Week 4 – learning circle (task design for learner training)
Group members – Suzie, Nancy, Meili, Nadeyah, Anara (secretary)
We have noticed immediately that the main focus in the exercise is language although the attempt was made to learn linguistic structure in a communicative way. Also it was suggested that there should be a chance for students to reflect on their own experiences. That is why we suggested the following process of presenting the exercise that would look as a learner training activity:
1. Brainstorming, whereas the teacher asks students questions such as “Where (when) do you think you can use comparatives?” (probably in L1). At this stage the teacher intention is to raise students’ awareness of a new grammar element without explicitly showing or explaining it. In addition, we think that the given instruction “In pairs, ask and answer the following questions” might be substituted with something like “What pattern(s) can you notice in these sentences?”
2. After brainstorming we think that two students might go in front of the class whereas other students will need to find any differences they see in them, or alternatively students and the teacher might compare something which is in the classroom. For instance, sentences like “X is short, Y is tall, X is light, Y is heavy” might be encouraged by the teacher so that students get ready for the main part of the exercise which is to spot the patterns of comparative forms.
3. As for the second task in the exercise, students might be asked to number the activities they find easy and/or difficult from the easiest to the most difficult ones, and while doing this they might probably work out the patterns for themselves. Also, this activity will help them to identify their weaknesses and strengths, which leads to the development of self-evaluation.
4. As a final part we think that asking students to evaluate their understanding of the comparatives, and how comparing works in English will prompt further development of meta cognitive strategies such as self-evaluation, self-monitoring.
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Oh dear! You seem to have looked at the task that was on the handout instead of the task I asked you to do instead, which was 'Spot the Difference'. I was going to let you have the one you looked at for this week's LC task! In any case, you seem to have misunderstood the task - this exercise, as it stands, is clearly about practising structures. LT tasks do not focus on 'what' is to be learnt, but 'how'. To make this an LT task you need to forget that it started life as a language focused task....look at the questions....how can these be used to get students to reflect on their own learning processes? Don't worry, this will all become clearer this week.
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