Last year, I wrote a blog post about one of the principles when designing an English B Course, which is VARIETY.
One important aspect of ‘variety’ in the English B programme is that we need to include a “wide range of individual, pair and group activities in class.” (IBO, 2019).
It sounds simple enough, but it got me thinking about how easy it is to focus on the same types of activities. Mine tend to be skewed towards individual activities, since there is no longer an Interactive Oral, or group assessment task for English B - students are now only assessed through individual tasks. Despite this, the benefits of pair work and group activities are obvious when it comes to language learning, so below are a few ideas you can try in your classroom to ensure you are covering a variety of activities.
1 - Turning Individual Tasks into Pair work Tasks
I believe that most activities can be planned as individual tasks, and this isn’t really a challenge for teachers. But if I’m wrong, let me know in the comments below!
So rather than give you a list of ‘individual’ activities, here are some ideas on how you can turn an individual task into a pairwork task. This not only ensures you are using a variety of different activities in your Language B classroom, but also allows students to communicate in the target language with their peers.
For closure activities, Project Zero has long been a fantastic source of thoughtful and engaging prompts to incorporate different thinking routines into your classroom. They are great to use for closure or class plenary.
While they can be completed individually, since many of them are quite abstract I quite like using them for pair work activities to get students discussing more abstract concepts and sharing perspectives.
Make your class more student-centered and let your students discover the answers. While I was at university I had a truly memorable experience at the end of an exam. When our exam time was over, the professor told us we could hand in our papers and leave, or we could stay and change our answers. I was intrigued, so I stayed. What happened next was a FANTASTIC way to incorporate peer reflection into an otherwise completely individual task. Read all about this activity under the ‘don’t disregard teamwork’ section of this blog post. I think you’ll find it really useful when doing practice papers for Paper 2 reading comprehension.
Another great way of facilitating peer discussion for individual tasks is to use peer assessment feedback. It makes the class more student-centered and gives you less marking to do, so it’s a win-win situation!
For formative individual writing tasks, rather than YOU giving the students feedback, let them provide their classmates with their own comments, using the Paper 1 rubrics. It’s a good way of making sure your students are really reading and understanding what each Criterion is asking of them, as they must justify why their partner’s work reflects the mark or level descriptor they chose.
For an example of an activity, try this inflation writing task.
2 - Turning Individual Tasks into Group Tasks
Here are some ideas on how you can turn an individual task into a group work task, which will further extend students' ability to communicate in the target language, as well as building ATL social skills like active listening.
For the Individual Oral, students must be able to summarise a text extract and analyse it, based on aspects such as tone, mood, ideas and themes. So the obvious way to prepare students for this is to do an individual simulation. BUT, you can also get them moving around and discussing extracts in groups, with a workstation activity.
For a full rundown on how to run a workstations activity, check out this blog, and then click here for a workstations resource.
If your students want a full rundown of the Individual Oral so they are used to the format and duration, you can try another group work activity, which simulates the Individual Oral but removes the teacher, so it is more like a group discussion. Students can do this by simulating a radio talk show or podcast where they discuss an extract according to the Individual Oral format.
It’s a friendly way to introduce students to longer speaking times while giving them support by having their peers to lean on. Here’s a resource you can try for this. I recommend trying this activity in Year 1 of the English B programme, so by Year 2 your students will be ready for a fully-fledged individual oral practice.
For Paper 1, students need to be able to “fully develop their ideas, providing details and relevant examples”*. You can get them to do that in individual writing tasks, BUT you can also get them to do that orally, in socratic seminars, where they must defend and develop their ideas. I know it’s difficult to find time for a Socratic Seminar, as it usually takes up at least a double period, so rather than adding it, incorporate it into something else you are already doing. A great way of doing this is to have a Socratic Seminar after reading a novel. Each student chooses an extract from the novel to the Socratic Seminar and then discusses the points they found most important/interesting. For another idea on how to use Socratic Seminars in your English B classroom, check out this resource, which includes detailed instructions.
3 - An Individual, Pair work AND Group Task!
Want an activity that has individual, pair work AND group tasks?
The THINK - PAIR - SHARE strategy is a classic for a reason, as it mixes individual, pair work and group work in one simple closure activity. In the lead up to exams you’ll most likely be doing a lot of individual assessment tasks, so this is a great way to finish your class by asking students to reflect on their progress during class, or their current emotional state, or even their goals for the exams.
There are some ideas on how to transform individual tasks into collaborative ones to ensure you are designing a variety of activities in your English B classroom, and developing social and communication ATL skills.
What other activities do you find most collaborative and engaging? I’d love to read your comments below!
Sources:
IBO (2019). Language B guide: First assessment 2020,38
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