Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/7A/Food

Lesson Plan Data (Dates relate to when lesson was administered)
Date: Length (Min): Location: Textbook: Chapter #: Lesson #: Topic: # of Students: Document Version:
c. Late Nov 2009 45 English Salon FWE 7A 10 & 12 9 Food 25+ 0.32

Introduction edit

Some parts of the lesson plan like the definitions for words of the day are local only to my classes. Also, this lesson plan is tweaked depending on the individual tendencies of any class and students.

Before Class edit

Lesson edit

  • Get as many students as possible speaking English.
  • Identify: opinion / fact and argument / conversation
  • Briefly review context.
  • Have long discussions about food and cooking.

Focuses[1] edit

  • Listening Set Skill = 6. Listen for gist in passages and conversations.
  • Listening Curriculum Statement = c) Follow discussion to identify fact/opinion.
  • Speaking Set Skill = A. Awareness of context.

Definition edit

  • Opinion = What a person thinks.
  • Fact = What a person knows.
  • Context = What a person or people is/are talking about.

Why? edit

  • Because knowing the difference between fact and opinion is important for making decisions.

Example edit

  • Hold up a book. Say this book is terrible. fact or opinion? this book is great! fact or opinion? this book is [color of the book]. fact or opinion?

Lesson Question edit

  • Is this fact or opinion?

Word(s) of the Day edit

  • fry - Wordlist: Page 114
    • Cook with oil.
  • steam - Wordlist: Page 115
    • Cook with hot air.
  • boil - Wordlist: Page 113
    • Cook with hot water.
      • Contrast these 3 as different ways to make dumplings.
  • bake - Wordlist: Page 113
    • How you make bread.
  • yogurt/yoghurt - Wordlist: Page 115
    • Like milk, but it's cold and hard.

Contact Information edit

QQ ID 867996874
QQ Name Danoff
e-mail danoff.charles@gmail.com

Teaching Materials edit

  • FUN WITH ENGLISH 7A Textbook
  • Lessons Notebook
  • Stopwatch

Chinese English edit

  • If the following things are said by a student, address the whole class.
    • No why.
    • Give me!
    • I know! I know!

English Tips edit

  • If a student uses the adjective interesting, try to push them to use other words, as well.

Notes edit

  • Always ask if students have questions or be patient and what for volunteers to answer my quesitons before forcing kids to respond.


Class edit

Plan edit

0 edit

  • In classroom at least 30 minutes before my first class of the day.
  • Before class, make sure chairs are set up correctly
  • Write Lesson plan, Lesson, Definitions, my contact info, words of the day and that it's OK to say “I don't know” or “No reason” on the board.
  • Ask if everyone has their textbooks and pens. If they don't tell them to go get them.
  • Stopwatch ready to go before class.

1 Coversation edit

0 - 8 Minutes

  • start class with what's up?
    • go over the different responses
    • If the kids don't respond, ask them the questions directly.
  • Are you tired?
  • Are you hungry?
  • Are you cold?
  • What is happening in the news these days?
  • What did you do in your clubs after school yesterday?
  • Have you watched any good [movies, cartoons, tv shows, ....] recently?
  • Have you read any good [books, comics, articles ....] recently?
  • Have you watched any good recently?
  • What class did you just have? What did you learn? Do you like it?
  • what club did you have yesterday? what will you do in your club today?
  • Is it anyone's birthday today in class?
  • Any questions for me? Add that the longer we talk here, the less time we have to spend on the textbook.

2 Joke edit

2 Minutes

  • "6 eyes" joke[2].

3 Introduction edit

2 Minutes

  • Point out the Lesson Plan, mention if we move fast, we can get to the game quicker.
  • Tell them my contact info, and say that I am busy. I want to talk to you, but if I can't it is not because I don't like them, it is because I am busy. I like all of you. Please say hello again or e-mail me. E-mail is much better.
  • Mention that if ask a question and they don't know the answer, it's fine to say I don't know. Write No why and that it's usually OK to say No reason.
    • Usually OK for No reason. because some times students need to answer why? - like, if you know they are cheating and you want to ask why they chose a certain answer?
  • Go over the words of the day.
  • Homework: Check to see if the students remembered. If almost no one did, re-assign it for the next week, and skip the activity.

4 Page 38 Let's get ready A & B edit

5 - 10 Min

  • Walk around the class, help the students who are struggling.
  • Tell the students if they have any questions, to raise their hands.
  • Ask,
    • Apples are fruits. Is that a fact or opinion?
      • If they don't know fact or opinion, go through the definitions and example.
    • Fish is a meat ... etc. fact or opinion?
    • [ ] is delicious fact or opinion?
  • Try to get a dialogue going, ask
    • What is your favorite food?
    • What foods do you hate?
    • What snacks, fruits, vegetables, meats do you like/hate?
    • What foods do you want to try that you've never eaten before?
    • What food is expensive?
    • What food is cheap?
    • Say what I think about different things. Try to keep this going as long as possible, but not so long we don't get any other textbook activities done.. Call on as many students as possible.
    • End w/What is the context of our conversation?
      • If they don't know context, go through the definition.

5 Page 46 Let's get ready A & B edit

5 - 10 Min

  • Walk around the class, help the students who are struggling.
  • Tell the students if they have any questions, to raise their hands.
  • After they give each answer in part A, ask What foods can you [bake, fry, boil, steam]?
  • Then, check: When you [boil, bake, steam, fry] what are you cooking with?
  • Try to get a dialogue going, ask
    • Who cooks in your home, Mom or Dad?
    • What do they usually cook for dinner?
    • How do they cook it, fry? boil? steam? bake?
    • Can you cook?
    • What food can you cook?
    • Do you want to learn to cook?
    • Say what I think about different things. Try to keep this going as long as possible, but not so long we don't get any other textbook activities done.. Call on as many students as possible.
    • End w/What is the context of our conversation?

6 Show & Tell Activity edit

15 - 30 Minutes [Depending on how many kids share.]

  • Ask the students if they remembered the homework?
  • Tell the students they have to write three sentences about what they brought. Give them 5 minutes.
    • Walk around and help, if a kid forgot to bring something, have them choose something they are wearing, or a pen or something like that.
  • After the writing time is finished, ask for volunteers. Who wants to share?
    • If no one does, start selecting students.
  • After the speaker has come forward, chose two students to ask questions.
  • Possibly have the speaker give their speech again, if they only speak quietly looking down into their book the entire time or if they mumble.
  • After the chosen kids ask the questions, see if there are any other questions.

7 What's the Question? edit

Remaining Time

Extra Time edit

  • Competitive Hangman
  • Is 'Simon says' too easy for you?

AFTER CLASS edit

Lesson Review Notes edit

g7 c10 AFLS TJ4 Page 15 edit

  • food, cooking and opening discussion all went very well
  • two boys were very talkative and touchy
  • I didn't go slow enough with the show and tell instructions and the kids didn't get it. there were a few boys with a lot of energy and every time I turned around or slowed down to help a student they started hitting eachother which got all the kids around them excited, as well.
  • this was a new class of kids.

g7 c8 AFLS TJ4 Page 17 edit

  • class is on point, but a little gobby when they have DOWN TIME
  • convo went well,
  • don't know if doing blind before the joke helps or not
  • taking show & tell instructions VERY slowly helped
  • maybe wait to chose the people who ask the quesitons until after the speaker is d done. that way everyone listens in case they might get called upon

What I did well edit

What I could improve upon edit

Next Week edit

g7 c10 AFLS TJ4 Page 15 edit

  • go through a few more kids on the show & tell, maybe


Thoughts edit

Time edit

Class G7C10 g7c8 Plan 1 3:19 7:00 2 3 2:21 3 6:54 5:17 4 10:18 9:10 5 9:34 9:06 6 12:33 16:02

Appendix edit

Materials Used Whose Copyright is Owned by Others edit

      • I used these because it was allowed within the rights given by the people who made the materials.
      • The copyright of this lesson plan does not reflect the copyright of these materials.
      • Please contact the creators to see how it is OK to use their materials.
      • If I used something created by you and you would like me to not or change the attribution, please let me know.
  • Copyright Holder
    • East Meets West China
  • Website
  • Materials Used
    • Focuses, taken from the curriculum section of the 2009/2010 East Meets West China Information Booklet.
  • Copyright Holder
    • The Internet TESL Journal
  • Website
  • Copyright Notice
  • Contact Information
  • Materials Used
  • Copyright Holder
    • Two of my students at AFLS who gave me the idea for Competitive Hangman.
  • Materials Used
    • Competitive Hangman

Materials Used Which I Made edit

      • I will likely only use materials I created which I entered into the Public Domain, but read carefully in case I licensed one thing different which may be what you want to re-use.
  • Show & Tell Activity, which I entered into the Public Domain

Acknowledgments edit

  • I would like to thank all the 7th 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.

Notes edit

Additional Questions & Instructions for This Lesson edit

Page 39 Let's listen 1 A - Tapescript Page 88 edit

3 Min

  • I read it through.
  • Afterwards ask the students about their breakfast & lunch drinks and foods.

Page 47 Let's listen 1 A - Tapescript Page 90 edit

4 Min

  • Ask for student volunteers.
  • Ask the students “What is the context of this conversation?”
  • Check “fact or opinion” with the examples from the game the characters in the dialogue are playing.

Page 47 Let's listen 1 B - Tapescript Page 92 edit

4 Min

  • Ask for student volunteers.

Changelog edit

Version 0.1 November 15th, 2009 edit

  • Created in an afternoon train ride from Hefei to Anqing with Mr. Brown.

Version 0.11 edit

Started: November 24, 2009 6:50 PM [Roughly] Finished: November 24, 2009 7:25 PM [Roughly]

  • Brought in the lesson skeleton from “8A.Lesson11ver0.3“.
  • Changed the classes to “7th grade“ in the “Acknowledgments“.
  • Took out the “Blue Whale Speech“ & its mention in “Materials Used Whose Copyright I Control“
  • Changed “Materials Used Whose Copyright I Control“ to “Materials Used Which I Made“ because after I enter things into the Public Domain I no longer control their copyright, I believe.
  • Changed textbook to “7A“ in “Teaching Materials“
  • deleted the words of the day.
    • Changes above all pertained to making an 8A lesson skeleton ready for this lesson. For the textbook page instructions, I changed all of them to reflect the pages of Chapters 10 & 12 in the 7A lesson.
  • Added “Version 0.1 November 15th, 2009 * Created in an afternoon train ride from Hefei to Anqing with Mr. Brown.“
  • Changed Copyright to “As the writer and copyright holder of this document, I, Charles Jeffrey Danoff, enter it into the Public Domain.”
  • Added “*** If I used something created by you and you would like me to not or change the attribution, please let me know.” to “Materials Used Whose Copyright is Owned by Others”.

Version 0.12 November 27th, 2009 edit

  • Changed the joke to a different one from the ITESLJ.

Version 0.2 November 28, 2009 edit

11:16 - 12:24, 13:45 - 14:30

  • took out Do you know why this Thursday is special? from Conversation
  • took out quotation marks, b/c they have trouble showing up sometimes in .txt documents online
  • added Get as many students as possible speaking English. and Have long discussions about food and cooking. to Lesson.
  • Modified the instructions for Homework in the Introduction.
  • Capitalized the I in Identify under Lesson.
  • Changed the bracket after Word(s] to a parentheses.
  • Added yogurt, fry, steam, boil and bake to Words of the day.
  • Deleted the Question of the Day because I do not think I will use that as a part of my lesson planning any longer.
  • Took out the “Thanksgiving“ speech, because it's no longer around Thanksgiving.
  • Added the “Show & Tell“ activity
  • Expanded the instructions for Page 38 & 46 A&B
  • Moved Page 39 1A after Page 46A&B, because I want to be sure to at least briefly touch on both chapters in the textbook.
  • Changed the answer for the joke.
  • Expanded the instructions for Page 47 Let's listen 1 A.
  • Took out most of the games from Extra Time because there were too many, plus I likely won't have any extra time with this lesson plan.
  • Added a lot more detail to the Materials Used Whose Copyright is Owned by Others section.
  • Added Is 'Simon says' too easy for you? activity and its copyright information.

Version 0.21 November 29, 2009 edit

  • Added some questions to the conversation.
  • Added link for the Show and Tell Activity.
  • Took out quotation marks in the Is Simon says too easy for you? instructions.
  • Added version information to the header.
  • Created another version of the lesson plan minus all copyright and contact information that I will also post for teachers to print off and use who are only interested in the lesson itself. The naked version.

Version 0.3 December 1, 2009 edit

10:04 AM to December 1, 2009 10:22 AM

  • Summary of Changes: The Show & Tell Activity was taking at least thirty minutes, so I moved it after the textbook warmup activities, to make sure we cover some textbook in the lesson.
  • Changed instructions for the Show & Tell Activity to ver 0.2
  • Moved the Show & Tell Activity behind the two Let's get ready sections from the textbook, because it is important to cover those.
  • Capped the Let's get ready sections and their discussion at 10 minutes to make sure there is time for some Show & Tell.
  • Moved Page 39 Let's listen 1 A - Tapescript Page 88, Page 47 Let's listen 1 A - Tapescript Page 90, and Page 47 Let's listen 1 B - Tapescript Page 92 to Additional Questions & Instructions for This Lesson, because I never got to those in my 4 classes yesterday.

Version 0.31 December 2, 2009 edit

  • continued making the lesson more wiki re-publishing friendly
  • changed the beginning notice to the introduction
  • add notice about how words of the day def's are local to my class to the intro
  • moved the intro after the information about the lesson
  • mentioned that it's usually OK to say no reason in the introduction, because some times students need to answer why? - like, if you know they are cheating and you want to ask why they chose a certain answer?
  • added start class with what's up? to the conversation.
  • move yogurt to the last part of word of the day, because i don't know how to explain it aside from having them check the wordlist in the back. if you have yogurt first and they check, then they will continue to check for every other word, instead of listening to the English explanation.
  • added ask what foods can you cook with the different options to the instructions for page 46 A&B.
  • added Tell the students if they have any questions, to raise their hands. to the Let's get ready instructions.
  • added = Time = section to AFTER CLASS, for recording how long different sections take.
  • added = English Tips = with If a student uses the adjective interesting, try to push them to use other words, as well.
  • added = Notes = section with Always ask if students have questions or be patient and what for volunteers to answer my quesitons before forcing kids to respond.

Version 0.32 16 September 2010 edit

  • Made the lesson completely mediawiki friendly.
  • Removed some student's names and other select material not fit for online publication.

Version 0.33 17 February 2011 edit

  • Added lesson detail box and did some wikgnoming for publication.

Contact Information= edit

I am actively seeking feedback on how to improve this lesson, please email me at, danoff.charles@gmail.com

  1. 2009/2010 East Meets West China Information Booklet. Beijing: East Meets West China. 2009. 
  2. "Jokes in English for the ESL/EFL Classroom A Project of The Internet TESL Journal". Retrieved 2011-02-15.