Instructional Session 10
Objective: By the end of class, you will be able to… Beginner: say words or phrases in French to describe people in class and write longer sentences using transition words to say more Intermediate: write two or more sentences in French to describe people in class, using transition between sentences to say more Advanced: write a paragraph in French to to describe people in class, using transition words to say more and organize your paragraph Preparation The Guided Oral Input strategy you will be using today is a Visual Lecture. This is basically a strategy in which you present information and lead a class discussion, using visual scaffolding. This might be a slideshow or other resource that you have prepared, or it might be as simple as drawing in front of the students as you speak, on a piece of chart paper, under your document camera, or on the board. In the example lesson, I will use the Visual Lecture from our Teachers Pay Teachers store (CI Liftoff) called “I’m Like That,” which presents a series of images with various terms to describe people’s personalities. When preparing the lecture, if you plan to draw as you speak, you will most likely want to print or write the most important points in large letters, so that you can refer to it as you deliver the lesson. It is also a good idea to spend some time rehearsing your delivery. As you rehearse, you might find it useful to use a piece of paper to represent your whiteboard and draw/write on it in the same way that you intend to do during the lesson. Some teachers find it useful to hold a copy of the written facts, while others prefer to use the paper on which they have planned the drawings and other visual supports. Draw the information as it unfolds, sentence by sentence and detail by detail. This is much more engaging than simply presenting it to the students in already-completed pictures or slides. Seeing the teacher draw on the board as the lesson unfolds is key to the process. You do not have to be an amazing artist. Quick sketches are best, as they keep the plot line moving along. Two books are recommended to you if you find yourself in need of help with your drawing skills -- Make a World by Ed Emberly and Chalk Talks by Norma Shapiro. They present very simple templates for many different drawings. The most important factor when practicing is: How will you make the information comprehensible to the students? You do NOT need to worry about teaching them each word in the story. Students do not need to comprehend each and every word in the story in order to acquire the language. They DO need to understand the messages that the language is delivering. So, the goal is to make the storyline comprehensible and give the students what Dr. Krashen calls “the illusion of transparency” - the feeling of following the plot of the story. In order to do this, you might want to consider several supports to aid in their comprehension: Page 230
