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28 January 2007
Good Habits - idea for a lesson plan!
HI there!
I've been teaching about Good Habits this week to my beginner level. I'm afraid I can't post the lesson plan for copyright reasons. The lesson is based on a document taken from a school book so I don't want to have any problems with them by reproducing it.
Basically, they are several pictures representing a little monkey doing everyday actions (focusing on good habits): wash your hand before meals, brush your teeth after meals, make your bed after getting up, etc.
You can create such a document with pictures found on Google images, it shouldn't be too hard.
It allows you to teach "always, never, sometimes, often". I tried to find flahscards representing those adverbs but it's difficult. How to you want to represent "always"? My pupils never guessed so I have to translate into French. If you have any tips about that, you're welcome.
Anyway. You introduce the vocbulary of Good Habits then you give an example: "I always wash my hand before meals"... "What about you?" (I introduced "what about you?" recently, they love it!). Then it's their turn to talk about their good habits. Have them talk as much as possible (mine talked about it for nearly 30 minutes!!!).
Then you can do a kind of survey. You need to introduce the question: "do you often...?". Then make them choose three questions, write them down in a grid. Then they stand up, go and ask their friends about their good habits. Pupils should answer Yes I do, No I don't. Then we report: X never makeS his/her bed, Y always doES his/her homework, etc.
I have then a oral comprehension about a little girl having bad habits. But it's taken from the book again, sorry.
Hope it gave you some ideas still.
12:09 Posted in lesson plans | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: good habits, bad habits, frequency adverbs, beginners
25 January 2007
Asking and giving directions - a lesson plan
Today is a lesson plan to teach beginners/lower intermediate how to ask and give directions.
My lesson plan is based on a French school book but you basically need a map. A London map, a New York map, whatever suits you. It should be clear (pupils should be able to read the street names easily).
After looking at the map and describing it, you need to have a pairwork / roleplay. One student is a tourist, the other one is just a regular person living in the city. They can make up a dialogue in which the tourist asks for directions and the other one answers him. Make them stand as if they were in the street so that it's more realistic. I'm sure it's fun !
Enjoy !
5eme_Directions.2.pdf
21:14 Posted in lesson plans | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: giving and asking for directions, lesson plan, map
20 January 2007
Having your own classroom
I know what it feels like to have one's own classroom now. I asked... and I got it. I'm so happy! You can't imagine how nice it feels. It's a bit like feeling home. I can decorate, I can put tables and chairs as I want, I can move the desk, etc.
So I reorganized the classroom. I made a big U shape with 19 chairs and tables and a smaller U inside with 6 chairs. In front of the whiteboard are 2 chairs (for very talkative pupils!).
Why a U shape? For some of you (especially American readers I guess), it seems obvious. Well, here it's not, particularly in my school. All the classes, ALL of them are not in U shape, but in rows. A bit like this:
For a foreign language class, I think this is awful beause kids can't see each other and therefore talk to each other in English. They have to turn on their chairs, in uncomfortable positions. So I asked them to move the tables to create a U shape. But as I used to change room every day, tables had to be moved and re-moved again and again. It was a pain.
Now the problem doesn't exist any more.
The U shape makes sense, above all if you use groupwork with your pupils. I started using groupwork quite recently. I only had a vague idea of what it meant when I was a trainee. I never did it back then. Last November, somebody came into my class to see how I was doing. She encouraged me to use groupwork, to "maximise every pupil's speaking time". I was doubtful. Wouldn't they speak French? Would they be serious enough to do it ? Would it work? Well, I had to try. And it worked. And I try to do it more and more.
How does groupwork work?
Well, you need a simple communicative situation. For example, asking questions. Questions with a simple pattern (you can even do the questions beforehand so that they just need to ask them).
Let's take the "back from holidays" lesson plan. There were questions about preterit: what the pupils did during the holidays. We did a couple of questions together: Did you sleep a lot? Did you eat chocolate? Did you visit your family? etc. Then we wrote them in a grid which I had handed out.
I then expain the work in French to make sure everybody gets it. They have to stand up and go and ask questions to other pupils, all at the same time. Sure, there is some noise but come on... languages are made to be spoken. So they get up and they actually love asking each other's questions, more than I thought! The activity lasts about 5 minutes, not more. They have plenty of time to ask their questions several times, therefore practising the structure A LOT.
Then, they come back to their seats and tell the class what they found out.
It works great and I'm now convinced that it's the right way to do it. Surprinsingly enough, they don't speak that much French. Most of them speak English all the time. It's like a game for them.
I'm trying to find any situation to pracise this activity. I'm not doint it every week, but I'm trying to do more and more. With more practise, I guess I'll find more situations.
If your practise this, you'll realise that it makes sense to have a U shape. Pupils (and you!) can move much more freely. You also have more space.
While pupils are doing the groupwork, you just watch and help correct if needed. The beauty of it is that they do it on their own. they don't need you any more.
17:32 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this | Tags: groupwork, U shape, classroom, questions, oral activity
18 January 2007
two new lesson plans : to talk about capacities and habits
Two lesson plans today for beginners of English:
- talking about capacities (CAN - CAN'T, etc): 6eme_-_CAN.pdf
you'll need the following worksheet: worksheet_careers_advisor_interview.pdf
- talking about habits (simple present): 6eme-parler_de_ses_habitudes.pdf
You'll need the following MP3s: (click to download)
http://www.rogepost.com/n/0148496256
http://www.rogepost.com/n/4867723434
http://www.rogepost.com/n/3528929845
and the worksheet: http://www.rogepost.com/n/4477440336
ENJOY !
edit: forgot to tell you that the MP3 files are coming from Mary Glasgow Magazines website. They are samples that I've downloaded. They offer A LOT of samples, you should have a look.
20:00 Posted in lesson plans | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: lesson plans, present simple, habits, CAN, capacities, beginner level
14 January 2007
Lesson plan: Super Heroes
A new lesson plan today about Super Heroes. A great idea which I've found on : http://www.mes-english.com/vkeypals/supers.php.
Thanks a lot to Mark for this idea!
This lesson plan will allow you to talk about capacities, about superlative and physical description. You can then encourage your students to create their own super hero and talk about him/her. A great way for them to talk in English!
You will find the flashcards here.
Here is the lesson plan: SUPER_HEROES-5eme.pdf
Enjoy!
18:14 Posted in lesson plans | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: super hero, lesson plan, capacities, CAN, superlative, physical description, mes-english
09 January 2007
"Our future" - a lesson plan
Here is a new lesson plan talking about the future of our lives and society: how will they be in 50 or 100 years? That's what I'll propose to my pupils in 3ème form - second language. They are supposed to be lower-intermediate or intermediate but their level is very good so I'm doing quite ambitious texts and projetcs with them.
The starting point is an article found on www.oup.com/elt (they propose a lot of samples on this website so I can't give you the exact link but I'll put to file to download here).
It's an article about a huge ship which is going to be built to welcome a kind of small society. Maybe you've heard about the project.
The pdf file can't be mofidied, it's protected. So I just printed it and scanned it to modify it (I cut it out into 5 parts and cut out the image).
Then we'll watch an extract from "Back to the future II", a scene in which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) discovers his town in 2015. How did Robert Zemeckis (the director) imagine life in 2015? That's quite interesting to see.
Finally, I'll ask the pupils to tell me THEIR vision of the future (in an oral presentation).
This lesson plan is useful to introduce WILL (in nearly all forms) and other little things (personal expression, HOW questions, would like, etc).
The lesson plan:3eme-our_future.pdf
A worksheet (a grid to help read the article): 3eme-article_reading_grid.pdf
A sheet to project (would you like to live on the boat, pros and cons):3eme-article_pros_cons.pdf
and the article: the_perfect_place.pdf
19:02 Posted in lesson plans | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: future, lesson plan, ship of freedom, back to the future II
08 January 2007
Teaching resources - updated
I've just added the following websites on my teaching resources (click here or on the right of the page).
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/
http://www.absolutelyandy.com/tvadverts/
http://www.stripcreator.com/make.php#
http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine/classic.asp
http://interactives.mped.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=110&title
http://esl-images.com/index.asp
http://www.eslflashcards.com/
http://www.select-language.com/podcards/index.php
http://www.songsforteaching.com/
http://www.eslpages.com/
http://www.havefunteaching.com/
http://www.anglaisfacile.com/cours-videos-anglais.php
http://www.123certificates.com/
A lot of new and nice websites to visit!
18:03 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: teaching resources updated
06 January 2007
Back to school (after the Xmas holidays) - 2 lesson plans
Hello there!
Today I'm proposing two new lesson plans with the same topic: coming back to scool after the holidays (the Xmas holidays as far as we are concerned, but you can adapt).
For 6ème form (elementary level), this is just an introduction of the past tense. Holidays are indeed the perfect opportunity to talk about the past.
For 5ème form (pre-intermediate), I chose to focus on DID questions (did you...) and short answers. I also chose to talk about question tags as there are some in the listening I chose (which I can't provide I'm sorry but the references are in the lesson plans - don't hesitate to send me an email for further questions).
The lesson plans are still in French (sorry for my anglophone readers, if there are any - well, there's already you Brian! ;-)
6ème lesson plan:
6eme-holidays.pdf
5ème lesson plan:
5eme-xmas_holidays.pdf
A vocabulary worksheet (to project): holidays_activities.pdf
The last exercise in the "5ème" lesson plan is taken from www.onestopenglish.com and more exactly from this sheet : preterit.pdf
13:59 Posted in lesson plans | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: back to school, lesson plan, holidays, christmas holidays, preterit, past tense
01 January 2007
HAPPY NEW YEAR
I wanted to wish you all a
... 2007 !!!!
I've found a very funny and thoughtful video on Max's blog.
"Kiwi!" is an animation about a Kiwi - a type of bird that cannot fly, who spends its whole life working towards achieving his dream. The kiwi strived to create the illusion that it was flying over a forest as it soared down through the sky from the top of a cliff. Thus, the kiwi spent what must have been its whole life nailing trees to the side of a cliff. All this, to fulfil its one dream of flying, even though it was technically unable to. There are several powerful messages behind Kiwi, but mainly, it makes you think: no matter how absurd and seemingly out of reach your dreams are, what's stopping you from achieving them?"
May all your dreams come true, even if they seem stupid or unreachable. look at Kiwi:
13:39 Posted in missteacher's private life | Permalink | Comments (7) | Email this | Tags: kiwi, happy new year 2007, dreams