Having completed the CiSELT course with British Council I would like to share my assignments and records of work with you in a series of posts. And I will start with my assignment of Task-Based Learning
Lesson Plan
Objective: I was looking for a method that would engage my students in a
more communicative way and allow them to use the language effectively. I would like to involve them in doing something in class that they would do or experience in their everyday life using their own language.
Lesson Aim: In their coursebook they have read a leaflet about anger management and there has been an introduction to Gerunds & Infinitives. My lesson goal is to present the function of those specific grammar structures and to provide practice in speaking, reading and writing skills.
Age: Teenagers, 13-14 years old
Level: Upper Intermediate
Special needs: They
are well-behaved teenagers with some lack of
concentration and confidence. They show weakness in grammar
and especially in memorising lists of verbs with a specific
structure. There is need to help them acquire verbs followed by
to- infinitive or gerund and how they can integrate
them in their
spoken or written language. This would also
help
them recognise the specific structure in cloze tasks.
Learning outcome: Their primary goal of completing the TBL activity is the task and
they use the language as an instrument to complete it. However,
there
is a focus on my behalf to pave the way so that they
use the specific structures as often as they could,integrate the in their spoken and
written language. As they are intrinsically involved, there is a higher possibility for them to learn this
grammatical phenomenon.
Anticipated problems:
The students may mostly use modals to pass their ideas across and they may not come up with ideas to use the target language.
They will probably tend to confuse the structures. i.e. use
full
infinitives instead of bare infinitives (e.g. make sb TO
do
something,
let sb TO do something) or use infinitive instead of gerund ( e.g. suggest TO DO). They might also use “be allowed to do something”
in active voice.
Proposed Solutions:
- Present the topic and the target language with an incident description by me. I will use some of the structures required.
-Learners will be asked to brainstorm
grammatical and lexical
structures related to the task and can adapted them to their needs to complete the task. These will be recorded on the whiteboard so
that the learners can use them as patterns and implement them
during the task.
Lesson procedure
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Time
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Teacher activity
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Learner activity
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Interaction
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Stage aim
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3 min
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Greet the students and ask
them about their day
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Learners greet their teachers
back and report how their day was
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T-Ss
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To build rapport and
ensure
learners are getting to use English for communication.
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3min
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Teacher tells the students an anecdote incident that made her angry.
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Learners listen to the narration and show interest in what has happened to their teacher by asking further questions
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T-Ss
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To introduce
the topic and use the target grammatical structures. Learners are listening for comprehension of a real life situation.
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5min
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Teacher writes on the whiteboard “What makes you
angry?”
Presents the topic and introduces the task.
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Learners are asked about their own experiences and feelings.
They brainstorm ideas and
record them in their notebooks.
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T-Ss
Ss-Ss
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Interaction of the learners with their
peers. Use of their
linguistic knowledge and familiarising themselves with the task.
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4min
|
Teacher asks the students to
choose their partner so that pairs are formed. The pairs are asked to choose what makes them angry most.
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Learners have to agree whom
they will
collaborate with to complete the task. They work in pairs to come to a conclusion. They report back to the class of their final agreement.
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Ss-Ss
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Group interaction to
come to an agreement. Learners are given the right of their own choice.
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4min
|
Teacher introduces the next
stage of the task. Learners have to write a dialogue where the
persons involved interact and try to find a solution
to anger management.
|
Students listen for
understanding the task. They ask for clarifying what it is asked
from them to complete.
|
T-Ss
|
Point out the task.
Check back for understanding.
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4min
|
Teacher asks the students to
give examples of the specific grammatical structure, i.e.
verbs, adjectives, nouns,
phrases followed by infinitives/gerunds. Those are written on the board.
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Learners brainstorm grammar
samples. They recall their acquired knowledge.
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T-Ss
Ss-Ss
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Elicit previous
knowledge. Revision of the target grammar
objectives.
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20min
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Teacher sets time limit to
complete the task.
Browse around the classroom and
observe the process of task
completion.
|
Learners come up and form their
dialogues. They note down their lines, edit them, refer to the
grammatical and lexical patterns
from the board and try to implement some of them in their dialogues.
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Ss-Ss
|
Learners’ interaction
and collaboration with their peers. Speaking
and writing practice.
|
6min
|
Teacher asks the students to read aloud their dialogues. She intervenes
whenever there are mistakes and asks learners for suggestions to correct
them.
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Learners read their dialogues.
Check for language. Correct mistakes
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T-Ss
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Language focus.
Error correction.
Grammar analysis.
Reading practice
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6min
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Teacher gives students time to
rehearse their lines. She asks the learners to put emphasis on expression of their feelings
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Students rehearse the dialogue.
They are engaged in role play.
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Ss-Ss
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Practice of
pronunciation and articulation, word and sentence stress.
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5min
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Students present in front of the
class. Teacher records them on video. Funny way to close the
lesson.
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Students present their
dialogues. They show interest to be persuasive in their roles
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T-Ss
Ss-Ss
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Learners’ full
involvement in presenting their
outcome
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And here is students' outcome. You can read the scripts here
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