Conversation Class Lesson Summary
Language Resident Name: Mirja Schoderer
Day and Date: Monday, 1/21/2015
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): German intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed: Feelings
Goal of the class: Familiarize the students with the vocabulary for describing people and feelings
How did you structure the class?
Ice Breaker: Talk about the weekend – who saw the Pomona – CMS basketball game? Talk about the swim meet (one of my students swims for the team), have everyone present themselves again because we had a new student
Activity One: Watch a short comedy clip that introduces the topic and vocabulary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9rIhhxfWTs)
Activity Two: Which adjectives were in the video? Which other ones do you know to describe people/feelings
Activity Three: I prepared a handout with emoticons and another one with adjectives describing feelings. The students had to match the feelings to the emoticons
Activity Four: Guess a feeling. I prepared cards with an adjective on them that describes a feeling. The students each drew a card and then we all said the same simple sentence (“I’m meeting Sven tomorrow”) but with an inflection and gestures appropriate to whatever feeling each student had on their card. The rest of the group had to guess which feeling the student was trying to portray.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Video, whiteboard, handout
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The students loved the video (I already used it in my intermediate class last semester and they really liked it too) and impressed me with how many adjectives they already knew. They liked the exercise with the emoticons and trying out the new vocabulary in the last activity drew a lot of laughs
How could this class be improved/ modified?
At first I thought the exercise with the emoticons took a bit too long and should maybe be done with less vocabulary. But then the students started bringing the handout to the next class to look up words which means they actually value it as a resource, so maybe it was a good idea to make it comprehensive
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.