Lessons by kindenglishteacher (based on HS English text)

[kindenglishteacher]

1st and 2nd year, girls regular  high school.  This is a lesson not related to the textbooks.

This is a singing lesson with minimal language study.  It was designed for the week after mid-terms during 2nd semester when my 2nd year students are most stressed.  This lesson works for low, middle, high levels.  See the detailed lesson plan attached.  Overall, it was very successful - students in all my classes took the challenge to sing in front of the class - I just explained the challenge, went to the back of the room, and watched students figure out what to do and who would initiate going up first.

The objective was to build students' motivation and confidence level up so that they can sing in front of the class.  One class had an open class day with parents.  They ended up singing to the parents!

Target language:  fall through the cracks; bend over backwards; divine intervention; nibble; scooch; chill/chill out

Engage:   Give a brief intro about the song, that it was an international hit.  Show photos of Jason. 

Activity/Study: 
Play the music video 2x
- after the 1st play, elicit the place of the video, how students feel when watching the video, the song's message, demonstrate the meaning of "chill/chill out."
- after the 2nd play, demonstrate the meaning of "fall through the cracks."

Practice with the teacher, line by line, 2x
- teacher sings each line, class follows
- after the 1st practice, demonstrate the meaning of "divine intervention."
- after the 2nd practice, demonstrate the meaning of "scooch, nibble."

Sing with Jason 2x
- encourage students to sing loud for points
- after the 1st sing-along, demonstrate the meaning of "bend over backwards."
- only for low and middle classes, sing again with Jason

Sing in front of the class 1x - challenge
- give students a challenge for big extra points by singing in front of the class.
- can sing solo, with friends, as a team, or as a class.

Dialogue practice 1x
- pairs practice a conversation/dialogue using the questions provided to practice using the target language

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkHTsc9PU2A&ob=av2e

[Ko]

I have the same textbooks. For both gr. 1 and 2 i do a combined lesson. This was a travel theme based on chapters from both books on travelling and visiting other countries. i borrowed and used various things on waygook from other people so I just wanted tp thank everyone, it turned out to be a really interesting lesson. I thought i would share this mix and mash of the products. Please feel free to edit/borrow/comment on it. Since i used  it for the same books I thought i'd post it here. 

[kindenglishteacher]

I have the same textbooks. For both gr. 1 and 2 i do a combined lesson. This was a travel theme based on chapters from both books on travelling and visiting other countries. i borrowed and used various things on waygook from other people so I just wanted tp thank everyone, it turned out to be a really interesting lesson. I thought i would share this mix and mash of the products. Please feel free to edit/borrow/comment on it. Since i used  it for the same books I thought i'd post it here. 

Hi, unni

Thanks for sharing the festivals lesson.  I've been to do that next along with travel.  This is a great lesson for the end of the semester just before or after the students' final exams.  How did this lesson go with your students?  How long did the information part take.  How did the game go?  How long did that take?

[Ko]

hi!

It went quite well actually. My students really enjoyed learning about the different festivals - they especially loved the videos - I think I would have prefered to maybe choose a better video for La tomatino though. And also I never showed the whole video. Only parts of it, to get their excitment going. And I think if you add more videos it might make the festival learning part a LOT more exciting [I just don't have too much time as I have to get my girls to practice for our very own english popsong festival]

My breakdown of the class
- 10 mins is practicing for our own school festival
-  5 mins - brainstorm vocabulary that have to deal with Travel [my students usually came up with ticket, bus/train/plane... basically none of the vocabulary that was in the powerpoint - WHICH IS GREAT! new words] - I tend to introduce a topic to get the students thinking off the top of their head of any information in english they have that are related to it, then I find my interactions later come more easily.
- 20-25 mins - ppt [but try to make it as interactive as possible - I always ask them questions/ have what do you think about situations and for vocabulary. For example words like 'peak season' I try to get them to understand better by asking things like 'When is it the best time to see Seoraksan? Jeju? Are places in that area expensive at those times?] [the girls went crazy over various festivals and asked questions - for example 'Holi: Can you eat the powder?' question i often got ..my answer from what i googled was that largely they do use natural colours from herbs, flowers and leaves which isn't harmful.]
- 10 -15 mins - GAME

I hope that helps. And I want to thank you for your LESSONS! They always help me giving me ideas for my own lessons and also if I have completely run out of ideas your lessons as they are! GREAT WORK!

Thanks! I will try to add more!
 

[kindenglishteacher]

Hi, Unni

Thanks for the details.  I've been running a 4-week project based lesson plan.  Theme is advertising.  Lesson 1 - brand concepts.  Lesson 2 - ad types, target audience, and persuasion.  Then two weeks for team presentation.  Since these girls are not very good with working in teams, I decided to be generous and gave them another week to use the class time to work on the team project.  They were given a huge piece of paper, larger than easel size, to create their ad concept.  45 of 100 points was for the team presentation.  55 for individual part - speak without reading, no paper; look at the class audience; no grammar nor fluency points - just comprehension points; speak loud; speak with 4 or more words per sentence; speak in 4 or more sentences.

The students also must do a "share and tell" in front of the class every week.  This can be a presentation, speech, an act, storytelling, telling riddles or jokes, etc. 

[Windfall]

Thank you so much for posting this. I'm a new teacher in Busan and I have little experiencing teaching speaking and listening to ESL students. This has been a great resource.

[milkholic]

What a great idea! Thank you so much.

[andyduong411]

Thank you for all of this, my biggest problem is figuring out exactly what I must teach and creating materials as I have NO experience with ANY of this stuff.

[Mufasa10]

Hey guys, My co-teacher asked me to do a topic from the 3rd grade textbook and this is one of the activities i did which worked pretty well. I'm putting it on here because it's super adaptable. I adapted it from someone's elementary activity! Anyways, you've just got a question sheet and hand the students a card with the answers to the questions in note form, but they have to answer in full sentences. They just go around asking for each others info that they put on their sheet (my topic was their future plans but you can do it for pretty much anything that involves speaking). Whoever has the most and doesn't cheat (which does happen) then they win. It's easy to adapt for low/high levels too.

[kindenglishteacher]

Regular girls high school.  Textbooks:

1st year classes:
- Book with white cover and blonde girl --> Lesson 2, Speaking Topic 2 Keeping in Shape
- Book with image of a classroom setting and ethnic girl in an orange sweater raising her arm, 2008 Mark Brown --> Lesson 1, Six Things to Remember as a High School Student. 

2nd year classes:
- Book with white cover, boy in a long-sleeve red sweater with tan khakis:  Lesson 2 Sports and Life.  Speaking Topic 1 Benefits of Exercise. 

LESSON: 
- Stress is a big issue in Korea and among the youth.  This lesson generates awareness about the effects of long-term stress and what students can do to help themselves. 
- The expressions and exercises in the textbook are basically about the concept of living a healthy lifestyle.  This lesson does not use exercises from the textbook - the activity focuses on taking care of stress. 

Theme:  Tips on how to take care of stress
Expression:  Why don't you try...?  How about (trying)...?
Vocabulary:  meditation, aerobics, salsa dancing

Engage:      
1. Chat with the students about stress.  Elicit what effects long-term stress can cause.  Write responses on the board. 
2. Share images of the outcomes of stress - these photos really catch their attention.  End with advising students on the importance of managing stress and how to get information about it.

Study:       
3.  Elicit students' suggestions on how to manage stress.  Students volunteer to give tips using the two target expressions as shown on the slide. 
4.  Pre-teach the vocabulary by practicing the expressions with substitutions.  Cue the students by saying "Why..." and "How..." so that they know to produce the expressions with the substitutions. 
5.  Quickly go over the grammar formula of the target expressions.  By this point, students will be familiar with it.
6.  Pre-teach "at least" with examples.

Activity:      
7. After demonstrating how to do the dialogue practice, students substitute with the stress management tips from the handout.  You can also have students practice using the exercise in the textbook. Practice with the dialogue model with the intention of transitioning to the freestyle mode.  Then practice freestyle.  All students were very active and loud during the freestyle phase.  High energy, mainly because they kept changing partners every minute. 
8. Partners volunteer to demonstrate their freestyle for extra points.  To my amazement, even the low level students and classes enjoyed the freestyle practice the most. 

For more lessons, go to "Lessons by kindenglishteacher (based on HS English text)"  http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,18932.0.html

[kindenglishteacher]

Regular girls high school.  Creative thinking and storytelling.   Textbook lessons:

1st year classes:
- white book cover with blonde girl:  Lesson 7 People and Arts, Speaking Topic 1 At an Art Exhibition
- book cover with a classroom setting, ethnic girl wearing an orange sweater raising her arm, 2008, Mark Brown:  Lesson 2 Look At Me in Art

2nd year classes:
- white book cover, boy in red long sleeve shirt and brown khakis, girl with red hair and freckels:  Lesson 9 Beauty of Art; Speaking Topic - At the Museum

Theme:  Reading Portraits and Storytelling
Vocabulary:  facial expression, gesture, posture, prop, setting
Duration:  2 week lesson (total of 2 hours)

Week 1 - Engage:
1.  Walk students into the world of museums through the online portal of famous museums at www.googleartproject.com     
2.  Introduce the lesson theme, target vocabulary, and speaking activity. 
3.  Pre-teach the concept of "portrait" by sharing images of famous portraits.  My classes were all attentive and engaged by these photos.

Week 1 - Study and Speaking Activity: 
4.  Use the portrait of Leonardo Di Caprio to briefly pre-teach the vocabulary and practice pronunciation.  Demonstrate the meaning of each vocabulary briefly.
5.  Students interpret the facial expression, posture, gesture, setting, and prop in Leonardo's portrait.   Students volunteer to share their thoughts (speaking points).  Write student responses on the board with a mind map. Class responses will help you check whether they understood the meaning of the vocabulary. 

Week 2 - Activity 2:
6.  Students work with partners to read/interpret an assigned portrait. Then partners share their ideas to the rest of the group.  The group then determines a story behind the portrait based on the various ideas from group members.   
7. Groups practice their storytelling presentation.  Each member is required to speak at least two sentences freestyle using the target vocabulary.  All groups share their story in front of the class, speaking in freestyle (not reading from a paper). 
8. Tell the true stories behind each portrait after all groups have presented.  Tell it through dramatic acting. 

For more lessons, go to "Lessons by kindenglishteacher (based on HS English text)"  http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,18932.0.html

[kindenglishteacher]

Regular girls high school.  Creative thinking and storytelling.   Textbook lessons:

1st year classes:
- white book cover with blonde girl:  Lesson 7 People and Arts, Speaking Topic 1 At an Art Exhibition
- book cover with a classroom setting, ethnic girl wearing an orange sweater raising her arm, 2008, Mark Brown:  Lesson 2 Look At Me in Art

2nd year classes:
- white book cover, boy in red long sleeve shirt and brown khakis, girl with red hair and freckels:  Lesson 9 Beauty of Art; Speaking Topic - At the Museum

Theme:  Reading Portraits and Storytelling
Vocabulary:  facial expression, gesture, posture, prop, setting
Duration:  2 week lesson (total of 2 hours)

Week 1 - Engage:
1.  Walk students into the world of museums through the online portal of famous museums at www.googleartproject.com     
2.  Introduce the lesson theme, target vocabulary, and speaking activity. 
3.  Pre-teach the concept of "portrait" by sharing images of famous portraits.  My classes were all attentive and engaged by these photos.

Week 1 - Study and Speaking Activity: 
4.  Use the portrait of Leonardo Di Caprio to briefly pre-teach the vocabulary and practice pronunciation.  Demonstrate the meaning of each vocabulary briefly.
5.  Students interpret the facial expression, posture, gesture, setting, and prop in Leonardo's portrait.   Students volunteer to share their thoughts (speaking points).  Write student responses on the board with a mind map. Class responses will help you check whether they understood the meaning of the vocabulary. 

Week 2 - Activity 2:
6.  Students work with partners to read/interpret an assigned portrait. Then partners share their ideas to the rest of the group.  The group then determines a story behind the portrait based on the various ideas from group members.   
7. Groups practice their storytelling presentation.  Each member is required to speak at least two sentences freestyle using the target vocabulary.  All groups share their story in front of the class, speaking in freestyle (not reading from a paper). 
8. Tell the true stories behind each portrait after all groups have presented.  Tell it through dramatic acting. 

For more lessons, go to "Lessons by kindenglishteacher (based on HS English text)"  http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,18932.0.html

[kindenglishteacher]

Regular girls high school.  1st and 2nd year classes.  This is the first of three lessons designed for the first month of the new school year.

Week 1, Month 1: Student Introductions, Toilet Paper Icebreaker

Objective:  Start creating a comfortable atmosphere for the speaking class by students getting to know each other.  Start assessing the students' speaking language level.
Activity:  Students introduce themselves through freestyle speech based on the number of squares of toilet paper they have.  This is minimal effort on the teacher and more work for the student.  You can do this with or without a LCD monitor in the classroom.  This lesson is useful if during your first week of school you don't get a computer, or there are technical issues with the LCD monitors.
Materials:  About 6-7 rolls of toilet paper for 20 classes of 30-40 students each.  TP squares were collected and re-used for later classes.

1. Students tear off X number of squares of toilet paper without knowing what they'll do with it.  They can take as many as they'd like.  However, it may be more manageable if you control the number by setting a maximum limit of 4 squares.  This way, many students can do their self-introductions.
2. Demonstrate your own self introduction.  Each square is one sentence.  Each square is something insightful.  Students will catch on what to do.  Then briefly go over what to do verbally.
3. Give ideas to help them get started.  Set rules on what NOT to say so that self-introductions are interesting, unique, and insightful. 
4. Students choose who will introduce themselves next. 
5. At some point, determine whether to collect the used TP squares and re-use for subsequent classes - it depends on how many TP rolls you can get from your school.

Be spontaneous and interact with their introductions...this is an important part of this activity.  This creates the classroom atmosphere from day 1.  Students got a feel for my character and personality this way.  This worked well in all my classes - laughter, smiles, learning something interesting about classmates, getting a feel for the class atmosphere and personalities of the teacher and students.  High school students assess their subject teachers quickly and perceive you in a fixed way, positive or negative starting from their first two weeks of the new school year.  So you can start in a positive way by interacting with their introductions in engaging and funny ways.  We found out that two students have cousins who are members of Shinee!

Month 1 Plan:

Week 1, Month 1: Student Introductions, Toilet Paper Icebreaker
Week 2, Month 1: Interview the Teacher, Class Guidelines
Week 3, Month 1: Share and Tell, Speaking Skill Assessment
Week 4, Month 1: New lesson, group seating chart

These lessons for the first three weeks were methodologically designed after two years of teaching at the high school level.  These involve more speaking effort on the students' side to help inform me on what, how, and which level to build lessons at a new school where I don't know the students, teachers, and ability levels.  Students speak in freestyle that is prepared and unprepared.  They speak voluntarily or as required.  They speak solo or with a group.  Week 1 and Week 3 require speaking solo, standing up at the desk or in front of the class.

These three weeks are designed to assess students in different speaking scenarios to gauge their confidence and comfort level in different circumstances with and without safety nets.    Aside from making record of individual students, you may find that classes as a whole will differ in personality, character, spirt, confidence, and participation.  You may be able to start noticing which classes are good candidates for the open class.  After applying this approach, I was able to see things more clearly upfront early on in the first month of school as opposed to the middle or end of the first semester.  It saved me a lot of headache and less assumption work after month 1.

For Week 2 and Week 3 lessons, visit http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,18932.msg238239.html#msg238239

For more lessons, visit “Lessons by kindenglishteacher”  http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,18932.0.html

[kindenglishteacher]

Regular girls high school.  1st and 2nd year classes.  This is the first of three lessons designed for the first month of the new school year.

Week 1, Month 1: Student Introductions, Toilet Paper Icebreaker

Objective:  Start creating a comfortable atmosphere for the speaking class by students getting to know each other.  Start assessing the students' speaking language level.
Activity:  Students introduce themselves through freestyle speech based on the number of squares of toilet paper they have.  This is minimal effort on the teacher and more work for the student.  You can do this with or without a LCD monitor in the classroom.  This lesson is useful if during your first week of school you don't get a computer, or there are technical issues with the LCD monitors.
Materials:  About 6-7 rolls of toilet paper for 20 classes of 30-40 students each.  TP squares were collected and re-used for later classes.

1. Students tear off X number of squares of toilet paper without knowing what they'll do with it.  They can take as many as they'd like.  However, it may be more manageable if you control the number by setting a maximum limit of 4 squares.  This way, many students can do their self-introductions.
2. Demonstrate your own self introduction.  Each square is one sentence.  Each square is something insightful.  Students will catch on what to do.  Then briefly go over what to do verbally.
3. Give ideas to help them get started.  Set rules on what NOT to say so that self-introductions are interesting, unique, and insightful. 
4. Students choose who will introduce themselves next. 
5. At some point, determine whether to collect the used TP squares and re-use for subsequent classes - it depends on how many TP rolls you can get from your school.

Be spontaneous and interact with their introductions.  This creates the classroom atmosphere from day 1.  Students got a feel for my character and personality this way.  This worked well in all my classes - laughter, smiles, learning something interesting about classmates, getting a feel for the class atmosphere and personalities of the teacher and students.  High school students assess their subject teachers quickly and perceive you in a fixed way, positive or negative starting from their first two weeks of the new school year.  So you can start in a positive way by interacting with their introductions in engaging and funny ways.  We found out that two students have cousins who are members of Shinee!

Month 1 Plan:

Week 1, Month 1: Student Introductions, Toilet Paper Icebreaker
Week 2, Month 1: Interview the Teacher, Class Guidelines
Week 3, Month 1: Share and Tell, Speaking Skill Assessment
Week 4, Month 1: New lesson, assign new group seating chart [/b]

These lessons for the first three weeks were methodologically designed after two years of teaching at the high school level.  These involve more speaking effort on the students' side to help inform me on what, how, and which level to build lessons at a new school where I don't know the students, teachers, and ability levels.  Students speak in freestyle that is prepared and unprepared.  They speak voluntarily or as required.  They speak solo or with a group.  Week 1 and Week 3 require speaking solo, standing up at the desk or in front of the class.

These three weeks are designed to assess students in different speaking scenarios to gauge their confidence and comfort level in different circumstances with and without safety nets.   Aside from making record of individual students, you may find that classes as a whole will differ in personality, character, spirt, confidence, and participation.  You may be able to start noticing which classes are good candidates for the open class.  After applying this approach, I was able to see things more clearly upfront early on in the first month of school as opposed to the middle or end of the first semester.  It saved me a lot of headache and less assumption work after month 1.

[kindenglishteacher]

Regular girls high school.  1st and 2nd year classes.  This is the second of the first three lessons at the start of the academic year as a new teacher at a new high school.

Week 2, Month 1:  Interview the Teacher, Class Guidelines

Objective:  As with the lesson from the first week of school, this is to foster a relationship between the students and teacher, assess initial group interaction among students, and assess the class average in speaking/listening language skill levels.   

Activities: 
- Students work in groups to interview the teacher. Set parameters to assess their speaking skill using the 5 Ws and How.
- The teacher shares photos of interests (students get to know the native teacher more)
- Briefly, go over the class guidelines.  By this time in high school they already know what is good and bad and don't need to be drilled in the head about it, particulary the 2nd year classes.  So go over it briefly, top line it.  I was only more specific about how they can get class points reduced.
- Give instructions for "Share and Tell" - the first speaking assignment which will help to further inform of the students' speaking language ability level.  The "Share and Tell" will take place one week later at the next class.
- Distribute the survey sheet to students, due at the next class. 

For the teacher interview activity, this alleviates your time and energy in preparing your own introduction.  It is more interesting for students to be active in learning about you rather than being passive by listening to you.  Also, it is possible that you may not have a computer or malfunctioning LCD monitor in the classroom during the second week of school.  Therefore, all the activities in this lesson can be executed without a computer. 

Month 1 Plan:

Week 1, Month 1: Student Introductions, Toilet Paper Icebreaker
Week 2, Month 1: Interview the Teacher, Class Guidelines
Week 3, Month 1: Share and Tell, Speaking Skill Assessment
Week 4, Month 1: New lesson, group seating chart[/b]

These lessons for the first three weeks were methodologically designed after two years of teaching at the high school level.  These involve more speaking effort on the students' side to help inform me on what, how, and which level to build lessons at a new school where I don't know the students, teachers, and ability levels.  Students speak in freestyle that is prepared and unprepared.  They speak voluntarily or as required.  They speak solo or with a group.  Week 1 and Week 3 require speaking solo, standing up at the desk or in front of the class.

These three weeks are designed to assess students in different speaking scenarios to gauge their confidence and comfort level in different circumstances with and without safety nets.   Aside from making record of individual students, you may find that classes as a whole will differ in personality, character, spirt, confidence, and participation.  You may be able to start noticing which classes are good candidates for the open class.  After applying this approach, I was able to see things more clearly upfront early on in the first month of school as opposed to the middle or end of the first semester.  It saved me a lot of headache and less assumption work after month 1.

[kindenglishteacher]

Regular girls high school.  1st and 2nd year classes.  This is the third of the first three lessons of the academic year as a new teacher at a new high school. 

Week 3, Month 1: Share and Tell, Speaking Skill Assessment

Objective:  To be further informed and gauge the speaking language level of individual students after having assessed the overall class ability from the previous two weeks (student freestyle introduction and interview of the teacher). 

Activity:
- During the previous week, give instructions on how to prepare for the Share and Tell.
- During week 3, students share and talk about a favorite object or special experience in one minute. 
- Students speak in front of the class unaided by reading materials.  Speak freestyle.
- Assign points for each student while listening to them for 1 minute.  See the excel file for the scoring chart. 

This helped to see whether Ss could communicate in a few words, phrases, partial or complete sentences.  There were students with high exam scores speaking at the elementary school level.  There were cases where students scoring in the 40s or 50s on the English exam spoke better and more confidently than those who scored in the 70s - 90s.  It helped me to see that many 2nd year classes were in the high middle level, with a few at a low level due to confidence issues.  I was also able to clearly see that many 1st year classes had very low level ability while a handful spoke in a normal, natural, conversational ability level.

The Share and Tell helped classmates to learn more about each other.  The students' own personalities and character created the class atmosphere.

After reviewing the speaking points alongside the English exam scores, group seating assignments were created.  See the attached excel file, second tab.  The intention was to create groups whereby the various reading, listening, and speaking levels of group members can complement each other so that strengths and weaknesses are balanced.  This way, group members can be helping each other, relieving the teacher.   

Month 1 Plan:

Week 1, Month 1: Student Introductions, Toilet Paper Icebreaker
Week 2, Month 1: Interview the Teacher, Class Guidelines
Week 3, Month 1: Share and Tell, Speaking Skill Assessment
Week 4, Month 1: New lesson, group seating chart

These lessons for the first three weeks were methodologically designed after two years of teaching at the high school level.  These involve more speaking effort on the students' side to help inform me on what, how, and which level to build lessons at a new school where I don't know the students, teachers, and ability levels.  Students speak in freestyle that is prepared and unprepared.  They speak voluntarily or as required.  They speak solo or with a group.  Week 1 and Week 3 require speaking solo, standing up at the desk or in front of the class.

These three weeks are designed to assess students in different speaking scenarios to gauge their confidence and comfort level in different circumstances with and without safety nets.    Aside from making record of individual students, you may find that classes as a whole will differ in personality, character, spirt, confidence, and participation.  You may be able to start noticing which classes are good candidates for the open class.  After applying this approach, I was able to see things more clearly upfront early on in the first month of school as opposed to the middle or end of the first semester.  It saved me a lot of headache and less assumption work after month 1.

[kindenglishteacher]

Regular girls high school.  1st and 2nd year classes.  This is the second of the first three lessons at the start of the academic year as a new teacher at a new high school.

Week 2, Month 1: Interview the Teacher, Class Guidelines:

Objective:  As with the lesson from the first week of school, this is to foster a relationship between the students and teacher, assess initial group interaction among students, and assess the class average in speaking/listening language skill levels.   

Activities: 
- Students work in groups to interview the teacher. Set parameters to assess their speaking skill using the 5 Ws and How.
- The teacher shares photos of interests (students get to know the native teacher more and also enjoy viewing pictures in general). 
- Briefly, go over the class guidelines - by this time in high school they already know what is good and bad and don't need to be drilled in the head about it, particulary the 2nd year classes.  So go over it briefly, top line it.  I was only more specific about how they can get class points reduced. 
- Give instructions for "Share and Tell" - the first speaking assignment which will help to further inform of the students' speaking language ability level.  The "Share and Tell" will take place one week later at the next class.
- Distribute the survey sheet to students, due at the next class. 

For the teacher interview activity, this alleviates your time and energy in preparing your own introduction.  It is more interesting for students to be active in learning about you rather than being passive by listening to you.  Also, it is possible that you may not have a computer or malfunctioning LCD monitor in the classroom during the second week of school.  Therefore, all the activities in this lesson can be executed without a computer. 

Month 1 Plan:

Week 1, Month 1: Student Introductions, Toilet Paper Icebreaker
Week 2, Month 1: Interview the Teacher, Class Guidelines
Week 3, Month 1: Share and Tell, Speaking Skill Assessment
Week 4, Month 1:  New lesson, assign new group seating chart [/b]

These lessons for the first three weeks were methodologically designed after two years of teaching at the high school level.  These involve more speaking effort on the students' side to help inform me on what, how, and which level to build lessons at a new school where I don't know the students, teachers, and ability levels.  Students speak in freestyle that is prepared and unprepared.  They speak voluntarily or as required.  They speak solo or with a group.  Week 1 and Week 3 require speaking solo, standing up at the desk or in front of the class.

These three weeks are designed to assess students in different speaking scenarios to gauge their confidence and comfort level in different circumstances with and without safety nets.  Aside from making record of individual students, you may find that classes as a whole will differ in personality, character, spirt, confidence, and participation.  You may be able to start noticing which classes are good candidates for the open class.  After applying this approach, I was able to see things more clearly upfront early on in the first month of school as opposed to the middle or end of the first semester.  It saved me a lot of headache and less assumption work after month 1.

For Week 1 and Week 3 lessons, visit http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,18932.msg238239.html#msg238239

For more lessons, visit “Lessons by kindenglishteacher”  http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,18932.0.html

[kindenglishteacher]

Regular girls high school.  1st and 2nd year classes.  This is the third of the first three lessons of the academic year as a new teacher at a new high school. 

Week 3, Month 1: Share and Tell, Speaking Skill Assessment

Objective:  To be further informed and gauge the speaking language level of individual students after having assessed the overall class ability from the previous two weeks (student freestyle introduction and interview of the teacher). 

Activity:
- During the previous week, give instructions on how to prepare for the Share and Tell.
- During week 3, students share and talk about a favorite object or special experience in one minute. 
- Students speak in front of the class unaided by reading materials.  Speak freestyle.
- Assign points for each student while listening to them for 1 minute.  See the excel file for the scoring chart. 

This helped to see whether Ss could communicate in a few words, phrases, partial or complete sentences.  There were students with high exam scores speaking at the elementary school level.  There were cases where students scoring in the 40s or 50s on the English exam spoke better and more confidently than those who scored in the 70s - 90s.  It helped me to see that many 2nd year classes were in the high middle level, with a few at a low level due to confidence issues.  I was also able to clearly see that many 1st year classes had very low level ability while a handful spoke in a normal, natural, conversational ability level.

The Share and Tell helped classmates to learn more about each other.  The students' own personalities and character created the class atmosphere.

After reviewing the speaking points alongside the English exam scores, group seating assignments were created.  See the attached excel file, second tab.  The intention was to create groups whereby the various reading, listening, and speaking levels of group members can complement each other so that strengths and weaknesses are balanced.  This way, group members can be helping each other, relieving the teacher.   

Month 1 Plan:

Week 1, Month 1: Student Introductions, Toilet Paper Icebreaker
Week 2, Month 1: Interview the Teacher, Class Guidelines
Week 3, Month 1: Share and Tell, Speaking Skill Assessment
Week 4, Month 1:  New lesson, assign new group seating chart[/b]

These lessons for the first three weeks were methodologically designed after two years of teaching at the high school level.  These involve more speaking effort on the students' side to help inform me on what, how, and which level to build lessons at a new school where I don't know the students, teachers, and ability levels.  Students speak in freestyle that is prepared and unprepared.  They speak voluntarily or as required.  They speak solo or with a group.  Week 1 and Week 3 require speaking solo, standing up at the desk or in front of the class.

These three weeks are designed to assess students in different speaking scenarios to gauge their confidence and comfort level in different circumstances with and without safety nets.   Aside from making record of individual students, you may find that classes as a whole will differ in personality, character, spirt, confidence, and participation.  You may be able to start noticing which classes are good candidates for the open class.  After applying this approach, I was able to see things more clearly upfront early on in the first month of school as opposed to the middle or end of the first semester.  It saved me a lot of headache and less assumption work after month 1.

For Week 1 and Week 2 lessons, visit http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,18932.msg238239.html#msg238239

For more lessons, visit “Lessons by kindenglishteacher” at http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,18932.0.html

[kindenglishteacher]

This lesson requires no preparation.  No materials.  No ppt.  It is great for those days when you don't have a lesson; the class media equipment or your computer breaks down; the "lack of enthusiasm week" before school exams; large time filler after having assigned a new group seating chart; or after you complete a lesson and have too much time to fill but don't know what to do.

This group activity and speaking lesson requires creative thinking and just "street smarts."  It is a prescribed hypothetical situation and students have to figure out how to survive or escape.

1.  Describe the situation and repeat it two times.  Speak slowly and with a dramatic effect of storytelling to catch their attention.

“You are stranded on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean.  All you have are the swimsuit and sandals you are wearing, food, and water.  There is nothing else.  You are alone.”

Further explain that there are no humans nor animals, phone, wi-fi, TV, home, trees, MP3s, and so on.  It is a desert which means no mountains, no trees, and so on.  During the second repetition, consider writing the theme on the board and a visual of the situation.  This will help the low level students.  During this time, write the word "stranded" on the board and explain the concept (lost, alone, no one can find you).

2.  Write the instructions on the board along with a list of items to choose from.  Pronounce the words as you write.  Go over the items that students may not understand.  Facilitate the class to explain items to each other or select the items that you assume they don't know.  It helps to demonstrate with action and draw an image next to the item.

"Choose 8 useful items.  Why are these the most useful?  How will you use them?
an axe, a paper and pencil, 20 meters of nylon rope, a nylon tent, a blanket, a towel, a fork and spoon,
a saucepan, a box of matches, a magnifying glass, ointment for cuts and burns, a transistor radio with batteries,
a camera with 5 rolls of film, a bottle of whisky, an atlas, some metal knitting needles

3.  Group discussion - 10 minutes.  Speaking preparation - 5 minutes.  Each group member must speak at least two sentences.  Demonstrate how not to speak, “axe, cut.”  Demonstrate with an example of how to speak, “I need an axe for…;  An axe is useful because…; and so on.” 

4. Groups get extra points for volunteering.  They must speak freestyle.  If it is a very low class, they can read their writing.  But I challenge the lower level students to make effort and try to speak freestyle to break the habit of being so dependent on paper to speak.  Groups and members must start speaking quickly (no stall time).

Be mindful of groups that have different uses and logic for the same item.  If there is time to fill, have such groups defend their points (debate) after all groups have spoken.  Adjust the number of items to choose from for your class level, creative challenge, or time management.

I did this the week before their exams when they are stressed and exhausted.  Surprisingly, the students in all my classes were quite active and participated well.  During the speaking part, keep the momentum going.  Make adjustments to keep the energy going - e.g. debate, groups voting on the best solution, assigning the same items but splitting the class into two teams, and so on.  This lesson can be reconfigured in a number of ways to adjust to your classes.  You can tell them to choose survival items; which items they need to escape; or just don't tell them at all and let them figure it out.

[kindenglishteacher]

This lesson requires no preparation.  No materials.  No ppt.  It is great for those days when you don't have a lesson; the class media equipment or your computer breaks down; the "lack of enthusiasm week" before school exams; large time filler after having assigned a new group seating chart; or after you complete a lesson and have too much time to fill but don't know what to do.

This group activity and speaking lesson requires creative thinking and just "street smarts."  It is a prescribed hypothetical situation and students have to figure out how to survive or escape.

1.  Describe the situation and repeat it two times.  Speak slowly and with a dramatic effect of storytelling to catch their attention.

“You are stranded on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean.  All you have are the swimsuit and sandals you are wearing, food, and water.  There is nothing else.  You are alone.”

Further explain that there are no humans nor animals, phone, wi-fi, TV, home, trees, MP3s, and so on.  It is a desert which means no mountains, no trees, and so on.  During the second repetition, consider writing the theme on the board and a visual of the situation.  This will help the low level students.  During this time, write the word "stranded" on the board and explain the concept (lost, alone, no one can find you).

2.  Write the instructions on the board along with a list of items to choose from.  Pronounce the words as you write.  Go over the items that students may not understand.  Facilitate the class to explain items to each other or select the items that you assume they don't know.  It helps to demonstrate with action and draw an image next to the item.

"Choose 8 useful items.  Why are these the most useful?  How will you use them?
an axe, a paper and pencil, 20 meters of nylon rope, a nylon tent, a blanket, a towel, a fork and spoon,
a saucepan, a box of matches, a magnifying glass, ointment for cuts and burns, a transistor radio with batteries,
a camera with 5 rolls of film, a bottle of whisky, an atlas, some metal knitting needles

3.  Group discussion - 10 minutes.  Speaking preparation - 5 minutes.  Each group member must speak at least two sentences.  Demonstrate how not to speak, “axe, cut.”  Demonstrate with an example of how to speak, “I need an axe for…;  An axe is useful because…; and so on.” 

4. Groups get extra points for volunteering.  They must speak freestyle.  If it is a very low class, they can read their writing.  But I challenge the lower level students to make effort and try to speak freestyle to break the habit of being so dependent on paper to speak.  Groups and members must start speaking quickly (no stall time).

Be mindful of groups that have different uses and logic for the same item.  If there is time to fill, have such groups defend their points (debate) after all groups have spoken.  Adjust the number of items to choose from for your class level, creative challenge, or time management.

I did this the week before their exams when they are stressed and exhausted.  Surprisingly, the students in all my classes were quite active and participated well.  During the speaking part, keep the momentum going.  Make adjustments to keep the energy going - e.g. debate, groups voting on the best solution, assigning the same items but splitting the class into two teams, and so on.  This lesson can be reconfigured in a number of ways to adjust to your classes.  You can tell them to choose survival items; which items they need to escape; or just don't tell them at all and let them figure it out.