Photocopy-free projects
that work in class
Jon Wright
Jon.wright@live.co.uk
What is a project?
• Student-centred
• Has an end-product
Advantages
Multi-level
Exploited in various ways
Develop all 4 skills
Creates opportunities for Ss to contribute
Collaborative process, and Ss take responsibility
‘Stimulating break from routine’
Fried-Booth, D. 2002. Project Work. Oxford: OUP
Teaches language and content
Beckett, G. and Slater, T. 2005. ‘The project framework: a tool for language, content,
and skills integration.’ ELTJ 59/2 108 – 116.
Example project areas
• Media (make school magazine, radio programme,
newspaper, etc)
• Culture (only mugs do drugs, holidays and festivals,
how green are you, etc)
• Trips (plan a trip, zoo visit, etc)
• Local (wheelchair guide, food and drink labels
worldwide, visit your teacher’s house, etc)
• Classroom (dub a video clip, quiz contest, famous
foreign cities, etc)
Other (mainstream) projects
• Concordancing
• Webquests
• School email exchanges
• Presentations
• Drama
• Team teaching
• Organising events
• Out of class interviews
But ...
• Time-consuming
• Often not valued by students – little awareness of
learning goals
(‘fewer than one fifth of the 73 participants enjoyed ... or were in favour of
project-based instruction’ Beckett and Slater 2005: 109)
• Teachers are unsure of their roles and
responsibilities – or overwhelmed
( ‘a high level of pre-planning and co-ordination’ Carter, G. and Thomas, H. 1986.
‘‘Dear Brown Eyes’: Experiential learning in a project-oriented approach,’ ELTJ 40/3
196-204)
• The language level can be undemanding
And ...
• Not all participate equally
• How to fit them in busy timetables?
• Loss of interest
• Problem solving can become problem avoiding
• Parallel groupwork means not all benefit from all
• Plus it could call into question the methodology
used to present the language the project
recycles/extends
Mini projects 1
Stage 1
• In groups, think of ‘the problems I have solved
so far today.’
• Find 9 examples.
Problem solving
Stage 2
• Report/share (to the whole class/to a
neighbouring group).
Problem solving
Stage 3
• Rephrase: the same facts, but present in a
different style.
Problem solving
Stage 4
Which version is more interesting, normal,
useful, etc?
Project management
• Identify the benefit
• Start to produce what will satisfy the need
• Enjoy the benefits
Identify the benefit of this:
Learn a list of 20 words/phrases chosen in the
group.
List of 20 things
• You have 5 minutes to think of the list, and
learn them.
• Check each person in the group can
remember all 20.
• How did you do? What memory techniques
helped?
Memory project
Conversation club (30 mins weekly)
Week 1
• Tell me 3 things about yesterday
Week 2
• Tell me 10 things about yesterday
Next week I’m going to ask you to tell me 20
things about yesterday
Something about me
Stage 1
Choose who will start, who is second, etc
The first person has 1 minute to say 4 things
about themselves.
Feel free to ask person 1 any questions you like
after their mini presentation.
Something about me, too
Stage 2
The group recalls what person 1 said.
Person 2 has 1 minute to say 4 things about
themselves, but not on the same topics or using
the same verbs as person 1.
Something about me
And so on ...
Variants for later speakers:
Make comparisons between yourself and all
previous speakers
(Remember what ... said about ...? Well, I ...)
Include references to topics you know the others
like
Talk about the future
etc
Vocab brainstorm
Stage 1
Choose/elicit a topic to review/present
Prompt/elicit from different groups the related
elements of the central topic.
Vocab brainstorm
Stage 2
Quick group recap of all the suggested vocab.
Vocab brainstorm
Stage 3
Now put it all together.
Mini projects
• Within a lesson
Summarise what we’ve done so far.
What mistakes have been corrected?
What new language has been covered?
Who has said what?
Evaluate the usefulness of the input so far.
Say what you didn’t know before.
Mini projects
• Across a series of lessons
A story in the news
Something about me
Country/culture/topic profile
Something I saw that surprised me
A song I’d like you to listen to
A book/story/film that impressed me
Recipe of the week
The advantages of photocopy-free work
• No competing demands (we’re not doing
exercise 3)
• No hiding behind paper
• Role of listening
• Flexibility
• Student-centred
• Role of memory
Professional skills
Problem solving
Memory training
Listening to others
Working in a team
Active participation
Keenness to learn