|
CHECKLISTS
AND EXCELLENT TEACHING
19th SEPTEMBER,
2005
WHAT
ARE CHECKLISTS?
The idea of these checklists
came from a colleague who was observing another teacher. During the feedback
session the observer pointed out that the teacher's class was good, but in
the presentation of grammar stage, the teacher had forgotten to explain the
meaning of the grammar point. He'd shown form, gone over pronunciation and
even done some repetition practice, but omitted the meaning.
So the idea of having a
checklist when preparing classes was born so that the teacher would not
forget things in future.
Firstly, we looked at a
checklist for PRESENTING GRAMMAR / NEW LANGUAGE POINTS and the group put the
steps in the best chronological order.
CHECKLIST
1
PRESENTING GRAMMAR / NEW LANGUAGE POINTS
How was the meaning shown?
Was the students' understanding checked?
Was grammatical form shown?
Can students create their own utterances based on the
models given?
Was pronunciation made clear?
Will students recognise the new item if and when they hear it?
Will student's pronunciation intelligible to other speakers of English?
Were style and appropriateness shown e.g. formal vs. informal?
It was rightly pointed out that
there might be no one correct order. The important thing was to include all
the necessary stages.
We also noted checklists may
take a statement or question form.
Next, the group, in pairs,
brainstormed a CHECKLIST for CHOOSING ACTIVITIES
CHECKLIST
2
CHOOSING AN ACTIVITY
GROUP IDEAS
Paul / Martha
Be appropriate for the level /
age
Suit teacher's teaching style
Take into account size of class
Timing / How long will and should it take?
Richard
/ Susan
Decide what kind of activity
(warmer / practice / free practice)
Decide linguistic objectives of class
Does activity meet linguistic objectives?
Chris
/ Georgia
Identify needs of students
Does activity meet needs of students?
What are humanistic needs?
Meet different learner styles of students (visual / auditory / kinaesthetic /
olfactory / gustatory)
We compared this to a checklist
prepared for this session.
PREPARED
CHECKLIST
CHOOSING AN ACTIVITY
Be suitable for different levels
Have a problem solving part that leads to a conclusion
Promote real communication
Have some element of authentic materials
Involve more than one language skill
Focus on learning how to learn
Be clear / have clear aims
Allow students to choose how to carry out the activity
Involve language risk taking
Allow learners to think and talk about learning English
Contain more than one learning style (VAKOG)
Give an opportunity for teacher and learners to see if activity was
successful
Finally we agreed on list of
CHECKLISTS that might be useful for the participants and groups brainstormed
and shared their ideas.
Paul /
Martha
ORGANISING HOMEWORK
Is it to test or to prepare the
next class?
Decide time students will need to prepare it and do it
Will you write instructions on blackboard?
Explain why they are doing it.
Say if it is assessed or not.
When will it be set, done and collected?
When will you tell them? (Start of class? At end?)
How much time will you need to explain what the homework is?
Richard
/ Susan
GIVING INSTRUCTIONS
Get attention of students
Organise pairs or groups first
Give title of activity
Give aim
Give instructions
Use short sentences (one key step per sentence)
Grade language
Give a demo
Check understanding after instructions
Start activity
Check activity is being done correctly
Chris
/ Georgia
LISTENING ACTIVITIES
Listen to the tape / video yourself first before class
Check your equipment works
Lead into theme to raise awareness / knowledge (use pictures maybe)
Introduce a context. (If listening to a tape, maybe put a face of speaker on
board...invent one!)
Set a listen-for-gist question
Do first listening
Feedback on listen-for-gist question
Set listen-for-details questions
Do 2nd listening
Feedback on listen-for- details question
Feedback on how Ss got answers
Give tips on how to identify answer, i.e. how to listen better.
Establish student empathy (acknowledge that the tape maybe fast and even
difficult for you to understand at times)
HOW
USEFUL ARE CHECKLISTS?
1. We saw a variety of
checklists and how they can be applied mostly in the preparation stage of a
class. They can help you avoid forgetting key steps in any procedure.
2. Another value of this kind of
listing is as a technique for prompting new, more thorough, more insightful
thinking about the various activities - forcing yourself to become more aware
of the complexity of the problems, and to generate some new solutions.
3. Finally, they can be used
directly in teaching, some teachers call them 'process description': they can
be used to get students thinking logically, sequentially, comprehensively, so
that they can start to pre-plan their writing tasks more effectively. One of
the most popular examples was 'getting cash from an ATM' or 'using the
Beijing Subway'
WHAT
CAN I DO NOW?
Our challenge to you is to
choose an area of teaching where you are weak or forgetful and develop a
checklist for that procedure. Do it alone or with a colleague. Use it and
refine it, then share it with others.
As with all our ideas, passive
reading will not help your teaching! Take the idea, try it, adapt it, don't
worry if it doesn't work as you hoped, just do it and with a spirit of
exploration!
Good luck and do let us know how
it goes!
WHAT
OTHER CHECKLISTS CAN I MAKE?
Some ideas...
* GIVING A GREAT CLASS
* READING ACTIVITIES
* ERROR CORRECTION
* LESSON PLANNING
* OBSERVING A CLASS
* GIVING A PRESENTATION
HAVE
FUN!
|
