Thursday, April 26, 2012

What is YOUR Today?

Level: Pre-intermediate, Intermediate
Age: 12 +, adults
Topic: Expectations of parents and teachers
Language: spontaneous, definite and possible decisions for the future;
phrasal verbs, verb patterns, verbs with prepositions
Skills: creative writing, listening, speaking
Tools used: Jing,word-document
Materials: the poem "Today" by Jean Little, from Hey World, Here I Am, OUP 1989


Aim: To enable students to express their strong feelings against expectations towards them through writing their poem and reciting it using some of the target verbs with prepositions and the target grammatical structures, also sensitising them in using appropriate sentence stress in this context. 


Lesson plan

1.Orientation:

a.Write on the board: “You must live up to your potential.” Ask students to comment who they think might say it: parents, teacher,class-mate(s)? (usually parents and/or teachers). If you think they might have problems understanding the phrase go to step b. and use the example* below to illustrate meaning.

b. Tell them a fewthings about expectations by your parents and school in your time.Try to incorporate some of the chunks you think might be more challenging from the poem at this stage to covertly pre-teach them.When pre-teaching, grade your language to the level of the students.Use photos from the time when you went to school to help students imagine what it was like. You could use the photo below.
For example:
*My parents always said that I was very clever and I should do better inmaths. I should get better grades, because I can learn more if I putenough energy into it. So they always said: “You must live up toyour potential. All you have to do is study harder, because you cando it”.
I wasn't very happy about working hard all the time, always trying to do to better and better. And what do you think I heard all the time?!“You must strive to do better. You can do better, so try harder.”
My teachers always told me that I should put up my hand if I know the answers and I should put up my hand more often. She wanted me to contribute in class more. But I thought it was boring to answer the questions they already knew the answers to.
  1. Preparation:

    a. Then ask students to brainstorm expectations their parents and/or teachers have towards them and write them down. If necessary, and you understand students' language, reformulate from L1 into L2.
To help students with ideas ask them to think of things they are expected by parents and school every day. What do they have to live up to every day at school? Ask students to come up with the quotes from the parents and/or teachers without going into detail about how they feel about them at this stage. First do this as open class, thenin groups. Finally, put the ideas they collected on the board. If there are any similar ideas that are in the poem too, pre-teach them at this stage.

b. Ask students to discuss in pairs or small groups:
Which of the quotations from the board do they feel most strongly about?Why? What did/do they do when they feel it was/is too much?
3.Listening for gist and sentence stress:

a.Tell students that you will read a poem written by a teenage girl called Kate Bloomfield. As they listen they will have to decide how the teen girl feels about the expectations towards her.
Let them discuss their opinion in pairs first. Then accept any comments they might have. As it is a poem, there's no right or wrong answer.However, do encourage students to justify their answers.

b.Give the handout with the poem to the students. Tell them that they will have to underline the stressed words as they listen again to youreciting the poem. Do the first couple as examples with them.
Let them discuss their answers in pairs first before open class feedback.If students disagree on which words are stressed, read the specific lines again and let them work it out for themselves. Encourage themto repeat them silently in order to decide the right answer(s).
A poem written by Kate Bloomfield through Jean Little:


Today

Today I will not live up to my potential.
Today I will not relate well to my peer group.
Today I will not contribute in class.
I will not volunteer one thing.
Today I will not strive to do better.
Today I will not achieve or adjust or grow enriched or get involved.
I will not put up my hand even if the teacher is wrong and I can proveit.

Today I might eat the eraser off my pencil.
I'll look at clouds.
I'll be late.
I don't think I'll wash.

I need a rest.
Ask them why they think these words are stressed. How does it highlight the way the girl feels?
4.Practise sentence stress:

Ask the students to read the poem to each other to show how the girl feels. Encourage them to be as empathic as possible. (Make note ofthe stress and pronunciation difficulties they might have.)
If students had difficulties with sentence stress, read the particular sentences back to them and drill them. Feel free to exaggerate atthis stage and encourage the use of gestures and mimic to express their feelings.
5.Language focus:

Ask students to read the poem again and decide:
  1. which sentences are definite decisions about the future (e.g. Today I will not strive to do better.),
  2. which ones are spontaneous decisions, whatever she will feel like at that moment (e.g. I'll look at clouds.)
  3. and possible future actions but not sure (e.g. Today I might eat the eraser off my pencil.)

Students write a), b) or c) next to the appropriate sentences, then they compare their answers in pairs.

Then do open class feedback.

6.Practice:

Ask students to fill in the following sentences using some of the ideas they mentioned at the beginning of the class in stage 2 or add othersthat they may have. With a mixed ability class ask them to writeminimum one sentence for each structure, and stronger students canwrite two for each:

Today I will…....................................................................................................
Today I will not…..............................................................................................
Today I might…...............................................................................................
I'll…..................................................................................................................
I don't think I'll…...............................................................................................
As students are writing go around and help them with the structure or any questions they might have about the language. The aim at thisstage is to write accurate sentences with the target language.

Ask students to compare their ideas in pairs to see if they are similar or different.
At the end of the lesson collect the handout with the poem for this lesson, because for homework they will have to do it as a listening.(See ** below.)

**For homework send them the following screencast made with
Jing:http://screencast.com/t/pFYDo6LsAO


Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.



Sts are also sent the word-document below. Their poems can be used forlater listening and pronunciation work in class with the permission of the authors following the same steps above.

In my experience teens take pride in producing their own poems, but not allof them are ready to share it with the class, and this is perfectlyfine.
Not all students will write their own poems, only those whofeel the urge to express their feelings, which again is absolutelyfine. Though I have found that a lot of them love using technologyand are more ready to do the work using such tools as Jing.

And here's the word document sts are sent together with the Jing Screencast:



Today-Worksheet

NB: Depending on the class there may be a need for a separatemore-focussed activity to pre-teach the vocabulary from this poem.This could be done through a matching exercise, where students match the target phrases with their descriptions.

For example, the answers would look like this:

to strive to do better to try hard to do better

to achieve to get good results

etc.

I found the poem in a wonderful book entitled 'Hey World, Here I Am!' by Jean Little, OUP 1989 where there are many more I am planning to use with my teen classes.


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