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Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/7B/Lesson 8

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牛津初中英语·同步听力(七下) FUN WITH ENGLISH 7B
Chapter 7: Getting There
Anqing Foreign Language School
Grade 7
Lesson 8
Version 0.2

This chapter focuses on transportation. In this lesson plan I hope to complete a few good textbook activities quickly and spend majority of the time with the students interviewing one another about their thoughts on transportation. The lesson finishes with a map based game that should be a fun way for students to use their English.

Lesson Objectives

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  • The opening riddle and questions will draw the students attention.
  • The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
  • Students will speak only English to eachother while they interview one another.
  • The map game will be fun and students will participate in English.

Lesson Plan

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Before Class Starts

  • If time, walk around and mingle with the students before the bell rings. (King)

Greeting: Introduce What's the craic?

  • What's the craic is used in Ireland as a way to say "How are you?" [1]
  • The responses are the same as "How are you?"

Opening: Riddle & Questions

  • Share a simple riddle with the students.
  • Do you have any questions for me?
  • What do you think of our lessons? How can we make our lessons better? (King)

Textbook: Page 26 Let's get ready A

  • Before going over the answers, read out and practice the pronunciation of all the words.
  • Have you seen any of these signs in Anqing?

Textbook: Page 26 Let's get ready B

  • Make sure they read out the full answer.
  • After each answer have all of them listen and repeat after me.

Textbook: Page 27 Let's listen 1 B Tapescript Page 82

  • Read slowly twice.

Textbook: Page 28 Let's listen 2 A Tapescript Page 82

  • First time read at my normal speaking speed.

Activity: Transportation Interview[CN Transportation = Yùnshū Interview = Fǎngwèn]

  • Now we are going to interview a friend about transportation.
  • Please ask them these questions and write down the answers. Please only speak in English.
  • Questions: [Write on the board]
    • What types of transportation do you like?
    • What types of transportation are good for the environment? Why?
    • What types of transportation are bad for the environment? Why?
  • Go around class helping individual groups. Don't spend too, too long on the activity.
  • At the end ask two to three groups if they would like to share with the class?

Game: Dizzy Maps

  • Have two similar maps with about four to five buildings drawn on the board.
  • Make two teams.
  • Ask for volunteers, or choose participants.
  • Bring them to the front of the classroom.
  • Cover their eyes with a shirt or tie or something.
  • Spin them around four times.
  • Give them a piece of chalk and have their classmates guide them to their destination. The first one to arrive wins.

Maybe Also Try

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Activity: Map and Directions (For classes with a high level and a patient attitude.)

  • OK, now I want you to work in pairs.
  • Create a map, with three buildings.
    • Grocery Store
    • Bank
    • School
  • and five roads.
    • Danoff Road
    • Brown Street
    • English Avenue
    • Fuller Lane
    • Elton John Boulevard
  • You have 2 minutes, go!
  • Time is up, now I want you to give your map to a new group.
  • New group, please write down the directions for how to go from the Bank to the School to the grocery store.

Textbook: Page 29 Let's listen 2 A Tapescript Page 82 (Maybe)

Extra Time

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Game: Number of Letters? (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.

Activity: The Man in The Mirror Slideshow"

  • Teach the song and have the students sing along with you and Michael.

Lesson Review

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Class Notes

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20 Apr 2010 AM Period 4 Grade 7 Class 3

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  • Took a while to go over "What's the craic?".
    • They knew what Ireland is, I don't think they really got it.
  • Forgot to ask them riddles.
  • Took a while after that to get them to move into their new seats.
    • Those were moderately successful. One low level boy instead of being distracted by the window now chats with a friend.
    • It is nice having them all in my sight line at all times.
  • Having them repeat all the words in the textbook back to me lost their interest after a bit.
  • They were very distracted and chatty for the whole lesson.
  • The interview activity only worked well for advanced students. Everyone else was lost or completely uninterested.
  • I asked a girl for her suggestions. She said I should make the students be quiet.

Next Week

  • Try the interview activitiy again.
  • Consider seperating certain groups.
  • One student suggested I ask the monitor for help.

20 Apr 2010 Day in Review

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What Could I Have Done Better?

  • Gotten the classes attention.

What Did I Do Well?

  • Not lose my temper.

What Did I Learn?

  • New activities require VERY thorough explnations.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

  • Oral / aural practice, some new vocabulary, and a little thinking about transportation.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved?

  • The opening riddle and questions will draw the students attention.
    • Nope.
  • The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
    • No.
  • Students will speak only English to eachother while they interview one another.
    • No.
  • The map game will be fun and students will participate in English.
    • No time.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

  • Had some sort of computer display about "What's the craic?"
  • Had some sort of computer display about the interview activity.

21 Apr 2010 PM Period 1 Grade 7 Class 11

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  • Didn't do "What's the craic?"
  • Following the greeting we talked for a little about the weather. I explained how I am more comfortable inside than outside, so I like the rain because then I do not have to feel bad about going outside.
  • The riddle went well. Wrote their answers on the board. One boy got it pretty quick.
  • After that I answered their questions as always they have a good amount. Most interesting topic we got to today was the "Egyptian Dance".
  • Their suggestions for making our class better:
    • study
    • learn
    • clean
    • write homework
    • play games
  • Only did Let's get ready from the textbook. Went over the pronunciation of the words before I had them give me the answers. It'd probably be good to do it before they even begin answering the questions.
    • As they gave the answers, we spent a long time chatting about the different road signs and I told a story about when I got busted for speeding while I was in Japan.
  • Interview activity took a really long time to explain.
    • May be better to:
      • Start by asking what's an interview. Give an example of a reporter and President Obama.
      • Have the questions written beforehand [while they are doing let's get ready] or written on the computer screen.
      • Maybe they do not have to write down the answers?
  • The boy and the girl who had the spat last week were fine.

Next Week

  • Interview activity again.
  • Talk about the Egyptian dance? Maybe this: How to Perform Modern Egyptian Dance Part 1, on 5min dot com.
  • Another riddle.

21 Apr 2010 PM Period 3 Grade 7 Class 10

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  • Lesson began quite enthusiastically.
    • Yo! / What's up? went very well.
    • Introduced What's the craic? which I believe went OK. Somewhat difficult for them and I'm not quite sure how to explain it.
    • Answered a few of their questions, then asked:
      • Do you like our class? Why? [relaxing / fun ...] How can we make our class better?
        • Suggestions:
          • play cloudy tree a game that has something to do with a train and is usually played in a park
          • sing Chinese or English songs
          • listen to music
          • watch anime
          • cartoon films
          • be quiet
  • Then did the riddle, but by this point I had gone too long or their attention had waned. Not many of them were with me, so the riddle did not work so well.
    • Some kind of special time is there at the beginning of a lesson, where they are with me and paying attention but if I'm only able to connect with a few or them or something else like that I can lose them.
  • Did Let's get ready. I tried going over the vocabulary before we began, but that did not really work. Covering the vocabulary before we got deeply into the answers is helpful.
  • Spent the last fifteen minutes on the interviews. Using the method I suggested above helped, but still I have to walk around and work with most pairs individually before any progress can be made.
    • Might be better to try letting them make the pairs themselves.
    • Nice to see multiple groups of students volunteer themselves to participate.
    • Might also be nice to have some sort of prop microphone.
  • Spent the last minute and a half teaching them the chorus to my favorite Otis Redding song.
  • Throughout class a few boys were tossing stuff around the room, which was annoying.

Next Week

  • That one student's test is from Mr. Brown's class.
  • Find out what Cloudy Tree is.
  • Do the interview activity again.

21 Apr 2010 Day in Review

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What Could I Have Done Better?

  • Explained the interview activity in a way that did not take up fifteen minutes.

What Did I Do Well?

  • Talked for virtually the entire period.

What Did I Learn?

  • New activities require VERY thorough explnations.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

  • Oral / aural practice, some new vocabulary, and practice giving an interview to their classmates.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved?

  • The opening riddle and questions will draw the students attention.
    • Yes.
  • The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
    • Yes.
  • Students will speak only English to eachother while they interview one another.
    • No.
  • The map game will be fun and students will participate in English.
    • No time.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

  • Improve the instructions for the interview activity.

22 Apr 2010 PM Period 2 Grade 7 Class 8

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  • Kept my explanation of "What's the craic?" simple and the students seemed to grasp the concept.
  • Asked them a slightly different riddle, which one boy suprised me by getting quickly.
  • Re-worded how I asked for their feedback.
    • Asked first how can I improve?
      • Funny
      • Interesting things
      • Watch film every class
      • Joke
      • Listen to music
      • You know a lot about computer. Use more computer, we like those lessons.
    • Asked second, how can we improve?
      • Day, day up - good, good study
      • Good co-operation
      • Speak more English
      • Be active
      • Be quiet
      • Be interesting
  • They then had tons of questions, which took up most of the lesson time.
  • Went through Let's get ready slowly, focusing on each answer.
    • One girl who doesn't ususally talk got an answer wrong. She sat down and seemed quite disappointed. I called on her again for the next answer and then told her great job! This technique helps some shy students.
  • Did not have enough time for the interview activity.

Next Week

  • One boy asked to play baskeball after school. I declined because of other commitments. If possible try to play after the next class.

23 Apr 2010 AM Period 3 Grade 7 Class 7

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  • Began with "What's the craic?" kept it simple and it kept their interest.
  • Next went with the story of Michael Jordan being cut from his high school team. They were excited by the idea of the story but the one I told and/or the way I told it did not elicit much excitement.
  • Aksed a riddle but didn't give them the answer.
  • Then I asked them if they had any questions followed by suggestions.
    • They had some good ideas:
  • Spent a long time talking about the textbook answers. Going through each one slowly and methodically.
  • Bell rang before we did anything else, but it turned out to be quite fun.
  • Of course one of the best students came up afterwards and infromed me the lesson was boring, because "we didn't play any interesting games."

Next Week

  • What's the craic?
  • Answer to riddle about University.

23 Apr 2010 AM Period 4 Grade 7 Class 9

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  • Observed by three teachers.
  • After greeting my students I had them all turn around and say hi to the observing teachers. I then aksed my students if it was OK for the teachers to watch. They were silent so I just said "OK!!!"
  • Suggestions to improve class.
    • Changes for me
      • play games [also wrote "no we are not children" though i don't recall why]
      • watch films / cartoon / videos
      • talk about some goo things
        • history of the NBA
        • story of Anqing Foreign Language School
    • Changes for them
      • be quiet
      • learn
      • exciting
      • match
      • sing songs
  • Kids behaved far better than usual but kept their energy.
  • Skipped the MJ story saving time instead for the map game.
  • Did the riddle which got a lot of kids thinking and one bright girl got the answer.
  • Were able to get through a lot of the textbook quickly.
  • Finished class with the map game which went far better because I brought in ties for the kids. Of course once we started the competetive aspect it went wild with all of them rushing to the board.
  • Had to calm it down.

Next Week

  • Perhaps map game again since they now know it.

23 Apr 2010 PM Period 3 Grade 7 Class 2

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  • Spent the first 15 minutes or solving a problem.
  • An alien had come to Anqing [idea from Johnson] and they had to explain to the alien how eathlings live, but the alien could only speak English.
    • Went over food / clothes / friends asking Why? How? and What? for each.
    • Pushed it a little too far. A lot of students lost interest by that point.
  • Then went into the riddle and questions for me? routine.
  • Went through the textbook, but not as thorughly as possible [in terms of me expanding upon answers], because I wanted to save time to play the dizzy maps game at the end.
  • Before we started I asked for a volunteer, but they did not know what the word meant.
  • Just had one student go and I added things like "No entry"

Next Week

  • One girl was ready to go at the end of the lesson, but the bell rung. Have her play next class.
  • Another girl wanted to know my Chinese name. Have it ready for her.

Appendix

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Acknowledgments

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  • 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.
  • Marjorie King provided some feedback on my last lessons, that was built into this lesson. (King)

Changelog

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Version 0.2 19 Apr 2010

  • Added the dizzy maps game and the interview activity.
  • Dropped the transport discussion.
  • Added the maybe also try section.

Version 0.1 17 Apr 2010

References

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  1. Wikipedia: Craic