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April 29, 2006
Lesson Planning - Beefing up the ESL Textbook
Hello Lesson Planners,
One thing I really like doing here is taking a basic lesson from a book and beefing it up. For example I was teaching Middle school aged learners at a winter camp a few weeks ago. We were following a text book that was very grammar centric and contained many exercises. Rather than only do what was written in the teachers guide I tried many different activities that were related to what we were studying.
When we did the unit on “did” I had them . . .
. . . write their own questions on a piece of blank scrap paper I provided. They worked with a partner and came up with questions to ask their other classmates. Then once they made three or four I split them up and had them move around the class asking their questions to others. The moving around gets them out of the routine and I slowly add more aspects, as they are ready for it. I don’t want to overwhelm them.
After they can do simple “yes/no” questions I have them do another where they practice looking down at the paper then looking up at their partner and speaking to their face. I find it improves their intonation and makes their speaking sound different then if they just read something off a page. Also I have them write the partner’s name who says yes and if they are advanced enough we incorporate follow-up questions.
Besides these various “Find someone who” type activities I have also done things like make menus in teams and roleplay ordering at a restaurant to actually use the count/noncount nouns in a realistic situation. The final concept I used was taking a comic strip that was in the back of the book and have the students make their own stories with a partner. I encouraged them to use characters they know and each team only did a third of the story. One group wrote the beginning with three panels then passed it to another group to write the middle. Finally the last team finished it and we taped it up on the class wall.
Has this lesson plan been of any help for you? If so, please let me know in the comment box below!
Thanks,
Kevin Landry
April 2006 Guest-Writer for ESLemployment
Looking for more articles about lesson planning for the ESL classroom? Click HERE!
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About the author of this entry:
Kevin Landry, a Canadian native-speaker, spent ten years abroad teaching English I Korea since 1996. He has earned a Masters of Arts in Linguistics (TESOL) from the University of Surrey, England. He has a certificate in TES/FL from St. Mary's University Halifax, Canada. He has been teaching English in Korea at Universities and Graduate schools as well as private institutes. He has experience teaching TOEIC, TOEFL, Reading, Writing, Listening, Grammar and Conversation classes. He has developed syllabuses for intensive classes and language camps. His dissertation was in syllabus design and action research. He is on the national council of Korea TESOL as the Nominations and Elections chair and is the Teacher Education & Development Facilitator. He is also the National Conference Webmaster. He is on the editorial committee for Asian EFL Journal. He has a making comic books website and is especially interested in the pragmatics of dialogue between characters and their actions. Look for his posts on the ESL-Lesson-Plan web log!
Posted by ESL Lesson Plan at April 29, 2006 01:49 AM
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Comments
Kevin's ideas with questions about "did" was novel. I teach beginners and the clue about not reading from the page is a great idea. It puts expression into the conversation and makes it personal, and the old "Find somone who...." is a bit dry after a while.
Barbara Lewis
Posted by: Barbara Lewis at April 29, 2006 10:49 AM
Dear Barbara,
Yeah I know what you mean about "Find someone who stuff" getting old fast. I usually only will use it as the last activity in a class. I have a lot of variations on it and find it really brings the class together to socialize.
I'll add things like, you have to stand up and face your partner. Or you have to put the handout on your book and carry a pen. You have to look at your partner's face and can't show him/her your paper. I give different versions of the sheet so students each have different questions to ask and have to listen carefully, repeat, and ask for clarification.
I find these add a dimension to the class that is more exciting than having the same friend as a partner for the whole class or semester as some might try. Although, that would be comfortable.
After a few weeks of different 'find someone who' pages I introduce follow up questions like asking "When do you do that?", or "when did you last do that" Or any question that makes sense to continue the conversation. I like that learners initiate conversation and I have them switch partners after every question so it is so repetitive. I find the way an excerise is used and the restrictions a teacher enforces really change the dynamics.
Afterwards I often have the students sit down and I check a few answers by asking one person who he found for one thing and I check by asking the person who he says. I usually only check a few and let them go for the day.
Some other variations include asking a positive question for finding someone who can't do something. For example "Find someone who can't swim" I'll suggest asking "Can you swim?" and if someone says "no" then they have found a name to jot down. I was thinking too of making the thing you are looking for ruled out. I mean if you are "looking for someone who eats spicy food" you aren't allowd to say "Spicy" so you have to ask questions like "Do you eat chilli?, You like Salsa?, etc.
So I know 'FSW' activities have limitations. I'd suggest thinking of them as tasks that can be modified and spiced up. Thanks for appreciating the 'did' idea and the l'ook down look up and read'. I first of it heard from Jack Richards in Cambridge's Interchange.
If anyone has any ideas for these mixer activities feel free to post and share your experience. I think we can learn a lot for what works for a nother teacher but we all have different personal teaching styles. If someone doesn't like 'FSW' I won't hold it against you. It does involve losing a bit of control and can be really noisy. Also the location of desks in the room can be troublesome.
Posted by: Kevin Landry at May 4, 2006 08:32 PM
You guys are the best, thanks so much for the help.
Posted by: Caty Tota at August 19, 2006 09:56 AM
