understand.
What are the strengths of these Schemes of Work?
Is there anything missing in either?

Task: Section C

Look at the sample scheme of work on page 31. Analyze it for:
- the balance of skills
- language work
- fluency-related activities
- variety
- revision
- homework
29

SCHEME OF WORK FORM ... LANGUAGE

I
N
T
E
R
A
C
T
I
O
N

L
I
S
T
E
N
I
N
G

S
P
E
A
K
I
N
G

R
E
A
D
I
N
G

W
R
I
T
I
N
G

TOPIC/THEME, VOCAB AREA, LANG. FOCUS,
LANG. FUNCTIONS, STRUCTURES, SKILLS

ACTIVITIES
W
E
E
K

1

LITERATURE
W
E
E
K

1

- 30 -

SUBJECT: TEACHER:
FORM:

DIFFERENTIATED LEARNING OUTCOMES

LEARNING
OBJECTIVES

MUST SHOULD COULD PROCEDURE RESOURCES ASSESSMENT
W
E
E
K

1

O
C
T

5

9

W
E
E
K

2

O
C
T

1
2

1
6

31

SCHEME OF WORK FORM 3 LANGUAGE
I
N
T
E
R
-

A
C
T
I
O
N

L
I
S
T
E
N
I
N
G

S
P
E
A
K
I
N
G

R
E
A
D
I
N
G

W
R
I
T
I
N
G

TOPIC/THEME, VOCAB AREA, LANG. FOCUS,
LANG. FUNCTIONS, STRUCTURES, SKILLS

ACTIVITIES
W
E
E
K

1

Making complaints.
Formal letter writing - complaint. Presentation
of model letter as reading comprehension; task
for sts to notice & label parts of letter (as brief
revision of lesson on formal letters in general).
Focus on tenses, discourse markers and esp.
vocab. used in formal English to complain; task:
jumbled up letter to be put in order; task: letter
with parts deleted for sts to fill in.
HW write a letter of complaint to supplier of
faulty cd player.
Listening: sts listen to dialogue between sales
assistant and client returning a faulty item + task
on noticing differences between making
complaints in speech and in writing.
Speaking activity, role play client and shop
assistant.

Whole class work sts answer Qs
on general principles of formal
letter writing
Individual st work sts underline
/label parts of letter
Pair work sorting out jumbled
letter
Whole class listening +
individual working out of
task
Pair work role play

T Ss

Ss

S - S

Ss

S - S

.

W
E
E
K

2

THIS IS A SAMPLE, YOU MAY
USE ANOTHER FORMAT BUT
THE CONTENTS SHOULD BE
LARGELY SIMILAR

31
32
Discussion Task 14: Group work vs. Individual work
(adapted from Parrott, M., (1993) Tasks for Language Teachers Cambridge)

Aim: This task helps you to become more aware of the rationale underlying the range of
choices available to you with regard to grouping students for different activities.

Task

Section A Rationale

1. Make a list of arguments that a teacher might advance against the use of pair work
and group work in the classroom.
2. Make a list of arguments students might advance against the use of pair work and
group work in the classroom.
3. Make a list of arguments you might use in order to persuade teachers and students
who are resistant to the idea of working in pairs and groups and who put forward the
points you have listed in answering Questions 1 and 2.

Example: An argument which might be put forward against the use of pair work and
group work is that this may encourage students to speak in their own language.

Section B Patterns of interaction and activities

Look at the following list of some of the activities students might engage in, in the classroom.
Indicate by placing a tick in the column whether you think the most appropriate grouping for
the activity would b e pairs (P), groups of three to five (G) or individual work (I). Discuss
reasons for your decisions.

P G I
Doing course book grammar exercises
Doing course book vocabulary exercises
Reading comprehension passages
Answering comprehension questions
Preparing arguments for a discussion or writing task (composition)
Writing dialogues
Brainstorming a lexical field
Doing a revision test
Talking about topics of personal interest
Using a dictionary to research vocabulary relating to a specific
topic

Repeating words and phrases to improve pronunciation
Role-playing a situation to practise exponents of a particular
function (e.g. inviting)

33

Observation task 1: Teaching and learning roles
(Adapted from Wajnryb, R. (1992). Classroom Observation Tasks. Cambridge)

BACKGROUND

Within the time frame of anyone lesson, there is a range of roles that a teacher may adopt,
and a range of corresponding learner roles as well. An important aspect of effective teaching
is the facility with which a teacher can move in and out of these various roles and enable
learners to do likewise. This flexibility itself depends on the teacher's understanding of the
purposes of different stages of a lesson and a clear sense of what the various corresponding
roles of teachers and learners are (Wright I987; Byrne I987).

In a classic example of a focussed instructional cycle (Gibbons 1989), such as the
Presentation-Practice-Production style of lesson, this may he depicted as in Figure 1. The size
of the teacher's face per stage corresponds to the relative central focus of the teacher.

It is important to note that the order of the three 'P's may vary: sometimes, for example, in
order to establish with clarity areas of need and motivation, the production stage may come
before the presentation (see, for example, Woodward 1991: 195-7). Wherever in the lesson
the production phase might occur, the relative and interconnected roles of teacher and
learner would remain as facilitator/guide and producer/ communicator respectively.

Presentation Practice Production

Teacher. controls

monitors/corrects

facilitates/guides

Figure 1
Figure 1 is derived from a teacher-training workshop given by Louise Austin at the Sydney English Language Centre
in 1989.

Another model, which allows the roles of teacher to emerge very well, is seen in Figure 2.
Here each segment shows a facet of teaching and as you move in a clockwise direction, you
see a decrease in overt teacher 'face' as reflected in the degree of shading.

Of course, as with Figure 1, the various roles do not have to occur in the order shown. The
actual sequence in which the various roles are adopted will depend on the lesson's plan, its
objectives and processes.
34

Figure 2

AIM: This task is designed to heighten your awareness of the various teacher roles and their
corresponding learner roles.

TASK:

BEFORE THE LESSON

I. Arrange to observe a lesson, and if possible obtain a copy of the teacher's lesson plan.
2. Study the plan and try to predict the kind of role the teacher will assume at each stage.
3. Consider the data collection plan below.

Lesson stage Teacher's role Learner's role Comments

Chart 1

Use Chart 1 to collect data from the lesson. As the lesson proceeds, note down information
about the stage of the lesson, the teachers role, and the corresponding learners role. There
is room in the far right column for any comments you wish to make.

1. informer
presenter
explainer
stimulator
4. manager
consultant
2. conductor
controller
checker
3. organiser
monitor
35
AFTER THE LESSON

1. Compare your predictions based on the plan you looked at before the lesson with the data
that you collected from the lesson. If lesson plan was not available, skip this stage.

2. Based on the lesson you observed, what do you consider to be the major roles of teachers
and learners?

What overt behaviour would you associate with each role? Use Chart 2 to help you organise
your thoughts.

Teacher's role
Characteristic
overt behaviour
Corresponding
Learners role
Characteristic
Overt behaviour

3. Were there any instances during the lesson when any learners did not behave in the
expected learner role?

If you have already given lessons during this School Experience, have you experienced this
in your own teaching?

To what factors may this behaviour be attributed?
What skills in classroom management are needed during such 'breakdowns'?

4. Do different lesson types (as defined by both objectives and activities) make different
demands on the teacher and learners in regard to roles?

5. How do you think a teacher can gain greater facility in switching roles during a lesson?

REFLECTION
What have you learned from this observation and consideration of roles that might benefit
your own teaching?

36
Observation Task 2: Teaching skills and strategies:
Presenting

BACKGROUND
In recent years a lot of attention has been given to the varying roles that a language teacher
has. Increasing emphasis has been placed on the less obtrusive roles such as monitoring
language use and facilitating communication. In some versions of the communicative and
task-based approaches there is often no formal presentation phase.

Nevertheless, even with the welcome increased focus on student talking time over teacher
talking time, the skill of presenting remains a key one in the repertoire of a language teacher,
as learners still often look to the teacher to perform this role.

Aim: The objective of this task is to raise awareness of the key components of a successful
presentation.

Task:

BEFORE THE LESSON

1. This task involves you watching the presentation phase of a lesson. It may be of value to
watch this in a number of different lessons.
2. Make yourself familiar with the chart and diagram.

DURING THE LESSON
1. During the lesson, record what happens by completing Chart l (Use a new chart for each
lesson.) Record the chronological events in terms of what the teacher does and what the
students do.
2. You may like to keep a record of teacher movement in or around the classroom. A
convenient way of doing this is to make a diagram of the classroom (see Figures 1 and 2),
and note the teacher's position with a cross, plus a note of the time.

What teacher does

What learners do
Greet/ chat with Ss
Warm Ss up by reminding them of yesterdays
lesson
Greet/ respond to T
Recall yesterdays lesson

37
Chart 1

DESK
X
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .

DESK
. . X . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . .
Chart 2

AFTER THE LESSON

Figure 2

1. Using the data you have collected and your awareness of the effectiveness of the various
parts of a presentation, prepare a list of the key components of a presentation. Discuss
your list, along with your data of the lesson, with the tutor.

2. Considering your list of the various key components of a presentation, say what you
believe to be the purpose of each.

3. A traditional part of the presentation of new language is the drill phase. What is meant by
'drill' here is the phase in which the students practise the language in a very controlled
way under the close guidance of the teacher. The focus is necessarily limited and accuracy-
oriented, yet not necessarily mechanical or meaningless.

Is it important that the students understand the language - both its form and meaning -
prior to the drill phase? What are the implications of drilling with or without attention to
student understanding? What is revealed, in each case, about the teacher's approach to
language learning?

4. One element of the presentation phase is the teacher's voice. A number of qualities are
relevant here:
- audibility;
- projection;
- speed;
- clarity;
- lack of distortion.
What do you understand by each of these terms?

5. Another element of the presentation phase is the physical position of the teacher in the
classroom. Consider now the notes you took regarding teacher position. What comments
38
can you make about teacher position and movement?
6. Consider the presentation(s) you have observed in terms of the actual target language
presented. What context was used to embed the language? How 'natural' do you consider
the context to have been? Did the context 'naturally' generate the target language forms?
Did it foster a learning link between language and situation?

7. Now, consider the presentation mode used by the teacher to present new language. For
example, was the language presented aurally via a tape recorder or visually, in written
form?

8. Consider the relationship between presentation mode and language form: was the mode
appropriate to the language forms and the language register being presented?

39
Observation Task 3: Lesson planning
(Adapted from Wajnryb, R. (1992). Classroom Observation Tasks. Cambridge

Very often, lesson planning begins with a sheet of paper and an objective or set of objectives,
and works its way through a number of procedures, steps and phases through to the end.

In this observation we will be approaching lesson design from a different departure point -
from the perspective of the completed lesson. We will be working backwards from a taught
lesson to determine what decisions were made by the teacher in planning this lesson. The
planning of teaching is seen as a series of decisions made by a teacher about the various
elements of a lesson -learners, materials, tasks, etc.

A key point to be stressed is that while planning is a relatively static activity, teaching is
inherently dynamic. It follows therefore that, in a sense, plans are made to be changed - that
is, they are drawn up in the knowledge that the teacher will almost inevitably alter the plan
as the lesson develops. These 'up-and-running' decisions are no less important than those
made before the lesson began.

AIM: The task objective is to determine - through a set of a focussed and guided questions
- what decisions the teacher made in planning the lesson. As we shall see, the planning
refers both to preparation before the lesson and decisions taken in the classroom
during the lesson. Changes to plans and reasons for them will be an important element
in the post-lesson consultation with the teacher.

PROCEDURE

BEFORE THE LESSON

It may help to have a copy of the lesson plan while observing the lesson in order to
distinguish between pre-planned and on-the-spot teacher decisions. After the lesson try and
discuss the planning elements with the teacher. If this is not possible, discuss your
observations during the tutorial.

DURING THE LESSON

1. Below is a list of questions about various aspects of planning language teaching. Of course
the nature of the lesson will determine the relevance of these: a lesson devoted to role-
play will be different from a writing lesson or one devoted to an analysis of grammar.
Choose, therefore, the aspects that are relevant to the lesson you observe.

In observing this lesson, what inferences can you make concerning the teacher's decisions
about:

1 establishing a certain classroom atmosphere?
2 motivating the students to the lesson?
3 realistically contextualising language?
4 involving the students and drawing out passive knowledge?
5 lexis: how much to teach? What? When? And how?
6 checking for comprehension and learning?
7 providing safe contexts for practice?
8 helping students to identify rules and organise new knowledge?
40
9 shifting the focus and patterns of interaction?
10 setting up activities that promote communication?
11 establishing a framework in which students work without the teacher?
12 the aids to be used in various parts of the lesson?
13 integrating skills involved in the lesson?
14 how information is to be organised and shared?
15 ending the lesson and linking it to previous/future ones?

This chart will help with recording data:

Observation Inference Discussion questions
T. uses pictures and realia
to explain meaning of words

Evidence of planning
these words considered
potentially difficult
How were the difficult
words chosen?

2. As the lesson develops, there may be questions that you yourself would like to ask the
teacher about the various decisions taken about the lesson. Make a note of these as they
emerge during the lesson.

At the end of the lesson, your notes will offer a reconstitution of the original plan plus the
changes made through the lesson itself.

AFTER THE LESSON

1. You now have quite a detailed idea of the sort of decisions you have inferred the teacher
made about the lesson during the planning phase. Discuss your inferences with the teacher.
This may promote a very interesting discussion.

2. Actual lessons tend to vary in some degree from the pre-conceived plan. For this reason,
teachers often debate the value of expending time and concentration in the planning phase.
Look at these hypothetical answers to the question: Is it worth planning a lesson?
41

Teacher A Teacher B

Teacher C
Teacher D

Teacher E

a) With which of these answers do you feel comfortable?

b) What value(s) can be gained from lesson planning?

3. Many lesson plans used during training courses are idealised, in that they include far too
much detail and require too much attention in the lesson. This can distract the teacher and
may also create an unnecessary dependency on the plan or may encourage a rigid
approach to teaching. However, this is essential until training and experience will replace
this amount of detail with a briefer lesson plan.

I always plan my
lesson because it
compels me to
think through my
aims and objectives
and the various
steps in the lesson.
I think
there's a
place for
broad
planning but
not every
single step of
the lesson.
I always have a plan as
I think its important
for the teacher as well
as the learners that
everyone involved in
the process knows
where theyre heading
If I dont
have a plan,
I have no
basis for
lesson
evaluation.
I never teach
according to my
plan so whats the
use of having
one?
42
Observation Task 4: Classroom management

Managing classroom communication: patterns of interaction

Aim This task is concerned generally with how communication takes place in a classroom
setting, and specifically with the patterns of interaction that provide the vehicle for
communication.

Task: In this task you will be collecting data about how communication is realised in the
classroom, for example, who talks and to whom, who questions, who responds.

PROCEDURE
BEFORE THE LESSON

1. Arrange to observe a lesson, preferably (but not essentially) one with a focus on oral-aural
skills.
2. Make yourself familiar with Figure 1.

DURING THE LESSON
Use Figure 1 (based on Woodward 1991) to help you record information about the patterns of
interaction that happen through the lesson.
1. Draw up a seating plan including students' names. This means that if students move from
their seat during the lesson, their interactions can still be plotted onto the diagram.

2. Lines are drawn between the names of the people who are speaking to each other. Decide
on symbols to represent different kinds of interactions: for example, a little arrowhead
can indicate a nominated question (when the teacher is directing a question to a
particular student); a return arrowhead can indicate a response.

Teacher

?

Audrey Sonia Caroline Denise Sue

Stephanie Clare Pamela Gabby Natasha

Figure 1

43

3. Start with marking in one type of interaction. As you develop the skill, work out symbols
for other kinds of interaction patterns and plot them (most of the following symbols are
from Woodward 1989). For example:

- place an X next to the teacher when the question asked is open or undirected, e.g.
'Does anyone know. . .?' 'Who can tell me . . .?':

XXX Teacher

- place a slash on the line when a student volunteers a response unprompted, e.g. Gabby to
T:
__________________________/__________
- students interacting in pairs as directed, e.g. Sue + Denise:
_____________________________________

- students interacting without being directed:
_____________________________________

- questions asked by students to T:
_____________________________________

AFTER THE LESSON

1. Analyse the notes you have taken and make some summary statements of the overall
patterns of interaction.

2. If learning is all about re-appraising old concepts to accommodate new ones, to what extent
do you think each of the types of patterns catered for in the diagram would be the most
conducive to or facilitative of learning?

3. Clearly, any lesson will contain a number of types of interaction. Consider different phases of
lessons, different teacher roles and different activities in terms of which type of interaction is
most appropriate. Is it possible to correlate certain interaction patterns as most suitable for
certain lesson or activity types? For example, what type of interaction pattern characterises
a student-centred information-gap activity, or a teacher correction phase following a role-
play activity?

44
Observation Task 5: The whiteboard as resource

Language teaching varies dramatically around the world, but a board is usually an integral
part of the language classroom.

Aim: This task aims to have you consider how the resource of the board may be best
exploited. You will gather information about the ways in which and the purposes for
which the board was used in the lesson and use these to discuss related issues after
the lesson.

PROCEDURE

BEFORE THE LESSON

1. Arrange to see a lesson. If possible, find out the lesson's objective(s) and, ideally, obtain a
copy of the lesson plan or at least talk to the teacher before the lesson.

2. From what you find out in advance about the lesson, predict:
- what you think the board might be used for;
- how the board might be used.

DURING THE LESSON
1. At three points during the lesson copy the board's contents and layout exactly.
2. Take field notes about what happens while the board is being written on.

AFTER THE LESSON

1. Discuss the lesson with the teacher, sharing your notes and the three board replicas you
took during the lesson. Discuss the decisions made about layout and board use. Would you
have used the board differently? How? Discuss this too with the teacher.

The board may be used for a range of purposes, for example, teaching vocabulary, explaining
grammar, drawing pictures, etc. Even within these categories, there may be sub-divisions, for
example, drawing might be used to set a scene, to depict an action or to elicit vocabulary.

Consider the range of purposes for which the board was used in the lesson you observed.
Now create appropriate categories and sub-categories, for example:
drawing

set scene depict action elicit vocabulary
3. Analysing the data you have collected from the lesson, would you say the board was used
randomly or systematically or somewhere in between these two? If you detected a system to
the board use, describe it and evaluate its effectiveness.

4. A system often recommended for board use, classifies things into three categories, based on
their importance to the lesson and the time they are left on view:
45
a) reference material: this is a permanent record of the lesson (to be left on display for the
duration);

b) material related to the development of the lesson: this tends to be cumulative and serves
its main purpose at the time at which it is written up; it may be erased or transferred to
the permanent section;

c) the unpredictable, impromptu side of teaching, including odd 'perishables' and impromptu
notes.

Reference
material
(permanent)

Main section -
Developmental stages
of lesson

Impromptu
notes -
'perishables'
Figure 1 The board as resource

What comment can you make on this system? Do you recommend it or aspects of it? Is there
another system that you prefer?

5. Other aspects of board Use that you might like to consider are:
- Who writes on the board? Predominantly the teacher? Is there a place for students using
the board? Is there a danger?
- What happens in the lesson while the teacher (or someone else) is using the board?
Use your field notes to help you answer this.
- The legibility and comprehensibility of items on the board.

7. Now, having observed a lesson from the point of view of board use and having considered
the board from a number of different perspectives, is there a place for some 'golden
guidelines' that might help maximise the board as a teaching/learning resource?
For example:
- Start the lesson with a clean board to avoid the distraction of 'leftovers' from a previous
lesson.
- Avoid writing with your back to the class for long periods.

REFLECTION

Reflecting on this lesson from the perspective of your own plans for School Experience
teaching practice, is there any particular aspect about board use that you would like to work
on or explore further?

46
Observation Task 6: The learner as resource

It has become a maxim of education to acknowledge that the greatest resource the teacher
has is the learners themselves. This is especially important in the field of language teaching
where the danger is that because one learns to use a language by using it, learner passivity
and non-involvement will in fact sabotage outcomes. If the processes actively engage the
learners, then a more positive outcome is assured.

Aim: The objective of this task is to increase awareness of the diverse ways in which the
learner may become a resource in the processes of learning.

PROCEDURE

BEFORE THE LESSON
1. Arrange to observe a lesson.
2. Make yourself familiar with the data collection chart opposite.

DURING THE LESSON
1. Observe the lesson from the point of view of the learner's involvement.

2. Using the chart, record the times in the lesson when the learner is used as a resource, with
details of the phase of the lesson so that you will be able to pinpoint each occasion later.

3. Comment on the process effect (what did it involve the learner(s) doing?) and perhaps
later, at the end of the lesson, comment on the outcome effect (what was the result of
involving the students in this way?). It is worth noting that as outcomes relate to learning,
they may not be directly observable, and therefore your comments may be speculative.

4. As well as recording what happened in the lesson from the point of view of the learner's
involvement, consider, too, points in the lesson where the learner was not involved but might
have been. In a different coloured pen, perhaps, record how you think the learner might have
been used as a resource, at which phase of the lesson, and predict what the process and
outcome effects might have been.

Learner as
resource
Lesson phase Process effect Outcome effect

47
AFTER THE LESSON
1. Consider the data that you have collected from the lesson about when the learner was
used as a resource. What patterns, if any, emerge? What comments can you make that are
based on the data? Discuss the data with the teacher.

2. What benefits are to be gained from exploiting the learner as a resource? List these and
classify them in a way that is meaningful to you.

3. Consider the phases in the lesson where you noted that the learner might have been used
as a resource but in fact was not. Discuss this with the teacher. Consider the teacher's
reasons for making these choices.

Consider reasons for not involving the learner at certain times of a lesson. Consider the
precautions that a teacher might need to consider before engaging the learner as a resource.

4. Focus now on the process effect that comes from involving the learner as a resource. What
is the relevance of the notes you have made in Column 3 to factors involved in successful
language learning? Similarly, consider the outcome effects.

5. How does the active involvement of learners as a resource affect the nature of teacher and
learner roles in the classroom?

6. Is there any clash in the notion of active involvement on the one hand, and respect for
culture-specific learning styles on the other? Is a compromise position possible?

REFLECTION

To what extent is the learner regarded as a resource in your own teaching? In which ways do
you plan to avail yourself of this resource? In which ways might you explore future
possibilities?

School Experience 2012-1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

School Experience 2012-1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1

You might also like