Grammar Bites

In traditional grammar classes, large grammar concepts and ideas are typically taught, and the students have little time to actually put the language into use. This means they leave the class without being able to produce with the language. Grammar Bites is a series that is focused on getting students to practice one sentence structure at a time, so that they can freely produce with it by the end of class. It’s focused on using the language, not teaching the idea of the language.

 

The following guidelines are meant to give you a general overview on how to conduct a class using this PowerPoint presentation. This guide is intentionally general, as ESL students and classes around the world have a range of needs and strengths, and different teachers have different styles.

 

Please be aware that these are the guidelines that I use in my classes, and they work for me. However, as you may have a different teaching style, take the guidelines with a grain of salt, and experiment with how to present the information within the presentation to make it fit your teaching style.

 

As always, if you like this presentation, and have a great class, please refrain from sharing this presentation with your colleagues, and share a link to ESLPPT.com instead. This is my livelihood, after all. Have a great class!    

 

Target Levels

Target Audience

Class Duration

Upper-Beginner – Advanced

Teens – Adults

55 Minutes

 

General Tips

  • Before class, you will need to print out one copy of the dialogues for yourself. To make things easier for you, I have saved the slides from each presentation in a PDF file that is include in the presentation zip file.
  • The pictures within each presentation were chosen to help students better guess the meaning of new vocabulary, or better grasp the point of activities and discussion questions. I recommend familiarizing yourself with the pictures, and thinking about how you can use them to highlight points or give examples.
  • Take a little extra time to think about the “Practice” and “Production” sections included in the presentation. They are slightly different from presentation to presentation, and you may need to prepare some of your own ideas and examples.
  • I’ve found that dividing students into groups of 3-5 each works best. If there are more than that, some students may not have a chance to speak, or may try to blend in and not speak out. Conversely, if there are only two students, they may blaze through the activities too quickly.
  • It’s also best practice to mix groups regarding levels and personalities. If you mix more outspoken students together with shyer students, and then give the outspoken students leadership roles within the groups, they will encourage the shyer students to speak, rather than remaining quiet the entire class. This also works when mixing high- and low-level ESL students. By giving stronger, or outspoken, students leadership roles, they get to practice and mentor, and the other students also will get more opportunities to speak out.
  • In terms of timing, you want to get to the “Practice” section around 25-30 minutes into the class, as you want at least half of the class time to be spent on the “Practice” and “Production” activities. This is what will allow the students to be able to leave the class and freely produce with the new target language.
  • If your classes are only 40 minutes, then a you can divide this into two classes easily. Go through the presentation and complete all activities through the practice section. In the next class, do the practice section again as a review, and then spend the rest of the time on the production section.
  • If possible, you can send the vocabulary slides out to your students one or two days before class. This will allow them to prepare, and you can spend less time on this section. If you do not engage with your students digitally outside of class, then you can print out the aforementioned slides and distribute them a day before.
  • During the class, don’t get too bogged down on specific words and phrases. Paraphrase when needed, and encourage students to move on. When they focus on small details, they end up having less time to actually practice speaking.

 Sections (Note: Not all sections are included in all presentations.)

 

 

General Guidelines

Title

(1-2 minutes)

Note: My classes have a range of levels. So, I normally open each class highlighting the difficulty level so that upper-beginner students don’t feel discouraged if they have some difficulty following a “Level 3” class.

 

1.      Read the topic to the students.

2.      Give one or two examples of the language.

Vocabulary

(2-3 minutes)

1.      Ask the students to repeat after you.

2.      Read through the vocabulary, one-by-one.

3.      Repeat any difficult words two or three times.

4.      Elicit from the students briefly what they think each means, and explain as needed.

Introduction

(5 minutes)

1.      Show the first picture, and have the students discuss what they think is happening in it in their groups for a minute.

2.      Transition to the next slide. Read the dialogue from the paper you previously printed. Do not let the students see, as this is to challenge their listening skills.

3.      Transition to the next slide. Have the students discuss what they heard in the dialogue for a minute.

4.      Ask the students to share what they remember from the dialogue, and ask them a few questions about the dialogue to elicit more information.

5.      Transition to the next slide and reveal the dialogue. Read through it, sentence by sentence, and have the students repeat after you.

6.      Transition to the next slide, and have the students discuss the dialogue for a minute.

Examples

(5 minutes)

1.      Reveal the examples of the target language.

2.      Read through the examples, and have the students repeat after you.

3.      Have the students discuss what they think the function of the target language is in their groups for 1-2 minutes.

4.      Elicit the function from the students, and fill in the gaps as needed.

5.      Ask a few of the stronger students if they can give some additional examples.

Listening

(5-10 minutes)

1.      Transition to the first dialogue slide, and draw the students’ attention to the question in red at the top of the slide.

2.      Read the dialogue that you printed before class.

3.      Have the students discuss what happened in the dialogue, and the answer to the question.

4.      Elicit answers, and then reveal the dialogue.

5.      Read through the dialogue with the students repeating after you.

6.      Draw attention to the target grammar in action.

7.      Repeat with the other dialogues in the presentation.

Practice

(10 minutes)

1.      Transition to the practice slide, and have the students read the instructions.

2.      Paraphrase the instructions for clarity, and use the whiteboard (or blackboard) to give examples to clarify as needed.

3.      If some students are struggling, you can write the structure of the target language on the board in order to offer some support to them.

4.      After students have had ample time to practice, elicit some answers from them to share with the rest of the class.

Production

(10-20 minutes)

Note: In many presentations in this series, I’ve opted to leave the production slightly vague. This is meant to allow the students to have more freedom, and thus have more opportunity to practice by coming up with their own ideas.

 

1.      Transition to the production slide, and have the students read the instructions.

2.      Paraphrase the instructions for clarity, and use the whiteboard (or blackboard) to give examples to clarify as needed.

3.      If some students are struggling, you can write the structure of the target language on the board in order to offer some support to them.

4.      After students have had ample time to produce with the target language, elicit some answers from them to share with the rest of the class.

5.      If you have time left at the end of the class, you can have the students work together in their groups to come up with 5 additional examples of the target language in use.

 

If you find any linguistic error in a presentation, please report it to admin@eslppt.com.

 

Please include the following:

  • Presentation title
  • Slide # of error
  • Error information

 

Once the error is corrected, an updated version of the presentation will be sent to you.