In this 2-part blog, I talk about how I use ‘modelling’ for homework tasks with examples from a lower Intermediate group who are currently reviewing the Perfect Tense.

Part 1:

Like all teachers, when I plan and write my lessons, I am guided by the outcome – what I want the learners to achieve by the end of each lesson and also over the course of series of lessons. I focus on weaving a wide range of ‘modelling’ activities such as sentence builders and listening and reading tasks into every lesson to accomplish this and I ensure the content we are working on is full of comprehensible input.

I have always used ‘modelling’ tasks for homework but I have recently started to plan these more carefully so that my learners can really see the development in their written / spoken work over the course of the lessons. I have also added optional ‘target language challenges’ so that more confident learners can push a little further to try to build in new expressions or vocabulary that we have explored in class.

With a lower Intermediate group, we have been reviewing the Perfect Tense with a view to trying to move more fluidly between verbs that take ‘avoir’ or ‘être’ and also using reflexive verbs in conversation. The Perfect Tense is not new to the group and they already have a very good range of verbs that they can recognise quite easily and also use, but the latter more hesitantly. I therefore felt able, over the course of the lessons, to ‘drip-feed’ new vocabulary into the content we were working on.

This is the first passage we worked on – we did a listening activity first (Conti’s Tick or Cross) and then, after listening to the passage 3 times, we read the passage as a group and highlighted the different examples of the Perfect Tense. The text in italics was new to the group.

• Malgré les restrictions, j’ai passé un très bon weekend. J’habite dans une région très vallonnée et pittoresque avec beaucoup d’espaces verts et un beau parc. Il a beaucoup neigé vendredi soir et quand je me suis réveillé samedi matin, tout était couvert de neige. Je me suis vite habillé, j’ai bu un grand café et je suis sorti pour faire une très longue promenade avec mon chien et mon appareil photo. J’ai marché pendant presque 3 heures et quand je suis rentré chez moi, j’ai pris un bain bien chaud.

Following this activity, we did a range of speaking activities using the verb structures above, and also ‘malgré les restrictions’, including a gap fill pyramid, a translation pyramid and an oral ping pong. For homework, I asked the learners to write 3-5 sentences to talk about their weekend using models from the lesson. I also encouraged them to draw on prior learning that they felt comfortable and confident using. The pieces were fantastic! Here is an example (that I have permission to share):

• Malgré les restrictions, j’ai passé un très bon weekend. J’habite dans un village à la campagne. Samedi matin, je me suis réveillée à 9h, j’ai bu un thé et je me suis habillée. J’ai fait une longue promenade avec mon mari et j’ai fait un gâteau.

Next week I’ll continue to talk about how this technique has helped my learners develop their writing skills.

Sarah Shaw, Aspire Languages