Lesson Plan of Study Skills in English Language Teaching
Grade VI, VII, and VIII
Students` Learning Outcomes
- Identify and utilize effective study skills, e.g. brainstorming for ideas, read a diagram, make a mind map, not-taking.
Information for Teachers
- Brainstorming means trying to solve a problem or getting ideas together presented by everyone.
- Note taking means writing brief notes (and not complete sentences) to what the teacher had said in class. It helps students remember lessons which help them in exam preparations.
- We use signs and symbols to indicate important points in notes. Underlining important words and writing meaning are a part of note-taking. Notes are taken in bullet points i.e. only important points are written inn words or phrases. For example, if you are explaining the poem Daffodils, instead of writing the word ‘daffodils’ each time, you can just write capital “D” in notes.
- Mind mapping can easily be taught to children of any age and ability. It is a diagram used to represent words, ideas linked to and arranged around central keywords. Drawings, colors, and short word phrases can be used in mind maps.
- A flowchart is a diagram constructed from connected shapes representing a process or a plan. A flow chart is intended to make a process or chains of information easier to understand. It uses symbols or contains fewer words, making it easier to read.
- Through min mapping, children generate ideas, organize their thoughts and are better able to recall information later. Notes are for students` reference only and are not neat work.
- While teaching the lesson, the teacher should also consult text book at all steps wherein it applicable.
- Tell students that discussion on some topic is very important to extract more information about the topic, tell them that sharing their ideas helps in adding more information.
- Ask students to come up with ideas for the school lawn. Ask them to imagine beautiful garden. They can also think of beautiful gardens they have seen in cartoons, drams, and movies.
- Ask them what kind of plants they would grow (trees, flowers, green plants, vegetables).
- Ask them what colors they would like to see.
- Tell them that what they just did was brainstorming. Explain to them what it is?
- Recall the concept of mind map which they have already practiced before.
- Give the class the topic ‘Cities’.
- Ask them to write the topic in the center of a page in their copies.
- Tell them to make branches/lines coming away from the topic. Start with four branches. They can use a different color for each branch if color pencils are available.
- Brainstorm main ideas around the topic.
- Draw or write keywords above the branches. A student might write or draw building, vehicles and factories around the topic of cities.
- Tell students to make smaller branches coming from the larger branches. The color of the small branches will be the same as their main branch (if students are using color pencils)
- With students` think and discuss smaller sub-topics that relate to the branch keywords. An example of smaller topics around the sub-topic ‘vehicles’ might be buses, trucks, cars, and trains. Add the drawings and words to the mind map.
- Continue until all the ideas are represented on the mind map.
- After the activity ask students: How can the information on a mind map are used? Answer can be: to write an essay, to write a story or a poem, to give a speech to learn for an exam or test.
- Divide the class into groups depending on the size of the class.
- Give one of these topics to half the groups and the other topic to the other half of the groups.
- Ask all the groups to discuss their topic and make notes of the discussion.
- Tell them that they should just write a word or phrase to remind themselves what was said.
- For example, for topic 2, if a group member said that if she had money she would want to travel to Dubai, Malaysia, China, etc. the other group members can write down a note: World travel.
- Ask them why notes are written in brief words (Because we talk faster than we can write, so it is not possible to write down everything that is said. We write only key words so we don`t miss writing any important point.)
- Help them with this activity. Make sure that they are not going back to their habit of writing proper sentences.
Writing board, chalk/marker, duster, textbook, students` notebooks for note-taking and mind map
1. My dream house.
2. Being the richest person in the world
- After they have done, appreciate the groups and display their work in the classroom.
- Select a flow chart or create one yourself with an interesting topic for the students, such as the process by which a child selects a new toy. (This will increase the students` natural interest in the topic and may make it easier to maintain their attention.)
- Draw the flow chart on the writing board.
- Explain the purpose of a flow chart. Tell students that a flow chart is used to make parts of information easier to understand.
- Create a list of ways in which a flow chart achieves this goal.
- Write with students` suggestions on the board. For example, students may say that it uses symbols or contain fewer words, making it easier to read. (Compile a list of these suggestions).
- Show the students starting point.
- Explain to them that the starting point always contain either the topic of the chart or the first step of the process.
- Tell students that they can identify the starting point by finding the shape that has no arrows pointing to it, but only arrows moving out to other shapes.
- Ask a student volunteer to come to the writing board.
- Ask him/her to follow the line from the starting point with his/her finger, showing the class where to go next on the flow chart.
- Instruct the students to read each section of text he/she reaches.
- Tell him/her to go from one arrow to the next arrow and read the series of information in the proper order.
- Read through the flow chart as a class, asking the students questions such as; “What did we learn from that section of the chart?” or “look at the chart, what is the second thing we would do in this process?”
- Ask each student to create a flow chart of a process that he/she completes daily, such as brushing his/her teeth.
- Ask students to share their flow charts with their class fellows
Sum up/ Conclusion
- Conclude the lesson by asking about some note-taking techniques and symbols that each group used; also ask about brainstorming for ideas, how to read a flow chart and make a mind map.
- Ask different groups to explain their notes to each other.
- Involve the students in solving the problems given in the exercise at the end of unit/chapter.
- Ask them to take down notes in the class. Ask them to use a separate notebook/rough copy for this and tell them that you will be checking that notebook of and on.
- Write about the sub topics in the following diagram.
Note: These are skills like reading and writing and should be used in other subjects and in other lessons of English.