Lesson Plan: Christmas Part 1

Lesson Level: Junior Duration: 40 Minutes

Lesson Title: Christmas Shopping

Grammar and Vocabulary

Present, gift, wrapping paper, turkey, Christmas tree, decorations, buy, spend

Lesson Objectives

Students will learn a little about western Christmas traditions.

Students will discuss what presents to buy for various people.

Students will practice shopping dialogues.

Students will learn the difference between “buy” and “spend”.

Materials Required

A picture of a family at Christmas OR pictures of the individual family members.

Preparation

Prepare the pictures.

Procedure

1

Write “Shopping” on the board.

Elicit what students understand by shopping – when they go shopping, what they buy and so on.

Tell students that next week is Christmas and change the heading to Christmas shopping.

2

Put students in groups.

Write on the board.

Is there anything special that you have to buy at Christmas?

Make a list.

Give students just one minute to think of things.

Get feedback and write on board. If available use different colours to write food words and other words.

Ask students if they can tell you what the different colours mean.

If students don't come up with enough words add more of your own from this list.

(Present, gift, wrapping paper, turkey, Christmas tree, decorations, Christmas Cards, sprouts)

3. Give each group the picture of the family.

Write on board.

At Christmas we buy presents for our friends and family.

Look at this family.

Answer these questions.

What would you buy for each person?

How much would you spend?

Why did you choose each gift?

Make sure students understand the difference between “buy” and “spend”.

Monitor and assist as needed.

Get feedback from different groups.

4 Extension task.

See notes.

Give each group a copy of the extension task. Monitor and assist as necessary.

Go through the answers on the board.

Notes

Christmas In England

Christmas in England lasts for three days.

December 24th is called Christmas Eve. Children hang up stockings for presents and go to bed early. Some children leave mince pies out for Santa.

December 25th is called Christmas Day, Children are very excited. They get up early and open all their presents. Everyone eats turkey for lunch. (They usually have sprouts too, even though nobody really likes them!)

December 26th is called Boxing Day and people usually visit their families or stay at home to rest because they ate too much on Christmas Day.

What can you remember?

On your OWN paper write down which of these things we do on each day.

December 24^th December 25^th December 26^th

hang up stockings, unwrap presents, stay at home to rest, visit families, go to bed early,

get up early, leave mince pies, eat turkey and sprouts, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve,

Boxing Day

Lesson Plan : Hobbies (for all levels)

This lesson plan does not follow the usual format. That's because I am teaching the same topic to all my classes this week regardless of the level or age. To that end I'm just listing a number of activities and describing them and will pick and choose between them according to the class that I am teaching.

Topic: My Hobbies

1. Introduction.
   Write several of your own hobbies on the board (mine are “writing poetry”, “travelling”, “reading comics”, :collecting books”)
   Explain them if necessary.
   For each one write a sentence “I like __________ because_________.
   Toss the ball from student to student asking them to make similar sentences.

2. Game.
   For this game you will need a dice and thirty cards containing the name of a hobby in both English and the students' first language.
   My list of hobbies is Acting, Writing, Playing computer games, Cooking, Drawing, Origami, Painting, Playing Piano, Playing Violin, Reading, Playing Ping Pong, Skateboard, Basketball, Cycling,Gardening, Photography, Running, KTV (Chinese Karaoke), Shopping, Tai Chi, Listening To Music, Playing Chess, Dancing, Flying a kite, Climbing, Walking the dog, Horse riding, Watching TV, Going to the Cinema, Playing guitar.
   (Pictures may be used but this can make the drawing task too easy.)
   Write on the board

1,2 Draw it
3,4 Act it
5,6 Answer Yes/no questions.
Class must guess the activity.
Choose a student to begin, roll the dice and choose a card, The student who guess correctly has the next turn.

3. Song.
   This is a song that I have written for use with the class. Guitar chords are included¹. Write a list of the people in the song on the board. Get students to copy the list. Sing the song. For each person they must listen for and write that person's hobby.
   Feedback the answers.

4. Dialogue. Requires recorded dialogue and equipment to play back.
   This dialogue is from Practical Oral English. It should be recorded in advance to play to the class. As they listen they should make a list of all the hobbies mentioned.
   Ask questions about the hobbies and other elements of the dialogue.

5. Put class into groups of four. Put these questions on the board.
   1. What is your favourite hobby?
   2. When do you do it?
   3.Where do you do it.
   For stronger groups add questions
   4. Why do you like it?
   5.Do you need anything special to do it?
   Students survey own group and write answers for each group member.
   Feedback from each group.

Notes.

1.

D                                                       G    A   D

I wish I could play football like my brother does

D                                                G    A   D

I wish that I could cook like my mother does

D                                                       G  A   D

I wish I could do gardening like my father does

D                                                G  A  D

And I wish I could sing like my sister does

A                                          E

I have so many friends and family, it's true

A                                                  E

And I wish that I could do all the things they can do

A                                           E

They all seem to be so much better than me

A                           E            D      E

Why's everybody better than I can be?

I wish I could draw like my best friend Ben

Play basketball and score in every game like Ken

I wish I could play piano like my cousin Fred

Or just play chess like his brother Jed

Chorus

I wish I could take a picture as well as John

Play computer games to compete with Ron

I wish I could skateboard with my pal Mac

Or play ping-pong as well as Jim or Jack

Chorus

I wish I could write a story like Peter can

Or run a hundred metres as fast as Dan

I wish that I could fly a kite as well Kate

Or play a game of volleyball with Billy and his mates

Chorus

I guess I'll just be happy that I can write a song

And pick up a guitar and sing and play along

And as for all the other things my friends can do

I'll try not to be jealous so I won't blue.

Chorus

2. Dialogue

Billy	My cousin Harry is coming to visit next week.
Sarah	Have I met him before?
Billy	Yes, he visited two years ago. Do you remember him?
Sarah	I think so. Is he the one with all the hobbies?
Billy	Yes. He has so many hobbies that he always seems to be doing something.
Sarah	I remember that he likes to play football.
Billy	Yes. He plays every Saturday morning for a local team. And he practises on Sunday afternoon.
Sarah	Doesn't he also play the guitar?
Billy	Yes, and the violin and piano. He's in two different bands. he plays with a rock band on Tuesdays and with a classical group on Wednesdays.
Sarah	What else does he do?
Billy	He's in an art club. He goes every Monday night and paints and draws pictures. He's very good. He paints lots of landscapes. He can also do portraits of people.
Sarah	Anything else?
Billy	When he has spare time he likes to read books. He says he can read a whole book in just two hours.
Sarah	Last time he was here he taught me to play chess. Does he still play?
Billy	His chess club is Friday and right after that's finished he goes to the park to do Tai Chi for an hour.
Sarah	What does he do on Thursdays
Billy	That depends. Sometimes he goes to the cinema. He likes to watch foreign movies, especially French ones. Sometimes he stays at home and writes poetry. He published a book last year.
Sarah	Wow. You must be really proud of your cousin. He's good at everything.
Billy	Well, maybe. But I wish he wouldn't visit us.
Sarah	Why?
Billy	Because when he's here my parents want me to be as good as he is and I'm not. It's really hard when you have a superman for a cousin.

Lesson Plan: When I Grow Up

Lesson Level: J2 Duration: 40

Lesson Title: When I grow up

Grammar and Vocabulary

Jobs, including unusual jobs (astronaut, lion tamer, explorer, clown)

Lesson Objectives

Students will learn names for various jobs.

Students will be able to say what jobs they like.

Students will be able to say why they like those jobs,

Materials Required

Pictures of unusual jobs – astronaut, clown, lion tamer, explorer, snake charmer, dancer, yoga teacher, food taster

Preparation

Prepare the pictures big enough to see when pinned to board.

Prepared dialogue.

Procedure

1

Put the title, “When I grow” on the board.

Explain that lesson is all about jobs.

2

Throw ball around class asking students what they want to be when they grow up and why.

Get about six students to answer.

3

Get strongest student to come to the front to read.

Put on board “What jobs do you hear.”

Read the dialogue with the student.

Ask class what jobs they heard.

Ask questions about why the student wanted each job and why the teacher said no.

4

Put students in groups. (No more than 10 groups)

Ask students to think of “unusual jobs”.

Tell students what you mean by “unusual” - use examples from the dialogue.

Tell students that only jobs NOT on your list count.

Write instructions. on board.

Give students 2 minutes to think.

5.

Divide board into columns. Have one student from each group come to write jobs on board.

Mark as follows

not a job – 0

job on your common jobs list – 0

other job – 1

For this lesson don't mark down for spelling, just show correct spelling.

Jobs that should get zero are teacher, doctor, nurse, driver, policeman, soldier, worker, cook, waiter, cleaner,

6

Show students pictures of the unusual jobs and ask what they are and if the student would like to do them. Ask why.

Notes

Pictures.
You will need pictures of various unusual jobs (see list in lesson plan) These can be obtained from the internet.

Lesson Plan: Healthy Lifestyle

IMPORTANT NOTE: My school has asked me to use ten minutes of each lesson for five students to give two minute presentations which will be evaluated as their exam. I question the value of this for many reasons that I'll go into elsewhere but the result is that this lesson plan is for a 30 minute lesson only. I also question the value of that but the decision isn't mine to make.

Lesson Level: S2 Duration: 30

Lesson Title: Healthy Living (30 Minute Version)

Grammar and Vocabulary

Lesson Objectives

Students will identify and discuss various elements of a healthy lifestyle. Students will be able to use should, must and can when offering suggestions or advice.

(Note: text books invariably make the distinction that “should” is a suggestion, “must” is a command and “can” is a possibility. This is not the normal spoken usage of the words. All of them can be used to offer advice or suggestions.)

Materials Required

A set of descriptions of various people's lifestyles.¹

Preparation

Prepare the the descriptions on cards to hand out to students for discussion.

Procedure

1

Put the title, “Healthy Living” on the board.

Relate the title to previous lessons about food.

2

Put students into groups.

Ask students to make two lists – one of things that are good for our health, one of things that are bad for our health. Make sure that we are not JUST talking about food. Give examples “do more exercise” as a good thing and “smoking” as something that is bad.

3

Feedback and create lists on the board.

4

Ask students for examples of sentences giving advice.

Put examples on the board using each of “should/must/can”. Explain that while they are usually used in the senses of advice/order/possibility they are all informally used to offer advice.

5.

Give each group a card containing details of a person's lifestyle details. Groups must think of advice for this person.

Give five minutes to discuss.

Monitor and assist as required.

6

Get feedback from groups. Each group to read out the description and then say what advice they would like to offer.

7

Extension task.

Get groups to ask questions about the teacher's lifestyle and then offer some advice.

Notes

1. Descriptions of people.

Name: Alice

Sex: F

Age:14

Height: 1.58 m

Weight: 50 kg

Job: Student

Smokes: No

Drinks: No

Food: Rice, Potatoes, Apples

Exercise: Plays ping-pong once a week, runs every day

Hobbies: Listening to music

Name: Brian

Sex: M

Age: 19

Height: 1.6m

Weight: 70 kg

Job: Driver

Smokes: 10 cigarettes a day

Drinks: Beer 3 times a week

Food: Hamburgers, dumplings, chips, sandwiches

Exercise: Walks to and from work

Hobbies: Watching TV

Name: Cathy

Sex: F

Age: 25

Height: 1.50 m

Weight: 52 kg

Job: Teacher

Smokes: No

Drinks: Wine, most evenings

Food: Noodles, vegetables, lots of meat

Exercise: None

Hobbies: Making Clothes

Name: David

Sex: M

Age: 29

Height: 1.6 m

Weight: 40 kg

Job: Worker

Smokes: 40 cigarettes a day

Drinks: Beer every day, Baijiu sometomes

Food: Vegetables, Rice, Pizza,

Exercise: Badminton once each week

Hobbies: Watching sport on TV, reading

Name: Eve

Sex: F

Age: 33

Height: 1.54

Weight: 70 kg

Job: Works in shop

Smokes: Occasionally

Drinks: No

Food: Chocolate, cake, biscuits

Exercise: None

Hobbies: Computer games

Name: Felix

Sex: M

Age: 37

Height: 1.7 m

Weight: 66 Kg

Job: Doctor

Smokes: 5 Cigarettes a day

Drinks: Occasionally drinks beer

Food: Vegetables, rice, curry

Exercise: Walking and running

Hobbies: Reading

Name: Gina

Sex: F

Age: 41

Height: 1.58 m

Weight: 45 Kg

Job: Cook

Smokes: No

Drinks: Wine at weekends only

Food: Rice, salad, fruit

Exercise: Plays tennis in summer. None in winter

Hobbies: Dancing

Name: Henry

Sex: M

Age: 48

Height: 1.75 m

Weight: 80 Kg

Job: Gardener

Smokes: 20 cigarettes a day

Drinks: two beers every day

Food: Hamburgers, curry, English breakfast (every day)

Exercise: None

Hobbies: Reading the newspaper

Buckland Weekly #15

I've been neglecting this recently but I intend to get back to it soon.

As a little interim post let me repost something from my Facebook timeline and remind you all of why we do this.

You've probably seen – because I know I've seen – things on the internet that hint, suggest or say outright that if you teach public school in China then you aren't a teacher, you are a dancing monkey. The school, so they say, doesn't care if you teach or not and you have no impact on your students' education; you are simply there so that the school can say to parents, “Hey look, we have a dancing monkey.”

Well yesterday was thanksgiving and I received these two text messages from students who were in my class two years ago when I taught in Baiyin.

“Hello Bob. Do you remember me? I am Mark and I was in your class in school number eight. It is thanksgiving and I want to say thank you for being my teacher. I learned so much from you and now I am going to go to University in Australia. Thank you so much. I hope that one day I will see you again. Without your lessons I think I would not be confident enough to leave China. Thank you.”

and

“Today is Thanksgiving Day and, apart from my family, the person I guess I should be grateful to is you. Without your encouragement I could not have made so much progress in English. So, thank you Bob.”

The first of those students has been accepted at an Australian University and the second is studying English at University in China where he has recently represented his University in a provincial speaking competition.

If I have had such a positive impact on just two students then, dancing monkey or not, I'll take the win.

Yesterday was thanksgiving and you know what? I'm saying thanks that I have had such good, positive students.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving.

Bob

Lesson Plan: Opening A Restaurant

IMPORTANT NOTE: My school has asked me to use ten minutes of each lesson for five students to give two minute presentations which will be evaluated as their exam. I question the value of this for many reasons that I'll go into elsewhere but the result is that this lesson plan is for a 30 minute lesson only. I also question the value of that but the decision isn't mine to make.

Lesson Level: S2 Duration: 30

Lesson Title: Opening a Restaurant

Note: this lesson must follow on from the previous lesson where students, in groups of 4 to 6, produced a menu showing the foods and prices for their restaurant.

Grammar and Vocabulary

Waiter, cook/chef, manager, cleaner, customer

Dialogues between customer and waiter. .

Lesson Objectives

Students will discuss the roles of the staff in a restaurant and the factors that influence the best location for the restaurant.

Materials Required

A large map of a tourist area featuring several streets and tourist attractions.¹

Some sample menus for groups that don't have last week's work with them.²

Ball to toss for questioning/feedback.

Preparation

Prepare the map.

Students should already have menus prepared in previous lesson.

Procedure

1

Put the title, “Opening a restaurant” on the board.

Add the vocabulary for waiter, chef/cook, manager, cleaner, bar staff, customer and elicit definitions.³

2

Put students back into same groups as last week. Check that they all have menus.

3

Put the map on the board. Point out/elicit the key features of different locations.

eg. Lots of tourists/few tourist

Near shops/far away from shops

Expensive rent/cheap rent

Good night life/no night life

Location of tourist attractions

4

Put these questions on the board.

What kind of restaurant will you open?⁴

Where will you open it?

In your group, who will do which jobs?

What are your opening times?

How big is your restaurant? (How many customers can you seat?)

Explain that for each question students must also explain why they chose their answer.

Make sure students know that they must write their answers as well as discuss them.

5.

Monitor and assist.

6

Use ball toss to ask students questions about their restaurant. (Just one or two questions per student.)

e.g. What kind of food do you sell.

Where is your restaurant?

Why did you choose that location?

When is your restaurant open?

Why don't you open at night?

Who is your manager?

How many waiters do you have?

etc.

7

Get one student from each group to stand up and describe the group's restaurant.

8.

(If time)

Ask class which restaurant they liked best. Ask individual students why they chose the ones they did.

Notes

1. My map is of Yangshuo because that connects with the students' text book but a fictional town might be better as that would allow more control of different aspects of various areas.

2. Sample menu
   Bob's Great Restaurant

MENU

Food

Cheese pizza..............30 RMB (Sm) 50 RMB (L)

Sausage Pizza............45 RMB (Sm) 60 RMB (L)

Seafood Pizza..............40 RMB (Sm) 55 RMB(L)

Hamburger...............................................20 RMB

Hamburger and Chips.............................28 RMB

Beef Noodles...........................................10 RMB

Dumplings...............................................15 RMB

Drinks

Tea...............................................................5 RMB

Coffee.........................................................8 RMB

Chocolate...................................................8 RMB

Milk..............................................................6 RMB

Juice (Orange or Mango)...........................10RMB

3. Normally I would elicit both the words and definitions but in a 30 minute lesson that would take too long.
4. All Chinese food, international food, noodle bar, pizza restaurant et

Lesson Plan: Forming A Band/Musical Instruments

Lesson Level: All Duration: 40 Minutes

Lesson Title: Musical instruments/Forming a band

Grammar and Vocabulary

Names of musical instruments

(NB. These will be as supplied by individual class members for whole class to learn.) .

Lesson Objectives

Students will learn the names and spellings of various musical instruments.

Students will hold discussions in small groups.

Materials Required

Ball for warm-up activity.

Preparation

None

Procedure

1

Write “Music” on the board and ask class if they like music.

Toss ball from student to student asking what their favourite music is.

2

Put students in groups of 4-6.

Write instructions on board.

Each group

          think of as many musical instruments as you can

          you have two minutes

          NO BOOKS ALLOWED

Monitor during task and check students understand.

Divide board into columns – one per group.

3

Get one student from each group to come and write the instruments on the board. (All groups together)

Give them one minute to finish.

Score the lists 2 points for a correctly spelled instrument, 1 point for an incorrectly spelled instrument, 0 if it isn't an instrument. Correct misspellings.

4

Clear board.

Write new instructions

For lower level groups.

Each Group

          Your group will start your own band.

          WRITE the answers to these questions.

          What instruments will you play?

          Who will play each instrument?

          Who will sing?

          What will your band be called?

For higher level groups also include questions

          What kind of music will you play?

          What will your first CD be called?

For very high level groups also include

         Write the words to your first song.

               It should be at least four lines and at least 30 words.

Give groups at least five minutes.

Monitor and assist if required.

5.

Choose two or three groups to feedback their complete answers.

Use ball toss to ask single questions to other groups and students.

Notes

1. Make sure that among instruments the following are included.
   Drums, guitar, bass, piano (or keyboards)

Lesson Plan: Perfect Pizza

Lesson Level: Junior 2 Duration: 40 Minutes

Lesson Title: Pizza!

Grammar and Vocabulary

Food vocabulary

Toppings for pizza

Lesson Objectives

Students will be able to list various foods that can be used on pizza.

Students will discuss toppings and design a new pizza.

Students will present their new pizza to the class.

Students will practice note taking.

Materials Required

Picture of a pizza.

Enough copies of a menu to give one per group.¹

Ball for ball toss activity.

Preparation

Find and print a good picture of a pizza.

Procedure

1

Write Pizza on the board.

Show picture of a pizza

2

Ask students if they like pizza. Ask them what kind of food can go on a pizza.

3

Put students into groups of four.

Give each group a copy of the menu.

Go through the vocabulary from the menu, elicit or explain meanings of all words.

Write new definitions on the board.

4

Tell each group they must choose a pizza to order.

Allow two minutes only to choose.

Ask each group which pizza they chose and why.

5.

Design a new pizza for the menu on the board.

Ask students for new toppings to go on menu.

Write their suggestions on the board.

Choose some toppings.

Ask class to come up with a name.

Write the new description on the board.

6

Put these instructions on the board.

Each group

you will create a new pizza

what toppings will you put on your pizza

give your new pizza a name

choose someone in your group to tell the class about your pizza

7

Allow five minutes to create the pizzas.

Monitor and help if necessary.

8

Tell class that they will now hear about each pizza.

They must make notes.

Ask each group in turn for their name and description.

Write the names on the board and keep a note (not shown to class) of each pizzas ingredients.

9

Tell class they must now all choose between the new creations.

Take a vote by show of hands.

10 Extension task

Ball toss to ask students which ingredients were on which pizza. (Using the note that was made in 8)

Notes

1. menu

Perfect Pizzas

All our pizzas can be ordered as thin crust or thick crust.

All our pizzas include delicious tomato sauce and cheese toppings

Plain

Simple, but delicious, cheese and tomato pizza.

Hawaiian

Ham, pineapple, cheese and tomato.

Pepperoni

Pepperoni, cheese and tomato.

Hot and Spicy

Beef, chili, peppers, tomato and cheese

Chicken and Mushroom

Chicken, mushroom, peppers, tomato and cheese.

Spicy Vegetarian

Peppers, chili, mushroom, corn, tomato and cheese

Seafood

Shellfish, anchovies, olives, tomato and cheese.