Routines, like any other item or activity in our repertoire, will succeed or fail according to how they are actually used in the classroom. All the theory on why? is useful – without it, we would paddle around in linguistic puddles until the bell goes, with some routines working well, making waves, and others not, causing little more than a splash, and without us understanding why – but on its own why? is insufficient. We also need the how?
Multi-sensory Strategies
In my last post in this category I thought about how the visual learners are most likely not to have their learning needs met in routines, unless a conscious effort is made on the part of the teacher to address them. This is principally because of the spontaneous, unpredictable nature of communication, and the need for visuals prepared in advance. Of course, much can be anticipated, and therefore prepared, but the rest can also be prepared for the next lesson, if you decide a particular strand of interaction is worth pursuing further. For every routine, you could dip into the following list of suggestions to help you meet the learning needs of every learner in the class:
Visual
- A4 sheets (if you use a visualiser) or OHTs (if you don’t)
-in plastic pockets, with thumb-holes cut for easy removal of transparencies, pinned around the edge of the teacher’s desk
- in a ring binder with an index at the front. The most frequently used sheets/OHTs go at the front. It is still best to keep them in plastic wallets, one per wallet, as the rings in a file will eventually rip the sheets/spoil the OHT if everything happens at the cracking pace it should. - Flashcards
- Flashcards stuck to the wall/window. These can also be grouped together in routines, and then stuck together concertina-style where limited wall space or moving rooms is an issue. As the routine develops, the concertina gets longer.
- Permanent display posters. Print onto white paper then photocopy onto coloured paper. That way you can keep a copy, for reference, for re-making when the old one gets tatty, and for others in the department, without having to print off more copies. Stick them onto backing paper so the whole thing can be put up / taken down in one go. Make sure your colours are consistent with other posters, i.e., if you have one language on one colour, and another language is taught in the same room which uses posters produced on another colour, don’t cross over!
Auditory
- Songs. These may feature the language of the routine, or exemplify structures within it, e.g., a lateness routine which features the perfect tense in its excuses can be put to a song which gives you the opportunity to show a pattern of language, for example, regular perfect past participle endings, or the auxiliaries.
- Chants
- Accusations & gasps! The emotional element makes the sound of the sentence memorable.
Kinaesthetic
- Mimes. Either mimes for pronunciation, mimes for meaning or a combination of the two.
- Pointing. Linked to mimes, but can help to point up the salient features of a sentence, particularly where direct and indirect object pronouns are used, and word orders differs markedly from English. Doing this helps pupils to maintain both general comprehension (i.e., of the whole sentence) and particular comprehension (i.e., of the individual elements of the sentence, especially where in German, for example, verbs are kicked to the end of a sentence, or in French & Spanish, object pronouns occur in a different place or order in the sentence compared with English).
Challenge and Progression
In forthcoming posts I want to look in some depth at how, in very practical terms, we can adjust the level of challenge, both at the planning stage as well as on the hoof. I’m thinking of occasions such as when we realise in front of the class that we got it a bit wrong in our planning, that we’ve pitched the language or response to it too high, too low, or simply that we’re missing large chunks of the class out. Unless we do something (preferably the right thing!) very soon, the lesson can break down. For now, I’ll refer to 3 main ways of altering the level of challenge, i.e., by varying:
- the length of the text
- the complexity of the language in the text
- the complexity of response required
(for ‘text’, read language that the teacher and/or the class are expected to use in some way, either by listening, speaking, reading or writing).
To these three, we can add a fourth:
- introduction/withdrawal of support
Richard Johnstone (Communicative Interaction: A Guide for Teachers) uses the terms “problem-creating strategies” and “problem-reducing strategies”. This refers in part to the amount of support pupils are given in order to carry out a task and the demands made upon them.
Routines, like any other element of language teaching, need to have progression built in to prevent them from going stale through over-familiarity. A routine which starts off as “Pourquoi es-tu en retard?” will only retain its novelty value for so long before the joke wears thin and pupils ultimately resent participating. However, this works to our advantage: we don’t want pupils to remain forever at the level of language they were introduced to in Year 7. Giving pupils other ways to express roughly the same messages, albeit with a twist, will not only keep a routine fresh, but more importantly it will give them contextualised examples of more complex language that they can use now and transfer to other contexts later.
This is an example of how progression was planned into a lateness routine by increasing the length of the text, the complexity of the language, the complexity of the response required and by withdrawing support:
1) Teacher/whole class : Pourquoi es-tu en retard? (On a banner on the back wall of the classroom/OHT/visualiser sheet)
Pupil : Parce que je suis sorti en retard de ….
Parce que j’ai parlé avec mon professeur
Teacher/whole class : C’est acceptable / Ce n’est pas acceptable / Non / Si
A ta place!
2) Pourquoi êtes-vous en retard?
- Parce que nous sommes ….
- Parce que nous avons …
3) Teacher/whole class: (Development of question) Le cours a commencé à ..(10h30)….., alors, pourquoi es-tu en retard?
4) Introduce range of excuses, regular perfect tense, J’ai and Je suis, with mimes and symbols, slow-reveal
Beep test/Concept checker for auxiliaries (“Beep” allé à la salle d’anglais, J’ai ou Je suis?) > Pupils carry out activity in pairs, the “beeping” pupil looking at visual support, the guessing pupil looking away)
5) Repetition activity using the lateness excuses, such as a Song: J’ai fini ma boisson (See Something to Say, published by CiLT)
6) Teacher/whole class : (Further development of question) Le cours a commencé il y a (5) minutes. Il ne faut pas arriver en retard. Au contraire, il faut arriver à l’heure! Alors, veux-tu nous expliquer pourquoi tu es en retard?
7) Challenge pupils to find 3 categories in the language they have been using (the 3 conjugations/past participle endings)
8) The sequence can then go off in several different directions. My preference is to use this as a context in which to unpick the grammar of the perfect tense.
Intensity and involvement
The whole class must be involved, or pupils will not able to use the routine themselves spontaneously. For example, where one pupil accuses another of speaking in English, the whole class needs to be locked on (made to join in together) to repeat the same phrase. Similarly, when a pupil arrives late, it is not enough for the teacher to ask, “Why are you late?”, even though it may be just the teacher who starts it off, particularly at an early stage of the routine. In this way, pupils will have had their “anonymous opportunity” to get their tongues round the words before they find their own, more “public opportunity” to use them. In other words, they engage in a repetition activity with a routine in the way that they would for content language. Locking-on also means that together, as a class, you can speculate on and unpick language as it develops: When two or more pupils arrive together, pupils (cued by the teacher) speculate on which verb (a second person singular or plural verb) will be correct. This means that the next time it happens, a pause and a knowing look should be the only prompting pupils need to get the grammar right, before it is made explicit at a later date.
