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

FUN WITH ENGLISH 8B
Chapter 7: Getting There
Anqing Foreign Language School
Grade 7
Lesson 8
Version 0.21

This chapter is all about computer games. I'd like to get a discussion about computer games going for a bit, and have them complete an interview activity about computer games.

Lesson Objectives

• 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.

Lesson Plan

'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. (Mr. Brown)
• Do you have any questions for me?
• What do you think of our lessons? How can we make our lessons better? (King)

Textbook: Page 30 Let's get ready A

• Make sure they read out the full answer.
• Use this time to write the three questions for the interview activity on the computer or blackboard.

Textbook: Page 30 Let's get ready B

• Do not think it is very good, but it gives me time to walk around the room and check on students as well as giving time for those students whose English is not great time to finish A. If we only did A, then students with good English would quickly be finished. Doing both keeps them from having too much unfocused time.

Discussion: Computer Games

• Do you like computer games? [Call on some individual students and ask them to speak.]
• Do you think computer games are a bad habit?
• Do your parents like it when you play computer games?
  • Why?
• Do you learn anything from computer games?

Textbook: Page 31 Let's listen 1 A & B Tapescript Page 85

• Do any of you play computer games to learn English?
• Do you think your parents would like computer games to learn English?

Interview: Computer Games

• What is an interview?
  • Draw two stick figures. One holding a microphone to the other. Label one "reporter" and another "President Obama".
• Now, You will interview your clasmate.
  • ni jiang caifan ni de tenxue.
• Ask them 3 questions and write down their answers.
  • Wen tamen san ge wenti ranghu xie xian tamen de da an.
• Then switch.
  • Ranghou jiao huang zhe laiwen.
• Only speak English!
  • Zhe neng shou Yingyu!
• You can choose your own partner.
• Questions:
  • Are computer games good or bad for you?
  • Why?
  • What can you learn from computer games?

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.

Activity: The Man in The Mirror Slideshow"

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

Lesson Review

Class Notes

22 Apr 2010 AM Period 2 Grade 8 Class 5

• Mingling with students before hand led to them all sitting in their assigned seats, which was nice.
• I started the lesson in a relaxed manner, not saying "Yo!" with a lot of expression.
  • Felt like they wouldn't be interested in over-animation.
  • For that or some other reason enough of them were tuned out the whole class that it was an awful lesson.
  • The kids were talking the whole time as I was speaking. When this happens I prefer not to yell or lose my temper. I believe those kinds of options do more harm than good.
  • I try to draw their interest with an interesting activity or discussion.
• One student was quite quick to answer my riddle.
• Textbook activites went poorly.
• Could not get any sort of discussion going about computer games.
• Stood silently at the front of the room for about a minute, then asked what they wanted to do. They said listen to music.
• Put on the Michael Jackson song I downloaded which I thought was Beat It. I got the lyrics as well. Turned out to be Billie Jean. That did not grab their attention.
• Tried playing the dizzy maps game, but the students refused to take off their jackets to cover their eyes, which is naturally understandable.
• Students were all gathered around me at the end of class. I could have used it as a time to chat and make a connection but I was so drained I just stayed silent.

Next Week

• Patient. Have something multimedia related or a game or something to start class.
• Mention their grades will come from their in class performance.

22 Apr 2010 AM Period 3 Grade 8 Class 4

• In the break following my disappointing lesson the period before I gathered myself and put it behind me.
• They are an extremely eager class and even the students with a low level are higher than most other classes.
• Went over "What's the craic?" and the riddle, but no one got the answer in this class.
• One girl asked me a riddle in turn "Why could the driver not take the penguins into the zoo?" "Because he didn't have money for admission."
• They had some nice suggestions: [but i think they were responding more to the idea of how can they make any class better]
  • Study hard
  • Be active
  • Have a good chat with teachers
• Let's get ready went well and the subsequent discussion did as well.
• Interview activity I believe was understood and because there was an odd number of students I worked with the last one whose English wasn't especially great, but that allowed for a better exchange.

Next Week

• do "What's the craic?" again

22 Apr 2010 PM Period 1 Grade 8 Class 6

• Students were not in their seats.
• One girl refused to go to Mr. Brown's class. I asked her kindly, but she remained in her seat.
  • That especially threw me off at the start.
• Began with the standard greeting sans "What the craic?" because I did not think they'd be interested.
  • Had a couple of suggestions:
    • More topics
    • We should be quiet in class
    • Learn some Chinese words
• Had them do Let's get ready from the textbook, and as they did I walked around the class getting them back into their seats.
• After that everything went pretty well.
• Adapted the interview activity by just having two students come up to the front of the class to speak. Not as many were involved, but it gave them the general idea and it is a good intro. Perhaps next week or if I had more time that lesson additional students could be involved.
  • Using my plastic cup as a prop microphone definitely helped.

Next Week

• Arrive at least five minutes before the bell.
• Some version of the interview activity.
• My colleague's half of the class was quite noisy, he said a way he was able to calm them down was by mentioning they all will get poor grades if they do not participate.

22 Apr 2010 Day in Review

What Could I Have Done Better?

• Not of gotten frustrated by the first class instead looked for alternative means.

What Did I Do Well?

• Adapting the interview activity to make it accessible for class 6.

What Did I Learn?

• Class 4 will have a good lesson almost no matter what. Maybe I am not properly pushing them.

What Did My Students Get From The Lesson?

• Oral and aural practice.

Were the Lesson Objectives Achieved?

• The opening riddle and questions will draw the students attention.
  • In two out of the three classes yes. In one, not at all.

• The textbook activities will go quickly and be productive.
  • In two out of three classes, yes.

• Students will speak only English to eachother while they interview one another.
  • They got practice listening and speaking to a native speaker.

How can I Improve the Lesson?

• • Tweak the interview activity and use some tongue twisters.

23 Apr 2010 AM Period 1 Grade 8 Class 10

• Class started off with about 75% of the students sitting in their correct seats which was far more than usual.
• I was being observed this lesson by one female teacher. I had all the students turn around at the beginning to say hi to her.
• Meant to kick it off with a story or something else to draw their interest but I forgot.
• Started off using an attempt with the Socratic method that I read about last evening. Something like ...
  • What is a computer game?
  • Why do people play computer games?
  • Do your parents like computer games?
  • Are computer games healthy?
• Went better than I expected not great but got a decent number of students involved.
• Next told them two riddles and then I went through the textbook. I was surprised when I asked how I and they can improve they had many suggestions.
• After that did told them the story about John Glenn and his heatshield that I read on the page about the socratic dialogue. Did not grab much interest.
• Spent the next 8 miuntes on the interview activity. Had a couple of boys come up, then I took the chance of just having them interview eachohter. One eager girl asked to interview me.
  • Worked alright, actually.
• Did dizzy maps to finish, but did not have enough time to actually play.
• Class was pretty chatty throughout, but participating as well. Probably the best class I have had with them so far.

Next Week

• Patient again, have a story perhaps?

23 Apr 2010 PM Period 1 Grade 8 Class 8

• Began by trying to bridge off of my lesson from last week.
  • Pushed convo reasonably far [via Socratic method], but at the end it was not working.
• Asked about the riddle and their suggestions of which they had a few.
• Really drew out the textbook a lot in a fun, effective way I felt.
• One woman came into observe about 3/4 of the way through the lesson.
• Around that time we were finishing up the textbook.
• Played dizzy maps game. I asked for a volunteer. Said if someone did not volunteer, we woudl go back to the textbook.

Next Week

• Socratic-esque questions, but not for too long.

23 Apr 2010 PM Period 1 Grade 8 Class 7

• Teacher observed from the beginning. We had a real nice chat beforehands.
  • Incredible quote of hers was that sometimes JHS Students are "too lovely".
• Began with the riddle, which they were not able to solve.
• Moved into the textbook and drew it out a lot again.
  • While they were filling in the answers I put on "Billie Jean" which is a good idea I think, putting on any music while they are working.
• They remembered the interview activity and went into it quite well. Really do not need to have them write down their answers.
  • They asked to have the visiting teacher interview me, which went great. She improvised quite a bit!
• Started map game at the end, but there was not enough time.

Next Week

• answer to 158 222 riddle

Appendix

Acknowledgments

• 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

Version 0.21 21 Apr 2010

• Re-worded the interview instructions.

Version 0.2 20 Apr 2010

• Added the interview.
• Added the dizzy game.

Version 0.1 17 Apr 2010

References

1. Wikipedia: Craic