Н.А. Алмаева,
учитель
английского языка, МОУ СОШ № 3,
г. Хвалынск Саратовская область
PLANNING
AN INDIVIDUAL LESSON
Comparing PPP
and TBL
I think the two approaches PPP and TBL are very useful
to develop the target language and to motivate students.
The approach PPP (Presentation-Practice-Production). When learning the grammar 'Gerunds and
infinitives' the teacher establishes a context, model target structures.
Then students practise the target language focusing on grammatical accuracy.
This can be through drills, worksheets, games. At the end of the lesson the
teacher assesses students’ learning by their independent use of target
language.
But I feel more
comfortable using the second approach TBL – (for example "Creating an
utopian society". Students are divided in groups. I think collaborative
work gives shy students more confidence to discuss the task as the teacher
creates positive, friendly atmosphere. So students show their creativity and
curiosity when presenting the utopian society.
Also, I’d like
to tell you about the topic "The world's best friend is you".
We discuss the environment in the native place, the environmental problems
and their solutions using the approach TBL.
The task is 'to create a perfect place
where we could live' (it might be even another planet in the Universe)
using worksheets with necessary vocabulary, grammatical structures on this
topic. i am convinced such lesson will be successful and fruitful.
Different stages of lesson plans
I think the lesson stages would be in the following
order:
Warmer - it is a short activity starting the lesson to involve
students in the 'mood' and to engage them with the language: vocabulary games,
for example, "Let's rhyme the words" (dream-cream; not-got;
name-game etc), a brief mingle activity with questions 'Did you have a good
time in the country?' 'Where did you go at the weekend?'
Lead-in - it precedes the main input part of the lesson to help
to reinforce students' interest, set the scene, establish the context. It can
be a short discussion, brainstorming around a topic.
Presentation - Students are
given a model illustrating the target language in context through flashcards,
text, video, audio recordings, games and so on.
Controlled
practice - Students practise the target
language and focus on grammatical accuracy and pronunciation. It can be drills,
sentence completion, information gap by teacher's monitoring.
Free
practice/production - Students
practise the language focusing on fluency. The activities are role plays,
discussions, projects. The teacher's role is to monitor as learners experiment
with the new language.
Feedback - The teacher gives comments on performance and
suggestions as to where students can improve, praises what was done well and
may represent useful examples to reinforce the target language.
Concept checking
questions
I use some teaching
techniques to check that students
understand a language point:
1) distinguish
the defining elements of the concept;
2) create a
statement for each defining element using simple, concise language;
3) based on the
statement, ask students a yes/no or either/or questions to check their
comprehension of key concept elements.
Assignment: Concept checking
Look at the
grammar and vocabulary items below and write concept check questions for each
item:
