Teaching English Toolbox - OPEN ACCESS SANDBOX

Beyond the Poster - Product and Project Oriented Language Teaching

Blackboard. ©PHZH (P. Buechel)

There are so many reasons to use English in the "real" world - writing a review, describing a life-hack, explaining something to a neighbor who doesn't speak German so well, creating a brochure! Some of these things are relatively simple and can be done in a lesson or two, others are a bit more complex and take more time!

Think about the following:

  • Try searching for "authentic assessment", or "performance assessment", or "alternative assessment" or "project-based learning" in +ELT - how are these different? How are they similar? What's the main point of all of them?
  • Why are products an integral part of action-oriented scenarios and task-based learning?
  • How often have you had to create a poster in your school career up until now? What might be other, more relevant products that would be useful for English language lessons?
  • What does working on a product or project teach learners apart from the language?
  • How can you manage a product or project series of lessons so learners use the language and what might be settings that allow  them to learn language and content from one another's work?
  • If learners work in pairs or small groups, how can you ensure collaboration in English?
  • How can you guide the process and not grade the product? How can you have several products over the course of a term so you can evaluate learner progress?
  • Does it ever make sense to repeat a product or repeat it in a similar way (task repetition)? How? Why?
  • How can you adapt your coursebook materials so the product is the heart of the lessons and not just at the end of lessons? How can you adapt products in the coursebook to teach them using better principles and in a more relevant way to your public?

  • You might start with the Edutopia website as there are many ideas and searching within for "authentic assessment" or "product" or "projects" will lead you to some good ideas.
  • Oxford University Press and the other publishers also offer blog posts and ideas for both project-based learning and task-based learning and authentic assessment.