Teaching secondary
school aged students

Tasks in Blocks

What and Why?

A situation which often arises in teaching is that students, working either in groups or alone, finish before each other. This may not be a problem. There is no particular reason, for example, why students should have to be kept 100% busy, 100% of the time. In some cases, however, students may waste their time as they wait for others to catch up. This may lead to boredom, disenchantment with learning English and, in some cases, discipline problems. Putting tasks in blocks is a technique which ensures that students have something to go on to when they finish their work.

Practical ideas

• Before students start working, you can put two or three tasks together 'in a block'. Go through the tasks, explaining what they have to do in each one. As students finish one task, they can move on to the next.
• You can also put some tasks in blocks with the time to spare sections and the exercise box. Students will then have something to do when they finish the tasks.
• Putting tasks in blocks will give you more time for monitoring and guiding.
• You can give a time limit for the tasks. If they finish before, students can move on to anything else they wish, providing it is related to learning English. (See time to spare and exercise box)