Breu història i principis fonamentals de la metodologia AICLE (CLIL)

1. CLIL
FOR
SECONDARY
STUDENTS
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2. CONTENT
PART 1: BEFORE WE START
1.1. SARA
1.2. What qualities make a good teacher?
PART 2: INTRODUCTION TO CLIL
2.1. Brief history of CLIL
2.2. What is CLIL?
2.3. Benefits of CLIL?
2.4. Types of CLIL
PART 3: PRINCIPLES OF CLIL
3.1. The four Cs: CLIL
3.2. Bloom’s Taxonomy
3.3. Cummins’ Quadrant
PART 4: CONTENT LEARNING
4.1. What is meant by Content Learning?
4.2. Scaffolding Learning
4.3. More about scaffolding learning
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PART 5: COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT
5.1. What are cognitive skills?
5.2. Developing Cognitive Skills
5.3. Examples of cognitive skills
PART 6: GRAPHIC ORGANISERS
6.1. Types of Graphic Organisers
6.2. Why use Graphic Organisers?
PART 7: LANGUAGE USED IN CLIL
7.1. Types of Language
7.1.1. Language of learning
7.1.2. Language through Learning
7.1.3. Language for learning
7.2. Thunks
PART 8: LESSON PLANNING
8.1. Why do we plan lessons?
8.2. Page 1 of a lesson plan
8.3. Page 2: Procedures Page
8.4. Example of a CLIL Lesson

3. PART 1: BEFORE WE START
1.1. SARA
The first a CLIL teacher (or any other ESL teacher) must bear in mind is “to be friends with SARA”. Sara stands for:
Select the material
Adapt the material
Reject what you don’t need or like about the material
Add anything necessary to make your lessons high-valued.
These four clues must come with you all along your career’s life or at least until another more up-to-date strategy appears and it
puts SARA away. But let’s remember we should never put friends away so, we rather not get rid of SARA or any other friends no
matter things happen.
1.2. WHAT QUALITIES MAKE A GOOD TEACHER?
Research showed that, according to teenagers, the top qualities most valued in a teacher are:
1. knowledgeable
2. creativity 3
3. rapport
4. motivating
5. sense of humour
This should make us think of our students that even though they like having fun in class, they also appreciate the fact that a
teacher masters what is teaching.
As for CLIL teachers exclusively, it is important that they grade their use of language when giving instructions and that they use
different techniques to clarify. Teachers can allow their students to clarify in L1 as all students have their wait time. Wait time is
the time a student of a foreign language need to produce oral output in L2. It is different for every person. In general, it is said
that Chinese people need a longer wait time than other learners because they are more concerned and more cautious than
other L2 learners. This does not mean that they are not learning. It means that they are not producing yet. So, we must
emphasize with our students.
What sometimes happen to me is that if I use L1 in class I feel very guilty but Françoise has told me not to feel such way as long
as I do my best. So, teachers, now I am telling you: as long as you do your best in anything, do not feel guilty!
PART 2: CLIL AND ITS HISTORY
2.1. BRIEF HISTORY OF CLIL
Let’s go on with a bit of a history. Although the word CLIL was coined not a long time ago, in 1994, CLIL is not a brand new
phenomenon at all.

4. It is said that a long time ago, around 5,000 years ago, in what is now modern Iraq, the Attakians conquered the Sumerians. They
wanted to learn the local language and so Sumerian was used as the language of instruction to learn content.
Later, in the1890s approximately, bilingualism and multilingualism existed among the most privileged wealthy families. They
were two ways of learning a foreign language. Wealthy families either rented the services of a tutor (male teacher for boys) or a
governess (female teacher for girls) to teach their children or they sent their children abroad to learn the foreign language.
A more recently recorded fact, which can be described as the first example of modern CLIL was in 1965 in Canada. English
speaking parents who were living in the French quarters of Quebec were worried because they saw their children were in
disadvantage with French speakers. So, they asked the Government to produce immersion of programmes in the schools so that
they learned the subjects in French (instead of French). This idea apparently spread all over Canada and the rest of the world.
At last, in the 1970s appeared more bilingual immersion programmes for people of different backgrounds and there was an
increase of awareness that language and content should go hand-in-hand.
This is actually a very brief history of CLIL but it makes us realise that nothing is brand new but it has just been recycled and
brought into fashion again. And I think that in such a global-like world CLIL is key to be able to step out in our society in a firm
permanent way. We need to learn languages, more than one if it is possible and CLIL is definitely a very useful tool.
2.2. WHAT IS CLIL?
CLIL stands to Content and Language Integrated Learning. It is an approach concerning languages or intercultural knowledge and
understanding (Marsh, 2002); it is a meaning-focused learning method (Van de Craen, 2006) and an “umbrella”term used to talk
about bilingual education situations (Gajo, 2007).
According to TKT CLIL handbook (The TKT Course, CLIL module, Kay Bentley, CUP 2010) CLIL is an evolving educational approach
to teaching and learning where subjects are taught through the medium of a non-native language.
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It is increasingly important in our global, technological society, where knowledge of another language helps learners to develop
skills which will be able to communicate to people around the worlds.
It is a completely different learning experience compared with most foreign language teaching because content and language
are taught together.
A language teacher has the challenge to learn more about subject content and subject teachers need to learn about the
language needed for their subjects.
It can be taught to very young learners, teenagers, adults, and also in vocational or academic studies.
* See Appendix: What is CLIL?
2.3. THE BENEFITS OF CLIL . CLIL aims to:
1. Introduce learners to new concepts through studying in a TL.
2. Improve learners’ production of TL.
3. Improve learners’ performance in the curricular subject
4. Provide materials which develop thinking skills from the start.
5. Increase learners’ confidence in the TL and L1.
6. Encourage the value of community and citizenship.
7. Make the curricular subject the main focus of classroom materials
2.4. TYPES OF CLIL
Some schools teach topics from the curriculum as part of a language course. This is called soft CLIL.

5. Other schools teach partial immersion programmes where almost half the curriculum is taught in the target language. This is
called hard CLIL.
Modular CLIL programme is where a subject is taught for a certain number of hours in the target language.
Type of CLIL Language / Subject Time Context
Balance
Soft CLIL Language-led 45 minutes once a Some curricular topics are taught during a language
week course
Modular CLIL Subject-led 15 hours during a term Schools or teachers choose parts of the subject
(1-hour a week) syllabus which they teach in the target language.
Hard CLIL Subject-led (partial About 50% of the About half of the curriculum is taught in the TL. The
immersion) curriculum content can reflect what is taught in the L1 curriculum
or can be new content.
PART 3: PRINCIPLES OF CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED
LEARNING (CLIL)
CLIL principals consist of three main blocks:
- the 4Cs: Content, Communication, Culture and Cognition
-
-
Bloom’s taxonomy
Cummin’s Quadrant
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3.1. THE 4 CS: CLIL PRINCIPLES IN ACTION
Conditions Aims for the classroom
COGNITION To use a range of thinking skills
To use the child’s real life experience with a manageable bridge between old and new.
To use the child’s own level of articulation
To achieve and evaluate the content
CULTURE We can create a sense of community by
- getting children to collaborate on activities and share experiences.
- Encouraging cooperation, help and respect.
- Rewarding risks
- Identifying learner’s roles.
CONTENT To give:
Natural, real or understandable content
Content which is related to the child’s previous experiences.
Engaging content that allows for learning to be active
Language as a vehicle to do things (role plays/tasks etc.)
COMMUNICATION We can encourage communication by:
- setting the classroom up (seating, posters, resources) to support communication
- scaffolding tasks which reduces stress and makes explorative tasks more manageable.
- Using learning opportunities that don’t always have a right or wrong answer.
- Offering choices about how to do things.
- Reducing teacher talking time (TTT) and increasing student talking time (STT).
* See Appendix: The four Cs

6. 3.2. BLOOM’S TAXONOMY.
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual
behaviour important in learning.
During the 1990s a new group of cognitive psychologists, lead by Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom’s), updated the
st
taxonomy reflecting relevance to 21 century work. They basically changed the nouns used in Bloom’s taxonomy to verbs.
Creating, Evaluating, Analyzing, Applying, Understanding, Remembering
Levels of intellectual What can students do at each Strategies
behaviour level?
Remembering Students can recall the define, duplicate, list, memorize, recall, repeat, reproduce, state,
information etc.
Understanding Students can explain ideas or Classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, locate, recognize, report,
concepts. They can classify select, translate, paraphrase.
Applying Students can use the Choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret,
information in a new way operate, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.
Analyzing Students can distinguish Appraise, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate,
between the different parts distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.
Evaluating Students can justify a stand or Appraise, argue, defend, judge, select, support, value, evaluate.
decision.
Creating Students can create new Assemble, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, write. 6
product or point of view
* See Appendix: Bloom’s Taxonomy
3.2.1. HOTS AND LOTS
Remembering, understanding and applying are HOTS. That is, they are higher-order thinking skills. Analyzing, evaluating and
creating are LOTS, which means, they are lower-order thinking skills.
When teaching we have to combine HOTS and LOTS activities in order not to tire our students but be careful! You can’t go from
remembering to creating straight away as the two levels are very different demanding tasks and students would get lost!
My advice is to start from the bottom and climb up the levels step by step but keep going backwards by climbing. The graphic
that would best show this concept is the one of a spring.
* See Appendix: HOTS Question Templates
3.3. CUMMINS’ QUADRANT FOR COGNITIVE PROCESSES
Cummins’ quadrant is a useful tool for designing content lessons. Lessons should first work on BICS (Basic Interpersonal
Communication Skills) and move on to complete CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). In order to do that, Cummins’
Quadrant advices us to move from A to C to B to D.
Cummins advices us to start with a task that is cognitively simple and context-embedded. That is a BICS task. This is found in
quadrant A and it is called VIEWING. It involves everyday conversational and transactional language.

7. Examples: watching a video, students repeat information/utterances of adult or peer, students remember prior knowledge.
Then you should follow with activities that are cognitively complex and context-embedded. This is quadrant C and it is called
DOING. It involves challenging ideas, richer in terms of representation and it is an opportunity to scaffold language from
descriptive to more abstract.
Examples: to create a map, a timeline, students compare and contrast, students summarise, students transform, personalise
given information.
The following activity should be cognitively simple again but this time context-reduced. This is quadrant B and it is called
TALKING. It involves abstract but cognitively simple activities.
Examples: to talk in pairs or groups (cooperatively) about the topic, matching information, describing observations, sequencing.
Finally, the last step is the most challenging one: It is cognitively complex and context-reduced. This is quadrant D and it is called
TRANSFORMING. The aim is using academic language of school learning. It is the ability to transform one’s understanding of
content into the technical CALP language.
Examples: writing an essay, listening to a lecture or taking a standardised written test, justifying an opinion or judgement,
predicting results.
In every step, we bring our students to a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
* See Appendix: Cummins’ Quadrant
PART 4: CONTENT LEARNING 7
4.1. WHAT IS MEANT BY CONTENT LEARNING? (from CLIL, Do Coyle, Philip Hood, David Marsh, CUP, 2010).
Syllabuses and programmes always address the WHAT of content learning. The studies of eminent theorists such as Bruner,
Vygotsky and Wood does not always influence classroom practice.
CLIL, which is built on potential synergos, demands an analysis of what is meant by effective pedagogies in different contexts.
In recent years, many Western societies uses a pedagogic model called “banking model” (Freire, 1972), where the teacher
deposits information and skills into the memory of the learner. This is teacher-controlled and teacher-led.
Alternatively, social-constructivist approaches emphasize on a more student-centred experience, encouraging a more active
learning. It is interactive, mediated and student-led. Learners interact with teachers and their learning is scaffolded by someone
or something more “expert” that does not necessarily mean that is the teacher. It can be other learners or resources. When
learners accommodate cognitive challenge, they are more likely to become engaged in interacting with “expert” others to
develop their individual thinking. The learners are in the ZPD type of learning: it is challenging but yet potentially within reach of
individual learners as long as support, scaffolding and guidance are provided (this term was introduced by Vygotsky in 1978).
Let’s have a look at what we understand by ´scaffolding´. Scaffolding is the steps teachers take to support learners so that they
can understand new content and develop new skills. Vygotsky wrote that what learners can do today with support, they can do
alone tomorrow (quoted in Gibbons, 2008). Some learners need more support than others or they need to be supported for
longer. Other learners may need support on one subject but not on the other.
* See Appendix: The learning of content
4.2. SCAFFOLDING LEARNING
The key question is: “How can we scaffold learning”?
- considering the language we use

8. - creating interest
- breaking down tasks into small steps
- providing before, during and after task support
- using visuals and realia
- demonstrating tasks
- using word banks, glossaries, sentence substitution tables, writing frames
- using model texts for production of language
- providing constructive feedback.
Scaffolding listening and reading Scaffolding speaking and writing
- pre-listening and pre-reading activities to - talking about what will be said or written
contextualise. - provide listening and reading models before
- predicting speaking or writing.
- pre-teach or elicit new vocabulary. - Help notice the language to be used.
- Underline key language (words or sentences). - Use visual organisers to brainstorm
- Discussing the use of certain language. - Encourage collaborative work
- Using visual organisers to use while reading or - Focus on the audience and the motive.
listening.
- Providing a wide range of listenings and reading
texts.
It is important to always build on the content and the language learners already know.
* See Appendix: Scaffolding content and language learning
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4.3. MORE ABOUT SCAFFOLDING
With listening tasks, it is helpful to provide tables, grids, schedules or diagrams to be completed so that the students are guided
towards what precisely to listen out for. And this works with songs too!
With speaking tasks, students can usefully be given role-play cards or cue cards so that they are not lost for words when
required to participate in interactive tasks with classmates. These props can be removed, of course, once the students have
rehearsed their dialogues and have the confidence to speak unaided.
Proficient readers access the meaning of text by building up a global understanding of what they are reading as they go along –
rather than by decoding the meaning of each individual word in turn. In order to give our students practice in reading skills
development, we should work a lot on the pre-reading stage. We can ask our students to:
- Examine the title of the reading or a picture related to it and predict what the text will be about.
- Focus on the meaning of key words that will appear in the text,
- Examine the overall organisation of a factual or argumentative piece of writing by identifying the topic sentence and
controlling idea of each paragraph before reading it right through.
- Guess how a story will end, etc.
Writing requires the most extensive scaffolding. This is not surprising as it is a task in quadrant D of Cummins’ quadrant.
If students are required to describe what happens in a series of pictures, the teacher can elicit what is happening and can write
key words and expressions on the board. Then students can repeat the story orally before retelling it in written form. For more
creative writing, you can use pictures or drawings to set a mood on the students and they can brainstorm words they would like
to use in their own stories. For essays following a specific format, students can brainstorm ideas relevant to the given topic in

9. small groups. Then, in discussing it with the whole class, the teacher can group the ideas in a logical format by using headings,
columns, boxes, arrows, and so on.
* See Appendix: Scaffolding according to Rose Senior
With appropriate scaffolding, students are likely to complete challenging tasks successfully and to a higher standard. And what is
more important is that students will eventually be able to work on their own without having to use the scaffolding.
PART 5: COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT (FROM CLIL, DO
COYLE, PHILIP HOOD, DAVID MARSH, CUP, 2010).
For content learning to be effective learning, students must be cognitively engaged. Teachers must involve learners in their own
learning and this implies that they must be aware of their own learning.
In a CLIL classroom students will be required to cooperate with each other and work effectively in groups in order to use their
strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. These life skills cannot be left to develop by chance. Instead, they must be
supported. Learners must learn to deal with the unexpected, observational skills and constructing knowledge.
Besides, evidence shows that, to raise achievement levels, learners have to be intellectually challenged in order to transform
information and ideas, to solve problems, to gain understanding and to discover new meaning. In other words, they must be
challenged with HOT (Higher-order thinking) activities.
5.1. WHAT ARE COGNITIVE SKILLS?
Cognitive skills or thinking skills are the processes our brains use when we think and learn. They develop from a very young age.
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Learners progress from information processing or concrete thinking skills such as identifying and organising information (the
what, when, where, which, who and how many questions) to abstract thinking such as reasoning and hypothesising (the why
and what if questions).
Learners need to develop a range of cognitive skills as well as language for thinking.
They also need to develop CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency) so that they can study curriculum subjects in L2.
We have already learned that for the students to develop thinking skills, they need progressively challenging tasks. With CLIL,
they also benefit from a language-rich classroom which helps them to think and learn well. They need their time to take things
in. This is called the Wait time (they need the opportunity to stop, think and process) and finally, teachers need to see if the
tasks ask for the right level of cognitive demands.
* See Appendix: Cognitive Skills
5.2. DEVELOPING COGNITIVE SKILLS
But the question is HOW CAN DEVELOP COGNITIVE SKILLS IN THE CLASSROOM?
Through tasks and challenges appropriate to the subject and through effective questioning that will help learners make
associations and to think more deeply.
But WHAT KIND OF QUESTIONS CAN WE ASK IN THE CLIL CLASSROOM?
Types of thinking Types of questions
For concrete thinking:
- Defining: what is a shark?
- Recalling facts: where do they live? / name parts of a fish
For reasoning thinking:

10. - Examining parts and how they relate Why can’t fish live on land?
For creative thinking:
- Imagining
For Abstract thinking:
- Finding patterns and connections. What are the similarities and differences between fish and
amphibians?
For evaluative thinking:
- Judging 3 things you learned in the classroom.
5.3. EXAMPLES OF COGNITIVE SKILLS (from the TKT Course CLIL Module)
COGNITIVE SKILLS CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES EXAMPLE ACTIVITY
Remembering (thinking about Recall, recite, recognise, relate, spell, Take turns to recite a verse from the poem
things you know) tell about autumn (literacy).
Identifying (showing a Identify, label, list, locate, match, Name three different types of musical
relationship between things) name instrument you can see in the picture
(music).
Ordering (putting things in Order, organise, sequence Write the dates on the time-line in the
particular places) order of when they happened (history).
Rank ordering (putting in order Order, put, place Put the statements in order of importance
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of size, importance, success, to describe what makes an ideal farmer
etc.) (geography).
Defining (saying what Define, explain, outline, show, What kind of colours did you use to paint
something or someone is). translate the landscape? (art)
Comparing and contrasting Compare, contrast, distinguish, Find three similarities and differences
(finding similarities and investigate the similarities and between your capital city and one in
differences) differences another continent (geography).
Dividing (separating into smaller Divide, separate, share I’m going to divide the class into teams of
groups) six to play volleyball. (PE).
Classifying (putting things into Classify, categorise, decide which Classify the rocks into different groups.
groups according to their group, put into (science)
features)
Predicting (saying what you Predict, think about, guess Predict what will happen when more water
think will happen) is added to the solution. (science)
Hypothesising (suggesting what Suggest, decide, imagine, suppose If global electronic systems broke down,
could happen or have happened suggest what could happen (ICT)
without knowing if it is true)
Reasoning (thinking why, what Choose, conclude, decide, explain, Justify the increase in spending on wages
causes and what results in justify, recommend, solve last year (economics).
something)
Creative thinking / synthesis Imagine, build, change, compose, Invent a new symbol for saving water
(producing imaginative ideas or create, describe, design, invent, make (citizenship)
thoughts from previous

11. knowledge) up, plan, produce, suppose
Evaluating (saying is something Assess, comment on, give an opinion, Read your partner’s report on wind farms
is good, useful, effective or not) judge, rate and comment on how clearly it was written
(environment)
PART 6: GRAPHIC ORGANISERS
6.1. TYPES OF GRAPHIC ORGANISERS
Graphic organizers can be selected according to the type of task which learners need to do. Learners might need examples
of language which can be used with different organizers. There are several common patterns. If you browse the internet for
the following names you will see how to use them and what they look like:
- bar chart
- binary key
- Carroll diagram
- Cycle
- Mind map
- Flow diagram or flow chart
-
-
Grid
Line graph
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- Pie chart
- Process / cause-effect diagram
- Quadrants
- Storyboard
- T-chart
- Table
- Time-line
- Tree diagram
- Venn diagram 1
- Venn diagram 2
We need to decide which organiser is the most effective for the task. What is the purpose of the organiser? Is it to classify, to
describe, to give examples, to explain a process, to identify, to show the order of events, to show cause-effect relationships or to
show similarities and differences?
For example, if learners have to show the similarities and differences between for two deserts in different countries, what would
the best graphic organiser be? Do you know? Not yet? Well, I will help you: Venn diagram 1!
To do a Venn diagram you can use hula-hoops or you can also do them on the walls. You can be creative! You must be creative!
The benefits of using graphic diagrams are endless. Tony Buzan is an educator who was the creator of the mind map and it is
said he was able to teach very difficult students! Look for his biography in the Wikipedia!

12. Organise and
Increase manage Problem solve
comprensión observations, and integrate
and improve research and their thinking
recall of factual opinions reading and
information writing
processes
Support Show
listening to / Students use understanding
following an graphic of written
explanation by organisers to: information,
the teacher organise ideas
to make
posters.
Understand Practice HOTS
how pieces of and apply the
information are skills to real-life
Support their
related situtations
speaking about
some
information
Promote clearer
thinking about
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Provide Support
students with a how to present learners
visual link information and understanding
between ideas. of information
thinking and they listen to or
information read about
Illustrate and Help students
explain abstract teachers use
organise ideas
relationships graphic
before writing
between ideas organisers to:
or making
which help presentations
learner’s
and posters
comprehension
Provide a visual Evaluate
link between key student
vocab and progress
sentence Review
patterns for materials as a
understanding / post-reading
speaking about activity
ideas
* See Appendix: Types of Graphic Organisers.

13. 6.2. WHY USE GRAPHIC ORGANISERS?
Learners need “process skills” to interact successfully with content.
Learners need to develop “thinking skills” (LOTS and HOTS) as well as language skills.
How learners interact with content relies on the development of “process skills”
For example, in science:
- Preparing for task: questioning, predicting
- Carrying out task: gathering and recording evidence by observing and using information sources
- Reviewing/reporting on task: interpreting evidence and drawing conclusions, communicating and reflecting
On the carry out stage: at this stage the recording and interpretation of evidence or data, known as data-handling, is an
important stage.
The ability to put information into categories can be encouraged by using graphic organizers, or visual representation of data.
- They reduce the cognitive and linguistic load for the learner allowing them to focus on the key aspects of the ideas
involved.
- Organizers show learners how information is related, rather than organised as isolated facts.
- Learners are more likely to remember the content when it is presented with clear colours, shapes and/or images
(Glyphs & pictograms for young learners for example / mindmaps, flowchart, or graphs for older learners).
- They provide the necessary scaffolding that is critical to content based learning.
- They engage learners in more active learning and consequently increase learner motivation. 13
* See Appendix: Why use graphic organisers?
PART 7: LANGUAGE USED IN CLIL
7.1. TYPES OF LANGUAGE
7.1.1. LANGUAGE OF LEARNING - It is content-obligatory language. Subject specific.
* See Appendix: The Language by Subject.
7.1.2. LANGUAGE THROUGH LANGUAGE
It is not content-obligatory. It is not a language to support learning but it is the language they can learn in addition during the
lesson. It is the “cherry on the cake”. It is language students may choose to learn. It is peripheral / cultural-embedded language.
It makes the students’ language richer.
7.1.3. LANGUAGE FOR LEARNING
It is content-compatible language. It is the language the students need outside the classroom. It is functional language to
support learning. It allows students to express learning, to communicate, to follow instructions or to give instructions.
Certain activities require more content-obligatory language than others. We need to be aware of the type of language needed
for each activity and pre-teach some vocabulary if necessary.
For instance, in the pyramid of thinking process, where the HOTS are at the top and the LOTS are at the bottom, we could say
that “three in a row” is a more content-obligatory activity and “thunks” are more functional-language like.

14. The language of giving instructions is an example of Language for Learning. The main things to consider when planning/giving
instructions are:
- Grade language
- Remain consistent (use language learners will recognise as “instruction”).
- No overload learners – needs to know basis
- Break instructions down to optimize understanding
- Use clear/slow delivery
- Check instructions repeatedly throughout the process (Y/N questions)
- Use demo/examples
- Use gesture/mime
- Involve learners
- Script instructions when not used to giving them in English
- Stretch the learners by adding “new” language as time goes on.
* See Appendix: Language for Learning
* See Appendix: Talks and Presentations
7.2. THUNKS
What are thunks? Thunks are frown from Independent Thinking’s work in Philosophy for Children and have been used with
thousands of young people to get them thinking deeply and critically.
They are questions where there are no rights or wrongs and they are hugely liberating for young people and generate levels of
thinking that you often don’t achieve with traditional “guess what’s in the teacher’s head” type question and answering where
there are right or wrong answers.
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Examples of thunks are:
- is there more future or past?
- Is black a colour?
- If I switch the lights off does the wall change colour?
Have fun playing around with these “thought” at http://www.independenthinking.co.uk/Cool+Stuff/Thunks/default.aspx
* See Appendix: Thunks
PART 8: LESSON PLANNING
8.1. WHY DO WE PLAN LESSONS?
- to meet the students needs and cater for different styles
- to avoid boredom of students
- to be organised
- to keep a record of what you have done
- to control the time
- to assess students performances
- to create interesting classes and surprise the students
- to fulfil the curriculum syllabuses
- to set targets
- to develop as a teacher
- to take risk and enjoy
- to structure your lesson: lead-in, task, revision

15. - to collect materials
- to plan for scaffolding
- to support the lots and hots
- to ensure quality
- to incorporate different methods and resources
- to be prepared to deliver the class.
It is not good not to prepare the class but some risk-taking is ok. However you feel more able to take risks when you have
prepared your class because you feel comfortable.
You must also be prepared to lessen the anxiety but if you are not following the plan because something interesting comes up,
we don’t need to worry. If you are not anxious you can be more creative.
Also, bear in mind that a lesson is not a collection of activities. It needs a lead-in, a task, etc.
When you start preparing a lesson you can do a mind-map.
A good metaphor or a lesson plan is a ROAD MAP. It may change directions but you know where you want to end up. It can also
be seen as a MENU A LA CARTE.
8.2. PAGE 1 OF A LESSON PLAN
Learning outcomes - the aim. The students need to know…
(expressed in three lines) - by the end of the lesson the students should be able to…
- the learners should be aware of…
List of different types of
activities
15
Resources
Language learning (which - In a CLIL plan, you must differentiate between content-obligatory and content-
lg are they acquiring?) compatible language
Thinking verbs in bloom’s
taxonomy
Assessment
* See Appendix: Page 1 of a lesson plan
* See Appendix: Page 1 of a lesson plan b
* See Appendix: Planning a Lesson
8.3. PAGE 2: PROCEDURE PAGE
This is the page where you explain the activities. In short, common denominators when planning lessons are:
1. Content
2. Teaching aims
3. learning outcomes:
o learners should know
o learners should be able to
o learners should be aware
4. Assessment: in relation to above (3)
o can the learners
5. Communication
o vocabulary: revisited/activated – new

16. o structures
o functions
6. in relation with above (5)
o examples of communication (interaction/task)
7. Cognition (cognitive skills) and examples
8. Resources
o materials (sources), activities
9. procedure:
o sequence of stages and steps
* See Appendix: Lesson Plan Procedures
8.4. EXAMPLE OF A CLIL LESSON
As an example of a CLIL lesson, let’s take “The History of Money”
Start by engaging the students and establishing the topic with a lead-in activity. It must be quick and effective in establishing the
topic and it can’t be demanding.
For example, show a bank-note or a coin and ask what it is for.
Then, pre-teach vocabulary. It should be student led or S-S. You can play a word-definition game, use realia, elicit the vocabulary
from the students, play the “odd one out” (this is critical thinking because you have to justify. It is also analysing and evaluating
thinking too).
The activity will held around a text with gaps. 16
Task 1: skimming – get the general idea/gist of the text. 2 minutes to read the text and try to remember 3 or 4 facts about the
text.
Task 2: Fill in the gaps. Understand the text. Detailed / demanding task.
Task 3: Reading comprehension questions. The level of challenging mustn’t be very high. So, questions should not be difficult to
answer. If you’d like to challenge the students a bit more, they could answer the questions in pairs without looking at the text or
you can make the last question a bit more difficult.
Task 4: Follow-up activity with a HOT activity.
- Ask the students to do a survey to find out what teenagers spend their money on and ask them to do a report, a
composition or a presentation on that.
- Lead a discussion on “the danger of credit: is it best cash or credit card?” and follow it with a writing or a presentation.
- Ask the students to do a summary in groups.
- Imagine or hypnotise: Life in the future. Create a new means of payment and do a presentation to explain it.
* See Appendix: Example – Challenging prejudice and discrimination.
* See Appendix: Example – The History of Money Worksheet
* See Appendix: Example – Geography Lesson
* See Appendix: Example - Ecosystems