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Lesson plan cover page

Country

Ukraine

Name

Olga Vladymyrova

Workshop title

Core Issues. Learner-centred classroom.

Brief description of context, location and time (size of classroom, facilities/resources available, time of day, lesson length, etc) – 50 words maximum

Private language center, 15 sq.m classroom, 1 whiteboard, 3 desks with computers and Internet connection. 60 min. lesson. Evening time.

Brief description of learners (how many,  age, level,  special needs/behavioural issues, etc) –
50 words maximum

2 brothers, one is 10 years old with Elementary level of English, he still behaves as a child, another is 12 years old and his language level is Pre-Intermediate, he wants to do everything by his own to show everyone that he is an adult.

Brief description of the new idea and why chosen
(50 words maximum)

I’d like to try out such a combination of speaking and listening activities to develop students’ communication skills. These students have grammar and vocabulary knowledge but aren’t able to use them as they don’t communicate in English. I think this lesson will give them an opportunity to speak English more.

Lesson plan cover page

How does the lesson fit with syllabus/timetable?
(30 words maximum)

One of the students is from the 4th form, the second is from the 6th form. They study at the comprehensive secondary school.

Learning outcome

By the end of the lesson the students will be able to:

• Talk about themselves using basic tenses and a variety of structures
• Understand a live speaking of the teacher and the peer about personal interests and opinions

Materials and references (attach worksheets)

2 sets of “Feedback cards”, Worksheet 1.

Anticipated problems
(50 words maximum)

1. The group is mixed-ability as students are of a different language level and age.
2. The students will not be able to fill a worksheet.

Proposed solutions
(50 words maximum)

1. To create such a worksheet that will be suitable for both students.
2. To provide a personal example (orally) as a model to be used later by students.

Lesson procedure

Time

Teacher activity

Student activity

Interaction

Stage aim

10 min

5 min

10 min

5 min

10 min

5 min

5 min

5 min

Stage 1. Warm-up

Writes up 3 sentences on the whiteboard (“I have a sister. Yesterday I bought some presents. Tomorrow I’m going to meet my friends”), tells that these sentences are about him/her and asks students to ask questions to find out more about these facts (e.g “How old is your sister? What’s her name?”)

Stage 2.  Writing about them.

Asks students to write 6 sentences on a piece of paper about themselves, 3 positive (I have, I like, I want etc) and 3 negative (I don’t, I didn’t, I won’t etc) without showing to others. Writes such the sentences as well.

Stage 3. Live discussion.

Asks students to stand up, make a circle, read one of their written sentences and ask any person from the circle “And you?”

Stage 4. Pre-writing task.

Tells to the students that he/she is going to complete the sentences about him/herself  (orally) and asks students to listen carefully and remember as many facts as they can to be able to do further tasks in stage 7 (without writing down any notes). Takes a worksheet and completes the sentences aiming to provide a model.

Stage 5. Filling the worksheet.

Distributes the worksheets (one worksheet for each student) and asks them to complete the sentences about themselves.

Stage 6. Post-writing task.

Asks students to read out their finished sentences one by one. Listens to the students reading and makes notes (on a piece of paper) about common students’ errors without interrupting students’ speech (to be worked out and improved next lessons).

Stage 7.

Asks students to work in pair for a limited time (3 minutes) to make notes about anything they remember about him/her from stage 4.

Stage 8. Feedback.

Thanks to the students for being honest the whole lesson long and asks them to answer honestly his/her questions using “feedback cards” (like, don’t like, so-so). Asks questions and gets feedbacks (Did you like the lesson? Was the worksheet difficult for you?)

Read sentences, ask questions and listen to the teacher’s answers.

Write 6 sentences about themselves.

Stand up, make a circle, one student reads a sentence from his paper and asks another student or the teacher “And you?” who answers with “Me too/me neither” and then makes the same (reads and asks). Complete till all the sentences will be read and discussed.

Listen to the teacher.

Fill the worksheet with their ideas.

Read out their finished sentences, listen to the peer.

Discuss together, make notes about their teacher and read them when ready.

Listen to the teacher’s questions and give feedbacks by showing “feedback cards”.

Students- Teacher

Individual work

Student-student

Teacher-Students

Individual work.

Student-Student

Pair-work

Teacher-Students

To review a necessary vocabulary; to create more confident and friendly atmosphere; to remind basic tenses and questions.

To give students a chance to express themselves; to let students work on their own; to practice useful vocabulary; to discover information about each other.

To focus on live listening and speaking; to practice speaking using basic tenses and “me too/me neither”; to develop understanding of different people’s speaking.

To provide a model for students; to clarify some meanings from the worksheet; to draw students’ attention to the useful language; to develop listening skills.

To practice basic tenses and useful lexical structures.

To help students to focus on fluency when speaking; to develop communicative skills.

To imprint useful lexical structures in students’ memory; to practice the third person of tenses; to give students one more chance to chat in English.

To consume the lesson and to get students’ feedbacks.

Reflection

What went well? Why?

(refer to the learners, learning outcomes and stage aims, lesson procedures, tasks / activities and materials)

1. The main aim of the lesson was to encourage learners to talk and this aim was picked up.
2. While planning the lesson I was following the points that were mentioned in “Learner-centred activities poster” from British Consul Course CiSELT that made the lesson very integrated. I could present almost all the points from this poster:

• checking what learners already know about this topic (stage 1);
• increasing the level of students’ involvement (they were involved in all the activities in each stage);
• including varying levels of difficulty for the tasks (the worksheet I created was really suitable for both learners so everybody felt well while filling it out);
• checking what learners have done (stage 6 and 7);
• providing options for individual, pair and group work (individual work – stage 2 and 5), pair work - stage 7, group work – stage 1, 3 and 8);
• personalizing topic (as the topic was “All about me” the students were encouraged to participate in all the tasks);
•  deciding on timing to complete the activity (stage 7).

3. I succeed in creating confident and friendly atmosphere that urged my students to be honest and open.
4. While taking feedbacks in stage 8 I was surprised that they had never showed a “negative” card but 90% “positive” and 10 % “neutral”.... This lesson proved to me that learner-centered activities are enjoyable, effective and stimulating.

What didn’t go well? Why?

(refer to the learners, learning outcomes and stage aims, lesson procedures, tasks / activities and materials)

In stage 1 after I wrote the 3 sentences on the board one of the students said that he couldn’t see because he had a problem with his eyes. Therefore I had to write the sentences on a white sheet A4 and put it on his desk.

In stage 3 while we were discussing the written sentences we discovered that there were sentences that could not be answered with “me too” and “me neither”, e.g. one student said: “I don’t have a dog, and you?” asking another student who has a dog, so he could not answer with “Me too” or “Me neither” and we agreed that there was the third answer to use: “No, I have”.

In stage 5 when the students were filling their worksheets they asked me for some words in L1 as they did not know them in L2, first I asked another student if he could help, in case if the second student could not answer I translated the asked word.

I identified the main errors of my new students - misuse of basic tenses, lack of vocabulary (giving personal information) and little knowledge about using prepositions. But I did not interrupt them and did not correct their errors at all during this lesson because the aim of the lesson was to teach them chatting and communication in English, to see what they have already known and to create a friendly atmosphere to let them feel free to speak. But for sure I’m going to work through these errors next lessons.

What changes will I make next time? Why?

There is one point from the ““Learner-centred activities poster” that I could not adapt to this lesson, it’s “selecting different methods for completing the tasks”. I think next time I can do it next time by providing a choice for example while filling out worksheet: I would give them a choice to complete the sentences orally or in writing.

Result

Moderator’s comments, advice and suggestions

Lesson plan cover page

Country

Ukraine

Name

Olga Vladymyrova

Workshop title

Skills. Teaching integrated skills.

Brief description of context, location and time (size of classroom, facilities/resources available, time of day, lesson length, etc) – 50 words maximum

Private language center. 15 sq.m classroom with 3 desks and computers on them with WI-FI connection. 1 hour lesson. Evening time.

Brief description of learners (how many,  age, level,  special needs/behavioural issues, etc) –
50 words maximum

There’re 6 pupils 13-14 years old with language level B1 who attend private lessons aimed  to teach communication. They are 4 boys and 2 girls. They’re in very good relationship with each other and behave well at the lessons as they’re very interested in English and learn it for themselves.

Brief description of the new idea and why chosen
(50 words maximum)

I would like to try out using internet-based media texts with this group. I chose this method because I think it will bring real English world in our classroom, expose my students to authentic English and will motivate them for further learning.

Lesson plan cover page

How does the lesson fit with syllabus/timetable?
(30 words maximum)

We use course book “Gateway B1”( Macmillan Publishers Ltd, David Spencer), now we work through

Grammar: present simple, past simple

Vocabulary: Personality. Likes/dislikes

Speaking: Giving personal information.

Writing: Informal letters describing people and their biography.

Learning outcome

By the end of the lesson students will be able

• to talk about famous people and  their lives
• to use Internet resources for collecting needed information
• to analyze the information and identify its major points
• write their own text using the information

Materials and references (attach worksheets)

3 photos (Barak Obama, Vladymyr Putin and Viktor Yanukovich) with their written names below.

Anticipated problems
(50 words maximum)

1. Students will be not able to identify interesting facts about such famous people and will concentrate more about their political carriers.
2. They will finish all the tasks too quickly.

Proposed solutions
(50 words maximum)

1. I will warn my students that they have to collect only interesting facts from personal information about famous people and nothing about their work except mentioning a job field.
2. I have prepared an extra activity.

Lesson procedure

Time

Teacher activity

Student activity

Interaction

Stage aim

5 min

30 min

10 min

10 min

5 min

Stage 1 Brainstorming “The most popular jobs”

Writes students’ versions on the whiteboard.

Stage 2 “Collecting information & writing a text”

Divides the class into 3 groups (pairs), lets every couple sit at one desk and use one computer. Gives to each couple one photo (different one to each couple) and asks them to open an Internet and search the personal information about this person. Asks them to write down their findings, analyze them and write a short text of 20 sentences about this person without mentioning his name and permanent job.  After students finish their writing a teacher checks the texts and corrects grammar/lexical errors.

Stage 3 “Presentations”

Asks students to read their ready texts to other classmates to guess the person’s name.

Stage 4 “Discussion”

Asks students to work in group and find out as more things in common between these 3 persons as they can (using the information from their texts).

Stage 5 “Feedback”

Asks students what new information they have learned about these people, how many sites they visited, if they came across some sources contradicting each other on different sites.

Call out all the occupations they consider to be the most popular.

Take a photo, know a person, open an Internet, search for personal information about this person, write their findings, analyze them and write a text about the person.

Read the written texts to the rest of the class, let their classmates to guess the name of the person.

Discuss and write down as more things in common between these 3 persons as they can find.  After they have finished read these points to the teacher.

Answer teacher’s questions and give a feedback.

Teacher-Students

Student-Student (pair work)

Student-student

Student-Student (Group work)

Teacher-Students

To encourage students involvement and to get them ready for further work at the lesson

To practice reading and writing skills; to learn to find the necessary information on the Internet; to practice using Present and Past Simple (from the 3rd person).

To practice reading and listening

To practice speaking and thinking skills

To focus on realistic communication;

to come to the conclusion about the received information and express their own opinions about the lesson.

Reflection

What went well? Why?

(refer to the learners, learning outcomes and stage aims, lesson procedures, tasks / activities and materials)

Working on a variety of skills made this lesson very intensive, useful, motivating and authentic. Integrating such skills helped to develop students’ communicative competence. This lesson showed to my students that learning English could be more exposal because the students used the language for a real purpose, instead of, say, just practicing the grammar and writing exercises.

The students were very interested in using the Internet at the lesson. They improved their English while reading original articles as they dealt with authentic texts. Also this activity helped them to consider if the sites are reliable or not.

The theme of the lesson was suitable for their age. Interesting topic and found information on the Internet exposed them to participate in the discussion very actively.

When I checked their written texts I didn’t found too many mistakes to correct. So that means that their grammar level was appropriated for that activity.

This lesson proved to me that using such internet-based media texts in teaching English and doing such the integrated lessons from time to time make learning more interesting, intensive, effective and modern. Internet resources allow teacher not to limit his/ herself just with textbook and other ready printed materials but open a wide range of endless opportunities.  

As the goal of modern education is to develop certain competences while teaching foreign languages such activities help to match this goal easily developing social, cultural and informational competences.

What didn’t go well? Why?

(refer to the learners, learning outcomes and stage aims, lesson procedures, tasks / activities and materials)

Before the lesson I checked the Internet connection (as usual ) and it was working properly. But after 10 minutes using Internet at our lesson we suddenly found some problems (no connection) with it and it took some time to fix them. In fact we didn’t do anything special, we just called our Internet supplier who told us that they had to switch off the tuner  because of the rain. But in a few minutes they switched it on again and then everything went on well.

Some information found on the sites was difficult for students to understand because there were many unknown words. So the students had to refer to the on-line dictionary to understand the details of the articles.

What changes will I make next time? Why?

I would give them only particular sites to surf for receiving the necessary and reliable information. It will allow me to use lesson time more effectively. Also it will be useful for the students to know such the sites to refer them even outside the classroom.

Next time doing such an Internet-based lesson I would use an idea of my colleague who was so kind to share it with me, it’s about one of the possible solutions how to make the search of the info quicker, the idea is to open the internet pages before the lesson and let the students use them.

At the next lesson I plan to teach my students to add the received information to Wikipedia pages. I think it will motivate them for further learning English.. It will teach them to use the Internet more deliberately and to share the found information with others.

Result

Moderator’s comments, advice and suggestions

Lesson plan cover page

Country

Ukraine

Name

Olga Vladymyrova

Workshop title

Language. Teaching grammar.

Brief description of context, location and time (size of classroom, facilities/resources available, time of day, lesson length, etc) – 50 words maximum

In 20 sq.m classroom there are 3 pupils’ desks in front of the whiteboard, 1 whiteboard. We have 45 min lesson in the afternoon after school lessons.

Brief description of learners (how many,  age, level,  special needs/behavioural issues, etc) –
50 words maximum

They’re 6 pupils from the 5-th class who are weaker than their classmates. We do 3-4 additional lessons every month to work through needed material. The students are highly motivated, but have some difficulty with learning English, they enjoy teasing and competing   that creates positive and productive atmosphere.

Brief description of the new idea and why chosen
(50 words maximum)

I’d like to use a new activity “Irregular-Verbs Gym”- example of using multiple intelligence and TPR in which learning irregular verbs is combined with doing physical exercises. I think it’ll be interesting as it’s a kind of competition and TPR-activity, also everybody will practice verbs as the activity involves everybody.

Lesson plan cover page

How does the lesson fit with syllabus/timetable?
(30 words maximum)

It’s an additional lesson beside school planned lessons to help weak students get better in irregular verbs forms (especially past simple). They’ve already learnt them at 3 school lessons – past simple positive, yes/no questions, a table of irregular verbs.

Learning outcome

By the end of this lesson students

• will be more familiar with the irregular-verbs forms
• will be able to identify, spell, produce and utilize Past Simple regular & irregular verbs
• will be able to describe their week-ends in past tense.

Materials and references (attach worksheets)

Flashcards, handout “Vocabulary & Story” (Oxford University Press, English File 1, Student’s book), worksheet 1

Anticipated problems
(50 words maximum)

1. 2 of the students were absent at the last school lesson so they missed some material and practice.
2. I’ve planned a lot of activities and I consider all of them to be very important. I hope that I will be able to get through all the planned activities.

Proposed solutions
(50 words maximum)

1. The introductory activities will give the students an opportunity to catch up on what they missed, whilst providing the others revision and further practice.
2. Probably I will not make Stage 5 if I feel that I’m limited with my time.

Lesson procedure

Time

Teacher activity

Student activity

Interaction

Stage aim

Stage 1

10 min

Stage 2

10 min

Stage 3

7 min

Stage 4

10 min

3 min

Stage 5

5 min

Warm-up activities

 Divides students in 3 pairs (one couple at one desk) and explains the activity

 Distributes a  printed hand-out “Vocabulary & Story” (1 for each couple)

Review activities

Shows flashcards and pronouns 3 forms of each verb  

Distributes printed worksheet №1 to every couple and asks them to match 3 forms (Present Simple, Past simple and Past Principal) of each verb from 3 columns.

Games

“Speed word “game – teacher says the first form of the verb  (one to each couple), a couple must say the second and the third forms

TPR-activity “The Irregular-Verbs Gym”. A)Teacher asks students to stand up and watch her. Then say the first form of an irregular verb that has all three different forms (“write”), carrying out a specific movement at the same time (Stretches her arms high above her head). Then say the past form (“wrote”), make a different movement (touches her shoulders), and finally say the past participle form (“written”), again making another – again different – movement (touches her knees). B) Then teacher selects an irregular verb where past and past participle forms are the same, e.g. find, and ask students to work through it. C) Then get them to do an irregular verb where all three forms are the same, e.g. put; they will need to make only one single movement. D )Carries on practicing with all the 20 irregular verbs planned to consolidate.

Story time

Gets the students sit down, asks them to read a “Last Saturday” story ( a different story to each couple from the printed hand-out “Vocabulary & Story”), write the missed words form the story and then present the ready story to the rest of the group.

Asks students to detect the verbs in Past Simple from the texts and say them loudly.

Conclusion & relaxation

Asks the students to come to the whiteboard and write answers to the questions written on the whiteboard:

• How do we do Past Simple for regular verbs?
• How do we do Past Simple for irregular verbs?

Brainstorm: in limited time (2 minutes) couples say as more typical weekend activities as they can.

Fill the first part of the hand-out – look at the images and write the missed verbs (infinitive form)

Repeat after the teacher

Match the verbs

Each couple answers (Student 1 says the Past Simple form and S2 says the Past Principal form) and gets points on the whiteboard.

a)Say the forms and carry out the actions with teacher. Then they work alone through other irregular verbs in the same way: “give, swim, go, do” without teacher. 

B)Students say the forms and carry out just two first movements, then practice other verbs: meet, feel, think, tell.C)Students say the forms and make just the first movement. Practice cost, shut.D ) Students must say the forms and make 3, 2 or 1 movement.

Read the story, write the missed words and present the ready story to the class.

Detect verbs in Past Simple from the texts and say them loudly.

Write answers on the whiteboard.

Teacher-students

Pair work (Student – Student)

Teacher- Students

Pair work (Student –

Student)

Teacher – Students

Teacher - Students

Pair work (Student – Student)

Group work (Students – Students)

Teacher-students

Motivate students, engage their attention and dispose them to the work.

Refresh knowledge of  20 chosen irregular verbs and prepare students for the main tasks (stage 3 and 4).

Consolidate the knowledge and practice orally the above mentioned 20 irregular verbs forms.

Refresh the students after being sitting, practice the 20 irregular verbs orally focusing on correct pronunciation and grammar form.

Work through the text focusing on vocabulary and speaking, be able to identify the Past Simple verbs from the text.

Resume the work done in the lesson.

Reflection

What went well? Why?

(refer to the learners, learning outcomes and stage aims, lesson procedures, tasks / activities and materials)

When I taught this lesson the students were very engaged in the material I printed out for them and the tasks. Because the vocabulary (week-end activities) was directly connected to the learnt grammar points (Past Simple & Irregular verbs) my students seemed to realize the immediate importance of learning and using it. So, they completed all the tasks.  Also, the students appeared to be enthusiastic about the new activity (The Irregular-Verbs Gym) because it allowed them to use what they had been learning in class and also to move a little bit. I never had to ask them to stay focused because they were all working together and seemed to be intrinsically motivated to complete all the given exercises. Similarly, they did quite well on their written exercises (stage 2-matching the verbs and stage 4 – completing the story), also the answers on the whiteboard (stage 5) were clear enough, which leads me to believe that they had been well learned the 20 chosen irregular verbs and practiced the usage of Past Simple. So, I can say that the aims of the lesson and the stages’ aims were picked up.

What didn’t go well? Why?

(refer to the learners, learning outcomes and stage aims, lesson procedures, tasks / activities and materials)

At the stage 5 we met a difficulty with my students - first they could not reflect and write answers for given questions in English. I could see that they have got the meaning of the questions, as well as they have understood the rule itself by they were not able to write the answers in English as they couldn’t produce the summary in L2. So we had to use L1 to summarize the rule and then we translated what we have sad into English. So, with by using partly L1 and with my help the students finally did a reflection for this stage in English and wrote it on the board.

What changes will I make next time? Why?

When I teach this lesson again, I will encourage the use of the language more by asking my students to ask each other what they did last Saturday or by writing a story about themselves or their peers (after have being asking them). Also I would ask my students to write the correct verbs (3 forms) down on the flashcards. I think I would possibly add some more activities for writing and spelling, such as a category dictation (for example, divide a page on 2 columns – I did and I didn’t do, and write the verbs I say in one of the columns depending on what they did last Saturday or didn’t do), bingo-game, spelling lists, typing words etc. When I do “The Irregular-Verbs Gym” again with these students, I will let one of the students to come in front of the class and say the verbs instead of the teacher, I think it will engage students to produce verbs. Then we’ll do that with other students.

Result

Moderator’s comments, advice and suggestions

Lesson plan cover page

Country

Ukraine

Name

Olga Vladymyrova

Workshop title

Language. Teaching reading.

Materials and references

Worksheet, handout (a text), PPT “Chocolate”.

Brief description of context, location and time (size of classroom, facilities/resources available, time of day, lesson length, etc)

Private Language Center, 15 sq.m classroom with 3 desks and a computer. The lessons (60 min each) were done in the evening time.

Brief description of learners (how many,  age, level,  special needs/behavioural issues, etc)

The first group was 2 brothers-teenagers with different language level and age (10 and 12 years old). The second group was young people with the same language level and age(17 years old), there were 1 girl and 1 boy.

Brief description of the new idea and why chosen

I chose a reading lesson where I would like to combine reading skills with writing and speaking skills. I think that such a combination should produce more intensive reading and will encourage my students for further reading lessons.

Learning outcome

By the end of the lesson the students will be able to name some chocolate products, to express their opinions and to give advice about eating chocolate, to use words “addiction, addicted”, to find the main idea in the text and to identify the necessary details in the text.

Lesson procedure

Time

Teacher activity

Student activity

Interaction

Stage aim

10 min

10 min

10 min

10 min

5 min

5 min

10 min

Stage 1. Warm-up.

Shows a PPT “Chocolate” (slide 1and 2) and asks students to say what they see in the pictures and guess the topic of the lessons.

Distributes the worksheet (1 copy for each student), asks students to work in pair and ask each other the questions in part 1.

Stage 2. Pre-reading task 1.

Asks students to imagine a person who eats a lot of chocolate every day; shows slide 3 of PPT “Chocolate” and explains the meaning of “addiction & addicted” by giving examples. Asks students what other things people can be addicted to and elicits to make sentences by describing slide 4 and 5 of the PPT.

Stage 3. Reading task 1.

Tells students they are going to read about a woman, Cheryl, who is addicted to chocolate. Draws their attention to part 2 of the worksheet, asks them to read the choices; gives each student their own copy of the text, asks them to read it fairly quickly and to decide who Cheryl is writing to.

Stage 4. Reading task 2.

Tells students that they’re going to read in more detail to understand each paragraph and decide which summary is the correct one for each paragraph (from part 3 of the worksheet).

Stage 5. Post-reading task 1.

Asks students to decide if the sentences are true or false (part 4 from the worksheet) and then exchange the worksheets with the peer and check each other’s answers.

Stage 6. Post-reading task 2.

Asks students to brainstorm ideas to help Cheryl and writes notes about their ideas on the whiteboard.

Stage 7. Post-reading task 3.

Asks students to sit together and to write a letter back to Cheryl and gives the opening line: “Dear Cheryl, here are some ideas to help you with your problem. Firstly …”

Answer and brainstorm the ideas.

Work in pair, ask and answer the questions in part 1from the worksheet.

Listen to the teacher’s explanation. Elicit examples such as alcohol, drugs, shopping, football etc, make sentences using a new lexical structure.

Read the text, answer the question, compare their answers and consume the correct answer.

Read the text again, read the summaries of the paragraphs in part 3 of the worksheet, decide and write which summary is the correct one for each paragraph. Check their answers together.

Write “true” or “false” in part 4 of the worksheet; check the work of each other.

Brainstorming ideas to help Cheryl.

Create a letter to Cheryl, one of the students writes.

Teacher-Students

Pair work

Group work

Teacher-Students

Individual work

Individual work

Teacher-Students

Group work

To encourage students with the topic; to review the necessary vocabulary; to prepare students for the further work; to personalize the topic.

To pre-teach a new lexical structure needed for the further text reading; to provoke an understanding and correct usage of the new words.

To practice reading skills; to let students read the text for getting the main idea

To focus on the main points of the texts; to produce intensive reading.

To check text understanding; to teach students how to do peer’s error correction.

To encourage students to talk and to produce suggestions; to practice speaking skill.

To consume the suggestions; to practice writing skill.