Lesson no. 1

Lesson no. 1

10 June 2009/Wednesday

Intention:

I intend to give an introduction lesson on 10 June 2009. I think it is important for the students and for me to know a little bit about each other. This will also be a great opportunity for all the students to get to know each other a little better.
Right now I am a little uncertain about the content of the lesson because I’m unsure about the level of English of the students. As a backup plan I’d like to think of 1 or 2 other topics which I can integrate in the lesson, if the introduction session finishes before the expected time.

Topics for tomorrow:

- Introduction (Greeting, Name, Country of Origin, Age (numbers), No. of years in NL, Family, Hobbies (verbs), Anything else)
- Introduce: I am, You are (singular And plural), He/She is, We are, They are (once everyone is done with introducing themselves, try to use imaginary (groups of) people to practice the use of the verb ‘to be’ with the correct pronoun.)

Handout:

Greetings:

Good morning / Good afternoon / Good evening.
Goodbye / Bye.

Introduction:

Name: My name is _________________. / I am _________________.
Country of Origin: I am from _________________.
Age: I am _________________ years old.
Stay in The Netherlands: I am living in The Netherlands for the last _________________ years and _______ months. (the months bit was added later!)
Family: I am _________________ (single / married).
I have ____________ brothers and _____________ sisters.
I have _____________ children.
Hobby: I like to _______________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________.

Numbers:

(this image is very vague here, but it was clear on the handouts... I need to learn how to use this blog :P But I suppose the concept is clear...)

Backup:

1. Adjectives: Use of Pronouns, the right form of the verb ‘to be’ and adjectives e.g. He is tall
2. Opposites: opposites of the adjectives used e.g. tall <---> short

Evaluation:

16:30
- I gave a brief introduction about myself.
- The basic things that should be mentioned when meeting a new person were mentioned i.e. name, age, country, family composition (married/single, children?, daughters/sons?), hobbies and work/job. I wrote each item in the right sentence on the board (as written in the handout) and asked the students to fill in the blanks.
- When we had practiced all the main items once, everyone was given a chance to tell something about themselves using the sentences on the board. This was a good practice because it not only added to the knowledge of the whole class about a certain individual but the students were also stimulated to think about possible hobbies and interests (see vocabulary list).

17:00
5 minute BREAK

17:05
- The use of the verb ‘to be’ with the correct pronoun: I am, You are (singular And plural), He/She is, We are, They are was explained. These were further used by students with the help of imaginary characters e.g. I wrote the following on the board: Tom, 32, married, doctor, and I asked the students to convey this information into correct English sentences.
- The handouts were distributed and everyone filled in their information on the handout.
- I asked the students to try to learn the spellings of the numbers from 1 till 20 + the spelling of the number that represented their age
- Before the class ended I took the handouts in order to check them. But just now I realize that the spellings of the numbers are on the handouts! (I suppose I need to be a bit alert next time…)

17:20
From 17:20 till 17:40 nothing much was done. I realized that there were two groups (two levels) and if I used my backup plan then it would have become too much for some people, therefore this time was spend in talking, clearing doubts and giving extra explanations. Some people used this time to copy the rest of the sentences from the board.

I think since I was a bit unsure about the lesson because it was the very first lesson, it was a bit difficult to plan the perfect lesson. I personally think it went kinda OK. There were a few people who found this quite easy, therefore I’m going to try to get some extra handouts or work for them for next time. I still need to invent a strategy to teach a lesson which can fulfil the demands of both groups.

Vocabulary in alphabetical order:

Age
Country
Engineering
Hobby
Iraqi
Laughing
Mechanical engineer
Nationality
Playing games
Reading
Somalian
To drive a car
To travel
Watching football
Watching movies

Problems & Attendance --> Mailed to Mr. Peter