Lesson_Planing

ΕΡΩΤΗΜΑ 1 Α) The lesson plan is explicit enough as far as the activities themselves are concerned. The rubrics are clearly stated and the students know exactly what they have to do. It is not explicit when it comes to the time allotted, interaction and feedback of the activities. Actually, if it where to serve as a guide for a substitute teacher, it is not enlightening. There is important information missing concerning the class profile and the method used as well as the purpose for activities 1 and 2. If a purpose is not provided for the students to conduct all the discussions, they will consider it as free time and will probably end up as waste of time. Besides it is rather unclear in what way the students are going to “share their findings” and the reason why this activity takes place. It is hard to find a purpose for Activity 6, unless it is somehow adjusted, and the same applies to the second part of Activity 7. What kind of questions should be asked and who will be the addressee. In conclusion this is not an explicit lesson plan but rather the worksheet to be handed out to the students. Unfortunately, the LP seems to lack organization. The activities should be graded according to their degree of difficulty, starting from easier ones and gradually progressing to more demanding. The activities are too many for a 45 minutes class and some of them are time demanding. The way activities are planned does not cater for weak students since not much room is left for interaction. In Activity 1 for instance, weak students are not probable to use the TL and the same applies to Activity 2, when students are encouraged to interact with several partners on several topics. Activity 3 starts from individual work and shifts to pair-work, but for activities 4, 5, 6 there is no information either on interaction or feedback. Activities 5 and 6 read less demanding than previous ones, especially in activity 6, which will be simply copied from the text. Last but not least occurs the issue of time concerning the organization of the LP. We already know that the session lasts 45 minutes and that activity 8 is allotted 10 minutes plus the extra time needed by the students to correct their partner’s paper, so the time left is about 30 minutes. This perspective stiffens the teaching procedure. There is a wide range of activities which integrate all 4 skills Speaking (Activities 1-2-3), Reading (Activities 4-5-6), Writing (Activity 8- and Reading Activity 7). Listening is practiced is practiced only through speaking as students listen to one another. Coherence is a trait of the LP, since text activities relate to the theme of “Family and Connectedness”, an issue relevant to the students’ real life. Exchanging ideas based on their experiences in Activities 1&2 and writing about them in Activity 8 would strengthen the coherence. A simple layout of the LP consists of the essential information the teacher should know about the students. That is: Information on class profile: Class: 1st grade of High School Age: 14-15 years old Level: Upper intermediate Number of students: 25 Time: 45 minutes ΕΡΩΤΗΜΑ 2 The ultimate purpose, the aim, of the LP : To offer students practice in all skills through an integrated lesson. The objectives of the LP: • To activate students’ schemata through discussion /speaking • To elicit relevant vocabulary by creating a need • To provide students practice in locating information through scanning a text • To provide students practice in inferring information based on key words, such as the title of the text • To enrich students’ vocabulary When setting the time of each activity we ought to bare in mind the real time of the class, that is the time we are given. The duration of this lesson is about 45 minutes. Since this LP focuses especially on the development of skills it is divided in the following stages: The pre-listening/reading stage, where learners are prepared for the reading part that will follow. Activities 1, 2, 3 fall into this category and will respectively consume ;1 & 2 four minutes each and 3 two minutes. The while listening/reading stage. Learners while in this stage practice and develop strategies in the field. Activities 4, 5, 6 correspond to this phase. Specifically, the students in order to finish Activity 4 will need approximately 2 minutes for their guesses and 5 minutes to scan the text and check their choices. To fulfil Activity 5, two more minutes will be needed. Finally, Activity 6 should require about 6 minutes, to check the answers in both activities. The post reading/listening phase, focuses on the use of what has already been read in a meaningful way. So Activity 8 is assigned which will take approximately 10 minutes to be written and 5 minutes to be corrected. In the remaining 5 minutes of the lesson the teacher should take 2 minutes assigning homework and 3 minutes to bring the lesson to pleasing round off reminding the most important points.