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Questions raised by Demand-High ELT Are our learners capable of more, much more? Have the tasks and techniques we use in the class become rituals and ends in themselves? How can we stop “covering” material and focus on the potential for deep learning? How can we shift the whole focus of our teaching towards getting that engine of learning going?
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Implementing Demand-High ELT
Inspired by Jim Scrivener & Adrian UnderhillThis session created by Steve Brown
Possible aims of this session
Lower Demand
Higher DemandTo change the face of ELT as we know it
To convince participants of low demand in
current ELT practice
To make participants
reflect on their own teaching
To stir things up a bit
To motivate participants to demand more highly of students
To expose participants to
alternative teaching
techniques
Questions raised by Demand-High ELT
• Are our learners capable of more, much more?• Have the tasks and techniques we use in the
class become rituals and ends in themselves?• How can we stop “covering” material and focus
on the potential for deep learning?• How can we shift the whole focus of our
teaching towards getting that engine of learning going?
Good teaching practice?
• The teacher writes a lesson plan.• The teacher gives equal attention to all students.• The teacher uses whole class feedback to ensure all
students have achieved the previous task.• Lessons have a lively pace with lots of student-student
interaction.• One of the teacher’s roles is to provide correct models of
the language.• Teachers are there to provide support to students when
asked.
Good practice or Demand-low?
• The teacher writes a lesson plan.• The teacher gives equal attention to all students.• The teacher uses whole class feedback to ensure all
students have achieved the previous task.• Lessons have a lively pace with lots of student-student
interaction.• One of the teacher’s roles is to provide correct models
of the language.• Teachers are there to provide support to students when
asked.
The teacher focuses on one student for a period of 2-3 minutes during open-class.
• “Working one-to-one can be very precise…but you can harvest that learning yield for all the others in a group.” (Adrian Underhill)
Students sit in silence, working alone, for up to 20 minutes.
• The many benefits of silence:– Pre-task preparation.– Writing tasks (when do people ever write in
groups?).– Post-task reflection.
The teacher doesn’t plan a lesson.
• Stops the teacher focusing on a pre-set agenda.
• Teachers can then focus on responding to learning moments as they are happening.
• What actually happens is more important that what the teacher wants to happen.
The teacher deliberately writes the wrong answer on the whiteboard.
• Stops students merely waiting for the right answers.
• Students have to convince the teacher, thereby justifying their answers.
A student provides the correct answer. The teacher asks the student to improve on it.
• A “correct” answer is not necessarily the best answer.
• How much more is that student capable of?
The teacher gets the students to manage whole class feedback.
• Taking the teacher out of the equation forces the answers out of the students.
• Students have to justify their answers to each other.
• Promotes authentic, meaningful interaction.
An activity designed to take 15 minutes lasts for 90 minutes.
• Avoids “skimming the surface”.
• Materials can be fully exploited.
• Activities may have additional aims to those they were intended for.
The teacher leaves the room.
• Sends out a message of trust.
• Enforces learner autonomy.
• They aren’t going to wreck the place (are your expectations of them so low?)
Post-task, the teacher only focuses on wrong answers.
• Mistakes are key to learning.
• Students need to understand why they are getting something wrong to help them to get it right.
Students start asking questions unrelated to the lesson. The teacher answers them and the lesson goes off in a completely different direction.
• It’s their lesson, not yours.
• If this is what they are ready to learn, this is what you need to teach.
• Critical learning moments should be exploited, not brushed aside.
(Which) Aims Achieved?To change the face of ELT as we know it
To convince participants of low demand in current
ELT practiceTo make participa
nts reflect
on their own
teaching
To stir things
up a bit
To motivate participants to demand more
highly of students
To expose participants to
alternative teaching
techniques
Higher Demand
Lower Demand
Further reading
• http://demandhighelt.wordpress.com
• http://stevebrown70.wordpress.com
