missteacher - lesson_plans

A good diet - a lesson plan

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:26:38 +0100

With my lower intermediate level, I chose to tackle the topic of food and diet to introduce MUST/MUSTN'T.
The idea came up thanks to a dialogue I found in a French school book (Enjoy 6è- éditions DIDIER). The dialogue is on page 55. It's a dialogue between a young boy and a vet. The vet is telling what the dog must eat and mustn't eat (because he is too fat).
I introduce the theme thanks to a great article I found in a magazine for learners of English. The references and the sheet are in the attached file.
My sheet (with fat pets on it) had a LOT OF success in class!!!! They loved talking about the images and it was a great way to start the topic.
Then we listened to the dialogue and made a summary. Then I asked them to imagine they wanted to lose weight. They had to tell me what they must do:
I must stop eating.... I must eat more.... I must eat less/fewer... That's when I introduced the concept of countable nouns and non-countable nouns. It went ok.

In the end, I ask them to write a dialogue between a dietetician and a patient, using all the structures and vocabulary we saw.
I'm starting the dialogues this week. Hope it will be fine.

5eme-MUST.pdf

School in England, a lesson plan

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 19:37:11 +0100

I wanted to talk about cultural matters with my beginner level. It's hard to talk about the anglophone countries at this level because their English is often not complex enough to comprehend such topics as identity, way of life, etc.
So you have to start with basics. Some topics are simple enough to be dealt with at a low level, like the theme of school. It allows you to talk about habits (using simple present), about obligations (using must) and vocabulary (subjects, timetable, uniforms, etc).

That's why I chose to work on this topic with my beginner level. I propose you a lesson plan with several documents, all of them representing one aspect of the lives of British pupils: the uniform, the dress code, the school system, a typical day at school and the timetable.
The goal for the pupils is to create questions to integrate in the next test.

I advise you this very good website: http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/

Here is the lesson plan: 6e-School_in_England.pdf

And the sheets to use with the overhead projector: 6e-transparents.pdf

Valentine's Day is coming up!

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Sat, 3 Feb 2007 14:40:00 +0100

Hi There!

Valentine's day is a good opportunity to talk about love with the pupils in a funny way.
I chose to do it only with my older pupils (14 year-olds) because I didn't have many ideas for the lower levels. Making cards is fun but I didn't feel like doing it. I find it hard to make the topic linguistically interesting; I mean it's hard to practise the language with such a topic, especially with beginners. There's not much to say.

That's why I created a lesson plan for my older pupils, which could also fits High School students.
I chose to introduce love with the theme of advice: should / if I were you, I would...
Pupils are confronted to love problems which they have to solve. The first one is introduced through an oral comprehension, from this page. You can capture the sound with a software such as audacity.

Pupils will have to give advice to Alice, whose heart is broken.

Then I chose to work on an extract from "Friends".

Did I tell you how much I love the series Friends???? I own the 10 seasons (big fan!) and I find them great to watch and use in class. The situations are often interesting to describe, as well as the themes and the characters' actions. I really would like to work more with Friends, to create lesson plans based on the series, to make a list of all the themes/scenes which are worth using in class.
Creating a new blog would be great for that but I'm afraid I just don't have the time.

Anyway, Friends are full of scenes about love, argument, cheating, relationships and so on.
Take season 3, episode 8 in which Chandler learns that Janice is cheating on him. The episode shows several scenes in which the characters questions their feelings and wonder what to do. Those are perfect scene to ask the pupils: what would you do? What should he do?

I then want to finish the lesson plan with dialogues made up by the pupils (see the list of themes in the file) in which they will have to give advice.

Here's the lesson plan:3e_LV2_-love_problems.pdf

A Jazz Chant

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Thu, 1 Feb 2007 17:25:00 +0100

I don't use Jazz Chants usually in my class but I thought this one was good and it fitted perfectly with my lesson plan about simple present.
The most famous Jazz Chants are made by Carolyn Graham. I'm not a big fan of Jazz Chants, they are nice to use a couple of times a year but not more, because I think it gets boring in the end. It's better to try other types of songs.

They are great for rhythm and intonation! (what our little francophone pupils have trouble with).

I propose you some ideas about how to teach this song: Jazz_Chant_exploitation.pdf

Here are the lyrics: JAZZ_CHANT.doc

And the chant:

click on "podcast" otherwise the song is too fast, I don't know why.

(for MP3 format, please send an email).

A page about Jazz Chants: onestopenglish

Good Habits - idea for a lesson plan!

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 12:09:50 +0100

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.

Asking and giving directions - a lesson plan

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:14:36 +0100

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

two new lesson plans : to talk about capacities and habits

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 20:00:00 +0100

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.

Lesson plan: Super Heroes

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 18:14:28 +0100

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!

"Our future" - a lesson plan

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Tue, 9 Jan 2007 19:02:23 +0100

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

Back to school (after the Xmas holidays) - 2 lesson plans

noreply@blogspirit.com (missteacher) — Sat, 6 Jan 2007 13:59:46 +0100

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