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Planning Lessons And Courses - Coggle Diagram
Planning Lessons And Courses
INTRODUCTION
What do I mean by
planning
?
Considering the students
Thinking of the content
Materials and activities that could go into a course or lesson
Jotting these down
Having a quiet ponder
Cutting things out of magazines
What do I mean by a
"good"
lesson or course?
I'm going to do the best I can and THAT is what I'm going to call "good".
A good lesson or course, to me, is one where there is
plenty of language learning going on
and where the students and I:
Feel comfortable physically, socially and psychologically.
Know a little about each other, why we are together and what we want to get out of the experience.
Are aware of some of what there is to learn
Are aware of some of the things that we have learned
Have a notion about how we learn best
Accept that language is a mixture of things
Know why we´re doing the activities we're doing
What are teachers' concerns about lesson and course planning?
A beginner teacher's concern: Planning takes too long!
An experienced teacher's concern: It's getting boring!
Ways of get better at planning
The first way: considering our past learning experiences
(IRF) Initiation, response, feedback.
The second way: Use coursebooks
The third way: Learning as we teach
Writing plans for a more experienced teacher and then hearing what they did with them in their class.
Observing teachers or videos and then writing lesson notes for what we've seen.
Writing plans for different classes and then teaching the plans
Reading transcripts of recorded lessons
Using
Chunks
The chunk, in both the typing and the driving, is the running together into a smooth sequence all the little steps that we have previously learned. The individual steps need to be learned first. Then weneed to learn how to chunk.
CHAPTER I. WHO ARE THE STUDENTS?
The students we work with are the real reason for the wholelearning/teaching encounter.
So the most important thing we can dobefore, during and after classes is, in my view, to listen to students, watchthem and read their work.
Who can you find out from?
From the sending institution
It’s vital that the teacher notes any kinks in a programme and makes adjustments fast.
The nature of the sending institution
Its aims for the students
Whether the students are tested before they come
whether a representative of the sending institution will be comingtoo and, if so, what relationship they have to the students.
Past and present teachers
If possible, ask questions, and look at any noteson past work, materials used, test results, files on attendance, behaviour,etc. and any language learner portfolios.
Other
stake-holders
Other people from whom you can gain interesting information about the class may be parents and teachers of the same class but in differentsubjects
The students themselves
You can get to know them by phone, letter, journal, tape, e-mail or face to face. You can get information before or on first meeting thathelps you to do some initial planning.
How to get information before meeting the class?
f you feel that a letter is too personal for you, a questionnaire can besent instead
How to get information on first meeting?
First lesson sequences
I prefer to start with names and a little personal information and to build rapport in this way before moving on to serious language work.
How to get information during subsequent lessons
By looking at the faces and body posture
There is no instant way, for example, that we can findout that one particular student is hard of hearing but doesn’t want toadmit it or that a class is always out of sorts in Tuesday’s third lessonbecause they are having trouble in the lesson just before ours
How to get information after the students have gone
Tracer Study
helps you to find out what happens to students after they leave your class
Keep an up-to-date record of student names and addresses.
Prepare a questionnaire
The idea of tracer studies can be extended to talking to those in theposition of hiring or teaching your ex-students.
CHAPTER II. HOW LONG IS THE LESSON?
Once you’ve met the students and found out something about them, therace is usually on! There are courses to be sketched out and lessons to be planned.
Beginnings
You’ll get into the class-room before the students do. You’ll open windows, clean boards, movechairs, turn on music, pin things on the wall, put things on chairs, andgenerally take over the space and make it your own.
Clear boundaries
engage the students in eye contact
hake hands
sk students to stand up
shut the door
greet the class and expect a greeting in return
call the register
ave a procedure for late students
ntroduce yourself and the first activity
Fluid boundaries
In some institutional settings, the feeling may be that time boundariescan be more fluid and organic.
You may start up a conversation with one or two students rather than with the whole group.
The sort ofstudents you teach will greatly affect the way you begin class too.
Working starts
Linking back to a past lesson to review things
explainin the aim of the current lesson and how it fits into the lesson and course
ooming in immediately on the main work of the lesson
MIDDLES
We are left with blocks of time of, say, 20 minutes, or if we scrap one ofthe mini-breaks, 40 minutes. These are the main bits or ‘middles’ of thelesson. I’d like to mention three possible categories of ideas for thesemiddle sections.
Threads
Some people believe that ‘little and often’ is the best way to learn.
we can set up activities that do not progressor build ‘vertically’ down one lesson in connection with other activitiesdone on the same day.
Stimulus-based blocks
You may well use this ‘block’ approach with well-motivated students who can concentrate for long periods.
Personalisation
In this stage, students can write or speak about howthe stimulus is similar to or different from them, what the stimulusreminds them of, if they have ever ..., what they would do if ..., etc.
Analysis
The analysis stage involves studying the stimulus to see what is in it onceit has been totally revealed or pieced together.
Creation
the students move on from the stimulus, using it asa springboard to new skills or new products. Example activities are roleplays or letter writing activities connected with the stimulus.
Meeting the stimulus
This stage is when students first encounter the stimulus.
If the stimulus isa picture, allow a brief glimpse
. If it is a text, cut it into pieces so that different people have different bits.
Alteration and transfer
he alteration andtransfer stage encourages them to work with the material flexibly, thusimproving thinking and language skills.
BREAK TIME
If you accept that most people can’t concentrate or work fruitfully formore than an hour at a time without some sort of change or rest
Rounding off
sk the students to tell you one thing they have understood, one thing they haven't and one thing they found interesting or surprising in the work just done
sk the students to write down four new words they think they willforget
ell the students what is coming up in the next part of the lesson andask them what they know about it already.
ENDS
Review the lesson
Give back old homework or set and explain new homework
write dialogue journals
make plans for the next lesson
Tidy up the classroom for the next teacher
CHAPTER III. WHAT CAN GO INTO A LESSON?
What there is to teach and learn
Combinations
Situations
tasks, e.g. getting information, buying a ticket
attitudes, e.g. polite but perhaps slightly rushed or brisk
vocabulary, e.g. platform, departure
relationships, e.g. rather distanced since the seller and passengerdon’t normally know each other
skills, e.g. talking, listening, reading
roles, e.g. a ticket seller and a passenger
materials, e.g. money, ticket
functions, e.g. asking for information
structures, e.g. the present simple for timetables (What time does thetrain leave?)
Topics and themes
Real world topics such as ‘my family’, ‘mobile phones’, ‘how to solveconflicts’, ‘escape’ and ‘honesty’ are organising devices similar to situations in that they aredesigned to pull together vocabulary, skills work and so on into larger more integrated contexts.
Literature
Difficult words are explained either orally or by reference toglossaries, dictionaries, pictures, sounds or mime.
There is detailed comprehension work and perhaps some translationand memorisation of key passages.
There is reading at home or reading in class, often out loud.
There is some literary criticism or discussion of received opinions onthe work. This usually involves discussion and writing.
The teacher gives background information on the work or the author, etc.
Language Skills
Listening
recognise sounds, words and phrases
get the general idea, remember salient points and predict what’scoming next
understand the discourse type or genre you’re listening to
get used to listening to different types of people for differing lengthsof time
screen out what you’re not interested in and focus on what you areinterested in
deal with accents and dialects
interpret a message against a background of expectations andrespond accordingly
Speaking
use different parts of the mouth and body from those needed in yourown language
make individual sounds and combine them
produce correct stress on individual words and on longer stretchesdepending on the meaning you want to convey
use intonation (including tones across discourse)
work with appropriate rhythm and pace
express your own meaning and your own personality by choosingfrom a range of physical and verbal expressions
interact with people appropriately, repairing breakdown of messages,taking turns and speaking alone for short and long periods
describe, agree, beg, plead, insult ... and all as naturally as possible
Reading
recognise different formats such as headlines or faxes and differentstyles and genres
skim, scan, predict, guess and remember
understand implication and style
relate what we’ve read to our own experience, mentally agree ordisagree, criticise or commend; physically turn the pages from rightto left, and read the lines from left to right
survey books; speed read
read aloud
pore over what every word means or read for pleasure and thegeneral idea
know letters, words and phrases
Writing
indent and know what a paragraph is
write different kinds of texts such as letters, postcards andsummaries, with appropriate choice of layout, vocabulary andlogical structure
make sentences with punctuation
read and reread our own work, crossing out, rewriting andreorganising as well as correcting grammar, spelling and punctuation
think of something to write
write with accuracy, fluency and confidence
form individual letters, both upper and lower case, space them fromleft to right in relationship to a line and join them up
Culture
Don’t forget that cultures change and so things may now be a littledifferent from the time when you had most contact with the targetculture.
Objects and pictures, maps and music are an easy way into the area.
Comparisons of different cultures can be done via topics the studentsare interested in (whether sport, food, body language, death rates,attitudes to animals, the treatment of elderly people, the amount oflitter)
Language patterns
Individual words
What a word means
How to say a word
How to write it
Morphology
Its use in context
Groups of words
Since a language is made up of thousands of individual words, it mighttheoretically be possible to learn a language by learning thousands ofindividual words, just as it may be possible to become a teacher by learn-ing thousands of individual teaching steps.
Grammatical Patterns
Normal word order (Subject, Verb, Object)
Working on the SVO pattern entails dealing with noun phrases everybit as much as verb phrases
Work on four basic sentence types
Study skills
knowledge of and flexibility with a range of task, activity andinformation display types
preview, review and overview
knowing what’s required of you in a particular task, makingdecisions about what to work on, when and how
motivating yourself, improving your own confidence, being active byasking questions, tolerating frustrations and difficulties, improvingyour own memory, clarifying things, developing and organising yourown ideas.
ways of consulting reference works, e.g. dictionaries, encyclopediasand ways of using resource rooms and libraries
practising different kinds of thinking including the purposeful,disciplined, cognitive kind and the slower, more playful, exploratorykind (
organisation of time, place and materials
knowing how to study alone, in pairs and with other people andhow to get the best out of your teacher and peers
assessing your own progress, the learning course materials, themethods, etc.
Classes and people
Time
How long a lesson, a break, a day, a week is in the place you work in.
Territory
Where staff and students are allowed to go, whether you have a place to store your clothes or books and what areas of rooms people are allowed to decorate
Clothing
how different from otherpeople you or your students may look, and how status is marked byclothing.
Conduct
Issues here can be how noisy students are allowed to be,whether physical contact is accepted, who you can talk to and lookat, and whether students can help, cooperate, compete, laugh, turnround, ask questions.
Resources
what belongs towhom, what you can touch or use with or without permission,whether anything is dangerous and what happens if someone breaks something
Students behaviour alone and in groups
Issues here are whetherstudents are expected to regulate their own behaviour, whether theywork well alone, in pairs, or groups, how much they are allowed tobe physically or mentally present or absent, what the level of eachstudent’s participation is and how students can improve their ownmemory and confidence.
The people in the class as the subject matter
The group process (i.e.what is happening in terms of interaction, attitudes and behaviourbetween people in the group) can itself become one of the central topics.