THE TASK CYCLE

I. Set task - Some speedy ways to move your students:

o Move the person on the end to the other side and re-pair
o Say A/B/C etc round the room, then ask all A’s/B’s etc. to sit
together etc.
o Tell ss to sit themselves in order e.g. birth months, the time they
went to bed last night, alphabetically etc.
o If your ss are working in a group and each group has a different
task (a part of the whole task), give a letter to each student and
tell them to sit all A’s/B’s etc. together to share what they have
worked on.
 Give them clear and concise instructions with ICQs and/or demonstrate
the task, especially with lower levels
 Sometimes, you can give instructions before asking the students to
change place but only if the task works better this way e.g. to surprise
students.
 Give handout or tell the students to have their piece of paper ready to
write on
 If you want two students to work together, you can give one sheet each
pair at the beginning to make them ‘put their heads together’ and then
give them the other sheet some minutes later, when they are already
working nicely together
II. Task
 teacher monitors, helps, corrects where necessary
 Before class check, do not forget to pair check.
 If you want to check the answers on the board later, do not forget to
prepare the whiteboard. Do not do it, though, it you feel your students
would need you to monitor and help.
III. Feedback
1. On task: Focus on the students (e.g. What did you find out about your
partner?)
2. On language: Usually, this is your error corrections stage

Other things to consider when giving feedback

 Numbered/lettered handouts always help you by not having to repeat the

whole sentence. If the answer is only one word or very short, feedback
can be done orally.
 With warmers and lead-ins, you will want a speedy feedback so you don’t
need to ask every single student, e.g. ask them if anyone has found out
 anything interesting/similarities/differences/anything that surprised
them about each other etc.
 In controlled practice, it is especially important for your students to
have a clear, written record of the answers so make feedback more
detailed and slower.
Some ideas to make your feedback variable
 Nominate students to write answers on the board (especially when you feel some
movement would make them prevent falling asleep or getting bored) In some
cases, students can also race to the board to write each answer.
 Give each student the number of a question and tell them to write the answer
for that question on the board (you have prepared the board beforehand, of
course)
 As you notice students finish the first half of the answers, write them up on the
board and tell them to check.
 Write the answers on a sheet, hand them out for students who have finished
but monitor for recurring/common mistakes and clarify the language in them
afterwards.
 If available, use OHP and IWB to show answers for gap-fill/re-ordering etc.
 Fast finishers’ answers can be checked by the teacher and if correct, they can
help the other students finish the task.
 Each student can nominate who answers the next question.
 During a fluency activity (speaking), you can walk around the room and when you
notice an error, write the sentence on a piece of paper, then slip it under the
student’s book and go through them later or ask the students to find someone in
the class who can correct that error in their sentence.
 Ask ss to close their book/turn their handout down. Then tell the answers to
the questions. Students then have a look at the questions and see if they can
correct their answers by remembering the answers. They can help each other
and make sure that you are there if they really can’t remember something.
 Check homework for each student while they are doing a different activity.
 Students check answers in pairs and if their answers are different, they can ask
another person in class or the teacher.
 Give each student one correct answer from the task. Students then mingle and
ask each other, correcting their answers. (a very good interactive way of giving
feedback.
 Only give answers to the first student sitting and he/she will pass it on to the
next student.
 Divide the class into two groups and give only half of the answers to each group
They then have to do similar to ‘running dictation’ to complete the missing
answers.
 Give a letter to each student and the student has to give the answer if it begins