Planning individual lessons as part of a syllabus

Planning individual lessons as part of a syllabus TIME: 60 minutes Margaret Horrigan http://ihmanzoni.wikispaces.com/ OVERVIEW OF SEMINAR 2 mins Stage One: Who needs a syllabus anyway? 10 Stage Two: One of our syllabi 10 Stage Three: Finding a comprehensive topic 15 Stage Four: Exploiting a book 20 Roundup: Qs & As 3 MATERIALS: Handout 1: Who needs a syllabus anyway? Handout 2: Children B syllabus Handout 3: OHT of THE TOWN Handout 4: Mr Morebit Handout 5: Treetops blank bubbles Handout 6 : Treetops re-order Handout 7: The Caterpillar Treetops characters Book: Treetops 2a OHP Board magnets Planning individual lessons as part of a syllabus M.Horrigan 1

Stage One: Who needs a syllabus anyway? 10 mins 1.A quick recap on our levels from previous seminar. AGES School Year(s) AGES School Year(s) AGES School Year(s) 5 Materna 8 3 elementary 11 1 media 6 1 elementary 7 2 elementary IH Levels 9 4 elementary 12 2 media 10 5 elementary 13 3 media Playschool 1 & 2 Children A, B, C, (& D) Juniors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 2.Handout 1 folded. 3.What do you remember from our last syllabus seminar? 4. Small group discussions & random feedback. 5.So, do we really need a syllabus? Listen and then decide why the following people might need or not need a syllabus. 6.DICTATION: Students Teachers Schools Parents 7.Small group discussions & random feedback. 8.Now, open handout one and see if you agree with what it says! 9.Random feedback of feelings about the content. Stage 2: One of our syllabi 10 mins 1.In a moment I will give you our children B syllabus. The B refers to the level whereas the label children referes to the age group. 2.Look at the table on handout one again, what sort of grammar, vocabulary/expressions and activities do you expect to find on our syllabus for children B? 3.Small group discussions & random feedback. 4.Now, look at handout 2 and see if your ideas are mentioned! 5.Random feedback of feelings about the content. 6.Today we are going to look at this particular syllabus and try to generate ideas on how to plan a series of lessons around the syllabus. 7.What follows is perhaps the most comprehensive topic you can choose to teach your children

Stage Three: A comprehensive topic to teach from 15 mins 1.OHT of THE TOWN 2.What is it? TOWN. 3.Let s give it a name! 4.Elicit a name. 5.Let s give the streets some names. 6.Phonemic Tic Tac Toe of city buildings 7.Let s insert the buildings on the map together! 8.Divide the class into 2 separate groups to label 45%% of the remaning buildings.leave a few free for apartments for our families! 9.Regroup for an info gap exchange of where these other buildings are. 10.Check 11.Feedback to the board of ideas. 12.Introduce the families 13.Focus on a single family. 14.Elicit the surname MOREBIT, names, jobs (Mr. M works in an ofice), family members, pets whatever you want! 15.Elicit and write on the BB Mr Morebit s job, (clerk), his office furniture and the clothes that he wears to work. 16.From here recap the items to the CCPC 17. Handout 4 18.Read & see if you are correct! 19.Now, looking back at our children B syllabus, what items could THE TOWN topic cover? 20.Discuss 21.The answer is ALL OF THEM! Stage Four: Exploiting a book 20 mins 1.Why go to all the effort of invention when a good book does this for you? 2.Here is the Children B level book from Treetops. All the book has the same characters in little stories (show page 1) jn different situations (show pages 2-3). 3.Here are their names...mixed up in a word bubble (BUD HOLLY MOUSE SQUIRREL HEDGEHOG) 4.Can you work out their names? 5.Treetops characters on BB 6.What other words can you make with these letters? 7.Describe and guess the words together. 8.Here s a story with the characters... 9.Handout 5 10.What do you think they are saying to each other. 11.Dictation of speech bubbles NOT IN ORDER!!! 12.Match the sentences to the pictures! 13.What else could you do with this story? 14.Here s the story re-order it! 15.Handout 6 16. What else could you do with the stories? make new stories up

roleplays (let them try this out) make a little play using masks make books about the characters, for example the caterpillar becoming a butterfly! 17.Handout 7 18. And with the individual characters? read about animal habits & habitats make a potato hedgehog (image below) make a thumbprint caterpillar (image below) butterfly mask (image below) butterfly origami (eg: fold paper into quarter tear into almost half a heart & open) teach body parts...for people & animals teach clothes...re-dress Bud & Holly teach routines...for Bud & Holly (clock on BB and elicit- brush teeth, go to bed etc.) 19.TPR games (point to Bud, wave to squirrel etc.) 20.All of these are possible using just 2 pages from treetops. 21.Look back now at our Chidren B syllabus and just referring to the 2 pages from treetops which areas of the syllabus could you cover? 22.Random feedback of ideas. 23.Using the characters to teach calendar words and expxressions??? 24.Dialogue build 25.BB: BUD: What day is it today? HOLLY: It s Friday. BUD: What s the date today? HOLLY: It s. BUD: Today is Hedgehog s birthday! 26.Backchain, chorus drill in 2 groups, closed pair drill, open pair drill 27.You can easily put these characters into ANY context and exploit them as much as possible Roundup: Qs & As 1.Wikispaces for full notes of this and other seminars delivered. http://ihmanzoni.wikispaces.com 2.Thankyou! 3.For further reading on this area there is a suggested reading list at the end of the plan on line.

Handout 1: Who needs a syllabus anyway??? AGES School Year(s) AGES School Year(s) AGES School Year(s) 5 Materna 8 3 elementary 11 1 media 6 1 elementary 9 4 elementary 12 2 media 7 2 elementary 10 5 elementary 13 3 media IH Levels Playschool 1 & 2 Children A, B, C, (& D) Juniors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 FOLD Who needs a syllabus anyway??? Students need to know what is expected of them. This includes content of lessons, homework tasks and exams. Knowing this makes it easier for students to keep on track and harder for them to argue that you never told us! Teachers need to know what they are expected to cover with their students. Teachers need to stick to syllabus content in order to maintain direction and provide a sense of progression, a record of what has been done and what remains to be done. Schools need to ensure that students of the same year/levels are progressing similarly. This provides the school with a course of study to show parents, teachers and students in order to maintain transparent practices. Parents need to know what is expected of their child at school. This helps them to follow homework tasks up, keep track of their child s learning and be as participatory in the learning process as they want to be. Discussion: 1.Teachers and students enter into a contractual situation by following a syllabus. 2.A syllabus must be followed at all times. 3.The school should provide teachers with a ready made syllabus. 4.Parents should have a copy of the syllabus. 5.Students should have a copy of the syllabus. Margaret Horrigan 2008

Handout 2: Children B Syllabus Children B Syllabus International House Viale Manzoni 22 00185 Rome Lexis Grammar The Calendar Present Continuous (actions in progress +, -,?) Places Can t (impossibility) Things you can buy Present Simple ( routines +,-,?) Hobbies Imperatives (+, -) Sports Past Simple ( completed actions +, -,?) Pets Question words Possessions There is/are Antonyms Superlative Adjectives Expressions Countries and Nationalities It looks like Weather adjectives How long does it take? Convenience Food How much is it? City Transport What s the weather like? Collections I don t know. Prepositions of place What s the date today? What day is it today? Activities Whose turn is it? It s my turn! Can I have a go? Making Comparisions Describing Pictures Interviewing Following basic directions Shopping Expressing the date and time Communicative Crosswords T.P.R. Festival Activities ihmanzoni Cambridge YLE Starters can be done at this level at client s request.

Handout 3: OHT The Town Handout 4: Mr Morebit This is Mr. Morebit. He s fifty years old. His name is Bill He has got a red neck and three green ears! He works in an office. His office is orange and he sits behind a big red desk and plays with his white tie when he talks on the gold phone. Sometimes he wears his purple shirt to the office but when it s very cold he puts on his black jacket to keep him warm. Margaret Horrigan 2002

Handout 5: Treetops Blank Dialogue Howell & Dodgson, Treetops Classbook 2a, OXFORD La Nuova Italia, 2006

Handout 6: Treetops Reorder the story Howell & Dodgson, Treetops Classbook 2a, OXFORD La Nuova Italia, 2006

Handout 7: The Caterpillar My Caterpillar Book... and it became a beautiful butterfly!

Material for BB: Treetops Characters Howell & Dodgson, Treetops Classbook 2a, OXFORD La Nuova Italia, 2006

Crafts Mask template Thumb art Butterfly hands http://www.dltk-kids.com/

For further Reading: Brumfit, C.J. & Johnson, K. (eds) (1979) The Communicative Approach To Language Teaching. Oxford: OUP. http://www.dltk-kids.com/ Howell & Dodgson, Treetops Classbook 2a, OXFORD La Nuova Italia, 2006 Hutchinson, T. & Waters, A. (1987) English For Specific Purposes: A Learning Centred Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gorsuch, G.J. (1999) "Monbusho Approved Textbooks in Japanese High School EFL Classes : an aid or a hindrance to educational policy innovations? ". The Language Teacher 23, (10), 5-15. Long, R.W. & Russell, G. (1999) "Student Attitudinal Change over an Academic Year". The Language Teacher 23, (10), 17-27. Mulvey, B. (1999) "A Myth of Influence: Japanese university entrance exams and their effect on junior and senior high school reading pedagogy". JALT Journal 21, (1), 125-142. Nunan, D. (1988) Syllabus Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Prabhu, N.S. (1987) Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: OUP. Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T.S. (1986) Approaches And Methods In Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. White, R.V. (1988) The ELT Curriculum : Design, Innovation And Management. Oxford: Blackwell. Widdowson, H.G. (1978) Teaching Language As Communication. Oxford: OUP. Widdows, S. & Voller, P. (1991) "PANSI : a survey of the ELT needs of Japanese University students". Cross Currents 18, (2), 127-141. Wilkins, D.A. (1976) Notional Syllabuses. Oxford : Oxford University Press. Yalden, J. (1987) Principles of Course Design for Language Teaching. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.