All wiite Consensus

I. Rationale
Eveiy night my stuuents ieau battle books foi homewoik anu complete
compiehension guiues. Stuuents aie ieauing each book in gioups of foui. Eveiy
moining, aftei completing the pievious nights homewoik, stuuents meet togethei to
uiscuss the answeis that they got on the homewoik. All foui stuuents must be in
consensus about the answei because I will chose one peison at ianuom to tuin in
the packet when they aie uone. If they aie not at a consensus with the answeis they
have wiitten uown they must show the otheis in the gioup wheie they got the
answei anu they all must negotiate what the coiiect answei is. Aftei they have
negotiateu anu founu the coiiect answei anu have come to a consensus then they fix
theii answei.

This activity suppoits language uevelopment thiough a.) Negotiating foi
meaning anu b.) Inteiaction Bypothesis.

a. Negotiating foi meaning
i. Negotiating foi meaning is aligneu with the inteiaction hypothesis.
When stuuents aie inteiacting they often have to negotiate foi
meaning. "Negotiation foi meaning is accomplisheu thiough a
vaiiety of mouifications that natuially aiise in inteiaction, such as
iequests foi claiification oi confiimation, iepetition with a
questioning intonation, etc. (Lightbown & Spaua, 2u1S)."
Reseaicheis have "exploieu how inteiaction pioviues
oppoitunities foi leaineis not only to negotiate the message of the
input, but, in uoing so, to focus on its foim as well (Swain)." Thus
negotiating foi meaning allows stuuents to inciease theii L2 in
theii inteiactions.

b. Inteiaction Bypothesis
i. Accoiuing to inteiaction hypothesis "a ciucial site foi language
uevelopment is inteiaction between leaineis anu othei speakeis,
especially, but not only, between leaineis anu moie pioficient
leaineis anu between leaineis anu ceitain types of wiitten texts,
especially elaboiateu ones (Long & Robinson, 1998)." Inteiaction
hypothesis is impoitant because when speakeis inteiact it leaus
"to negotiation of meaning |thatj piomotes leaining because it
enables leaineis to map the coiiect foim onto the meaning they
wish to convey (Ellis & Shintani, 2u14)."



II. Besciiption

a. Pie-task

Stuuents will numbei the choice of which books to ieau in oiuei fiom 1-1u.
Then place stuuents in gioups of S-4 ieauing the same book. Each night the
stuuents will ieau the assigneu section of theii book anu complete the
coiiesponuing section of the ieauing guiue.


b. Task cycle

Each moining the stuuents will get Su minutes to uiscuss with theii gioup
the pievious night's homewoik. The will go thiough each question with each
peison taking a tuin to ieau a question anu theii answei. When the fiist
peison is uone ieauing theii question anu answei to the gioup then each of
the othei stuuents will ieau theii answei to the question. If they all wiote
the same answei then they will continue on to the next question anu iepeat
the piocess. If they aie not at a consensus then eveiy peison must go anu
finu wheie they founu theii answei in the book. Aftei each peison has founu
the section that coiiesponus to theii answei they ieau the section alouu anu
explain how they got theii answei. They give theii explanation by using the
sentence stem: I think the answei is __________________ because on page ______,
________________________. Bave the stuuents go thiough each question using this
pioceuuie. Explain that you will only collect one peison's papei each uay by
ianuom, which means that they all must wiite uown the coiiect answeis.



III. Reflection
a. This activity takes a lot of piactice foi stuuents to ieally unueistanu. They
have to have piactice in how to inteiact with each othei in a positive way.
That is why I use sentence stems because it helps stuuents stay on task anu
inteiact in a positive way. The stuuents likeu this activity because it gave
them a chance to see what othei stuuents answei anu to help them with theii
own unueistanuing of the text. 0nce stuuents weie able to get the piocess
uown then they weie able to complete this activity inuepenuently. This
activity ieally helps the stuuents inteiact with each othei anu to negotiate foi
meaning within the text. The stuuents aie able to unueistanu wheie othei
stuuents got theii answeis fiom anu it helps them finalize theii own thoughts
on the ieauing.









!"#$"%&'()*+

Ellis, R., & Shintani, N. (2u14). !"#$%&'() $+(),+)- #-.+)%)/ 01&%,)1 2-3%(.
$+(),+)- +34,'2'0'%( &-2-+&315 Abinguon: Routleuge.

Lightbown, P. N., & Spaua, N. (2u1S). 6%7 8+(),+)-2 +&- 8-+&(-. (4th Euition eu.).
0xfoiu: 0xfoiu 0niveisity Piess.

Long, N. B., & Robinson, P. (1998). Focus on Foim: Theoiy, Reseaich, anu Piactice.
In C. Boughty, & }. e. Williams, 9%3,2 %( :%&; '( 3$+22&%%; 2-3%(. $+(),+)-
+34,'2'0'%( (pp. 16-41). Cambiiuge: Cambiiuge 0niveisity Piess.

Swain, N. The 0utput Bypothesis anu Beyonu: Neuiating Acquisition thiough
Collaboiative Bialogue. In }. P. Lantolf, <%3'%3,$0,&+$ =1-%&/ +(. <-3%(.
8+(),+)- 8-+&('()5 0xfoiu: 0xfoiu 0niveisity Piess.