Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/7B/Lesson 10

Grade 7
牛津初中英语·同步听力(七下) FUN WITH ENGLISH 7B
Chapter 9: Computer games
Anqing Foreign Language School
Lesson 10
Version 0.1

This chapter is about computer games. I will be teaching 50 students as opposed to 25, so the plan will have to be slightly more structured than usual. There are a few different activities and games to play. This week also the students have a big exam, so I do not plan on being too tough.

Lesson Objectives

• The opening will go quickly enough to keep the students attention.
• The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
• The activities will be fun and get the students using English.

Lesson Plan

Before Class Starts

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

Greeting: World, USA and Irish Greetings

• [ pubdomed greetings slideshow]

Opening: Adjectives

• Many times after I ask you "Do you like _____?" I ask you "Why?" right?
• What are different reasons:
  • Yes I like
    • What do you say? interesting, good, great, fun, lovely
    • What can you also say? super, wonderful, incredible, amazing
  • No I don't like
    • What do you say? bad, boring, ugly
    • What can you also say? terrible, stupid, awful, horrible

Conversation: Computer Games

• What is a computer game?
• Why do people play computer games?
• What kind of computer games do you like?
• Are computer games healthy?

Textbook: Page 34 Let's get ready A

Textbook: Page 34 Let's get ready B

Textbook: Page 35 Let's listen 1 B

Textbook: Page 36 Let's listen 2 A

• Don't push too hard.

Textbook: Page 37 Let's listen 3 A

Textbook: Page 37 Let's listen 3 B

Activity: Computer Games Interview[CN Interview = taifan]

• Write interview on the board.
• Ask if they know that word?
• Write the questions on the board
  • How often do you play computer games?
  • How often do you want to play computer games?
  • Why?
• Bring up a student volunteer and interview one another in front of the class.
• Now please interview the people sitting next to you, in English!
• Give them a minute or three, walk around and help troubled groups.
• Afterwards ask for volunteers to come to the front of class and do the interview.

Activity: Platform Game

• Now, we are going to play a computer game!
• Who wants to play?
• Bring up a volunteer, or call on a student.
• Blindfold the student. (Dirty tie?)
• Place obstacles around the room. Designate a goal.
• Now, the volunteer is the character. You are the players.
• Tell them how to get to the goal!

Activity: Teach me about Chinese Computer Games

• Screenshots of CF, QQ Farm and DNF. Ask them to teach me how to play.

Debate: Are computer games healthy? (Mr. Brown)

• Break the students up by gender or by row.
• Write "Are computer games healthy?" on the board.
• Tell one group them they have to each write one reason why computer games are healthy and another why they are not.

Extra Time

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.

Game: Spelling Game (Dave's)

• Make a boys team and a girls team, go against one another two students per team at a time.

Discuss: Pictures from my Trip to Shanghai

Lesson Review

Class Notes

4 May 2010 AM Period 4 Grade 7 Class 3

• Computer didn't work, so I couldn't do the greetings slideshow.
• Started with "good morning!" because I do not think half the class knew about "Yo! What's up?"
• Kids were talking a lot to start, so I went away from my planned opening.
• Went straight into the discussion about computer games. While I did get individual answers for all of my questions, as a class, the conversation went nowhere.
• Spent most of the period going through the textbook, which went OK.
• Students who I have not seen in a while have been making lots of progress under Mr. Brown.
• Interview activity went OK. Some students spoke to one another, while many just chatted. Had a couple different pairs of students volunteer to come to the front, which was nice.
• Spent the last two to three minutes playing hangman.

Next Class

• Review names of the students I had last term.

4 May 2010 Notes

What Could I Have Done Better?

• Grabbed the students attention.

What Did I Do Well?

• Not lose my temper while they were talking and proceeded with the lesson.

What Did I Learn?

• This week with the big tests looming and all the kids together they are going to be chatting a lot. Still good to try and have a real lesson, but it might also be wise to not do quite so much and have more fun.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

• Oral and aural practice, chatted a little about computer games.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved? Why?

• The opening will go quickly enough that the students can pay attention and learn something.
  • No, I was not dynamic or interesting enough to grab their attention.
• The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
  • Yes, though they were not especially fun, we did get through all of the textbook quickly and effectively.
• The activities will be fun and get the students using English.
  • A little, some of the kids were interviewing eachother in English, but most were not.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

• Review students names from last term.
• Have more fun and less textbook, students are under a lot of stress at the moment.

5 May 2010 PM Period 1 Grade 7 Class 11

• started with an enthusiastic yo, which I was surprised to find was greeted enthusiastically back by them even the students from the other half which I did not remember teaching the greeting to
• did not have the computer set up with the greetings slideshow to start class, so I went straight into the conversation about computer games
  • When i told them we were going to be talking about computer games i got a few students who raised their arms and cheered
• started writing questions in a word document with the projector
  • What is a computer game?
  • Why do people like computer games?
  • Do your parents like computer games?
    • If yes, why? If no, why?
  • Do you think computer games are a bad habit?
    • If yes, why? If no, why?
  • If you had children, how often could they play computer games?
  • This took up the majority of the period, had a core group of students giving the answers with a few more answering one question every once in a while.
• Asked if they had any questions and they had some, mostly about the whereabouts of the other foreign teacher.
• Did Let's Get Ready from the textbook which went quickly
  • For part B I tried calling on some individual students for the answers to the questions, which did not go so well. I tried giving students with a lesser ability a chance to speak and then as I did the whole class started chatting.
• Tried to play the platform game for the last few minutes but I was not willing to rearrange the whole classroom for them to stampede around, so I just had them play with a map on the board.

Next Class

• Review student's names from last semester.

5 May 2010 Notes

What Could I Have Done Better?

• Even though the discussion got some students speaking up and some more listening, most of the class was not involved, even if they were being quiet. Find a way to

What Did I Do Well?

• Spent most of the period just speaking English, talking about computer games.

What Did I Learn?

• I can handle classes of 50 students.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

• Oral and aural English practice and for those who paid attention a chance to think critically about playing computer games.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved? Why?

• The opening will go quickly enough that the students can pay attention and learn something.
  • No, because I was not ready to start class.
• The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
  • Yes, but we only did one page.
• The activities will be fun and get the students using English.
  • We did not spend much time on activities, instead focusing heavily on the conversation.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

• For this class I did not need it, but for another class something more dynamic involving computer games might be helpful.

Appendix

Acknowledgments

• I get many ideas from Stuart Brown. (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)
• The spelling game is available on Dave's ESL cafe. (Dave's)

Changelog

Version 0.1 1 May 2010

• Written at the YY Club in Shanghai

[[Category:Interview Activity]