New lesson plan: Listening and writing lesson

David Manuel Valentim Bembele

Listening and writing lesson - Upper-Intermediate B2 level

Listening and writing lesson
Upper-Intermediate B2 level

Description

Students will practise listening for and taking notes of key information in the context of attending a lecture. The lesson will start with a short discussion around situations in which students take notes and the kind of information they jot down. Following this, students will be provided with an example of notes taken by a student in a lecture about Maria Montessori's biography to show them techniques for taking notes, before listening to the second part of the lecture and take their own notes. Prior to the listening, the teacher will check the meaning of some words, and present the students with three questions for them to answer as they listen to the recording. The recording will be played only once as this is meant to let the students have a general idea of what the listening passage will be about. As for the main task, students will listen to the recording two times and use the techniques learned before to take their own notes, which will be shared with colleagues afterwards. As follow up students will have group discussion on Maria Montessori's role in education.

Materials

Worksheets, coursebook and IWB

Worksheets, coursebook and IWB

Main Aims

To practise listening for and taking notes of key information in the context of a lecture; 2) o learn techiques for note taking;

Subsidiary Aims

1) to practise listening for gist; 2) to practise giving opinion in a group discussion

Procedure (45-60 minutes)

Lead-in (5-8 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students

In pairs students will discuss the importance of taking notes and answer the following questions: 1) In what situations do you have to take notes?; 2) Do yo write a lot of notes or just a few key points?; 3) What do you do with the notes afterwards? Then the teacher will elicit answers from the students.

Pre-Listening (10-12 minutes) • To prepare students for the listening and make it accessible

1. Teacher tells the students they are going to practise listening and taking notes through a lecture about Maria Montessori, an important figure in education. Then the teacher shows a picture of Professor Montessori and elicits from them information about her; 2. the teacher elicits techniques for taking notes, then hands out guidelines for taking effective lecture notes; 3. teacher refers students to exercise 3, pg 69 stb - notes taken by a student in a lecture about Maria Montessori's biography, to identify techniques used by the student and broaden their repertoire. The task will be done individually first to allow that all students try the task and then in pairs to build peer support. Feedback: Teacher elicits the answers from students.

While-Listening #2 (10-15 minutes) • To provide students with more challenging detailed listening and provide traing in note taking

The teacher tells the students they are going to listen to a recording and as they listen they should take notes using the techniques they have just looked at. The recording will be played once. If students face difficulties hearing some passages, they should skip some spaces and continue taking notes of what they can pick. When the recording ends, students will be given few minutes to read through their notes before they listen again to complete the blanks they might have left. Then they will swap their notes in order to check if they can follow their peer's notes and if either or both have left some information out.

While-Listening #1 (10-10 minutes) • To provide students with less challenging gist of the listening passage and give them a reason to listen

The teacher hands out the worksheet containing three questions for the students to find the answers as they listen to the recording and tell them to read the questions before the recording is played in order to help them build an idea of what to expect from the recording. Then the teacher plays the recording once and gets the students to compare their answers afterwards before the teacher elicits them.

Post-Listening (10-15 minutes) • To provide students with an opportunity to expand on what they've learned about Montessori's method

Students will discuss the following questions in pairs first: 1. Why do you think Maria Montessori is considered such an important figure in education? 2. Have her ideas influenced the way children are educated in your country, do you think? This must be productive as the class is made of adults students with different cultures and background. Then they will discuss in groups of four in order to share their views. Afterwards the teacher will elicit the views from the groups.