Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/7B/Lesson 5

Introduction

Opening class talking about the student's school trip last Saturday, and closing it discussing my trip last week to Hawaii. In between doing textbook activities, hoping to get a discussion going about city/country life. After that, have them practice their hearing with difficult questions about the textbook material.

Lesson Objectives

Students will enjoy themselves, creating a positive association with the English language.
Create an atmosphere that's comfortable enough for students to feel take chances speaking English to me and their peers.
Ask the right questions to get a lively discussion going about either their trip or city/country life.
Engage all of them by asking unexpected textbook questions, forcing them to listen closely to really understand whats going on.
Find a way to make practicing English more appealing to them than speaking to their friends in Chinese.

Lesson Plan

Before Class Starts

Ask everyone to get into their seats.
Walk around the room small talking with different students.
Get the computer turned on if it works.
Open a blank word document.

Greeting: Yo! What's up?

Practice the "What's up?" routine.
- If they don't remember, review.

Opening Discussion: Talk about their trip

Did you do something special last Saturday?
- Write all the answers on the word document.
Where did you go?
How did you get there?
What did you do on the bus?
What did you take pictures of?
Did you have fun?
Why did you go on the trip?

Textbook: Page 14 Let's get ready A

Where would you rather live in the city or the country? and why?
What kind of job do you need to live in a city? the country?

Textbook: Page 15 Let's listen 1 A Tapescript Page 78

b4 starting - what is a penfriend?
Read it correctly the first time, then change around the words to see if they're listening. (Mr. Brown)
- Instead of "I live in England." Read "I live in France" and so on.

Textbook: Page 16 Let's listen 2 A Tapescript Page 78

After reading, when you ask the questions say "What is across from the school?" or "What is diagonal from the ______?" (Mr. Brown)

Textbook: Page 16 Let's listen 2 B (Maybe)

(Mr. Brown)

Discuss: Talk about my trip

Chose one of the following depending on my and the class's mood.
- Traveling from shanghai -> tokyo -> hawaii
- surfing
- Hawaiian Culture: flower over a girl's ear, right ear = single, left ear = not single
- Hawaiian Culture: hang loose hand gesture is the same as 6 hand gesture in China
- Hawaiian Language: aloha = hello
- Hawaiian Language: mahalo = thank you
- Show the pics of my family, including the one of us with the pair of locals and quiz the kids about the hand gestures and flowers.

Extra Time: Number of Letters? Game (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.

Lesson Review

31 Mar 2010 Grade 7 Class 11

Kids were in a good mood, and we got a solid discussion going about their trip.
Took Mr. Brown's suggestion of reading the textbook wrong, and it got a bunch of giggles from the students.
- I just kept on reading. Perhaps next time I should stop when I make a mistake and ask them what they think?
They were not too interested in me talking about my Hawaii trip, but they did like the candy.

Next Week

Review the Hawaiian culture?

31 Mar 2010 Grade 7 Class 11

Short discussion about the trip, but a long discussion about the city vs. the country and what jobs they would like to do.
- In Let's get ready A on page 14, I have a difficult time expressing the activitiy. Many students put "See a film" in the "Only City" list which is fair, but at the same time, it isn't what the activity calls for.

Next Week

Near the end of class 3 boys came to the front to do a hula dance, but we ran out of time. Ask them if they'd try again?

Appendix

Acknowledgments

Ideas I got from Stuart Brown, I acknowledged with (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.

Changelog

Version 0.3 30 Mar 2010

Included suggestions from Mr. Brown for the textbook activities.
Typed up what I've evolved to be doing in class over the first 5 lessons of the week.