Page 65 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

CLIL Lesson Planning

Table 3.2 Continued from the previous page
Lesson 2 Group • Have each group present their planet to the class. As a class, discuss
pres. (15 each planet’s unique features and put the posters in the order they ap-
minutes) pear in terms of their distance from the Sun.
Language • Pupils play a quiz in groups revising their knowledge of the Solar
practice System, using the same structure as in the guessing game with the
and teacher (‘I’m the second smallest planet in the solar system. I’m also
revision called the Red Planet. Who am I?’)
(20 min) • Watch a video for children which gives simple descriptions of the plan-
ets. Ask pupils which planet they would like to live on.
• Pupils now play the guessing game on their own, each getting one
flashcard with a planet and a description and going around class
guessing each other’s planets.
Evaluation • Give students feedback on their posters and presentations.
and feed- • Ask pupils to complete a self-assessment task based on a set of ‘can do’
back (10 statements (I can name all the 8 planets of the Solar System in English.,
min) I can describe Mars., I can tell which is the largest planet in the Solar
System., etc.)

the subject content. Ellison (2019, p. 252) summarizes the necessary qualities
of primary CLIL teachers by stressing that they ‘need a good understanding
of the theories of child development, how children acquire languages and
the objectives of curricular areas.’

CLIL Lesson Planning
CLIL lesson planning differs from more traditional lesson planning in several
key ways. An important task of the CLIL teacher is to plan the integration of
content and language and look for ways to immerse pupils in contextual and
experiential learning by providing hands-on activities, group work, projects
andotheractivitieswhich encourageactivelearners’participation.Likeother
more language focused lesson plans, also CLIL lesson plans can take several
formats. Table 3.2 shows an example of a lesson plan in which the CLIL ap-
proach is used with third-grade pupils on the science topic ‘Solar Systems.’
For a CLIL teacher at primary level it is important to consider the following
key aspects of CLIL lesson planning and active involvement of YLs in the ac-
tivities: subject content and learning objectives, language objectives, teach-
ing techniques, ways of encouraging the development of higher-order think-
ing skills, and assessment (Table 3.3).
The CLIL learning environment differs from mainstream teaching in sev-
eral ways. An important differenceisinthe fact that in ordertobeableto

65