Potential Difficulties Surveys require students to socialise and circulate freely around the classroom - not recommended in a class that is difficult to control. Considerable management is needed to get students to cooperate sufficiently to make a survey worthwhile. It also requires a lot of time, at least one hour, so it has to prove itself before it becomes a regular activity. What the Teacher Does During a survey the teacher frequently changes roles. The teacher sets up the activity from the front of the class, takes part in the class-circulation activity just like a student, assists students to plan their reports, provides examples to imitate and orchestrates a reporting back stage.
Students also adopt a variety of roles.
There are countless variations of the survey formula, but a possible step by step approach in four stages is provided below. The teacher introduces the task and helps students prepare. At this stage the teacher is probably controlling all student actions from the front of the class. Some kind of sheet like the one provided below is recommended to provide a focus for preparation. The teacher can then demonstrate possible survey questions to students in the whole-class session and get students to demonstrate their questions in interaction with the teacher.