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No preparation multi-skill lesson

As a teacher I liked effective lessons which took me little or no time to prepare. Here is one I would use with pupils from Y8 to Y10 (low intermediate).

When teaching the topic of "en ville" I would at some point near the end of the teaching sequence spend a lesson preparing pupils for a piece of connected writing called Ma ville.

The lesson would mainly consist of my asking easy questions in the TL about where the pupils live. We would focus on "il y a" and "il n'y a pas".

Il y a une gare?
Il y a des écoles? Combien?
Il y a des magasins? Quelle sorte?
Qu'est-ce qu'il y a pour les visiteurs?
Quels services est-ce qu'il y a?
Il y a un camping? Oui ou non?
Il n'a pas d'hôpital. Vrai ou faux?

On eliciting answers I would write up partial answers on the board while students took notes. You can write incomplete words or sentences which students can complete either immediately or at home. This part is crucial as it keeps all students engaged, listening, thinking and writing.

Once this section was complete, I would get students to report back to me what they had noted. This allows slower students to fill in some missing gaps. I would then get students into pairs to give each other facts about their town, or to make up true or false answers for their partner to solve.

Homework would be a write-up of the notes with the suggestion that some students may like to find extra information (differentiation by outcome).

All in all, what you have is a lesson almost all in the target language, with listening, speaking, some reading and writing. The written essays will be largely correct and quick to mark. Students will have the satisfaction of an accurate piece of work and a good source for later revision. The best students will have stretched themselves further with their own, original input.


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