Doing Less
  For anything you do as part of your teaching, ask yourself if the students could do it instead.
If they did, how would it benefit their learning? The "doing less" principle
can help teachers discover ways to renew their teaching,
reduce their workload, enhance students' learning.

The "doing less" idea in a nutshell : Y a-t-il des tâches dont les élèves pourraient se charger à votre place? Qu'y gagneraient-ils ? "Faire moins" intelligemment permet à l'enseignant de renouveler ses méthodes et de réduire sa charge de travail, tout en enrichissant l'apprentissage. Class activities Instead of answering the teacher's questions about a text (oral or written), students write their own questions in groups. They can be encouraged to ask a variety of questions: detail questions, main idea questions, questions about structure, questions that call for evaluation, questions they'd like to ask the author. Later they discuss their questions with students in other groups. Students take dictation from each other; one way to do this is to have all the students at the board Student X dictates to everyone and can immediately see the results. In reviewing for a quiz, students predict the quiz content and write quiz questions that later appear on the actual quiz. Students teach peer grammar lessons based on one of their own recurrent errors (after they've learned how to correct it). In one simple version of this activity, the student puts a flawed sentence on the board and leads a class discussion of it. At the end of the term, students prepare a comprehensive review by dividing up the course content, assigning groups to handle a topic, and conducting peer-taught reviews. Materials and curriculum Students find things they'd like to read in newspapers, magazines, or other sources. One week they read their self-assigned articles and write brief commentaries about them. The next week the commentaries are circulated and students make new individual selections based on their peer's recommendations. Or they choose one article to focus on as a class in the coming week. Students choose problems from their own writing to become the focus of lessons. A student might produce a handout showing a sentence or paragraph she's struggling with; the teacher and the class offer feedback. Instead of the teacher creating a handout of problem sentences, each student writes one problem sentence on a sheet; photocopied, it becomes a handout for the next day's class. Instead of using a handout, the teacher says, "Write this down," and the students create their own record of the lesson. If the teacher plans carefully, the students can dictate parts of the material. Students bring in sentences they've found for analysis in class. Before class they write the sentences on the board; in class they introduce it and tell why it interested them. Record keeping / business Students keep a class log of what they have studied, in a three-ring binder that is passed from student to student, depending on whose day it is. If you have your own classroom, the log pages can be put on the walls. Students keep error logs as a record of their problems and how to solve them (error in context on the left side of the sheet, revision on the right). A student writes the day's plan on the blackboard and opens the class by greeting everyone, calling attention to the plan, and reading through it. Students give directions for an activity. Students give closure to an activity or to the day's lesson by asking and answering, "What have we learned today?" Or students provide closure by writing a sentence or two about what they learned. In an all-class discussion, when a student finishes talking, she "passes the torch" to another student; the teacher doesn't intervene. Responding to student work Before handing in an essay, the student writes a "cover sheet" to ease the teacher's reading task; in one version this includes the title, the topic, the main idea, a sketch of the overall structure, and requests to channel feedback ("Do I need more details in paragraph 2?"). The student may also write marginal comments to call the teacher's attention to problems. Students give peer feedback on essays in writing; if students are taught to do this effectively, the teacher can often respond "I agree with X" (in addition to offering feedback on things the peer readers overlooked). On assignments, students occasionally trade papers (or tapes) and offer each other feedback. More on doing less: related readings This is not the first time teachers have thought of turning over some of their customary roles to students. Each of the following resources discusses at least one way in which students can take on new roles. Giving Children Control - Fourth Graders Initiate and Sustain Discussions After Teacher Read-alouds - an article by Zoe Donoahue. Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. The authors suggest that students develop their own exercises based on visuals that they choose and bring in to class. Davis, P. & Rinvolucri, M. (1990). The Confidence Book. Essex, England: Longman (Pilgrims Longman Resource Books). The authors include a chapter entitled "Giving Students Control" in which they describe such activities as having students suggest content and methodology for the second part of a course based on what they felt about the first part. Deller, S. (1990). Lessons from the Learner. Essex, England: Longman (Pilgrims Longman Resource Books). The subtitle of this volume is "Student-generated activities for the language classroom." It includes suggestions for activities as different as story-telling and error correcting but all involve the students in ways that teachers may not have previously considered. It is also the source for the questionnaire on the opposite side of this sheet. Littlejohn, A. 1983. Increasing learner involvement in course management. TESOL Quarterly, 17(4), 595-608. Littlejohn, A. 1985. Learner choice in language study. ELT Journal, 39(4), 253-261. In the 1983 article, the author discusses arguments supporting increased learner involvement, outlines a gradual approach aimed at giving students more control, and presents sample materials and tasks. In the 1985 article, he focuses more narrowly on increasing learner involvement "in the method and scope of study." The authors welcome questions They would like to hear what else teachers are doing as well ! Susan Gillette and Eric Nelson Minnesota English Center, University of Minnesota 320 16th Ave. SE Minneapolis, MN 55455.

AGREGATION TOPICS	FULL SITE- INDEX		DAILY ---CARTOON	LIENS UTILES
ABORDER --- LES EPREUVES ECRIT & ORAL- CONSEILS RAPPORTS--- DE JURY	ANGLAIS AU PRIMAIRE--- COLLEGE ------ & LYCEE TEACHING KIDS WEB USE------- PLANS DE COURS---------	MUSIC-------- & SONG BACKGROUND MUSIC SHAKESPEARE-- EN MUSIQUE	GRAMMAIRE DE L'ENONCIATION -----GRAMMAR & SPELLING PHONETIQUE	VOYAGES LINGUISTIQUES ASSISTANTS & LOCUTEURS NATIFS
PEDAGO- DIDACTIQUE BIBLIOGRAPHIE	SYSTEME ET EVOLUTION	SHAKESPEARE EN CLASSE	----CRAZY ENGLISH LANGUAGE	--LA PRESSE EN CLASSE D'ANGLAIS
WIRED DIDACTIQUE BRANCHEE EPREUVES DE DIDACTIQUE	HEURISTIQUE & CONSTRUCTIVISTE ERE NUMERIQUE LANGUES ET TECHNOLOGIE	LECTURE- COMPREHENSION DE L'ECRIT LIRE DU TEXTE AUTHENTIQUE	INTELLIGENCE & APPRENTISSAGE THEORIE INITIATIVE- GIVING STUDENTS CONTROL	LE RETRO- PROJECTEUR LA VIDEO LE CINEMA
TEACHERS AND TECHNOLOGIES MULTIMEDIA	INTER- DISCIPLINARITE ESPACES LANGUES	I can't guarantee the information is accurate or even all the links are still alive!	PARENTS TEACHERS AND DISCIPLINE DISCIPLINE CAHIER MAGIQUE	ANGLAIS TECHNIQUE ET DES AFFAIRES
ECHANGES SCOLAIRES-n ELECTRONIQUES	THOSE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS			HOME - ACCUEIL APACHE NEWS