Classroom Approaches

Classroom Approaches to Talking

Stance

When the student enters the first year of post-primary school, it is of fundamental importance that respect be shown for his/her personal accent and individual register. It would be inappropriate to impose an absolute standard of correctness on all speech activity in the classroom isolated from its purpose, audience and situation. Each English teacher will have to decide his/her stance in the context but flexibility may achieve more for language growth in the long term than adherence to a dogmatic position in all circumstances. The role of the English teacher is not to reject a student's language register but to extend language options and help him/her to gain access to as wide a range of registers as possible.

Basic Principles

The emphasis in the syllabus on developing the student's skill in talking offers an opportunity for teachers to engage in much interesting work. Success in this area is very much dependent on-

  • creating an appropriate context for talk
  • giving well directed tasks
  • emphasising tangible results and outcomes.

Planning

As with all language, growth in talking skills will only occur when the students feel there is a real purpose to the activity - Students engaging in discussion in a random unstructured manner are achieving nothing. It isn't a matter of the teacher sitting back and letting them at it - it is essentially necessary for the teacher to plan a course covering a range of skills, purposes, registers and audiences, provided by the Activity Programme outlined for that year.

Tasks

Effective working developing talking skills can take place in the three domains of language. Typical tasks might be as follows:

Personal Domain:

  • Brainstorm (speculate randomly aloud) on given issues;
  • Engage in dialogue for a variety of purposes;
  • Respond emotionally and imaginatively to literary experiences; Tell anecdote;
  • Role-play in imagined personal and interactive contexts.

Social Domain:

  • Interview adult;
  • Make presentation to group or class on chosen topic; Formulate to questions, opinions, arguments;
  • Make formal phone-call for information;
  • Role-play in a series of formal, social roles e.g. interview for position, speeches of welcome, gratitude, condolence, etc.

Cultural Domain:

  • Make oral presentation in a range of literary and media genre;
  • Speak verse individually, in pairs, in groups;
  • Read aloud in an interpretative manner from texts;
  • Develop elementary skills of reader's theatre;
  • Make recording of presentations and present to other groups

Obviously this listing is not exhaustive but it serves to indicate the diversity of tasks which are possible.

Teacher's Role

In many cases developing talking skills implies a re-grouping o f the usual class structure and a change in the role of the teacher in relation to the students. Fundamentally, the teacher must try to speak less and listen more. The role of the teacher changes from being the source of answers, information and meaning to that of facilitator and motivator of student learning. The students are engaged in actively making meaning rather than accepting received meaning from the teacher. The teacher's role then is to create the context, give the purpose and direction of the activity and be available to guide, speculate, question and suggest. This is a most sophisticated role requiring much creative listening and opportunistic intervention. Teachers unused to this type of approach will not become instantly proficient in this role. It is, nevertheless, a role that is learnt by doing and gradually developing a personal technique of management and discipline.

Student Role

Students are being challenged in more direct terms within the classroom than has previously occurred. This involves the teachers appraising the students of the need for mutual respect and attempting to build an atmosphere of civil co-operation within the classroom. (This is of fundamental importance obviously for the development of listening skills).

Easier said than done. Perhaps in some cases it is going to take a long time. The success in achieving this desired class co-operation depends very much on the nature and direction of the tasks given in the first place. If the students don't perceive the task as real and meaningful then there is little hope of success. The use of diversity of audience and the statement of a clear purpose for all oral work is also decidedly helpful.

GETTING STARTED

Initially each teacher will have to decide what he/she can manage keeping in mind the nature and aptitudes of the students being taught: some might find it best to start with individual anecdotes, others with pairs, others with groupwork. Because the student needs time to grow into this as well, the informal structure of pairs or small groups (3 or 4) will be the most suitable place to begin. [It should also involve very little disruption of desks and class furniture - an important consideration].

Pair or group work

In approaching such work a few basic ground rules (endlessly adaptable to individual circumstances of teacher, pupil and classroom) might be useful.

Teachers should:

  • Plan pairs/groups beforehand (useful for discipline purposes)
  • Appoint (or get them to choose) a chairperson, recorder, presenter i n each group. These roles should vary so each student experiences each role on different occasions; each role involves a different verbal challenge and a learning opportunity for the students.
  • Give definite (but reasonable) time span for tasks: don't let it dawdle on, better to chop than leave it linger to a slow and unsatisfactory end.
  • Outline definite task (or series of tasks) for group. Specify quite clearly outcome required. It is best to put these instructions on display (on black-board/overhead/work card) otherwise the instructions are quickly misremembered, misinterpreted or just not followed.

Typical tasks might be as follows:

  1. Answer certain questions - vary standard of questions accordingly to context and ability: suggest literal, interpretative, appreciative, evaluative approaches as appropriate.
  2. Compose questions - again vary standard of question expected from group: begin with the literal but if possible urge them onto more speculative questions.
  3. Form an opinion - having read or listened to a text or presentation.
  4. Gather evidence - from text: e.g. newspapers, magazines, brochures.
  5. Compose Joint Narrative
  6. Plan argument - take up position and justify it.
  7. Plan procedures and instructions

Individual Differences

Obviously this story-telling activity inhabits that common area of language where the personal and cultural domains overlap. For many students the ability to tell about a personal happening will always remain a tentative, exploratory activity; for others this activity will eventually develop into the ability to tell a powerful story to an audience in the best tradition of the seanchal.

Teacher Help

Irrespective of student's ability in this area teachers can help them to organise their narratives by encouraging them to answer simple preparatory questions. Again this must be treated with sensitivity by the teacher; this is meant as an aid to story-tellers not an imprisoning rigid formula.

The check-list of the five W-questions are a practical guideline for story-tellers while preparing their material.

What happened? Who was involved? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Why did it happen?

How the students utilise the W-questions is their own concern: which order they arrange them in or do they omit some, is a matter of individual decision. If the story works then such a formula becomes totally irrelevant; if the story doesn't work, then they become creative questions a student can ask in order to improve storying the next time.

Besides individuals telling stories, interesting and challenging oral work can be carried out in this context by inviting groups or a whole class to co-operate in telling a story.

Group Story

The initial stimulus to create the imaginative context for the story can vary enormously e.g. picture, sound, literary/media experience and so on. Each group plans its story and then each person in the group narrates a part of the story to the class. This is useful for getting a good sense of shape to the story, i.e. beginning, middle, end; if there are three people in the group they can each tell a section of the story.

Prepare a Talk for the class

Formal Talk

Over the course of a year each pupil could be invited once/twice to prepare a talk for presentation to the class. The topic of the talk could be personally chosen, arising from the unit being studied, a view of an author, character, place, scene. If the student preferred he/she could give a talk on a personal interest.
Length of talk, variable but initially 5 - 10 minutes.

This is a challenging exercise for many pupils so it would have to be prepared well with the help of the teacher. The type of tasks to be tackled by the student would be basically similar to those encountered in writing a composition i.e.

  1. Gathering Ideas;
  2. Deciding a Viewpoint;
  3. Organising Material;
  4. Making a First Draft - speaking from notes - (not reading out a text).
  5. At this point the teacher's intervention would be necessary to act as a substitute audience and help the student through response to improve the layout, thinking and general oral presentation. Obvious faults like speaking too fast, not enough illustrations, improving the shape could be indicated.
  6. Finally the students could present the redrafted talk. Initially perhaps it might be wiser to allow no questions in response from the class, but as students become more accustomed to the idea of giving these talks questions could be allowed with some monitoring by the teacher or another student.

Talk Games

Other less formal approaches to develop talking skills could be through speech-games

  1. Talk for a minute on a given topic
  2. Yes and No game
  3. Complete a sentence in a group: each person has just one word to say.

Games like this could be played regularly to introduce a class to oral work or to sharpen up language awareness and concentration in different contexts.

Interview Question and answer

This oral task can be applied in a range of different contexts by the students.

  1. Interview each other for a specific reason and then report to class.
  2. Interview parents, grand-parents, other teachers, other chosen adults (priests, plumbers, poets, etc.). These could be invited to the school.
  3. Role-play interview in a variety of circumstances: a class could be a press-conference for a character from literature e.g. Falstaff, Huck Finn.
  4. Present a recording of any one of these sessions as a radio-programme.
  5. Role play a court-room scene: where each member of the class has a specific role, judge, lawyers, clerks, jury, witnesses, accused, etc. A character from literature could be put on trial.

APPLICATION OF THESE IDEAS TO SPECIFIC TEXTS

Possible oral tasks based on First Confession, F. O'Connor or Confirmation Suit, B. Behan for First Year.

  1. Tell anecdote of incidents which caused you embarrassment and frustration when you were younger.
  2. Ask parents/grand-parents/any adult for story from their youth: tell to group next day.
  3. Compose anecdote (with beginning, middle and end) about ghost returning to warn the living about the quality of their lives. Compose interesting title and present in group format to class.
  4. Group Discussion Tasks: choose from the following
    1. What character did you like most/least?
    2. What part of the story did you enjoy most? (Prepare reading of it).
    3. What did you feel about the ending? Could you give an alternative ending?
    4. Is there any person, scene in the story you would like to know more about. Compose your own addition to the story to fill the 'gap' you feel is there.
    5. Did you have a final feeling or image from the story.
    6. Trace in diagram the way your feelings went through the story.
  5. Improvise/role-play in pairs, encounters between characters on given topic:
    1. Nora and Grandmother; discuss money or Jackie.
    2. Priest and 'woman from Montenotte': discuss Hell/Heaven.
    3. The grandmothers from the different stories meet: discuss food/drink/grandsons.
  6. Give short talk to class on the topic of Sisters and Brothers.

POSSIBLE ORAL TASKS FROM THE GUESTS OF THE NATION (THIRD YEAR)

Group Discussion

  1. Come to group consensus opinion about behaviour of J. O'Donovan.
  2. Does this story have significance for today. Present group viewpoint to class.
  3. Trace a graph of tension in the story. Display and explain shape of graph to class.
  4. Comment on the different language style of the characters. How do they add to the story?

Role-play/Improvise

  1. Press Conference with Republican chiefs on killing of Belcher and Hawkins: Compose short radio report subsequently.
  2. Bonaparte and Jeremiah O'Donovan meet many years later: improvise conversation.
  3. Noble visits Hawkins' mother.
  4. J. O'Donovan meets Belcher's child (O'Donovan is a life-prisoner: Belcher's child is a prison doctor).
  5. Chose particular scene: present in reader's theatre format, i.e. reading texts, some gestures and facial expression, symbolic props.

Story/Anecdote

Let all the class be inhabitants of the town that is sited close to the scene of the killing. Let each tell in turn their knowledge of a part of the story. (A complex task but a great generator of interesting characters, viewpoints and interpretations). Typical roles might be priest, vicar, doctor, blacksmith, teacher, shopkeeper, courting people, bar-man, butcher, poacher, nun, nurse and so on.

CLASSROOM APPROACHES TO LISTENING

LISTENING

It is artificial to separate the development of talking and listening skills. Much of the work outlined previously is obviously heavily dependent on listening. However, it is possible to focus on developing particular kinds of listening skills in different contexts.

Many students are unused to listening attentively: in fact many students do not really know how to listen. The English teacher's task is to train them into the various stances and strategies which can be adopted for successful listening in a variety of aural experiences.

Making Meaning

Effective listening is a form of active interpretation and reception: it is a form of making meaning through language. This meaning construction can (as with reading) occur at different levels of comprehension and understanding, e.g. literal, inferential, evaluative. Students need to be gradually introduced to perceiving the different levels of meaning in any encounter. To develop these approaches, the fundamental principle o f language skills being learnt in a purposeful and meaningful context applies equally strongly. For the teacher to choose a passage randomly and read it to the class, and subsequently ask a series of questions fosters little growth in the student's listening skills.

While reading and listening are obviously alike in many ways the major difference is the transience of the listening experience. In reading it is possible to re-read, the same text searching for specifics; but in listening students will rarely have the opportunity in life situations to re-hear something; they need to develop approaches which will help them to quickly establish the necessary meaning in given situations.

There are three elements in every listening experience:

Reception

This means that students must hear accurately the words being said. They must be in a position to hear distinctly not alone the words, but how they are being said as well. Tone of voice in speaking may convey more than surface verbal content.

Comprehension

This relates to the making of meaning out of what has been received. This making of meaning in the listening situation is highly selective. Everything in a statement generally cannot and will not be understood in any one encounter so selective purposeful attention is called for.

One can listen for a diverse range of purposes, for:

  • information and evidence
  • instructions and directions
  • answers
  • persuasion
  • entertainment
  • interaction and confirmation
  • critical purposes

These purposes for listening clearly spread throughout the three domains of language in various degrees of intensity: entertainment would have a very high presence in the cultural domain. Likewise instructions and directions would be vital in the social domain; they would be of less moment in the personal domain.

Response

In response to any of the above purposes the following outcomes are possible:

  1. To do - to perform an action of some kind
  2. To learn - to grow in awareness
  3. To comment - to dialogue with what has been heard

This outline model of the listening act provides the teacher with some directions on how to develop the required strategies of attention in the students

Strategies

  1. Give clear simple one-idea task appropriate to the ability o f the students e.g.
    1. What's being said about ........ factual/literal
    2. How many people were ....
    3. Who is speaking - viewpoint
    4. Who is being addressed - audience
    5. Why is it being said - purpose
    6. How is it being said - tone, style
    7. What did you think of - evaluate
  2. Suggest a strategy to students for approaching the given assignment. They could, depending on the purpose given be advised to:
    1. focus
    2. expect and anticipate
    3. re-consider and recall
    4. organise and link
  3. In some situations it will be desireable that the students should be encouraged to engage in 'active' listening i.e. stopping the speaker and asking a question to clarify something. This kind of activity should not be interpreted as implying a lack of attention on the student's part - it is more accurately interpreted to suggest concentration and interest.
  4. Retention
    Where intervention and clarification questions are not possible then it would seem useful to take brief notes during the listening- This of course may cause all kinds of difficulties and needs to be handled carefully for pre-occupation with notes implies frequently lack of attentive listening and therefore missing more than is gained.

Class Pattern

The pattern of a class in listening then might usefully follow this pattern.

  1. Create context (within a unit).
  2. (a)Give assignment
    (b)Give purpose
    (c)Suggest strategy
  3. Present recording or reading. Take questions after reading and revise purpose of assignment.
  4. Replay or re-read.
  5. Allow time for re-organising and patterning and then ask for oral responses.
  6. Record in written form outcome of experience.

Application of Ideas and Suggestions

  1. Context: Mass Media Unit
    Assignment: To listen to radio/tape of advertisement
    Purpose: What words catch your attention in the advertisement
    Strategy: Link and recall, Play tape - revise purpose: (allow brief time for notes: if necessary replay tape)
    Response: Take lists from students;/list on blackboard: discuss the power of the words.
    Outcome: Possibly suggest they compose advertisment on product using 'surprising' words.
  2. Context: Story in Animal Unit: The Trout, S. O'Faolain
    Assignment: To listen to story being read
    Purpose: How many important decisions were made and by whom?
    Strategy: Focus and anticipate
    Response: Read story. Gather views on assignment purpose. List ideas about
    significance of decision in chacacter's life.
    Outcome: Write character sketch
  3. Context: Poem: variety of interpretation
    Assignment: To listen to two students' separate reading of same poem
    Purpose: Identify differences in emphasis and interpretation.
    Strategy: Re-call and consider
    First Student - reads poem - give brief time for notes.
    Second Student - reads poem - give time for organisation.
    Response: Collect views on approaches of the students.
    Outcome: Reading of poem in pairs/groups.

CLASSROOM APPROACH TO READING

Reading at Second Level

The new English syllabus emphasises the necessity of teaching a wide range of reading skills. Many teachers at second level may feel that these reading skills should have been taught in primary school and that secondary teachers have other responsibilities.

But learning to read is not just a skill that is learnt once and then achieved forever like riding a bicycle. Learning to read is on the contrary a continuous process; we learn to read continually adjusting to different contexts, registers and purposes. It is this ability to adjust to the kind of text being read and to develop strategies in students for coping with a wide range of texts is the responsibility of the teacher of English at second level. Furthermore since reading can take place at various levels of understanding it is the role of the English teacher to help the student to generate more understanding in relation to all the texts encountered.

Most students in secondary school will have learnt the basic reading skills and will be quite competent in many areas. However, some students will still have difficulties in basic reading skills, and co-operation between the English teacher and the remedial teacher is desirable in this context. Furthermore there will be some students who are not classified as needing remedial education who will need special attention to develop reading competence. Relative to these students English teachers would need to be aware of:

  • some diagnostic skills and procedures to identify individual's specific difficulties
  • the reading-age of all these students
  • approaches for helping these students to become more literate.

Deflnition of Reading

Reading has been defined as "a psycho-linguistic guessing game". (Goodman): not perhaps a very informative definition, but it suggests appropriately some of the complexity of the activity. Reading cannot be identified with 'decoding', identifying the words and sounding them with little apprehension of meaning. Reading always implies meaning, reading is an act of making meaning; it is not a passive receptive activity but a creative interpretative attack on a text which generates meaning through interaction. The role of the secondary teacher is to provide students with the various strategies which facilitates this interactive encounter with the written text.

Reading must be meaningful

The first condition for teaching reading successfully is to ensure the material being encountered by the student invites him/her into the challenge of reading in a personally meaningful way; reading instruction is best carried on in a purposeful context with an appreciable outcome for the student. Without these conditions the reader has no real motivation for approaching the text; he/she will be reading for practice not for a purpose and therefore as always the minimum is learnt and reading as an experience is devalued.

Developing Basic Reading Skills

Various procedures can be adopted for helping pupils to construct meaning from texts. For those who have basic problems then such activities as:

  • Cloze procedures
  • Sequencing
  • Prediction
  • Vocabulary building through games
  • Using context clues
  • Directed, limited comprehension tasks

will be found useful and rewarding.

Likewise these students need to be immersed in printed material of diverse interest. The list of texts suggested may be beyond their scope therefore alternative texts of more popular appeal should be introduced. The important objective is help these students to read for pleasure and profit. Teachers should feel free to use any material they consider useful and suitable for achieving this fundamental purpose. Syllabus Units can be constructed about this material quite readily.

Keeping the Balance

Students who have difficulty with basic skills are a particular challenge for the English teacher at second level. The danger is that teachers understandably concerned about low standards will concentrate on functional language learning at the expense of the imaginative and affective encounter with suitable material. This would be most unwise, contradicting the integrated language policy of the syllabus and imposing an arid reductionism on the English experience of these students. Of all the students in our schools, these need desperately to encounter words and language experiences which will enthuse them with a respect for words because of the pleasure and excitement they felt in hearing the teacher read or in trying to read themselves.

Since some children with reading difficulties come from environments with little or no printed material present it is vital for the teacher to read to the pupils a great deal: not only literature, but newspapers, magazines, anything which will confer value on the act and the effort it takes in the eyes of the students. Students learn from models, they imitate models, so the teacher in his/her approach should be a model of inquiry, interest, pleasure and satisfaction in relation to the reading material. Like much else in education reading may be caught rather than taught.

While basically the same skills are required in the three domains of language the sophisticated level of these skills that is required for reading for pleasure and satisfaction particularly in the domains of social and cultural literacy can be daunting and should be taught deliberately and systematically. (cf. programme of activities in reading).

READING IN THE PERSONAL DOMAIN

As with all language skills, this is the area in which confidence and value in reading can be established. The basic skills of reading can be greatly helped b y encouraging students to look a t their own and other students' writing as reading-texts. Reading in that context can achieve a wide range of purposes, by relating it directly to their own use o f words and helping them to experience meaning creation in an informal non-threatening context. Later the use of this language-experience approach to developing reading can be effectively applied to developing writing skills in the area of revising, editing and proof-reading their own work. Making a reading collection from a class's own texts provides an admirable resource for enriching this kind of approach. The students can begin to see themselves in the role of authors and therefore able to recognise that the work of other writers exists on the same continuum of writing as their own, albeit at a more sophisticated level.

READING IN THE SOCIAL DOMAIN

For students in second level school, this is the area of most challenge to their reading skills. In the past perhaps, English teachers have been less than attentive to the actual reading demands made in this area, which are paramount for coping with the practical reading demands of life.

English on Service Role: developing study skills

Furthermore in this domain, English teachers have an important service role to play in relation to other subjects and their text-books. Just as the remedial teacher should be in contact with all other teachers with respect to certain students so the English teacher should be in a position to appraise other subject teachers of the approach needed to ensure that students can read a particular text-book meaningfully. The development of a coherent school policy about language in the classroom and the teaching o f reading and writing would be most desireable.

This kind of reading has been categorised in a general way as "efferent" reading [L. Rosenblatt]: reading which is directly concerned with establishing facts, evidence, ideas, directions, procedures and processes to be integrated into the reader's awareness.

Teaching students to read for these purposes involves them in such activities as:

  • finding the main topic or idea
  • finding supporting ideas as evidence
  • distinguishing between fact, anecdote, illustration, comment, explanation
  • listing facts in their own words - paraphrasing
  • notetaking and summarising
  • re-reading and reflecting
  • outlining steps in a process in verbal or diagramatic form
  • questioning the text
  • developing awareness of,
    • paragraph structure
    • link words e.g. but, although, nevertheless etc.
    • margin headings
    • general layout
  • increasing vocabulary through using verbal and context clues
  • learning and re-defining accurately technical terms

Many of the above could be included under the general reading categories of

  1. Skimming - searching for main ideas
  2. Scanning - reading for information and specific details
  3. SQ3Rs - (Survey, Question, Read, Reflect, Re-Read)

READING IN THE CULTURAL DOMAIN

While most of the approaches to developing reading skills outlined already will be of significance in this domain there are dimensions to the reading of literature (and approaching the mass-media) which are distinct and need to be approached on their own terms.

Aesthetic Reading

Louise Rosenblatt, who has been quoted already, describes the reading in this domain as "aesthetic reading". Aesthetic reading can be defined as a reading stance in which the reader is continually aware not alone of what is being said in the text, but also how it is being said and furthermore of his/her own personal imaginative, emotional and intellectual interaction with the text both during and after the reading. This reading stance involves a radical and complex refocusing of the person in contrast with the 'efferent' reading stance outlined earlier.

In attempting to develop the student's capacity for aesthetic reading then certain attitudes and a basic reorientation need to be cultivated. This would involve developing in the students an awareness of:

  • language as an artistic medium: language as having sensuous, suggestive, symbolic dimensions which are central to literature.
  • the need to be alert for word-patterns in diverse forms which may ignore, sustain or build on basic conventions to construct a greater intensity of meaning and experience.
  • the different stances needed for approaching the various literary genre. If a student approaches a lyric poem with the same expectations a she/she approaches a novel then frustration is inevitable. (e.g. "There is no story"). This discrimination in approach is particularly important when approaching a play-text; frequently play-texts have been approached as novels with obvious detrimental results on the students understanding of how a play works in the context of language and the theatre.
  • the need to re-encounter quality material so that the student can grow into the riches of the experience. There is really little place in this domain for "fast reading": there is no 'micro-wave approach' to the re-creation of a text. As Robert Frost remarked "our problem today is that we are too literal": students must be encouraged to escape from that prison of the literal and realise that literature says more than it appears to say. This does not imply reducing texts to hidden messages or morals but rather of empowering students to see perspectives in their reading that are not attainable at a first encounter.
  • The recreative and interpretative nature of aesthetic reading: each person recreates a text in a unique way, as Hermann Hesse remarks "each person believes in a different part of the same story". This uniqueness of response needs to be facilitated as much as possible in class through group/pair work, journal keeping, and a wide range of interpretative activities. (cf. programme of activities for each year).

Teachers attempting to develop the above attitudes and skills will find that many of the techniques listed earlier are of benefit, Cloze procedures, Sequencing, Prediction can be used most creatively for all ability levels. Such procedures in the literary context involve the student in frequent re-readings of the text which have great potential. They can draw the pupil's attention to complex issues in word pattern, structure, form and style and thus create the awareness of complexity in the literary use of language.

Becoming an 'ear-reader'

Cultivating students' participation in the re-creation of literary texts is essential. Students need to be active in the literature class as much as possible, encouraged to read aloud in an interpretative manner on their own, in pairs or in groups. (This is not just reading around the class in a non-creative functional way to develop basic reading skills: such an approach is highly detrimental to developing aesthetic reading, reducing the potential of the encounter to a minimum). The reading aloud as suggested above should greatly help the students to cultivate an ear for language in literature. In literature, sound and rhythm are fundamental meaning makers; to read literature without some sense of these basic attributes is to deprive oneself of pleasure and meaning. The American poet and novelist, Robert Penn Warren says that "there are 'eye-readers' and 'ear-readers'; for literature it is essential to be an 'ear-reader'".

Memorisation

In relation to this topic as well the whole activity of memorisation arises. That students should engage in memorising verse is undeniably a worthwhile end. It internalises, makes a personal possession of forms, insights and words which can be recalled for savouring and contemplation at will: the act of memorising, as George Steiner emphasises "crowds the sensibility with the text in a n intimate manner which enriches the person for life". The achievement of this wished for end has to be carefully managed, but an orientation towards participation, performance, presentation and re-reading, creates a context in which memorisation happens almost incidentally. Memorisation should not be the inevitable outcome of every poetic experience; rote-learning without an appreciative context of aesthetic pleasure or interpretative purpose, should not be imposed on students. Finally in this context, memorisation of verse is a skill that teachers may have to teach: it should not be taken for granted that students have the skill of memorising from nature.

Questioning in Literature

In attempting to encourage students to more beyond the literal, certain questioning approaches may be found useful and liberating.

  • Students could be asked to read (or re-read) a work and write out three questions (not literal) which the reading brought to their minds. The teacher could then collect these questions and use them subsequently in class as ways of approaching the work. The distinct advantage of this approach is that the teacher is beginning from where the students are relative to their understanding of the work, not where he/she thinks they are.
  • Students could be asked to write down the words/phrases which they noticed most in their reading. Useful questions here are, What word/phrases surprised you? Are these related in any way? What word did you enjoy?
  • Begin with sensuous-experiences created by the words. What kind of sounds and colours, rhythms are in this poem? Are there any contrasts in sound/colours/rhythms?
  • The most difficult question to ask is the opening question after a reading of a poem, short story, or extract. If the reading has worked the atmosphere is tangible; to intrude into that with a literal minded question is to destroy it totally. Silence and a quiet student re-reading maybe the most appropriate avenue of entry, followed by questions on feelings and images, or an invitation to write in their response journal.

CLASSROOM APPROACHES TO WRITING

Writing and Thinking

Writing and thinking are often understood to be two distinct activities. The traditional reproach from teachers to pupils, "Think before you write", exemplies the dichotomy that was felt to exist between the two activities. Modern research has shown that writing and thinking are more accurately seen as interactive, and inderdependent processes; the act of writing is best seen as a process of thinking, of analysing, exploring, ordering and synthesising experiences. E. M. Forster cogently summarised the intimate creative encounter that exists between words and thought when he remarked, "How do I know what I mean unless I see what I say" (or write). Writing is best seen then as a developing process of thought rather than as some ornament or dress of thought.

The implications of this viewpoint for the teaching of writing are substantial. Teacher's stance on pupils' writing, the preparation and development of writing, the modes of response to and evaluation of writing all need reconsideration.

Writing and Audience

If writing is seen as a process of thought then all writing must be intentional and purposeful as thought inevitably is. We cannot think for the sake of thinking nor can we write for the sake of writing. As with all the other language skills writing is only developed and improved in a personally meaningful context of experience. All writing should be a genuine act of communication to a specific audience which can range from self as audience to the Irish people as audience. Achieving successful written communication with others is certainly dependent on developing competence in the basic skills of punctuation, spelling and paragraphing but also in knowing the appropriate language register to use for a given audience.

In a survey conducted in England some years ago (Nancy Martin: Learning to Write, 11-16) it was found that students wrote predominantly in a narrow range of language functions for predominantly one audience. In the following sketch diagram, the shaded area shows the range of school writing; students wrote in the functions of generalised narrative and classification for the audience of teacher as examiner.

RANGE OF WRITING CONTEXTS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL

If this is typical then it is not surprising that students lose interest in writing and language since there is little variety experienced or no interesting communicative challenge offered.

RANGE OF WRITING CONTEXTS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL

If this is typical then it is not surprising that students lose interest in writing and language since there is little variety experienced or no interesting communicative challenge offered.

Dependent on the purpose context and audience of a piece of writing a teacher's stance must also vary. Traditionally teachers have tended to approach all writing in a similar manner looking for the correctness of Standard English. This may not always be the best initial stance to student's writing.

In seeking to develop the student's writing skills then care should be taken that he/she:

  1. writes in all the domains of literacy,
  2. for a variety of purposes and audiences,
  3. and experiences appropriate response and evaluation from the teacher.

PERSONAL LITERACY

Initial Thinking

Writing in this domain should be employed always as a sorting-out process which may be an end in itself but also may be preparatory to writing in the other domains. Students should be invited and encouraged to think through writing by

  • freely associating words around a particular topic (brainstorming),
  • constructing diagrams and spidergrams,
  • attempting provisional formulations
  • generally playing with words and ideas in a particular context.

Response Journal

Allied to this is the activity of keeping a journal or diary in response to literary (or other) experiences: such a response journal should be an integral part of English teaching. Such work gradually develops in the student an awareness of his/her own unique affective and imaginative responses, and confers a validity and permanence on them. Furthermore it allows space for every student to respond which may not be always possible in the hurly-burly of classroom life. The journal helps the student (and the teacher) to see the development in his/her understanding of a text hopefully to a gradually deeper encounter with the work in question: it is a map of an individual's interactive dialogue with a text, a record of his/her constructions of meaning and interpretations. The journal may consist of lists of words, phrases, lines noted and liked; comment and reflections on words and expressions; drawings, diagrams, personal anecdotes linking the work to other personal experiences and relating the work to others by comparison and contrast and so on. A journal perhaps is best described as a kind of personal scrap-book in response to literary or media experiences.

Teacher Response

In this area of personal literacy, where the emphasis is on the expressive use of language, it is important for the teacher to be particularly aware and sensitive in his/her approach to response. No one writes perfectly initially; to expect and demand the polish of standard English in this context is to interfere seriously with a necessary developmental process. This initial stage is exploratory and speculative, attempting to nurture a basic flow of ideas, feelings, images and words whereby the student can begin to relate to the experince being offered and gradually integrate it into his/her own meaning system.

While the 'basic skills' of spelling and punctuation are essential for proper communication, too early imposition of the demands they make can be counter-productive for the development of personal literacy. The process of thinking, feeling and imagining are untidy; we don't think and feel neatly in full stops, capitals, sentences and paragraphs. Thinking and feeling occur in rhythms of their own and initial writing in this domain will reflect those uncertain rhythms. To develop in students, the language skills and verbal range needed to disclose their internal experiences is a fundamental objective of this domain. To attempt to 'hustle' students through this experience, or to make it into something else is to short circuit the whole process of writing development and to endanger the possibility of writing becoming a meaningful liberating activity for the student.

This initial expressive use of language is the foundation for growth into the other areas of literacy. When confidence is established here then progress in the other domains can and will be much better. In the domain of social literacy the audiences and purposes become more challenging and correspondingly the demands for accuracy and expertise in 'basic skills' grows.

SOCIAL LITERACY

Basic Skills

While there has been much concern expressed about a serious decline in basic skills there is as yet no evidence to show that such a decline is actually taking place. Students are, it is true, less aware of the written word, they are less dependent upon it than previous generations for their entertainment and the visual image has taken over as the prime means of communication and entertainment. [In the not too distant future when word-processors with in-built spelling procedures become more available, other interesting issues will arise].

Drill and Practice

In the past, basic skills tended to be taught in a 'drill' like fashion e.g. lists of spellings were learnt and tested regularly, punctuation was taught through practice; awareness of sentence structures and paragraphing happened rather than being systematically taught. As a total approach to basic skills, this methodology would appear to be not the wisest. This is not to say there is no place for the learning of spellings or exercises in punctuation but rather to assert more may be acomplished in other

In general terms the basic skills are learnt better when the student perceives a clear need and purpose for accuracy in the composition of text. The teacher can create frequent contexts in the area of social literacy for the student to realise that along with appropriatenedd, accuracy and correctness are essential for successful communication. Opportunites for teaching spellings and punctuation can be easily included in all the syllabus units planned for a class.

Thus in the domain of social literacy opportunities which motivate students strongly towards accuracy will be found in such contexts as:

  • various kinds of formal letters, e.g. applications, invitations looking for information, comments to the press
  • report and essay writing intended for reading by other classes
  • newspaper articles and school magazines
  • advertising, posters and brochures
  • filling out forms for various purposes

The discipline imposed here by an awareness of audiance is generally very effective indeed.

While this contextualisation in will certainly motivate students more powerfully than 'drills and practice', there is no doubt that with many students more eloborate strategies to build up their language accuracy and awareness will have to be used.

Individual problems: class teaching

There is no easy answer to teaching basic skills in a large class.
Each child will have a different set of problems relative to the skills and needs to be dealt with individually if he/she is to overcome the difficulty. Nevertheless certiain general strtegies and approaches may be found useful.

Spelling:

  • students should always be encouraged to visualise a word first, sound it aloud, and then attempt to write it.
  • use a 'game' approach regularly - frequent encounters with anagrams, crosswords, 'hangman', word squares, word-building are beneficial.
  • word-associations through prefixes, suffixes, roots, homophones and homograms - gives a sense of shape and pattern.
  • arising from the previous suggestion, words might be broken into syllables first and then gradually put together.
  • obviously the use of a a suitable dictionary would be important. Students might be encouraged to keep a personal spelling-book where they recorded correctly, words they are continually misspelling: these words then could be deliberately learnt and examined by the teacher.
  • spelling rules may be useful in some cases - but generally they have little real effect in practice unless copiously and repeatedly illustrated with a wide array of word examples.
  • obviously the use of computer programmes in this area would be useful

fundamentally students should be expected to learn spellings rather than being taught them. This implies that they are involved with their own written work in the role of proof-reading. The teacher in the past perhaps devoted too much time to this work e.g. marking incorrect spellings and punctuation with little effect. Students before handing in any written work should be given ample time to re-read their work for this specific purpose. Peer reading may also be found useful. Students might mark in their work items they think are suspect for accuracy and then through consultation with peer, teacher, spelling book, dictionary, determine the correct spelling.

Punctuation

As with spelling, class teaching in this area is of limited effectiveness: each student will have a different set of difficulties which need to be attended to on an individual basis. In large classes of mixed-ability this becomes an almost impossible task and failure for students to learn in class situations should not cause wither suprise or frustration in the teacher. Basically it is best to do a little on a topic of punctuation (e.g. use of capitals, speech marks, full-stops) but to do it regularly.

Some useful strategies which might be employed are as follows

  • punctuate the same sentence in a variety of ways
  • rewrite a paragraph to different lengths of sentence
  • listen to people reading or speaking, transcribe and extract correctly onto paper.
  • note how the punctuation in a text being read is organised
  • listen to a text being read: punctuate as is thought desirable and compare with original punctuation in text.

Paragraphing

Paragraphs are the essential building blocks of all written composition. Student awareness of paragraphing should be repeatedly fostered through reflecting on the layout of paragraphs in texts and through repeated assignments specifying the number of a paragraphs required e.g.

  1. Choose core-text(s), or cultural issue or language issue appropriate to pupils.
  2. Decide on contexts or aspects of the core material which you think might be of interest to you and the pupils.
  3. Relate to overall course design for class. Decide provisionally on objectives by selecting from the three domains of oracy and literacy. Opportunities may arise in the course of teaching the unit which may modify, extend and supplement these original objectives.
  4. Choose possible supplementary material from available resources; range and diversity of material essential
  5. Plan provisional outline class sequence and the length of time or number of classes (approx.) you intend to spend on the Unit.
  6. This procedure needs to be used with care and sensitivity by teachers and adapted to meet the specific needs of their pupils.

Diagram of Interactive Structure of a Syllabus Unit

Diagram

  • Write one paragraph on your opinion of .........
  • Write two paragraphs on the difference between ........
  • Write three paragraphs on the stages of development of .......

As well students will need to be introduced to ways of constructing a paragraph. The teacher could illustrate this best by actually writing a paragraph on the black-board and thus exhibiting the process of paragraph making.

The students should be introduced to the basic notion that each paragraph has

  1. a specific well defined key-sentence
  2. a section wherein this key-sentence is elaborated and developed in a variety of ways e.g. by illustrations, anecdotes, examples, descriptions, lists, reasons and analysis.

In first year work particularly the emphasis should be strongly on developing the paragraph concept and in written composition, quality, perhaps should be aimed at rather than quantity.

Handwriting

Particular attention may need to be paid to this dying art. A good, legible hand is a great advantage for any student particularly when the work is frequently presented to others for their response. Communication of excellent content is regularly frustrated not by problems with punctuation and spelling but by illegible hand writing. Motivating students in this context may again be achieved by introducing audience awareness into as many writing tasks as possible. A useful link with the art-teacher could be established here in the area of calligraphy and in the creation and production of posters, brochures, word cards, captions and titles.

In the domain of social literacy the basic skills and their accurate use in conventional terms assume major importance. Teachers in responding to exercises in the social domain will therefore obviously be keen to cultivate the necessary skill and expertise in these areas. But proficiency in these skills is not achieved early or quickly. Pupil involvement in their use, for clearly defined ends and arising from felt needs, will achieve the objectives eventually.

CULTURAL LITERACY

Writing in this area offers a difficult challenge to students. Here sophisticated skills are necessary (along with the basic skills) for achieving worthwhile growth in language. This domain is the particular cherished area of English teachers, an area singularly belonging to the subject English. It is concerned with using English as an artistic medium; encouraging students to write in literary forms and create experience through words used accurately in complex patterns to generate rich perspectives of experience for both writer and reader.

Since the 60's when creative writing became central in English teaching, the term has gradually come to denote, at best an essay option or at worst an excuse for the student to indulge in undisciplined, and illiterate writing.

Creative writing approached properly is one o f the most challenging (if none the less enjoyable) tasks a teacher would give to a student. It entails an awareness of words and language structures much above that demanded in any other domain. In creative writing words are being used at their most intense to create an experience for the reader, not be tell about experience or to indulge in therapeutic overflow. Creative writing is dependent on careful preparatory work, awareness of form and constant revision and reworking so that desired ends are being achieved.

Students no matter what their ability should be invited to write Creatively in a range of literary forms chosen to suit their ability and experience.

  • Prose Narrative is obviously the most fundamental form to be offered - narratives based on auto-biographical events, imagined events, local historical events are all possible.
  • Drama Scripts in various forms and for various media.
  • Poems ranging from the simple colour poems to the Sonnet

WRITING IN RESPONSE TO LITERARY EXPERIENCES

Interventions

This syllabus strongly advocates a form of creative/critical writing called 'interventions'. Interventions involve the student in a sophisticated form of literary play which attempts to enter more fully into the imaginative world of a text by exploring alternative possibilities in character, scene, setting, etc.

Since every text (aural, written, or visual) is a selection of words, images, characters, scenes and viewpoints, it is possible to imagine that an author could have made alternative choices in any of these areas, e.g., omitted scenes, added a character, changed a viewpoint, given a different beginning or ending. Furthermore in every text there are 'gaps' which invite the imagination of the reader to fill them with speculations and explanations. Roland Barthes has commented that the most erotic aspect of a garment is where it gapes; so, he continued, where the textual garment gapes the strongest invitation is offered to the reader to explore and discover. These two areas then of 'possible alternatives' and 'textual gaps' are the ideal stimuli for motivating students to write creative interventions.

Before any such writing is attempted it would be of fundamental importance that the students are familiar with the atmosphere, characters and general quality of the text's imaginative world. It is only from such intimacy that aesthetically valid interventions can be created. An intervention which generally contradicts the general tenor of a text or totally belies a character would be of suspect value. Thus it would seem unlikely based on textual evidence that the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet could be presented in an intervention as a puritanical spinster or that Falstaff could seriously be presented as being anti-alcoholic drink! The patterns of the primary text will clearly suggest certain parameters and within those the interventions can freely be created.

There may be a risk that this kind of writing may displace the student's memory of the primary text. This can very simply be offset by a re-reading of the primary text if it is thought necessary.

Objections to this approach may arise from those who view primary texts as making definitive statements. No text of merit has such in-built finality. Literature questions, reveals and makes available experiences, it does not give simplistic one-dimensional answers. A text for each reader is "a spectrum o f possibilities": the intervention approach invites the reader to explore these possibilities. This entails close reading, the testing of hypotheses and interpretations and the refinement and deepening of personal response at all levels, affective, imaginative and critical.

While a number of examples of this approach have been suggested earlier in the context of oral and aural skills the following approaches to a poem (Charles Causley's poem, What has happened to Lulu?) will help to underline the approach.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO LULU?

What has happened to Lulu, mother?
What has happened to Lulu?
There's nothing in her bed an old rag-doll
And by its side a shoe.

Why is her window wide, mother,
The curtain flapping free,
And only a circle on the dusty shelf
Where her money-box used to be?

Why do you turn your head, mother,
And why do the tear-drops fall?
And why do you crumple that note on the fire
And say it is nothing at all?

I woke to voices late last night,
I heard an engine roar.
Why do you tell me that things I heard
Were a dream and nothing more?

I heard somebody cry, mother,
In anger or in pain,
But now I ask you why, mother,
You say it was a gust of rain.

Why do you wander about as though
You don't know what to do?
What has happened to Lulu, mother,
What has happened to Lu?

(from Golden Apples (p.8): Piper Books)

Possible Interventions

  1. Write Lulu's farewell note.
  2. Speculate on the "voices". Who was speaking? What was being said?
  3. Who is the speaker of the poem? Describe and outline the relationship you imagine existed between Lulu and the speaker in an imagined dialogue between them in the past.
  4. What kind of setting does the poem suggest?
  5. Describe Lulu from differing viewpoints e.g. Father's, Mother's, Brother's/Sister's, any others.
  6. Write another verse for the poem maintaining its style, tone and rhythm.

Critical Writing

The writing of critical commentaries should have a significant place in the writing of those students who are capable of encountering the challenge this discipline offers. English teachers are well aware of the methodology for teaching this form of writing so the minimum will be said here. In summary the teaching of critical writing should seek to help students to:

  • take notes while re-reading for a critical purpose.
  • select appropriate references to justify individual responses and interpretations.
  • analyse artistic patterns and explain how they achieve particular effects.
  • trace the development of themes and characters.
  • use necessary terminology for discussing literary texts.
  • inter-relate, compare and contrast texts.
  • plan, write, revise critical essays on given topics.

To contrast the critical approach with the intervention approach typical critical questions on the poem "What has happened to Lulu?" might be as follows:

  1. What range of feelings are present in the poem?
  2. What details in the poem generate the feelings?
  3. Why is the poem in the format of questions?
  4. Why is a child's viewpoint used?
  5. How does the Simplicity of the language contribute to the poem's overall effects?
  6. Why does the poem have such a dramatic impact?

CLASSROOM APPROACHES TO DRAMA

(An Introductory Note)

Since student-participation and activity-learning are seen as central to this syllabus it is obvious that drama as a methodological approach should pervade the English classroom. This does not mean that all English teachers must immediately transform themselves into theatrical producers. It does suggest however that drama approaches should and can be employed successfully by all teachers no matter how limited their experience may be in this area.

Drama in education, is essentially concerned with engaging students in the process of "living out imagined experience" whatever its source or context rather than in producing performances for an audience. Drama is initially concerned with developing the students confidence and self-awareness by encouraging participation in classroom drama in diverse forms.

Irrespective of the form and context the prime objective of most dramatic activity will be for the student to experience "on pulses and palms" a "doing of life".

Areas of dramatic activity may be briefly summarised as follows:

  1. Oral and aural skills
    • Anecdote
    • Story-teaching
    • Dialogue
    • Interview
    • Public Speech
    • Giving instructions, directions and commands
    • Tape-recording
  2. Methodological Approach to Literature
    • Dramatic Reading
    • Role-Play
    • Mime/tableau
    • Verse-speaking: Choral Verse:Group presentation
    • Scene-writing
    • Script-writing
    • Improvisation with character
  3. Play-Text
    • How to read a play-text
    • Awareness of language-use in texts
    • The significance of stage-directions
  4. Theatre/Stage Imag
    • A sense of space and shape
    • Visuallsation of scene
    • Stage-Image
    • Sets, Costumes
    • Colours/Symbols
  5. Critical Discussion - Terminology of Drama
    • Character
    • Climax
    • Point of View
    • Tension
    • Resolution
    • Tone
    • Mood Hero/Villain

Elaborate resources are not needed for introducing drama approaches. Teachers can begin by integrating some drama in the students encounter with a wide range of texts. Students could start by reading interpretatively a part of a text in pairs or small groups: these could then be developed quite easily into an improvisation of an imagined dialogue between characters in the text. Obviously as student confidence grows more challenging tasks could be given; the reading of drama-texts and the creation of more elaborate improvisations leading to script-writing and eventual performance would be a reasonable direction for growth.

ILLUSTRATION O F DRAMA-APPROACHES

1. Drama in Education Class on the poem 'Timothy Winters'

Introduction

This class uses an easy and accessible poem as the stimulus for imaginative exploration both of poem and of the issues dealt with in that poem. It utilises a series of drama-in-education techniques including teacher-in-role but at no time is the need to play a role too heavy or too isolated for teacher or pupils. The structure of the class moves the pupils from energetic creation of characters in the 'families of Timothy's neighbours' which frequently produces, unthinkingly, very prejudiced attitudes to the quiet reflection of the final moments where they engage with Timothy's responses. The necessary neutrality of the teacher-in-role as the social worker will produce a range of social attitudes which will provide a fruitful background to the class.

Properties

Copies of 'Timothy Winters', a photograph o f Timothy's street and copies of the report.

If one is available, the use of a real camera will greatly help in the creation of the 'photograph'.

Whole Group - Teacher in Role

The teacher addresses the class as Mr/Ms Mahony from the Department of Social Welfare. 'Good morning. I'd like to tell you about one of my cases, one that's causing me a great deal of worry. His name is Timothy Winters and this is what I've been told about him:

Timothy Winters

Timothy Winters comes to school
With eyes as wide as a football pool,
Ears like bombs and teeth like splinters:
A blitz of a boy is Timothy Winters.

His belly is white, his neck is dark,
And his hair is an exclamation mark.
His clothes are enough to scare a crow
And through his britches the blue wind blow.

When teacher talks he won't hear a word
And he shoots down dead the arithmetic-bird,
He licks the patterns off his plate
And he's not even heard of the Welfare State.

Timothy Winters has bloody feet
And he lives in a house in Suez Street,
He sleeps in a sack on the Kitchen floor
And they say there aren't boys like him anymore.

Old man Winters likes his beer
And his missus ran off with a bombardier,
Grandma sits in the grate with a grin
And Timothy's dosed with an aspirin.

The Welfare Worker lies awake
But the law's as tricky as a ten-foot snake,
So Timothy Winters drinks his cup
And slowly goes on growing up.

At Morning Prayers the Headmaster helves
For children less fortunate than ourselves,
And the loudest response in the room is when
Timothy Winters roars 'Amen'!

So come one angel, come on ten:
Timothy Winters says 'Amen'
Amen amen amen amen.
Timothy Winters, Lord.

Amen.

Charles Causley

Small Groups

The teacher continues. 'I have a picture of the street where Timothy lives in number 5 and I know you live there too. I've tried calling to Timothy's house but there never seems to be anybody there. Hello, you must be the Murphys. What number do you live Mr. Murphy? Please introduce me to your family?'

The class is broken up into groups of 4-6, each group becoming a family with children, grandparents, etc. The 'families' live more or less close to Timothy and as they are questioned by the teacher-in-role they reveal the life that Timothy lives and society's varying attitudes to him. The knowledge that the person from the Department has the power to remove Timothy from his surroundings hang over the discussion and some 'families' are reluctant to give details of all they know to such a person.

The Groups

The teacher asks all the children of the street to come together for a photograph. He/she places a chair where Timothy will sit when he can be found. The 'children' are asked to pose themselves near to or away from Timothy depending on whether they like him or not. Advice or comments from the 'parents and relatives' are encouraged.

Report Writing

Each person or group is asked to fill in a report on Timothy. All information has to be gathered so that the Department can decide what to do about the situation. A consensus of the recommendations of people in Timothy's neighbourhood is essential in making the ultimate decision as to whether or not to remove him to a children's home.

Empty Chair

The teacher then asks the class to become basically three groups and to be the voices of Timothy, the neighbours and Mr/Mrs Mahony. This can be done very quietly as the teacher places the 'Timothy' chair in the centre of the space and begins to talk very smoothly: 'But that night Timothy lay awake for a long time and the voices kept going through his head. H e could hear Mr/Mrs Mahony saying ........ (turning to the group who represent the social worker and taking a line from there) ... but Timothy thought differently .... (turning to the Timothy group), etc. the teacher effectively channels a discussion 'through' Timothy without Timothy ever appearing.

Conclusion

The class during the course of this will have examined not only the details of the poem but also, imaginatively, the social background which produced Timothy and the complex attitudes which people have towards the immediate and concrete problem of what to do about him.

PROCEDURE FOR DESIGNING A SYLLABUS U N I T

  1. Choose core-text(s), or cultural issue or language issue appropriate to pupils.
  2. Decide on contexts or aspects of the core material which you think might be of interest to you and the pupils.
  3. Relate to overall course design for class. Decide provisionally on objectives by selecting from the three domains of oracy and literacy. Opportunities may arise in the course of teaching the unit which may modify, extend and supplement these original objectives.
  4. Choose possible supplementary material from available resources; range and diversity of material essential.
  5. Plan provisional outline class sequence and the length of time or number of classes (approx.) you intend to spend on the Unit.

This procedure needs to be used with care and sensitivity by teachers and adapted to meet the specific needs o f their pupils.

 
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