missteacher

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

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

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

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!

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

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