Proud Mary steamboat on the Mississippi – we have a student whose English name is Mary 🙂
A recap of unit covered thus far:
Part One: Give six students a flashcard from U3, L1 (e.g. buy balloons, order pizza). Model a question, then have a student act as teacher:
What will Tom do ? He’ll order pizzas
Six new students. They close their eyes and are given flashcards. Students open their eyes, at the same time, and have to say what they’ll do e.g.
I’ll bring fruit juice
Part Two: Mime the actions from U3, L2
Student teacher will ask, “Will she set up the music ?” Class will shout out, “Yes, she will,” or, “No, she won’t.” Give three students a flashcard. Ask, “Who will pour the juice ?” Class shout out the answer.
Part Three: Vocabulary check – on writing boards,
What is a better word for yummy,
For clever,
The coffee costs £2, I only have £1.50 so I don’t have _______
I want to ______ up to buy a new video game.
We can _____ money by working.
We can _____ the floor or ____ the car
Part Four: Last week’s writing highlighted some glaring errors. here’s a chance to fix some schoolboy errors.
Let’s use Green Lantern
Ireally like Green Lantern. He wears a mask and has a magic ring. He travels very fast but the Flash is faster.
NOTES: Capital letter for a name, when you write about your self (I) and the first letter of a new sentence.
Verbs: add -s for 3rd person = I wear, you wear, he/she/it/name wears
I really like NOT I very like
NOW … Your Turn
Correct the writing:
i very likes black widow. she am very intelgunt and she wear a bracelet. also she fight good. she can karate and judo
Answer:
I really like Black Widow. She is very intelligent and she wears a bracelet. Also she fights well. She can do karate and judo.
For work on the Amazon Rain Forest, click on this link:
Following on from the use of Superheroes to review superlatives I gave my class (students aged nine or ten) a project: either write about their favourite hero or create their own.
Enough from me, here’s what some of the students came up with … firstly, from Cherry:
CafiNo to bring me damn good coffee … and hot !
A Superhero that brings me coffee – I love it ! Moving on, here’s a job opportunity for The Flash – express pizza-delivery, thank to Messi:
Heroes can be men, women, boys, girls … or animals. Three young ladies, Phuong Nhi, Jessica and Ms Linh chose to create a Supercat:
from Ms Linhfrom Ms Jessicafrom Ms Phuong Nhi
How about this Supermum from Mary:
The Flash is also the favourite of Marinette:
from Ms Marinette
Now, a magnum opus from ‘King’ Lear:
from Ms ‘King’ Lear
Sarah who has dreams to be Foxgirl (but her identity must be a secret).
from Ms Sarah
Young Ken is a fan of Spiderman:
Ngoc Minh (whose English name is ‘Iron Spider’) is, unsurprisingly, also into Spiderman:
Class will be arranged in four small groups and they will be assigned a city. The students have an hour to collect information, produce a short journal (with maps, photos, illustrations etc) and present to the class.
The destinations are:
London, Barcelona, Seoul & Rio de Janeiro
I shall provide some photo printouts for their covers.
The journal must include:
When to go // an itinerary // a famous museum or building // how the students got there
London: best time to go is in Spring // British Museum is free -Open daily 10.00 am – 5.00 pm // Take the Tube (subway) to Holborn // Hamleys Toy Shop – Open 11.00 – 5.00 // Take the 25 bus and walk down Regent Street.
Barcelona: Best time is May – June // Gaudi Church (Sagrada Familia) Open 9.00 – 7.00 pm // Take Metro Line 2 (subway) // Have a picnic in Gaudi park (Parc Güell) – Open 9.30 – 7.00 pm) -get there by taxi // At night walk along the famous street Las Ramblas and walk around the old town centre
Seoul: Best time is summer // Seoul Tower – take bus number 2 – Open 10.00 – 11.00 pm // Traditional village – take a taxi. // Walk around, visit small museums and try traditional food // At night, walk along city creek and try Korean street food.
Cheonggyecheon Stream in central Seoul
Rio de Janeiro: best time is February, for the Festival // Walk there from your hotel // Visit the Christ statue – take a taxi but go early morning. // Go to the beach at Ipanema – take the Metro Rio (Subway) // Try amazing Brazilian food like crazy beef or foot bug ! //
George Mallory was a British explorer who wanted to climb Mount Everest. This is such a dangerous activity, a journalist asked him why … to which, Mallory is said to have responded, “Because it’s there.”
Warm up: Runaround.
Class in three teams, named Polo, Cook and Buzz
General knowledge questions about the world:
A – Mount Everest is the highest mountain … where is it ?
1 – Tibet and Nepal // 2 – France and Germany // 3 – Kenya and Tanzania
B – The longest river is … ?
1 – Yellow in China // 2 – Amazon in South America // 3 – Nile in Africa
C – The largest city – most people living there – is … ?
1 – Delhi, India // 2 – Tokyo, Japan // 3 – Shanghai, China
The story happened in 1605 when the king was James I. A group of men wanted a new king so they planned to kill James.
One of those men was Guy Fawkes. He knew a lot about bombs and gunpowder. the plan was to put 36 barrels of gunpowder under the building where the powerful people would be waiting for the King. Maybe you know Guy Fawkes … ?
Guy Fawkes was waiting at night, under the building …
However, guards and soldiers discovered him.
The King was so grateful, he told people to make huge bonfires all over the country. We still do this today, and have fireworks as well as making a dummy we call ‘Guy’, from old clothes and old material. We put a mask on him to look like Guy Fawkes. Children take this ‘Guy’ around and ask people to give them some money:
Now book work … reading about climbing Everest.
Comprehension quiz:
How tall is Everest ?
Who tried to climb it in 1924 ?
Who were the first people to climb it ?
When did they achieve it ?
Who was the first woman to reach the top ?
Where would YOU most like to explore ?
The Great Wall of China … like Marco Polo ?
Australia and New Zealand like Captain James Cook ?
27th October 2019. E Up 5 U 7 L 1 Countries pp. 64 – 65
Today’s theme is travel, and we will focus on six countries from five different continents. As a warm up, the students can be put in teams (this is a large class in a small room so activities have to carefully planned to prevent chaos and injury). Each team is given a small board and has to write:
A new class (for me) which I hope to be substituting, not taking full-time (this is an afternoon class and I already work all morning with young learners, and THAT is enough in spades). I will need to assess the levels of ability and motivation, as well as spot the trouble-makers, the big mouths and those who are committed to disrupting the lesson (believe me, there’s always at least one).
Last week they learnt some past tense, mostly irregular verbs. As our text books are published by the USA office of Oxford University, they favour American spelling i.e. learned as opposed to the more commonly used learnt in British English (both are correct). Furthermore, the books are printed in China, making this a real global enterprise, so that will form part of our activities.
Warm Up: A kinetic run ‘n’ write exercise. I will say a simple sentence in the present tense; students have to write the past tense. Class can be split into two or three, depending on size, each with a different colour marker.
You act in a play / I ride an elephant / She win a competition / He read a big book / We learn English / … and what happened here :
Information gathering:
Last week, the students were introduced to the continents. Now I will develop that further by focusing on four different countries: Brazil, Canada, Egypt and South Korea. To give an example, I will use Vietnam:
Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam
95.54 million people live in Viet Nam. The population is 95.54 million.
The government of Viet Nam is in Ha Noi. The capital city is Ha Noi.
People speak Vietnamese. The language of Vietnam is Vietnamese.
Vietnam is very hot but also has a rainy season. The weather is very hot then very wet.
Ladies in Vietnam wear ao dai and non la. Ho Chi Minh is the most famous Vietnamese person.
Vietnam is famous for beautiful ladies in the traditional dress, the ao dai.
First, elicit comments about the four countries; where are they, in which continents ?
CanadaEgyptSouth Korea
The class will be split into four groups, each representing one country.
One member can draw the county’s flag, the others have to gather information. Around the room I will stick information sheets. One member has to run to the sheet, then tell his team the information. This practises reading, talking and writing skills and most importantly, allows the students to communicate with each other in English.
The drawing is also useful, as the students are still children, attending classes on weekend, so they need some diversion from book work.
As such, and as a way of introducing new vocabulary and expressions, I will show a children’s guide to London, my hometown and the UK’s capital city.
Duck Tours, London … a bus that turns into a boat – it’s brilliant.
I will play the video once, writing down new words. I will then make the students write them down and then, when I replay the video, they can shout out when they hear the new vocabulary spoken. These will include:
loads and loads / I reckon / really / very / amazing
And so .. to book work. The theme is ‘feelings’ and then using them in basic sentences.
With six flash cards, I will drill the pronunciation and meaning. One game is to pass the first card to a top student and let the student say the word out loud before passing on to the next student; when the third student has said the word, I pass the first student the second card and so on …
Additionally, there is (for Johnny Cash fans) ‘Walk the line’: I spread the six cards out on the floor, in a line. Two students, one at each end has to say the word then move on to the next. First to finish is the winner – or even have the whole class line up, in two teams, so everyone gets to join in.
Finally, once students are confident (one of the feelings) of meaning, we can have a game where I tell a student a feeling and said student must mime or act out for the class.
At this level, I’m hoping for good speaking abilities and students able to form basic sentences and read short passages.
As usual, I’ll be supplied with some additional worksheets about feelings for those who finish the workbook section quickly. These can easily be found online – the British Council have a great supply on their website: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/worksheets
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Saturday 15th June. Everybody Up 4, Unit 8 Lessons 1 & 2
My manager is very supportive, and concerned over my welfare; she tells me not to expend too much energy in class, especially on a Saturday when I can have three young learner classes. Imagine 50 – 60 children committed to screaming their heads off for as long and as loudly as possible …. Welcome, as the saying goes, to my life.
Last week I prepared quite a bit of work for this class, including general knowledge based on but not in the text book. Unfortunately, it was a minor holiday in Vietnam, and a lot of the top cat students were away and … it became apparent that my multi-media presentation of classical music and classic film, and using the students to represent the movement of the heavenly bodies was … yeah … a waste of time and energy. Not entirely true … three girls were interested, the rest stared at the floor or the ceiling or the clock, while the boys had a contest, who could be the biggest ignoramus. It was a tight contest; they all won.
So, this week, after a debilitating fever, painfully sore throat and constant sneezing, I’m sticking to the book, and devising activities that will make the students use the target language and the target language only (OK, maybe a few new words for the top cats).
It’s a gross generalisation, but in my experience, so many Vietnamese want to do the work as quickly as possible and then do nothing. This covers students from all my centres, TAs, office staff, public servants, contractors, builders … This may explain why my new apartment has cracks inside and out and why so many tenants have had to retile their floor as the original tiles simply broke leaving inches of dust and debris … but, I digress … and so, without further ado, the lesson plan:
Warm Up: Last lesson the subject was future tense and activities. Therefore, I shall board some times – this afternoon / tomorrow / next Monday / next Thursday / next weekend / next month
Under these, I shall write some scrambled nonsense, e.g. ‘who as ees’. The students, placed in teams, have to elect one person to find the corresponding flash card somewhere in the room (‘see a show’) and then say a third-person sentence e.g. “He’s going to see a show this afternoon.’
Information gathering: Class into four groups. One member will be going away and the others in the team have to get information from him or her, then present to the class.
Team 1: Going to Phu Quoc island / is going next month / will be staying in a hotel near the beach / will be going swimming / is going with family
Team 2: Going to London / is going next week / is going to see a show / is staying with family / is going with older sister.
Team 3 : Going to Ha Noi / is going next Tuesday / is going on a bus tour / is going to stay in a big hotel / is going with school
Team 4: Going to Dak Lak Province / is going tomorrow / is going to ride an elephant / will stay in a tent / is going with VUS TAs
The selected member will stand at the front of the class with the information sheet. One teammate must run up, ask one question then tell the rest of the team, who will write the information down. Then a different teammate will run up and ask.
Planning a day out
I have a niece and nephew coming to Saigon. The teams have to plan a day for them including what to see and do, how to travel and what to eat. Of course, they need to but some souvenirs, so where are the best places ?
My ‘niece & nephew’.
We shall probably have to board many ideas first. Where do tourists go in HCM ? What is traditional food ? How can they travel ? Do the girls want to take the niece and the boys take the nephew only ?
Hopefully, this will encourage a lot of speaking and ideas and I can show a map of HCM to help.
And if the students are still drawing a blank (or being too lazy to think), this could inspire them: It’s spoken in English, with text, but with Viet accent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0tncoIxT1s
As with all ‘real-world’ videos, the film should be stopped and new words or expressions boarded. The students are later made to write the words down (the majority will simply NOT do any kind of writing unless pressured), and then encouraged to use them where appropriate.
That should easily cover the first hour. After the break, we hit the books, do the workbooks and fast-finishers get an activity sheet, while I can spend at least some time checking the pronunciation and grammar.
Today’s lesson is a cross-curicumlum class about space, astronauts and basic science. It is a mighty theme and so, to paraphrase Melville, we need a mighty beginning … for cinema fans, there really is no other choice … the opening of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’.
So what do the students know about the solar system ? I’ll let them tell me, after boarding some key words:
solar system
planet (Earth, gas giant, rock)
moon (the Moon)
star
asteroid
vacuum
I’ll put a flash card of planet Earth on the board, towards the right-hand side. The students can them fill in the gaps … what planets do they know ? How big is the sun relative to the planets ? What exactly is the sun ? Where does light come from in space ? What exists in space ?
FUN FACTS:
The speed of sound is 343 metres per second (usually given as 330 m p s)
The speed of light is 299 792 458 metres per second or
approximately 300 000 000 metres per second or 300 000 km per second.
Sound cannot travel through a vacuum
To demonstrate the last point, show NOT tell; here’s a good example (start around the 0:24 second mark): An iPhone not making sound in a vacuum.
What would be the pros and cons ? In small groups, discuss the question, trying to use some of the recent vocabulary.
Song time: A British classic, and the first hit for David Bowie, an artist with a deep connection with space. This video has lyrics, but how many words can they recognise ? They can shout them out as they hear them.
‘Space Oddity’. Lyrics start around the 0:30 second mark
Board any new words or phrases such as ignition / made the grade / peculiar /
Runaround
This is based on the UK children’s show from the 1970. The class will be split into small groups. One member from each has to stand in front of the board. I will read a question and then give three answers. The students have to run to the correct number. They then have three seconds to change their minds.
Who was the first man on the moon ? Buzz Aldrin / Michael Collins / Neil Armstrong
What is the biggest planet ? Jupiter / Saturn / Mars
The sun is a: planet / star / moon
What is faster ? light / sound / Mr Phuc speaking (just give the name of any talkative students).
In space, people are: heavier / lighter / weigh the same ?
The first animal in space was a: monkey / elephant / dog
(Last one could seem to be a trick question. The answer is Laika, the Russian dog. Monkeys were first put into rockets but they didn’t go high enough to officially enter space).
Bookwork. Today there is a fair amount of reading. I’ll use the passages to show a little grammar, introduce the students to adverbs.
The princess was very beautiful (very = adverb, beautiful is an adjective)
Here, the adverb ‘very‘ goes before the adjective. For concept checking (do the students understand and can use this formula ?) some quick questions:
Correct these sentences:
The very student was clever
Laika, the dog, was scared very
Very David talented is
During the reading, I’ll be asking the students to point out the adjectives and adverbs in the short pieces of text.
By this stage, the students are able to form basic sentences, though they need constant encouragement to develop speaking skills, as well as being told to write down new words and expressions … and then USE them.
The lesson should involve all skills, and allow the students some active sections, to break the monotony of sitting for two hours. New vocabulary should be introduced and recent lessons should be revisited and revised. Today’s theme is ‘be creative’ so we’ll start with:
Warm up: Word Bomb (mind map)
Board ‘Free Time’ and ask the students what they do for fun, making them speak in sentences, not just shouting out single words. We can develop this by asking secondary questions for example, ‘I play football,’ ‘Where do you play ? With whom do you play ? Are you in a team, or play with friends ?’
Pre-teaching: New vocabulary
Today we have six flash cards, all in the present simple (e.g. sing songs, write stories). The class repeat the text and I check for pronunciation and meaning.
Activity: What do my friends do ?
Around the room, I stick six sheets of paper, each with a single word:
Fashion / Art / Music / Cinema / Models / writing
I then show a single Powerpoint Slide with six of my ‘friends’ and ask the students to match the friend to the activity. I will board the six names on two sides of the whiteboard and the students, divided into two teams, have to match them. My ‘friends’:
My friends are: Nicky, Ian, Stella, Bill, John & Frida.
After the students have guessed, I’ll show the following pictures:
Nicky likes music. He sings songsIan likes model trains. He makes models.Stella likes fashion. She designs clothesBill likes writing. He writes stories.John loves cinema. He makes movies.Frida enjoys art. She paints pictures.
Next, a chance for the students to get up and mingle, so I’ve prepared a questionnaire, utilising a lot of past tense verbs:
Student Questionnaire
NAME:
What did you do on December 31st ?
What was the last film you saw ? Was it good ? Did you enjoy it ?
Do you like painting or drawing ? Do you go to museums ?
Have you ever lost anything ? What was it ?
We can listen to some answers, and the class can correct any errors in grammar. This will also help the students speak to each other in English, so that not all communication goes through the teacher.
Next up: Student description
In a previous lesson, the class learnt about basic adjectives to describe appearance. I will therefore choose a student and describe the physical characteristics, e.g. this student has long straight hair, is not very tall, and wears black glasses. I will choose some students and give them a student to describe, while promoting the value ‘be polite‘.
Video time: listening & new vocabulary
In our first class, we watched a kids’ guide to London and I boarded the following:
I reckon / huge / a little bit / brilliant
The students were told to ALWAYS have a notebook and pen handy, and to write down new words. However, this is not a common practice in Vietnam, so they have to be told … and retold.
We only need show the first minute, but the students can be asked to identify various creative activities that they see. Then it’s time for some action !
Board Slap
I’ll stick three of today’s six flash cards on the cards and select three students. They’ll be given a swat, and they have to run to the board and swat or slap the card they like best, saying, “I like … movies, painting etc.” This leads into:
Thay Student.
One of the top students plays the role of teacher. They come to the front and ask students, “Do you like …. songs, models etc ?” Students must answer in a sentence: “Yes, I do,” or “No, I don’t.” Thay Student will follow-up by asking why or why not …”Because it’s ….”
Here we need some good adjectives. To give them a good pool of words, we can have a quick hangman game first, so we have adjectives such as:
Finally, I like to play a song for the students to listen to and pick out key phrases. Today’s singer is actually Swedish, but she sings in English. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upnTg2GPgTM
This is Lykke Li, and we can start the video around the 1-minute mark. The title, and the key phrase is something the class should, by now, be familiar with; ‘a little bit’. It’s also a good lesson in how Standard written English differs from spoken English, as we often swallow the ‘t’ sounds. Have a listen … you don’t need to play the whole song if it’s not your cup of tea … just a little bit.
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Thay Paul's Notes 