Handbook-informed classroom practice
Express a Testable Conditional
Use if to connect a proposed condition to a prediction.
A completed model
“If the ramp is steeper, the trolley may travel farther under the same release conditions.” This is a prediction to test, not a guarantee or an instruction to run an unapproved practical.
Ramp steepness
Distance may increase
Release conditions
Original teaching example; adapt the subject context and check prior understanding.
Teach the language move
- Identify the condition being changed and the outcome predicted.
- Keep relevant comparison conditions explicit.
- Write the prediction with a suitably cautious modal.
- Compare the prediction with illustrative results and revise if needed.
Preparation
Display the short model and prepare a fresh transfer example. Establish any subject vocabulary needed before focusing on the language move.
Use it in your next lesson
Give the original model, then ask learners to complete the organiser using their own wording. Discuss one difference between paired responses before the individual check.
Your response organiser
Check independent transfer
Use a new supplied scenario and require condition, predicted outcome and a comparison control.
Record what the learner did without a model, prompt or partner. Keep an example of the response for planning.
Teacher language
Which condition changes, and what do you predict rather than know?
Follow up without supplying the answer
Ask the learner to point to the evidence, explain their word choice or identify the missing information. Allow thinking time before inviting a revised response.
Feedback focus
First check the subject meaning. Then address one language choice that affects that meaning; ask for a fresh use rather than repeated copying.
Adjust support and challenge
More support: read the model aloud, offer a small word bank and allow familiar-language notes or partner rehearsal before an English response. Keep the reasoning goal.
Less support: remove the completed organiser, change the evidence or audience and ask for an independently justified response.
Age and proficiency: the example is designed for secondary subject learning. Use a simpler familiar context with younger learners; an English proficiency label alone does not determine the subject demand.