Juniors I: Lesson plan for the first day of school!

Group: Junior I (aimed at learners who have never had English at school)

Ages: 10-13 years old 

Date: March, 2018

Lesson: 1, Unit 1

Duration: 75 minutes

Topic: Introductions

Context: The classroom, social media

Linguistic content

New Vocabulary: I’m X. My name’s… What’s your name? This is X.

Recycled Vocabulary: Vocabulary of the media

Purpose:

1: To know the students names, their interests and knowledge of English

2: To create a comfortable atmosphere where students can bond with each other

3: To familiarise the students with the vocabulary necessary to introduce themselves and others, as well as to ask other people’s names

Objectives:

By the end of the lesson the students should be able to…

1: Identify the names of their peers and their teacher

2: Recall some of English words usually seen on social media

3: Demonstrate, both orally and on their writing, how a basic introduction of themselves and others is done in English

Materials:

1: A small, cotton ball

2: Some flashcards of celebrities, characters from famous movies, or t.v. series

3: Some flashcards of movies and t.v. series

4: Some Instagram templates

5: The I am Moana song and clip

6: The I am Moana lyrics

Procedures:

Step 1 (10 minutes) – Warm-up

As a get-to-know-you activity, the teacher invites the students to play the Name Toss game, which consists of tossing a ball from one classmate to the other while uttering their own names. Even though the teacher sets the example by starting the game and introducing herself with the complete structure “My name is X. What’s your name?” she does not expect the students to utter the same words. It is much more authentic and contextual to only expect their names for an answer.

Step 2 (5 minutes)

Once the group has finished the task, the teacher counts to 5 while the children have to switch places among themselves before passing the ball in the exact reverse pattern as before. When it is their turn, the student will have to say their own name and the name of the partner to whom they are giving the ball. The teacher could demonstrate how it is done by saying “I am X. This is X.” However, as in the previous exercise, no full answers are to be expected.

Step 3 (10 minutes)

To shift the focus of the game, instead of saying who they are, the students are asked to say the name of, for example, famous people or t.v. shows they remember. To do so, the teacher counts up to 10 while the students have to switch places again, passing the ball from one hand to the other. When the time is up, the person who is in possession of the ball has to say the name of a celebrity, movie, or t.v. series in English. For each option, the teacher gives the learners an example of some possible answers. The focus of this activity is not on correcting the answers, but rather on inviting the children to realise how many English words they may already know.

Step 4 (15 minutes)

To introduce the Role-Play game, the teacher divides the group in two. The student who has the ball is asked to toss it to one of the classmates from the opposite group, identifying them by name; the chosen student has to go to the front. The teacher gives the student a set of flashcards that contain images of actors, actresses and characters. Once the student picks the one they like the most, they are asked to impersonate in front of everyone else that person/character through the use of gestures, singing, or any other type performance they prefer. The rest of the class has to guess who is the person/character on the flashcard. This game could be repeated twice to give the chance to participate to both groups. Those groups that guess correctly will be given points.

Step 5 (10 minutes)

As a continuation of the Role-Play game, the ball is given to a different student to whom the teacher will present another set of flashcards, this time about movies and t.v. shows found in Netflix. The student who has the ball will choose one card and give hints to their group of which show it is by playing Charades. If there is no flashcard they particularly like, the student could choose one show or movie they have recently watched. Once again, the group who guesses correctly on most of the rounds wins the game.

Step 6 (5-10 minutes)

Following the topic of celebrities and movies, the teacher will invite the learners to choose one Instagram template per person. Each template displays the picture of one of the characters or celebrities that were on the flashcards. The students are then asked to write down on it an Instagram profile of the person/character they have chosen. Each template will contain some general information about the person in the picture, such as their name, age, nationality, favourite hobbies, and movies/series they starred in. For reference, the teacher will stick a bigger finished template on the board.

Step 7 (5 minutes)

The teacher asks them to choose two of those finished profiles for them to invent a dialogue between the characters. An example should also be presented to them either orally or in written form. Again, they could choose to spontaneously invent the dialogue and act it out in front of the class, or, if they are not comfortable with that idea, they could simply try it out in pairs.

Step 8 (10 minutes)

To wrap up the lesson, the teacher distributes the lyrics of a song that makes use of the vocabulary seen in class. An option could be the song I am Moana. The lyrics will have the paragraphs shuffled and the students are invited to put them in the correct order.

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