Methods II – LCB TTC

Task-based Lesson Plan.

Process Writing. Third Draft
Alejandra de Antoni – 2009

This a Task-Based Lesson Plan. The aim of the lesson is for

students to carry out a task to learn English. Learners doing
tasks (i.e. focusing on meanings) will be making free use of
whatever English they can recall to express the things that
they really want to say or write in the process of achieving the
task. There will be a moment, however, in which students will
focus on language so as to enhance their performance in doing
the task.
NB: What is a task? A task is an activity in which the target
language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose
(goal) in order to achieve an outcome.

Task-based Lesson Plan – Process Writing – 3rd Step

The Task:
Students are put in pairs or small groups of three and are given a sheet to
create a quiz to test their partners’ (another pair) general knowledge. They
have to create 12 questions and provide the correct and true answers. The
first 9 questions are prompted and the other 3 are going to be completely
created by them.

Aims:
o By the end of the lesson students will have created a quiz to test their
partners’ general knowledge.
o By the end of the lesson students will have worked on their general
knowledge of the world using the target language as a means to
exchange information as well as do something that they actually do
outside the classroom (answering quizzes is a very well-known
pastime).

Outcome:
The expected outcome is a 12-question quiz to test their partners’ general
knowledge. Students must also know its answers.

Evaluation Criteria:
Peer Evaluation:
o The quiz must have 12 true-to-life questions with their corresponding
answers, which should be based on reality. This will be checked after
the lesson, for homework, by the students themselves. Each pair of
students will take home another quiz to check it (no one will correct
his own but some other pair’s quiz).
o When students ask and answer the quizzes. If they understand each
other’s questions and can answer them, it means that they are
accurately enough written for the listener to understand them. In
addition, students will take the quizzes home so as to check both
content and form. One pair reads the quiz they created to other pair

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 Methods II – LCB TTC
Task-based Lesson Plan.
Process Writing. Third Draft
Alejandra de Antoni – 2009
for them to answer it. Then, they swap roles. It’s a listening activity:
the pair answering the quiz is listening to it (it’s read by the pair that
created it).

Introducing the Task to the Students:

The teacher tells the students that they are going to create a quiz to test
their general knowledge. The quiz will be created in pairs and they will use it
to test another pair’s general knowledge. It will be real fun because they will
be able to show the rest how much they know about the world. It may be a lot
of fun as well because, in general, within a classroom students may know
different (and sometimes peculiar) facts and it is really interesting to share
them.

Pre-Task (Getting Ready):

The students answer the Music Quiz on page 20 (New English File Pre-
Intermediate, Student’s Book. See Appendix). To do it, they will carry out
Exercise 1 (the three parts and in pairs. The teacher monitors them).
Once they do the three activities, they check answers with the whole class.
The teacher selects four questions and writes them on the board. Two of the
questions with auxiliaries (e.g.: questions 1 and 8) and the other two without
them (e.g.: 7 and 9). The teacher asks the students to focus on the two sets
and to try to explain the difference between them. The teacher guides them
asking them to focus on the functions that the wh-words have in each of the
sets.

Task Cycle:
Students are given the photocopy to carry out the task. They are first asked to
complete the questions (in pairs or groups of three). The teacher tells the
students that they must know the answers because they will need to be able
to decide whether or not the pair they test (the testing will be done orally:
the pair answering the quiz will only be listening to it while the one that
created it will be read it for them to listen) has passed the quiz or not. There
will be dictionaries and encyclopaedias available and if that is not possible,
the students will ask the teacher for help with any vocabulary doubt. Having
access to the Internet would be ideal but it is not essential, of course.

Post-task:
Students concentrate on form. The teacher tells them that the quizzes are
going to be published online (the class blog) for other people to answer them.
To get the quizzes ready, the teacher asks the students to exchange quizzes
so as to correct and edit any language problems. (This will be done in class to
check both content and form and the teacher will monitor them so as to make
sure that any problems and mistakes are corrected).

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 Methods II – LCB TTC
Task-based Lesson Plan.
Process Writing. Third Draft
Alejandra de Antoni – 2009

APPENDIX:

1. The Task (adapted from Communicative Activity 2-C; New English File
Pre-intermediate Teacher’s Book; OXFORD University Press)

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 Methods II – LCB TTC
Task-based Lesson Plan.
Process Writing. Third Draft
Alejandra de Antoni – 2009
2. The Pre-Task (Music Quiz taken from the New English File Pre-Intermediate
Student’s Book, page 20; OXFORD University Press)