four kinds of lesson

7/28/2019 Four Kinds of Lesson

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Chapter 4 Activities and lessons

Task 8Chooseone of the four activities ou ookedat in Task7. Plana basic procedureorusing t in class, using he sevensteps described n pp 29-30.

In your early lessonsas an English teacher you may find that'survivaf is your mainpriority. You would like to teach well and for your students to learn and enjoy whathappens, but above even that you want something that you can prepare easily,something that is guaranteed (or nearly guaranteed) to work; something that will letyou go into the classroom, do some useful work with the learners and get out alive.If you have a coursebook then you have an instant source of material. Many teachersalsouse deas books, known as recipe books', which do exactly what that nicknamesuggests give you everything you need to know to be able to walk into classwith theright ingredients to 'cook up' a good activity.As a startingpoint, a'survival lesson'could be simply a seriesof activities ollowing onfrom eachother, one after the other. For one or two lessons his is probably workable.Clearly, though, it is soon going to be unsatisfactory as he basis of a whole course:where is the direction, the growth, the progress? What about the students' needs, heirpersonalities, their likes? Activities such aswe have been looking at are the buildingblocks, but we now need to consider much more carefully how we connect themtogether.

2 Four kinds oflessonA complete lessonmay consist of a single ong activity, or it may have anumber ofshorter activities within it. These activities may have different aims; they may also,when viewed together, give the entire lesson an overall objective. This section of thebook looks at some ways in which activities can relate to each other and combine tomake a complete esson.Here is a description of four basic esson ypes:1 Logical lineE-----@---+E-ln this lesson here is a clear attempt to follow a'logical' path from one activity to thenext. Activity A leads o activity B leads o activity C. Activity C builds on what hasbeen done in activity B, which itself builds on what has been done in activity A'In work on grammar, for example, the sequenceof activities might be: A - first weunderstand an item of languagi; B - we piactice it orally in drills; C - we get practiceusing it in more unresfficted, integrated speakingwork; D - we do some writtenexerciseso consolidateour understanding.In work on language skills, the sequenceof activities often moves from an overviewtowards work on specific details.For example, the learnersmove gradually from ageneralunderstanding of a reading text to detailed comprehension and study of itemswithin it.There is probably one clearoverall objective o the whole lesson.The teacherhaspredicted possible problems and difficulties and has prepared ways to deal with themwhen they come up in class.

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2 Four kindsof essonThe teacher is hoping to lead the learners step by step through a clearly programmedsequence of activities in the hope of them all reaching a specific, pre-determined endpoint. I imagine he classgoing down a ong, straight roadr ed by the teacher,whotakes care that any stragglerscatch up and that any wanderers find the right pathagain.Many teacher raining coursesencourageyou to prepare essonsof this kind. This ispartly becauset is possible or trainers and trainees o sort out a ot of potentialproblems at the planning stageand partly because he lessonsare easier or anobserver to evaluate, though there is no particular evidence to suggest hat this type oflesson s any more successful han others n enabling effective earning.The following description of a logicalline'lesson s subdivided nto four distinctstages,our separate ctivities,but it is alsoclear hat it all addsup to a total lesson.1 The teacher asks he students which makes of cars they have heard of. Which onesdo they like? Which don't they like? Why?2 The teachersayssome comparative sentences bout cars.For example:. Porsches

faster than a Mini. A Mini is cheaper han a Rolls-Royce,etc. The students get anumber of opportunities to repeat he teacher'ssentences nd to make somenewonesof their own.3 Students are given a number of car advertisements and a blank grid to fill out usinginformation from the ads:price,maximum speed,etc. The studentswork in pairs

to find the answers.4 Students then use this information to discuss which car they would like to have andgiving reasons ie using comparatives).The teacherencourages nd helps hem tous ecomparative entences ccurately.Task1Makea simpleplan simi lar o the descr ipt ion bove) or a ' logicall ine' essonwherethe aim is to practisewrit ing he past simple ense usinga picturestory.2 Topic urnbrella

In this kind of lesson, a topic (eg rainforests or educationor weatherot goodmanagement)provides the main focal point for student work. The teacher mightinclude a variety of separate activities (eg on vocabulary, speaking, istening,granunar) etc) linked only by the fact that the umbrella topic remains the same.The activities can often be done in a variety of orders without changing the overallsuccess f the lesson. n some cases ctivitiesmay be inked; for example,when thediscussion n one activity usesvocabularystudied n a precedingactivity.There may be a number of related or disparate aims in this lesson, rather than a singlemain obiective.


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Chapter 4 Actixities and lessons

Task 2Heresa descript ionfa topicumbrel la'essonoranelementaryevel lass' heactivities reno tgivenn heiroriginal rder'1 Markeachactivity it h hemain anguageystem rskil l ocused n(eg istening).2 Inwhatorder oyou hink he activities er edone?a Learnersn pairs ea da newspaperdvertisementor a sports entre nd indoutwhat im e heymustgoandhowmuch t wil lcost'b The eacher anos uta listof sports.npairshe earnershoose sport heywould ike o do ogetherhatevening'c Th e eacher sk s he earnersf heyhave ver een o a sports entre. hat sinside?What re neadvantagesf a sports entre? isadvantages?he y iscussthe oPic or a fewminutes.d The eacher xplainsha t heywillheara radio dvertisementor a sports entre'Theymust I i s tenandf indoutwhether the i rspor t i sava i Iab |e 'e The eacher sks he earnerso make entencesbout ports sing heconstruct ion1ikeXbutl referYandcan'tstandZ(egtl ikesquashbutlrefertable ennis, can',t tandootba//).he earnersetsomeoralpracticewithcor rec t ion) insay ingthesesentencesaccura te |yandwi thgoodpronunc ia t ion 'Gommentary I r rLanguagearea ocusedon: a - reading;b - speaking' - speaking; - listening;. e- grammar.Eitherb or c wouldmakeagood ntroduction o the esson,ntroducing he opic ofsportandsportscentres. c-tivityd (followedby a) must comeafterthepairshavechosentheirsport; therewouldbenopoint indoingdafteraastheanswerwouldbeknownalready.The languagework ne couldcomeat anypoint; a suitableplaceseemso beafter he ,roLUJu.y in b hasbeen ntroducedandbefore he isteningandreadingwork.Thus,a ikelyorier wouldbec b e d a or b c e d a. t wouldbepossibleto p.rt h. discussiont heendof the esson: e d a c (thought seems etter alue o,rr" th. discussion t thebeginningasaway nto the opic) I

The 'logicalline' and'topic umbrella' lessons oth involve the teacherpre-planning asequenceof activities; the teacherusually feelsable to predict what language areaswillbe worked on, what problems are ikely to ariseand what the students are ikely toachieve n the lesson.An alternative approach would be notto predict and prepare so much but to createthelessonmoment by moment in class, he teacher and learnersworking with whatever ishappening in the room, responding to questions, problems a1d on13ns as hey comeup and finding new activities, mat;ials;nd msks n response o particular situations.Thestartingpointmightbeanactivityorapieceofmaterial,butwhatcomesoutofitwill remain unknown until it happens. The essentialdifference between this lessonand the previous lesson ypes is tirat tfre teacher is working more with the people in theroom than with her material or her plan'

3 Jungle Path

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2 Fourkindsof essot:I imagine a group of people hacking their way through the jungle towards newexperiences,new learnings. Sometimes the teachermay lead, s=ometimeshe students.Everyone would be encouraged to think, make connectio.rr, urt l.restions and drarvconclusions or themselves.The main pre-planning for a lessonof this kind would involve the teacherusing herknowledge of the learners and of the availableresources o choose someactivities andmaterials that are ikely to prove challenging and raise mportant questions and issues.She would have an intuitive senseof various potential links between actrvities,basedpartly on previousexperiences f the outcomesof lessons sing similar activities.In classsomeof theseactivitiesand materialsmay be used,somenot. .fhe teachermay also eel he need o find other materialsas he lessonproceeds,some rom acoursebook, somefrom her head, somefrom her staffroom library, etc. Although shemay be clearabout a number of possibledirections he lessonmijht take, t will beimpossible for her to state he lesson'sobjectives until after it has"finished.Here is an example essondescription:Lesson a1 The teacher takesa communication game (concerning different attitudes tosmoking) into class.The studentsdo this n pairs.2 when they have inished,somestudentsaskabout a number of languageproblemsthey had. The studentsdiscussand work out someanswers o the problems.3 The teacher invents a quick practice exercise hat will focus on oni of the languagepoints.4 when that has finished, a student asksabout the pronunciation of some words inthe exercise.The teacher works through some exampleson the board and then tellsthem to turn to a page in their coursebook where there is a game to help raisestudents'awareness f word stress.The classdecides hat irey don't want to do thisnow, but will do it for homework.5 Some students remind the teacher that they haven't yet discussedsmoking as awhole classand they'd like to hear what someof the restof the class hought... etc.Here are wo common examplesof a'jungle path'lesson wherethe teacherstartswithout any materials:LessonbThe teacher asksHozc, tas heweekend? or a similar question), and after listening to anumber of answers, eads his nto a discussionbasedo.rro-.thi.,g a student said.Atsomepoint she selectsparticular items of languagethat a student h-as sed, focusesonthese perhapsconsideringgrammar or pronunciation), inventsa simple exercise hatwill help students work on this, etc etc.Lesson cA studentasksa questionat the startof the lesson.This leads nto somework on theboard (perhaps the teacher sets he classa problem to solvethat will help to clarify thelanguagedifficulty). while the students are working on the puzzle, the teacher goes othe staffroom and collects a further exerciseon the iame languagearea.He returnsand offers the students the new exercise,but they say they r."t.Lu. now about thelanguage tem. However, there is another question which has arisen . .

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Chapter 4 Activities and lessons

A fourth example lesson demonstrates how a competent and confident teacher mighthand over responsibility and decision making entirely to the class:Lesson dThe teacher starts the lesson by asking lY4tatshall we zlork on today? She then waitswhile the class decides,taking care not to manipulate them into deciding somethingthat she wants them to do. Once the decisions aremade, she does whatever shehasbeen asked o do.The 'jungle pathl lessoncan ook artless o an observer,yet to do it successfullyrequires experience. t is not simply a'chat' or an abdication of responsibility, houghin inexperienced hands it might well be simply a muddle and a'lazy' alternative tocareful planning. In fact, a competent teacher is working minute by minute with herclass, actively planning and re-planning asshe goes,constantly basing the workaround t}le students and their needs, statements,problems, questions, etc.A teacher doing this needs o be aware both of the people in the room and of the widevariety of options open to her. Sheneeds o be able to make decisions,moment bymoment, about which route is the best one to follow. She needs o be familiar with allthe resources of material and information available to her.The need for teaching experience and awarenessof resources available suggests hatlessons of this type aremore appropriate for teacherswho are already fairly competentin planning and executing essonsof the 'logicalline' or'topic umbrella'variety. Forthis reason t is the lessonyou don't normally learn to do on teacher-training courses!4 Rag-bag

etrThis lesson s made up of a number of unconnected activities.For example:a chat atthe start of the lesson, ollowed by a vocabulary game, a pairwork speaking activityand a song. The variety in a essonof this kind may often be appealing to students andteacher.There can,however, be a'bittiness' about this approach hat makes tunsatisfactory for long-term usage.There will be no overall language objective for the lesson (though there might be a'group-building' aim). Each separateactivity might have ts own aims.

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LessonwFe 'Nlrune oF LtNx 'leErwEEnncrivmes

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Soilreourcomes: oi nspt oR rAzyus6Logical lne Straight ine

Programmed rdwthClearly isibleprog.fessFocuses owardsan atm

Limited responseitoindividual eedsAtomistic:hard osee the overview

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TenuousinksoboringopicsEasily ecomesragsag

Jungle ath Evolutionary Personcentrddl ' MitddledResponsiveo Aimlessimmediate eeds Anpscape rom.Powbrful ersonal " planning ndinsights preparation' , Easilybecomesrag-bag

Rag-bag None VarietySurpriseEntertainment

GoingnowhereStudents wait fort"acher's extsurprise

Fig. 4.5: Fourtypesoflesson :Task3Of he our essonypes,which oyou eelmostcomfortable ith?Which neshaveyounot ried?Whichwould oube.interestedo try?Task4ls therea fifth esson ype hatyouuseor areaware f?

four kinds of lesson

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