Grammar's a really important piece of learning English, students
want grammar.
It gives them a handle on the language, helps them to become reflective about
the language and helps them build fluency.
The goal of the grammar lesson is to present the grammar to comprehend
the main points and then to move into practice, which starts with more controlled practice and then moves to freer
practice,
and the goal really is for them to develop fluency with the grammar
structure.
This is
now.
It's important to set up the grammar and the first thing I did was bring in my own
personal experience which is a clue
that this grammar point we are talking about has meaning.
Okay now
I am an English teacher.
Piano teacher,
piano,
I was a piano teacher. I'm using this grammar point to talk about my life, and I
talk about my wife, I talk about different students in the class.
I want to establish the fact that this grammar point is very useful in
communications, very useful to talk about
things like what we did before, what we're we're doing now, so it also peaks their
interest in the
grammar point,
Now, what time?
Before.
Danielle where are you from?
I'm from Mexico. Mexico,
in Mexico
did you have a job? Yes.
And now, what's your job now? A baker.
A baker,
uh... what was your job in Mexico?
I worked at the foreign hotel, holiday inn.
A hotel worker,
uh...
hotel worker.
We identified two students who
had jobs present and past and students tried to make sentences about
these students.
Okay, tell me about Danielle?
Danielle is a baker. He is a baker now.
He was a hotel worker
before. Good.
Open your books to
page ninety eight.
Once students open their books
the first thing that we did was focus on the grammar
chart at the top of the page.
Please listen,
questions were you a student? And we went over that
model pronunciation,
this is already rooted in meaning because of what I have brought before
the students opened the book.
Lets look at exercise two.
Do you see exercise two?
We move
from the grammar chart to the first exercise which is a check your
understanding. Amy chose?
What is that? It enables the teacher to see if students are really understanding
that grammar chart. And look at two thousand to two thousand six,
is that now or before? Now. two thousand two two thousand six.
Can somebody read
number one?
Julie would you read number one?
She was a teacher before. Yes good,
and... And now
she
is a nurse. Nurse, okay good.
I want you to look at
number two, number three, eight
and number
four,
and I want you to write the answers.
The best way for me to check to see if students are understanding the
grammar
is to circulate
to watch them
as they write responses and then later to listen to them as they practice grammar
points.
uh...
Before he was.
uh...
Before she was.
uh... okay good, let's listen
and check your answers.
Lesson B.
It's very important to check for students understanding because if
students aren't grasping
the main grammar point, if they're not making these distinctions between
was and were, if they're not picking up cues for he, she, they and so on
uh... they can't really be successful
in the other activities that follow.
He was.
He is.
Any volunteer
to write on the whiteboard?
Can you come up?
Thank you, cross-checked.
Is that okay? Okay.
Are you sure? Yes.
One hundred percent? Yes.
Look on the next page, page ninety nine
exercise two b.
After the first grammar activity which is uh... a check your understanding
activity
we move to what we call guided practice. I see many
pictures, how many pictures? Six.
Six pictures.
Are these new pictures or old pictures? Old. The goal of guided practice is fluency.
Are they coloured pictures?
No, they are black and white.
We want students be able to use these
grammar points
fairly automatically and to be able to use them easily and comfortably.
Now we're going to make some questions,
here's the first picture.
Before students begin
to practice with a partner the teacher has to make sure the students understand
the focus
of the practice. Is this a was question or a were question?
Uh... were.
were they
receptionists? This is a question
and when I ask a question with was or were
my voice goes up.
Was he a waiter?
Can you hear my voice go waiter? waiter?
Let's look at the example
number one
at the top
of page ninety nine, a do you see number one a and b?
Okay, I am a
and you are b,
I ask a question and
you answer.
Was she a teacher?
Yes she was.
If we don't model what we expect students to be doing
we can't expect success.
Now less change. So we take a lot of time setting up their activity modeling
teacher - student, student - student
and uh...
before we turn students loose on pair work we have to make sure that they have
very clear models for what they are expected to do.
Yes she was, number two.
no they weren't,
they were uh... viruses. Good,
very good.
Now we're going to practice with partners.
The guided practice is a
student centered practice
where students are working
with each other, with partners,
and the goal is for the teacher
to get out of the way let students practice, developer fluency
and also enables the teacher again to circulate and monitor students and to
observe that fluency
as it develops.
She was a teacher
Yes she was.
uh...
The last activity
in the grammar lesson is a communicative activities,
this is really
the culmination of the lesson. Ok please do something for me,
I want you to write in your book
page ninety-nine
on the side or on the corner
write your
job before, what was your job before?
Were you a nurse, were you a student, an
army officer?
Please write your job before
this year.
Engineer,
very good.
Now looked on page ninety nine
do you see a chart at the bottom? It's a blue
chart. Students were working with a chart
where they had to find the name they had to find information about a job
now, a job before.
I want you to get up
take your book
take a pencil
ask three people.
it's a very interesting activity for students because they enjoy talking to
each other they're finding information
that they don't know there's no right answer there's no wrong answer.
Yeah.
Any letter.
What is you job now. Now a housekeeper.
I want two students to come up
and you're going to write sentences about
your partner.
One sentence now,
One sentence
before.
OK... who's Jade, who is Jade?
Jade ok.
Are you a student now or before?
Student now. The whole point of the grammar
lesson is to move
from understanding to controlled practice to
fluency to real communication, we want
grammar
to talk about real things that's the way I set up the lesson today, I'm talking
about my life and I want
students to be able to use this grammar to talk
about
real things in their lives, real communications.
Bye.