At my school I was
unexpectedly asked to perform oral exams. This presented a problem.
Each week I taught nineteen classes of up to sixty two students. I
saw each class for forty minutes. The school wanted me to assess each
student individually and give a grade within that time frame. If we
say that we can explain it and get it set up in five minutes and that
the admin of writing down each students name and grade and getting
the next student started takes only five seconds then that gives less
than thirty seconds per student. It takes thirty seconds to coax a
single word out of some of the students. Clearly this was an
impossible task. This lesson plan was devised with a lot of
suggestions and input from other people.
It still can't be done in
one forty minute session so the first thing you need to do is
convince the school to let you take two weeks for each class. Having
done that the lesson outlined below can be carried out in that
time-frame. Whether it provides any kind of useful data for the
school is debatable but I'd say that it doesn't. It does however
fulfill the requirement placed on me – that is to assess each
student and grade them and provide the tabulated results to the
school.
The lesson can be used
with all levels but you need to tailor your questions to the level
being tested.
For lower levels you
should use very simple questions. Where possible use question forms
that you know have been drilled in class. If a student doesn't
understand the question try to simplify it or ask a different
question. For example you can change “What is your favourite
animal?” To “What animal do you like?” (I know it should be
“which”, but they may not!)
For higher levels you can
ask more complicated questions but you should always be prepared to
drop back to the easier style of question for students who cannot
provide an answer.
And now, here's the
lesson plan. It does require some preparation.
Lesson
Level:
All Duration:
2 x 40 Minutes
Lesson
Title:
Oral Exam Lesson
Grammar
and Vocabulary
Not
applicable
Lesson
Objectives
To
grade the students on their Oral English skills
Materials
Required
Marking
sheets.
You require TWO marking
sheets.
The first needs to have
titles, Level, Class, Room at the top which you fill in before the
lesson begins. It should have a table with columns headed Number,
Name, Grade. There should be enough rows for the the largest class
you have. The numbers column should be pre-printed with the numbers 1
– n (One per student).
The second sheet should
have just two columns – Number (as above) and Grade.
Instructions
You also require one copy
per two students of the following instructions translated into the
students' mother tongue. If the class is multilingual you will need it
in ALL mother tongues.
“Today
is an exam
Your teacher will call
you in groups of four to the front of the class.
Your teacher will ask you
some questions.
Answer the questions
using the best English that you can.
Tell your teacher if you
do not understand the question.
If it is not your turn
you MUST be quiet.
You can do your homework,
revise or study.”
Picture
Prompts
You also need a set of
about ten pictures showing people engaged in various activities.
These can be from a text book or printed from the internet.
For senior classes
realistic pictures are best. For younger, junior classes, cartoon
pictures are the best.
I used the following
pictures which were all taken from text books that I have.
Junior
Classes (Cartoons)
A schoolboy and a school
girl talking.
A family group having a
party.
A boy playing the guitar
surrounded by other things used in hobbies.
A man reading a
newspaper.
Five children playing in
the snow.
A couple in a restaurant
being served by a waiter.
A woman buying clothes.
A group of animals.
Santa on his sleigh
flying over some houses.
Four children playing in
the park.
Senior
Classes (Photographs)
A group of casually
dressed students, with their school books, all chatting.
A lost couple standing by
their car, looking at a map.
Three hikers, one of them
injured and the other two helping.
A grandmother, mother and
daughter baking cookies.
A man and a woman cycling
in the countryside.
A teacher helping a
student.
Three fashionable
teenagers carrying shopping bags.
Two people talking to an
estate agent in front of a “For Sale” sign.
Four women having a
birthday party.
Two
men playing table tennis.
Preparation
Prepare
all the materials as above.
Before
the lesson begins put the printed instructions on the desks.
Make
sure you have pens that write!
Procedure
1
Tell
the class to read the instructions.
Make
sure they understand.
Nominate
a student to collect them back (you will need them again for the next
class and for the second week.)
2
Work
your way around the class calling four students at a time to the
front.
3
The
students should write their names next to the next four numbers on
the first sheet.
4
Show
the students one of the pictures.
Ask
“What is it?”, “What can you see?” or “What are they
doing?”
Get
answers from each student.
Ask
each student another question related to the picture.
Good
questions are...
“What
is he wearing?”/”Tell me about his clothes”/”What colour is
his...?”
“Where
are they?”
“Is
it the countryside or the city?”
“What
season is it?”/”Is it winter?” etc
“Do
you like her clothes?”
Any
simple questions should do at this stage.
Keep
note of how well the students are understanding and answering the
questions.
5.
Put
the picture down. Ask more questions on the topic suggested by the
picture.
For
example if the picture with the boy playing the guitar is selected
ask about their hobbies, if it is the picture of the couple buying a
house ask about their homes and so on.
Again
keep a track of the four students understanding and fluency.
Ask
each student several questions
DO
NOT ALLOW THIS TO GO ON FOR MORE THAN FIVE MINUTES.
Send
the students back to their seats.
6
While
the next group is coming and writing their names on sheet one, record
grades next to the numbers for the last group on sheet two. The
grading system I used was as follows (Note: the symbol in brackets is
what I wrote on the paper so that they couldn't easily see the grades
of other students.)
A
(//) Student answered questions clearly and accurately and gave
additional information without prompting.
B
(/) Student answered questions mostly clearly and accurately but did
not provide any additional information.
C
(-) Student answered the questions but with mistakes of vocabulary,
grammar or pronunciation.
D
(\) Student gave some answers but struggled with understanding.
Answers were not clear or not clearly connected to the questions.
E
(\\) Student was unable to provide answers to the questions or did
not speak at all.
7
Repeat
this until half the class has been done. 1
8
Repeat next week for the second half of the class.
9.
When
both sessions have been completed for a class, copy the grades back
to sheet one, changing them back to A-E.
Notes
1.
With larger classes it may be necessary to use groups of five.
Smaller classes can use groups of three.
