Conversation Class Lesson Summary
Language Resident Name: Charlotte Eisenblaetter
Day and Date: Monday, 14 September 2015
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): German intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed: Freetime activities / hobbies
Goal of the class: To be able to speak about likes and dislikes in connection to free time activities, repeat vocabulary of sports and leisure activities
How did you structure the class?
First activity: Every student got a picture of an activity, e.g. hiking, swimming, surfing… and had to describe the activity to all others. The other students had to guess which activity is on the picture. (It was said beforehand that the pictures all show some kind of leisure activity). (5 minutes)
Second activity: The students worked in pairs with a handout that I prepared. On the handout, there were 12 different pictures of activities. The students should interview each other and find out which activities the other one liked, disliked, or liked the most. After 7 minutes, I had the students report on the information to the larger group. (10 minutes)
Third activity: I divided the group in two groups and had each group write down as many verbs about leisure activities as they could think of. After appr. 2 minutes, I collected the results on the whiteboard. (10 minutes)
Fourth activity: The students worked in pairs again. They should imagine that they have a whole day off and make an appointment with their friend. They should plan their whole day together and make a schedule for the day. (For example, in the morning, they bake a cake, after that, they make a tour with the bikes, etc.) After 10 minutes, they reported their plans to the others. (15 minutes)
Sixth activity: We talked in a group. I asked them what they did on the weekend (to practice the verbs of leisure in the past tense). At last, we played a round of “Black stories” : A game where students have to guess the story behind a crime scene together. In the end, we even made one up together because we did not like the stories in the game. (20 minutes)
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Handout with pictures, whiteboard
What worked well in this class? What did not work well?
The handout and partner work went well, but it did not take as much time as I thought, partly because there were less students than expected. The game black stories is in theory a great game but the stories are so absurd that students never get to the right answer without major hints. That´s why we came up with the idea to create our own stories.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Add some material to read and discuss, so that the students see how the verbs are used in context, have an exercise with verb conjugation
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.