Past verbs: look at pages 87/91/153 for help!

1. Was Junko Tabei the first woman to climb Mt.

Everest? ________________

2. Did you have dinner with your family last night?

_____________________

3. Was/were Venus and Serena Williams the first sisters to win

Wimbledon? ______

4. Where _______you born? I _______born in __________

5. Do/does/did your parents meet/met in Busan?

Yes/No, ___________________________

6. What time did/do you wake/woke/woken up this morning?

I wake/woke/woken up at________

7. Last night, I ________________________________.

I didn’t ___________________________

The “Teach”
I gave the students about 10 minutes to work on it and then we checked answers
together. I went quickly over the easy ones,but spent more time pointing out the finer
details of the trickier stuff (example: negatives/questions actually use the present tense
verb).

The “Test,” take 2

Then, for the final “test” phase, I made a Past Tense Board Game, which the students
played in small groups (again recycling vocab from Unit 8 in the book). I walked
around the class checking for accuracy and provided some feedback if necessary. I
listed for any common errors and pointed them out at the end of the activity.
Results of the Test Teach Test Approach
Overall: it went well! ALL the students, even the ones who don’t actively participate
in class seemed to enjoy the board game. Most students put in a good effort on the test
and were referring to the relevant pages in their books, etc. Success! I’ll definitely be
doing it again for easy things that the students probably already know, but just need a
bit of review on.
Test-Teach-Test
12 August 2012 at 15:02
Test-Teach-Test is a very helpful lesson framework for situations when we, as teachers, are unsure how
familiar students are with the target language at hand. This may be the case when we have a new class or new
students or have simply never touched on a certain area of grammar or a certain context of lexis. If you've
never brought up the context of vehicles in class, how can we be sure how much students already know in
order to avoid re-teaching and preserve time for more challenging, unfamiliar items. With that in mind, let's
take a look at each of the three stages in isolation:

1. Test (First)
The purpose of the first test is to diagnose the students familiarity and ability to use the target language. This
stage may be executed with a simple restricted practice activity (e.g. gap-fill, matching, categorizing) or a freer
speaking activity designed to encourage use of the target language (e.g. role-play with giving advice - target
language 'should'). Feedback from this activity will give us the necessary information to make the correct
choices in the teach stage.

2. Teach
Here is where teachers often fall down. This stage needs extensive planning in order to get right. Remember
that the first test can result in one of two situations. Either the students show significant familiarity with the
target language, or not. In the first case, the teach stage can be shortened to sav room for more productive
practice and error-correction. One might simply ask a few well-placed CCQs about the grammar or the more
difficult lexis items, then elicit forms and highlight tricky pronunciation areas before drilling. In the second
case, however, it becomes necessary to present and clarify the target language in context. Here, an easy
solution is revert to guided discovery (the subject of tomorrow's article). Provide the students with a text
(reading or listening) which presents the target language in context. Then highlight the language and clarify it
as you would in a PPP lesson before moving on to the last test stage.

3. Test (Second)
Now that we're sure that the language has been checked and/or clarified to an acceptable degree, we can move
on to the last test stage. Here, ideally we would like to observe the students use of the target language in a freer
setting. This should involve setting up a speaking (or potentially writing) task with a communicative goal (as
mentioned in a previous article), but no restrictions on language use (i.e. don't tell students what to say or how
to say it in terms of grammar/lexis). This allows the teacher to monitor and observe how well the target
language has been absorbed and integrated into students use. This stage can then be followed with delayed
error-correction focusing on how students used the new language and highlighting the
differences/improvements from the first test stage.