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Preparation
General notes: Grammar
Development Lesson
approach:
This lesson is attempting to move away from the
PPP (presentation, production,^ practice)
technique, where the presentation^ is usually
teacher orientated, to become more student-
centred and allowing students to discover the grammar/ forms and uses themselves. The classes will be predominantly multi-lingual
and will also have a range of educational
backgrounds. However, if the students have
been learning English in their schools at^ home then they will^ have^ completed^ some^ grammar
already. Therefore, to accommodate for this
diverse range of learners this lesson is
negotiated between the students and^ the
teacher so that they can get^ more^ precisely
what they need.
Below are a list of Can Do statements in the^ right-hand
column. These statements have been developed accord- ing to the overall syllabus and the activities that students could complete during the lesson. SELECT TWO OR THREE STATEMENTS FORTHE^ GRAMMAR^ LESSON.
For more detailed explanation of the different columns,
please see the Leaning Aims section of this book.
The grammar book given to the students as part of their
course also offers some Can Do^ statements as well^ as
study tips for the students.
In order to improve the students'grammar it is important
to choose which Can Do statements you want your^ stu- dents to^ complete be^ the^ end^ of^ the^ lesson^ whilst^ plan- ning the class. Also, these statements could be^ written^ on
the board for the students at the beginning of the lesson
and then a short review at the end to see if they feel they achieved them. However, as the students will be in different groups,^ they
may have t or 2 different learning aims. This is accepta-
ble as long as both the teacher and students are^ aware.
main principles of the grammar focus
structures.
- (^) Understand a range of grammar structures.
lnstructions Page
General notes: Grammar Development Lesson
Teacher's notes
Choosing the grammar point(s): This course is a negotiated syllabus. Therefore, the grammar can be chosen by both the teacher and the students. As the students come from different educational backgrounds, the^ students^ will^ probably^ differ^ in^ the^ grammar^ areas^ that they want to study whilst at BLC. Below is a general method for choosing the grammar^ points^ with the class. Tuesday: On this day you^ need to allocate a few minutes of class time to choosing the grammar^ points.^ Ask^ the^ students^ to^ look^ at the contents page of their grammar books and in pairs^ they choose one or two points^ that they would like to cover. Feedback as a class and write the list of potential^ grammar^ points on the board. You may find that the students have the same choices.' Now choose a maximum of three. points^ that the students will cover tomorrow. If^ you do not^ feel comfortable^ with^ many grammar points being learnt at once, you can reduce the options down to 2. If the students all choose the same grammar point, (^) it might be beneficial to choose another one for them. Wednesday/Thursday: During the grammar^ lesson^ you^ will^ split the^ class^ into^ groups^ (1^ group^ for^ each grammar^ point).^ The students^ ,can choose which group^ they want to join.^ However, if a group gets^ too big, move some of^ the^ students^ to^ other^ groups^ and tell the movqd students that they will form their^ own grammar group next week and look^ at the^ grammar point^ then. Explain that they will still learn about the grammar point later^ in^ the class. Now ask the students to open their books at the relevant grammar point^ page.^ Instruct them to read the explanation and example text. They must complete the first exercise as a group and cornpare answers. During^ this time, the^ teacher will go (^) to each group and provided assistance, ask CCQs and drill pronunciation. Depending on the length of the first exercise, the students can continue^ with^ other^ exercises.^ After they^ will^ prepare^ a short presentation to the class which will use their own examples of the grammar.^ For students who are struggling, they can write an example sentence on the board, write the form^ and a^ short^ description^ of^ uses. Preparation and timingr The time spent preparing^ this lesson will vary depending on the teacher's experience and knowledge of the grammar point. (^) For higher levels, it may be beneficial for the teacher to refer to the Practical English Usage book before the class in order to anticipate some student queries regarding the particular^ grammar^ point.
It is imperative^ that^ the^ teacher reads^ the relevant^ pages^ of the grammar^ book before^ the^ class. Unfortunately^ we^ have
come across a few errors made by the publisher and this needs to be pointed^ out to the students before they use the book to learn the grammar^ point.
Su pp^ lementa ry resou rces There are a variety of books available in the teachers' library to help supplement the lesson. There is a shelf dedicated to this -^ second to bottom, in the middle. Some of the books on this shelf include: English Grammar In Use (Elementary, intermediate and advanced) Oxford English Grammar^ Course^ (Intermediate^ to^ Upper^ Intermediate) 700 Classroom activities (all^ levels) Teaching English Grammar (all^ levels)
Get Going with^ Grammar^ (Intermediate^ -^ games^ for^ practising^ grammar^ -^ some^ can^ be adapted^ for^ Upper intermediate
and advanced levels)
Promoting self-study This book is designed as either a self-study book for students or as a supplementary book for class use. Throughout this course teachers need to be encouraging self-study. The^ introductory^ section of the grammar^ book provides some^ tips^ on how (^) to self-study and become better learners. This could be reviewed as a class and discussed as part of their study skills development. ,&s.
General notes:^ Grammar Development^ Lesson
Teacher's notes
Plaving in tenses
There are a variety of games looking^ at different tenses in 70a Classroom Activities. Another al- ternative could be a grammar^ review:
Divide the class into small groups^ and put^ three
columns on the board:
You can either provide^ the vocabulary for each column or elicit from the class. E.G. My Uncle, Find, Glasses. You then ask them to form sen-
tences using the vocabulary in a range^ of^ tens-
es/structures, depending on their level;
Present simple: My uncle finds his glasses^ in a different place^ every day
Past simple: My^ uncle found^ his^ glasses^ up^ a
tree yesterday.
Groups get^ points^ for correct grammar,^ humour,
originality, added detail etc. You can go through a wide range of grammar doing^ this^ exercise, from past,^ present,^ future^ tenses,^ passives, positive, negative and question^ forms, modal
verbs, adjectives for added description, adverbs
for added description, adverbs of frequency^ etc.
You can also include phrasal verbs. This^ will^ give
you a starting place^ for subsequent grammar and vocabulary lessons.
Word class Draw (^) a table on the board with the following headings: noLln, verb, adjective, adverb, prepo-
sition, pronount^ article (add more^ or^ less^ head-
ing depending on level). They can either play^ this game^ as a race as a class or in groups.
Give the students one list of words'(they can be
based around words they have^ learnt^ recently^ or
new words). Each^ team has^ a^ different^ colour pen and they must race each other to put^ a
word from the list in the correct column on the
board. If the word has already been placed^ on
the board by another group,^ they cannot add it
to the column. However,^ if^ they think the^ word
is in the wrong column then they can write that
word in (^) a different column if they think that is correct. Feedback as a class and for^ each correct^ word the team gets^ a point.
Prepositions prepositions^!
Split the class into teams. Give them 1 minute (or 2)^ to
write as many prepositions^ as they can in their groups.^ The team with the most wins. Now board the following: Write 5 sentences with the preposition...(board^ a preposi- tion) Explain the rule: In your^ groups^ you^ will need to write 5 different sentences with the preposition, The first team to have 5 sentences shouts FINISHED and everyone stops writing. The groups reads out the sentences. The^ other students^ listen and stop
them if they think they hear an error. If^ the^ teacher
agrees, everyone can start writing again and the group
who read out their sentehces edit their sentence so it is correct or write a new one.
This continues until one team has 5 complete sentences.
The game can be repeated with different prepositions.
Word order
Split the class into^ groups^ of^ 314. Give^ each^ student^5 to
10 small pieces of paper.^ Each student will write one word on each piece^ of paper.
Student A: a list of animals or types of^ people^ (e.9.^ dog,
cat, uncle, mum, friend,^ best friend^ etc.). Student B: verbs Student C: nouns Student D:^ adjectives Once complete they can play^ the game:
The first player places a word of their choice on the ta-
ble (so everyone can see). The other students take it in turns to add a word to the sentence. The aim of the
game is to make funny sentences.
After one round is complete. The^ students work togeth-
er to check the word order of the sentence.
The next round can begin starting with a different stu-
dent in the group. To add an element of competition, the first player in each round can act as a judge and choose the player who had added the most humour to the sentence with
their word. The winner of each round can win^ the sen-
tence. The final winner is the one with the most^ sen- tences at the end.
For lower levels, the teacher could provide^ all the vo-
cabulary for the students. For higher levels, it could be
played with a team of 5 and student E writes adverbs.
Pabt simple or participle
Prepare sets of cards before lesson. Each set will
consist of 3 cards, the first the infinitive of the
verb, the second the past^ simple and the third will
have the past participle.^ Make sure there is one card per student. Shuffle the cards and hand out one card per student. Ask all the students to stand up and get^ ready to
walk around the room.
Tell the students that they must find their verb
family. Once they have found all the members of
their family, they then need to line up in order: infinitive, past^ simple, past participle. Explain that they need to race against the clock. Give them l to 2 minutes.
Once everyone has finished. You can check as a
class by each student shouting^ out their^ word^ in
order. NOTE: this game^ can also be adapted as a Word Families game.
Word families Write 5 to 7 words on the board e.g. think, get, go, (^) know and mean,
Ask the students to write^ as many words^ that^ are in the same family as each word e.g. think thinking thinks thought thoughts thoughtful
thoughtful ly thoughtfulness, thoughtless, rethink
get gefs getting got gotten
go goes going gone went
know knew knowing knowledge known knows un-
known knowledgea ble knowi ng ly
mean meaning means mean meanest meaningful
This (^) can be turned into (^) a race (^) or timed game in
which the students need to work in groups to find
as many words as they can.
To extend the learning fufther, during feedback^ of
the words, the students need^ to assign the word
class to each word,
For lower levels, they could use dictionaries to help find other words in the families.
In addition, some students might not^ know certain
words that come up. This could be an opportunity
for other students to explain the words.
