Teaching Teenagers & Adults of all ages; Some practical strategies/activity types that can be used in classes, or adapted! lemnorris@yahoo.co.uk Movement along a cline/corners; instead of asking sts to report back or give opinions orally, ask them to stand along an imaginary line to show their answers. If the room is too small, using corners can work. The line can be I can’t stand…
neutral
I really like/love…
The corners I used were love the TV show, hate it , have no strong feelings either way, never heard of it. The idea of physically moving to indicate an opinion, or vote can be adapted to getting answers, e.g. multiple choice (A, B, C, or D?), or has gone, went, had gone? Sts can justify their answers and ‘argue it out’ with those in different corners/places on the line. A choice of two items also works; Tea or coffee? Coke or pepsi? Beach or mountains? Macdonalds or Burger King? Nike or Adidas? Text or chat? with ‘Neither’ being the middle position. Language is exploited by asking sts to tell the person/people near them why, or even asking them to try and persuade those in the middle to ‘jump ship’ to their side. Physical alternatives to sedentary, seated activities provide a change of focus, energy, pace, interaction and a chance to stretch and move. This technique can be used to find out what sts feel and think about a topic at the lead in stage as well as for feedback/answers. 5 things I hate (don’t like) about…. How often do we give sts the chance to talk about negative things? Ask sts to list 3 things they love and 3 things they hate about…. Which list gets finished in a flash? Teenagers respond really well to this idea, and the film/TV show inspired this activity. Possible topics depend on your sts/book etc, but I have used the following; being here, my family/younger brother/best friend, my host family, my town/city, my life, ……book/film etc. Look-who’s talking? St engagement and involvement. Be aware of who sts look at when they talk (give answers, opinions, reporting back etc). Often, we teachers stand in front of the student talking, and even move closer, so the student speaking looks at us instead of directing their talk to the whole class. This can send out the subsconscious messages; the teacher is the prime person to address, the other sts can phase out as they are not involved, only the teacher can validate and respond to answers/opinions/feedback etc. Try moving behind the student speaking and physically direct sts attention to the rest of the class; “Tell everyone….”, “Can you hear over there? Ask Laura to speak up if you can’t!” Involve the whole class by encouraging them to use appropriate body language and ‘listening with interest noises’ (ah huh, mmm, ahhh, right, really?’ etc). Get the listening students to say if they agree with answers and be ready to say why not.
Features of traditional v. 21st century learning
encouraged ‘correct/standard’ pronunciation v. comprehensible English and international culture
emphasis on language accuracy v. emphasis on language fluency
non-cognitive v. all kinds of cognition encouraged and required
uncreative v. all kinds of creativity
many closed tasks v. more open tasks
3 stage lesson;P.P.P. v. lessons start from learners
learning given to learners v. learning created by learners
21st century skills; something to debate/add to with more advanced sts? collaboration critical thinking social responsibility enquiry; ability to research/find out problem-solving systems thinking [source: Sunday Times Education Festival panel forum, chair A. Seldon June 2011]
Useful resources www.keepvid.com allows you to download videos from youtube and save them to your desktop for use offline. Please note this is, however, in violation of youtube’s policy. www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/make.html Make short animated films & cartoon yourself and your students. http://lessonstream.org/browse-lessons/ Find lessons and plans (including clip that inspired my TV speeded up demo lesson) using videoclips.