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Last week, we ended the Teacher’s Corner with an example of some activities that would successfully prepare students for a particular summative assessment. This week, we will explore ideas for formative assessments you can use in your own classroom. These assessments will help you collect data to check students’ progress after you teach a single lesson or concept. Formative assessments are valuable because they provide data that show if students are grasping smaller concepts or skills that they need in order to build proficiency and succeed on summative assessments.

ANECDOTAL NOTES

One very simple way to collect data is taking notes. Observing your students and writing down notes about what you see them doing is a great way to gather information. Watching your students work, listening to them speak during group discussions, observing how they follow steps in a process, and paying attention as they read aloud are all opportunities to see where they succeed and what they are struggling with.

Note-taking does not have to be a complicated process. You can use a regular notebook or three-ring binder and dedicate a section to each of your students. This can be organized using dividers or tabs, or simply by writing a student’s name at the top of a section in the notebook. You can create a schedule and plan to observe certain students each day. Student-specific notes are helpful for uncovering repeated mistakes made by students and/or their improvement. For example, you notice that some of your students continually omit inflectional endings such as –ing, –s, and –ed when they read aloud. Once you plan activities to bring this to their attention and allow them to practice, you can use your notes to be sure they consistently read the inflectional endings. A table similar to the one shown below is any easy way to organize student-specific notes in any subject.

Student Name:
Date Strengths Areas of Improvement
     
     
     

Notes do not have to be linked to a particular student to be helpful. Teachers can also take notes about the entire class by circulating around the room and writing down any information they find useful. For example, you observe your students changing singular nouns to plural and notice that many of them add –s to nouns that end in –y. General notes like these can help you determine what your class needs to review. In this instance, your notes show that your students do not understand the rules for changing singular nouns that end in –y to the plural form. Now you can reteach the rules and provide your class with additional practice.

Taking notes about the things your class does well is also useful. When students successfully apply what you have taught, you can determine the concepts and skills they have mastered. This helps you decide when they are ready to move on to new material. You can also use your notes to give your class positive feedback such as verbal praise. Another idea is to keep a list of things students do well posted somewhere in the classroom and add more of their strengths to the list as you observe them.

CHECKLISTS

Checklists can be used for a variety of assessment tasks. They are especially helpful in determining areas of weakness for performance tasks like presentations, or written work like essays and compositions. For instance, you have given your students a major assignment where they must research a topic and present it to the class. A checklist of presentation skills, like the one shown below, is an excellent assessment tool because it communicates the exact criteria students need to address in order to succeed.

Presenter Name: Reviewer Name:
Presentation Skill Does the presenter do this? Write some notes about what the presenter did well, or ideas about how the presenter could improve his/her skills.
Yes No
Speak clearly      
Use appropriate volume      
Speak with appropriate speed      
Make eye contact while speaking      
Stay within time limit      

As a formative assessment, have students practice their presentation in pairs. The partners can use the checklist to give each other feedback on what they still need to improve. Additionally, you can collect the checklists, analyze them, and determine if a portion of your class needs further instruction on a specific presentation skill. By using the data, you can plan to review the skill that your students need to work on most.

Similarly, you can adapt the above checklist to give students feedback on written work like essays and compositions. The checklist should consist of the skills you want them to include in a composition, such as a specific tense, certain vocabulary, an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Use the checklist to formatively assess these skills, give feedback, or review the topics where the class shows the most weakness.

EXIT TICKETS

Exit tickets are short assessments designed to quickly assess whether students have learned the content from the lesson in which they just participated. These assessments are given at the end of the lesson and are often handed in as a “ticket” to leave the classroom or transition to the next activity. Many teachers distribute index cards, sticky notes, or half sheets of paper for students to use to complete these tasks. Below are some examples of the different types of exit tickets that teachers use.

  • Sentence frames or sentence starters that require students to fill in key parts of the content they learned, sometimes with added illustrations.

    • The four stages in the life cycle of a butterfly are ____________________, ____________________, ____________________, and  ____________________.

    Draw the stages in order:

     

     

     

     

  • Words orally dictated by the teacher for students to write. This type of exit ticket is used to test students’ mastery of a particular spelling pattern or phonics skill. In this example, students have to write words such as blue, black, blade, brick, bring, and bright to demonstrate their ability to use the two blends shown below.

    • bl-

     

     

     

     

     

    br-

     

     

     

     

     

  • Sorting words according to grammar or spelling rules. In this example, students have to place the singular nouns branch, fox, baby, family, lunch, supply, class, and dish in the correct category according to the ending of the plural form.

    • -es

     

     

     

     

     

    -ies

     

     

     

     

     

Additional types of exit ticket assessments include:

  • Sequencing events or steps in a process
  • Defending one’s position on a key issue using evidence from the lesson
  • Answering 1-2 multiple-choice questions on a topic
  • A cloze paragraph on a topic, with or without a word bank
  • An oral answer to a question posed by the teacher (to individual students)
  • Sorting content-based information into learned categories depending on characteristics
  • Employing a specific language structure or grammar rule to respond to a prompt orally or in writing
  • Using new vocabulary correctly in a response

Exit tickets should be short and measure the skill or content you presented in your lesson. You can determine if your students learned what you taught by examining whether they are able to successfully complete the exit ticket. If they do not succeed, you should plan to reteach the material.

Next week in the Teacher’s Corner, we will examine three more ways to incorporate formative assessments in your classroom. In addition, we will discuss how to use data from these assessments to help your students.

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Formative Assessments: Part 1
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Last week in the Teacher’s Corner, we explored the idea of choosing a final, summative assessment task as the first step in lesson planning. This week, we will discuss some options for summative assessment activities, ideas for using rubrics, and how to be sure that the rest of your lesson prepares students for your summative task.

ESSAYS OR PROJECTS

Asking students to write essays or create projects is a great way to provide an opportunity for them to summarize or apply what they have learned during a unit of study. In language classrooms, these two types of assignments require students to demonstrate their ability to use language structures or specific vocabulary in an authentic task.

Here is an example that incorporates arguments and the future tense. Students read articles that argue a position or state opinions and have mock debates as part of the unit. As a final assessment, they write an argumentative essay where they take a position on the use of mobile phones in the classroom. They choose a stance, for or against, and discuss three potential benefits or consequences using the future tense and the If, then sentence structure. In their essays, they also incorporate related vocabulary such as pro, con, advantage, disadvantage, benefit, and drawback. To assign this as a project with the same language requirements, ask students to make a poster or brochure supporting their stance.

PRESENTATIONS, SPEECHES, SKITS, or COMMERCIALS

Assignments like presentations, speeches, skits, or commercials are creative tasks that ask students to incorporate what they have learned into some type of performance. They are a great way to offer students who are stronger at speaking or performing a chance to excel. These tasks can be less structured than an essay or project and allow students more creative freedom to demonstrate what they have learned. Additionally, students enjoy seeing their peers perform. Therefore, the audience can often be just as engaged in watching the performance as the presenters are in performing it! This type of assignment provides students with a chance to review information both as performers and audience members, something they would not experience by handing in an essay or taking a test.

For example, as a summative assessment for the topic of mobile phone use in the classroom, students can make a presentation or give a speech arguing for or against the use of mobile phones in the classroom. The same requirements can still apply: students use the future tense, argue a position with three potential outcomes, use If, then structures, and incorporate some key vocabulary. Students can also create a commercial or skit with the same requirements.

PORTFOLIOS

Portfolios are collections of student work used to demonstrate the student’s mastery of specific content. Portfolios can include classwork, homework, assessment tasks given by the teacher, peer assessments, or self-assessments conducted by the student. Pre- and post-tests, item descriptions, or student reflections may also be included.

Some portfolios aim to show student growth. These may include early assignments where it is evident that the student did not grasp the concepts being taught, and then later assignments where the student was able to perform successfully. The purpose of this type of portfolio is to show that the student’s understanding of content has increased over time. Including a pre- and post-test in a portfolio of this type is a great way to show that the student has improved. An additional benefit of this type of portfolio is that it shows students their own progress over time.

Other portfolios aim to showcase a student’s best work related to a certain skill or learning outcome. In creating this type of portfolio, one would likely give his/her students a choice about which items to include. For instance, if students have completed a total of fifteen assignments related to a specific learning outcome or skill, ask them to choose ten items to include in the portfolio. Depending on the age of your students, you can also assist them with making choices about what to include.

Sometimes teachers ask students to provide a description of each item in a portfolio or even a reflection about how the piece of work demonstrates their learning or growth. This can be done with any type of portfolio. Here are some sample questions for students to answer:

  • How did this activity require you to show your understanding of the concept or topic?
  • If you struggled with this assignment, how well do you think you would complete it now? What would you do differently?
  • How does this collection of work show that you improved your understanding of the topic over time?
  • Why did you choose to include these specific assignments to demonstrate your performance?

USING RUBRICS

Rubrics are an excellent tool to use with summative assessment tasks such as those described above. A rubric allows you as a teacher to clearly communicate what a highly successful performance on a task looks like, therefore giving your students specific criteria to guide their completion of an assignment. Let’s revisit the example of writing an argumentative essay for or against the use of mobile phones in the classroom. Based on the requirements you have given your students, start creating a rubric by thinking about what the most successful essay would include. Then, define criteria for each subsequent level of performance on the task. Here is an example rubric.

  Stance/Position Supporting Reasons Vocabulary Use Future Tense If, then Sentences
4 Clearly stated in introduction, aligned with reasons, consistent throughout essay. Three reasons are given and are well discussed and supported. 9-10 of the key terms are used in the essay. Tense is correctly used and consistent throughout the essay. There is at least one “If, then” sentence in each paragraph.
3 Clear and consistent, but may not be stated in introduction.  Well-aligned with reasons. Three reasons are given but discussion or support needs more development. 6-8 of the key terms are used in the essay. here are fewer than five instances where the tense is not used or is used incorrectly. One paragraph may not contain any sentences with “If, then” structure.
2 Position may not be clearly stated or not aligned with one reason. Only two reasons are given and/or there is not enough discussion and support. 3-5 of the key terms are used in the essay. There are fewer than ten instances where the tense is not used or is used incorrectly. Two paragraphs may not contain any sentences with “If, then” structure.
1 Position not stated or inconsistent.  Not aligned with two or more reasons. Only one reason or no reasons are given and the support is not sufficient. Fewer than 3 of the key terms are used in the essay. There are ten or more instances where the tense is not used or is used incorrectly. More than two paragraphs may not contain any sentences with “If, then” structure.

Sharing the rubric with students before they begin their essays gives them exact criteria they must attend to in order to perform successfully on the assignment. Creating a rubric also helps you as a teacher to define exactly what student performance will look like at each level. This makes it easier to give students grades and enables you to be more consistent in evaluating their work.

ALIGNING LESSON ACTIVITIES WITH THE SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT TASK

p>Returning to our water cycle example from last week, we know what our summative assessment task is. We want our students to be able to arrange illustrations of each step in the water cycle correctly on a poster, label them, and then write a paragraph explaining the cycle at each step. With this in mind, we can plan lessons and activities that stay focused and help our students achieve this particular goal. Take a look at the example activities below and decide which keep students on track to reach their final destination.
  • Activity 1: Read aloud a book that explains how a raindrop travels through the steps in the water cycle and what happens to it along the way.
  • Activity 2: Have the class brainstorm a list of different ways they use water.
  • Activity 3: Have students work with a partner. Give each set of partners five pictures and five labels, one for each step in the water cycle. Have them match the labels to the pictures and arrange the cycle in order.
  • Activity 4: Have students complete a word search to find vocabulary related to water and rainy weather. Have them check their word search with a partner to be sure they found all of the words.
  • Activity 5: Watch a video about the steps in the water cycle. Watch it again, stopping after each step is presented. Each time you stop, have the class help you add information to an illustrated graphic organizer/chart, including descriptions of what happens at each step.

    • Remember, at the end of our unit, we expect that our students will be able to arrange illustrations of each step in the water cycle correctly on a poster, label them, and then, write a paragraph to explain the cycle, telling what happens in each step. If we keep this in mind, we can see that activities 2 and 4 do not align with the final goal because they do not teach students the necessary vocabulary or anything about what happens in the water cycle. While they may be related to the topic, they will not help increase students’ knowledge of the steps and what happens during each one. Now, we can see the difference between activities that keep us on the route to our destination and those that could be considered wrong turns or unnecessary stops.

    Moving on, we can plan our lesson or unit, possibly including example activities 1, 3, or 5 as formative assessments. Formative assessments are tasks or activities that provide information about what and how students are learning so that teachers can adjust instruction accordingly (Cabral at al. 2007, 202). If we see that our students perform poorly on a formative assessment task, we may need to reteach a concept or present content again in a different way.

    Next week in Teacher’s Corner, we will look at some easy ways to collect formative data in your classroom. This data will allow you to check your students’ progress as you prepare them to succeed on your summative assessment task.

    Reference

    Cabral, Robin, Socorro G. Herrera, and Kevin G. Murry. Assessment Accommodations for Classroom Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. First ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2007.

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Summative Assessments and Aligning Activities
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Great teachers spend a lot of time preparing for class. We examine our curriculum and plan our lessons, being sure to incorporate activities that will engage our students and motivate them to learn. We gather materials and even think about the exact words we will say in front of our class. We spend a lot of time thinking about how a lesson will unfold, how to make the content relatable to our students, and who will be doing what tasks in our classrooms. All of these things help us stay organized and keep learners on task, but they do nothing to answer our most important question as educators: Are my students learning what I am teaching?

PLANNING WITH THE END IN MIND

As educators, we have to know where we are taking our students, and we have to be sure we keep them on track to get there. In order to really set a purpose for a lesson, we have to work backwards. When we start planning, our first step must be to think about what our students should be able to do at the end of a class, a lesson, or a unit. What will they be able to do after we have finished teaching? What skill should they be able to demonstrate? What content should they prove that they retained?

The task or activity we use to measure this final goal is called a summative assessment. Summative assessments are given after a set time period of instruction and aim to determine students’ mastery of content (Cabral et al. 2007, 202). Setting a final, overarching goal and measuring it with a specific assignment or task helps us be sure the activities we include along the way will help students meet that goal. It also gives us a way to collect data that we can use to determine if our teaching was effective and if our students learned what they were supposed to learn during a unit of study.

Let’s examine the following scenario. You are teaching your primary school students about the water cycle in an English medium science class. At the end of the unit, you want your students to demonstrate understanding of the five steps of the water cycle. How will you know for sure that your students have learned this content?

Lesson planning that aims to collect data and prove that students have mastered content starts with a plan for summative assessment. For more information about effective lesson planning, view the Shaping the Way We Teach English Webinar Lesson Planning 101: Mapping Activities for a Clear Path to Learning.

ALIGNING SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS WITH LESSON GOALS

What will your students do at the end of this unit to show that they have, indeed, learned the five steps of the water cycle and know what happens during each one? Let’s take a look at some possible ways of assessing what they learned. As you read these, remember the goal and decide which summative assessment does the best job of measuring whether students have met the goal.

  • Draw an example of part of the water cycle you see in your own life. Write a few sentences to tell what is happening and which part of the cycle it is.
  • Label the steps of the water cycle on a worksheet with illustrations.
  • Write a paragraph about why the water cycle is important and at least five different ways you use water in your life.
  • Arrange illustrations of each step of the water cycle correctly on a poster and label all of them. Write a paragraph to explain the cycle, telling what happens in each step.

    • If we look back at the goal, “Demonstrate understanding of the five steps of the water cycle,” we can analyze each of these potential assessment activities to see if they really measure what students were supposed to learn. If we examine the wording of the goal, we can determine that the word demonstrate means that students should produce or do something. The word understanding implies that they must do more than simply remember the steps; they instead must show that they know what happens during each of the five steps.

    While activity A encourages students to recognize the water cycle in the context of their own lives, it does not ask them to recall five steps or show that they know what happens during each one. The labeling exercise in activity B only measures whether students remember vocabulary, not what takes place in the steps of the water cycle. Activity C asks students to list ways they use water and why the cycle is important, which does not show that they know the steps or how the cycle works. Activity D requires students to correctly arrange the cycle, label it with vocabulary and then explain, in writing, what happens in the cycle. If students can successfully complete activity D, it will prove that they have learned the material and understand what happens in the five steps of the water cycle. Because it is aligned with the goal, activity D is the best summative assessment task to determine whether students have learned the content.

    This is one example of a summative assessment activity that fits with a particular scenario. Many school districts, curriculum publishers, or education departments also create summative assessments, which are often tests. While tests can certainly provide valuable numerical data about student learning or areas for improvement, there are some more authentic tasks that also allow students to demonstrate their knowledge. Next week, we will take a look at some more ideas for summative assignment tasks, using rubrics to score them, and aligning the remainder of your lesson activities with your lesson goals.

    Reference

    Cabral, Robin, Socorro G. Herrera, and Kevin G. Murry. Assessment Accommodations for Classroom Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. First ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2007.

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Backward Design and Alignment of Assessments
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Lesson Planning 101
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This month’s Teacher’s Corner has outlined a variety of technology tools designed to give teachers more flexibility and customization in making new materials. These tools combined with a spark of teacher creativity can lead to a wide variety of new materials that can re-engage students.

This week’s Teacher’s Corner provides assistance in developing materials by highlighting online resources for teachers. These resources take advantage of the ‘open source’ movement, providing text, audio, images, and even entire academic courses for free. These resources can be integrated into classroom materials and used alongside tools highlighted this month such as Hot Potatoes and Audacity.

When using online resources, it is important to be aware of copyright laws for classroom practice and to demonstrate proper source use to students. For 21st century educators, teaching students proper digital citizenship skills has never been more important. Part of these skills is ‘information literacy’ and ensuring our students are able to access and evaluate digital resources effectively and utilize proper use. Each of the sites listed in this week’s Teacher’s Corner helps sort through which materials can be used in the classroom without violating copyright restrictions. For more information on 21st century skills, visit here.

All of the resources this week use, to some degree, the philosophy of the open-source movement. This movement amongst teachers, developers, governments, and organizations strives to make materials that can be shared without the worry of copyright violations and, when possible, for free.

For more information on the open-source philosophy, visit the Creative Commons website.

OPEN SOURCE RESOURCES

Below are a variety of websites that provide a host of resources for teachers and students. These materials can be accessed for free and can be integrated into classroom resources. Each site has it owns strengths and weaknesses in regards to resources, so it is recommended to explore them all and determine how each can play a part in your materials development.

American English - americanenglish.state.gov

American English hosts a variety of materials specifically designed for teachers and learners of English as a Foreign or Second Language. Since you are probably familiar with Teacher’s Corner (!) we will highlight some of the other features of the American English website.

  1. American Culture – The American English website is home to a wide assortment of publications and materials related to American culture and customs.
  2. English Teaching Forum – This journal contains articles on topics of interest to the language classroom, practical classroom activities, and teaching techniques.
  3. Shaping the Way We Teach English – This is a professional development webinar series that covers a broad range of teaching tools, strategies, and resources. This has been renamed the American English Webinar Series.
  4. Publications – The American English website houses a wide variety of publications that can be used by teachers as classroom materials or for student self-study.

Internet Archive - archive.org/index.php

The Internet Archive contains a collection of multimedia resources accessible from a search field on the home page. Much of the material is community-based, so quality and usefulness can vary. However, it also contains a variety of materials from museums, universities, and the U.S. Library of Congress.

  1. American Libraries – The Internet Archive has an extensive list of resources from a series of American libraries. Although some of the material can be dated, it contains materials suitable for a wide variety of topics.
  2. Audio Books and Poetry – This section of the Internet Archive contains audio versions of classic books and poems that can be downloaded or streamed. The web links to the streaming audio are well suited for embedding into Hot Potatoes activities.
  3. Radio Programs – Containing a wide variety of radio programs, this section of the Internet Archive is a great resource to share with students who are using Audacity for podcasting. The radio programs featured on the site can serve as models for students interested in creating their own radio programs.

MIT Open Courseware - ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

MIT Open Courseware is a website hosting course materials from over 2200 courses taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  1. Audio/Video Lectures – This section of the website collates a variety of individual lectures on a wide variety of topics. These lectures may be too advanced for lower-level learners but could be integrated into Hot Potatoes activities for more advanced learners.
  2. Online Textbooks – A collection of textbooks used by MIT courses, these books are all open sources and available for use by teachers and for students’ self-study. However, these materials may be too advanced or too specific for all but the highest-level learners.

Open Culture - openculture.com

Open Culture is a website that collates free and open-source online materials. The website contains links to audiobooks, movies, online courses, as well as textbooks and foreign language materials. Consider Open Culture a table of contents for materials with this content being housed on other websites.

  1. Language Lessons – This section of Open Culture contains links to a variety of language learning materials including English.
  2. Online Courses – Each of the links in this collection connects to an online course or its materials. Many of the links are to complete online courses; however some are only audio or videos so be sure to preview the materials before using them in class.

Project Gutenberg - gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg specializes in written works with 49,000 e-books available on its website along with another 50,000 available through organizations partnered with Project Gutenberg. Each book comes in a variety of formats such as HTML (webpage format), EPUB which can be read by a wide variety of software on tablets and mobile phones, and Plain Text for printing onto paper.

  1. Language Lessons – Project Gutenberg has done extensive work on providing audio versions of the books available. The audiobooks are divided into human-read and computer-read so if looking for authentic pronunciation and speaking be sure to search the human-read books.
  2. Online Courses – The best place to begin on Project Gutenberg, this page organizes the site’s material into ‘bookshelves’ categorized by topic and language.
  3. Online Courses – This feature of the Project Gutenberg website makes all the books on the site available as a downloadable file that can be burned to a CD or DVD for schools or classrooms without an Internet connection.
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Open Source Resources
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“Small talk” refers to short, friendly conversations about topics that are not serious. Below are nine “opener” questions that can start small-talk conversations.  In each question, a word is missing. Complete each question by choosing the most appropriate word from the List of Words. Then, choose the most appropriate small-talk topic for each question from the List of Small-Talk Topics.

OPENER SMALL-TALK TOPIC
1. It looks like _________, doesn’t it? __________
2. Did you watch the _________ yesterday? __________
3. How’s ________ going? __________
4. How’s your _________? __________
5. Have you seen any good _________ lately? __________
6. Do you have any _________ for the weekend? __________
7. The _________ sure is crowded today, isn’t it? __________
8. Are you _________ anything interesting these days? __________
9. Wow, you got a new _________! How do you like it? __________

 

List of Words

game bus phone
movies school rain
reading plans sister

List of Small-Talk Topics

family studying technology
weather books surroundings
sports free time entertainment

Answers to The Lighter Side: Small Talk

  1. rain (topic: weather)
  2. game (topic: sports)
  3. school (topic: studying)
  4. sister (topic: family)
  5. movies (topic: entertainment)
  6. plans (topic: free time)
  7. bus (topic: surroundings)
  8. reading (topic: books)
  9. phone (topic: technology)

 

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The Lighter Side: Small Talk
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Level: Upper Beginner, Lower Intermediate, and above
Time required: 15–30 minutes
Goals: To ask and answer small-talk questions about weekend activities
Materials: Chalk and blackboard, or markers and whiteboard; strips of paper with weekend activities written on them (see Preparation section for details)
Overview: This activity is a kind of mingle. In a mingle, students move individually from classmate to classmate, usually with a question to ask or specific information to find. After talking to each other long enough to complete the task, the two students move on to other classmates and repeat the process.
Although mingles can be noisy and sometimes look disorganized, they typically have a specific language focus. In this activity, students practice asking classmates about their weekend activities. As they move from classmate to classmate, they use the targeted language structure over and over. At the same time, they also need to listen to their classmates’ replies so they can react and respond appropriately.

Preparation:
1. Create a list of activities that people might do on a weekend. The activities do not have to be realistic! Use your imagination to think of activities that would be fun for your students to talk about. For ideas, refer to the Weekend Activities list.

Weekend Activities

Activity Instructions
I saw two movies. I studied English.
I read a good book. I went to _____.
I lost five dollars. I had a romantic dream.
I found five dollars. I met _____.
I went shopping. I didn’t do anything.
I had a headache. I practiced yoga.
I played football. I went camping.
I ate _____. I cooked _____.
I cleaned my house. I hurt my finger.
I went on a picnic. I danced.
I baked two cakes. I went swimming.

Please feel free to adapt these activities to your teaching context. For example, you can change “I lost five dollars” and “I found five dollars” so that they mention your local currency. You can complete “I met _____” with the name of a popular singer or other celebrity whom students would be excited to meet. You can complete “I cooked _____” with an interesting kind of food, and “I went to ____” with the name of a place that your students like to visit. You can add your own activity ideas to the list as well, as appropriate for your students: I flew in a helicopter. I sang on TV. I smiled a lot. I ran a marathon. I bought a new car. Making the activities interesting will help students enjoy talking about them with their classmates.
Instead of strips of paper with the activities written on them, you can use photos showing weekend activities. See Variations near the end of the article for suggestions.

2. Cut the activities list into small strips of paper, with one activity on each strip. You should prepare one strip for each student in your class. If you have a large class, make more than one set of activity strips and plan to divide your class into groups; prepare a set of strips for each group. The number of students in each group should not be more than the number of activity strips you have. In other words, if you have 15 activity strips, you should not have more than 15 students in any of the groups.

3. Prepare two extra strips of paper to use if you want to demonstrate the activity to the class. One slip could say, “I visited some friends.” The other slip could say, “I went to a birthday party.”

Procedures:
1. Tell students that they will do an activity that gives them a chance to ask about each other’s weekend activities. Say, “You will talk to many of your classmates. But first, we will practice the question and answers you will use.”

2. Begin creating the How Was Your Weekend? chart by writing the question, “How was your weekend?” on the board. Tell students that this is a question people often ask when they see their friends on Monday—or whichever day follows the weekend. Tell students that people usually give a short greeting before asking this question: “Hi, [Name]. How was your weekend?” Tell students, “This is a friendly question. When people ask, ‘How was your weekend?’ they do not expect long answers.”

3. Tell students, “Usually, people answer this question with short answers. They tell about one thing they did, or one thing that happened, over the weekend.” Explain that people often answer this question with one or two sentences. The first sentence describes the weekend in general: It was great. The second sentence gives more detail: I went to a birthday party. Or My cousins came to visit.

4. On the board, continue developing the How Was Your Weekend? chart by writing possible responses to the question. If the weekend was good, people often say, “It was great/exciting/wonderful.” You can ask students to suggest other words they could use in the sentence. If the weekend was not really good, but not bad either, people might say, “It was so-so.”
If the weekend was not so good, people respond by saying, “It was boring/pretty bad/terrible.” However, since the question “How was your weekend?” is part of a friendly exchange, people usually respond with a friendly answer focusing on something good that happened.

5. Tell students that now the person who asked, “How was your weekend?” must respond. If the other person had a good weekend, the questioner can answer with one of these sentences:

  • “That sounds like fun.”
  • “That sounds nice!”
  • “Lucky you!”

If the other person’s weekend was so-so or not very good, the questioner can say,

  • “That’s too bad.”
  • “I’m sorry to hear that.”

How Was Your Weekend?

A: “Hi, [Name]. How was your weekend?”

B:

If your weekend was good, you can say ...

“It was great.”
“It was fantastic.” “It was wonderful.”

Then tell why.

B:

If your weekend was neither good nor bad, you can say ...

“It was so-so.”
“I didn’t do much.”

Then tell why.

 

B:

If your weekend wasn’t good, you can say ...

“It was boring.”
“It was terrible.”

Then tell why.

A:

“That sounds like fun!”

“That sounds great!”

“Lucky you!”

 

A:

“That’s too bad.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Note: Other responses are possible. You can ask your students to contribute suggestions.

 

6. Tell students they will get a chance to practice this question and these answers—but for this activity, they will not talk about what they really did over the weekend; instead, they will choose a piece of paper with an activity written on it. Hold up a slip of paper and say, “I know this is not what you really did over the weekend. But for the next ten minutes, we will pretend that this is what you did.”

7. Model an example of a conversation for the class. Choose a student to be your partner. Give the student the slip of paper that says, “I went to a birthday party.” Keep the slip of paper that says, “I visited some friends.” Hold up your paper and tell the class, “My piece of paper says, ‘I visited some friends.’” Ask your student/partner to read his or her slip to the class. Then model the conversation.

With Upper Beginner students, the conversation might go something like this:
YOU: Hi, [Student’s name]! How was your weekend?
STUDENT: It was great. I went to a birthday party.
YOU: That sounds like fun!
Have the student continue the conversation by asking you about your weekend:
STUDENT: How was your weekend?
YOU: It was fun. I visited some friends.
STUDENT: That sounds great!
The immediate goal should be for students to (a) ask the question, (b) answer appropriately, and (c) react with an appropriate response.
(For a longer model conversation you can use with students at the Lower Intermediate level and above, see Extensions near the end of this article.)

8. Divide students into groups, if necessary.

9. Make sure everyone understands the activity. Tell students, “Everyone will get a piece of paper. Read the activity on the paper silently. Decide how you will answer the question, ‘How was your weekend?’ when your classmates ask you.”

10. Hand out the strips of paper to students. Give one set of activity strips to each group. Students should not look at the strips before choosing one. Add interest by putting the strips in a box or bowl and have students close their eyes when they pick their strips. They should read the activity on the slip to themselves, but they shouldn’t tell anyone else yet what the slip says.

11. Start the activity. Tell students to stand up. Then say, “When I say, ‘Begin,’ find a partner. Ask each other about your weekends. When you finish your conversation, find a new partner and have another conversation about your weekends. Keep talking to different people in your group and finding out what they did over the weekend!” Then say, “Begin!”

12. Stop the activity when students have had a chance to talk to most of the people in their group but before everyone has finished; you don’t want them to be bored.

13. Bring the whole class together. If you like, you can have a few students ask other students about their weekend activities. Encourage anyone in the class to ask follow-up questions.

You and the class can demonstrate the use and importance of follow-up questions like this: Suppose that when a student named Marie is asked about her weekend, she says, “It was great. I saw two movies.” Write “I saw two movies” on the board, and then ask the class, “What would you like to ask Marie about the movies?” Students might ask, “What movies did you see?” or “Where did you see them?” or “Who did you see them with?” or “Did you like them?” (Students at lower levels might simply ask, “What?” or “Where?” That’s fine; they are expressing their curiosity.) You can write these questions on the board if you want; you can also have Marie give pretend answers.

Do the same thing with other activities—write the student’s activity on the board, then elicit follow-up questions that students naturally want to ask about that activity. This is a good chance to bring students’ attention to the use of question words and an opportunity for students to engage further in natural communication.

Extensions
Lower Intermediate students
With students at the Lower Intermediate level and above, you can have them extend the conversation. The conversation should include the following parts:
(a) greet the partner
(b) ask the question
(c) answer appropriately
(d) react with an appropriate response
(e) transition to the second partner asking the question and the first partner responding
(f) take leave (say good-bye)
Students might also be able to ask follow-up questions about each other’s weekend activity.
A model conversation might be something like this:
STUDENT A: Hi, [Student B’s name]! How was your weekend?
STUDENT B: It was great. I went to a birthday party.
STUDENT A: That sounds like fun!
At this point, you can elicit possible follow-up questions from the class if you want. Suggestions include “Whose birthday was it?” and “What did you do at the party?” Otherwise, the conversation continues:
STUDENT B: Yes, it was. What about you? How was your weekend?
STUDENT A: It was good, too. I visited some friends.
STUDENT B: That sounds like fun.
Again, you could elicit follow-up questions from the class. Suggestions include “Where do your friends live?” and “What did you and your friends do?” Otherwise, the conversation could continue:
STUDENT A: Yes, it was.
STUDENT B: Well, I have to go now. Nice seeing you!
STUDENT A: Bye.
You could elicit other things that friends might say when they part after a small-talk conversation. Suggestions include “See you,” “See you later,” “Take care,” and “Have a good one.” (“Have a good one” is a less formal way of saying, “Have a good day.”)

Future classes
The following Monday—or in the next class you have after a weekend—repeat the mingle, but this time have students ask one another about what they really did over the weekend. Or let your students make up their own “pretend” activities.
After a break or vacation, students can mingle again and ask, “How was your break?” or “How was your vacation?”

Variations
1. You can conduct this mingle using photos. Instead of preparing strips of paper, prepare photos showing possible weekend activities. The photos might show people swimming, camping, cooking, having a picnic, etc. In class, you might have to review the related vocabulary with the class and introduce new words as needed. Then distribute the photos to students. They will have to find a way to describe the activity (using the past tense)—so there is additional language practice involved when you use photos.
If you have a large class and not enough photos for everyone, that’s not a problem. Suppose you have 45 students but only 15 photos. Simply ask students to get together in mini-groups of three, and give each mini-group one photo. Together, the three students discuss the language they can use to talk about the activity shown in their photo. Then ask students in each mini-group to pick a color: red, blue, or yellow. Form three larger groups: the red group, the blue group, and the yellow group. After that, the “How Was Your Weekend?” mingle can begin, with each group having its own mingle.

2. When you use mingles, sometimes you can vary the activity by having students exchange strips of paper after their conversation. That is, Student A and Student B have a conversation based on the strips of paper they chose, but when they finish their conversation, Student A takes Student B’s slip of paper, and Student B takes Student A’s. Then they find new partners. Each person will then have a new activity to talk about in his or her next conversation. Students keep exchanging strips of paper throughout the activity; they may get the same slip of paper two or three times! But exchanging the strips of paper in this way gives students a chance to talk about different activities—and use different language—instead of giving the same answer and describing the same activity to everyone they meet. (On the other hand, keeping the same slip of paper and giving the same answer in each conversation could increase students’ confidence as the activity progresses.)

Scaffolding
1. You might want to explain to students that the first person asks, “How was your weekend?” in a normal questioning tone, but when the second person asks the same question back, he or she will stress the word your: “How was your weekend?” The same kind of stress is used in the shorter question “How are you?” A person who is asked this question will often respond by saying, “I am fine, thank you. How are you?”

2. Students ought to know that they should ask, “How was your weekend?” to people they already know after not seeing them over the weekend. It would not be an appropriate question to ask someone they have never met before.

3. People often say “Thanks” or “Thank you” when they respond to the question “How was your weekend?” For example, they might say, “It was great; thank you!” or “It was fantastic; thanks!” Feel free to incorporate “Thanks” or “Thank you” into the chart and your model conversation if you want.

BIODATA:
This activity was written by Tom Glass, Assistant Editor of English Teaching Forum.

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Try This: How Was Your Weekend?
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Aliona Podolean knew from the moment she started teaching English that she had found what she wanted to do. “Teaching arrested me during my first teaching practice at the university,” said Ms. Podolean, a Senior Lecturer at Shevchenko State University. “I remember that day so vividly. I was running home after my first lesson to inform my family that I would be a teacher, but, before that day, I had assured everybody I would be an interpreter.”

Ms. Podolean believes that she is “standing on the shoulders” (Hunter 2013) of several teachers whom she had the privilege to work with as a student. The two teachers she has modeled herself after, Tatiana Vergazova and Svetlana Morozova, are inspiring and engaging. You would not know that Rybnitsa, Transnistria, two hours from Chisinau (Moldova’s capital), is a powerhouse for teachers. Transnistria is sandwiched between the River Dniester and the Moldovan border with Ukraine.

Ms. Podolean’s approach for her entire 22-hours-a-week teaching schedule is to teach every lesson as if it were her last. This responsibility to her students shows in her commitment to continuing her education as a teacher through classroom observations and by participating in webinars and conferences at home and abroad. “I am always in search for challenging ideas and creative approaches in teaching and learning; that is why I do hope to be a valuable instructor for my students,” she said. During workshops, she has been exposed to different methodologies and said, “I am really fond of TEAM work as I do believe it makes wonders as Together Everybody Achieves More success.” She sums up her teaching philosophy by saying, “We are like boats floating in the rough ocean, seeking the effective routes.”

Ms. Podolean is fortunate to be teaching groups of 10 to 15 students, an ideal number. “That’s why we may enjoy seating in circles or semicircles, creating a cozy and friendly atmosphere,” she said. “The only case to change the seating is when we have classes in another wing of our building, which is arranged for larger groups from the science and economics departments.” She mentioned that when the weather warms up and spring bursts through, students and teachers take advantage of the beautiful park in front of the university building, and sometimes they hold classes outside. After a cold, dark winter, being outside for class is a welcome change from the normal classroom environment of wooden desks, wooden chairs, and a blackboard. The school building has a few multimedia rooms with computers, speakers, and projectors; however, most of the classrooms do not have this equipment.

During 80-minute classes, Ms. Podolean uses a student-centered approach. She explained, “I can describe one of my recent classes. It was with intermediate students on the theme ‘we are different,’ taken from our textbook. The goal of it was to have students practice speaking, listening, and writing by using imagination and critical thinking skills. At the beginning of the class, each student made up two false and one true sentence on the basis of the text studied during the previous class. Then they exchanged the sentences and corrected the false ones. Having warmed up, we approached the main aim of the class—speaking about different characteristics of people and our attitude to them. Students formed mini groups to share their opinions on their home task using Venn diagrams.”

Ms. Podolean explained how the class then flowed to individual work with students answering a questionnaire, and then to pair work to practice agreement and disagreement on the topic. While this description represents only a small part of the class period, it is clear from the structure and the students’ engagement—which is a top priority for her—that Ms. Podolean is committed to encouraging learner autonomy. She strives to “encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning, as our educational standard urges learning autonomy, but students do little outside the classroom.” She reflects on this problem, and she tries to address it within the classroom. All of her lessons are structured to teach students how to learn English on their own since she considers the development of learning autonomy her biggest teaching challenge.

“Today, our teachers face real difficulties connected with the low level of students’ autonomy,” she said. Along with attempting to guide her students to build learning autonomy, Ms. Podolean works to improve their motivation levels by integrating realia into the classroom. She said, “All the sources taken together reflect real-world situations and contexts, as well as demonstrate what students can actually do with the language.” She believes that when students see what they can do, they are more likely to be intrinsically motivated to take ownership of their learning process.

Ms. Podolean and her colleagues work hard to ensure that they create the best classroom environment possible for their students. She feels particularly proud of two elements in her lessons: “First, efficiency—when everybody is engaged and eager to share their knowledge, experience, and feelings. Second, creativity, because my major target of a class is reinforcing integrating and producing rather than recalling and reproducing.” These principles have helped her work effectively within a changing environment. Although she has to follow a set curriculum, she pointed out that new education standards are being implemented throughout her region.

Ms. Podolean’s interactions with students and colleagues demonstrate that she is continuing the legacy of her esteemed mentor teachers. Students glow when they talk to her. Returning to Transnistria ten years from now, or visiting it then for the first time, one would not be surprised to find a local teacher who mentions Ms. Podolean as a model teacher and mentor.

Reference
Hunter, J. “Solving for X: Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Essentials.” Plenary presented at TESOL International Convention, Dallas, Texas, March 2013.

This article was written by Eve Smith, the Senior English Language Fellow in Tbilisi, Georgia, for the 2014–2015 academic year. She loves writing and scuba diving.

Author: Eve Smith Format: Text
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My Classroom: Moldova
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Before becoming a teacher of English to speakers of other languages, I taught French, and too often I saw that impersonal grammar exercises about “Jacques” and “Nathalie” were meaningless to the students. Worse, those exercises led to apathy and stagnation. So I decided to do grammar activities in which students used each other’s names, instead of random ones, and used the grammar to express ideas about their own lives. I hoped that instead of grammar being impersonal and meaningless, it would become a tool to help students get to know one another better. Now, I incorporate group grammar techniques into my lesson whenever possible. In the following activity, I describe ways to use group grammar effectively. In this activity, students practice using the target grammar to do something they naturally enjoy: learning about each other.

What did you do over the weekend?
This activity is done after teaching the simple past. Sometimes, I do it on a Monday as an icebreaker to reengage the students after a long weekend. It is a way to review and practice the simple past, but mainly, it is a way for students to learn more about each other, each other’s weekend activities, and even the local community.

First, I tell students to silently write down four to six activities they did over the weekend, using the simple past tense to reply to the question “What did you do over the weekend?” I give them about three minutes to do this. If they have trouble remembering their weekend, I tell them to think chronologically, starting with Friday evening all the way to Sunday night, and list the activities in order. I remind them that no weekend activity is too boring to report. To model this, I give them an example from my own not-so-exciting weekend: “Friday, I went grocery shopping and made a stew. Saturday, I stayed in bed until noon because I graded papers until two in the morning the night before.”

While students are writing their sentences, I circulate around the room to offer help with vocabulary. I let the students know that they can also ask classmates for help or consult their dictionaries.

When they have finished writing their sentences, I put students into groups. I tell them they must work together to make a master list of all the activities the group members did over the weekend. I tell students that there are two important rules:

  1. Do not repeat any simple past verb; each verb can be used only once.
  2. You must include the name of each group member an equal number of times.

I give them a specific amount of time to compile their group list, say five or six minutes. Group members will need to decide which group member will write the sentences for the group. The master list may look something like this:

     Patricia played tennis.
     Akmed saw a great movie.
     Taki made sushi for his friends.
     Sylvie had a headache.
     Patricia ate a burrito.
     Akmed did his homework.
     Taki wrote an essay for his English class.
    Sylvie took a walk.

   (This group would have eight correct sentences.)

To determine the winner, I simply ask the groups to read their sentences aloud while the rest of the class counts the number of correct simple past statements. Although incorrect sentences are not counted, during this time we correct them together as a class. The group with the longest list of correct sentences wins. For larger classes, you can have two or three groups get together and read their sentences, with the “listening” groups counting the number of correct sentences.

Along with giving students a chance to practice the simple past and learn about one another, this activity can help students get ideas about what activities are fun and interesting to do in their community. Some students may discover similar interests and decide later to do things together. For example, maybe Patricia learns that Akmed also loves tennis and will invite him to play a game with her. This interaction builds community in the classroom and makes learning more rewarding and fun.

Another Prompt
This activity can be modified to cover various grammar points. For example, as an icebreaker at the beginning of the term, the prompt could be “List new and unfamiliar activities you have experienced since you arrived in your host country” (or “since you started studying here” or “since the semester started”).The students’ sentences might look like this:

      Patricia has eaten a burrito.
      Akmed has seen snow for the first time.
      Taki has gone river rafting.
      Sylvie has tried zumba class.

Group grammar activities engage and motivate students because these activities put people and ideas before grammar and correctness. They also help in building a close, friendly classroom environment that includes and values everyone while giving students opportunities to use the target grammar.

BIODATA:
Karen Adams has two master’s degrees in language and education and a PhD in French. She was a 2014–2015 English Language Fellow in Leon, Mexico. She teaches at the American English Institute at the University of Oregon.

Author: Karen Adams Format: Text
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Teaching Techniques: Group Grammar
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This introductory lesson is something I have used on the first day of class with students around the globe. The activity touches on each of the skill sets associated with English language acquisition, with special attention paid to cultural issues that can be applied on a country-by-country basis. No matter what country you use this technique in, the goal is to create an inviting lesson in which students exercise English abilities while sharing their cultural and personal norms (or exceptions). Whether you are a local teacher or foreign instructor, the technique offers many variations, as each of us is unique, with different likes and dislikes to share. Depending on the circumstances in your classroom, the technique can be used as a warm-up activity or take up an entire hour-long session.

The technique is based on the notion of a “Mad Lib.” You, as the teacher, make up a creative story to share with the class, leaving blank key cultural and personal references particular to the country and individual students. By incorporating examples of celebrities, foods, music, places, and other culture-specific customs, this activity enables the students to finish their own stories, highlighting their individual preferences as the unique part that completes each sentence.

You can decide on the vocabulary used in the story, allowing for specific skill-level application in accordance with the class’s collective mastery of English. Length can be adjusted as well, shortening or expanding the exercise based on the class’s ability. There is no story too basic or too short to use as a framework for this technique, and in fact, only a sentence or two could replace a full paragraph.

Before students complete their own stories, it may be a good idea to demonstrate a sample story aloud to clarify vocabulary while sharing examples from your own culture or personal experiences. (Just as it is useful for a teacher to learn about his or her students, it is likewise a benefit for the students to learn about their teacher.)

An example I could use with respect to the foods and places I grew up with as an American is to fill in the blanks in the sentence “When we went for a walk in ________, we grew hungry and decided to stop for ________” like this: “When we went for a walk in Los Angeles, we grew hungry and decided to stop for chicken tacos.” Here, I would stop and discuss the phrase “grew hungry” as vocabulary practice while also noting the American-specific submissions of “Los Angeles” and “chicken tacos.” I might also show pictures of Los Angeles and of chicken tacos to support the cognitive processes affiliated with learning about new places and foods.

For that same sentence, Korean students could have put “Seoul” and “kimchi” in the blanks, while Ethiopians might have used “Addis” and “injera.” One strength of this technique is that it can be used in countless countries and still have the desired academic and cultural reach.
After you complete the sample story and clarify new vocabulary, give the students a turn to fill in their own distinctive answers. One way to do this is to give each student a copy of the story with the blanks to fill in. Another way is to write the story, with the blanks, on the board or a piece of poster paper. Encouraging creativity—letting students make the story funny, scary, or anything else—goes a long way in making this an enjoyable exercise; such creativity promotes the individuality of the culture and personal preferences being addressed, but moreover, it stimulates student interest. If student input elicits laughter or equally enthusiastic emotions, then the chances of the exercise resulting in meaningful learning will be increased.

After each student has completed his or her respective story, one way to touch upon the language skill of speaking would be to pick individual students to read their stories aloud. (Stories can also be created and shared in pairs or groups, shortening the attention-span deficit while allowing students to work together.) This approach gives students practice in pronunciation and experience speaking in front of a class; at the same time, it provides a sense of ownership and pride at sharing their personalized stories with the class. Here, each student or partner can share his or her favorite musician, movie star, and food with the rest of the class while the teacher fills in the blanks on the story written on the board. In most cases, this will provoke laughter, agreement, or casual comments from others, forming a classroom bond through language practice. If the class is small, each student could read just one sentence, culminating in a group-wide completion of the story as opposed to numerous individual stories. Class size and length can dictate what route you choose with respect to personal sharing or partner/group sharing.

This technique is geared towards an introductory class that encourages students who might not know each other to share their own individual preferences. There is no right or wrong answer to any of the blanks in the story, only an opportunity to share specifics about what we like, where we come from, and how that affects each of us individually.

Encouraging students to introduce themselves and their culture on the first day of class becomes a learning opportunity for me as a teacher; I gain insight into the ages, personalities, and preferences of my students. This opens up pathways to information that I can use later in the course. Having that initial information about my students’ likes, I am able to highlight them throughout the semester.

I have had success with this technique in various classrooms and countries. It is a creative and fun way to introduce myself to the class and in turn to learn more about my students’ culture and interests. The technique is also a means of informal assessment because I can take note of speaking skills during the oral recitation. More of a fun exercise than anything on which to base an exam, this technique serves as a first-class activity when you are working with a new culture in an unfamiliar country, or simply with a class where you want to learn about your students’ interests.

Extensions and variations
To extend the lesson, have students create the entire story, not just fill in the cultural blanks. This could be done individually for homework or, if time allows, with the class as a whole working together to set the “plot” of the story, perhaps with a more culturally specific setting. “Driving in a car,” for example, is not something all students can relate to on a daily basis, and, depending on the context, “riding in a bus” might be more appropriate. Again, this technique can be adapted for different cultures and their respective norms, and in accordance with student ability levels.

The Sample Story is meant to serve as an example. Rather than using it, you could create a plot about going to the beach, taking a family vacation, seeing a movie, or whatever seems appropriate for your class. Preparation is minimal, with creativity being the most integral component in making this a successful lesson.

Sample Story

As we trekked through the city of ________, my pet ________ and I became tired due to the extreme humidity. “I could sure use something to drink,” I thought, looking around for a store. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a small market that was sure to sell some delicious ________, a drink that would refresh. (Pet) and I crossed the street and went inside, where the air conditioning was nice and cool. Walking around the store, we overheard the familiar sounds of ________ playing from the speakers above, putting a little bounce in our step. We continued to walk up and down the aisles and, in addition to getting a drink, picked up a delicious snack of ________. As we approached the counter to pay, we were surprised to see that the actress ________ was there buying some candy. Since I thought this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I asked for an autograph, excited to meet my favorite movie star. Soon though we were back outside in the heat, but at least refreshed from the cool and quenching drink. With little time to spare before the start of the television program ________, I decided we’d catch a ride home in a ________ so that we wouldn’t be late. Arriving at home tired, I thought about my afternoon, amazed at what had transpired. Hoping for a relaxing evening, I took a rest, knowing that tomorrow my job as a ________ would be hard, with a long week ahead.

Notes

  • The story can be shorter, depending on the number and level of students you have and other varying circumstances. (See the simplified sample at the end of the article.)
  • Fill in the blanks with your own creative ideas to demonstrate; then have students fill in their own ideas.
  • You might want to highlight new vocabulary words and phrases for your students.
Sample Story (Simplified)

My pet ________ and I walked through the city of ________. We became tired. “I need something to drink,” I thought. I saw a market that sold my favorite drink, delicious ________. (Pet) and I went inside. In the store, we heard the song ________ playing from the speakers. We found the drink and a delicious snack of ________. While we waited to pay, we saw the actress ________ buying some candy. I was excited to meet my favorite movie star and asked for an autograph. But it was almost time for the television program ________. (Pet) and I rode home in a ________ so that we wouldn’t be late. After the program, I took a rest, knowing that tomorrow my job as a ________ would be hard.

BIODATA:

Matthew Jellick holds an MA in Teaching (TESOL) from the University of Southern California. Having worked in classrooms since 2001, he has educational experience on five continents and is currently an English Language Fellow teaching in Ethiopia.

 

Author: Matthew Jellick Format: Text
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Teaching Techniques: Cultural Introductions by Way of Storytelling
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Question formation is a basic part of teaching and learning English. However, we often focus on the ability to form the question properly and not as much on the quality of the information the question is seeking. Whether teaching English language learners or students who want to be English teachers, teachers need to carefully consider the intent of questions.

If students are expected to provide simple factual information, a question such as “What kind of pet do you have?” will elicit that information. However, if you want your students to discuss their preferences for certain types of pets or the advantages and disadvantages of different pets, then another type of question must be asked to promote discussion—in other words, a discussion question. The purpose of discussion questions should be to guide and stimulate discussion, not just to acquire information.

What makes a good discussion question? A question that results in a Yes/No answer or one that elicits only factual information is not likely to promote discussion. More fruitful are open-ended questions that elicit factual information as well as opinions and differing perspectives.

Suppose your class is discussing environmental issues. One may pose the question, “Do you recycle?” The appropriate answer of “Yes” or “No” stimulates no discussion. The questioner could then add the qualifier, “Why or why not?” However, this type of add-on still may not promote much discussion, especially with lower-level or younger learners. The respondent might say, “Yes, I recycle because it’s the right thing to do.” On the other hand, consider this question: “If you were going to design a recycling public-service poster for your city, what would you focus on, and why?” With appropriate scaffolding, even upper beginners could discuss that question. For upper-level learners, a question to stimulate discussion might be, “Some cities offer refunds to people when they recycle and impose fines when people do not. What kind of incentive program do you think your city should adopt to encourage recycling?” This question gives a framework and ideas with the introductory statement and then asks the respondent to present his or her own ideas. Within a lesson that provides background information, intermediate students should also be able to discuss that question.

Why focus on discussion questions?
I realized that we do not focus on teaching English students how to develop discussion questions when I was teaching a graduate-level course in intercultural communication in Poland; the students were at B2 and C1 proficiency levels, and the course included opportunities for the students to lead small-group discussions. While most of the questions students asked were technically correct, few of their questions were effective discussion questions. For example, I overheard one student ask, “Do women in our country have equal rights?” Because these were upper-level students, this question did provoke some discussion despite not being an open-ended question. However, in most English classrooms, it would not have. I thought it would have been better to ask, “What evidence have you seen that women have equal rights in our country?” or “How has the status of women changed in our country over the past 20 years?”

To address the issue of how to develop effective discussion questions, I planned an interactive activity that required students to write questions about a topic we had just focused on; in this case, the topic was sociocultural influences on intercultural communication. After writing discussion questions, students then critiqued one another’s questions. Although I used this activity with a class of 30 students, this would also be an effective activity in larger classes because it involves small-group work.

Q/A Activity
Because of the interactivity this technique encourages, it would be appropriate for almost any type of class. The first step is to choose a topic that you would normally use and present it in whatever way fits the topic and your class. The only criterion is that the topic should be one that promotes discussion—that is, a topic on which students can express their opinions and perspectives.

Next, divide the students into an even number of groups. The ideal group size for this activity is four students. The group will have two identities: in Part 1 of the activity, they will be Group 1; in Part 2, they will be Group 2. As Group 1, students write three open-ended discussion questions about the topic the class has been studying. Once students have completed this task, they give the questions to another group (Group 2). Although I prepared a handout (see the sample at the end of this article) and gave a copy to each group, students could just as easily prepare this activity themselves using notebook paper.

As Group 2, students orally respond to the questions they received. Tell them not to write their answers, but to read the questions aloud and discuss them as they would in a small-group discussion.

Next, tell groups to write a critique of each question. Ask students:

  • Did the question stimulate much discussion? Why? Why not?
  • How could the question be improved to be a better discussion question?

You might want to write these questions on the board.

Then have a full-class discussion about the activity. Ask students to identify the question they thought was the best and to explain why. Ask for suggestions to improve the questions that promoted less discussion in their groups. Elicit from the students the differences between Yes/No questions and open-ended questions, along with observations about how the latter promote more discussion. Conclude by having students summarize the characteristics of effective discussion questions. You might want to list those characteristics on the board.

Conclusion
This multistep technique engages students in authentic discussion at several levels and uses a variety of language skills and functions. Because of the technique’s simplicity, it could be used with almost any age and level of student, except very young learners and beginners. To start off, students have to be familiar enough with the topic to be able to develop their questions; that may require them to read about or do research on the topic and to discuss it with classmates. Or, students can develop questions about a topic the class has recently studied.

Writing the questions will provide opportunity for discussion about how to properly phrase them. As students answer another group’s questions, they are discussing the topic again, perhaps from a different perspective than they did originally, because each group will approach the topic differently. Then, as students analyze, discuss, and write about the quality of the questions, they have to use appropriate language to explain the strengths and weaknesses of each question.

Finally, the whole-class discussion about the most effective questions and suggestions for improving weaker questions promotes speaking about the topic using relevant vocabulary; it also engages students in the functions of comparing and contrasting the various questions, making suggestions, and perhaps agreeing and disagreeing. These are all skills and functions that students at the upper-beginner level and beyond can manage and continue to develop.

Lynn W. Zimmerman, PhD, was a 2014–2015 English Language Fellow in Elbasan, Albania, where she taught at Aleksander Xhuvani University. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer and a Fulbright Scholar in Poland.
 

Q/A Activity Worksheet
Group 1: Write three open-ended questions that could be used in a discussion group. Give the list of questions to Group 2.

Group 2: Discuss the questions. Do not write your answers to the questions.

Write a critique of each question. Did the question stimulate much discussion? Why? Why not? How could the question be improved to make it a better discussion question?

Question 1  
Question 1 Critique  
Question 2  
Question 2 Critique  
Question 3  
Question 3 Critique  

 

Author: Lynn W. Zimmerman Format: Text
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Teaching Techniques: Critiquing Questions
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