A little advice on finalising my TEFL Course

Help, tips and advice in teaching English

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Loafers
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Joined: 07 Aug 2010, 22:19
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A little advice on finalising my TEFL Course

Unread post by Loafers »

Dear Lucy,

I have almost completed my 140 hours TEFL online course and would like to ask your advice on one of the questions I am having problems with. I am obviously not asking you for the answers, but I would like some feedback on how you think my final checkpoint questions are coming along. I am trying to seek out professional advice, as I have attempted this checkpoint twice and if I submit again with wrong answers, I fail.

So please, any advice you can give would be most helpful.

The question:
Write a lesson plan for a 45-minute-long lesson based on learning vocab of popular hobbies and to review adverbs of frequency. They are at an elementary level.

My answer:
"1. Warmer: Play snakes and ladders to revise adverbs of frequency. T-S S-T 5 minutes

2. Lead-In:
Use relia objects or mime to elicit new vocabulary:
e.g. Football (bring in football or mime kicking one), drawing (bring in pencil or draw on the board), watching tv (Draw one on the board or mime switching channels with a remote) , shopping (Shopping bag, mime one) etc… S-T T-S 8 minutes

3. Presentation:
Introduce new target language to students combined ideas of previous lesson works (adverbs of frequency) to today’s subject (Hobbies & verbs), using adverbs of frequency scale to aid.
e.g. I always/sometimes/never play football
Each sentence is repeated several times. Plenary: Review any doubts T-S 7 minutes

4. Presentation:
I ask students individually how often they do the hobbies stated in the Target language; asking them to write on the adverbs of frequency scale. Ask other students whether they have the right placement T-S S-T S-S 5 minutes

5. Controlled Practice: Pair works. Find out which of the new target language hobbies do they accomplish most frequently and least frequently.
Plenary: Ask students what their findings are. T-S S-S S-T 5 minutes

6. Production: Group work. Students are asked to play a game of two truths and one lie, using the Target Language and adverbs of frequency. They are asked to tell the rest of the class two hobbies+ adverbs of frequency that are truths and one hobby+ adverbs of frequency that is a lie, the class has to guess which ones are the truths and which one is the lie. S-S 10 minutes

8. Homework: Get students to ask their mother and father what their hobbies are, introduce phrases 'My dad/mum likes....' T - S 5 minutes"


Thankyou in advance, I appreciate any friendly advice on the subject.
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Lucy
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Joined: 13 Jan 2004, 15:09
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Re: A little advice on finalising my TEFL Course

Unread post by Lucy »

Sorry I haven't replied to this sooner. I'm on holiday at the moment with very little access to internet.

Here are my immediate, knee-jerk reactions to your lesson plan:

The production stage is very good and fun for students. Homework is appropriate but I don't know how much English they will practise with this.

I have doubts about the timing of the beginning activities. I don't see how you can explain, set up and play a game of snakes and ladders in 5 minutes; unless of course you have adapted it and played it before with students. Conversely, I'm not sure the lead-in would take as much time as you have allocated to it.

The presentation is fine. The controlled practice will involve the use of questions; you don't say if this is one of the aims of the lesson. If students haven't studied such questions before you will have to adapt your lesson plan accordingly. I don't want to tell you how because it is your knowledge that is being assessed in this exercise; not mine.

Good luck with this. It's looking good!

Lucy
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