Comment on Lesson art and design by Scott Thornbury

Do you agree with the metaphor that he is using?
Lesson Art and Design

To begin simply, I am amazed how effortlessly the author has drawn similarities of a lesson to a performance. Being a music performer myself, I am able to relate to his comparisions of a lesson to symphony, but at the same time intrigued by how apparent some of those similarities were which I had not been aware of before.

He wrote that the blueprint of a lesson has plot, theme, rhythm, flow and a conclusion, and these elements gives an overall shape to which a beginning teacher is able to plan a lesson with. This blueprint gives a macro view to what shapes a good lesson that is engaging and meaningful to learners.

The learners of today becoming increasingly dillusioned by the world outside of the classroom. The Internet and media is fast influencing our children and the classroom is becoming less authentic to them. I recently chanced upon a video by cognitivemedia and the video sums this up pretty much. My point is that the PPP model might be fast becoming obselete in our classroom and we need to engage our learners at a higher level.For this, I thought shifting the lesson instruction away from the PPP model is essential, although there are still instances where this method of instruction can still be applicable.

It is sometimes puzzling to myself how to approach and deliver the content to students. It is also perhaps some what idealistic to think of each lesson as a performance. It will be difficult for the beginning teacher to be able to orchestrate the performance without experience and rapport with the class.

A plot creates the premise for subsequent segments of the lesson, that one activity has significance to the next and which learners could not do without any or do in a different order. Learners' participation is increased and the fruits of labour of learners can be realised in consecutive parts of the lesson, increasing motivation and interests. A complication can later be introduced to learners to increase their competency.

The theme engages the learners and sustains their attention. I agree that the common pitfall of beginning teachers is the over emphasis on grammatical objectives. That is comfortable for teachers to do because instruction is straightforward and the activities involves drilling of the correct information. Such is repetitive and the involvement of learners is low. Which reminds me of how grammar was taught to me during my primary school years. While it may be suitable for younger learners, older learners will find it meaningless as they hardly see the link between perhaps the grammar item learnt and actually applying it in a piece of writing.

TBC....