Урок по теме "Stereotypes of mentality". 11-й класс

31.10.2012

Вашему вниманию представлен план урока английского языка в 11 классе по теме “Stereotypes of mentality”, основанным на использовании коммуникативного направления в преподавании иностранных языков. В течение долгого времени я увлечена именно этим направлением, использующим очень эффективные приёмы работы с учащимися. Должна сказать, что многие из них , как то guessing games, Jigsaw reading, making a poster и т.д. действительно делают урок исключительно интересным, развивают навыки общения, превращают процесс обучения в увлекательное занятие. На широкое использование данной методики меня сподвигло участие в семинарах программы «Teachers to Teachers” и обучение на курсах по коммуникативной технологии под руководством В.Бандуриной, организованной Педагогическим университетом «Первое сентября» и МИОО.Надеюсь, что данный материал будет полезен моим коллегам, увлечённым преподаванием английского языка.

I. Introduction

The communicative approach to language learning is used to engage students in real-life communication in the classroom. The language is used as a tool for interaction. Authentic and meaningful communication, which involves the integration of different language skills, is aimed at gaining communicative competence.

The classroom should be learner centered. The teacher's role is to facilitate student communication. This is done by the careful selection of materials and activities relevant to the aims of the lesson in which they are used.

Two main types of lessons are Systems lessons (Vocabulary, Grammar, Phonetics, and Function) and Skills lessons (Receptive and Productive). Different types of activities can be used to provide practice of four communicative skills (Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing). They include brainstorming, problem solving, mind map, group discussion, information gap, consensus building, collaborative writing, gap filling, fishbowl, jigsaw reading, role-plays, simulations, watching, games etc. Activities must be selected and fit the age. If they are above the level of the students, they can destroy self-confidence and if bellow, they can bore the students.

Each lesson should be carefully planned and include particular stages: warmer, lead-in, controlled practice, free practice and feedback. Teachers use various interaction patterns (T-S, T-SS, S-S, S-SS etc) organizing pair, group and mingling activities. During these activities the teacher acts as a monitor, usually without interruption, and then provides feedback on the success or otherwise of the communication and, possibly, on the linguistic performance of the learners in the form of post-activity error correction.

Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics (requesting help, making an apology, giving an order, inviting, suggesting, advising, requesting information etc.). Because of the increased encouragement to participate fully, students gain confidence in using the target language in general. An advantage of the communicative approach is that activities are also fun for the students. Students practice the target language a number of times, slowly building on accuracy.

Different learners (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, gustatory, digital, tactile) prefer different learning styles. The task is to assess the character and personality of the group or individuals choosing methods and approaches that best
suit them. The most popular approaches are TBL (Task-based Learning), TPR (Total Physical Response), TTT (Test Teach Test), GP (Guided Practice) and PPP (Presentation-Practice-Production).

Level: intermediate (16-17 years).

Main aim: to practiсe fluency speaking on the topic of national identity.

Sub-aims: to introduce the topic of Stereotypes, to practice scanning, to practice communicative skills, to revise and practice using the vocabulary of national identity, characteristics of different people to develop student’s social skills to promote positive national relations.

Materials: Presentation, stickers, cards with tasks.

II. Lesson Plan

Stage	Stage Aims	Time	Procedure	Interaction patterns
Warm up+ Lead –in+	To give more energy; to prepare students to work on a main task, an introduction to the topic; activating schemata; Pre-teaching some vocabulary which can be necessary for the future tasks; developing speaking cooperation skills; revising vocabulary for making suggestions, giving reason	3 min	T asks SS if they like riddles and suggests looking at the pictures and trying to guess the topic of the lesson. T: You know it was such a difficult day today and you need a short exercise for your brains. Do you like riddles? Look at the pictures and try to guess of our today’s lesson. Let’s do it in pairs. You may share your opinion with your partner. Please, pay attention to using some useful expressions for describing pictures. Here they are... (SS discuss pictures one by one. T asks SS randomly).	S-S
Guessing game	Imagination; practice of important thinking skills; develop speaking	3	T: So, do you have any suggestions according today’s topic? (SS answers) T: – Were the pictures easy to guess? – Can we call the standard perception of an object a belief or idea? – Can it be a person or a thing? – Is it always fair or true? – How can we call this idea? (Stereotype) T: So, try to make a definition of a stereotype, using all ideas we’re mentioned above, you may do it in pairs. (SS answers). T gives a definition from “Longman Dictionary of contemporary English”. T: Stereotype – a belief or idea of what a particular type of person or thing is like. Stereotypes are often unfair or untrue”.	T-SS S-S
Pre-speaking		4	CCQ: T: – Where can we come across stereotypes? – What type of speech is the word “stereotype” – Can you form a verb? – Try to make up a sentence using the structure: “Stereotype somebody with something”. But pay a particular attention to Passive form of the verb. For example: Californian is stereotyped as tall, fit and tanned. You may do it in pairs. (Students answers). – Thank you for the answers.	T-Ss S-S
Pre-reading Discussing picture Game “Who am I”	To develop speaking skills, activate schemata Developing speaking, cooperation; to get the students to talk	5 min 3 min	T: As you’ve mentioned above there are many kinds of stereotypes. What’s your opinion? What stereotypes are the most acute and often spoken about? T shows a presentation with pictures. T: – Today we’re going to discuss cultural stereotypes, stereotypes concerning national identity. I’d like to show you some pictures of 2 countries. You are to guess what are they. (SS answers). – Why do you think so? – Can we call all these pictures stereotypes? Why? (SS watch the presentation). T: Now I want you to split into groups. We’re going to do it in a following way. I put a sticker with a name of famous personality. Don’t look backwards. Your partner looks at the sticker, and explain to you what kind of person is written on the sticker, omitting the name. You may start with the following words “This person is…”. You try to guess the name. if the explanation is unclear, you may ask “if” or “how” question. For example: Is he young? CCQ: – Do you have to work in groups? – Can you look at the sticker yourself? – Who gives an explanation? – Can you ask questions? – What kind of questions? – So, we have four groups: politicians, singers, actors, the wealthy.	T-SS T-SS S-S T-SS
Reading Discussion “Typical traits of character”	To develop speaking skills, activate schemata: consensus building; to practice using expression s of giving conclusions, suggestions, reasons	10 min	T: Make a kind of circle. Here’s a task for you. You are given a list of different traits of character. You are to discuss and write down on these papers 3 negative and 3 positive traits which can be regarded a stereotypical. Then, at the end, choose anyone to give us a little brief analyses of your work. Don’t forget to use expressions for sharing ideas. Here they are… (SS watch presentation). CCQ T: – How many traits of character you are supposed to write? – Where are you supposed to write? –Who is going to report? (SS fulfill the task). T:So, what are the results of your discussion? Can we call all these opinion stereotypes?	T-SS S-SS
Jigsaw reading	To improve cooperation, developing mutual acceptance within the group; practicing listening and reading comprehension; revising suggesting, agreeing; consensus building	15 min	T thanks SS and says they are going to read the text dealing with typical traits of character of Russians and Americans. T: Do you want to find out the roots of some traits of character in Americans and Russians? It will be our next task. You are given different parts of the text. It is taken from psychological magazine. Two groups are given a part devoted to Americans; two other teams will enjoy reading text about Russians. The next step will be as follows. You are given a part of a big fish. First of all read individually. Then discuss some points. You are to make different bones inside the fish and write the word describing a character at the bottom and the explanation, what are the roots of this trait of character which you drag out from the text. CCQ: – What are you supposed to read? – Where are you to write? – Can you discuss your choice? SS do task. T: Are you ready? Now let’s join the bigger group. (T unites 2 groups together). Join two parts of the fish together. Read what was written by your partners. Now you are to answer the questions on the board. CCQ: – Are Russians and Americans similar or different? – Can the difference lead to misunderstanding?	T-SS S-SS T-SS
Homework	To practice important thinking and writing skills; stimulate SS’s interest, imagination; improve mutual acceptance tolerance	2 min	T:You’ve done a great job! Now a few words about your homework. Look at the blackboard. Here you can see different proverbs, concerning stereotypes. You are to choose any proverb you like and write an essay, describing your attitude to the main idea of the proverb, taking into account the information we’ve discussed today. Don’t forget linking organization and useful expressions for presenting ideas. The volume is up to 200 words. You may even put it in ironic way. Personally I believe we should speak about stereotypical features of different things in humoristic, a little bit ironic way. Finally, I give you some funny pictures. Maybe they will help you in writing your essay. CCQ: T: – What are you going to do? – Where can you find inspiration for writing essay? T thanks students for their work. It was a real pleasure to work with you. You were extremely creative! I hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson. See you!

III. Hands out

Expressions for describing pictures

…looks…
It looks as if…
… may be…
… could be…
…. seems to be…
It’s probably…

How to express your opinion

I sometimes think that …
It seems to me that…
I believe that…
In my opinion …
I think…

That may be true but…
I’m not sure, I agree with you
Perhaps, but don’t you think that…
I can’t agree with you there…
You can’t be serious
I’d rather say...
There may be some truth in that but I don’t really think…
But is it always true? For example, think about…
I wouldn’t say so! For example, imagine

That’s exactly what I think \ what I wanted to say
I couldn’t agree more
I agree entirely
So do I
I think that’s totally right
A good example of this

How to present an idea

Let me start with…
Firstly\secondly…
… for instance…
In spite of this…
What’s more…\ Moreover…
Last but not least…
What I wanted to say about is…
On the one hand… but on the other hand…
Another thing is…
However…
In fact…

IV. Text for Jigsaw Reading

National Character

America is a nation of risk-takers. Most Americans are Descendants of immigrants who left the known of The Old World for the unknown of the New. The pioneers who lived on the frontier had a hard life, so they had to be tough and self-reliant. Frontier men and women were often facing new problems and situations which needed new solutions. Under these circumstances, they soon learned to experiment with new inventions and new ways of doing things. This willingness to experiment and invent led to another American trait, a sense of optimism that every problem has a solution. The frontiersmen had to overcome many difficulties. Friends and neighbors came to help without any reward. They shared food, together built each other’s houses and fought fires. This extraordinary willingness to cooperate gave a rise American’s capacity for volunteer actions. The difficulties of the frontier life also shaped the traditions of hospitality. As the people acquired new territories, they were moving from East to West. Americans are always on the move – from one part of the country to another, from one city to another, from farm to city. (Frederic Jackson Turner, American historian).
Russians are impressed with size and numbers. This is not unusual for such a vast country. Russians think and act big.
Russians think of themselves as a members of the community rather than as individuals.
Nature has not been kind to Russia. Much of European Russia and Siberia is very cold most of the year. In Old Russia, people could do little during winter months. But in spring much to be done, and in a short period of time. This explains why Russians often are inactive for a long period of time and show burst of energy. The harsh climate explains the Russians’ strength, their ability to overcome hardships, as well as their patience and submission. Climate has also made them cautious.
Their cruel climate, harsh story and skeptical outlook on life have made Russians value stability, security, social order and predictability, and to avoid risk

V. Cards to divide class into groups

Frank Sinatra	Marilyn Monroe
Michael Jackson	Leonardo Di Caprio
Barbra Streisand	Sharon Stone
George Bush	Rockefeller
John F. Kennedy	Bill Gates
George Washington	Mark Zuckerberg

VI. Conclusion

The topic of the lesson is “National stereotypes”. From my point of view this problem is very accute nowadays and it would be very useful to discuss it with teenagers.
Taking into account that the main aim of this particular lesson was the developing of skills, I used activities peculiar for these types of lessons, such as guessing games, jigsaw reading, making a poster.
All in all I try to achieve mutual ecceptance, tolerance, to promote positive national relations. During the lesson I changed Interaction Pattern to make the lesson more communicative.
Finally, it’s necessary to mention some possible troubleshooting. Some students may know less about the USA than other students. Teacher should encourage students to share their background knowledge. To avoid possible nrgative perception of some facts teacher should use irony and humour.

aid: 625830