Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/8B/Lesson 5

Introduction

Considering I'll be giving this lesson on April Fool's start off with a prank fake test.

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 Italy and travel.

At the end I want to give out some candy I brought back from Hawaii using it as a chance to teach them about the polite way to ask another person from something instead of, "Give me!"

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 safe taking chances speaking English to me and their peers.
Ask the right questions to get a lively discussion going about either their trip or travel to Italy and its culture.
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.

April Fool's Joke: Fake Test

Be very stern and have a big stack of paper.
Today we will be having a test, because last week when I was gone you were very bad!

Opening Discussion: Talk about their trip

Did you do something special last Saturday?
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?
Where would you like to go next year for your trip?

Textbook: Page 18 Let's get ready A

Make sure they know the meaning of "Ancient".
Ferrari
- In 1959, a Ferrari GT could go 150 km/h [1].
- In 2009, the Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M could go over 315 km/h [2].
Gelato
- Gelato was supposedly first created in the 1500's, when the King of Spain went to visit a rich Italian family. They hired a man to make a special desert. He created Gelato [3].
Discussion:
- What else do you know about Italy?
- Do you want to go to Italy?
- What are Italians [People from Italy] like?

Textbook: Page 18 Let's get ready B

What else do you need to do to get ready for traveling?

Textbook: Page 19 Let's listen 1 A & B

Tell them we're going to do both exercises at once, so they need to listen carefully.
First time read at natural speed, second time slow and third time if they ask.

Textbook: Page 20 Let's listen 1 A & B (Maybe)

Discuss: Talk about my trip

Chose one of the following depending on my and the class's mood.
- 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
- My failure trying to surf.
- 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.
Give them the Macadamia Nut Hershey Kisses I brought back.
- Almost always one of the student's says "Give me!"
- Use this as a chance to teach that while it is OK to say "Give me!" [gei wo] in Chinese, it is impolite [bu li mao] in English.
- A better thing to say is "Can/May I please have one?"
- Have the kids come one by one and say that.

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

1 Apr 2010 Grade 8 Class 5

What could I have done better?

What did I do well?

What did I learn?

What did they get out of our lesson?

Lesson Objectives Achieved?

Next Week 8 Apr 2010

1 Apr 2010 Grade 8 Class 4

What could I have done better?

What did I do well?

What did I learn?

What did they get out of our lesson?

Lesson Objectives Achieved?

Next Week 8 Apr 2010

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 31 Mar 2010

re-worded one of the objectives and the intro
took out opening a blank word document, because it was forced
added a question to the school trip discussion
Expanded the discussion ?'s following let's get ready.
Added directions for how to hand out the chocolates.

Version 0.2 30 Mar 2010

Included the game suggestion from Mr. Brown.
Adapted what I've been doing in my Grade 7 and Grade 8 lessons so far this week.

References

Ferrari's Web Site Accessed 30 Mar 2010
Ferrari's Web Site Accessed 30 Mar 2010
Whygelato.com | History Accessed 30 Mar 2010