an archive of lesson plans

Author: veronika

RU S12 ADV Education

Language and Section: Russian – PO Russ 13.1

Date: 2 February 2012

Class theme/topics discussed: Education

Goal of the class:

To practice speaking skills; to exchange opinions on the topic; to learn new vocabulary connected with education systems in the USA and Russia

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):

1) Discussion of the USA education system: students agree who explains which part of the system and talk about it in front of the class, using the whiteboard if needed;
2) Discussion of the Russian education system: first students explain what they already know, then I explain the rest if they have questions;
3) Follow up discussion: comparing the US and Russian systems – what is better/worse in Russia then in the USA and vice versa;
4) Where did you apply apart from Claremont Colleges? Where were you admitted? Why did you choose Claremont?
5) What is the procedure for college application? What is a personal statement? What do people write there? What did you write and you applied?

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

None

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

Everything worked very well. Students spoke a lot. I usually use video in almost every class, but here we have a lot to speak about and didn’t really need any specific tasks/activities, though I would probably use something if I do this class again.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I would add some more specific activity to this lesson plan. Probably it’s a good idea to divide students into two groups (Russian and American) and ask them to argue why their system is better then the others’ one.

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

RU S12 ADV Dreams

Language and Section: Russian – PO Russ 13.1

Date: 31 January 2012

Class theme/topics discussed: Dreams

Goal of the class:

To practice speaking skills; to exchange opinions on the topic

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):

1) Warm-up: follow-up from the previous lesson “Home” – students talk about a house of their dreams;
2) Discussion on dreams and plans: i) Do you plan your life far in the future or just act spontaneously? ii) What did you dream about when you were children? iii) Which of these dreams came true and which didn’t? iv) Have you ever had a situation when your dream came true but you didn’t like it? v) What do you dream about now? vi) Do you dream often? vii) Do you have the main, cherished dream?

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

None

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

Everything worked very well. Students loved the topic and spoke a lot – we didn’t even have time to discuss all the questions.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

If I do this class again I would use some video about what young people dream about/want nowadays at the end of the class to compare students’ dreams to overall statistics.

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

RU S12 ADV Home

Language and Section: Russian – PO Russ 13.1

Date: 26 January 2012

Class theme/topics discussed: Home Sweet Home

Goal of the class:

To practice speaking skills; to exchange opinions on the topic; to learn new vocabulary connected with Russian homes

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):

1) Discussion: i) where does your family live? ii) where do you live here? iii) where do you like it better and why? iv) how do you choose your dorm and roommate here?
2) Where did you live in Russia? What is your impression? What home customs were unusual for you? What did you like better/worse then here? What do you think about “pod’ezd” (entrance)? Was it scary in your house?
3) Have you ever been in “kommunalnaya kvartira” (shared apartment)? What do you know about it?
4) Watching a video about a bathroom in “kommunalnaya kvartira” (see an attachment). Answering questions (Кто такой Ян и что с ним случилось? Почему в ванной окно? Что случилось со старой ванной? Когда мылись ванной? Почему мылись в тазах? Что делал квартирный пьяница? Кого еще приводили жильцы? Как определялась очередь в ванную? Что происходило с горячей водой? Где она нагревалась? Если человек долго мылся, что делали другие жильцы?)
5) Learning new specific Russian words re home (see an attachment)
6) Follow-up: next time students should tell everybody about the house of their dreams.

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

Laptop ; TV set

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

Students seemed to really like this class and were very excited to talk about their homes in college and back at home. They also were very enthusiastic about an idea of a house of their dreams.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

This class took almost two classes in my class with three students. If you want to squeeze it to one class, it’s probably worth to eliminate cultural part a little bit, because it seems that students liked discussing questions more than a video (though they still liked it because it’s quite shocking).

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

RU S12 ADV Social Networks

SongLanguage and Section: Russian – PO Russ 13.1

Date: 19 January 2012

Class theme/topics discussed: Social Networks

Goal of the class:

To practice speaking skills; to exchange opinions on the topic; learn more about Russian social networks

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):

Lesson Plan attached

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

Laptop, TV set

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

Everything worked very well. Students spoke a lot and were interested. They especially liked the part about addiction to social networks and the Internet. The plan is a bit too long for one class, in my class with three students it took one lesson and a half. I guess, in a bigger class it can take even more time.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

There is probably too much audio/video in this class, so it would be really better if the last part about social networks addiction can be left for another class.

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

RU F11 INT Sports

Language and Section: Russian; RUSS011-PO11

Date: 29 November 2011

Class theme/topics discussed: Sports

Goal of the class: to get the student to learn names of different sports and terms for discussing soccer

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):

Lesson Plan attached

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

Laptop, TV set

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

The plan worked very well. The student loved the topic because he’s interested in sports and does sports a lot. He especially loved the last activity, where he should have commented the clip from a cartoon about soccer. It was fun!

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I had only one student in this class, so it was fine, that I asked him so many questions about sports (we discussed everything within 20 minutes). Probably, if it’s a bigger group, there wouldn’t be enough time to discuss everything, so it’s better to lessen number of questions then and choose those which are more personal. Also, while discussing controversial questions, it might be more interesting to divide the class into 2 groups “for” and “against” and ask them to think of as many arguments as possible.

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

RU F11 ADV Music

songLanguage and Section: Russian – PO Russ 13.1

Date: 8 November 2011

Class theme/topics discussed: Music

Goal of the class: to practice speaking and listening skills based on the topic “Music”; learn Russian equivalents of different music styles and instruments

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):

Lesson Plan attached

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

Internet resources, laptop, TV set

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

Everything worked wonderful, students loved the lesson!

How could this class be improved/ modified?

With my class long open discussion of their musical preferences worked well. Probably for some groups of silent students it’s better to make more task-based activities.

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

RU F11 ADV Feelings

Language and Section: Russian – PO Russ 13.1

Date: 12 September 2011

Class theme/topics discussed: Feelings 

Goal of the class: to repeat/learn words for feelings and to learn how to express them in a foreign language 

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):

Lesson Plan attached

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

None

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

Everything worked very well. Problem solving activity made students talk a lot.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

Next time I would try to initiate more discussion after the first activity with more precise questions about why they think this or that feeling is positive or negative, if boredom or anger can be positive feelings in some situations, if life would be easier without negative feelings, and if they personally would like not to feel something at all in their lives.

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

RU F11 ADV Crime

Language and Section:  Russian – PO Russ 13.1

Date: 8 September 2011

Class theme/topics discussed: Crime 

Goal of the class: to learn vocabulary connected with crime; to practice listening skills 

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below):

Lesson Plan attached

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

Internet resources (video), laptop, TV set

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

Everything worked quite well. However, though the video is perfect for weather + crime vocabulary (the previous lesson was about weather so with this video students repeat previous vocabulary and learn new), it was a bit too difficult even for advanced students. 

How could this class be improved/ modified?

Probably cut some parts of the video and make shorter the video and the list of vocabulary (from 6 min to 3 or so). In this case, it won’t be so tiresome for students to listen to it.

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

RU F11 ADV Books and Storytelling

Language and Section: Russian – PO Russ 13.1

Date: 15.11.2011 

Class theme/topics discussed: Books and Storytelling

Goal of the class: developing speaking skills; learning vocabulary for discussing and describing books and literature; learning other registers of the language

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below): 

regist Plan attached.

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

None

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

Everything worked wonderful; students talked a lot and exchanged their opinions.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

The Bible is a sensible topic to discuss; when I was carrying out this lesson, I was pretty sure none of my students were very religious. Still to be on the safe side, I asked them first. If there are some fundamental Christians, it’s better to choose another book (see ideas in the lesson plan).

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

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