Guided and Less-Guided Practices For Your language Lessons. Simple ideas to break down difficult tasks for your students
Guided and Less-Guided Practices For Your language Lessons
Guided and Less-Guided Practices For Your language Lessons. Useful Guided and Less-Guided Practices for All Language Classrooms
Guided and Less-Guided Practices For Your language Lessons
A list of Guided and Less-Guided Practices For Your Language Class. Lessons to break down more difficult tasks.
Guided practice comes from a theoretical principle which suggests that, generally, students can’t simply do precisely what a teacher says immediately after the teacher says it. Students need time to consider, process, and practice skills that you have invited them to master. Guided practice often takes a portion of a complete, independent activity and has students work on a particular portion of that larger activity.
For example, instead of working on an entire essay, students in a guided practice might work on paragraph writing. Similarly, students working on irregular verbs might focus attention on only a few irregular verbs (all with a similar pattern), and then go on to another set of verbs (with another pattern).
Guided practice often takes shape as either teacher-led activities or group-directed activities, but in either case, the activities are structured to break down more difficult tasks.
In teacher-led activities, it is wise to invite a variety of students to contribute. This can be done through question and answer, or even by beginning a sentence and inviting students to finish the sentence. Thus, in teacher-led events, you are often the language production “starter” and learners are the language production finishers. While trailing off may sound like a technique of an absent-mindedprofessor, it is, in fact, a technique to engage students and allow them to both predict and create language.
In group-directed activities, select groups carefully by ensuring high and low performers in each task. In this configuration, ensure that low performers are given the more difficult task. Studies have shown that when low performers are given the more difficult task, interactivity increases and allows for better overall performance within a group.
Guided activities should, ideally, invite students to think critically about the instruction and give them the requisite time to understand the instruction. A critical goal for guided practice is to get learners to a point where they can perform an independent task, or at the very least feel comfortable attempting one.
The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot
~
Audre Lorde
Guided and Less-Guided Practices For Your language Lessons
What follows are a few very simple ideas to help stimulate interaction and thought in an classroom.
Faded Work Problems
Description
This guided activity works well especially when inviting students to perform large language production activities such as an essay or a speech.
This activity begins with a typical model.
For example, below we demonstrate a faded work problem approach to teaching in-text citations to students. Notice in this model that not only an example of an in-text citation is given, but the text is highlighted to illuminate the different sections of a proper citation.
In the example given, the model demonstrates not only what the teacher is expecting in terms of content, but demonstrates the different “moves” within the instruction itself. This teacher wants students to:
1. Introduce the quote
2. Include a partial summary or quote, and then
3. Elaborate on the quote/summary.
Read this model citation. It contains three parts. Read each part and discuss. How do the part differ? How do they support each other?
Here is an example in English
Backwards Fading
Description
A technique that is often paired with modeling is called backwards fading.
In this technique, a model is given in steps, but with each new model, learners are given a chance to practice doing one, but not all, of the steps. This allows students to practice using parts of a model until they can practice the complete process on their own.
Notice below that this model contains the three steps mentioned in the previous model (introduce the quote, summary/quote, and elaboration), but the student is asked to provide elaboration alone.
Practice: Now finish this model by completing the final step in the citation process.
Here is an example in English
In later activities, the second step is removed (see below) and then finally (not shown), all steps are removed. Practice: Now finish this model by completing the last two steps in the process.
The 10-question Salute
Description
Ask 10 questions related to a subject. Students stand and salute after responding to a question. The teacher will “salute” back if the answer is correct. The student may sit down after answering a question correctly. If saluting is considered culturally insensitive, another action can be used in its place, such as a thumbs up or a high five. As a guided practice, these questions should lead students to a better understanding of the instruction and prepare them for an independent activity.
Alphabet Soup
Description
Put letters on the board (A-Z, or as many as you’d like). Ask learners to
complete each letter with a word or sentence.
The words they choose should relate to the topic that they have just learned.
This activity helps students to think about what they have recently learned or understood, and gives them a chance to show their learning, and works well especially for a quiz or test.
Fill-in-the-blank Questioning
Description
Begin sentences but then trail off and allow learners to complete sentences. This activity can be used to see if students have understood instruction such as a reading or dialogue.
Questions might be about:
Character: So the name of the lady was…
Place: And she lived in…
Detail: She didn’t want to dance with Ivan because…
Inference: She probably thinks Ivan is…
When teaching activities such as vocabulary, you can begin sentences with:
Definitions: I love to climb trees and eat bananas. I am a…
The word: Monkeys are…
An antonym: The opposite of day is…When teaching grammar, you can begin sentences with:
An example: (give me an example of past tense)
The girl…
The boy…
The elephant and the mouse…
A Rule/Rules: I am a tense. I like the words always and never. I am…
Up Down
Description
Invite students to stand up. Ask questions to any student in the room. Other students must pay attention because, after the first student has given a reply to the question, you will call on a second student to repeat the answer that the first student volunteered. A third student can be required to agree or disagree with the statement spoken by the first and second students. All three students can be seated if they follow the orders correctly and have correct answers.
Guided and Less-Guided Practices For Your language Lessons
Here are some other Lesson plan ideas Activities you can find on Language Advisor
Lesson plan Activities For Your Language Lessons
