The Importance of Taking Your Own Advice

I should learn to follow my own advice.
When I am training teachers or observing teachers I always stress the importance of having a back-up plan for your lesson. Doing a whizz-bang, super-duper computer based lesson? Have a back up in case the computer fails. Using audio-visual materials? Think about what you'll do if there is no power. Teaching in an unfamilar classroom and want to stick things to the board with magnets? What will you do if it's not magnetic? Even think about what to do if you have no board at all. Always have a back-up plan.
They do say that pride goes before a fall, don't they?

At the weekend I spent a lot of time preparing a music lesson - finding and recording the songs I wanted to use. Planning in detail how I would use them and what I would do.
Trouble was I was feeling a bit under the weather and didn't feel well-enough to do the extra effort to make a back-up. Things would be OK, wouldn't they? I've had no difficulties at that school before, have I?

So I went to school,  plugged in my tape player and saw that the power light hadn't come on.

The power, I was informed had been off for the whole weekend and all of today, Monday but no one had thought to call me and let me know. 

Without the recordings I had no lesson. And no back-up plan.

Luckily there were a couple of pages in their Chinese book that the teachers said they wouldn't be using so I taught those instead. It was an unsatisfactory lesson all round.

Note to self: always follow your own advice.

Lesson Plan: Wildlife Protection

Lesson Level: Grade 10,11,12 Duration: 45 Minutes

Lesson Title: Wildlife Protection

(Note this lesson corresponds to one of the lessons in the Chinese text book that is commonly used and should, if possible, be delivered either the week before or the week after tthat lesson.)

Grammar and Vocabulary

danger, endangered, hunting, habitat, poacher, decrease, extinct, reserve, species

Lesson Objectives

To develop discussion skills with important topics

Materials Required

None

Preparation

Check that facts in procedure below are still current, substitute other facts if they are not..

Procedure

1

Write “Wildlife Protection” on the board and elicit the meanings for both words.

Write by the side of it “keeping wild animals safe” as a definition.

2

Break the class into about twelve groups. Give each group three of the words from the vocabulary list and tell them that they must find or create definitions for the words. They can use their books or dictionaries to help.

Let them have two or three minutes to complete the task.

Feedback from the groups.

Definition of one word from each group (some groups will not need to define anything in this activity).

Write correct definitions next to the words on the board.

3

While the class are working on the definitions on another section of the board write the following facts.¹

Scientists accidentaly killed the worlds oldest animal. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/11/15/newser-worlds-oldest-animal/3574863/)

The last Pinta Island Tortoise died in 2012.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesome_George)

Trading in new ivory was banned in 1989 but some countries oppose this ban.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_trade)

Around 25% of animal species can be considered endangered.

(http://animalstime.com/facts-about-endangered-animals/)

There may be as many as 80 million species of insect.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_biodiversity)

4

When definitions are all written on board show the class the statements. Ensure that they understand and ask them to discuss in their groups which statements are true or false. (Of course all should be true)

Monitor the discussions and ask groups individually for some of their ideas.

Allow about five minutes.

Ask for show of hands on each statement.

Give correct answer that all are true and give a little more information about each one.

5

Write on board

What do you think about these things.

1. Crocodile skin bags.
2. Fur coats.
3. Animal parts used for medicine.
4. Ivory jewellery.
5. Pet monkeys.
6. Kangaroo meat.

What do you think we can do to help protect animals.

Tell groups to discuss these questions.

Allow about five minutes.

Monitor and guide discussions.

Ask for feedback. Discuss issues as a whole class.

Lesson Plan: The Birthday Party

Lesson Level: Grade 7,8 Duration 45 Minutes

Lesson Title: The Birthday Party

Grammar and Vocabulary

birthday, party, surprise party, birthday present, birthday cake, birthday boy/girl, birthday card

Lesson Objectives

To develop vocabulary for birthdays. group activity to develop language for collaborative activity (planning a party)

Materials Required

Dialogue¹

Preparation

Prepare dialogue.

Procedure

1

Explain that this lesson is all about birthday parties.

Ask class what they know about birthday parties and if Chinese traditions are the same as in the west.

Elicit the vocabulary items (see above) and put on board and explain.

2

Choose one boy and one girl to read the dialogue. Tell rest of class to listen carefully.²

Toss ball around class and ask questions about the dialogue.

Why do Jack and Laura want a party?

Whose birthday is it?

Where is the party?

What will they eat?

What will they drink?

Why can't the party be in the morning?

Why can't the party be in the evening?

How many people can they invite?

3

Ask class for ideas about what they need to do to plan a party.

Elicit and write on board.

Plan the food

Plan the drink

Plan the venue (explain venue or use “place” instead)

Plan the music

Plan the games

Plan who to invite

Choose a time

Write the invitations.

4

Put class in groups of four to six.

Each group must plan a party.

They need to say whose birthday party it is and then make a plan according to the list on the board.

5

Elicit feedback

Use ball toss and ask each group some questions about their party.

6.

Extension task.

In groups tell every student to look at the other people in the group. They must think of a birthday present for each person and write it down.

When they have written it down they must tell the others what they bought.

They should ask if they are happy with their present, and find out why (or why not.)

Notes

1.

This is a sample dialogue that I use.

Jack	It's John's birthday next Sunday.
Laura	I know. Let's have a surprise party for him.
Jack	That's a great idea. Where shall we have it?
Laura	I'll ask my mother if we can use our apartment. I live very near to the birthday boy.
Jack	OK what kind of food do we need?
Laura	Birthday cake, biscuits, chocolate. And to drink we need juice and Coca Cola.
Jack	Don't forget ice-cream. John loves ice-cream.
Laura	We can get blueberry ice-cream. It's his favourite.
Jack	When shall we have it?
Laura	The afternoon is best. He plays football in the morning and we can't do it too late because we have school on Monday.
Jack	OK. We can invite about ten people. They can each bring a small birthday present and a birthday card. Who shall we ask?
Laura	Well, there's Susie and Julie, Mike and Ted...

2. 

It is helpful to print enough copies of the dialogue to hand out so that they can follow it. This may not be possible with large classes.

I appreciate the advice

I recently posted on Facebook a comment about a student in class here in China. It was nothing very unusual, just the issue all of the teachers here face every day – students doing the homework from other teachers in their class. What made this a little different, and a little amusing, was that the student, instead of trying to hide it, as they usually do, had actually had the cheek to ask me to help him.

A trivial anecdote to be sure but that's what Facebook is for.

It drew a response from an acquaintance who deserves a public acknowledgement of his contribution. He is an unfailing source of inspirational input who never lets his total lack of knowledge on a subject prevent him giving you his opinion the facts. With that in mind, of course I don't feel even slightly insulted by his opening remark that the student clearly finds the other teacher's work more engaging than mine. Why would I? After all, if he suggests that I am not a good teacher, who am I to argue? He has never seen me teach but why should that matter?

Similarly there is, to my mind, absolutely no hint of passive aggression in his assertion that I must find it “quite difficult to make language teaching interesting”. My teaching qualifications and my years of experience weigh very poorly in the balance when compared to his deductive reasoning skills and his conclusion based on a single paragraph about slightly amusing incident.

Now I don't wish to seem ungrateful, after all I value his input every bit as much as everyone else he interacts with does, but I would like to expand on it a little.

It's clear that the Chinese school day which is, at my school anyway, eleven and a half hours long followed by a minimum of two hours home work each night (and six days a week) will have no influence at all on whether the kids try to do their homework in class time or not. The merest suggestion is ludicrous. If the class is interesting they will be too absorbed to do anything other than listen, won't they?

And if I gave homework (which I am not allowed to do) I am sure that the other teachers would be so interesting that there would be no temptation at all for the students to try to do it in their lessons. In fact it would probably be so dull that they wouldn't do it at all. And who could blame them?

Later he goes on to suggest that as my classes are intended to focus on speaking and listening I could make it a rule that only English is to be spoken in class. It is brilliant in its simplicity. I wonder why I never thought of it. Get them to speak in English. It's quite breathtaking. Of course there would be no difficulty at all in a class of eighty in making sure that everyone speaking at once is speaking English. I shall certainly have to try that.

I might also think of some more rules – don't carve your names in the desk, don't read comics in class, don't set fire to the bookcase, don't play cards. Why this stuff is revolutionary. I must remember to tell the Chinese teachers about it. I'm sure they have never even considered it. I know I haven't.

His support for my difficulty is well expressed when he goes on to say that he “can appreciate the challenge with a class of that size”. Of course he has never tried to teach a class of eighty eleven-year-olds but his theorising is, as always, welcome input.

So to summarise, I am inexpressibly grateful for these invaluable suggestions. As it will take me some time to implement all of this groundbreaking stuff though, I'd appreciate it if there were no more suggestions – at least for the time being.

Lesson Plan: Cultural relics

Note: This plan has some similarities to the World Places plan and uses some of the same materials and activities.

Lesson Level: Grade 10 Duration 45 Minutes

Lesson Title: Cultural Relics

Grammar and Vocabulary 

Names of famous places, discussion and phrases for use in discussion, facts and opinions.

Lesson Objectives

To develop discussion skills and the expression of facts and opinions. To be able to use appropriate phrasing for opinions and facts.

Materials Required

Eight drawings or pictures of world monuments on pieces of card approx six inches square.

Eight corresponding cards with the names of the buildings.

(I use Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House, The Pyramids, The Statue of Liberty, The Great Wall, The Taj Mahal, Big Ben, The Statue of Christ in Rio)

16 magnets. (or other means of securing pictures to board)

Sponge ball

Preparation

Prepare materials.

Procedure

1

Explain to class that lesson is about cultural relics.

Elicit ideas about what “cultural” and “relic” mean.

(Cultural – connected to a particular time and place, specifically to a particular culture.

Relic – something left over from an earlier time or an earlier culture, especially a culture that no longer exists.)

2

Toss the ball from student to student to elicit a list of famous things you can see in the world. Write list at side of board.

When you have about ten stop the activity.

3

Shuffle all the pictures/ names together and pin to board in a 4x4 square. Along top write 1,2,3,4 and at side write A,B,C,D

Use ball toss to choose students for activity.

Each student must choose two cards (eg. A1 and C3). Turn them over and show class. If they match leave them showing, ask student to say the name, ask whole class to say name. 

If not turn them back.

Continue till all are showing.

4

Move the pictures to columns matching the pictures to the names.

Throw ball from student to student asking what they know about each place. (eg Where is it.)

5

Put students into groups. (4-6)

Groups must discuss and decide upon which, if any of the images represent a cultural relic. (There are no wrong answers but students must be prepared to explain their answers.)

Give five minutes to discuss their ideas. Monitor and check as they are discussing.

6.

Get each group in turn to stand. Ask them for their answers and their explanations.

7.

Elict the difference between a fact and an opinion.

Write student ideas on the board. Give examples if needed.

The Great Wall is thousands of miles long. (Fact)

The Great Wall is China's most important cultural relic. (Opinion)

The Statue of Liberty was given to America by France. (Fact)

The Statue of Liberty is very beautiful. (Opinion)

8

Write a selection of facts/opinions/lies on the board.

1. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath. (Fact)
2. Cold weather is better than hot weather. (Opinion)
3. Japan was hit by a severe earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011 (Fact)
4. The strongest muscle is the tongue. (False: Depends what you mean by strongest, but generally not true)
5. Everyone should get married. (Opinion)
6. Americans eat enough pizza to cover a football pitch every day. (False – it's actually about eight football pitches.)
7. A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue (Fact)
8. The best country in the world is England. (Opinion)
9. Bats are blind. (False)

Students must decide which are true/false/opinion

9

Elicit feedback from groups and give correct answers.

Notes

Depending on how strong a class is, it is possible for this lesson to run long. Steps 2 and 4 may be omitted to save time and the last three fact/lie/opinion statements may be omitted.

To save a little time it is useful to have a prepared poster with the statements from step 8 so that they do not need to be written on the board.

Normal Service

Well, it has been a long break, hasn't it?
Rather longer than I intended thanks to circumstances far to tedious to go into.
I'm back in Baiyin - new school, new classes, new level and, of course, new lesson plans.

I'll be adding new plans here as soon as I have a chance.

Watch this space.

Gonna Be Gone

I will not be able to update my blogs again until mid August (maybe even a little later) as I will be teaching summer school at an organisation that doesn't provide me with a computer.

Not having one of my own means I will be relying on occasional visits to not-very-good internet cafes which generally have no VPNs. No VPNs - no blogger!

When I return to Baiyin I will add the few lessons missing from this year's program and start adding next year's lessons. In the meantime please feel free to use anything here that you find useful.

It is just possible that these plans may be collected into book form early next year. But that project hasn't started yet so don't tell anyone. It's a secret.

Lesson Plan: Amusement Parks

Lesson Level: Senior  Duration: 45 Minutes

Lesson Title: Amusement Parks (Senior Version)

Grammar and Vocabulary

Vocabulary for amusement parks and rides.

Lesson Objectives

Students will practice listening for specific information.

Students will practice discussion skills in a design task.

Materials Required

Audio descriptions of four amusement parks.¹

Poster of questions ²

Paper (A4) for one sheet per group.

Pens for drawing.

Preparation

Prepare resources.

Procedure

1

Tell class that lesson is about amusement parks/them parks

Elicit or give vocabulary for these words

Amusement Park

Theme Park

Haunted House

Lego

building bricks

ride

roller-coaster

parade

attraction

2

Put the questions on the board.

Play the audio.

Check answers with students.

If still some unanswered questions play again, one park at a time and elicit answers.

3

Put students into groups of 4-6.

Add this question.

Your group is going to visit one of these parks.

Talk together and choose which park to visit.

4

Elicit responses.

5.

Write on board.

Your group will make your own theme park.

What is your theme?

What can I do at your park?

What can I buy at your park?

Where is your park (what country/what city)

Why is your park the best.

Draw a picture of your park..

6

Each group describe own park.

Write main points on board.

7

Get class to vote on the best park.

Notes

1.

Tapescript

Disneyland is the most famous theme park in America. It is in California. Every year more than ten million people visit it to ride on the roller-coasters, visit the haunted house, see Cinderella's fairy-tale castle or shake hands with Mickey Mouse.

Every day there is a big parade of all the famous cartoon characters.
It was opened in 1955. Since then Disney Parks have opened in Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Legoland is a different kind of amusement park. It is in Denmark and is visited every year by about two million people. What makes it different?

Every attraction at the park is made from children's building bricks called "Lego". There are models of many famous buildings from around the world for you to look at and enjoy including the Palace Museum. Since it opened in1968 more than fifty million guests have visited the park.

Ocean Park, in Hong Kong, receives about seven and a half million guests every year. It has over eighty rides and attractions including four roller-coasters but it also has  places where you can see animals. There are pandas and Jelly Fish and even a Killer Whale. Ocean Park was opened in 1977 and more than half the visitors come from Mainland China.

The strangest theme park of all is in South Korea. It is all about toilets and WCs. It is called the Restroom Cultural Park and is in the city of Suwon. Everything there is all about toilets. There are toilet themed rides, toilet themed art galleries, a toilet museum and shops selling toilet gifts.

2. Questions.

Which park gets two million visitors a year? (Legoland)

Where can you go on rides and also see pandas? (Ocean Park)

What is the them of the park that has art galleries? (toilets)

Who can you meet at Disneyland? (Mickey Mouse)

Which park is in South Korea? (Restroom Cultural Park)

How many roller-coasters are there at Ocean Park? (4)

What is different about Legoland? (all made from childrens bricks)

Whose castle is at Disneyland? (Cinderella)
Which park was first to open? (Disneyland)
Which park has had more than 50 million visitors since  it opened in 1968?
Which park has the most Chinese visitors?
What can you see in the Restroom Cultural Park? (Toilets)

Lesson Plan: Perfect Day

Lesson Level: All levels  Duration: 45 Minutes

Lesson Title: A Perfect Day

Grammar and Vocabulary

Future tense

Lesson Objectives

Students will practice pronunciation by singing a song.

Students will practice talking about future plans.

Materials Required

Recording of song.

(In previous lessons I have used Lou Reed's “Oh Perfect Day”. For this lesson I substituted a song that I have written myself - “Tomorrow's Gonna Be A Perfect Day.”

You will need to make a recording of this song. If you can play a guitar then record it that way. If not try recording it using http://thevirtualpiano.com/.

Song sheets – enough copies for class to share one between two.

Preparation

Prepare a tape of whichever song you want to use or, if you are confident enough on guitar learn the very easy chords and song.

Procedure

1

Write Lesson Title on Board (Use title of whichever song you are using)

2

Hand out songsheets

YOU MUST TELL CLASS NOT TO WRITE ON THEM!!!

Class can read and then ask about any words they do not know.

Go through words on board

3

Play verse 1

Practice verse 1 line by line with class.

4

Play whole song and sing along

5

Elicit from class the things from the song's perfect day. – write on board

(Stronger classes – ask about last verse and the meaning of the song)

6

Play song again and listen to check.

7

Collect song sheets

8

Put class in groups. Each group must plan a perfect day for the weekend.

THEY CANNOT SAY "GO TO SCHOOL" or "DO HOMEWORK"

Notes

1

This version of the lesson uses my own song – Tomorrow's Gonna Be a Perfect Day

E A B

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

E A B

We'll have breakfast at our favourite café.

E B

You'll have waffles, I'll have eggs.

F#m E

We'll drink our coffee to the dregs.

E A B E

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

After breakfast we'll go walking on our way.

Window shopping on the Strand

As we're walking hand in hand.

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

Even if the skies turn dull and grey.

It will not even matter

If the raindrops pitter-patter.

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

Nothing will be standing in our way.

We'll go playing in the park.

We can stay till after dark.

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day

In the evening we can go to see a play.

When it's done we'll have a drink.

You know I really think.

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day

Every night that's what I always say.

But no prayer or fantasy

Will ever bring you back to me..

Tomorrow's gonna be a perfect day.

The chords (Key of E) are shown on verse 1 and are the same for all verses except the last chord of the song which replaces E with C#m.

It is possible to arrange the lesson around Lou Reed's Perfect Day instead though some of the vocabulary may not be as suitable.

Time is Short and the Noise Level Rises

It's amazing how short forty-five minutes can be.

When that's the length of your lesson, time mangement is important. You need to watch the clock carefully and be prepared to curtail activities quickly so that you can move on. Throw out activities altogether if things are going slowly.

You also need to think about how long things are going to take for YOU.

Do you have a list of twenty questions that you need to write on the board?

Perhaps you are intending to get the class to sing a song and need to show the words.

Maybe you want to draw a map of the UK to show where the main cities are.

These things take time - a lot of time. No matter how fast you can write legibly on the board, it won't be fast enough. Writing twenty questions can take five minutes or more. Not only is that five minutes you can't spare, it's five minutes when the noise level rises, students have nothing to do, inattentiveness soars and discipline flies out of the window.

The solution to all of these problems is simple.

If you have something long to write or something complicated to draw do it before the lesson. Put it on a poster. It takes two seconds to pin up a poster that you have already prepared. Moreover it will be legible, can use as many colours as you like and the class find it more interesting.

I also  recommend reinforcing the edges with tape so that it is more durable. You might want to use it in twenty classes. 

It might seem like more effort to go to in preparation, but it's worth it when you get into the classroom.

Lesson Plan: Jobs

Lesson Level: Junior 1 and 2 (Grades 7 and 8) Duration: 45 Minutes

Lesson Title: Jobs

Grammar and Vocabulary

Names of Jobs.

Forming and asking Yes/No questions

Lesson Objectives

Students will develop vocabulary for various jobs.

Students will practice listening for specific information.

Students will be able to formulate and ask questions requiring “yes” or “no” answers.

Materials Required

Note this lesson was originally devised to use materials from the New Hotline Elementary text book, Unit 3.

The suggested dialogue in the notes is a replacement for this if it is not available.

It should be recorded, preferably by a native speaker other than the teacher.

Audio from New Headway Elementary Unit 3 or replacement dialogue from Note 1.

Questions based on the audio, written on a poster.

e.g. What Job did Peter have on Sunday mornings?

Why did he give that job up?

At least twenty cards with the names of jobs on them.²

Preparation

Prepare all materials

Procedure

1

Introduce lesson.

Tell class that todays lesson is all about jobs.

Give some examples.

Elicit more examples from class.

2

Play “Questions” as follows.

Put rules on board.

One person will stand at front.

This person has a card with a job on it. (Show class the cards)

People in the class can ask questions about the job.

The person at the front can ONLY say YES or NO

The class must guess the job.

After 10 questions you must guess.

Put some sample questions on the board.

e.g.

Do you work outside?

Do you work with animals?

Do you handle money?

3

Take a card yourself and play the game with the students.

Use this practice game to restate the rules if they don't understand.

The winner takes your place and a new game begins.

4

Play until about half the lesson has gone

Write the answers to the questions for each round on the board.

eg.

works outside

doesn't work with animals

doesn't handle money

Clear board after each round.

5

Explain audio task.

The man in story has many jobs.

Play audio.

Students must listen and identify all the jobs that they hear.

Elicit jobs in feedback.

Play tape again to check.

6

Put questions poster on board.

Play audio again.

Students must answer questions.

7 Extension Activity

Put students in pairs.

Each student must tell their partner what job they want when they leave school and explain what that job is and why they want it.

Feedback.

Notes

1. Suggested replacement dialogue.

This dialogue may be recorded and used as a replacement for the audio from Headway if that book and recording are not available.

Peter Smith has had many jobs in his life. When he left school he became a postman but that didn't pay enough money so he also took a part time job as barman working in the evenings. At the weekend he was a coach for a children's football team on Sundays and on Saturday mornings he worked in a shoe shop. As time went by he became unhappy with all of these jobs. First of all he decided that he didn't want to be a postman because it meant going out early in the morning in all kinds of weather. It was OK in summer when it was sunny but when the weather was wet in autumn or cold in winter he didn't like it.

So he gave up that job to find something where he didn't need to go out in the bad weather. What he found was a job as a bus driver. It could rain, snow or hail and he didn't care. he was always inside the bus and while the passengers had to get on and off, he didn't!

He drove his bus during the day – including Saturdays – so he could no longer work in the shop. Instead he got an evening job as a waiter in a small Italian restaurant. It was hard work and didn't pay well but the customers liked him so he got lots of tips.

However he was so tired on Sunday mornings that he could no longer coach the football team. Now he liked to sleep late on Sundays so he got a job in the afternoons as a gardener in the local park. He was also the park's security guard – making sure no one caused any trouble -, gatekeeper – opening up in the morning and locking the gates at night, and first-aider – giving help to people with any small injuries or health problems.

By then he had also given up his job in the bar and instead was a student at the local college in the evenings because he wanted to get a better job.

He was studying to become an accountant and eventually he passed all of his exams and found a job with a small company in his own town. Of course he had to give up all the other jobs but he didn't mind because his new job paid as much money as all of the others together.

Now he works in an office doing the same work every day and he is very happy because he has been promoted to office manager. He loves his work and is very successful but sometimes he looks out of his office window and sees a bus go by or a postman delivering letters and he misses the old days when he had so many different jobs.

2

Job cards. Add others if required.

Doctor	Policeman Policewoman Police Officer
Teacher	Fireman Firewoman Fire Officer
Bus Driver	Soldier
Taxi Driver	Nurse
Bank Clerk	Cleaner
Shopkeeper	Journalist
Farmer	Office Worker
Actor	Singer
Waiter/Waitress	Decorator
Electrician	Plumber