Working with Modal Verbs: ‘Degrees’ of command
Lesson 2 (video-ed)

Dec 30, 2012

1) Students came with their built rules so our task was to discuss them and to do some exercises to check them. One student was asked to come to the blackboard and present her rule (in writing). You can see the presented model here together with the models of other students (you can also see that it was modified by a student). At that point of time I did not think of a better procedure for checking students models. I had to offer the second student to present his/her model and to make us discuss which one is better, why, etc. But I was worried to create confusion again so I asked if students agree with the presented model, why, why not and was leading them to find mistakes and introduce changes at once.

 

2) After the model was shaped I gave students exercises and asked them to explain every sentence with their rules. I did the first example together with them to model how it should be done and to make sure they understand the task. Then students had to do exercises individually or in pairs (you can find the sentences offered to them here). When preparing the exercises I was careful to select sentences from the authentic source (for instance, first sentences were taken from “Alice adventures in the Wonderland”) and to leave enough context to make the idea clear. I was also careful in picking ‘easier’ sentences since I was really interested in avoiding confusion.
Students managed to do a few sentences and we checked them and many students were successful. It was really my aim to make them feel this first success. Their home task was to finish the exercises and do some additional ones. When we checked them next time many students had a lot of correct answers and sounded happy with their success.

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