Hey everyone,

So I stand on the brink of passing the 60 hour course but am stuck with question 8. Im on my third try now so understandably panicky. My issue is with the controlled piece. Mylesson plan is based around comparatives.

"I will give out pictures of objects and ask the class to mingle and find the person with opposite card. I.e Flame and Iceberg, and blank white and dark card. I will then ask the class to say what their card is in realtion to the other, i.e this is hotter than this"

Her awnser was.

"mingling is production. Also your activity is not ok as they must produce the comparatives for all the rules here. Also no superlative please"

Confused as I thought controlled was me presenting the exercise.

My production was as follows

I will then ask the class to find somebody they consider to be their opposite. Once they have piared up I will ask them to discuss what differences they have and ask each person to say one difference they have with the other person.

Her reply was

Production (not produced)- ok only if it is done as a natural conversation and not a series of individual sentences. This must be how you would use it in real life, freer and more communicative.. You should be doing a milling activity (e.g. where they go around the class talking to other students comparing things s you would in real life - comparing their hair, clothes, etc..) or even better, a role play, which is when you give them fictitious situations where they can use the target language naturally and they write dialogues in pairs for it (e.g. 2 friends out shopping and trying to decide what item to buy, by comparing them). They then write a full dialogue in pairs and then act it out in front of class while you pick up on mistakes and feedback aferwards.

Is anyone else struggling? Any advice. As im so close I would hate to loose all my hard work over differing views on controlled and production.

Thanks guys!

Chris

For controlled practice, the students should be given the answer (e.g. multiple choice, matching, fill in the blanks with the words provided), or a word related to the answer(e.g. turn this word into its comparative form). If you want it to be verbal it could be a fill in the blanks where you give them the words that they could use to answer. I don't know why superlatives was mentioned, though. 

Production is "free" practice. Students make their own sentences, rather than just filling in the blanks. I think you can just build on what you already have and the marker's comments. 

I can help you if you wish. Just send an email to this address. larry234565@gmail.com

If you think about it, there really isn'y much difference between your two activities.  The controlled activity needs to have the main part of the sentence given to them and they have to re-arrange it, fill in blanks or whatever, so that they can practice the new structure through repetition.  Only then are they ready to produce entire sentences such as 'this is darker than this' etc.  

If you want help please contact larry234565@gmail.com. Larry.