Today at Smith's School of English Kyobashi, the two gentlemen who walked into my lesson were both looking forward to the lesson and seeing each other again. They had established a kind of rapport in the previous lesson, having discovered that they had quite a few things in common. So, they were eager to take a lesson together and have a bit of fun while learning.
The item for this lesson was Comparisons 2. I threw some questions at them as a warm up, asking them who the most beautiful actress was. They both had their individual opinions on that, as well as who the richest person in the world was. From there, I wrote up some questions on the board where they had to form comparisons. For example; Tom Cruise is not as (tall) as Brad Pitt. They practically flew through this stage because they were having a bit of friendly competition. One would answer pretty quickly, and the other would shoot off an answer just as fast, not to be outdone.
We took the comparisons to a new level by introducing some opinionated comparison statements and having them take turns agreeing or disagreeing. This became a bit tricky because the disagreeing meant having to change the structure of the original sentence. One particularly difficult sentence brought the lesson to a dead stop. "Brad Pitt is not as handsome as Tom Cruise." The first student was very adamant on insisting that neither Brad Pitt nor Tom Cruise were handsome and therefore would neither agree nor disagree. After a bit of coaxing, I assured him that for the benefit of the lesson it was okay to make up an answer. He was a bit reluctant at first but finally replied with, "I disagree. Brad Pitt is as handsome as Tom Cruise." Problem solved.
In the last few minutes of the item, the students were given the opportunity to make up whatever types of comparisons they wanted with cats and dogs, trains and planes etc. They had a lot of fun with this part and the agreeing and disagreeing part.
Afterwards, we did a review of Routine 6 and followed it up with a new one point: When I was young, I could never (a) but now I (b) because (c).
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This is a great lesson that logically follows the comparisons 1 lesson. It leads to lots more development so the students have to use their imaginations more than ever. This imagination stretching begins as early as the practice session where they have to respond to their classmates opinions by either agreeing or disagreeing with them.
Then later when they have firmly grasped the "is as" and isn't as" grammar structures comes the question formation practice. After using the word cards I usually have higher level students create numerous questions. This often develops into some bizarre and unpredictable answers. This continues throughout this activity until its natural lesson completion.
Seeing the students really enjoying themselves is the highlight of this lesson. This is where the student 70%/teacher 30% talk time really has the strongest impact. This positive effect really encourages and strengthens the learning process.
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