I've realized how much I love a challenge over these past few years and putting grammar in it's place is one of those challenges I love trying to overcome. I'm thankful that I don't have a ton of baggage in terms of teaching the traditional grammar-translation teaching so it allows me to embrace different methods.
Lately I have been working a lot with Bill Van Patten's idea of Structured Input. In short, this method is drawing attention to the forms of different verbs and asking them to make meaning of those words before worrying about how to form those words. Last year I dabbled with the idea when introducing the preterite and working with preterite vs imperfect with my intermediate mid level students. This year I'm making them ahead of time for all of my units as a simple warm up or prime-time activity to give my students input. Here I've created a step by step guide to creating Structured Input Activities. 1. Choose a single grammar point. When I say single I really mean single- think as minimal as possible. For example: present tense verbs in the yo form, yo vs él/ella form of verbs in the preterite or singular adjective agreement. You can break down a larger idea like a tense into smaller segments but each one of those should be it's own activity. 2. Create a context for your structured input activity. Think of your theme and write a scenario for your activity. If it's not related to your current theme students will likely see this as a grammar activity and not as an input activity. 3. Choose whether your input will be written or oral. You should have a mix of both throughout the unit but think of what makes sense. I know in French hearing the difference between verb forms isn't always possible so choose wisely. 4. Decide what your students will do while processing the input. Think of your favorite input activities. Will they be categorizing the sentences based on who they belong to, will they be selecting options that match their personal interests, will they be deciding if something is logical or illogical. All of this to keep learners processing the input. 5. Begin writing your sentences. This might be the hardest part. There's so much you have to keep in mind when writing your sentences. a. Don't put subjects in front of your verbs- Learners will process the first word the best and the last word next and anything else in the middle will not be processed. b. Don't put time markers in your sentences- If you say the word 'yesterday' in your sentence they don't need to process the verb to learn it's the past tense...they just know it because yesterday means past tense to them. c. Write sentences that make learners pay attention to the meaning of the whole sentence- Think of your input activity they will be doing with those sentences. The answers should be pretty clear whether they belong to one category or another. While you are focusing on the grammar point you are also focusing on them making meaning of the sentence before worrying about the grammar. 6. Decide what learners will do right after processing the input. I like to have my students use the sentences from the first part and begin making their own sentences using those as models. For novice students you may ask them simple questions like do you agree or disagree with this sentence. Either way it is crucial to have students do something with what they just interpreted otherwise it is just an exercise with little meaning. These exercises can be done multiple days in a row and they're quick, easy ways to work on some of those grammar points that don't work with methods like PACE. You can vary up how you do the activities by having them select one day, categorize another day and take a survey on the next day. These activities really guide student thinking and make them focus on the meaning of the words to help them then produce them in speaking and writing. For more information you absolutely should read Bill Van Patten's Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen.
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