A while ago I blogged about the task-based activity “Ask and move”, where four ‘expert’ pupils, A-level or GCSE, each have some written information which the rest if the class have to put together by going round asking questions they have been provided with. To remind you, the point of the exercise is to be able to exploit information-heavy texts in a communicative fashion. Now, with small A-level groups if, say, under 10 students, the task becomes barely viable as there are too few questioners for the number of experts. So how about the following as a variation?
Instead if three or four experts, just have one. This could be the teacher or, perhaps better, one proficient member of the group. So, to remind you, this expert has a written text about your topic (sub-theme) at hand. They have some time to study it, while the rest of the small group look at some questions you have given them.
The questioners then proceed to ask away, taking notes from the answers in the target language. (This will require some worthwhile direct transcription.) If a student is the expert, the teacher can act as a facilitator, adding questions of their own, or reformulating answers to assist the note-takers.
When notes are all taken, they can be elicited and written up on the board to help all students refine their information and check accuracy. The teacher could easily work in some new language at this stage. As a follow-up homework, a complete summary can be written. This task could be extended by asking students to find additional points if information based on their own research.
What if the expert is a student? What will they do? I suggest the original text be taken away and the expert has to write their summary from memory, also making use if any information written up on the board in class.
Voilà! A low-preparation task providing not just cultural information for AO4, but lots of listening, some reading, question-answer, note-taking and writing up.
By the way, this same task could be done with a good GCSE class, but in this case the text may be a narrative one, rather than one full of factual information.
Instead if three or four experts, just have one. This could be the teacher or, perhaps better, one proficient member of the group. So, to remind you, this expert has a written text about your topic (sub-theme) at hand. They have some time to study it, while the rest of the small group look at some questions you have given them.
The questioners then proceed to ask away, taking notes from the answers in the target language. (This will require some worthwhile direct transcription.) If a student is the expert, the teacher can act as a facilitator, adding questions of their own, or reformulating answers to assist the note-takers.
When notes are all taken, they can be elicited and written up on the board to help all students refine their information and check accuracy. The teacher could easily work in some new language at this stage. As a follow-up homework, a complete summary can be written. This task could be extended by asking students to find additional points if information based on their own research.
What if the expert is a student? What will they do? I suggest the original text be taken away and the expert has to write their summary from memory, also making use if any information written up on the board in class.
Voilà! A low-preparation task providing not just cultural information for AO4, but lots of listening, some reading, question-answer, note-taking and writing up.
By the way, this same task could be done with a good GCSE class, but in this case the text may be a narrative one, rather than one full of factual information.
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