Class theme/topic discussed : Personality & speed Dating
Class structure:
WARM UP
Create a word cloud and ask students to enter as many adjectives as possible
ACTIVITY – SPEED DATING
Give students 10mn to fill in a Tinder profile: they have to imagine a character, to choose their name, where they live, what they like doing etc, using adjectives seen before.
Organize a speed-dating: each student will be given 5mn in a breakout room to get to know each of the other students’ fictive character to find their perfect match.
FOLLOW UP
Ask students if they found their perfect match and to explain what they have in common.
What would their first date be? Where would they go? If there’s still time, students can look for a restaurant online.
> If there is an odd number of students, one stays in the main room with you and you can ask them to introduce their character, and if they invented them, or were inspired by someone etc.
Resources used:
Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OS0E68vWAwjAdsT63rn_V_ESCR9adZX55qbOtfln6Jo/edit
Wordcloud on Menti
Reflection:
Sending students into breakout rooms takes time, make sure to start early enough so that you can give them at least (!) 5mn to talk with the other person in the breakout room (especially for intermediate students, they probably need more).
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
Intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed:
Student suggested theme #2
Embarrassing Stories
Goal of the class:
Share embarrassing stories.
How did you structure the class?
Good news (5 min) *We share positive stories at the beginning of each class.
Continue from last class (5 min)
Today’s plan (5 min)
Your embarrassing story is awesome, but something you witnessed counts, too. For example, your siblings.
Break out room (2-3people) (25 min)
Share embarrassing stories
Ask at least 1 question to each other’s stories
Main room (20 min)
Share each others’ story.
My partner’s story is like this. I asked this question, and their answer was that.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internetresources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Class agreement, breakuprooms
Zoom, Breakout room.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
They have hilarious stories! I thought the last class “Childhood stories” were amazing, but this was as amazing as last time if not more.
We didn’t get to share all the stories, so we will start next class with sharing the rest of the stories.
Students spoke a lot, and we laughed a lot.
I felt students are trying very hard to tell a story as they wanted to deliver the story and how funny the story is. Also I sensed that everyone was listening hard because they didn’t want to miss the funny point.
They were definitely sharing more stories while I wasn’t with them in breakout rooms.
This is one of classes students chose as the best.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Several students said that they had hard time remembering any stories as they wanted to forget embarrassing stories. So I think it was a good idea to let them know that it’s ok to use some embarrassing stories that they witnessed as well as their own stories.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internetresources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Class agreement, breakuprooms
Zoom, breakout rooms online resource
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students were tired and stressed out with election situations.
Students loved Onomatope. They sound funny and cute apparently.
In the breakout rooms, students were laughing so hard finding new Onomatope and how they sound like
They were so creative about making a story. This is a lot more than I expected.
In the main room, students typed what they created in a chat and read aloud. It became almost like a theatre at some point. One student acted character A, another one was character B, and another one was a narrator, etc.
They were so good at creating, writing, and using new words. I gave a little grammar correction to make a phrase sound natural after every group presented their stories.
I enjoyed so much how engaged they were in today’s activity.
I wanted this class to be somewhat fun. I’m glad that this class created some cheerful moments for them, especially after hearing them saying that other classes were all ok today and that they were just ok.
This is one of classes students chose as the best.
Advanced:
They knew a lot more onomatope than the intermediate class.
They were very nervous and worried about the election results.
We ended up with talking a lot of feelings and situations around the election with onomatope.
We also had some fun moments with some fun and positive and funny onomatope.
Students also expressed some feelings about COVID.
Onomatope are very nuanced expressions, so it was a great exercise to think about what the equivalent expressions are in English. I ended up with doing a lot of acting and facial expressions to tell them the nuances. That was fun.
Manga is a great way to learn onomatope.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Onomatopoeia is very fun and great things to know. I used an entire class focusing on this. But also it’s possible to introduce a few Onomatopoeia at the beginning of every class. This would give students some laugh and create a positive mood to start a class.
I used a breakout room with 3-4 people. It could be smaller groups.
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.
サクサク = stepping in dirt タタタタ = running ガミガミ = being lectured/nagged by someone above you ひひいん = sound of a horse うっとり = being fascinated by something beautiful
Check the basics of the news (Who she is, what she did, her action of wearing masks etc.)
Breakout room (30 mim)
What do you think about her action of wearing masks during the US Open?
Lots of Japanese people believe that top athletes like her shouldn’t talk about any political or controversial issues. What do you think about it?
For so long time, for Japanese people, “Japanese people” mean people who look like Japanese, speak Japanese, live in japan for entire their life, and have both Japanese parents. Now things are changing. The Japanese society needs to adjust to multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-everything reality. As a person who lives in USA, what would you like to suggest, advise, or teach Japanese people about living in a diverse community?
Main room (10 min)
Share ideas regarding the last question (4.c)
What technology, media or props did you use? (internetresources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Class agreement, breakuprooms
Zoom, Breakout room, chat section, news web site
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Listening to Japanese news stories (created specifically for children and non-Japanese native people) seemed to be a little difficult, but they got a basics about the story (I believe the photos helped too.)
Students had so much to say about this topic. They had thoughts and ideas. They sometimes struggled to express it in Japanese. But I felt their willingness to challenge themselves and share their thoughts in Japanese. I think this is great.
I had another news story to discuss as I thought that one topic wouldn’t cover the whole hour. I was wrong. Students had a lot to think and share.
I tried to reflect some reality of Japanese society. Also, I tried to have them think about it in relation to their reality in the USA. I received a lot of great points about question 4.c. One said that the USA has lots of issues itself and that it is difficult to provide any advice. This is understandable, too.
I wasn’t sure how students would react to this topic, but they were very serious, and I can tell that this is not a new topic for them. They have been thinking about this issue for a while.
Advanced:
Even before we start first discussion about Naomi Osaka, students had a lot of questions about Japanese society, such as how Japanese people understand things like BLM, whether there is racism in Japan and if so what kind, how Japanese people think about being different, whether and how people talk about politics, about the media’s political stance, how people learn about the USA. We had a good discussion.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Providing a basic key terms in Japanese at the beginning of the class might have helped. But at the same time, if I did it, that’s going to frame how and what they are going to think. So probably, just start free flowing, and help them when they ask about certain words.
I see that the advanced class can learn and discuss a lot about Japan’s social and political issues as well as cultural things. I appreciate their curiosity.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
All
Class theme/topics discussed:
Social Media
How did you structure the class?
Warm up questions
Would you rather have everything on your phone right now (browsing history, photos, etc.) made public to anyone who searches your name or never use a cell phone again?
Would you rather never run out of battery power for whatever phone and tablet you own or always have free Wi-Fi wherever you go?
Short poll: Do you…
Check your phone as soon as you wake up (Consulter son smartphone dès son réveil)
Use different devices to watch/read stuff at the same time (Lire des informations ou regarder du contenu (photos ou vidéos) sur plusieurs écrans simultanément.)
Check your phone every 10mn just in case (Consulter son smartphone toutes les 10 minutes au cas où.)
Reply to every text in less than 10mn (Répondre à chaque message en moins de 10 minutes)
Texting and driving at the same time (Utiliser son smartphone au volant)
> Do a quick graph with the answers to show how students use their phones/social media/technology.
General discussion questions
Some people “collect” friends in social networks. Is it possible to have 500 friends in real life?
What do you think about social media?
How would you define them?
What types of social media do you know/use?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media?
Activity 1 – Carmen & Twitter
Carmen: show the video. Ask students, in pairs, to focus on one of the characters: either Stromae or the bird. How do they change throughout the song?
Compare with the original opera Carmen. Quels éléments linguistiques, musicaux, etc. Stromae emprunte-t-il à « Carmen » ? À votre avis, pourquoi Stromae a-t-il fait ce choix ? Que pensez-vous de ce clip ? Atteint-il les objectifs supposés ?
Activity 2 – Create your own social media (cf Katty SP LR 2019)
Made-up social media platform: After giving an example of a social media platform a friend and I created, in groups of three, students have to create new social platforms using either of the criteria provided in the table (they can also add new ones). They have to consider three different categories: Topic, target audience and functions. Also, they have to create a name and a logo for their platforms
Activity 3 – Social media and social movements
Article on how social media affected the “Printemps Arabe” back in 2011. Could be the starting point of a discussion on the impact of social media on social movements:
Do they think social media can be used for more than fun?
How different are they from more traditional ways of communicating information? What are their specific characteristics? (direct access/easy to share with a lot of people/younger target audience)
What are the risks?
Activity 4 [For Rus] – VKontakte
Go to vk.com and create your own VK account! (you can talk about the structure, differences with FB, copyright..)
Greetings and announcements – Study Break: Calligraphy Feb. 6th – Oldenborg Open House Feb. 13th
Activity I: Film Nanimono (2016) I first introduce the term shukatsu (‘job-hunting’). Next, I briefly explain the setting of Nanimono, a film that well-portrays the situations of job-hunting in Japan, and we watch the opening scene of the film. We watch it twice, and I ask students what they saw (e.g. black suits, interviews, resumes etc.) as I write them down on the board. We watch another scene from the film about a group interview and talk what we noticed.
Activity II: Job interview After watching what a job interview is like in Activity I, we practice how to talk in a job interview. I give students a handout that lists sample questions and ideas to build the answers. I explain the meanings of the advanced vocabulary in the handout, explain the typical structure of a good answer, and demonstrate some examples. I also show some video clips for more examples (skip to relevant scenes): – https://youtu.be/L9fO-xpWF18 – https://youtu.be/U_jI1KQkmsk – https://youtu.be/Ayb2pWPK9ko Finally, in pairs, students ask each other the questions and practice how to answer. I ask some students to share their answers to the whole class.
Activity III: What would you do? Students in pairs discuss what they would do in the following situations: 1. Your boss pronounces your name incorrectly everytime. What would you do? 2. You go to karaoke with your boss and colleagues. Your boss is a terrible singer but asks what you think his singing is. What would you say? In a few minutes, I ask some students to share what they discussed.
What technology, media or props did you use?
PowerPoint slides
Handout
Youtube videos
Film (DVD from FLRC)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
This class was successful. The job interview practice was challenging for the students, but they find it practical and were very engaged. Every student took notes in their handout and brought it back with them (Usually some students leave handouts in the classroom when they don’t need them after class, but not this time). Students left the class with accomplished faces!
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Students, especially those actually planning to apply for Japanese companies, would want more feedback. Because it was hard to correct all of their errors when they were talking at the same time, next time I would ask more students to present their answers after the practice time so that I can correct them.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Advanced
Class theme/topics discussed: Dating
Goal of the class:
To talk about the advantages and disadvantages of being single and falling in love.
To talk about important factors which people will take into consideration when they try to find their soulmate.
To improve the oral level by imitating “speed dating”.
How did you structure the class?
Warm up: The teacher will start the lesson by discussing what are advantages and disadvantages of being single and falling in love. Then, write students’ points of view on whiteboard.
Provide input: Ask students factors which people will take into consideration when they look for soulmate. Then show students general or common factors which people think important in China. There are related vocabulary on presentation
Activity 1: Imitating “speed dating”(Handouts are provided for this activity): There are some basic questions such as job, education experience, interests and hobby, personality etc. included on handout. First, students need to list at least three important questions which will be put forward during dating. Second, students are divided into 4 boy-girl pairs randomly. Then they will ask each other questions and imitate “speed dating” scenario.
Follow-up: ask students how it is going with dating with someone. Is the dating successful or unsuccessful? Why?
Activity 2:Talk about the following common questions asked during the dating:
1.长相(颜值)更重要,还是性格更重要?
2你介意男朋友/女朋友年龄比你大5-10岁吗?
3.找男朋友/女朋友时,你会找一个喜欢你的,还是你喜欢的?
3.结婚以后,你愿意和父母住在一起吗?
4.描述一下理想的男朋友/女朋友是什么样子?
Activity 3: Watch Chinese TV show FeiCheng WuRao, which is a popular speed dating TV show. Talk about what are similarities and difference between China’s and American dating TV show.(This activity is for advanced conversation class.)
Close lesson
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Handout & Presentation
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students were very engaged in this topic. They talked a lot during the “dating”. This activity gave students chance to get to know each other with various and comprehensive questions.
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.
Activity 2: Students review a handout with expressions used to describe pictures. In pairs, one student will solve a puzzle of a painting and the other student will describe the painting.
Activity 3: Students discuss different controversial questions related to street art.
Extra final activity: Students see a picture of a graffiti and comment on the author (Banksy, an anonymous street artist). Students see the video of a polemical auction in which one of Banksy’s pieces of art is sold and auto destroyed.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
YouTube
Quiz with graffiti vocabulary
Puzzles
Discussion questions about street art
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students shared very interesting opinions about street art and they were specially engaged during the puzzle solving activity.
How could this class be improved/modified?
This class served as introduction for the conversation project about street art, allowing students to discuss basic issues revolving around the topic and to learn basic street art vocabulary, so I would not modify it for this specific purpose.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Spanish Advanced
Class theme/topics discussed: Advertisements
Goal of the class:
To understand cultural differences through advertisements
How did you structure the class?
Warm up: Students answer some questions about publicity (e.g. Which was your favorite advertisement of the Super Bowl? Where is publicity more effective?)
Activity 1: Students watch a controversial US commercial and comment on it. They will then compare it with Spanish commercials.
Activity 2: Students get a handout with different slogans and they have to guess which product the slogans are selling. Then they watch the real advertisements.
Activity 3: Students speak about the importance of adapting the different advertisements according to the target culture. In small groups, they analyze the existing differences in the same Coca-Cola spot for Spain, Mexico, Argentina and Peru.
Extra final activity: Debating the advantages and disadvantages of personalized advertisements.
Extra final activity (2): Speaking about subliminal publicity. Testing students by placing blue pictures of idioms with eyes over Oldenborg and asking them to choose a part of the body and a color to see if these subliminal posters had some effect on their choice.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
PowerPoint Presentation
YouTube
Handout with slogans
Posters for the subliminal publicity activity
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The whole class worked very well. They talked a lot and were engaged all in the activities. They specially liked the last activity of the subliminal test, since they were not able to notice the signs around them and were very surprised.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): German, Intermediate
# of Students: 3
Class theme/topics discussed: traveling
Goal of the class: Students repeat traveling vocab, practice a common German grammatical construction, practice presenting information.
How did you structure the class?
Warm-up (Prior knowledge):
I put questions in the google doc, that the students talk about in pairs in breakout rooms. 1. What was the best trip that you ever went on? What was so great about it? 2. Can you imagine living in a different country one day? Where would that be? 3. Where would you travel to if money was not an issue? 4. Is traveling important to you? Why/why not?
Activity 1 (Input):
The students brainstorm as many terms that are connected with traveling as possible. After two minutes, we look at all the terms together and talk about them.
Activity 2 (Guided Practice):
The students answer the question “Why do people travel?” with the “um…zu”-Construction (in order to). Together we collect as many reasons to travel as possible. When the students run out of ideas, we look at a website together that gives ten reasons for traveling.
Activity 3 (Task):
Students prepare a mini-presentation about the most interesting trip they ever went to. They explain where they went, for how long, how they got there, what they did there, what was most interesting, etc. They also explain, why traveling is important to them. They can also show pictures with the screenshare function. After about 5 minutes of preparation time, they get together in breakout rooms and present to each other.
Activity 4 (Follow-up):
We meet in the main room, everyone quickly summarizes what they talked about, before we say our goodbyes.
What technology, media or props did you use? (Internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The class went pretty well. The students talked a lot and were active and engaged all the time. The activities were not as dynamic as I had hoped, but I think that was because half of the class was missing. Also, I had one more, pretty big task prepared for the students, but we did not have the time to do it. But because I did not try to squeeze that activity in, the timing worked out very well.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Finding a short video or some other kind of input with travel-related vocabulary would have been good to stimulate more ideas in the brainstorming activity.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): German, Intermediate
# of Students: 6
Class theme/topics discussed: Physical appearance
Goal of the class: Learning vocabulary to describe someone’s physical appearance.
How did you structure the class?
Warm-up (Prior knowledge):
Focused Freewriting: What do you think about when you think about physical appearance? How would you describe your closest friend? How would you describe yourself? (3-5min) We talk about it and come up with categories for describing physical appearance. Then the students get to the board and fill the categories with as many expressions as possible.
Activity 1 (Input):
I show students a picture of me and friends of mine. I then describe some people in the picture, before I have the students describe the remaining people based on what they see.
Activity 2 (Guided Practice):
While the German music is playing, everybody walks around the room observing other people’s clothes, hairstyle, etc. As soon as the music stops, each student pairs up with the person standing nearest and they stand back to back. Each of the students makes statements about the other’s appearance. Repeat a couple of times.
Activity 3 (Task):
Detective role play: Each student gets a picture of someone who “has gone missing”. One of the students is a detective and the other one has to tell what the person missing looks like. The “detective” draws the person who is being described. Both students get to be a “detective” using one different picture each. After having done this, each group describes their partners’ picture and we all get to compare and see how accurate the description was (15-20 min).
Activity 4 (Follow-up):
What do students guess the occupations of the people on the pictures are?
After guessing and giving reasons for their guesses, in two groups, they each look up one of the people, then present their findings to the group.
Extra final activity:
What do you think the German saying “Kleider machen Leute” could mean?
We talk about it.
What technology, media or props did you use? (Internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Song, pictures of German celebrities
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The class worked very well, even though we did not get to the extra activity.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): German, Advanced
# of Students: 3
Class theme/topics discussed: German youth slang
Goal of the class: Students learn about German youth slang
How did you structure the class?
Warm-up (Prior knowledge):
I post questions in the Google Doc, that serve as conversation starters. They talk about the questions in Breakout Rooms and if they look up vocabulary, which I encourage them to do, they put them in our shared vocab list. The questions were 1. What is good about winter if you compare it to summer? 2. What are the most essential food items for you? 3. What three things are the most important for you in life right now? 4. Who is your favorite musician?
Activity 1 (Input):
In the Main Room: I give the students three lists of youth slang words and short phrases in the Google Doc. I give each one of them a list and they do a short research on Google.de to find out what the words/phrases mean and what language they are from. I demonstrate the process via screenshare quickly, so that they know that they should also enter “meaning youth slang” into the search bar after the word/phrase. We then go through the words together.
Activity 2 (Guided Practice):
We read a website together that is about German youth slang, its history and its important elements and characteristics. They can later use the forms on that website for their dialogues.
Activity 3 (Task):
I give the students four different little scenarios, to choose from and write a creative dialogue around, using as many youth slang words as possible for them. They write the dialogues in pairs in breakout rooms, and then they present them in the Main Room
What technology, media or props did you use? (Internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The class went well, we had good conversations and the students had a lot of fun with writing and performing the dialogues. I had to skip the website bit, and we did not have a lot of time left for the dialogues, so they were short.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
I should have reduced the amount of warm-up questions and the amount of words every single student had to research.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): German, Advanced
# of Students: 3
Class theme/topics discussed: Storytelling
Goal of the class: To practice improvisational speaking
How did you structure the class?
Warm-up (Prior knowledge):
Exercise on “Deutsch Perfekt” to practice the simple past form.
Activity 1 (Input):
Students play two truths and a lie. Each of the students should tell three stories (‘’I don’t like cats” is not a story!) to the others. Then they ask this person questions in order to catch them on lying. After that they take turns.
Activity 2 (Guided Practice):
I write a phrase on the whiteboard. It can be something like: “Paul woke up, and immediately realized that something was different today”. Students sit down in a circle. The first student has one minute to tell what happens next. When the time is over, the next student starts talking and continues the story, and so on.
Activity 3 (Task):
We get together in pairs. Each team gets Story Cubes and the show begins. They should create a story and then present it to each other.
Activity 4 (Follow-up):
We play “Black Stories”.
What technology, media or props did you use? (Internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The class was great, and the students had a lot of fun. We did not get to the last two tasks, so maybe a time limit for two truths and a lie would be necessary.
Spanish Conversation Class – Intermediate/Advanced
Language Resident Name: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez
Class theme/topic discussed
Social media
Goal of the class
Practice vocabulary related to social media
Compare and contrast different situations usually found in social media
Create new social media platforms
Class’ structure
Attendance (2 min)
Warm up: What do you know about social networks? What words come up to your mind: Students create a Menti Word cloud with words they would use to define social media. Most interesting words are chosen and discussed by everyone: Would you use this word as well? Why? Where in social networks do we see it reflected the most? (10-15 min)
Input: Video + Survey: I show students a video that talks about uses, advantages and disadvantages of social network uses. Followed by a discussion: Do you agree with this? How many of you do this kind of things when on the internet? We also talk about a survey that shows which are the most common social platforms used in some Hispanic countries. They discuss and compare to the US (5-7 min)
Activity 1: Toteking – “Redes Sociales” music video. Students watch half of the video and, as they are watching it, they have to check at least 2 critiques the singers makes to social media. Afterwards, they get three short statements from they just heard. In groups they discuss they statements to finally report their discussions to the class (10-15 min)
Activity 2: Made-up social media platform: After giving an example of a social media platform my sister and I created, in groups of three, students have to create new social platforms using either of the criteria provided in the table (they can also add new ones). They have to consider three different categories: Topic, target audience and functions. Also, they have to create a name and a logo for their platforms (15-20 min)
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
I did this class at the beginning of the year so students felt more comfortable working in groups at first. For Activity 2 you have to be careful not to take that much time giving an example about what they have to create because the activity itself already takes a long time. They had a lot of fun with activity two and you can even do a jury like activity in a following class where they all have to grade each other’s platforms
Annex
Social networks table
Categoría
Público
Funciones
Citas Empleo Noticias Compra y venta Lifestyle Educación Comida OTROS
Ancianos Adultos +30 Jóvenes Niños Animales OTROS
Fotos y videos Transmitir en vivo Juegos Mensajería directa Música OTROS
Class theme/topics discussed: Face expressions, gestures and emojis
Goal of the class:
Talk about emotions and certain situations to
use gestures/emojis
Learn cultural differences about gestures and
facial expressions
How did you structure the class?
Warm-up:
Greetings and announcements
– Cultural events
– Lunch Table attendances
Activity I: Emojis
I give students Handout of emojis and briefly explain what “emojis” are. In
pairs, I ask students to discuss (i) what kind of emotions/meanings the emojis
represent, and (ii) in what kind of context people would use the emojis in a
message. After a while, I ask the questions to the whole class and discuss
together. If needed, I explain cultural backgrounds of some of the emojis. I
also ask if there are other emojis that students often use.
Activity II: Gestures
I show a list of words/situations on the screen (“to call,” “thank you,” “when
you meet your friends” etc.) and ask students to think of gestures they might
use in the situations. Students work in pairs, and when they are done, I ask
them to act out each gesture. We talk about cultural differences found in the
gestures.
Activity III: Discussions
In pairs, students discuss the following questions:
1. Are there other gestures you use/ have seen? (To give examples at first, I
mention a couple gestures that I have seen in American TV shows.)
2. When you travel abroad and you don’t know the local language, what do you
do? (It could be gestures or other ways to communicate.) For example, when
you’re at a store or in a taxi?
What technology, media or props
did you use?
Handout with pictures
PowerPoint slides
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
We had lively and interesting discussions throughout the class. Students enjoyed talking about emojis more than I had expected. I think it was a good topic for our generation. The first few emojis in Handout were meant to be basic expressions (e.g. smile, laugh, cry etc.), but they developed way more than that and had a huge discussion (e.g. “It is a fake smile you make when you don’t like something,” “You don’t use this crying face when you are actually sad,” “It could be happy tears”). Moreover, students in this class had culturally diverse backgrounds, so it was interesting to compare the cultural differences in gestures (e.g. how to count with your fingers in China).
How could this class be improved/ modified?
I was going to do another activity (storytelling by using emojis), but students spent a long time discussing emojis (which is fine because they enjoyed and talked a lot). Depending on the audience, however, I would use another activity to adjust the time.
Language and Level (intermediate
or advanced class):
Russian, Advanced/Intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed:
Storytelling
Goal of the class:
To practice improvisation
while speaking
How did you structure the class?
Greetings, announcements, general questions
Activity 1: “Two Truths and One Lie”. Students work in groups of three. Each of them should tell three stories (‘’I don’t like cats” is not a story!) to the others. Then they ask this person questions in order to catch him up on lying. After that they take turns.
Activity 2: “Collective Story”. A teacher writes down on a whiteboard a phrase. It can be something like: “Katya missed her train and her takes an unexpected turn”. Students sit down in a circle. The first student has one minute to tell what happens next. When the time is over, the next student starts talking and continues the story, and so on.
Activity 3: “Story Cubes”. Students are divided into two teams. Each team gets Story Cubes and the show begins. They should create a story and then present it to each other.
What technology, media or props
did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
A whiteboard, Story Cubes
What worked well in this class?
What did not work?
The class worked out great! Students had a lot of fun, they talked and laughed a lot.
Class is divided in three groups, one consisting of two persons (the jury) and two big groups of four persons each. One topic is given, and both groups are playing against each other, whether it is for the statement or against it. Students present their arguments in 5 minutes and then the jury decides. Another statement is given to the students, this time a little more serious. Statements go from “Birkenstocks and socks are a good look” to more serious ones.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The Activity worked out very well. Students were eager to debate even about “dumb” topics. It also gave an opportunity to discuss serious issues within American society. The format was really appreciated by students too.
Language and Level (intermediate
or advanced class):
Spanish advanced
Class theme/topics discussed: Fear
Goal of the class: Learn
vocabulary about fear and express emotions
How did you structure the class?
Activity 1 (10’): Students
get asked about Fear and the things that they feel fear about.
Activity 2(15’): Game of
Fear. Students get different situations and they react and show what they feel
about them. Instructions in Spanish below.
Activity 3 (10’): Students
listen to the audio of a scary movie video. They only hear it and have to
hypothesize about it.
Activity 4 (5’): Students
see the video, comment upon it and confirm their hypothesis.
Activity 5 (20’): Students
get some slips of paper with different situations of risk. They are asked to
say how they would react to those situations. After that, in groups of 3. They
have to choose one of their situations and propose an alternative ending to it.
What technology, media or props
did you use? (Internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
I needed to print out many tags for the fear game. 5 for each student.
I also printed out a A3 paper of the fear scale
Slips of paper with the different fear situations to make hypothesizes
What worked well in this class?
What did not work?
The game of the fear was fun. It was not as exciting as I thought it
would be but they did learn the structures that I had as part of my objectives
so I am satisfied. I will choose other items to talk about fear next time to
make it more appealing.
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.
Spanish Instruction
of the fear game
Instrucciones del juego del miedo
1) Imprima la
primera página, el medidor de presión, en formato A3 y las páginas 2 a 4 en
formato A4. En la página 4, hay un conjunto de 5 tarjetas diferentes para
expresar sus temores, imprimirlas y recortarlas para que cada alumno tenga un
lote personal de 5 tarjetas diferentes (en una página, ya hay 3 muchas cartas).
Luego recorte los papeles pequeños en las páginas 2 y 3 que representan las
“cosas que tememos”.
2) Coloque el
trouilómetro en el centro de la mesa. Da un juego de 5 tarjetas para expresar
los temores de cada estudiante. Luego, coloque los papeles pequeños en las
páginas 2 y 3 (las cosas que tememos) en una pila, boca abajo al lado del
medidor de presión.
3) Elija un
alumno que comienza el juego. Él devuelve un pequeño papel “cosas que
tememos”. Su objetivo es adivinar la respuesta más probable que harán
otros alumnos a la pregunta “¿Cuánto le teme a eso?”
4) Para esto,
cada uno de los demás alumnos elige en secreto una carta de su mano que
determina su nivel de miedo en este tema. Luego lo coloca boca abajo en el
centro de la mesa.
5) Cuando cada
alumno haya jugado una carta, mezcle y tome en su mano el paquete así formado.
Luego pídale al alumno que sacó el papel que lo coloque en el esfigmomanómetro,
bajo la respuesta que parezca más probable en el grupo. Pídale que justifique
su elección (por ejemplo: “Creo que la respuesta más probable para
el” calentamiento global “es” un poco asustada “porque la
gente se preocupa un poco por este problema, pero no le preocupa sus vidas
inmediatas, por lo que son un poco indiferentes y por eso tienen un poco de
miedo de eso)
6) Luego revele
las tarjetas elegidas por los otros estudiantes. Si la respuesta que ha elegido
es la más común entre las respuestas de otros alumnos, gana un punto. En caso
de igualdad entre 2 respuestas, dale el punto de todos modos.
Los otros
estudiantes pueden, si lo desean, dar su punto de vista sobre las respuestas
propuestas. Déjalos debatir juntos si surge la necesidad.
7) Luego, el
alumno de la izquierda toma el mismo proceso: devuelve un pequeño papel, no
vota, pero trata de adivinar la respuesta más probable, etc.
Cuando cada
alumno haya desempeñado el papel principal tantas veces, finalice el juego y
cuente los puntos. Dé simbólicamente la victoria a quien tenga más puntos y
quien haya mostrado más empatía.
Esta es una manera elegante de hablar sobre nuestros miedos sin expresarlos directamente en público, evitando así la incomodidad que este tipo de tema puede generar en el aula.
Language and Level
(intermediate or advanced class):
Chinese, Intermediate and advance
Class
theme/topics discussed:
Game: Who is the spy
Goal of the class:
Practice students’ oral Chinese skills
How did you
structure the class?
The game: Who is the spy
This game will help students practice the skill of using Chinese to describe a thing.
8 students, 8 cards with pictures (7 of them is A, 1 of them is B, B is the spy) for example, A is ORANGE, B is LEMON. Everyone has a card and doesn’t let other players know what you get. Everyone needs to say a word or a sentence to describe what you get in turns. You cannot directly say the word you get. The purpose of your describing is to make players who have the same card with you know you are not the spy. At the same time, you can’t make the spy know what you get. What’s more, yourself don’t know if you are the spy or not. If you are the spy, your purpose is to make others think you are on their side. It means that you need to make others think you have the same card with them and the spy is someone else. After everyone describes for a round, I will say three, two, one, and everyone point to someone who you think is the spy. Who get the most votes die.
If there are only 3 players alive, the spy wins. Or, the spy loses.
What technology, media
or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
PowerPoint, useful
Chinese website:
Cards with pictures
What worked
well in this class? What did not work?
The students truly love this game, they had fun and learned a lot of new words.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
No
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.
Language and Level (intermediate
or advanced class):
Spanish Advanced
Class theme/topics discussed:
Unemployment, politics, Spain.
Goal of the class: To review
vocabulary related to politics, economy and the job market. To discuss and
raise awareness about the current political and financial situation in Spain.
How did you structure the class?
Head’s up: cultural events
Warm-up (10’): Memory game
about professions
Students will be divided into two groups and handed a set of cards with
professions. They will have to play a memory game and say the name of the
profession aloud every time they uncover one card.
Activity 1 (video and
discussion)
(5’) Students will be asked what they know
about the employment situation in Spain.
(10’) An interactive short film will be
shown on the screen. The video is called “La Entrevista” “The Interview”. The
video is interactive as it stops at some point to prompt student’s reactions
and guesses. It also includes some hints on vocab to facilitate comprehension.
The video tackles the topic of
the over qualification at companies and how desperation pushes people to
happily take any job that is under their skills. It all happens throughout a
job interview in which the boss is clearly taking advantage of this precarious
situation.
Students will also make notes on the questions
the boss asks as they will use them in an activity later on.
(10’) Discussion Feelings
What do you think is the main
topic of the video?
What is wrong?
What does it say about the
situation in Spain?
How could a society improve
that?
Does it happen in your country?
Do you think that the fact that
she is a woman influences the position?
Is it common in your country to see men
as the boss and women as secretary or cleaner?
Activity 2 (20’) (JOB
INTERVIEW/role play): In pairs, each student will take a role. One of them
will be a manager, and the other one will be interviewed for the job. For this
activity students will have some resources on how a job interview is carried
out. Additionally, they will get a handout on the table with accurate questions
so that they can improve their grammatical structures as well as their fluency.
First, they will prepare their
role (one of them will prepare the profile of the candidate, and the other one
will prepare the profile of the employer/company)
Then they will have an interview, at the
end, some of the people will show their interview in front of the class.
What technology, media or props
did you use? (Internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
What worked well in this class?
What did not work?
This was one of the students’ favorite class since it allowed them to
speak all the time, improve their grammar, as well as raising cultural
awareness of the job situation in Spain.
How could this class be
improved/ modified?
I think this class works very well, sometimes it can take longer and
might be split into two classes.
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.
Find attached below the possible job interview questions
that I have given them in a handout
Class
theme/topics discussed: Job/internship interview in
Russia
Goal of the
class: Learn related vocabulary and grammar.
Practice interviewing each other
How did you
structure the class?
Greetings, general questions, announcements. – 5 min
What is a job interview? Open discussion. – 5 min
How to prepare for an interview? First, students and LR discuss the
common rules of going through interviews successfully. Second, students read
the handout 1 and discuss every
point. – 15 min
Practicing: students work in groups of 2. They are given situations
when they are to do interviews for different companies. They change a partner
every 5 minutes. (handout 2) – 20
Wrap-up: with the last person, students demonstrate their
interviews. Other students give comments at the end (what was good, what was
bad etc.) – 15 min
What technology,
media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts,
etc.)
handouts
What worked
well in this class? What did not work?
Good class, I would dedicate more time to
demonstrational interviews
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.
Handout 1.
Интервью на русском
Интервью – это
всегда сложный опыт, который вызывает много нервов и стресса. Интервью на иностранном
языке – еще сложнее. Предлагаю вам несколько советов, которые помогут успешно
пройти интервью на русском языке.
Оденьтесь
красиво. В России судят по одёжке. Хорошая прическа, макияж, уместная одежда и
немного парфюма создадут правильное и хорошее впечатление о вас.
Не
забудьте резюме. Хорошо знайте информацию, которая там есть.
Будьте
готовы ответить на такие базовые вопросы:
– Расскажите о себе.
– Что Вы знаете о компании?
– Какие Ваши сильные и слабые
стороны?
– Почему вы уволились с Вашей предыдущей
работы?
– Чем вы занимаетесь на Вашей
работе сейчас? Расскажите о деталях. Какая атмосфера у Вас в офисе?
– Почему Вы хотите работать на
нас?
– Кем Вы видите себя через 5 лет?
– Какой вы человек? Расскажите о
своем характере.
Знайте
такие фразы, как «взаимно» или «будьте здоровы». Будьте вежливыми.
Задавайте
вопросы во время интервью.
Не
нервничайте.
Попрактикуйте
интервью на иностранном языке с другом/подругой/репетитором/в онлайн-сервисе.
Handout 2.
Интервью в компании Майкрософт на должность главного
инженера.
Интервью в новой кофейне
на должность баристы.
Интервью в МакДональдсе в Апленде на должность
ночного кассира.
Интервью на должность
нового Русского Резидента (even though I am irreplaceable 😉 ) в Олнедборге.
Интервью на должность
нового Ректора Колледжа Питцер.
Интервью на должность
системного администратора в Пентагоне.
Интервью на должность
титистера в компанию Липтон.
Интервью на должность
главного СММ менеджера в Л’Ореаль.
Интервью на должность
Инстаграм-менеджера Рианны.
Интервью на должность
нового ведущего кулинарной программы.
Интервью на должность
шпиона в Эстонии.
Интервью на должность повара
в новом отеле Трампа.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Advanced Japanese
Class theme/topics discussed: Thanksgiving
Goal of the class: To be able to talk about / listen to Thanksgiving Holiday.
How did you structure the class?
Activity1 (10 min): Warm-up
I talk about my Thanksgiving holiday. This is going to be a game, two truths and a lie. I write three key words that are related to my Thanksgiving holiday on the whiteboard and talk a bit about each word. Then students ask one question each. After everyone asks one question, they guess what key word is a lie.
Activity2 (45 min): Two Truths and A Lie
I give students a few minutes to think about their key words. Then, one student presents his/her Thanksgiving as I showed. Every student gets a chance to talk about theirs.
Activity3 (5 min): Wrap-up
We choose who was the best liar and who was the most honest one.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It worked really well. Students were really engaged into the game, paying attention to everyone very carefully. I tried to manage the time but it didn’t go well as I calculated. So not everyone had a chance to talk about. However, I believe it would have been better this way than dividing the class into two groups because students are very close each other and they wanted to know each one’s Thanksgiving story.
How could this class be improved/ modified?As for time management, the class could be divided into two groups or warm-up could be shorter.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): intermediate, German
Class theme/topics discussed: Adjectives
Goal of the class:
Adjectives students already know should be elicited and students should learn more adjectives.
How did you structure the class?
4.15 – 4.25 (10mins): walk to coop fountain together and talk about what they can see on the way.
4.25 – 4.55 (30mins): Game: German version of “I spy with my little eye” (Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst). 1st round: color only; 2nd round: try to think of as many adjectives as you can and then give us only one; if we can’t guess it, give us another adjective…
4.55-5.15 (20mins): Team game: in pairs, think of a place on campus and think of adjectives to describe that place. The others guess.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet ressources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Small Whiteboard for writing down new words, surroundings outside of classroom
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It was fine and they liked it. I have troubles deciding when I need to be more strict about a plan – such as the rules in a game – and when it is better to let them do it their way in order to encourage talking.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
writing vocabulary cards throughout the lesson could be helpful
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.