This is the first in a series of articles by our third Guest Contributor Barry Tomalin.

Visual representations of information are by no means an innovation in education. The use of graphs and charts to represent statistical information and time-lines showing the sequence of historical events have long been accepted tools, while in language teaching, the mind-map is already a common aid to brainstorming a topic.

Teaching in the primary classroom is very different from teaching teens or adults because of the amount of energy children have! Knowing how to channel this energy, or when to ‘stir' and when to ‘settle' children will help you achieve balanced lessons without children becoming over-excited on the one hand or bored on the other.

This is the last in a series of four articles which will explore how to integrate a task-based approach into a typical textbook to maximise learning opportunities for your learners and to save teacher preparation time.

This is the third in a series of four articles which will explore how to integrate a task-based approach into a typical textbook to maximise learning opportunities for your learners and to save teacher preparation time.

This is the second in a series of four articles which will explore how to integrate a task-based approach into a typical textbook to maximise learning opportunities for your learners and to save teacher preparation time.

This is the first in a series of four articles which will explore how to integrate a task-based approach into a typical textbook to maximise learning opportunities for your learners and to save teacher preparation time.

This article is in three parts. The first part has already looked at what a speaker needs to be able to do to use spoken English as an effective form of communication.

The four stage cycle
In my earlier articles Reading for information, Form focus and recycling, and Techniques for Priming and recycling, I set out a four stage cycle for teaching reading: