The more specific the aim, the better (pt.2)
In the previous post on the issue, we discussed how introducing the word better in lesson aims fundamentally changes the class, our mindset for feedback, and what we think of students and ourselves. It is a very powerful change indeed.
In this second post on aims, we approach the question:
Better how?
Notice that, when writing an aim such as “By the end of the lesson, students should be better able to tell a story” we have no idea how we are going to do so in class. You see, there is no clear linguistic focus here. What sub-skills will be worked on? What strategies are involved here? Will you teach grammar? Vocabulary?
This aim is, in my opinion, perfectly fine if you are using it to teach your own groups and classes; Mr. DELTA tends to disagree, though, so I discourage this approach for DELTA lessons. If you are an experienced teacher, you will probably be able to work just fine with an aim such as that because you will be able to decide mid-lesson what your focus of work will be, as in a test-teach-test kind of lesson. How does one do that, though?
To illustrate this approach, take a moment to read the lesson plan outline below.
| Aim: | By the end of the lesson, students should be better able to tell a story. |
| Time: | 60 minutes |
| Materials: | notebooks, pens, whiteboard, markers |
| Lead-in: | Ask students What makes a good story good? And allow students some time to brainstorm. Elicit answers from learners and write them on the board. |
| Test: | Ask students to prepare to tell a 2min story using some of the elements on the board. After two minutes have passed, ask students to get in trios and tell each other their stories. Walk around the room to take notes on task achievement and language use. |
| Teach: | Based on the notes you took, give students feedback on their performance and use example sentences to address a recurrent language use mistake. |
| Written Controlled practice: | Create similar sentences with the recurrent mistake and ask students to correct them individually. When students are done, ask them to check their answers in pairs. |
| Oral Controlled practice: | Ask students to edit the sentences in the previous exercise so they are true for them and expand on them on why they changed the sentence that way. |
| Test: | In trios, ask students to retell their stories and focus on the feedback they got on their first attempt. |
| Feedback and wrap-up: | Give students feedback on their production and focus on their development from one attempt to the other. |
What do you think of this approach? Would you teach this lesson to your learners?
In the next post, we will analyze aims written specifically for DELTA lesson plans and look at how different they are from CELTA aims.
See you on part 3!
ELT in Brazil 
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