SCHOOL IMPROVEMENTS
Урок-конференция в 10 классе
Цели урока:
1. Развитие навыков монологической речи.
2. Использование первого и второго типов условных предложений.
Предварительная работа:
1. Обсуждение данной темы по учебному пособию Rising Star by L. Prodromou (an intermediate course).
2. Подбор и обсуждение материала по данной теме из газеты “English” (рубрика News in Brief).
Agenda:
1. Playing games helps students learn better.
2. The importance of breaks between lessons. Should breaks be short or long?
3. Should students have weekends off from school?
4. Summer holidays. Should students have long summer holidays?
5. Tests: more or fewer?
6. Miscellaneous
Примерные высказывания
Moderator
Is playing important for students? How important are breaks at school? Should they be long or short? Should school holidays be shorter? Is the school day too long? Should students have weekends off from school? Tests: more or fewer? We are going to talk about these and other questions of interest to all schoolchildren.
Speaker 1
Playing games helps students learn better
Some people think that children would learn more if they didn’t waste so much time playing games. Most adults seem to think that children would learn better if they did more homework. But in fact this is not the case. All the evidence suggests that children need to play more, not less. Play, in fact, is the work of childhood and if youngsters played more, they would do much better at school.
Young children shouldn’t be missing out on imaginative games in school because of the demands of the curriculum. Psychologists say that classroom role-playing can be very good for child’s development. But we see that the demands of the curriculum mean opportunities for such role-play are limited. The government insists that young children in school are learning through play. Role play is valued highly by both children and adults. It can make a significant contribution to learning and development.
Speaker 2
Breaks between lessons should be longer
I think that breaks between lessons should be longer. It’s necessary for us. We are very tired after our lessons and breaks give us a chance to stretch our legs after sitting in class.
If you are hungry you can eat something after a lesson. Breaks give you an opportunity to prepare for the next lesson. A lot of students want to talk to their friends during the breaks. And if the breaks are longer you won’t feel exhausted at the end of the day.
Speaker 3
Breaks between lessons should be shorter. If we have shorter breaks we will finish school earlier
It will leave us time to relax for a while after school and do our homework, as well. Sometimes we get a lot of homework. So we will have more time to do it in. I mean, if you get home later, by the time you’ve had something to eat and watched telly a bit you don’t have much time for your homework.
It might be better if we finished school earlier.
Speaker 4
There should be no school on weekends
Our day is quite short. We have six classes and finish at 14.05. But we also have lessons on Saturday, which is horrible. Students can’t stand going to school on a Saturday morning. The weekends are for relaxing and doing things you enjoy. No one is in the mood for lessons on Saturday morning. Everyone would be much happier if we were free on Saturdays.
Speaker 5
One more opinion
I don’t think it’s so bad to have classes on Saturday. If we had more lessons every day and finished school later we would feel so exhausted every day and wouldn’t have much time to do our homework as well.
Speaker 6
Should the summer break be shorter?
I read in the paper that the government is planning to make the summer break shorter. They think that if summer breaks were shorter children would do much better at school. When children get back from their long summer break they don’t just carry on from where they stopped in May. They have to do the same things again. If summer holidays were shorter, this would not happen.
People who say things like that can’t remember what it was like to be a child. If the government goes ahead with these plans, it’ll make children less creative and more depressed than ever. Actually, the summer holiday is the only time in the year when we can escape from all those tests. If we didn’t have the long summer holidays, we would never get the chance to play and discover the world in our own way.
Speaker 7
Tests… Nobody likes them. They are the most stressful situations for pupils. But I can’t say they are a stupid waste of time. If we didn’t have them, I don’t suppose I’d study at all. Some students say that they always forget what they’ve learned as soon as the exams are over. But I remember nearly all of what I’ve learned. What type of tests do I like best: oral or written and which is easier to pass? Of course, “essay” tests are more difficult and serious. You cannot get a high score just by making a lucky guess.
So, I think that tests are a necessary part of learning.
Miscellaneous
Student 1
Teenage stresses at school
According to the research, the most stressful situations for teenagers are the following: when the teacher shouts at them (85%) or he/she is unfair (83%), when they are not prepared for the lesson (70%), and before a test (69%). If we are prepared for the lesson we will avoid the negative impact of stress. If the teacher doesn’t shout at pupils and the relationships between teacher and pupils are not complicated, pupils won’t be under stress.
Student 2
Children learn better if they have music playing in the background
There’s an opinion that students do work better if they have music playing in the background. If you want children to concentrate better let them have classical music playing quietly in the background. If what experts say turns out to be true, children’s concentration will increase and they will learn better.
Student 3
Computer games “motivate pupils”
A survey of 1,000 teachers suggests a third of teachers are using computer games in the classroom. But they need to understand how, when and when not to use games to support lessons.
If teachers believe computer games are a “good motivation tool”, they will use them in future. I think, if they use computer games in the classroom, there will be educational benefits.
By Youdif Boyarskaya,
School No. 814, Moscow |