Report from the Trenches!

Task Based Lesson (Make your own 'dream schedule'

Well I ran the lesson plan from the last blog entry.  I had a class of forty high first grade High- School students. They were able to handle the listening from Birdland quite easily. They are used to this kind of listening activity.
The Karuta game was also very easy for them. I may need to give two sentences at a time in order to make it more difficult.  However, I felt it was a good way to warm them up and get used to being in their groups.

After that I tried the listening II. It was a little different to what they are used to but they were able to fill out the schedule table after two listening.

After that I pointed out the phrases which I had stuck to the board. We practiced some substitution drills with these phrases. They repeated them well and seemed to understand how the drill worked.

Then it was time to explain the task. I wrote the task on the board and explained in English two or three times. They understood what to do in general but were unsure of the details.

I tried to build up to it. I told them that this TASK was their special 'mission'. I told them it would be fun trying to complete the schedule sheet as a group but only speaking English.

I said GO..

but alas 

Limited Success....

Only two groups out of ten really attempted the task. They saw its as a challenge. Like talking in code. They completed the task using only English. A large number of groups used all Japanese to complete the task therefore rendering the task useless as an English teaching tool. Some studends spoke a little English or tried to initiate in English but other members of the group refused to co-operate. I had to prompt one group three or four times.

I begged, pleaded, cajoled, threatened! (well I didnt threaten) but I could not get them to co-operate with the task. I guess the students are not used to this kind of activity. Perhaps the task wasn't so interesting. They didn't seem that excited about creating  a dream schedule. Maybe I didn't spend enough time setting up the activity or explaining exactly what I wanted them to do? Many students didn't seem to know that they all had to contribute one idea to the discussion. I repeated myself four , five, six times. I guess explaining the activity in Japanese is an option.

I will have the opportunity to conduct this lesson one more time. I will run over the plan with that JTE and see what advice she has about the plan.