I hope Scott and Luke won’t mind me borrowing their Teaching Unplugged activity framework here…
- Where’s Ireland?
Image from geography.about.com
Think about it
Maps are great resources for the classroom, and outline maps even more so. If you’re doing a lesson looking at recommending places to visit in country X, why not turn this on its head and ask the students to make recommendations about their countries?
Get it ready
Find out which countries your students are from and print off copies of outline maps of these. These can be found at this link: http://geography.about.com/library/blank/blxindex.htm. Print off a copy of your country as well.
Set it up
Mark three interesting places on your outline map and stick it up where everyone can see it, but not on the board (which you will need). Without saying anything, wait for the class to speak. They may make guesses about the places you have marked. Invite them to ask you questions to find out about the places. Tell them about the places, but don’t mention them by name yet. When you have had a short conversation, reveal the place names, elicit any questions the class came up with or phrases you used and write these on the board. Hand out outline maps and ask everyone to mark their own three interesting places.
Let it run
- In pairs or small groups, let the class ask each other about their interesting places. While they are doing this, monitor and help with language, making notes on any points you would like to look at.
- Ask everyone in the class to change pairs or groups so they can speak with someone different, and repeat.
- After this, ask everyone to return to their original place.
Round it off
Ask everyone to report back on one interesting place they heard about (not from their own country/area) and write a short paragraph recommending visiting this place.
Post all the paragraphs on the board and vote on the most interesting one.
Go over language as necessary.
Reference:
Selecting stimulus to share – Lessons on location, Teaching Unplugged pp48-51, Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury, Delta Publishing
http://www.deltapublishing.co.uk/titles/methodology/teaching-unplugged
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Love this idea Mike… keep ‘em coming. This is definitely one I’ll be nabbing in the not too distant future!! I like how you incorporated the Teaching Unplugged structure as well.
Makes me think what a good idea a Teaching Unplugged collaborative website would be.
Thanks for sharing
What a GREAT idea, Anna. Could even end up with something publishable like that… Hmmm, wonder if it’s feasible?
I really like the structure of activities in the Delta Teacher Development Series; really easy to follow and no faff!
That’s good to know re the rest of the series. Teaching Unplugged is the only one I have but might look into some of the others. Thanks
Probably should qualify that: I am assuming the layout from a sample of two (Teachings Unplugged & Online) I’d recommend T Online – the ideas and activities look good although I am really yet to make full use of Lindsay Clandfield & Nicky Hockly’s suggestions…
Thanks for the qualification… I’ve seen quite a few other recommendations for that one as well so will have to give it a try.
This lesson worked really well Mike… it’s definitely going into the I’ll use that one again… and again category.
A full hour of conversation from E1s who are not always the easiest to get chatting… but yet again an Unplugged (Dogme) lesson seems to work wonders!
It’s currently making its way around the staffroom :-p
Thanks so much
Thanks for the feedback, Anna, and big thanks for sharing =)
I’m thinking more and more that taking an unplugged approach (with a dash of good, authentic, interesting resources mixed in – obviously dogme doesn’t preclude materials entirely) works best with ESOL learners. Frog-marching them through the government-produced materials, and mapping them to the ‘curriculum’ (both woefully out of date, and the latter just impractical) is not the way forward.
Mike =)
Short and sweet – great!
This great idea can be adapted in many ways (which is why it is such a great idea, duh!)
My pupils come from a very wide variety of cities and small towns within Israel (special ed – some even travel an hour and a half each way!) – it would work with comparing info about that too!
Thanks!
Thanks for that comment, Naomi.
It’s certainly open to adaptation. Looking at different areas in the same country, for example. I assume a multilingual, multinational context in the framework, but of course a lot of EFL is homogenous groups of students in the same country. You could even go into smaller detail and make an outline map of your city to get students’ recommendations on where to go.
Mike =)
I’ve never come fully ’round to this style of lesson. I like the foundation with which it starts (the topic and outline maps are so simple and useful), and of course I agree with the value of dealing with the language that comes up from doing the task (so emergent, one might label it), but I always feel like so much more could be milked from it in terms of focused skills practice, like more guidance with what or how to write, guides with regards to oral communication skills, etc. In the end, I suppose we could adapt it to whatever we like, but then it wouldn’t be ‘dogme’ anymore.
I’m not sure that adapting like that is so much going off-piste on the dogme slope. Why not ask learners what they would do when they found out about a cool place to visit (would they tell their friends/family? maybe they’re a magazine writer in disguise and want to do a feature?) – plenty more ways the emergent language can go and be used/repeated/drilled/recast/reformulated. No reason that a ‘real-life’ role play couldn’t be set up for different language focus still sticking with speaking…
I’m no expert, but I don’t think dogme is a matter of extremes. What I wrote above is merely a framework, and you slot into it (or not) however best suits =)
Mike
Real-life or authentic situations that bring about natural use of language is totally a good thing. I’m certainly not arguing that. =) Maybe also I’m just taking the instructions there totally at face value without realising it’s more skeletal than not (I just assume Dogme is skeletal in terms of planning – I wholly accept that I may be wrong there). All I’m really suggesting is that more “planned meat” if you will, inserted into this style of lesson will guide students in terms of knowing what they’re learning and help the teacher be prepared to help facilitate that learning with practice activities.
Sounds perfect for this, Tyson. The way I see dogme (and I could well be misguided myself!) is it’s about being ready to making the most of a learnable moment, but not having everything planned out to the last minute. I think if you have language you want or need to fit in (lets say due to requirements of the course or exam) or a particular skill you need to help students to develop (ESP or EAP, for example?) then having strategies to slot these in, or provide support and opportunity to explore the language can only be a good thing.
Does that all make sense?
Mike =)
Yes, you’ve made sense, though it’s definitely less dogme-ish than I’d thought. I guess I feel making use of those ‘learnable moments’ is something that was just part of a good lesson, but not the focus or purpose of the lesson, as is my understanding of the general dogme approach. In any case, a framework is a framework and using it how best suits the needs of your students is the right thing to do. I’m sure you, me and the rest of our PLN aim for that.
Thanks! I’d been wanting to see an example of a dogme lesson . . . this is interesting!
Kylie, please bear in mind that this is just *my* interpretation of a dogme idea for a lesson. The point here being not going in all guns blazing ‘Today we’re gonna recommend places to visit in the UK!’, but instead getting content from the students, creating an environment where they can share this information conversationally (although my framework above might be a bit contrived…) and then report back to each other. The teacher can monitor and join in, asking questions or helping with language, note areas that students excell at or need help with. As in Tyson’s comments, you can be a bit more supportive in directing students towards particular language, and your final outcome could vary (write an email/article recommending a place to visit, for example).
Mike
Thanks for the information. My question now is, what if you don’t trust your students to continue on in the conversation. I teach Turkish Uni students, and they are awful with just the turn and talk to your partner in English exercises. The times I have had them doing group discussion it almost always ends up with them talking in Turkish, and then me eliciting their conversation in English.
This is partly why I am so hesitant to actually try a “dogme-ish” lesson in my classroom because my students have no desire to take control of their own language learning . . .
Hmmm, that’s another issue, isn’t it? (just seen your post about the situations you’ve been dealing with…)
Do they talk in Turkish when you do more ‘regimented’ work? I do assume a multinational teaching context in ther activity. Not sure. Maybe there might be a possibility to bring a native speaker into the classroom (who doesn’t speak Turkish) and they have to ‘sell’ their area as a place to go (or the best area in Turkey). A bit more contrived maybe, but might motivate them to use English. If you had a laptop with a webcam, you could Skype someone. I’d recommend contacting Shelly Terrell about that (@ShellTerrell)…
Mike