Task based learning - is it?!

As I keep saying, I'm not an expert! I'm not sure if this classroom activity actually meets the methodological definition of "Task Based Learning" (TBL) or not...but it felt like a task, looked like a task, and resulted in something tangible which the students really enjoyed doing...so, whatever it might be labelled, it was a win in the classroom.

I went to see a presentation about TBL on Sunday, at the ETJ event in Tokyo. Another one of many presentations that was 'talk to the people around you' variety...very frustrating as I want to learn from someone whose abstract suggested knowledge would be imparted. Instead, I'm floundering with other audience members unknown on a vague topic with no idea what the outcome should be. After that, given a task which I was 100% unable to do. The first was annoying, the second actually made me think that as a student, I'd be angry & humiliated in this sitution.

Both these situations made me think about where my learners were on Saturday afternoon. 

• They know each other well
• They have the language they need (I know)
• They have practiced , because they wanted to
• They can manage the tech (app on my iPad) intuitively (I know)
• They're a bit shy & reluctant to speak up (I know)
• They want to do something 'safe'... within their capabilities
• Very different artistic 'skills'

The 'task' had been a follow up to 'finishing' their graded reader -  draw a picture of your favourite animal as homework. This takes the 'performance anxiety' out of drawing, and can be done in 2 minutes or half an hour (not a classroom time management problem waiting for perfection or "I'm done"). The language aspect = answer some questions about your animal. The result had been one word responses (predictable) which we 'repaired' together, building full sentences & reviewing structures from the reader on the way (so, it did involve grammar, it did involved syntax, it did involve spelling).

I've posted before about using Chatterkids, and the benefits of anonymising student output...here are the results of my students using each others' work to personalise their work. They controlled the device, blinged up their work, re-recorded if they wanted to & agreed with each other when they were done. As you can see & hear, I think a great pay off which got a lot more language flowing than I know they'd usually not be keen to do :)

Students get to keep their work - parents can also see the outcomes as we shared to their Google Classroom. Genuinely happy faces...what do you think? Task based learning?

Our Amazing Picnics - after reading project from young learners

Reading is a crucial part for any language learners' path to vocabulary acquisition/activation, familiarity & flexibility with grammatical structures, coping with long texts, exploring new as well as familiar topics...and letting imaginations run away (a bit like the robot character does in this yarn when it gets supercharged by 'fantastic' lightning!).

This after reading project page, in an Oxford Read & Imagine level 2 graded reader (The Big Storm),  was all about personalising the background story to the adventure > going for a picnic. Sub-topics here recycle vocabulary sets of food (likes & dislikes), friends (physical descriptions), weather, places to go around town...we all love recycling language! (This is approx CEFR A1; 450 Headwords at this level, 689 words in this title)

As with all young learners, some love drawing & in Japan, have ninja-like skills - others (like me) have a complete phobia about blank drawing spaces and will produce the bare minimum as quickly as possible (and only after considerable cajoling!). NB This was not an arts/crafts lesson - rather, get us some content to work off, with the writing aspect my targetted outcome. (As with any open-ended task like this in my classroom in Japan, I try hard to minimise the use of erasers...a quick correction or fine tune is fine; rubbing out/erasing 20 minutes-worth of work & starting over is not!).

Regardless of artistic skills, we all needed encouragement to look back through the book to get 'more' ideas...and the same applied to finding the words we subsequently 'needed' to produce the written output. Importantly, don't cramp the artwork with this 'news' in advance (otherwise you'll end with carefully chosen/limited drawings!)...so then to find the words/structures we need to describe our work. From the story already (quizlet set of the glossary here by the way!)