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


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