Adaptation of lesson plans to the ages of the students
Website design By BotEap.comOne of the main problems with most lesson planning material is adapting it to the specific needs of the classroom. Over the course of several articles, we’ll list the typical problems that typically make activities unusable for a teacher’s specific class, and how to fix the problem by adapting the way the activity is presented. We will identify principles for adapting activities to allow almost any lesson plan to be usable, regardless of your learner profile.
Website design By BotEap.comPart II. The problem of the age of the students.
Website design By BotEap.comHere are solutions and principles to adapt the activities to the different age problems of the students:
Website design By BotEap.com1) Mixed groups of young students and adolescents.
Website design By BotEap.comThe problem here is that older children do their homework faster and are uncomfortable being paired with a younger student.
Website design By BotEap.comSolution: Have the younger students pair up to complete the activity, while the more competent older students work individually. This decreases the effect of younger students on slowing down activity and increases their ability to perform, as two heads are better than one. It also adds to the confidence of the younger learner and can actually increase the individual learner’s production as both tend to ask questions and respond to answers. This is particularly true of information-sharing activities, such as surveys, role-plays, and problem-solving.
Website design By BotEap.comBeginning: Make younger students more capable by pairing them up and improving their net skills.
Website design By BotEap.com2) The material complies with the target language but is not appropriate for the age group.
Website design By BotEap.comImagine that you are teaching prepositions to adults but you have a picture of a bedroom with toys scattered everywhere and some children playing. Presented in a childish style, it’s not what adults would normally prefer as classroom material!
Website design By BotEap.comSolution: Present the material in a way that is relevant to the adult world. In this case, tell them that they are the parents of the children in the picture. This automatically makes the material acceptable as it is a realistic adult situation.
Website design By BotEap.comBeginning: Make the material relevant to students by giving them an age-appropriate perspective.
Website design By BotEap.com3) Young students who lose attention easily and cannot concentrate on an activity.
Website design By BotEap.com“I can’t get them to sit for more than five minutes” is a quote I’ve heard from many teachers I’ve trained, and they usually refer to students as young as 10 years old. This is really a problem if an activity requires students to be confined to a certain area of the classroom for 10-20 minutes. An example of this would be an information gap exercise (where both students and student teams are separated and have to ask questions to get information from each other).
Website design By BotEap.comSolution: I found that I can keep children up to 5 years old in one place if I use a “den” made out of tables and chairs. You don’t even need an excuse as to why you’re setting up the class this way. They will happily stay in their area and do their homework while respecting the fact that ‘they’ are there and ‘we’ are here.
Website design By BotEap.comBeginning: Use unusual classroom management techniques to make the physical environment stimulating enough for the student to want to stay where they are.
Website design By BotEap.com4) An activity is too complex in its execution to be able to explain to the students because they are too young.
Website design By BotEap.comI had a group of 10 year old students who needed to practice this simple for likes, dislikes and everyday activities in a ‘free stage’ setting (with minimal interference from the teacher). I found some adult material that needed them to share information from role play cards, then use a kind of preference scale to find their ideal romantic partner. It was going to take a long time and be difficult to explain, and the group was multilingual, so there was no possibility of speaking in the mother tongue. So how to explain?
Website design By BotEap.comSolution: Whose! They say a simple picture can save a thousand words, so don’t get caught up in the explanations. I first asked them how old they were and then told them to imagine that they were actually 20 years older. They liked this. It allowed them to identify with the role-play cards. So I did the activity as if I were a student. I brought 2 students to the front of the class as an example, elicited their information by asking questions, and then compared them on the board, using the preference scale. I chose my favorite of the two and said that I was going to be her boyfriend. The penny fell.
Website design By BotEap.comBeginning: Do not explain complex activities to young learners. Treat them like a student and let the students ‘see’ what you expect of them.