Zahra Zahra

Teaching Practice 7, Grammar, Present Continious
Beginner level

Description

This lesson introduces the Present Continuous in the context of talking about ‘parties’. A couple of action verbs are introduced to help students get used to the form of this new tense. The lesson starts with students being presented with some pictures of different kinds of parties. The teacher tries to elicit the words related to each party from the students. She draws their attention to another group of photos in which people are doing different activities, points to the different people and elicits what they are doing from the students. She then presents the students with a handout including some sentences related to a birthday party and asks them to fill in the gaps with the words given. Teacher monitors the students to make sure they are all on the task. After a peer-check, a quick whole class feedback is done. If the students query the use of ''is/are having, etc.'', she tells them they are in Present Continuous, but does not go into a full explanation at this stage. She gives the student the ‘guided discovery’ sheet in order to involve the students in the ''Clarification Stage'' and make it more student-centered. The sheet contains some highlighted marker sentences in addition to a few simple questions on the meaning and the form of ''Present Continuous'', which students try to answer on their own and check their answers with their partners afterward. Next, the teacher starts to clarify the meaning and form of the tense with the help of the students. She makes sure they have learned the meaning and form of the target language thoroughly by asking CCQs and using a timeline. At the end of this stage, the teacher clarifies the pronunciation. Now it is time to provide controlled practice focused on using the target language accurately. Once she has been through the 'Clarification Stage’, then comes the 'Controlled Practice' during which students are repeating the new form of the language over and over again. It is an intensive phase where different activities can be used so the teacher divides the class into two groups and gives them two different handouts and ask them to look at the picture of a group of people at a party and answer the questions. (The pictures are of two different parties, a garden party and a dance party!) Then the teacher asks the members of the two groups to sit two by two together and share their ideas and talk about what is happening in their pictures. In order to make grammar more fun, the teacher provides the learners with a fun activity in which she uses an entertaining miming game to teach or review the 'Present Continuous Tense'. She begins by asking the students to watch her and guess what she is doing. She mimes a simple activity and encourages the students to call out their answers. She makes sure they answer using the present continuous tense. Next, she separates the students into two teams. The objective is for the students in the teams to guess a mime using the 'Present Continuous'. Teams take it in turns to play. A student comes up and asks the class 'What am I doing?' The student then does the mime on the card. When a member on either team thinks they know, they respond 'You are verb+ing…' The students must guess the exact words on the mime card to win. The first team to guess the sentence wins a point. And finally, to provide freer oral practice focused on the target language more fluently, the teacher divides them in pairs and give each pair a picture to describe using 'Present Continuous'. Free practice also called production comes at the end of the lessons in the PPP lessons. Here the students should be completely free to use the language the way they want. They have the chance to completely personalize the language, they can experiment; they can try to include more complex structures by reusing previously learnt language. She monitors the learners and does a delayed error correction after the task.

Materials

Abc Projector-Handouts

Main Aims

  • Grammar/ Present Continuous.... The main focus of this lesson is on the simplest use of ''Present Continuous'' which is to talk about things that are in some way in progress now/ presently/ currently/ at the moment.
  • To provide clarification

Subsidiary Aims

  • Vocabulary related to the context of the lesson (Parties) in addition to some useful 'action verbs' + Speaking

Procedure

Lead-in (5-6 minutes) • To lead students into the lesson. The main purpose is to set the mood for what is to come next, to arouse students’ curiosity about the topic and motivate them to want to learn more. It is supposed to provide a meaningful and authentic context for language learning.

1. The teacher shows some pictures of different kinds of parties and tries to elicit the words related to each party from the students. 2. She goes on to show another group of photos in which people are doing different activities at parties, points to the different people and elicits what they are doing from the students.

Buiding Context (5-6 minutes) • To narrow the context to a more specific area and continue to generate interest while establishing a clear and specific context for the language to arise out of.

She then presents the students with a handout including some sentences related to a birthday party and asks them to fill in the gaps with the words given. While the students are on task, she monitors them and makes sure they are all involved. After a peer-check she gives them a quick feedback.

Presentation (12-15 minutes) • To clarify the meaning, form and the pronunciation of the target language so that the students understand it and know how to construct and say it.

She gives the student the ‘guided discovery’ sheet in order to involve the students in the ''Clarification Stage'' and make it more student-centered. The sheet contains some highlighted marker sentences in addition to a few simple questions on the meaning and the form of ''Present Continuous'', which students try to answer on their own and check their answers with their partners afterward. She monitors the learners not too closely, but to check what they know and what they do not know about the TL. Next, the teacher starts to clarify the meaning and form of the tense with the help of the students. She makes sure they have learned the meaning and form of the target language thoroughly by asking CCQs and using a timeline. At the end of this stage, the teacher clarifies the pronunciation and then drills on different examples.

Controlled Practice (5-7 minutes) • To provide controlled practice focused on using the target language accurately

The teacher divides the class into two groups and gives them two different handouts and ask them each to look at the picture of a group of people at a party. Group 'A' is a given a picture at 'a dance party' and group 'B' is given a picture at 'a garden party'. Students answer the questions.Then the teacher changes their seats so that they all can share their ideas and talk about what is happening in their pictures with members from the other group.

semi-controlled activity (4-5 minutes) • To maintain interest and make grammar more fun

The teacher then provides the learners with a fun activity in which she uses an entertaining miming game to teach or review the 'Present Continuous Tense'. She takes a card and mimes the action in front of the class (without speaking). The first student to say her action a full sentence (e.g. “You are eating chicken!”) is the winner. The teacher breaks them up into two separate groups. Teams take turns playing. A student comes up and asks the class 'What am I doing?' The student then does the mime on the card. When a member on either team thinks they know, they respond 'You are verb+ing…' The students must guess the exact words on the mime card to win. The first team to guess the sentence wins a point.

Production (4-6 minutes) • To provide freer oral practice focused on the target language more fluently

The teacher puts the students in pairs and gives them clear instructions. Students are given different pictures and they are supposed to describe them using 'Present Continuous'. They are free to use other structures by reusing previously learnt language. The teacher monitors the learners, takes notes and does a delayed error correction after the task.

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