Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/7B/Lesson 10

Grade 7
牛津初中英语·同步听力(七下) FUN WITH ENGLISH 7B
Chapter 9: Computer games
Anqing Foreign Language School
Lesson 10
Version 0.1

This chapter is about computer games. I will be teaching 50 students as opposed to 25, so the plan will have to be slightly more structured than usual. There are a few different activities and games to play. This week also the students have a big exam, so I do not plan on being too tough.

Lesson Objectives

The opening will go quickly enough to keep the students attention.
The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
The activities will be fun and get the students using English.

Lesson Plan

Before Class Starts

If time, walk around and mingle with the students before the bell rings. (King)

Greeting: World, USA and Irish Greetings

[ pubdomed greetings slideshow]

Opening: Adjectives

Many times after I ask you "Do you like _____?" I ask you "Why?" right?
What are different reasons:
- Yes I like
  - What do you say? interesting, good, great, fun, lovely
  - What can you also say? super, wonderful, incredible, amazing
- No I don't like
  - What do you say? bad, boring, ugly
  - What can you also say? terrible, stupid, awful, horrible

Conversation: Computer Games

What is a computer game?
Why do people play computer games?
What kind of computer games do you like?
Are computer games healthy?

Textbook: Page 34 Let's get ready A

Textbook: Page 34 Let's get ready B

Textbook: Page 35 Let's listen 1 B

Textbook: Page 36 Let's listen 2 A

Don't push too hard.

Textbook: Page 37 Let's listen 3 A

Textbook: Page 37 Let's listen 3 B

Activity: Computer Games Interview[CN Interview = taifan]

Write interview on the board.
Ask if they know that word?
Write the questions on the board
- How often do you play computer games?
- How often do you want to play computer games?
- Why?
Bring up a student volunteer and interview one another in front of the class.
Now please interview the people sitting next to you, in English!
Give them a minute or three, walk around and help troubled groups.
Afterwards ask for volunteers to come to the front of class and do the interview.

Activity: Platform Game

Now, we are going to play a computer game!
Who wants to play?
Bring up a volunteer, or call on a student.
Blindfold the student. (Dirty tie?)
Place obstacles around the room. Designate a goal.
Now, the volunteer is the character. You are the players.
Tell them how to get to the goal!

Activity: Teach me about Chinese Computer Games

Screenshots of CF, QQ Farm and DNF. Ask them to teach me how to play.

Debate: Are computer games healthy? (Mr. Brown)

Break the students up by gender or by row.
Write "Are computer games healthy?" on the board.
Tell one group them they have to each write one reason why computer games are healthy and another why they are not.

Extra Time

Game: Number of Letters? (Mr. Brown)

Make two teams.
Tell them to make a word that begins with one letter, e.g. D, and has 6 letters.
Go back and forth between the teams making the words.

Game: Spelling Game (Dave's)

Make a boys team and a girls team, go against one another two students per team at a time.

Discuss: Pictures from my Trip to Shanghai

Lesson Review

Class Notes

4 May 2010 AM Period 4 Grade 7 Class 3

Computer didn't work, so I couldn't do the greetings slideshow.
Started with "good morning!" because I do not think half the class knew about "Yo! What's up?"
Kids were talking a lot to start, so I went away from my planned opening.
Went straight into the discussion about computer games. While I did get individual answers for all of my questions, as a class, the conversation went nowhere.
Spent most of the period going through the textbook, which went OK.
Students who I have not seen in a while have been making lots of progress under Mr. Brown.
Interview activity went OK. Some students spoke to one another, while many just chatted. Had a couple different pairs of students volunteer to come to the front, which was nice.
Spent the last two to three minutes playing hangman.

Next Class

Review names of the students I had last term.

4 May 2010 Notes

What Could I Have Done Better?

Grabbed the students attention.

What Did I Do Well?

Not lose my temper while they were talking and proceeded with the lesson.

What Did I Learn?

This week with the big tests looming and all the kids together they are going to be chatting a lot. Still good to try and have a real lesson, but it might also be wise to not do quite so much and have more fun.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

Oral and aural practice, chatted a little about computer games.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved? Why?

The opening will go quickly enough that the students can pay attention and learn something.
- No, I was not dynamic or interesting enough to grab their attention.
The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
- Yes, though they were not especially fun, we did get through all of the textbook quickly and effectively.
The activities will be fun and get the students using English.
- A little, some of the kids were interviewing eachother in English, but most were not.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

Review students names from last term.
Have more fun and less textbook, students are under a lot of stress at the moment.

5 May 2010 PM Period 1 Grade 7 Class 11

started with an enthusiastic yo, which I was surprised to find was greeted enthusiastically back by them even the students from the other half which I did not remember teaching the greeting to
did not have the computer set up with the greetings slideshow to start class, so I went straight into the conversation about computer games
- When i told them we were going to be talking about computer games i got a few students who raised their arms and cheered
started writing questions in a word document with the projector
- What is a computer game?
- Why do people like computer games?
- Do your parents like computer games?
  - If yes, why? If no, why?
- Do you think computer games are a bad habit?
  - If yes, why? If no, why?
- If you had children, how often could they play computer games?
- This took up the majority of the period, had a core group of students giving the answers with a few more answering one question every once in a while.
Asked if they had any questions and they had some, mostly about the whereabouts of the other foreign teacher.
Did Let's Get Ready from the textbook which went quickly
- For part B I tried calling on some individual students for the answers to the questions, which did not go so well. I tried giving students with a lesser ability a chance to speak and then as I did the whole class started chatting.
Tried to play the platform game for the last few minutes but I was not willing to rearrange the whole classroom for them to stampede around, so I just had them play with a map on the board.

Next Class

Review student's names from last semester.

5 May 2010 Notes

What Could I Have Done Better?

Even though the discussion got some students speaking up and some more listening, most of the class was not involved, even if they were being quiet. Find a way to

What Did I Do Well?

Spent most of the period just speaking English, talking about computer games.

What Did I Learn?

I can handle classes of 50 students.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

Oral and aural English practice and for those who paid attention a chance to think critically about playing computer games.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved? Why?

The opening will go quickly enough that the students can pay attention and learn something.
- No, because I was not ready to start class.
The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
- Yes, but we only did one page.
The activities will be fun and get the students using English.
- We did not spend much time on activities, instead focusing heavily on the conversation.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

For this class I did not need it, but for another class something more dynamic involving computer games might be helpful.

Appendix

Acknowledgments

I get many ideas from Stuart Brown. (Mr. Brown).
I would like to thank all the 7th and 8th grade classes at Anqing Foreign Language School who had this lesson for their participation and feedback. I would also like to thank the Anqing Foreign Language School for allowing me to teach there.
Marjorie King provided some feedback on my last lessons, that was built into this lesson. (King)
The spelling game is available on Dave's ESL cafe. (Dave's)

Changelog

Version 0.1 1 May 2010

Written at the YY Club in Shanghai

[[Category:Interview Activity]