Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/7B/Lesson 9

Grade 7
牛津初中英语·同步听力(七下) FUN WITH ENGLISH 7B
Chapter 8: Fire!
Anqing Foreign Language School
Lesson 9
Version 0.11

This chapter is about fire. I have a lot of different things planned here, I hope that by moving quickly through them I can keep their attention.

Lesson Objectives

The opening riddle and questions will draw the students attention.
The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
We can get an interesting discussion going about fires.
Students will speak only English to each other while they interview one another.
The fire in the school game will be fun and students will participate in English.

Lesson Plan

Before Class Starts

If time, walk around and mingle with the students before the bell rings. (King)
Write "the", "this" and "that" on the board or bring it up on a word document.

Greeting: Introduce or Re-Introduce What's the craic?

Go through Yo! What's up? to begin.
What country is Yo! What's up? from?
What country is How are you? from?
Do you know what the say in Ireland?
They say "What's the craic?" [1]
The responses are the same as "How are you?"

Opening: Riddle, May Day Holiday andQuestions

Share a simple riddle with the students.
Next Monday is a holiday, what will you do?
Do you have any questions for me?
What did you learn in class last week? (King)

Pronunciation Practice: "th"

Pointing to the th words on the board, ask "Can you please say these words?" (Jim)
How do you pronounce th?
You should put your tongue against your top teeth. (Sounds of English)
When you blow out, you will notice you make a "th" sound. (ibid)

Textbook: Page 30 Let's get ready A

If possible, as they are doing this portion put on some music.
After each answer, work on pronunciation.
Draw a fire on the board. For each thing that comes up, draw it in relation.
Instead of asking "What is ... " ask things like "Why do you ..." or "What does ___ do?"
Explain to make a fire go away you "put out the fire".

Textbook: Page 30 Let's get ready B

Conversation: Fire!

Today we will be talking about Fire!
What is fire?
Do people like fire? Do you?
Is fire good or bad?
Why do people use fire?
Where does fire come from?
How can you make fire?
Is fire dangerous?
Is fire evil?

Story:The Great Chicago Fire

Do you know about the Great Chicago Fire?
It happend about one hundred years ago, when Mrs. O'Leary's cow ...

Textbook: Page 32 Let's listen 2 A Tapescript Page 84

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

Have three questions written on the board or computer.
Write interview on the board.
Ask if they know that word?
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.
Questions: [Write on the board]
- Do you like fire?
- Do you think fire is good or bad?
- Why?

Game: There's a Fire in the School!

Draw a rough sketch of a school on the board.
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.
Explain that the student near the board is a fireman, but he cannot see because of the smoke.
The other students are talking to him with a radio. They have a map of the school, they need to tell him how to get to the fire.
Once he gets there, ask what should he do?

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.

Music: Billy Jean

Is Billy Jean a boy or a girl?
Who is the one?

Lesson Review

Class Notes

Different days correspond to different versions, which are linked to in the history of this resource.

26 Apr 2010 Version 0.1

26 Apr 2010 AM Period 1 Grade 7 Class 1

Weird class, kids were talking the whole time, but also working.
Many quiet students who I had not notice before have quite high English levels.
With this class it seems that to a point, even if they are chatting I am better off just keeping the lesson going.
Went over Yo! What's up?
They said class last week was boring, because we did not play any interesting games.

Next Week

Beat It
God is a Girl
Interesting Game

26 Apr 2010 AM Period 3 Grade 7 Class 5

Really noisy and rude.
- Part of it was my lesson wasn't especially exciting and I was a little tired, but still they were rude.
- One kind girl kept gesturing for me to relax.
Not a very productive lesson at all, quite frustrating.
Tried the interview activity, which was overall well received. Students even understood it well enough to change it and adapt it for their own purposes, unfortunately, that meant Asking a series of questions about what boys liked what girls in class.

Next Week

Put students into seats before class begins.
Patience.
Student who was about to play dizzy maps, involve him again?

26 Apr 2010 AM Period 4 Grade 7 Class 6

Went over Yo! What's up? thoroughly
Energetic, but not rude.
Went over the "th" sounds briefly, which was received well.
Only had a few questions for me.
Spent the last few minutes listening to Billy Jean.

Next Week

Review Yo! What's up?

26 Apr 2010 PM Period 3 Grade 7 Class 4

Students were more respectful than they have been individually when I called on them, but as a class they just talked the entire period.
Really felt today a few times like what I'm doing is pointless, these kids do not care. When I got to those moments, an individual student made eye contact with me or said something wonderful in English. Even if I'm not changing the world, I'm making differences and those who want to learn are learning something.
- Plus today I am tired as I usually am on Mondays, and my lesson plan was not great and its execution wasn't too swell, either.
Got through the textbook alright. Did a better job going over the fire portion than before. Fires do not seem to be too, too interesting to them.
- One boy has been saying hose all year for some reason and the answer to one of the questions was hose, as in a water hose, so he and the class were excited.
Spent the last ten minutes or so playing the spelling challenge game, which went OK, but I do not think too much English was learned.

Next Week

Move them to a new seating chart like I suggested last week. Tell their teacher and have her put them into the seats before class begins.
Play dizzy maps again.

27 Apr 2010 Version 0.11

27 Apr 2010 AM Period 4 Grade 7 Class 3

Starting with an overly zeaolous "Yo!" got things off on the right foot.
Went straight into a riddle. They did not get it, even after I wrote the answer on the board. I decided not to wait too long, and gave them the answer.
Then I wrote "the", "this" and "that" on the board and had them practice "th".
They did not have any questions, nor any comment as to what they learned the week before.
Asked what they were doing for the coming holiday and I got a few short responses.
Class was about 80% quiet at this point. Told them to do "Let's get ready" and as they did I walked over to one quite disruptive boy whose the class leader and informed him his grade for the day was a zero. Said "very bad" too, which was going too far. After that he was wonderful. At the end of class I said I'd give him a 50% for the day.
Drawing a fire on the board helped them answer all the questions, and understand the different items.
Had about 15 minutes left after the textbook, so I did not push for the conversaion, instead trying the interview. Brought one girl up to demonstrate and was shocked that in the minute or two after that I gave them on their own many, many of them were speaking to each other in English!!
Spend the last few minutes on the escape from school activity which was even more exciting with the addition of being timed.

Next Week

Move quick again.

27 Apr 2010 Notes

What Could I Have Done Better?

Had a better riddle in the opening, almost lost them.

What Did I Do Well?

Handled the boy who was misbehaving quickly and efficiently without distracting the whole class.

What Did I Learn?

Moving quickly is really an effective technique.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

Oral, aural English practice, some fire vocabulary, a positive experience expressing themselves in English.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved?

The opening riddle and questions will draw the students attention.
- No.
The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
- yes.
We can get an interesting discussion going about fires.
- No.
Students will speak only English to each other while they interview one another.
- For the most part, yes!
The fire in the school game will be fun and students will participate in English.
- Yes, though it's quite easy English.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

Better riddle.
Make time an element of the school game.
Keep moving quick.

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)
A friend named Jim advised me to focus on pronunciation and stress in speaking English in my classes. (Jim)

Changelog

Version 0.11 27 Apr 2010

Moved the conversation to after the textbook activities.
Changed the textbook related questions.
Added "There's a Fire in the School!" game.
Removed Let's Listen 1 activities.
Added Let's Listen 2 activities.

Version 0.1 25 Apr 2010

References

Ideas for this lesson

Story about the Chicago fire
Huangmei Shi
Grading Policy
Eustace Conway
Pronouncing "th"
Stress
Adjectives for "why?"