Class profile

I had this lesson with a group of ten 14 years-old as part of the general topic ‘My life’. We are working in line with the national curriculum requirements and are expected to follow the programmes prepared by the Bureau of Education. The students need to meet the criteria set for their level and pass a standardized external exam (some of them as each students gets two subjects randomly chosen on which she /he is tested)

The book we are using is in a way a preparation for PET Cambridge Exam and it resembles that format because it includes activities that are typical for the PET exam. However the external test questions are only multiple choice questions and this is a discrepancy which poses a huge problem for both, the students and the teachers. Most of my students have good understanding of English language, but their other skills lag behind, as the programme is very intense with huge emphasis on grammar and less space for communicative activities. My students are generally interested in the language; they are well aware that they really need it as a skill and the motivation to learn the language is satisfactory. Nevertheless, one needs a strong motivation and will to excel in a language, as well as get good quality input which needs to be provided by many different activities chosen to cater for different learners i.e. learning styles. I always make sure that I include a great variety of activities in my lessons that are well thought through and carefully prepared so that my students benefit from them.

The aim of this lesson was to introduce students to question tags (form and meaning) and the manner in which they are used, as well the function they perform in a conversation.

I organized my lesson plan so as to include activities that are varied in terms of difficulty, focus

and expectations. We started off with a warm -up activity, that was challenging and interesting for the students. They regarded my questions: ‘It is a ___, isn’t it?’ in relation to the optical illusion pictures as slight provocations and a discussion was raised which involved use of functional expressions as well as reinforcement of the tag questions. I felt that they needed an explicit explanation on question tags formation since it is very logical and straightforward. In Macedonian there are no such structures, but there is only one word that serves as an add –on to the sentence and can be used similarly for getting information or giving confirmation. I believe that the explicit explanations with visuals, graphs and examples were much appreciated. The matching pair activity lead them further into the target structure use and function.

The more open activities provided space for the students to not only parrot the structures but get more involved by being creative when they needed to think of and formulate questions for their partner or generate sentences using two random words.

The last activity, which served as a wrap up to the lesson again emphasizes its aims and objectives. The activity is fun and engaging, includes movement and as well as further language production in a form of sentence correction. So, the lesson includes all skills, applies to all learning styles and creates space for free expression and communication.

Lesson effectiveness

The lesson I detailed above has some very strong points, such as clear aims and objectives, activities with gradual increase of difficulty, clear focus on target structures and involvement of all four skills and inclusion of different learning styles. In the course book we are using question tags are introduced as a grammatical unit only and are presented via random examples with vocabulary that corresponds, only to a very limited extend, to the general topic. However, they are not contextualized and their function is not properly explained. My aim was to clarify their use and function especially because there are no typical counterparts in Macedonian. I decided to start off the topic by reintroducing questions, especially question tags where students were

asked to actually confirm or discard an information by using the short forms of the questions. The leading activity activated the students’ schemata on questions for the purpose of asking for information or giving confirmation.

The main part of the lesson is divided into presentation and practice and there is a logical and gentle transition from rule deduction to its implementation and final language production.The explicit explanations are beneficial for my students who are capable of rule deduction based on relevant examples, and also rule understanding and its implementation. Some students need to see how a rule works in practice which was done with the examples; visuals proved to be really helpful for illustrating the rules too.

I thought that students needed to be certain about the formation of question tags and why it is that positive statements need negative tags and vice versa and the verbs’ use in terms of tense, aspect and mood. So, the matching activity helped them recognize the correct forms. This activity was organized as a group work so that students could discuss and help each other before moving onto more individualized work. The next step, in which the students tried to work by themselves, yet not totally alone, was the pair work activity in which they wrote questions for their partner. They enjoyed doing this because they were free to think of their own examples and ask questions they really wanted to ask.

The third activity, even though regarded as group work, requires much individual effort since the group representatives each, need to form questions themselves within the given time limit. Each student got a chance to have a go and create whichever sentence he/she wanted no matter how illogical. Actually, the students were encouraged to think of the funniest, silliest examples. This activity went very well and the students created some very interesting questions that were very sophisticated and expressed their creativity. (eg.You must have travelled to the toilet, by the secret underworld paths, haven’t you?)

The final activity gives a chance for the students to once again reinforce their understanding by doing a TPR activity, and it was interesting to see how they struggled to come up with the right questions for the odd -one -out tags.

I believe that the lesson aims and objectives were met and the students understood what question tags are and what their function is. Notwithstanding the success of the lesson, I need to point out to some weaknesses and drawbacks. Firstly, I planned many activities- maybe too many, and I noticed I was rushing my students from one activity to another in my wish to see them through the stages I believed were essential and it was evident that there was no need for that. On hind sight, even though the activities were themselves pretty good, I could have omitted one of them and left more space for the others.

Secondly, the group work, especially in the third activity, wasn’t as successful as I had originally planned, because I overlooked certain issues. These were the following: some representatives were really quick in coming up with examples of sentences within the given time limit. However, some were hesitant and rather slow, which made other students impatient to the point where they overtook their turn and rushed with their own examples. This was not what I had hoped for, because I instructed them to help their fellow students not take their turn. However, it didn’t work in practice, and from now on I will plan more carefully. This activity could have worked better if I gave words and verbs to each group and they wrote the examples together prior to appointing one students to read aloud at least one sentence. Time limit could have been set but for the group work only. In that way I would have avoided this problem of unfair turn taking and some students not getting the chance to be equally involved.

It is helpful to take notes and get students’ feedback after lessons (as much as possible if not for every single lesson) because in that way the teachers get informed about what went well and what didn’t from a students’ perspective. For this lesson I asked the students to do that, and the feedback I got corresponded closely to what I saw as a major drawback- namely the third activity. However, the students were happy with the pace the lesson took, the activities they worked on and most of all, the fact that they understood what the aim of the lesson was and they stated it clearly.

Lesson plan

Lesson plan                                                                     Thursday, 2 May 2015General Topic: (according to the national curriculum)

‘My life’Grammar point:Question tags

Vocabulary Related to daily life activities (action verbs)Target  structures Question tagsGoals and Objectives: To Introduce question tags

To explain the rules about their formation and use To explain the main reason for use of question tags To provide an opportunity for students to practise using the

question tags in a meaningful  way

Expected outcomes: -The students to understand the rules of question tags formation-The students to be able to form and use question tags in certain contexts

Grade(s) 9 (ninth)

Teaching methods:DemonstrativeAudio –lingualTPRVisual(Eclectic)

Teaching forms:Group workIndividualTeacher- ledPair work

Teaching resources:Images taken from internetPrinted out worksheetsCD, laptop NotebooksBoard or paper

Introduction:

The teacher presents carefully chosen images of optical illusions (given below) as well as photos of the students themselves doing different activities in and out of school, with the questions written next to them. In this way the questions are introduced only subtly and it is a lead -in into the topic i.e. the target structures.

time stage aim procedure interaction/materials

7-10 min

warmer to introduce question tags

Images of optical illusions are shown on OHP and students are engaged in an activity where they guess what is on the ambiguous images by answering the questions that are given as prompts

T-S, S-ST-S, Lap Top OHP

Main part:

The main part is divided into presentation and practice.  At the beginning of this stage the teacher highlights the sentences which are given next to the questions, drawing students’ attention to the sentences’ adds -on. She elicits answers on their use and encourages students to try to explain what these questions mean and why they are used. Then the teacher presents the rules, explains what question tags are and how they are formed. The teacher carefully leads the students through all the rules which are visually presented in a chart and illustrated with examples.

In the next stage, students practise the target structures moving from easier exercises and activities towards more difficult and demanding ones. Firstly, the teacher put the students into groups and gives them worksheets -actually paper strips with the first part of the question and the question tags on separate piece of paper. The students should match them and after they finish we compare all the groups’ work, check the examples and together we correct the mistakes.

In the second activity I get the students to work in pairs and they need to fill in certain information they themselves choose for the question tags. For example: You_______________, aren’t you? You_______________, have you?

Each student writes up to 6 questions so that there is enough time for the pair to make the exchange. The third activity requires that the students are focused, think and react quickly. In groups of three each group representative needs to think of a sentence that combines a verb and a random word they pull out from two separate boxes within the time limit of 30 seconds. If they succeed and produce a correct sentence they get a point if not the next group has a go with the same verb- word combination. The groups take turns and the teacher writes the examples on the board. These sentences are not corrected because the teacher sends the examples for the students to correct for homework. She uses Edmodo (https://www.edmodo.com) for this purpose.

 Examples of verbs - travel, pay, scream. collapses, sleeps, divides Examples of words - underworld, white, jelly beans, toilet, stupid

time stage Aim Procedure interaction/materials

7min main part

PRESENTATION

-To provide opportunity for the students to get familiar with question tags, their form and meaning

-To explain the different functions of question tags: asking for information, confirmation or just keeping

Teacher

-Presents the images and photographs and the questions that accompany them

-Explains the rules by using visual

Students

-Guess what is on the pictures; discuss whether the guess was correct or not and what else they can see

T-S, S-S

T-S, photographs, image

the conversation going. Also, explanation about why sometimes question tags are preferable to direct questions.

charts and examples

-Confirm or deny the statements related to their own photos thus practising the target structures

PRACTICE

25 min -To practise question tags

formation

- To create sentences by matching the  two halves appropriately

- To create authentic and meaningful examples

- To understand why and where question tags are used properly and what is the their function

- To monitor and help

-To provide an opportunity for the students to practise matching tag- questions to the appropriate statements

-To encourage students to create their own examples with  tag questions that are relevant and meaningful

-To provide an opportunity for the students to grasp the meaning of tag questions while engaged into an activity that is fun and  slightly competitive

-Students match the two halves and form proper statements

-Write sentences using information of their choice that match the question tag provided in the examples

- Create sentences themselves that involve freer thinking and true understanding of the target structures

T-S, S-S

T-S, worksheets

For the final activity ‘Find your tag’ the students should find their other half, their tag. Five students get the statement, the first half of the sentence and the other five the question tags. All of them stand up, walk around the classroom and stand next to their ‘tag’. However, there's a slight twist to this activity because there are two tags that are incompatible with the sentences. They will certainly try to match and if the teacher notices that they are doubtful, she clarifies and instructs them to change their sentences so that they fit the tags. The tags join them in the effort of proper sentence creation.

time stage Aim Procedure interaction/materials

7-10min conclusion/ final part

- To wrap up the lesson by revising, once again, question tag form

Students find their partner and where needed correct the mistakes and find the appropriate example

T-S, S-S

Matreials used for the lesson

Optical illusion images and photographs

There is a girl on picture, isn’t there?

There are two zebras, aren’t there?

It is a scary cat, isn’t it?

This man was fun to talk to, wasn’t he?

We took great photos in the park, didnt’t we?

People are having lunch, aren’t they?

Charts with rules and explanations

Worksheet 1

She was lying, wasn’t she?

He wasn’t there was he?

It has always been like that

hasn’t it?

She loves you doesn’t she?

You want tell my dad will you?

You ate my sandwich didn’t you?

You didn’t go out last night did you?

You have got three sisters haven’t you?

They are not American are they?

You like Italian food don’t you?

Worksheet 2

1. You ___________________ don’t you?2. You ___________________ aren't you?3. You____________________have you?4. You____________________did you?5. You____________________will you?6. You____________________haven’t you?