Tools needed:
Attached powerpoint
Attached worksheet.
Flash cards
Optional Clipboards.
Preparation:
I made flashcards with a dozen meN- verbs (I just wrote this by hand on some paper). I asked two Year 7s to volunteer a few minutes of their time in hiding the words around the room; in obvious but not obvious places, such as under the table, etc.
Lesson:
I re-cap and model how to work out the base word of these verbs.
The objective of the task is to find the meN- verbs around the classroom, fill out their table with the base word, then use their dictionaries to find the meaning.
Reflection:
The students were very engaged in this activity, most of them were able to sustain their interest except for two boys. This was because they didn't quite understand 100% the concept I was explaining. When this was happening, I assisted the boys with some words then I made sure to explicitly say; "I'm very impressed and proud of how you are trying something really hard. You are having a go, and exercising your brain with difficult concepts." Something that I try to do is intentionally foster growth mindset in students, and I realise I need to ensure they feel they are constantly succeeding while they are learning.
I would say that this lesson was very successful as it taught a normally very difficult grammatical concept without making it too difficult for them. The students were excited but I needed to set the tone a bit earlier at the beginning as they were slightly rowdy and interrupting me while explaining the concept.
To tweak this lesson:
- I will ask students to dress up, and be "detectives" by working out what the base word is, and try to build more excitement about it. If I had detective hats, that would be awesome, but probably not necessary.
- Possible scaffold it a bit more for weaker students, but most of them were getting the really basic base words, such as membuat, membuang, membaca. They were noticing the pattern with any base words starting with b.
- I've just updated my powerpoint as I was teaching it was clear that the language used in the original were more suited to Year 10s. I also need to figure a better way to set up my powerpoint, so that it matches better with the atmosphere which I am trying to build for my students.
- I could possibly set up the words in a cloze activity exercise, so that the students would be able to use the new vocabulary in context.
- Work on building a stronger aura of "mystery" to build a better "hook" at the beginning of the lesson.
I would really like to build more activities where students have to problem solve and work out the answer to a task
Following this lesson, I will have students do a quick writing task, and play "Mafia" with the students next lesson, which is an excellent language use game, which I will blog about next week!
men-_verbs_detective_hunt.docx |
dictionary_skills_-_language_detectives_year_7.pptx |