Interaction patterns
These activities give students a chance to work at their own pace and to focus and organize their thoughts.
Individual activities
When do we decide how to group our students?
When we plan our lesson.
Mention some of the activities you can do when grouping students.
Brainstorming, bingo game, reading and filling in a chart, class survey and a mingling activity.
What are some possible classroom problems?
Learners misbehave, use their mother tongue, become noisy, don't do the activities, get bored, are teacher- dependent, one or more learner dominates participation in class, no participation, finish the activities and have nothing to do, frustration, teachers are unable to monitor students learning.
These activities provide students with opportunities for developing longer turns and fluency through interaction.
Pair and group activities
What is grouping learners?
Organizing learners into different working patterns.
What can brainstorming be useful for in grouping?
Reviews and shares students knowledge of vocabulary, structure and the topic or context.
What is a disadvantage of learners being in the same groupings?
Learners get bored.
The teacher leads the class and the learners focus on the teacher.
Whole class
Name three factors which influence the interaction pattern of an activity.
The learner and their learning styles, our own teaching style and preferences, the teaching approach, the learning context, the type of activity, the aim or learning purpose of the activity, the stage of the lesson.
This activity allows the teacher to review students' understanding of vocabulary, gives a chance of pace, gives the teacher feedback, energises.
Bingo game
What are some reasons for learners to misbehave while grouping?
Groups are too big, talkative learners are grouped with other talkative learners, friends are group with friends.
These types of activities help with confidence building.
Whole class, pair and group activities.
What can be affected positively by appropriate groupings?
Group dynamics and classroom managment.
What type of activity can develop learners' autonomy, make them feel active and involved?
Class survey
In whole-class or individual activities, the teacher allows the same learners to answer, what kind of problem can this bring?
One or more learners dominate participation.
Difference between open pairs and closed pairs.
Open pairs: two learners do a pairwork activity in front of the class.
Closed pairs: learners all do an activity at the same time working with a partner.
Name the 6 ways in which we can organize our learners in the classroom.
Individual, whole class, pairs, teams, groups and mingles.
Mention the activity that helps learners practice scanning in their own time and that can be developed through different interaction patterns (individuals, pairwork and open pairs).
Reading and filling in a chart
What can be some problems of the teacher only implementing whole class and individual work as the main groupings?
Learners become teacher-dependent. Does not encourage or facilitate learners' autonomy.