Teaching secondary
school aged students

Decide Exercises

What and Why?

The Decide Exercises come in each Topic unit. They give the students a choice of what they can do next. One option is usually to decide for themselves what they want to do, see do it yourself. The students can do the Decide exercises alone, in pairs or in small groups. The exercises are designed as a first step in the students taking responsibility for their own learning (see student involvement).

Practical ideas

• Explain the choices clearly to the class before they start. Allow enough time for them to decide which task to do and how to work (alone/in pairs etc.)
• Make sure there is enough time left in the lesson to make a start.
• While the class is working go round and offer help if needed (see monitoring and guiding) If students finish before the others they use the time to spare, language record and the exercise box.