Student group work
Enviado por netto67 • 20 de Octubre de 2011 • Tutoriales • 9.744 Palabras (39 Páginas) • 579 Visitas
The Student-Centered
Classroom
Leo Jones
cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, ny 10013-2473, USA
www.cambridge.org
© Cambridge University Press 2007
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2007
Printed in the United States of America
isbn-13 978-0-521-95368-9 paperback
Book layout services: Page Designs International
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1 Autonomous Learning 2
2 Classroom Management 4
3 Motivation 13
4 Fluency and Accuracy 18
5 Teacher as Facilitator 25
6 Different Kinds of Activities 28
Conclusions 40
Further reading 41
Introduction
Some students say:
J “Why do we have to do pair work and group work?”
J “When I speak English, I feel stupid because I make lots of
mistakes and don’t know enough vocabulary.”
J “I don’t want to speak English until my English is much better.”
J “I don’t want to listen to other students speaking incorrect English
because I’ll learn their mistakes.”
J “My teachers speak the best English. I want to learn from them.”
This booklet will respond to those comments.
We don’t want our students to become people who:
J Can’t communicate in the real world
J Panic when they can’t think of the right words to use
J Are tongue-tied because they’re worried about making mistakes
and losing face
J Can’t survive without a teacher to help them and guide them
J Look away in embarrassment when someone asks, “Can anyone
here speak English?”
A student-centered approach helps students to develop a “can-do”
attitude. It is effective, motivating, and enjoyable. This booklet sets out to
discuss how this approach can be implemented. It also deals with the problems
that may arise.
In the following chapters, unless otherwise specified, “we” means
“we teachers” and “working together” means “working together in pairs or
groups.”
Introduction 1
2 The Student-Centered Classroom
1
Autonomous Learning
Working together
In a student-centered class, students don’t depend on their teacher all the time,
waiting for instructions, words of approval, correction, advice, or praise. They
don’t ignore each other, but look at each other and communicate with each
other. They value each other’s contributions; they cooperate, learn from each
other, and help each other. When in difficulty or in doubt, they do ask the
teacher for help or advice but only after they have tried to solve the problem
among themselves. The emphasis is on working together, in pairs, in groups,
and as a whole class. Their teacher helps them to develop their language skills.
A student-centered classroom isn’t a place where the students decide
what they want to learn and what they want to do. It’s a place where we consider
the needs of the students, as a group and as individuals, and encourage
them to participate in the learning process all the time. The teacher’s role is
more that of a facilitator (see Chapter 6) than instructor; the students are active
participants in the learning process. The teacher (and the textbook) help to
guide the students, manage their activities, and direct their learning. Being a
teacher means helping people to learn – and, in a student-centered class, the
teacher is a member of the class as a participant in the learning process.
In a student-centered class, at different times, students may be working
alone, in pairs, or in groups:
J Working alone, preparing ideas or making notes before a
discussion, doing a listening task, doing a short written
assignment, or doing grammar or vocabulary exercises
J Working together in pairs or groups, comparing and discussing
their answers, or reading and reacting to one another’s written
work
...