Conversation Class Lesson Summary 

Language Resident Name: Marina Simonnet

Day and Date: Tuesday, November 15.                                

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed: Mars 

Goal of the class:

Using the projects about living on Mars to make the students work on argumentation.

How did you structure the class?

  1. Warm-up: If you have a free ticket to travel, where would you go ?
  2. Video about Life on Mars: questions for the listening comprehension (Why do we want to live on Mars and not the other planet of the solar system? What are the two solutions to make life on Mars possible?)
  3. Role-Play: two friends in a café are talking. One wants to apply for Mars One project, the other try to prevent him/her to do so.
  4. Pair work: Mars One can send people on Mars, but there are too many of them. So, each students pick a job in the list and each group have to make an argumentative speech about how useful their skills can be for Mars One project. The other students can ask questions. At the end, we make a vote to eliminate the group which didn’t manage to convince the others.

What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLEcXEM9_e0

A list of jobs (see below)

What worked well in this class? What did not work?

The last activity was a bit similar to what we previously did (last week), but it works especially fine with this class! Overall, the class worked well. I choose a video with slower-pace speaking (because the students asked me so), but it was still a bit difficult for them. I think it’s because they lack some basic vocabulary.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

 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.

jobs-for-mars-one