teaching-tips-youmove
16.02.2012
Lessons 59 & 60
Por Fábio Santos.
LESSON 59: WITH YOUR PERMISSION
Today we’ll be dealing with a series of functions that are more important than the grammar that they’re made of. Having said that, make sure your students know what to say and when to say it.
As you correct Etapa 3, Ask them questions and guide them to certain conclusions—especially in terms of appropriateness. Do not rule out the importance of good stress and intonation and the difference it makes to ask someone to do something for you stressing this or that word, etc. Use the board throughout the whole process, of course. It is not as important at this point to focus on the differences between CAN and COULD. However, do not leave any mistakes uncorrected, naturally.
Today’s Interaction demand very thorough instructions and modeling. For better results, you might want to model the whole dialogue, from beginning to end. You can pick one of the four situations contained in the book or make up your own. The important thing is to use the material we’re working on today. As I’ve said countless times before, involve them in the process. Elicit stuff from them, test hypotheses, you name it.
This is one of those activities that usually have students—especially lower level students—asking you vocabulary questions left and right. Help them, of course, but try to favor communication, not vocabulary. If they need to know a particular word that’s keeping them from producing much else, then by all means tell them. But get them to think. Do not make yourself into a walking dictionary.
Now to the Closing. Let them know which areas they succeeded in and which areas need improvement. Let them talk to you, too: have them express their thoughts on their own production and, if that’s the case, how good class preparation generates better participation.
Have a good one.
LESSON 60: INVITATION
They say this is an extension of last class, and it may be so, but I like to look at it as a completely different topic and approach. Sure, they both focus on functions, you might say, and, from that perspective, they are quite similarly organized.
When you correct Etapa 3, do not forget to compare the different possible sentences and their correct application in real life. Let them know how these questions sound when used inappropriately. And I can’t stress this enough: use the board at all times.
As a means of preparing them for today’s Interaction, write plenty of short dialogues on the board, all the while eliciting questions and answers and helping them shape their production into something that sounds realistic and plausible. Show them what to do—interact with them for, say, 30 seconds to a couple of minutes—before you leave them on their own. When they’re ready, step aside and watch the magic happen.
As part two of this activity, they now have to write down a dialogue. The higher their level, the more elaborate their production is supposed to be. Here, too, you have to model the activity if you want the results to be adequate. It’s very important to let all of them present their creation, so make sure you manage your time.
At the Closing, guide them to the big picture. It’s not just this class; it’s not just class preparation; it’s not just learning enough so they’ll pass some exam or other. It’s much more. There’s a sequence of events here that’s taking place right before their eyes. Hopefully these events are not passing them by—when they don’t prepare a lesson or fail to do their homework, for instance. Let them know that. Let them know that doing one step of the process well leads to doing the next step better, and so on, so forth.
To wrap things up, tell them about their assignments, instruct and model what each of them is expected to do, don’t forget to use the board in the process, and you’re done.
All the best!
Fábio Santos
1 COMENTÁRIOS
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28.02.2012 | 10H02
DE:
Livia - YM Barra Funda
The class With your permission was easygoing so, to warm things up a little bit, I pretended to be very rude and asked a student, in an impolite way, to open the door. The class was in shock, but I think they got the message.
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Second Language Acquisition Research
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