Examine Figures 22.1 to 22.7 in your textbook (pages 427-434). What do you
think of them? Choose at least one of those shown and discuss how you can
envision using it in your own classroom. What else would you do during class on
a day that you did that activity?
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I like the chart on p. 427 and the drawing of the shapes on p. 431. Speaking from the perspective of the class I teach now, the way of introducing tenses on 428-429 would be a bit too complex for my students. I like the pictures on p. 430, but I do wish they had people there, too, so you could actually see to whom things belonged. There's a lot going on on that page, and the meaning of the grammar forms doesn't have a strong connection to the pictures. Maybe I'm still slightly scarred from the great failure I experienced teaching a very similar lesson to my students from our textbook! :) I like the chart on page 427 about adverbs of frequency. I would use this in my classroom but instead have students make their own questions. I'd give them a chart with the adverbs of frequency at the top and then partial questions that they'd need to complete, such as, "How often do you eat ____________?" After completing the questions, they'd get with a partner and ask their questions, checking the box of what their partner answered. Then we'd debrief as a class, and I'd have them form questions about their partner to tell the class, such as "Debby never eats pickled beets."
ReplyDeleteI think these charts are useful. The pictures in figure 22.3 are useful for introducing vocabulary, and the exercises at the bottom are also something I would envision using in class. The way I would do it would be a little bit different though, first as a class discussion, then as pair-work activity or as groups. For example, after introducing a new term (say wallet), ask who in class has a wallet, or who has a watch, etc… I would also like to use realia here. Maybe have the class divided into two groups, each with a box of the vocabulary items. Then among the groups they would pick who is the supposed “owner” of each item. Afterwards, the other group would have to guess, by asking questions, which item belongs to whom. (It would need some more details, but that’s the general idea). Figure 22.1 is another simple one that I liked. I remember doing a chart like this while learning another L2, and yes, it is helpful. For visual learners, these figures would be very helpful.
ReplyDeleteI like figure 22.5. It's doesn't immediately look very communicative but it could be turned into a communicative exercise. You can turn that reading into a discussion of traveling during a holiday, vacation or school break. You could pair up students and have them exchange travel plans and write out a few simple sentences discussing past or future travel plans, their own and their partners. I think it would work well as a grammar lesson.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a timeline as in Figure 22.2 I just don't like how it's done here. With a few modifications to how the timeline is presented I think it could be extremely helpful to students who struggle with more than one past/future tense. Figure 22.3 could be more helpful with lower level students you also had a picture of the people (with names) who seem to be missing the items in this picture. (So pretty much what Deb said.) It would be a pair work exercise for students to practice saying possessive forms.
ReplyDeleteI like the "Exercise I" chart on 427 because it is helpful for reading comprehension in English. The problem is, however, that such a reading/chart exercise is more for reading in itself than for understanding grammar. The student does not have to produce any language or spontaneously create language. So, I think it's good just as a reading comprehension tool.
ReplyDeleteFigure 22.2 confused me as a native speaker. I could not really understand the concept of the diagram. So, obviously I would not use that.
I like the activity in fig 22.3 because it deals with things readily present in students lives and allows them to talk about themselves and their real life activities and can therefore be made communicative. I would bring in a lot of fun and interesting stuff from home for students to expand their vocabulary beyond the normal clothing, jewelry, objects etc. I would introduce it by talking about how confusion can arise from not knowing who belongs to what. I also think it could be cool to do an activity involving a "lost and found" with this one. One student could be the person in charge of the lost and found, and one student could help them figure out who the items belong to.
ReplyDeleteI like Figure 222.5 on page 432 because I could see that being useful for introducing an idea and getting beginner students to do some reading. I have already used similar things in my class by having the students take turns reading them while the rest of the class listened. Then the class can discuss what happened, although this dialogue is a bit short for much of that. Then it would be good to have the students create their own dialogues in pairs, and perhaps have some of them share theirs with the class. Another option, which was in the book that we use at my program, would be to have a scenario presented and the first couple lines given to the dialogue. Then the students were expected to create the rest of the dialogue in groups. This worked very well in my class and allowed the students to be creative.
ReplyDeleteI would like to use figure 22.4 on page 431. This activity can be useful to teach not only prepositions but subject-verb agreement if we revise it a little. I also used an activity that is very similar with this one in class. At that time I tried to teach expressions ‘there is’ and ‘there are.’ Before the activity, I gave groups empty hardboard and some small pictures such as cats, dogs, sofas, clocks, computers, books, desks, tables, chairs, vases, flowers, and so on. During the activity, I read some sentences that described a living room, and students stuck the stuffs at the correct place on the hardboard. For example, the sentences were there is a bookcase on the right side of the living room, there are three books on the shelf, there is a desk on the left side of the living room, there is a computer on the desk, and there is a clock on the left side of the wall. After I read the whole sentences, I showed the original picture that I explained. By comparing this answer picture and their own answer, students ascertained what they heard and the meaning of various prepositions.
ReplyDeleteI like figure 22.3 on page 430, the book used in my program has several of these exercises and they work well for my students because they are all beginners. It has very simple but necessary vocabulary for everyday living. I like exercises that use pictures with listening and speaking involved to really make sure the students understand what they are supposed to be talking about. The only part that would need some serious time involved for explanation would be using this, that, these, and those properly. Again something that is very necessary to fully function in real life.
ReplyDeleteAs for how I would use this exercises, I would have them first hear pairs talk about the items using format in exercise 2 out loud for all class to hear. Then make 10 questions and answers about the items. Afterward would let them choose 2 sets and share them with the class. I would like to hear their pronunciation and grammar before moving onto exercise 3.