Please consider the following:

Note that the posts you find herein need edition. They are not finalized. They do still need some correction. I am more concered with doing the tasks for the moment being. These should be finalized soon. Thank you for understanding.

Friday, April 16, 2010

A Trial to Implement ABCD objective method in an English Class

I usually prepare my lesson plans following a standard sample though with simple changes. I have also known about different ways of formulating objectives and preparing my lessons and even tried some. I have never tried the ABCD method, but I think it is not far away from what we do here. This is, then, my first trial and let’s see how good I am at applying it and what new advantages it would bring to my teaching:
My class is composed of three main parts each of which aims at focusing more on a certain language skill. That is why I would describe it as lesson of integrated skills because it aims at developing reading, speaking and writing respectively. It is also a theme-based lesson because all the activities are on the theme of “house”. This is the way we have been working here in Morocco since the adoption of the Competency-Based Approach in the Moroccan schools. English is, therefore, taught in modules each of which tackles a particular theme and builds particular competencies.

Reading:
My students will be exposed to a short text of three paragraphs about a girl describing her home: location, the type of home, rooms, others parts of the home and why she likes it. The time needed for the whole activity is 15 minutes.
Audience: Elementary level students aged 14 – 17.
Behavior: The students skim and scan the text and answer a comprehension exercise based on the content. They have to recognise key information and fill in a form.
Condition:
• A class of 30 students.
• Prerequisites: the students have studied vocabulary related to house, the present simple, cardinal and ordinal number, simple sentence structure…
• A quick review of cardinal and ordinal numbers and house-related vocabulary.
• The students are given a text supported by a picture showing a building composed of floor and flats. The picture is to be exploited to set the scene before reading the text.
• The students are given 8 minutes to read and fill in the form.
Degree: The students will be able to distinguish between essential and secondary information in a simple text.

Speaking:
The topic is “My Dream Home”. The students will ask and answer each other questions describing the home they dream to have. (25 minutes activity)
Audience: Elementary level students aged 14 – 17.
Behavior: The students use appropriate expressions to talk about their houses.
Condition:
• By the end of the lesson, the students are given a set of questions to ask each other: The are as follows:
- What is your dream home? (a flat, a house, a villa…)
- Where is it?
- How many rooms are there? What are they?
- Are there any other parts? What are they?
- Do you like your dream home? Why?
• Modelling: Teacher gives an example with a chosen good student. Two good students asked to give another example.
• Then the whole class is to be asked to work in pairs to come up with their own dialogues. Timing: 3 minutes.
• Students exchange roles and perform for another 3 minutes.
• Voluntary students come to the front and act their dialogues. Timing: 10 mintutes.
Degree: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to

Writing:
On the light of the comprehension and speaking activity, the students are to be asked to write a paragraph about their dream home. (20 minutes activity).
Audience: Elementary level students aged 14 – 17.
Behavior: Students use appropriate and correct structures and vocabulary in a simple paragraph structure.
Condition:
• Prerequisites: The students have already studied capital letters, some punctuation markers, simple and short sentences structures with the verbs in the present simple.
• Instructions and the topic should be clarified using the board and the previous comprehension text.
• An example of the paragraph should start should be written on the board: (This is the picture of my dream home. It is …………………………)
• Time for editing is 10 minutes.
• Students should be given a rubric to take into consideration while writing.
• Teacher does around and gives help in need.
• Some students read their productions for the whole class. (5 minutes)
• Correction: peer correction based on a checklist that emphasizes on meaning, punctuation, capitalization and sentence structure. (5 minutes)
Degree: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to write a short and simple description of a dream house in a paragraph.
Reformulating objectives to one sentence ABCD objectives:

After some more focus and reflection I would summarize the whole thing as follows:
* Reading: Using a short text bescribing a home (Condition), the learners (Audience) will be able to skim and scan a text (Behavior) to disctinguish between essential and secondary information in a text (Degree).
* Speaking: Using given questions (Condition), the students (Audience) will be able to interact with each other (Behavior) to describe homes appropriately (Degree).
* Writing: On the light of the speaking activity above (Condition), the students (Audience)will be able to write (behavior) a short paragraph to describe homes correctly and accurately (Degree).
How does it look now? Looking for your responses.

No comments:

Post a Comment