As Edward noted earlier, he learned an interesting technique from Gideon about how to get the students to really work with the Phrases and I have been using this method recently with my higher level students to get them to find the missing words and put them in to complete a passage that I have written in advance. This forces the students to first recognize that a word or phrase is missing and then to check what part of speech it is and then to find the best phrase to fit.
Student seem to learn a lot from this excercise. If they copy this down in their notes and you ask them to make one example for each phrase for homework, they will really start to assimilate these new phrases and their progress will be greatly aided. Again the Smith’s curriculum provides what our students need to gradually become much better users of English.
I really like this presentation method as well. It spread pretty quickly in use here at the Kyobashi school. I’m glad to see it’s moving out to other schools as well. Thanks Gideon!
The thing i like most about this presentation method is it really likens the phrase lesson to a high lavel routine. It’s pretty general knowlege that high level students need routines that fit their individual needs and this is a great way to incorporate a routine lesson style as well. After going through the phrase cards, completing the story you created for the student, and letting them come up with their own phrases, have you ever tried applying L&R routine questions to the story? Granted this works best if the student has a background in using pre-intermediate and intermediate level routines, but a high level student should be able to ask you relevant questions about the story even without lists of questions pre-taught. For example, if your story is about “childhood” simply have the student ask you questions about your childhood and respond with the content from the story, pausing periodically to let them ask another subject appropriate question to keep the conversation moving. I like all my high level students to be comfortable in the drivers seat of a conversation.