Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/7B/Lesson 8

牛津初中英语·同步听力(七下) FUN WITH ENGLISH 7B
Chapter 7: Getting There
Anqing Foreign Language School
Grade 7
Lesson 8
Version 0.2

This chapter focuses on transportation. In this lesson plan I hope to complete a few good textbook activities quickly and spend majority of the time with the students interviewing one another about their thoughts on transportation. The lesson finishes with a map based game that should be a fun way for students to use their English.

Lesson Objectives

The opening riddle and questions will draw the students attention.
The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
Students will speak only English to eachother while they interview one another.
The map game will be fun and students will participate in English.

Lesson Plan

Before Class Starts

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

Greeting: Introduce What's the craic?

What's the craic is used in Ireland as a way to say "How are you?" [1]
The responses are the same as "How are you?"

Opening: Riddle & Questions

Share a simple riddle with the students.
Do you have any questions for me?
What do you think of our lessons? How can we make our lessons better? (King)

Textbook: Page 26 Let's get ready A

Before going over the answers, read out and practice the pronunciation of all the words.
Have you seen any of these signs in Anqing?

Textbook: Page 26 Let's get ready B

Make sure they read out the full answer.
After each answer have all of them listen and repeat after me.

Textbook: Page 27 Let's listen 1 B Tapescript Page 82

Read slowly twice.

Textbook: Page 28 Let's listen 2 A Tapescript Page 82

First time read at my normal speaking speed.

Activity: Transportation Interview[CN Transportation = Yùnshū Interview = Fǎngwèn]

Now we are going to interview a friend about transportation.
Please ask them these questions and write down the answers. Please only speak in English.
Questions: [Write on the board]
- What types of transportation do you like?
- What types of transportation are good for the environment? Why?
- What types of transportation are bad for the environment? Why?
Go around class helping individual groups. Don't spend too, too long on the activity.
At the end ask two to three groups if they would like to share with the class?

Game: Dizzy Maps

Have two similar maps with about four to five buildings drawn on the board.
Make two teams.
Ask for volunteers, or choose participants.
Bring them to the front of the classroom.
Cover their eyes with a shirt or tie or something.
Spin them around four times.
Give them a piece of chalk and have their classmates guide them to their destination. The first one to arrive wins.

Maybe Also Try

Activity: Map and Directions (For classes with a high level and a patient attitude.)

OK, now I want you to work in pairs.
Create a map, with three buildings.
- Grocery Store
- Bank
- School
and five roads.
- Danoff Road
- Brown Street
- English Avenue
- Fuller Lane
- Elton John Boulevard
You have 2 minutes, go!
Time is up, now I want you to give your map to a new group.
New group, please write down the directions for how to go from the Bank to the School to the grocery store.

Textbook: Page 29 Let's listen 2 A Tapescript Page 82 (Maybe)

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.

Activity: The Man in The Mirror Slideshow"

Teach the song and have the students sing along with you and Michael.

Lesson Review

Class Notes

20 Apr 2010 AM Period 4 Grade 7 Class 3

Took a while to go over "What's the craic?".
- They knew what Ireland is, I don't think they really got it.
Forgot to ask them riddles.
Took a while after that to get them to move into their new seats.
- Those were moderately successful. One low level boy instead of being distracted by the window now chats with a friend.
- It is nice having them all in my sight line at all times.
Having them repeat all the words in the textbook back to me lost their interest after a bit.
They were very distracted and chatty for the whole lesson.
The interview activity only worked well for advanced students. Everyone else was lost or completely uninterested.
I asked a girl for her suggestions. She said I should make the students be quiet.

Next Week

Try the interview activitiy again.
Consider seperating certain groups.
One student suggested I ask the monitor for help.

20 Apr 2010 Day in Review

What Could I Have Done Better?

Gotten the classes attention.

What Did I Do Well?

Not lose my temper.

What Did I Learn?

New activities require VERY thorough explnations.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

Oral / aural practice, some new vocabulary, and a little thinking about transportation.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved?

The opening riddle and questions will draw the students attention.
- Nope.
The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
- No.
Students will speak only English to eachother while they interview one another.
- No.
The map game will be fun and students will participate in English.
- No time.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

Had some sort of computer display about "What's the craic?"
Had some sort of computer display about the interview activity.

21 Apr 2010 PM Period 1 Grade 7 Class 11

Didn't do "What's the craic?"
Following the greeting we talked for a little about the weather. I explained how I am more comfortable inside than outside, so I like the rain because then I do not have to feel bad about going outside.
The riddle went well. Wrote their answers on the board. One boy got it pretty quick.
After that I answered their questions as always they have a good amount. Most interesting topic we got to today was the "Egyptian Dance".
Their suggestions for making our class better:
- study
- learn
- clean
- write homework
- play games
Only did Let's get ready from the textbook. Went over the pronunciation of the words before I had them give me the answers. It'd probably be good to do it before they even begin answering the questions.
- As they gave the answers, we spent a long time chatting about the different road signs and I told a story about when I got busted for speeding while I was in Japan.
Interview activity took a really long time to explain.
- May be better to:
  - Start by asking what's an interview. Give an example of a reporter and President Obama.
  - Have the questions written beforehand [while they are doing let's get ready] or written on the computer screen.
  - Maybe they do not have to write down the answers?
The boy and the girl who had the spat last week were fine.

Next Week

Interview activity again.
Talk about the Egyptian dance? Maybe this: How to Perform Modern Egyptian Dance Part 1, on 5min dot com.
Another riddle.

21 Apr 2010 PM Period 3 Grade 7 Class 10

Lesson began quite enthusiastically.
- Yo! / What's up? went very well.
- Introduced What's the craic? which I believe went OK. Somewhat difficult for them and I'm not quite sure how to explain it.
- Answered a few of their questions, then asked:
  - Do you like our class? Why? [relaxing / fun ...] How can we make our class better?
    - Suggestions:
      - play cloudy tree a game that has something to do with a train and is usually played in a park
      - sing Chinese or English songs
      - listen to music
      - watch anime
      - cartoon films
      - be quiet
Then did the riddle, but by this point I had gone too long or their attention had waned. Not many of them were with me, so the riddle did not work so well.
- Some kind of special time is there at the beginning of a lesson, where they are with me and paying attention but if I'm only able to connect with a few or them or something else like that I can lose them.
Did Let's get ready. I tried going over the vocabulary before we began, but that did not really work. Covering the vocabulary before we got deeply into the answers is helpful.
Spent the last fifteen minutes on the interviews. Using the method I suggested above helped, but still I have to walk around and work with most pairs individually before any progress can be made.
- Might be better to try letting them make the pairs themselves.
- Nice to see multiple groups of students volunteer themselves to participate.
- Might also be nice to have some sort of prop microphone.
Spent the last minute and a half teaching them the chorus to my favorite Otis Redding song.
Throughout class a few boys were tossing stuff around the room, which was annoying.

Next Week

That one student's test is from Mr. Brown's class.
Find out what Cloudy Tree is.
Do the interview activity again.

21 Apr 2010 Day in Review

What Could I Have Done Better?

Explained the interview activity in a way that did not take up fifteen minutes.

What Did I Do Well?

Talked for virtually the entire period.

What Did I Learn?

New activities require VERY thorough explnations.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

Oral / aural practice, some new vocabulary, and practice giving an interview to their classmates.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved?

The opening riddle and questions will draw the students attention.
- Yes.
The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
- Yes.
Students will speak only English to eachother while they interview one another.
- No.
The map game will be fun and students will participate in English.
- No time.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

Improve the instructions for the interview activity.

22 Apr 2010 PM Period 2 Grade 7 Class 8

Kept my explanation of "What's the craic?" simple and the students seemed to grasp the concept.
Asked them a slightly different riddle, which one boy suprised me by getting quickly.
Re-worded how I asked for their feedback.
- Asked first how can I improve?
  - Funny
  - Interesting things
  - Watch film every class
  - Joke
  - Listen to music
  - You know a lot about computer. Use more computer, we like those lessons.
- Asked second, how can we improve?
  - Day, day up - good, good study
  - Good co-operation
  - Speak more English
  - Be active
  - Be quiet
  - Be interesting
They then had tons of questions, which took up most of the lesson time.
Went through Let's get ready slowly, focusing on each answer.
- One girl who doesn't ususally talk got an answer wrong. She sat down and seemed quite disappointed. I called on her again for the next answer and then told her great job! This technique helps some shy students.
Did not have enough time for the interview activity.

Next Week

One boy asked to play baskeball after school. I declined because of other commitments. If possible try to play after the next class.

23 Apr 2010 AM Period 3 Grade 7 Class 7

Began with "What's the craic?" kept it simple and it kept their interest.
Next went with the story of Michael Jordan being cut from his high school team. They were excited by the idea of the story but the one I told and/or the way I told it did not elicit much excitement.
Aksed a riddle but didn't give them the answer.
Then I asked them if they had any questions followed by suggestions.
- They had some good ideas:
Spent a long time talking about the textbook answers. Going through each one slowly and methodically.
Bell rang before we did anything else, but it turned out to be quite fun.
Of course one of the best students came up afterwards and infromed me the lesson was boring, because "we didn't play any interesting games."

Next Week

What's the craic?
Answer to riddle about University.

23 Apr 2010 AM Period 4 Grade 7 Class 9

Observed by three teachers.
After greeting my students I had them all turn around and say hi to the observing teachers. I then aksed my students if it was OK for the teachers to watch. They were silent so I just said "OK!!!"
Suggestions to improve class.
- Changes for me
  - play games [also wrote "no we are not children" though i don't recall why]
  - watch films / cartoon / videos
  - talk about some goo things
    - history of the NBA
    - story of Anqing Foreign Language School
- Changes for them
  - be quiet
  - learn
  - exciting
  - match
  - sing songs
Kids behaved far better than usual but kept their energy.
Skipped the MJ story saving time instead for the map game.
Did the riddle which got a lot of kids thinking and one bright girl got the answer.
Were able to get through a lot of the textbook quickly.
Finished class with the map game which went far better because I brought in ties for the kids. Of course once we started the competetive aspect it went wild with all of them rushing to the board.
Had to calm it down.

Next Week

Perhaps map game again since they now know it.

23 Apr 2010 PM Period 3 Grade 7 Class 2

Spent the first 15 minutes or solving a problem.
An alien had come to Anqing [idea from Johnson] and they had to explain to the alien how eathlings live, but the alien could only speak English.
- Went over food / clothes / friends asking Why? How? and What? for each.
- Pushed it a little too far. A lot of students lost interest by that point.
Then went into the riddle and questions for me? routine.
Went through the textbook, but not as thorughly as possible [in terms of me expanding upon answers], because I wanted to save time to play the dizzy maps game at the end.
Before we started I asked for a volunteer, but they did not know what the word meant.
Just had one student go and I added things like "No entry"

Next Week

One girl was ready to go at the end of the lesson, but the bell rung. Have her play next class.
Another girl wanted to know my Chinese name. Have it ready for her.

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.
Marjorie King provided some feedback on my last lessons, that was built into this lesson. (King)

Changelog

Version 0.2 19 Apr 2010

Added the dizzy maps game and the interview activity.
Dropped the transport discussion.
Added the maybe also try section.

Version 0.1 17 Apr 2010

References

Wikipedia: Craic