Worksheets:

YES OR NO?
 No, if
• it is a mere copy of • it merely kills that
their text- or one tree (too much
grammar books paper!)
• it is full of • it is used in the
mistakes
wrong stage of the
• it looks dull and lesson (what? e.g.
does not give that
extra personal grammar revision +
touch to your when? e.g. initial
teaching stage )
 Yes, if
• it gives that extra ‘colour’
(formation objectives –
world view) to your
teaching
• it is well structured
(formation objectives-
learning strategies)
• it gives the pupils a clear
frame that can be used in
their learning/thinking
process
• it is not complete: pupils
should participate (not
teacher-centered, but
pupils-centered)
• it helps them to discover
new language (and later
study this!)
– e.g. plural of nouns cf.
‘construction work’ in All
Aboard
– e.g. ‘word fields’ –
elicitation/brainstorm
 How to make worksheets?
• select the most important information
• make a difference between ‘main rules’
and details
• economy with words: don’t use too much
and too complicated meta-language: use
symbols or signs
• use motivating (sometimes funny)
examples
• if possible add that visual (once again
motivating) touch e.g. cartoons (of
course linked with the topic)
 How to use worksheets?
• e.g. in the presentation stage
• first oral approach + T uses the blackboard to collect
examples and pupils + T discover new language rules, then
worksheets (complete or incomplete) are handed out as a
means to save time: pupils do not have to copy your
blackboard scheme
– if incomplete pupils have the chance to rethink and
afterwards you can check their results by opening your BB

• e.g. in the integration stage

• pupils fill in the missing key elements in your schematic
surveys (grids!!) to revise grammar – of course you must
make sure your examples to find the rules are well
chosen and even motivating!
 and finally some quotes…
• You teach what you have to learn. It is not necessary to
have achieved perfection to speak of perfection. It is
not necessary to have achieved mastery to speak of
mastery.God "Conversations with God (Book 3)" through
Neale Donald Walsch

When one teaches, two learn.Robert Half

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by

reflection which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is
the easiest; and third, by experience, which is the
bitterest.Confucius
The art of teaching is the art
of assisting discovery.

Mark Van Doren