TESOL journal teaching tips

Fortune Cookies Suzanne W Woodward In grammar classes, especially at the higher levels, students sometimes ask if native speakers really usc the grammar that the students are learning in class This usually happens with a more comple, lense such as the unreal past conditional or the future perfecI, bUIif students have not been e'posed to any tense or use of that tense, they may ask the same question Therefore, I try as much as possible to expose my students to examples of the grammar We are learning as it is used in the real world Generally, [ fol low these steps: l Introduce the form and how it is used Practice some oral or written exercises, usually from a book Introduce the grammar point being studied in a reaJ~lifecontext Practice Step Practicing in a Real.life Context After introducing and practicing the forms used to express a prediction, I ask the class where they find predictions in Ihe real world Usually they respond with weather forecasts and sometimes even fortune telling Then I ask if they can think of a restaurant where this grammar fonn is used Most of the time, at least one student will mention Chinese restaurants I explain that sometimes the cookies contain fortunes, but sometimes they are just factual statements I give each siudent a cookie and have them look at their for(unes to detennine if the verb fonn is either to be + -ing or will + simple form Those studenls who find a fortune with one of these forms read it aloud (We sometimes need to discuss the meaning of the fortones.) Practicing Writing Predictions The next step is to have the students peac tice writing predictions [ give each student a slip of paper with the narne of a classmale on the top The students can choose to write a serious or silly fortune but they must use one of the future forms because they are making a prediction After collecting the fortones and redistributing them so Ihe students can read their fortunes, I ask if anyone wants to share their fortune with the class In this way students are able to associale a grammar point with a real-life activity, then practice that activity, and have fun doing it Not all people learn in Ihe sarne way so by using a variety of methods (explanation oraVwrillen drill, visual, situaliona! practice), more students will absorb Ihe point of the lesson Fortune Cookies is not the only activity you can to introduce your students to a real-life activity using the futureto make predictions For e.ample you could role-play being a fortune teller However, it is important to choose an activity that they have a good chance of experiencing in their lives This method can be used al :my level-all it takes is imagination or a good activities reference book Preparation lime will depend on the real.life activity, but te.che" should try to keep preparation time to a minimum and reuse the activity and materials in subsequent classes Author Suzanne W Woodward is an instmclOr in tht academic ESL writing program at Palomar College in San Marcos, California S1Jt is ,ht autlror of Fun with Grammar: A Games and Activities manual for the Azar Grammar Series (to be published Foil 1996 by Prentice Hall Regents) Sp""R 1996 31 • Rethinking the Lesson Plan Scott H Rule "A reflective man generally spends his ttme adapttng his idea of ihings io the alterattons imposed by new facts It is in this process of bending and adjusttng thought, in this consciotls elfminatton of error, that troth-that is to say, what life can teach us-is to befound " Camus, 1991 In teacher education, lesson plans force us to keep an eye on Ihe ball As a leacher edu cator with the Peace Corps, I saw new teach ers spending hours writing lesson plans for a 15~minU(emicroteachlng session If we think aboul why they spent thaI much time, we C3n come up with a few reasons: • They had nD! yet built a repertoire of teaching activities, thus activities had to be Individually created • They wanled to be sure Ihal they knew exactly what they would be doing each second of Ihe class, that every pause was accounted for We could say that their final product was a map of their preclass teacher thinking As teachers become more experienced, the lime they spend writing lesson plans decreases, and the lesson plans themseh'es become shorter Why Is this? • Their repertoire of teaching activities is large They not need to write out each step of the activities because the proce- dures are well ingrained In their minds 48 TESOL}otl"",1 All they need are lelegraphic nOles to guide them • They can think on their feel and quickly fill unexpected pauses ~la!,y see what they as a craft, part of thaI craft being the ability to ad lib, further lessening the need for deuiled lesson plans But if we look back at the way we described the role of the lesson plan for the novice teacher, we see whv we could rethink the role of the lesson plan: from one of noles to one of a simple research tool: • Lesson plans force us to keep our eye on the ball • They are maps of our preclass teacher thinking , Steps for Adapting lesson Plans Sel Ihese loplcs inro queslion form in an au dine See below 4, While leochlng Ihe class, quickly jOl down the following in a third color pen: More appropriale wayS of doing an activity, areas you forgOl 10 cover In your lesson plan, and how you decided to cover them During class I would be thinking on my feel and coming up with new Ide:lS I would also find thaI I had nOlthoughl Ihrough some steps of Ihe lesson as well as I had wanled I would ad lib, marking down Ihe are:lS I had foigotten, and the actions I chose 10 take Look al a compleled lesson plan and answer your questions Are they ans~'ered completely? If nOl, add your new Ideos 10 Ihe plan in a different color pen Complele Ihls step before leochlng Ihe lesson Keep track (by making a list, or whalever works for you) of the questions thaI you had nO! answered as well as those you found yourself ad Iibbing In class Code these, perhaps on your lisl, soon after the lesson while you have The following is a set of sleps I hare taken when using lesson plans as a research 1001: I , Make a lisl of areos In which you would like 10 Improve your leochlng I chose Ihe following: giving directioos, feedback teocher talking time, engaging students equal involvement of studenr.s, and pair work a clear memory of whal you did and the questlon it related 10 Over time I staned to see pallem.'i of areas that I had a hahit of skippinR over, le3\'inR to chance, or to my ahility 10 ad lin The follow ing were most prevalent: the presentalion of an activity, describing how an aetivil}' "'ould be carried out, and the conclusion of an activity This reseorch loollaughl me Ihal I had always focused on lhe ,clivilies Ihal students could to p1'3ctice and use a grnmmar POUlt or function What I was forgetting were the things Ihal facililale Ihese actirjlies-lg wllh rhe clllzem, forgetting somellmes Ihe protocol (The student was asked to change the clause wben I mel/be king to a phrdse with upon.) 11,e people wailing for the bus are getting wet Maybe 1should tell them aboul rhe company~ strike No, lellhem gel wei: am nollhal nice (The student was asked to reduce the clause who are waiting to a phrase.) Creative language use of this kind gives the teacher something unpredictable to resJXmd to; it makes homework more Interesting to read Having more to respond to, the teacher can go beyond evaluating for mere correctness Suppose a student success fully completes an item like any parties since arrived here by writing haven 'I altended any parties since 1came here If there's no follow-up, the teacher has no comment to make Suppose there's a follow-up: because been studying alllhe lime Now 1',,, " the teacher ha!i something to respond to and can write "But you're really learning a lot'" or "Who are you trying to kid?" Homework that Includes follow-ups together with rhe te:tcher's feedback can become something approaching dialogue And hecause the teacher's comments are content-specific, Ihe student is more motivated to look at them and thereby 10 review Ihe homework Increased Altenllon to the Cue Sentence fn order to add something meaningful 10 a sentence in an exercise, students need to read and understand the sentence: This is one of the most obvious henefits to followup sentences: TIley require students 10 read carefully and to apprccime the exercise sentences, however context-free they may be, as potential parts of a real discourse When asked to respond in writing to a question aoout using follow-up sentences, some of my students have shown that they appreciate this increased attention to the cue sentence: When you make follow-up sentences, first you check again the exercise Second you practice other things Sometimes they are the only way to determ.ine the tenses in the sentence Adaptability to Various Teaching Sltuallons Follow-ups are adaptable to a range of levels and to many te-Jching contexts They can be used in oral as well as written exer cises In written fonn, they may be especially well suited to Eft classes EFL teachers need ways to make their classes more communicative, yet tiley may be understandably reludant to adopt ideas from ESt texts, especially when those ideas involve radical change and risk-taking by teachers (Nolasco & Arthur, 1986; Sano, Takahashi & Yoneyama 1981) Followup sentences are not a radical idea 111ey are firmly based on traditional grammar exercises in traditional grammar textbooks As such, they are one innovation that might be easy for EFL teachers to try Taking Textbooks Seriously / \ 151 I was taken aback some years ago when a colleague who had been IIsing a traditional grammar textbook in his class commented that he and his "tudenls had had interesting di.'~rlls$ions ahollt the dewnlexruaiized fill-irHlle hbnk scntences in the book's exercises They had talked about when rOll could use this or that sentenre ahout \vho might say ii, Sprin~ 1993 31 Tips from the Classroom and so on Where I had seen those disem~ bodied sentences as something to ignore, to use minimally, or to replace with what I considered more imaginative exercises, my colleague and his students had taken them seriously-had looked at the sentences as potential bits of conversarions or paragraphs In shon he and his students had taken the textbook seriously as a source of discourse in English-perhaps in a way the author never intended The technique of follow-up sentences grows out of the same respect for textbooks, out of the same desire to find " discourse where none, apparentJy, exists The students imagine the discourse and in so doing collaborate with their book's author in a way that enriches both the textbook and their learning References Azar, B S (981) Ullderstandlng and uslllg Ellglish grammar 2nd Edition New York: Prentice Hall Regents Azar, B S (989) Ullderstandlng and uslllg Ellglish grammar New York: Prentice Hall Regents Raimes, A (990) /low Ellgllsh works, New York: St Manto's Press Nolasco, R., & Arthur, L.(986) Try doing it with a class of 401ELTjournal, 40, 102-106 Sano, M., Takahashi M., & Yoneyama, A (984) Communicative language teaching and local needs ELTjoumal, ]8, 17o-ln Author Eric S /I'elsoll currently leaches at the Mlnllesota Ellgiish Center oflhe Ulli