Step 1: Summarize a lesson. This could be a lesson from your own teaching experience or it can come from one of your methodology lesson plans.
If I teach reading session,
Title of lesson: The Farmer and the beet
Profile of students: the third grade at elementary school./ Novice low
The main objective of this lesson is the short story. Students are required to improve their basic reading skills through the short story which they have been exposed to in Korean. The basic reading skills are pronunciation, intonation, and pause in a sentence.
I usually divided the lesson into three stages:
1) Warm –up stage: Introduce the story in various ways to invite the students’ interest/ to activate the students’ schemata. I will give the impetus for students’ interest in predicting the plot of the story. I can show the pictures and talk about the title to brainstorm about the story.
2) Reading and comprehension stage: Read out loud in class and help students understand the whole story by asking questions.
3) Consolidation stage: Help students to consolidate what they have learned. I can do story telling through mime, acting out the story. In order to correct the students’ pronunciation, intonation, and pauses in a sentence, students should listen to the tape and read aloud as much as they can.
Step 2: Analyze the lesson's theoretical foundation by applying ideas we've discussed in SLA.
I. Overview of the lesson
Students will be able to read the story fluently, In order to do it, students need to ask and answer the questions in full sentences based on the topic. The teacher needs to provide proper activities to have students use right-hemisphere function to acquire the target language or main expressions. And then students will be able to understand the story and they will be able to do role-play during the activity. Also the teacher has to give homework in order to give proper anxiety or intrinsic motivation.
II. Theoretical justification of the activities
A. Right hemisphere participation
In the warm-up stage(Step 7), when teacher introduce the topic, for example, “The farmer and the beet”, the teacher have students guess or imagine when the teacher starts drawing things such as the beet, a farmer, a horse, a cow and etc. on the board. When the students imagine the new words using visualization, they can use the right-hemisphere function naturally and the language becomes meaningful and memorable.
In the reading and comprehension stage, after the teacher tells the story using pictures or realia, the teacher have students tell the story each other. When the students tell the story each other, they have to share storytelling together. As humans, the students will recognize they are communicating, they will know how to pick up the language. Also, when the teacher assign roles to each student to do a role play about the story, they will act out the story and then the students will use their emotions. It helps to use the right-hemisphere function as well, and the language they use while role-play, it becomes meaningful and memorable.
B. The Affective Filter, anxiety, and motivation
In step 6, the story (materials) is already familiar to the students, because most of them have read the story in Korean version. That’s why they can be motivated easily first. Even though, there’s no any conflict, advice or opinion, it seems okay regarding to students’ proficiency level.
While students do the role-play, if I record the performance, they can be more tensed to do it well. Also, when students are ready to move on to the next story, I ask the students to do VRS (Voice Record System) on a blank tape for homework. And then I correct the students’ pronunciation, intonation, and pauses in a sentence. From this assignment, their anxiety will go up and it can be the facilitative anxiety. This anxiety makes students pay more attention and be prepared for the class. Also, whenever I give some sweets or stationery for the best students who have participated well every once in a while or once in a week, they will be able to have extrinsic motivation. When the student gets rewards such as even some sweets or stationery, they will have high confidence. Therefore the students will have a low affective filter.
In step 7, 8, while I introduce the story, I can ask personalizing questions such as “Have you read this book before?”. Absolutely, I have students answer in a short sentence. Students, especially little children always love to tell about themselves, so it can make intrinsic motivation.
C. Input and Output
During the lesson, the teacher shows or explains the story with comprehensible input by using making input comprehensible techniques. For example, the teacher can use puppet and visuals to describe the story or the teacher can do lots of repetition and rephrasing. The teacher always has to consider about the students’ proficiency level. More than anything else, I focus on the meaning of the story to make it understand easily when I tell the story and when they read out loud and it becomes roughly-tuned input.
When the students need to act out by role-play, they can speak out while thinking about the right form subconsciously. Due to the students’ proficiency level, they won’t be able to do the independent activity 100% without the teacher’s instruction and assistance. Therefore during the role-play, the teacher has to guide and give some models, hints and cue to correct when the teacher finds out that they notice the gap. And then the students will approach the communicative goal eventually.
III. Conclusion
From the beginning of the class, the lesson has to be organized well enough to acquire the 4 language skills together even though I focus on the reading. The students activate schemata in the warm-up stage, and they can use their right-hemisphere function when they imagine and guess about the story. These imagination, emotions and sociability make language meaningful and memorable. Also, by using classroom interactions and making input comprehensible techniques, the students can be motivated and have anxiety to do the task. Even calling on individual student by name and having eye-contact with students can be risk-taking. The teacher gives comprehensible input when listening and reading, also the teacher has to guide, show model, cue, and give hints when they notice the gaps. Moreover giving homework to do VRS (Voice Record System) is a good thing not only to correct the students’ pronunciation, intonation, bust also to have students have some anxiety and intrinsic motivation. As this kind of lesson go over and over again, the students will accustomed to the way they learn and what they have to prepare for the class and it will make students have communicative goal.
Submitted by Susie Park
Posted by James Trotta at December 9, 2006 2:11 PMESL blog is one of many Blogs for learning English & teaching English. Translation services information.