Teaching unplugged in Elementary Classroom

I will teach the lesson to an elementary-level class consisting of 11-13 learners. As I need them to feel relaxed, I plan to arrange the desks in a semicircle facing the board. This will be of great assistance as the learners will be able to form one large group and 3-4 smaller ones; thus, they will all be able to address their classmates and the teacher, but also keep notes from the language written on the board. I have also decided to be seated at all times except from when writing on the board, in order to create a sense of equality between myself and the learners and present the teacher as a non-authoritative figure. I also believe that this seating arrangement will promote the communicative aspect of the lesson and will allow the learners to express themselves freely.

Additionally, I will also be provided with the opportunity to relax and concede control; my tutor has mentioned during feedback sessions that when learners speak quietly and the rest of the class cannot hear them, I tend to repeat what they have said, intervening when there is no need to do so. I have chosen the topic of the lesson to be shopping. I have made this decision, as I believe it will be useful for the learners to come across some relevant vocabulary which can be used outside the classroom as well. The learners will brainstorm on lexical items related to shopping, allowing new language to emerge. Then, I will invite them to divide the words/expressions into groups based on common features (nouns/verbs, people/items etc. ). This segregation will also be completely upto them, as they will come up with the different categories themselves. During the task feedback stage, I am planning to invite willing and more confident learners to write their suggestions on the board themselves; in this way, dictating the words to the teacher will be avoided and the idea of equality will also be promoted. I have also considered participating in the activity myself, thus reinforcing interactivity amongst the people in the room.

After completing this task - depending on the vocabulary the learners will have come up with - I will try to spot any possible connections/associations amongst them in order to shape the learning process. I feel that this stage cannot be planned in more detail as one can only speculate on the target language that the learners will produce.

In order to be able to monitor the whole procedure and evaluate the outcomes of the experiment, I have prepared questionnaires for the learners to complete, emphasizing on how they perceived the experience of the lesson. I will also invite fellow teachers and Delta trainees to observe and provide feedback on whether the Dogme principles were present at the lesson and my behavior throughout, in order to evaluate my personal aims for improvement.