3 - 'What Do You Do In Your Free Time'
This is for any of you using the textbook 'Practical English Conversation', by James Doyne Dawson, among others.
I spread this topic out over 4 lessons. It goes with the unit in the textbook, of which I was asked to use 3 texts (P.42 / 45 / 48).
FIRST LESSON:1. Write a list of the times of the day (7am, 8am, 9am, 10am...) on the board and ask the students what they do at these times. They will inevitably say 'sleep' or 'eat' or 'study' at different times of the day. Overwhelmingly, the list will say 'study' (by the end of the list all my classes were chanting 'study study study', bit weird). Explain to them that this unit will be a problem, because they have no 'free time', but we must do it anyway.
2. Show the '
KoreanHighSchoolLife' video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTjA2icNAGAwhich was made by a high schooler. It pretty much synopsizes their lives into 10 seconds. Most of the students had seen it already, but it caught their attention anyway.
3. Open the '
FreeTime.ppt' and ask them to name the hobbies as they come up on the screen (also explain that 'i play with my friends' sounds a bit weird, and that 'i hang out with my friends' is better for teenagers to say). Then run through the next slide, filling in the blanks with 'play' or 'do' or 'go' as they fit.
4. Open page 48 in the textbooks, and do the listening exercise. This is a boring exercise, so I got it over with ASAP. Then show the text on the screen and ask them to answer the questions on page 49. Finally, I had each group (5 groups) to make a sentence each using the underlined words (i showed them sample sentences first on the board). Participation points for originality.
5. Then show them the pictures on the ppt, and get individual students to answer (speaking) 'what do you do there'. The target answer is play/do/go, eg. 'I do Taekwondo at the gym' or 'I play computer games at the PC room'. Then hand out the '
Unit3_worksheet.doc' and have them fill in question one themselves, joining the left column with the correct answer on the right column. Finally, correct the answers and write up places on the board and ask them what they do there. Eg. BEACH - 'I eat ice cream. I look at the waves. I listen to music. I watch pretty girls (students' idea). I go swimming. I do yoga. I play volleyball.'
SECOND LESSON1. Start with the listening activity on page 42. Help explain the harder words (toddlers, wrists, joints, protective gear, technique, relieve tension) and then vocally ask the questions on page 43.
2. Have them do the role plays on page 43, with a partner.
3. Do question 2 on the worksheet. Question structure. I was asked to cover this by a co-teacher, as their writing skills are quite low. explain the 'do you...' rule as applied to everything except the verb 'to be', and give two examples, before students fill in the questions themselves.
4. Run through the answers on the board, and then ask random students to make the questions for the answers on slide 10 on the ppt.
5. Who What Where When Why question game. Every student in the class chooses another student secretly and writes down a question specifically for them. Each group is assigned a question started (eg. group 1 choose 'Who', so all the students in group 1 write 'who' questions). Give them 5 mins for this. Then everyone stands up, asks a question, and the person who answers then asks their question. Participation points for good questions / answers. Surprisingly, the students really liked this and concentrated on listening to their classmates.
CLASS 31. I started this lesson with the '
Unit3_Listening' worksheet. I was asked to have 15 minutes of listening in each class by the vice-principal [their night classes have been cancelled], and these texts are from the approved listening textbooks (that are used for their exams). I read the script (page 1) with a co-teacher (or student with good pronunciation, if no coteacher) and the students completed the worksheet (page 2). Took about 20 minutes at the end. Immediately after finishing, I collected the worksheets, graded them after class and handed them back to them the next class.
2. Play hobbies 'Taboo' game with the students (
ppt, slides 13-25). One student from each group stands with their back to the screen and their group must describe the hobby onscreen without saying any of the words on the screen. Give sample sentences first (eg. 'an example of this hobby is _____', 'you use ______ in this hobby', '_____ is good at this hobby' etc. This went down very well. Real competitive. Each group was timed, and the group with the shortest time over 2 rounds were the winners. Prizes for the winners.
4th CLASS1. Hand back and correct the listening worksheet from last class.
2. Do the listening exercise on page 45, reading with a co-teacher. This one is a bit difficult, so I helped them by showing the text on the screen after the first time listening. Then have them answer the questions on page 46 (writing, full answers), while looking at the text on the screen.
3. Explain key terms in the text (that will be on their exam) - ('I haven't decided', 'I only have ...', 'by the way...', 'interested in...'). Write examples on the board. Ask students questions which they must answer with the correct term.
4. Do 'Disappearing Dialogue' with the text. Either as groups or as individual students (
ppt). Participation points for good effort.
5. Finally, go back to the
worksheets and have students do question three, after first listening to examples from both yourself and your co-teacher. Explain the terms 'suitable for', and 'benefits'. Students first write about their own hobby (5 mins) and then have random presentations (5 mins).
Fin.
That was wayyy too long. Sorry bout that. Maybe it can be useful to some of you though..
