LA372
Ramona Headley
Lesson Plan Cover Page
Lesson Plan
Rationale
The lesson plan is important to the teacher and student as it helps to focus on the aims and objectives of the lesson.
This lesson plan is designed to teach students the meaning and purpose of the second conditional and its difference from the first conditional.
The theme of the lesson plan is dreams and impossible situations which is what the second ...
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Rationale
The lesson plan is important to the teacher and student as it helps to focus on the aims and objectives of the lesson.
This lesson plan is designed to teach students the meaning and purpose of the second conditional and its difference from the first conditional.
The theme of the lesson plan is dreams and impossible situations which is what the second conditional is used to convey information about. I have purposely used the subject of celebrity and their wealth as the students all know that this is unlikely to happen. I have also chosen the subject of celebrities as the students are all at a fairly young age of twenty to twenty- five years old and celebrities are people that most of them will know and show some interest in.
I have started the lesson plan with the warmer/lead in as this introduces the theme and what is to follow throughout the lesson. Harmer states that ‘during the lead- in the context is introduced and the meaning or use of the new language is demonstrated.’ (1991: 60) The warmer also aids in waking students up and encourages them to use the target language at the beginning of the lesson. I have also used the warmer as to review the language from the previous lesson.
In order to find out what my students already know about the second conditional I have used elicitation. This is important as it gives students a chance to produce the language that they already know. This allows me as the teacher to asses what needs to be taught and what doesn’t and if the language is already known to move on to the next stage of the lesson. If the language isn’t known an explanation is needed. Harmer explains that ‘elicitation is vitally important for it gives the teacher information upon which to act: it is also motivating for the students and actively involves their learning abilities’. After the warmer, I use the warmer stage of the presentation to determine what it is the students know about the second conditional. This is done by involving the students and asking them what would happen from their point of view if they met a famous person. It helps to use someone famous as most of the students would want to meet a famous person but know it is unlikely emphasising the fact that they second conditional conveys unlikely situations.
At this stage if the students are unfamiliar with the second conditional an explanation is needed. I use repetition and ask all the students what they would do if they won the lottery. To ensure that they understand this is written up on the white board because as Ur states ‘it helps to re-present the information in a different mode’. (1996:17)
The explanation certifies that the students are comfortable using the language structure before moving on to the next stage of the lesson plan where they will practise the language structure.
The first activity in the practice stage allows the students to work alongside each other and gives them a reason to communicate as they cannot solve the jumbled up sentences without communicating. As it is an information gap activity the students are more likely to want to be involved than in a more repetitive choral drill activity. In this case the students have to seek out another student whose clause matches theirs.
The practice stage of the lesson plan allows the students to use the language structure without feeling as thought they are being tested. The ‘crazy sentences’ exercise is fun and interesting and allows students to work at their own pace in finding the correct clause. This stage of the lesson plan also allows the students to practice their speaking skills.
The second activity in the practice stage is a listening activity. Students are asked to listen to the song that I have prepared (see Appendix 4) and check the correct clauses of on the list. An explanation to the students about what will follow on the recording will help them to understand what it is required of them. Ur explains that a clearer instruction helps to ‘activate the student’s schemata and enables them to use this previous knowledge to build anticipatory ‘scaffolding’ that will help them understand’ (1996: 108)
There are disadvantages of listening activities as some students may find it difficult in obtaining information without having to understand every word. As my listening activity employs the song ‘If I was a sailboat’ by Katie Melua, this helps the students to understand that the second conditional is used to state imaginary events as the singer personifies objects for example ‘If I you were a sailboat, I would sail you.’
This song has been used because it displays an explicit use of second conditional clauses and as the students are adolescents who are interested in popular culture many of them will either know or have some awareness of the artist.
This activity also incorporates reading skills as the students need to make sense of the second conditional sentences before they can attempt to listen out for details on the recording.
The second activity, which includes a role play, is part of the final stage of the lesson plan, the production stage. At this stage in the lesson plan students are given the chance to use the language that has been learnt. Students are given guidelines and then it is up to them how to use the language. Students do not need to personally find anything in particular to contribute to the conversation if the role play has a clear purpose and goal. (Hedge, 2000: 280) The subject of my role is clear in that it give details of who the participants must assume the role of and what information they are trying to convey or discover. The role play allows the student to fully make use of their language skills.
The aim of my lesson plan is to encourage students to understand why the second conditional is used. In using the materials that I have used I feel that I have done this as the students will understand that winning the lottery or meeting a celebrity is something that does not happen in everyday life.
Bibliography
Harmer, J. (1991), The Practice of English Language Teaching. New York: Longman
Hedge, T. (2000), Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Smith, B. and Swan, M. (2001), Learner English: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference and Other Problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Ur, P. (1996), A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Woodward, T. (2001), Planning Lessons and Courses: Designing Sequences of Work for the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Appendix 2
Crazy Sentences
Appendix 3
Tick the boxes of the statements you hear in the song.