Lesson no. 7

Lesson no. 7

1 July 2009 / Wednesday

(16:05 – 17:50)

Topics of the day:
General:
Actions (Part 1)
Possessive pronouns (Part 4)

Beginner:
Appointments (Part 2)

Advanced:
Make or Do? (Part 3)

PART 1:
I had a handout about actions for the last lesson but since we didn’t work on it then, I used it for this lesson. The task on the top of the handout says it all: What is happening in each picture? The following handout was distributed to the students:

The following vocabulary (including spelling) was written on the green board when a student asked the spelling of a word.
- coming
- going (back)
- singing
- listening to music
- drinking (a glass of) water/milk
- eating food
- writing
- showing a picture/photo
- reading
- running
- crying
- smiling
- standing
- sitting
- laughing
- sleeping
- waking up
- pushing
- pulling

The students used their imagination to make sentences that described the pictures in the best possible way. I was amazingly shocked at the variety of sentences. :)

This was the main class exercise and the students were busy with this for the main part of the lesson.

PART 2:

While the rest of the students were busy with the handouts, I went to the beginner group. I had a handout from lesson 5 for them, which wasn’t discussed then. The handout can be found on: http://www.english-zone.com/grammar/appointments01.html

This handout was a revision for the days of the week. It was a good exercise because of several reasons:
- it contained keywords and not complete sentences --> it was therefore easier to understand for the students
- it taught the students how to read charts
- it was a good practice to try to find useful information from the given data
- it was a good communication practice with the students --> because the chart was simple, it helped me to explain everything in the simplest possible terms to the students.

It was a bit difficult to explain the exercise to the students, but with the help of some lovely students I had no problem in conveying my message; they translated for me. I helped the students with the exercise initially, but once they understood it they carried on with it.

When these students were done with this handout, I gave them the same handout as in PART 1. I asked the students to write a word or phrase that best explained the action in the picture. One student told me that he had difficulty in spelling words. I went through the alphabet with him and another student. Both of them knew the alphabet to a great extend. Then we tried to spell the word ‘Drink’ together with the help of sounds. And to my astonishment one student spelled it completely correctly. I was soooo happy :D

PART 3:
When the advanced students were done with the handout from part 1, I gave them a handout about the use of ‘make’ and ‘do’. The handout can be found on:
http://www.better-english.com/vocabulary/makedo.htm

The students found it a little difficult exercise.
There are certain expressions that most English speaking people would automatically know, but I think it was a good addition to the knowledge of the students. I plan to give one more exercise about this topic to the advanced students next time; it will be a good practice.

PART 4:
Eventually some attention was paid to possessive pronouns. I briefly explained the following:
I --> ‘my’ book
You --> ‘your’ book
He --> ‘his’ book
She --> ‘her’ book
It --> ‘Its’ book
We --> ‘Our’ book
They --> ‘Their’ book

After the explanation the following exercise was handed out:
http://www.english-4u.de/poss_pronouns_ex2.htm

Once everyone was done, everyone was asked to answer when it was their turn. I also wrote the first two sentences on the green board for some extra explanation.

Today was a really good lesson. 11 people were present and everything went well. :)