Practical activities for a well-planned student-centred lesson

1. Student-centred Teaching
Why and how: principles & practice
Dott.ssa Giuseppina Fotia CELTA

2. Student-centred lesson
Discuss in pairs:
● Which part of the lesson (warmer/lead-in, input, controlled practice, free
practice/output) should be student-centred?

3. 1) Warmer
Wall walk - in pairs, look at the pictures and discuss each
picture briefly.
● What’s the role of the teacher in this activity?
● How much is it student-centred? How can you make it
more student-centred?

4. 1) Warmer - wall walk
The teacher
● selects the photos, prints out and puts them up in the classroom
● sets the task
● monitors while sts are discussing the pictures
● asks for feedback
The students
● Collaborate with each other
● Are free to express their opinions without worrying too much about accuracy
● Are engaged and led towards the main topic of the lesson
● Are stimulated to know more about the topic (‘What comes next?’)

5. 1) Warmers and lead in
More student-centred warmers/lead in options:
● Brainstorming
● Find something in common
● Telling each other how they spent the previous weekend
● Speculating about pictures in pairs
● Discussing questions in ‘Starting point’ sessions in pairs
● ...

6. 2) Input
1) Any activity
Student reads the instructions teacher models the activity and
asks CCQs
Students peer-check their answers or teacher gives feedback
they write the answers on the board
2) Listening tasks:
Students check their answers with the script (teacher gives feedback)

7. 2) Input
3) Vocabulary
Teacher elicits synonyms, L1 equivalent, examples.
Students look up the words in the online dictionary or google them, teacher guides the
search, students read the definition(s) and the example sentence(s).
Students create their own
● Flash cards sets
● Word lists
● ‘Portable dictionaries’

8. 3) Controlled practice - gap filling
Put the verb in the past tense.
1. She ______________ early. (leave)
2. He ____________ the cake. (make)
3. I ___________ there for six hours. (sit)
4. The man __________ the book. (read)
5. We __________ the homework. (do)
6. The teacher __________ us an exercise. (give)
7. Everyone __________ the movie. (see)

9. Alternative, student-centred ways of working on gap
filling exercises

10. 4) Error correction
Peer correction
● check list (writing tasks)
● o/x - tic-tac-toe
● Grammar auction
Self correction

11. 5) Vocabulary revision
1) Recall & share
2) Stop & go

12. 6) revision & personalization

13. 6) revision & personalization

14. 7) Output
Teacher
● Adapts tasks and materials in the SB so that students personalize the TL as
much as possible
● Models the activity and asks CCQs
● Monitors
Students
● Collaborate in pairs or groups
● Reflect, share and listen
● Correct each other (sometimes)

15. 7) Output
Speaking activity to revise present perfect and ‘social’ English

16. An evergreen:

17. 8) Assessment
● Role-play with an odd number of students:
2 students act out, 1 takes note of mistakes/correct TL and assesses the others’
performance.
● Checklists for writing tasks

18. Focus is on instructor Focus is on both students and instructor
Focus is on language structures and forms (what the
instructor knows about language)
focus is on language use in situations (how the students can use
language in practice)
Instructor talks, students listen Instructor models, students interact with instructor and each
other
Students work alone Students work in pairs, groups or alone depending on the
purpose of the activity
Instructor monitors and corrects every students
’utterance
Students talk without constant instructor monitoring; instructor
provides feedback and corrections when questions arise
Instructor answers students’ questions about language
use
Students answer each other’s questions about language using
the instructor as a resource
Instructor chooses topics Students have some choice of topics
Instructor evaluates student learning Students evaluate their own learning; instructor also evaluates
Classroom is quiet Classroom is often busy and noisy
Teacher-centred Student-centred

19. Recommended bibliography
https://www.slideshare.net/crlmgn/managing-the-learner-centeredclassroom
Penny Ur’s teacher training course: ‘Learning to teach (better)’
J. Harmer The Practice of English Language Teaching - chapters 4 and 22

20. … to conclude:
TEACH THE STUDENT(S),
NOT THE LESSON PLAN!