Planning and Teaching: CCQs

Concept check questions, or CCQs, are very important for teaching English as a language. These are questions you use to check the learners' understanding of the context and meaning at different points of the lesson. You should include your CCQs in your lesson plan and make sure you ask them during lessons. 

So how do you come up with CCQs? Well when you do your lesson plan and your language analysis you will highlight any words or concepts that you think could be a potential problem for students to understand. In your language analysis you will include a definition for words and phrases and this is what will help you to create those questions. 

• Look at the context of the word or phrase you are teaching
• What is the meaning?
• What could students think it means that it does not?

You can use these misunderstandings to come up with your questions. Your questions should be short and to the point. Answers should be short, for example yes or no or past, present or future etc.

CCQs check the students' understanding of the meaning and context of a word or phrase. They should be simple and not above the language level of the students. Do not use the word or phrase in your question!

If you are teaching grammar, your CCQs should be focused on the grammar point in the sentence in context from your lesson.

Grammar Lesson Structure: Guided Discovery

One way of structuring a grammar lesson is to use guided discovery. This is where you use examples followed by the meaning, form and pronunciation of the grammar and then practice of using the grammar. 

An example structure of a guided discovery lesson:

• Set the context using pictures and eliciting 
• Personalise the context by asking students to discuss their own experiences related to the topic
• Receptive task (listening or reading)
• Grammar: meaning
• Grammar: form
• Grammar: pronunciation
• Controlled practice (help students understand the use of the grammar with a limited task)
• Free practice: a productive task (writing or speaking) to help the students with forming the grammar themselves

Hint: remember to use your lesson plan and language analysis to help with all of this.

Language Analysis: Grammar

Example of the points to cover in a language analysis sheet for a grammar lesson:

Grammatical structure and define how it’s used

An example sentence of each structure from your lesson

What does it mean? What is it used for? Include CCQs and timelines for the meaning and uses of the grammar. Use examples from your lesson

Pronunciation: phonemic transcript- include relevant stress, contractions and weak forms for the grammar points

Pronunciation problems and solutions (may include guided discovery of form)

Structure of the form (include each element)

Type of lesson Guided discovery/text-based/test-teach-test

Past Simple Tense

Past simple uses different forms of 'be'.

I/he/she/it was or was not
You/we/they were or were not

For yes or no questions:

Invert the above so

Was he/she/I/is

Were you/they/we

Answers can include:

Yes I/he/she/they was

Yes you/they/we were

Or the negative for no (wasn't/weren't)

For wh- questions:

Who was I/she/he/they

Who were they/you/we

The form of 'be' may be followed by

• An adjective: I was cold
• A noun or noun phrase: I was asleep
• A prepositional phrase: I was behind the sofa

Pronouns

Subject pronouns come at the beginning of a sentence, before the verb.

Subject pronouns:

I

You

He/she/it

We

You (plural)

They

Object pronouns come after the verb. 

Object pronouns:

Me

You

Him/her/it

Us

You (plural)

Them

Relative pronouns:

That (things and people)

Which (things)

Who (people)

Whose (for possession of a person or thing, for example whose daughters liked to run)

Subjects and Objects

The subject of a sentence is the thing or person that is doing an action (the verb). An onject is the thing or person the verb is being done to. 

For example, I ate a sandwich. I (subject) ate (verb) a sandwich (object). 

 

A clause/sentence has to have a subject and a verb but not necessarily an object. 

For example, that dress looks great. That dress (subject) looks (verb) great (adjective). 

A sentence can have two clauses so it may have a subject + verb / subject + verb + object, for example. Clauses are linked by conjunctions. Example- I'm tired but I have to study for an exam. I'm (subject) tired (verb) but (conjunction) I (subject) have to study (verb) for an exam (object).

Determiners & Nouns- All About Nouns Part 2

 See part 1 here.

A

A is an indefinite article, for example, a drink (it is any drink, not a specific one). A is used for countable nouns. 

The

The is a definite article, it refers to a certain thing, for example, the shop (not any shop, you mean a specific one). The can be used for both countable and uncountable nouns. For example, the car, the traffic.

Some

Some can also be used for countable and uncountable nouns. For example, some cars, some traffic.

This

This is a demonstrative pronoun that can be used with countable and uncountable nouns. For example, this car, this traffic. If it is a plural countable noun, these is used. Example- these cars. 

Each/every

This can only be used for countable nouns. Example- each car, every car NOT each traffic, every traffic.

Much/many

Much is used for uncountable nouns and many is used for countable nouns. Example, there is not much traffic, there are many cars.

A little

This is only used for uncountable nouns. Example- there is a little traffic.

A few

A few is for countable nouns. Example- there are a few cars.

Summary

Determiners we only use with uncountable nouns: a little, much

Determiners we only use with countable nouns: a, many, a few, each, every, these

Determiners we can use for countable nouns and uncountable nouns- the, this, some

All About Nouns Part 1

 Nouns are used for

• People
• Places
• Things
• Qualities
• Concepts such as topics
• Feelings such as cold or hot

Nouns can be categorised in different ways:

Proper nouns or common nouns

Proper nouns use capital letters, these include countries, people, places, names of companies.
All other nouns are common nouns, these are every day objects such as chair, coffee, cup.

Concrete nouns or abstract nouns

Concrete nouns are things you can feel or touch such as a bed, the floor, your house.
Abstract nouns are ideas such as feelings and topics.

Note that nouns can come under multiple categories so for example, a bed is a common noun and a concrete noun.

Countable nouns or uncountable nouns

Uncountable nouns (sometimes called mass nouns or non-count nouns) are things that you cannot count such as the air, sand or water. 

Groups of certain things are uncountable for example money remains singular even if you are talking about having a lot of it, such as coins. Other examples of uncountable group nouns are traffic and sheep. (If you cannot add an 's' at the end, it is uncountable)

Countable or count nouns are things you can count such as vehicles, furniture or t-shirts.

Again nouns can come under different types and depending on the content in which it is used. 

Thought is an abstract noun that is also uncountable when it is used as 'I was deep in thought' but if it used as 'I had three thoughts', it is an abstract, countable noun.

T-shirts is a concrete, countable noun but clothing is a concrete, uncountable noun.

Note that in different languages, there are different definitions, so some nouns may be uncountable in English but in another language it is a countable noun (for example, when in another language, they add an 'a' before nouns that in English you would not).