Teaching EFL Listening via FUN WITH ENGLISH Books/7B/Lesson 5

Introduction
Opening class talking about the student's school trip last Saturday, and closing it discussing my trip last week to Hawaii. In between doing textbook activities, hoping to get a discussion going about city/country life. After that, have them practice their hearing with difficult questions about the textbook material.

Lesson Objectives

 * Students will enjoy themselves, creating a positive association with the English language.
 * Create an atmosphere that's comfortable enough for students to feel take chances speaking English to me and their peers.
 * Ask the right questions to get a lively discussion going about either their trip or city/country life.
 * Engage all of them by asking unexpected textbook questions, forcing them to listen closely to really understand whats going on.
 * Find a way to make practicing English more appealing to them than speaking to their friends in Chinese.

Lesson Plan
Before Class Starts
 * Ask everyone to get into their seats.
 * Walk around the room small talking with different students.
 * Get the computer turned on if it works.
 * Open a blank word document.

'''Greeting: Yo! What's up?'''
 * Practice the "What's up?" routine.
 * If they don't remember, review.

Opening Discussion: Talk about their trip
 * Did you do something special last Saturday?
 * Write all the answers on the word document.
 * Where did you go?
 * How did you get there?
 * What did you do on the bus?
 * What did you take pictures of?
 * Did you have fun?
 * Why did you go on the trip?

Textbook: Page 14 Let's get ready A
 * Where would you rather live in the city or the country? and why?
 * What kind of job do you need to live in a city? the country?

Textbook: Page 15 Let's listen 1 A Tapescript Page 78
 * b4 starting - what is a penfriend?
 * Read it correctly the first time, then change around the words to see if they're listening. (Mr. Brown)
 * Instead of "I live in England." Read "I live in France" and so on.

Textbook: Page 16 Let's listen 2 A Tapescript Page 78
 * After reading, when you ask the questions say "What is across from the school?" or "What is diagonal from the ______?" (Mr. Brown)

Textbook: Page 16 Let's listen 2 B (Maybe)
 * (Mr. Brown)

Discuss: Talk about my trip
 * Chose one of the following depending on my and the class's mood.
 * Traveling from shanghai -> tokyo -> hawaii
 * surfing
 * Hawaiian Culture: flower over a girl's ear, right ear = single, left ear = not single
 * Hawaiian Culture: hang loose hand gesture is the same as 6 hand gesture in China
 * Hawaiian Language: aloha = hello
 * Hawaiian Language: mahalo = thank you
 * Show the pics of my family, including the one of us with the pair of locals and quiz the kids about the hand gestures and flowers.

'''Extra Time: Number of Letters? Game''' (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.

31 Mar 2010 Grade 7 Class 11

 * Kids were in a good mood, and we got a solid discussion going about their trip.
 * Took Mr. Brown's suggestion of reading the textbook wrong, and it got a bunch of giggles from the students.
 * I just kept on reading. Perhaps next time I should stop when I make a mistake and ask them what they think?
 * They were not too interested in me talking about my Hawaii trip, but they did like the candy.

Next Week

 * Review the Hawaiian culture?

31 Mar 2010 Grade 7 Class 11

 * Short discussion about the trip, but a long discussion about the city vs. the country and what jobs they would like to do.
 * In Let's get ready A on page 14, I have a difficult time expressing the activitiy. Many students put "See a film" in the "Only City" list which is fair, but at the same time, it isn't what the activity calls for.

Next Week

 * Near the end of class 3 boys came to the front to do a hula dance, but we ran out of time. Ask them if they'd try again?

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.

Changelog
Version 0.3 30 Mar 2010
 * Included suggestions from Mr. Brown for the textbook activities.
 * Typed up what I've evolved to be doing in class over the first 5 lessons of the week.