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

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FUN WITH ENGLISH 8B
Chapter 7: A travelling computer
Anqing Foreign Language School
Grade 8
Lesson 7
Version 0.21

Lesson Objectives

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  • Students will enjoy themselves, giving a positive association with the English language a chance

to develop.

  • Create an atmosphere that's comfortable enough for students to take chances speaking English to

me and their peers.

  • Ask the right questions to get a lively discussion going about computers.
  • Find a way to make English more appealing than speaking to their friends in Chinese.
  • Look for ways to move from me speaking to them in English to them speaking to eachother and me in

English, that is from one to many to many to many.

Lesson Plan

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Before Class Starts

  • If time, walk around and chat with the students before the bell rings.

Greeting: Yo! What's up?

Opening Joke

Opening Discussion: Computers

  • What is a computer?
  • Is it a toy or a tool?
  • What's the difference between a computer and TV? [Comp you have control?]
  • Do computers give you power?
  • Are computers important or stupid?
  • Do you play computer games?
    • What do you do in the game?
    • Why? ...
    • So, you like to [what they do in the game, e.g. kill people]?
    • That makes you happy?

Textbook: Page 26 Let's get ready A and B

  • Please open your textbook to page 22, and do activities A and B.

Textbook: Page 28 Let's listen 2 A&B Tapescript Page 81

  • Also do the quick quiz.

Instruction: Computer Tricks

  • Show in a word document on the projector.
  • Ctrl+C = Copy
  • Ctrl+V = Paste
  • Ctrl+X = Cut
  • Ctrl+Z = Undo
  • Ctrl+Y = Redo

Students Choose: MJ or Textbook?

  • What would you like to do now, play a game or listen to a Michael Jackson song?

Activity: The Man in The Mirror Slideshow"

  • Introduce the song as one of Michael Jackson's hits from his 1988 "Bad" Album. [1]
  • Ask first:
    • Do you know this song?
    • What do you think will be its subject?
  • Write questions on the board before we begin, so they can have something to look for and check

them as they're listening/reading the lyrics.

    • Who is the man in the mirror?
    • What does he want to do?
    • Why?
    • Do you think he is right or wrong?
  • Stop it after he sings the chorus through the first time and talk about it. If they don't know

the answers, do not give them just keep playing the song and stop later.

%20Slideshow>

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.

Lesson Review

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Class Notes

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16 Apr 2010 AM Period 1 Grade 8 Class 10

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  • Why do you have so many "Why's"? was an incredible question from one young lady.
  • Beginning of class teacher was watching, sternly. Beginnig of class, kids were silent but scurried off into seats that weren't theirs.
  • Couldn't really get a discussion going.
    • Spent most of the period chatting with the kids over let's listen b (What do you like to do on computers?) 1 on 1 in front of the others.
  • Got more students paying attention than I expected for computer shortcuts and the MJ slides.
  • again this class talked the whole time, but seemed to be listening slightly more than the week before.

Next Week

  • hand back the remaining tests
  • be patient again

16 Apr 2010 PM Period 1 Grade 8 Class 8

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  • Took the computer conversation as far as I could, really hammering home the many to many aspects

of computing as opposed to the one to many of televison.

    • Instead of guiding them to think for themselves, though, I shoved my thoughts down their

throats, which I don't believe was right and possibly unethical.

    • That said, they did go with me for a really long time and we had an awesome chat.

Next Week

  • Try to build on the computer conversation.

16 Apr 2010 PM Period 2 Grade 8 Class 7

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  • Again, by this point I was quite bored of the lesson.
  • This class is not especially eager, which means if I am bored, we're going to have a poor class.
  • Changed it up and had them do an "Interview".
    • Wrote 3 questions on the board.
      • Do you like the internet?
      • Why?
      • What is your favorite website?
    • Then had them interview one another and write down the answers. They didn't quite understand and

usually just wrote down their own responses. Took a while of me walking around the class and

working with individual groups. They did it though. Then I was shocked that when I called on

multiple pairs of students to come up and act it out, they actually did. I assumed they'd refuse.

Next Week

  • Build on the interview activity.

Day in Review

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What Could I Have Done Better?

  • Had a more considered line of questions ready for the computer discussion.

What Did I Do Well?

  • Experimented with the interview activity in class 7.

What Did I Learn?

  • Experimenting can work at times. There's still so much I don't know about what my students are capable of.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

  • Oral / aural practice. Thinking critically about computers.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved?

  • Students will enjoy themselves, giving a positive association with the English language a chance

to develop.

    • I believe, yes.
  • Create an atmosphere that's comfortable enough for students to take chances speaking English to

me and their peers.

    • perhaps
  • Ask the right questions to get a lively discussion going about computers.
    • overall, no.
  • Find a way to make English more appealing than speaking to their friends in Chinese.
    • no
  • Look for ways to move from me speaking to them in English to them speaking to eachother and me in

English, that is from one to many to many to many.

    • Took a great step forward in class 7.

How Can I Improve the Lesson?

  • More thought out questions.
  • Better activity along the lines of the interview that gets them speaking.

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.

Changelog

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Version 0.21 15 Apr 2010

  • Re-worded the Michael Jackson activity.
  • Added some discussion questions.
  • Removed the page 27 textbook activity, because while it's OK, time is better spent in a

discussion.

Version 0.2 14 Apr 2010

Version 0.2 13 Apr 2010

Version 0.1 11 Apr 2010

References

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  1. Wikipedia: Man in the Mirror
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