dogme workshop materials

©OTTI Dogme Workshop Winter 2011

The workshop is part of teacher training offered by

Online Teacher Training Institute

http://www.ihonlinetraining.net/

Many thanks to all the teachers

for active participation, sharing their ideas and thoughts on Dogme ELT!

Ania Rolinska

Workshop creator and facilitator

[email protected]

DOGME MATERIALS

Dogme ELT related readings might be accessed on my diigo site

(http://www.diigo.com/user/anzbau/dogme). If you find any good resource related to the topic

please email me so that the library continues growing. Examples of Dogme in Practice lessons are

particularly welcome!


DOGME VOWS OF CHASTITY

The following is the workshop participants’ take on the Dogme Vows of Chastity. The original

film-related vows are in the bubbles on the left. What comes on the right-hand side is the ELT

equivalent.

Particular thanks go to Sonia Mysak, Charlotte Osborne, Dennis Grynnerup and Estelle Huxley

for help with finalising the vows.

The sound must

never be produced

apart from the

image or vice-

versa.

Lessons should be conducted in the classroom

with only the items found there. Excursions can

occur if requested by the students. Teaching

should be materials-free (or at least materials-

lite). The primary resource should be the student.

Shooting must be

done on location.

Props and sets must

not be brought in.

Listening practice is restricted to that which can

be produced in the classroom. However, as

exposure to different accents is beneficial, sound

recordings can be used if they come from an

authentic source and are not highly scripted or

recorded especially for teaching purposes.

The whiteboard marker must be handheld and

serve to provide a record of the language that

emerges in the lesson. The whiteboard can be

divided up in whatever way is deemed

appropriate.

The film must be in

colour. Special

lighting is not

acceptable.

The camera must be

handheld. Any

movement or mobility

attainable in the hand

is permitted.

Optical work

and filters are

forbidden.

The lesson must be flexible and not

rigidly adhering to a lesson plan.

The role of the teacher as a filter of the emerging language

is forbidden, but he/she must remain culturally sensitive

and can return to more detailed grammatical points in

future lessons if it is deemed more appropriate. Teaching /

Learning must reflect the reality in which the students find

themselves. This means, for example, that ‘Elementary’

students might learn vocabulary / grammar that is not

considered Elementary.


The lesson must not contain artificial language,

especially in given examples of grammatical

structures - get them from the students. The

tasks should be meaningful and realistic,

devoid of anything that does not aid students

from finding their own voice.

The film must not

contain superficial

action.

Temporal and

geographical

alienation are

forbidden.

Temporal and geographical alienation are

permitted only when they arise due to the

emergent language in conversations conducted

in the lesson. Main focus though should be on

local not global culture.

The director must

not be credited.

The film format

must be Academy

35mm.

Genre movies are

not acceptable.

Genre, or topic-based lessons are acceptable

as long as they are based on current events or

events that have been brought up by the

students and encourage students interaction.

The lesson format must be based on real

interaction between the student and their peers

and the teacher. It involves a set-up (stimulus

provided by students’/teacher’s life, run (focus

on conversation) and round-up (work on

emergent language).

The ELT classroom is learner- not teacher-centred. The

teacher does not impart knowledge but is a facilitator and

aid, scaffolding the student’s learning. The teacher does

not try to impose their own learning preferences and habits

onto their students. The teacher must not be credited with

the students progress as true learning occurs when

learners do their own practice/ revision and can internalise

the language that has emerged in the class.


LESSON PLAN*

This lesson was written for a multi-lingual A1 adult class. The school runs a rolling programme, so

some students have been there for months, others only a week, therefore it is hard to follow a

systematic syllabus.

Think about it

The class was made up of A1 level students, most of whom were staying in the UK long term and

immediately needed ‘survival’ English. They had already had a number of functional language lessons,

so were comfortable with the concept and willing to participate in role plays and brainstorm ideas.

Get it ready

A3 sheets of paper (for brainstorming) and small pieces of paper (for vocabulary).

Set it up

Introduce/revise shop names. In 2 groups ask students if they like shopping, where they go and the

things they buy. Make a record of vocabulary for use later in the lesson.

Let it run

1. Split students into groups and give them a piece of A3 paper with a shop written on it (1 is a

clothes shop, 1 is a grocers and 1 is a newsagents).

2. Get them to write down what they would buy in theses shops, circulate and feed in language (e.g. a

packet of, a bottle of, a pair of, a couple of etc keep a record on the board and vocab cards). Each

piece of paper is circulated so that every group can write on it.

3. Get students to say how they would ask for things in shops, what they would do if there was a

problem, how they think they could make it better (e.g. the trousers are too small/big, can I try

these on, not those cigarettes, a kilo of oranges etc again write on board and vocabulary cards).

FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE

FOR SHOPPING

presented by

Catherine Palgrave

Teacher @ IH Newcastle


4. Using the language generated, write phrases on the board and do some pronunciation practice.

Make it clear that here are what they will say and what they will hear.

5. Role play shops, monitor and collect any errors.

Round it off

Error correction on the board and vocabulary revision using the cards produced during the lesson.

Follow-up

Get students to write shopping lists and do further role play.

If they want we could go into the City Centre and practice buying some things.

Variation

Students can brainstorm the shops they go to regularly, or the type of things they buy so the teacher

can tell them the name of the shops.

Students could bring a recipe they like and write a shopping list for the ingredients then role play, this

could lead onto the language of cooking / imperatives / instructions.

POST SCRIPTUM

After the lesson Catherine said:

I started off the lesson with a bit about how I felt when I went shopping in Hungary before I knew enough

language to talk to anyone, and how I would go to supermarkets even though I didn't like them because I didn't

have to talk to anyone! I set the scene of the clothes shop much in the same vein and told them that I would

run away from shop assistants or just blush, clearly they feel the same, so I think it worked. I think they

realised that:

a) it is normal to feel like that

b) they were going to get something useful in the lesson

c) I don't always know the answers!

*Dogme Lesson/Activity Plan is based on the template from Teaching Unplugged by Thornbury and

Meddings (2009)


LESSON PLAN*

This lesson was written for a General English adult class at an intermediate + level.

Think about it

Opportunity to review vocabulary related to ‘education’ and to review question forms & pronunciation

of contracted forms in connected speech.

Get it ready

Slips of paper for students to write down questions for later discussion.

Set it up

Set up classroom so students are in a horse-shoe shape, or in any way that they can communicate

openly and still have access to a board.

Let it run

Write ‘Education’ on the board.

Ask students in groups to make a list of any vocabulary they know related to the topic.

Teacher notes down this vocabulary on the board.

Teacher asks a question e.g. How did you get to school ? Students reply to each other & report back to

Teacher.

Teacher asks students what question did she ask? Note it down on board. Highlight tense &

pronunciation features. Drill contracted form.

Teacher asks students in groups to write 5 questions using their brainstormed vocabulary on slips of

paper.

Groups swap papers and make any corrections necessary. Students report questions to teacher.

SCHOOL MEMORIES

presented by

Clare Burke

Teacher @ IH Milan


Teacher focuses on language & makes corrections as necessary, analyses pronunciation points through

eliciting, and discriminating between citation form & natural speech.

Teacher asks students to ask questions in groups and discuss their own experiences.

Teacher notes down examples of good language and errors.

Round it off

Delayed error correction stage on board where students decide which examples of language are correct

and correct anything they find as errors based on teacher’s notes in discussion stage. Finish by asking

students who had the funniest or strangest school experience.

Follow-up

Students’ slips of paper can be kept for review at a later date so they can see their progression

concerning question forms.

Variation

Students tell three short anecdotes about their school days of which one is false. Other students must

identify which is false by asking questions about each story to try and catch the student out.


Meddings (2009)


LESSON PLAN*

This lesson is for learners at pre-intermediate level upwards. Its main aim is to get the students

present a famous person they admire from their country and answer questions about them

Think about it

I feel teachers often use a lot of readings/listening about the target language culture, which are

interesting to students, but are chosen by the teacher themselves (or course books). Also, teachers

generally choose what questions/language points are going to be focused on in relation with these

texts. At the same time, students always seem very motivated to share their knowledge about their

own country (and I think this removes their attention on/fear of accuracy, because they feel confident

about the subject, therefore they are more likely to develop their fluency).

Get it ready

Before the actual Dogme lesson/lessons, the teacher chooses 2 authentic articles on people they

admire, but no pre-written questions and a photo of each celebrity. For the Dogme lesson/lessons,

students have to research information (in the target language if possible) regarding a person they

admire, they can bring articles on this person or show clips about them on the IWB during their

presentations (but this is not compulsory if one wants to stick to a material free lesson).

Set it up

Part one : non (strictly) dogme lesson

1. Show the class the 2 photos of the celebrities you chose (they should at least have heard about

them). They have to say their name.

2. Split the class in 2. Each group writes what they know/want to know about one celebrity, then give

their questions to the other group.

PRESENTATIONS

OF A PERSON YOU ADMIRE

presented by

Estelle Huxley

ML Teacher Trainer & TT

Coordinator @ IH London


3. Each group reads the text on the celebrity and tries to answer the questions of the other group (no

use of dictionary and quick reading for gist of their text to see if they can find answers to the other

group’s questions).

4. Each group tells the other group what questions they could answer.

5. Group A swap texts with group B and (they can use dictionaries), each group writes questions that

can be answered by reading the text (they can be comprehension questions or questions on

expressions or vocabulary used in the text).

6. They swap texts again and answer each other’s questions (obviously there is monitoring and

help/correction/clarification of language between each stage).

Let it run

Part 2 : dogme lesson

1. At home, students research information on the person they admire from their own country (if

possible in the target language and if possible not a very well known person). They prepare a

presentation either by writing or orally for the next lesson (they are free to choose the format of

their presentation but know they will be asked questions by the other students). They can look up

specific words/expressions they need to in the dictionary.

2. In class, they first present their famous person to one student, who asks questions during or after

the presentation.

3. They swap who makes the presentation.

4. They swap partners and first report on the presentation from their first partner, then present their

own (this can be repeated several times). The teacher monitors each stage and, between each

partner swap, they is a language focus (new vocabulary, mistakes, grammatical points). On this

occasion, I chose to focus on false friends.

Round it off

At the end, there is a question time about each of the celebrities to the person whose presentation it

was and they can show clips on that person, give out articles etc. By this time, each student feels very

confident in front of the whole classroom and most of them will naturally stand up and use the

board/interactive board.

Follow-up

Because I had chosen to focus on false friends, I suggested a project to my students where they will

compile false friends they encountered and kept a table where they would put the definition of the

target language false friend and an example + the translation of the L1 false friend in their language.

Variation

All types of presentations.


POST SCRIPTUM

After the lesson Estelle said:

Just a couple of comments : students really enjoyed it, and I found choosing texts themselves and researching

information in the target language for their presentation made them use very interesting,

meaningful expressions/vocab that everyone else learnt and enjoyed discovering.

I have reservations on the language focus stage : because it is from emerging language, I feel it is not much

more that a clarification of meaning/use and, even though I asked students to give me other examples of the

structures/vocab, I felt it lacked practice... that said, they reused a lot of them when they swapped partners...

but I'm still not convinced about this stage and feel I want to reach for a "proper" grammar exercise, but surely

that would not be Dogme anymore...


Meddings (2009)


LESSON PLAN*

This 60-minute lesson was written for a company course – a small group of adults , accountants and IT

specialists at a low intermediate level.

Think about it

Students have been asking to work on articles (a key problem area for Czech students). They also need

to practise their writing skills.

Get it ready

SS need to find a photo and bring it to class.

Set it up

Ensure that all SS have a photo. If not, give them a small selection to choose from on my computer.

Let it run

1. Students have ten minutes to write a description of the photo. They can ask for any language they

need.

2. Students switch texts with another pair.

3. Looking at their classmates’ texts, students highlight (but do not correct) any problems with

articles.

4. Return the text to the writer. In pairs, they go through the problems. If they are not sure why

something is a problem, they can check with the group that marked their text.

5. Class discussion highlighting any issues with articles that arose from the text.

Round it off

As a class, we create a list of rules for when to use a / an / the / no article based on the students’ texts.

ARTICLES IN DESCRIPTIONS

presented by

Sandy Millin

Teacher @ ILC IH Brno


Follow-up

For homework, students go to www.fotobabble.com, upload a photo and record up to one-minute of

speaking to describe their photo. SS without a microphone can email me a picture and record sound on

their mobile phone / write about the picture.

Variation

Other areas of grammar could be highlighted if they prove to be a problem (e.g. there is / are)

POST SCRIPTUM

After the lesson Sandy said:

On Friday I taught a lesson which I planned as my first conscious attempt at a Dogme-style class. I've

attached the lesson plan, and here are my thoughts:

Only 2 of the 5 students came, which meant we were able to focus in even greater depth on the problems the

students had. Everything seemed to go well. The students responded enthusiastically and were surprised at

how much they could learn from writing only 7-10 lines of text! I really feel this is an approach I can use more effectively based on the materials we've covered during the

workshop. It gave me the confidence to approach a Dogme lesson in a structured way. Definitely something I

will be incorporating more in my teaching, although I'm still thinking about the best way to approach it long-

term with higher-level students.

Thank you!


Meddings (2009)


WORKSHOP PLAN*

This is a teacher training session to help teachers at your school familiarise themselves with the

concept of Dogme teaching. It’s a team-led workshop (4 presenters).

Get it ready

A4 sheets of paper.

Set it up

Presenter 1 reads out 3 questions:

1. Is it possible to sacrifice a lesson plan if a student has a good story to tell?

2. Is it possible to go to the lesson completely unprepared?

3. Is t possible to plan a lesson with no materials?

After each question trainee teachers go to 3 different corners of the room (‘It's possible’ corner, ‘It's

impossible’ corner and ‘I'm not sure’ corner). Then they discuss why they think so, followed by brief

open feedback.

This activity is based on one of the activities offered in ‘Teaching Unplugged’. The conclusion is that the

seminar will show that all these are possible.

Let it run

STEP 1

Presenter 2 Introduces DOGME and 4 experts (History of Dogme; Dogme is conversation driven, Dogme

is focused on emergent language and Dogme is materials-light). Trainees are divided into four groups

and experts join each group for 5 minutes and talk/answer questions. This is followed by open feedback

– presenters answer questions, which in fact might be challenging Dogme.

DOGME TEACHER TRAINING

SESSION

presented by

Natasha Sedounova,

Anastasia Shender, Alina

Kuznetsova & Lena

Tyutina from IH Minsk


STEP 2

Presenter 3 shows a 3-minute video clip of a Dogme lesson or gives an article describing a Dogme

lesson. Questions for the focus: What did the students learn? How did the teacher and the students

feel?

STEP 3

Presenter 4 gives out scrap A4 paper, trainees fold it to make 4 sections. Presenters give examples of

Dogme activities (chosen from ‘Teaching Unplugged’) and trainees take notes and share them with

other groups.

Round it off

Each presenter talks about how the idea of teaching unplugged changed them and their teaching, giving

real examples from their practice

Follow-up

Trainees design and do a Dogme lesson and prepare to talk about it in the next swap seminar.


Meddings (2009)

dogme workshop materials

Education

students interaction

sosome students

students findoptical

split students

otti dogme workshop

examples of dogme

lesson format

dogme vows of chastitythe