Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Predicting the Future
This Smith's School of English lesson isn't so much about asking whether you will get married and have eight children, but involves predicting what you will do next summer, next Sunday, or tomorrow. One of the main focuses of this lesson is the certainty of the prediction. This lesson lets students use a variety of vocabulary in expressing future activities, such as "I know that I will ____", "I guess that I will___". The practice dialogue gives the student a direction in which to practice this vocabulary with the picture cards. Developing the main ideas allows the student to ask more open-ended questions with the possibility of WH questions related to that topic.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I knew that the E.T. of this lesson would be well met, for I heard the students practicing with one another in the Smith's School of English Kyobashi lounge beforehand. So when everyone had gotten comfortable in the classroom I asked them some simple questions, like "Do you like sushi?" and "Did you at futo maki-zushi today?" (It was setsubon), and they replied with "Yes... How about you?!"
Routine
Having gone through routine 4 Lawson's before, I did a quick review of the L & R before moving on to dictating the questions. As usual I modeled the answers by having the students ask me the questions out of turn. When they answered the questions I wrote their answers on the board to make it easier for them to correct simple mistakes. I also left the L & R shape on the board, so I could point to relevant bits to trigger their memory.
For the item I skipped the start-up of going through the cards individually, and went straight into writing up the 0%-100% certainty phrases. I asked them both a couple of straighforward questions to make sure they understood the usage and meanings of the words, like "Will you eat tomorrow?" to have one answer "I'm sure that I will eat tomorrow", and the other "I think that I will eat tomorrow". As a husband and wife team this raised a few amused eyebrows. I then asked "Will you go to California tomorrow?" I pointed to the chart on the board and showed them how if they are certain about a negative form, they still use the same words, to say "I'm certain that I will not go to California tomorrow!" Now I felt comfortable that there would be no problems moving on to picture card practice.
As they went through the picture card examples, asking and answering the questions, they were delighted each time they had to say "how about you?" What a wonderful way to re-inforce last week's onepoint!
I encouraged the students to use all of the phrases, and not to stick to just the one that they felt most comfortable with. They noticed this, and after the first time I asked them to use a different word, they seemed to make sure they were cycling through all the different ways to express the same thing.
I also reminded the students that they could use "I'll" and "I'll not" for a smoother sounding sentence. Unfortunately this proved to be more of a hinderance, because whenever they reminded one another of 'I'll' they started laughing!
Throughout the practice I intervened very little, and they maximized their talktime. Other than reminding them to vary their answer words, I would sometimes write in the new vocab box "go to the beach" if they were having trouble with the picture card. One of the students was a little higher pink than the other, so sometimes I would ask her extra questions about the topic, like "where do you believe you will go on vacation?" The last card was finished perfectly timed for introducing the new onepoint.
I mimed having stomach pains and feeling generally sick and said, "Imagine this is how you. How do you feel?" With a little deliberation and testing of words, like feel bad, one of the students came out and said "don't feel well". I just had to remind her of the 'I' and all was dandy. I then gave them each an scenario to imagine, like they ate lots and lots of crab very quickly, how do they feel? "I don't feel well" sounds about right!
I like this lesson because it helps expand the student's vocabulary. They already learned "I will__________" in high school so now they can add more phrases to their knowledge.
Most students comprehend "I'm sure________" or "I know_________" quickly. They however often stumble on other phrases like "I have no doubt that________" or "I bet that_______________". But these can easily be explained in just a few minutes.
The picture cards then give the students opportunitys to use the new expressions they have just learned. I always encourage them to ask lots of follow up questions like "How often do you______" or "How much does it cost?". This eventually stimulates more WH questions so the students can practice question formations throughout.
Then depending on the time remaining and the class chemistry I usually introduce the card game. I give each student an equal amount of Japanese Yen play money they can use to gamble on their "higher/lower" card predictions. This is always a great way to end this lesson. The students have fun while naturally using the new expressions they have learned. I guess the biggest thrill is when I am the loser of this game. The students always laugh at me when I go bankrupt first!
Post a Comment