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LadyK
Joined: 25 May 2009
Posts: 55
Location: USA, FL
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 Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:17 pm Post subject: Yet another demo for critique, please! |
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I have my Aeon and ECC interviews coming up next month, and here is the first draft of my 30 minute Aeon lesson plan, 5 of which I will demo (the game portion). Any advice would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Teaching Point: �What are you wearing? He/She is wearing��(colors and clothes)
Objective: Students will become familiar with common colors and clothing items in the English Language.
I. Pre-activity: Go through color and clothes flashcards, having students repeat appropriate words. (5 minutes)
II. Warm up: Students stand in a circle. They must call out the color and clothing type of a classmate, and quickly throw the ball to them. (Example: Blue pants!) If a thrower uses the wrong word when he throws the ball to a certain person, he or she is �out.� If a catcher drops the ball, he or she is �out.� (5-10 minutes)
III. Drill: Teaching point. Hold up pictures of various people, males and females, and ask, �What is he/she wearing?� Model response. Students must then answer, �He is wearing�/She is wearing�.� (5 minutes)
IV. Conversation: In pairs or groups, students will look through a book or magazine and ask about and identify clothing and colors. Teacher will circulate, correcting pronunciation and giving praise. (5�10 minutes)
V. Exercise: Cloze activity using new vocabulary along with previously learned teaching points. (5 minutes)
p.s. anyone else going to ECC in San Francisco, or Aeon in Atlanta?  |
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ShioriEigoKyoushi
Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 364
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 11:05 pm Post subject: Re: Yet another demo for critique, please! |
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Last edited by ShioriEigoKyoushi on Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 11:38 pm Post subject: |
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The objective you stated
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| Objective: Students will become familiar with common colors and clothing items in the English Language. |
doesn't say what the students will be able to do in the context of the lesson or after.
If you state your objective as "students name colours and describe what people are wearing" you have a clear outcome.
(If that's the objective provided in the Aeon lesson...)
What age range are the students?
Like Shiori said, putting the cloze/vocab/structure activity first might help the students focus, and allow you to diagnose if they are literate or not yet.
You could avoid literacy issues by doing a colouring dictation. For example, dictate Number One, draw yellow pants.
If you give them magazines, you'll lose them fast.
I liked Shiori's idea.
Also, consider cutting out some magazine images. Start by throwing three images of people on the table.
Have the students chorally repeat, A Boy or girl? You answer as appropriate. Next, chorally repeat, What is she wearing?
You describe the person by their clothing, and the children point to the right one. Have them chorally repeat your description, too. Repeat for the remaining two images.
Next have the students under a time limit choose an image of a person from some magazine pages. Give them a moment to think quietly about what s/he is wearing. They can confirm their correct sentences by whispering in your ear.
They then put them out on the table. Everyone calls out, Boy or girl? The student indicates. Again, chorally repeat What is s/he wearing? and the student describes the clothing on the person. To reenforce the language, have all the students repeat the sentence the first student said. It makes him or her feel pretty excited - they think, "I said a sentence, it was correct, and everybody repeated after me!"
The listening students grab the image they hear described. You can give stickers to the student who is fastest and grabs the most images.
(The structure of the activity is called Karuta in Japanese, and many foreign teachers refer to it as Slap. Don't worry about disuptes when two slap the same image - children do rock-scissors-paper to decide who gets to keep it.)
Up until the point you describe the cloze exercise, your lesson, like the modified ones Shiori and I suggest, is entirely oral. It's a big leap to go from exclusively oral to writing, which demands motor skills, alphabet, all kinds of things. Perhaps the students this lesson is aimed at are ready. It's hard to tell without an age range indicated in your lesson plan.
I've taught this same language point using the activities described above to mixed age groups. The students were 6-10 years old. They love it.
Hope that helps. |
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LadyK
Joined: 25 May 2009
Posts: 55
Location: USA, FL
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| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:23 am Post subject: |
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Thank you! Very helpful!
As for age range, they did not give one in the email they sent about the demo. It just said "Beginner" and "In an interactive and creative manner, teach a lesson focused on English conversation. SUGGESTIONS: Pattern practice exercises, interactive role plays, educational games/activities." From what I've learned from reading every single post on here regarding demo lessons, the 5 minutes you present should be 20-80% and active, with the "students" getting up and involved.
The structure I used was one I found on here:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=36033
Which is why I put the cloze where I did, but I see how that could be quite a leap with beginners.
I will definitely be using both of your suggestions, and be sure to post after the interviews. Thanks again! |
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ShioriEigoKyoushi
Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 364
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:02 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by ShioriEigoKyoushi on Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mr_Monkey
Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 661
Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu
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| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:30 am Post subject: Re: Yet another demo for critique, please! |
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| ShioriEigoKyoushi wrote: |
| Depending on the age of the "kids" (you may get away with it in an interview as they will actually be the other candidates) I can imagine your lesson going slightly awry at this point. Keeping kids on task is a challenge... even for five minutes. I can imagine a class reverting to L1 and talking about all kinds of things in the magazines... not practicing the intended language. |
In a study of the use of L1 in a language classroom with teenage learners who all spoke the same L1 (can't remember the author, I'll find out if you want me to though), only 12% of L1 use was unconcerned with the language task at hand. The other 88% (!) served important social, task and language-learning related functions. The conclusion: L1 in the classroom is generally a good thing, and banning it is counter-productive.
Since the OP will be 'teaching' native speakers, it's not an issue. However, it is useful to know such things for when one is actually teaching (although there are likely to be institutional restraints on allowing L1 use in the classroom),
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How about a worksheet with a black and white outline of a dressed person, copied so there are two images on each sheet. First part of task, the kids colour in the left hand person any colour they like (time this with something visible - eg dots on the board - so that they know it is not an open ended activity!). Second part of the task - split into pairs, have them hide their drawing from the other pair member, and they must ask each other what colour the different garments are and colour in the other figure to match their partner's colours.
This could easily fill ten minutes and you'll have to keep an eye on the clock, as well as make sure they don't just look at each other's pictures an copy. But if you make it clear it's a secret, they will often quite willingly join in with the clandestine nature of the exercise and enjoy it. |
Information gap exercises are useful tools - I like them too 
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| LadyK wrote: |
V. Exercise: Cloze activity using new vocabulary along with previously learned teaching points. (5 minutes)
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Cloze is a very structured activity - I would suggest putting this earlier in your lesson plan (perhaps between presenting the vocabulary - I, and practicing the vocabulary with the ball game - II). Coincidentally, the ball game sounds like a great exercise. |
I agree that the gapfill text should come before the freer practice. I think ball games are a bit "meh", though - there's no real point to them, and learners, particularly teenagers, are very likely to find something more interesting to do, be it discussing the fashion content of the magazine on the desk or planning their next trip to the puri-kura.
Incidentally, the "cloze" activity described here is not really a cloze - it's a gapfill. A cloze is generally used as a language assessment: every nth word of a text is removed (this varies depending on how difficult the assessor wants to make the test), and the assessee must fill the gap using their knowledge of the language system. A gapfill activity generally focusses on the language point to be studied, and is largely an opportunity for (very) controlled practice.
I'm also a little concerned about task 4 - there is no purpose to the activity, as Liz said. a CELTA/Cert. TESOL candidate's lesson plan must include a rationale for each stage of the lesson, for good reason - it's important to consider why the learners are doing an activity. This is arguably more important than deciding on an activity as it comes first. |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:44 am Post subject: Increasing talk time |
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| Quote: |
| Incidentally, the "cloze" activity described here is not really a cloze - it's a gapfill. |
Spot on Mr_Monkey.
Also, I'd suggest in terms of maximizing talk time, Shiori's suggestion, passing the images around the circle, either direction, and I would suggest, as many as you can keep in circulation, allows the students a lot of talk time to practice the question and the response.
Also, consider a pair work activity to again increase talk time. Pair worksheets with "information gap" type activities help. For example, pair worksheets which require partner A to describe the person depicted, and partner B to find the correct person and tell partner A the name of that person.
Partner A: She's wearing a blue skirt and white shirt.
Partner B: I see her. It's Keiko.
Partner A writes the name Keiko above the appropriate image.
Switch roles. |
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ShioriEigoKyoushi
Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 364
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:51 am Post subject: Re: Yet another demo for critique, please! |
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Last edited by ShioriEigoKyoushi on Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mr_Monkey
Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 661
Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu
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| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:34 am Post subject: |
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Then you were mislead and should demand your money back!  |
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ShioriEigoKyoushi
Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 364
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:53 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by ShioriEigoKyoushi on Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Inflames
Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 486
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| Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 4:01 pm Post subject: Re: Yet another demo for critique, please! |
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| LadyK wrote: |
Teaching Point: �What are you wearing? He/She is wearing��(colors and clothes)
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I'd suggest correcting this first. |
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