Language Resident Name: Aleksandra Bystrova
Date: 12/01/2022
Class theme/topics discussed: Medicine and Health
Goal of the class:
- Learn vocabulary about diseases, health concerns, and treatment
- Get acquainted with Russian medication and traditional medicine
- Describe symptoms in Russian
How did you structure the class?
- Warm up (10 min): Discussion
1) How often do you get sick?
2) Do you prefer to take medicine or wait for symptoms to go away?
3) Do you believe in traditional medicine? What methods do you know?
4) Do you know how to provide first aid?
I ask students to discuss those questions in pairs.
2. Activity 1. Vocabulary (10 min)
I show students pictures of people having common symptoms and ask them to try naming what they see. It helps me to learn how much they know. I also provide them with the printed handout with vocabulary, so they can use it for future activities.
3. Activity 2. What kind of medication is appropriate? (10 min)
I show my students pictures of people with different symptoms and popular medication that you can find in a pharmacy. They have to describe a picture using vocabulary from the past activity and find the most appropriate medicine reading its package.
4. Activity 3. Situation: Your friend is sick (10 mins).
We look at the pictures of people being sick. Students have to “go to a pharmacy” and describe a pharmacist their friend’s symptoms. A pharmacist has to recommend a customer medicine from the past activity that they think suits their need the best.
5. Activity 4: Traditional Medicine (7 min)
I show my students pictures of common traditional ways to treat some symptoms. Then, I ask for students’ opinion on what the purpose of the products they see is.
6. Activity 5: Help them with traditional medicine (10 min)
I show students situations of people being hurt or having symptoms. What kinds of Russian traditional medicine they would use?
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students loved the topic. We had many real-life situations and role plays that students seemed to enjoy. I believe that gradual development of vocabulary and descriptions work well in the class. The only thing is we did not have enough time to finish all the activities that I have prepared.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
I would dedicate two classes to this topic. There are more activities that could be added, and it would not be as rushed.