Peace Corps

Romania

“Designing Lessons”

Prepared/Presented by

Karen Lindquist (Romania 19)

July 2005

Greetings Group 21 TEFL PCVs:

You’ll soon be heading to permanent sites.This manual is designed to guide you in getting organized, designing lessons and getting established in your community and school. What’s included?

Designing Lessons

  • Theory Review and Learning Styles
  • Lesson Planning
  • The 4Mat Lesson Plan Format
  • What to teach

Lesson Plans for the Short and Long-Term

  • Ideas for Teaching Beginners
  • Games
  • Songs
  • Conversation Topics for Intermediate and Advanced Levels
  • Thematic Units
  • Single Lesson Plans

Community Entry

  • Settle into the Community
  • Learn Ins/Outs of School
  • School Preparation
  • Resources: Web sites, Libraries, Bookstores

The lessons have all been successfully used by previous PCVs. Most can be adapted to fit different ages/grades/skill levels – change and adapt to fit your needs.

Photocopy machines are often not available in schools; many of these lesson and discussion ideas don’t require handouts or sophisticated materials – blackboard and chalk will do the trick.

The time period from site arrival to the start of school offers your biggest space of free time for many months; take advantage of it. Productivity helps fill your transition from action-packed PST to being on your own and having time on your hands.

Advance planning helps build confidence as you step into the new and often-challenging (and ever surprising) environment of a Romanian community, big or small, and the Romanian school system.

Succes!

Karen Lindquist/Romania 19 (Aiud-Alba)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DESIGNING LESSONS

THEORY REVIEW and LEARNING STYLES

1. Learning Theory

2. Learning Styles

LESSON PLANNING

1. Why do lesson plans?

2. Planning Principles:

3. Lesson Objectives:

4. English Skill Building:

5. Parts of a Lesson:

6. Lesson Evaluation:

THE 4MAT LESSON PLAN

1. Motivation Activities:

2. Information Activities:

3. Practice Activities:

4. Application Activities:

WHAT TO TEACH

1. 5th – 8th Grades: Topics and Communicative Functions

2. 9th – 12th Grades: Topics and Communicative Functions

LESSON PLANS FOR THE SHORT AND LONG-TERM

IDEAS FOR TEACHING BEGINNERS

GAMES

SONGS

CONVERSATION TOPICS FOR INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

CONVERSATION TOPICS FOR ADVANCED LEVEL

THEMATIC/CONTENT-BASED UNITS

1. Theme Ideas:

2. American Geography Syllabus

3. American Literature Syllabus

4. Journalism/School Newspaper Syllabus

SINGLE LESSON PLANS

1. Halloween (Grade 4

2. Listening Bingo(Grades 4-5)

3. Animal Farm (Grades 4-6)

4. Family (Grade 5)

5. Super Pet (Grades 5-7)

6. Creating a Comic (Grades 6-8)

7. Around the World (Grade 6)

8. Contractions (Grade 6)

9. Going on Vacation (Grade 7)

10. Comparisons: What is Better? (Grades 7-8)

11. Human Rights (Grades 7-12

12. Blue Jeans: Foreign Cultural Influence & Excerpts from “Dressing Down” (Grades 8-10)

13. American Schools (Grade 9)

14. Sports in America (Grades 9-11)

15. Imagining Another Me (Grades 9-10)

16. Land of Promise: USA the Stereotype (Grades 9-12)......

17. Poetry of Hope (Grades 10-12)

18. Judge and Jury(Grades 11-12)

19. Power of Persuasion (Grades 11-12)

WEBSITES and ENGLISH TEACHING RESOURCES

REFERENCE MATERIALS

1

DESIGNING LESSONS

  • Theory Review and Learning Styles
  • Lesson Planning
  • The 4MAT Lesson Plan Format
  • What to Teach

THEORY REVIEW and LEARNING STYLES

(Reference: “Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Large, Multilevel Classes”, M00046 – from Peace Corps TEFL Office)

1. Learning Theory

Think about how you learn! Your students will learn through an Experiential Learning Cycle - just as you do:

  • Through experience (concrete experience),
  • by watching and listening (reflective observation),
  • by thinking (abstract conceptualization) and
  • by doing (active experimentation).

Concrete Experience- Learning from Feeling: from specific experiences, by relating to people, through sensitivity to feelings and people.

Reflective Observation- Learning by Watching and Listening: careful observation before making a judgment, viewing things from different perspectives and looking for the meaning of things.

Abstract Conceptualization- Learning by Thinking: logical analysis of ideas, systematic planning, acting on an intellectual understanding of a situation.

Active Experimentation- Learning by Doing: the ability to get things done, risk taking and influencing people and events through action.

Design lessons with variety to reach everyone!

2. Learning Styles

Students learn differently. Some are Imaginative, some Analytic, some use Common Sense, others areDynamiclearners. Characteristics of each style?

Imaginative Learners: Special skills of these learners lie in observing, questioning, visualizing, imagining, inferring, diverging, brainstorming and interacting. They respect the authority of a teacher when it has been earned.

Analytic Learners: Special skills of these learners include patterning, organizing, analyzing, seeing relationships, identifying parts, ordering, prioritizing, classifying and comparing. They prefer a teacher to maintain a traditional role and to run lessons with a clear chain of command.

Common Sense Learners: These learners like to explore and problem-solve, experiment, see, predict, thinker, record and make things work. They see a teacher’s authority as necessary to good organization.

Dynamic Learners: These students will be your biggest challenge. Their special skills lie in integrating, evaluating, verifying, explaining, summarizing, re-presenting and focusing. They tend to disregard authority.

One more challenge! Multi-level classes. Not all students are created equal – English language abilities vary considerably…in the same classroom.

LESSON PLANNING

Writing lesson plans takes time and practice – sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don’t. Always be ready with a back-up plan (or two)!

1. Why do lesson plans?

  • to give an overall shape to a lesson
  • to help you focus (and feel more confident!)
  • to give students a clear picture of the day’s lesson activities
  • to provide you with something to evaluate (a lesson worth repeating?)

2. Planning Principles:

Variety: Involve students in different activities and use a variety of materials.

Flexibility: Change the plan on the spot if it doesn’t work.

Coherence: Follow a logical pattern through each lesson.

3. Lesson Objectives:

  • Write objectives in terms of what students will do or achieve (skills, language, activities or a combination of these).
  • What will the students know, feel, be able to do at the end of the lesson that they didn’t know at the beginning.
  • Examples:

“By the end of the lesson students will be able to write a two-paragraph composition in English on a given topic.”

“By the end of the lesson students will be able to make up 5 correct sentences using Past Tense.”

  • Key Verbs to use in Writing Objectives:

ask, build, categorize, change, combine, create, criticize, define, describe, diagram, differentiate, discover, distinguish, explain, give examples, identify, interpret, justify, list, match, name, point out, predict, solve, summarize, support, write.

4. EnglishSkillBuilding:

Design lessons to include English skill building in: reading, writing, listening, speaking. Focus on one or more each day – but recognize that it’s not easy to fit all four into one day.

5. Parts of a Lesson:

Based on learning theory and learning styles, lessons are designed to include activities of:

  • Motivation (Warm-Up Activity): Grab students attention!
  • Information (Presentation): Give them information!
  • Practice (Primary Activity): Let them try it!
  • Application (Wrap-up Activity): Let them teach themselves!

6. Lesson Evaluation:

Questions to ask after a new lesson: What was the best thing about the lesson? What did the students enjoy most? How did students react and why? What would I change if I used the lesson again? How and where could I have engaged the students more? Were the students able to do what I wanted them to do -–meet the objectives of the plan.

THE 4MAT LESSON PLAN

  • 4 Types of Learners: Imaginative. Analytic. Common Sense. Dynamic
  • 4 Steps in the Learning Cycle: Experience. Reflection. Analysis. Application
  • 4MAT Lesson Plan Cycle: Motivation. Presentaton. Practice. Application

1. Motivation Activities:

Use pictures, stories, news articles, games, problem posing, songs, poetry, brainstorming, mind mapping, photos, free writing.

2. Information Activities:

Explain, lecture, discuss, silent reading, vocabulary presentation, demonstration and ask questions, show a movie, dictation, repetition, research.

3. Practice Activities:

Use games, experiments, writing/editing/revising, problem solving, organizing, synthesizing, test theories, drills.

4. Application Activities:

Projects, student presentations, reports, debates, theatre/skits, displays, drawing, write story/poem/journal, think of how to use in real life.

The 4MAT cycle can be used to:

organize daily lessons, theme-based units, or long-term planning.

Each step builds on the last!

WHAT TO TEACH

What topics and communicative functions do you teach at each grade level? The following National Curriculum guide edited by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research should help.

1. 5th – 8th Grades: Topics and Communicative Functions

5th Grade

Topics:

  • Personal universe (body parts, clothes, health, sports, personal details)
  • Family (members, occupations, food)
  • Surrounding world (letters, means of transport, shopping, weather, leisure activities, phone conversations)
  • School (schedule, activities, schoolmates, relationships)
  • Fantastic world (fairy tales, cartoons, movie characters)
  • Culture and civilization (names of towns, countries, continents, people)

Communicative functions:

  • Giving and following directions
  • Describing persons and objects
  • Initiating and carrying on a simple conversation
  • Talking about simple events in the present and future
  • Expressing intentions, reasons and preferences

6th Grade

In addition to topics listed for 5th grade –

  • Topics: Personal universe (healthy life, leisure activities)
  • Surrounding world (letters, living in towns and villages, buildings and institutions)
  • Culture and civilization: stories and anecdotes.

Communicative functions: In addition to functions for 5th grade –

  • Talking about simple events in the past
  • Expressing and asking for an opinion
  • Asking for and giving information about quantity
  • Expressing obligation

7th Grade

Topics:

  • Personal universe (friendship, tastes and preferences)
  • Environment (environmental protection activities)
  • People and places (cultural and tourist sites)
  • Customs and traditions (customs and special food for holidays)
  • Media (radio and television)
  • World of art (cinema and literature characters)

Communicative functions:

  • Expressing feelings (surprise, admiration, etc.)
  • Describing an object, a person, a character
  • Asking for and giving advice
  • Agreeing and disagreeing

8th Grade 5

Topics:

  • Progress and change (professions and career, inventions and discoveries)
  • Means of communication in the modern world (advertising, internet, phone, letters)
  • World of art (the world of colors and sounds)

Communicative functions:

  • Describing a personality, a process
  • Expressing warning
  • Relating events in the past, present and future
  • Reporting a person’s speech

2. 9th – 12th Grades: Topics and Communicative Functions

Topics:

  • Aspects of contemporary life (social, economical, political, historical, cultural, educational, ecological)
  • Personal life( lifestyle, studying strategies, social behavior)
  • Aspects related to professions and professional future
  • Aspects of British and American culture and civilization
  • Democracy, civic life and human rights
  • Technical and scientific discoveries

Communicative functions:

  • Initiating, carrying on and ending a conversation
  • Refusing
  • Contradicting and commenting on different opinions
  • Asking to repeat and rephrase, asking for information and suggestions
  • Expressing suppositions, proposals and suggestions, condition, invitations, surprise, curiosity, fears, doubts, sympathy
  • Giving and confirming information, giving advice
  • Describing events and processes
  • Asking for, giving and refusing permission
  • Accepting and turning down invitations

LESSON PLANS FOR THE SHORT AND LONG-TERM

  • Ideas for Teaching Beginners
  • Games
  • Songs
  • Ideas for Teaching Intermediate and Advanced
  • Thematic Unit Ideas
  • Single Lesson Plans
  • Websites and English Teaching Resources

IDEAS FOR TEACHING BEGINNERS

Thanks to Gertrude Kaster (Romania/Group 12) and Kathleen Graham (Romania/Group 17) for many of the following ideas.

Use: Pictures, Drawings, Flashcards (have students make them), Real objects

Teach: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Alphabet (have a spelling bee), Vocabulary (learn words then put them in sentences), prepositions, questions

Activities:

  • VocabularyBuilding: through naming objects, songs, poems, puzzles, drawings, word search, making new words from one big word.
  • More VocabularyBuilding: learn family members – mother, brother, etc., shapes, colors, animals, fruits/vegetables, weather, directions, body parts.
  • Learn to Describe Themselves: students learn simple sentences such as “My name is…”, “My family includes…”, “I like to study…”, “My home is…”
  • Picture Stories: Make up stories for pictures; list names, verbs, adjectives.
  • Role Play-Charades: Working in pairs, have students “be” a Conductor and a Traveler, or Two People on a Vacation – and make-up conversation
  • Interviews – One student in front of class is actor/interviewee; classmates asks questions
  • Pair Groupings – Write pairs of words on slips of paper (hot-cold, cat-dog, day-night); each student gets one word, then moves around the room asking questions of other students until finding the student with their “pair” word.
  • Telling Time/Dates/Days/Months
  • SimonSays: After a few times of doing this activity, allow one of the better speakers to be Simon.
  • Fashion Show to Learn Clothing and Colors: “Here comes Bogdan. Bogdan is wearing a GREEN SHIRT, BLUE JEANS, BLACK SHOES, RED SOCKS.”

Fillers:

  • Action songs
  • Pick a letter and students list words (or names) beginning with that letter
  • Give a category and students list items belonging in that category
  • Storytelling – put nouns and verbs on the chalkboard; one student begins the story and each student in turn adds to the story
  • Chalkboard chain – student writes a word at the top of the chalkboard, the next student writes a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word (ex. Dog, Good, Day, Yellow, With, How, When, Never……)
  • Hot Potato Questions – throw a ball to a student and ask a question; the student answers the question and then throws the ball to another student asking that student a different question.

GAMES

Activities and games are a great way to get students moving. Have fun! Encourage competition and creative thinking!

Refer to “Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Large Multilevel Classes” (from Peace Corps TEFL Office) for more games.

  • NAME & MEMORY GAME (This game is good for all ages).

Start off by saying your first name plus something you like/dislike that begins with the first letter of your name. Go through all students, each one saying their name and a “thing”….and each repeating the names and things from all those who came before them. Last student has to remember everybody!

  • FREEZE PICTURE (Grades 4-7)

Students construct a “frozen” scene. One student walks to the front of the room and says, “I’m a tree.” A second student comes to the front and says, “I’m a cat under the tree.” Each student becomes part of the frozen scene. You may need to make lists of things beforehand (animals, places, things outside). Encourage creative scenes. This activity can also be used to learn Prepositions (under, above, beside/next to, between…)

  • GIBBERISH (Grades 6-10)

Begin by asking students what “gibberish” means. Ask for 4 student volunteers. 2 students sit in front of (or stand beside) the 2 gibberish speakers. Gibberish speaker #1 says: “Waa-we-wee-wah”. The partner interprets what was said: “I was in the bathroom the other day.” Gibberish speaker #2 responds: “Too-too-te-wah-te?” His/her partner interprets: “Did anything exciting happen?” The 4 keep a conversation going, 2 speaking gibberish and 2 interpreting. Keep it moving (1 –3 minutes per conversation).

  • SITUATIONAL CONVERSATION (Grades 6-12)

Break students into groups of 3-5. Each group draws a piece of paper from a bag with a particular setting/situation written on it (ie, taxi cab, airplane, restaurant, White House). Students then establish what roles they will play/act out and role play for the class. Allow students preparation time for the role play OR do it impromptu - as they draw the situation and immediately try to role play (more challenging for older students).

  • PROP CONVERSATION (Grades 6-11)

Break students into groups. Show students in one group 4-6 objects you’ve brought from home (toilet paper role, key, bottle, candle, rubber band). Students must perform a dialogue using these objects in a creative way. Encourage humor and creativity.

  • BLACKBOARD CONVERSATION (Grades 6-11)

Teacher writes words/phrases (maybe 10) on the chalkboard – they can be random words or specific lesson vocabulary (ex. the environment). 2 students come to the front of the room and begin a conversation that uses all the words/phrases, crossing each word out as they use it…until they have all disappeared. Listen carefully to be sure the students correctly use the words/phrases. Break bad speaking habits. To make the activity more challenging, add a “setting” to the exercise.

  • BACK-2-BACK (Grades 6-9)

2 students stand back-to-back in front of the room, one student facing the class, the other facing the chalkboard (with chalk in hand). Student facing the class begins to describe something (ex. a monster); student facing the board attempts to draw “it” based on the descriptions. Good listening and descriptions activity.

  • JEOPARDY (Can be designed for all levels)

On the chalkboard, draw a “Jeopardy” box with columns for “categories” and squares for “answers” under each category. Answers (and corresponding questions) should be increasingly more difficult. This game is easily played by teams with scores being kept as team members take turns making their selections. Use categories that tie in with your current lesson.

  • INTERVIEW (Beginner)

Students work in pairs, each interviewing the other. Have them ask fun questions of each other: What are you afraid of? Where in the world would you like to travel? Why? If you were on a desert island what one thing would you want to have with you? Why? Then each student must introduce her/his partner to the teacher – using their answers to the interview questions.