Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Advanced Japanese
Class theme/topics discussed: New Year Traditions
Goal of the class: To be able to explain their new year traditions and to learn Japanese new year traditions to details.
How did you structure the class?
Activity1 (5 min): Warm-up
We talk about the game we’ll be having during the Open House next week and discuss what words are interesting sounds for Americans. We decide 5 words that visitors to our lounge has to guess what that it.
Activity2 (10 min): New Year Tradition
I group students by cultures they’re familiar with. In the group, students talk about what they do as new year’s tradition in their culture. How do they celebrate? What do they eat? Where do they go? What do they see? Etc… After a several minutes, we share what they talked about with the whole class.
Activity3 (10 min): Japanese New Year Tradition
I tell students what we do in Japan, showing some pictures.
Activity4 (10 min): Osechi
I introduce Osechi, Japanese new year’s food, with a picture and ask students what they know about it.
Activity5 (15 min): Meaning of Each Dish in Osechi
We check each name of dishes. Then, students make pairs and guess what its meaning of each dish. Then, I’ll read out true meanings of each dish. Students guess what that is.
Activity6 (5 min): Wrap-up
We have casual conversations about Osechi. What would you like to try eating? Cooking? Have you ever eaten Japanese Osechi? Is there anything similar to your culture?
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It worked well. I also learned many things about Japanese new year tradition of food. Time management was good today.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
The topic with this plan could include more active speaking activities somehow.
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): Intermediate Japanese
Class theme/topics discussed: Food
Goal of the class: To be able to use vocabularies related food and to be able to explain their favorite food.
How did you structure the class?
Activity1 (10 min): Warm-up
We dice-talk about the weekends. Students are divided into 2 groups and each dimension of the dice has words related to food.
Activity2 (10 min): Brainstorming
I show some pictures and ask the whole class to describe the food. For example, I show a picture of sushi and ask students some questions such as what is it made of? How do you eat it? What taste is specific to the food? Where do you find it? Where does it originally come from? Do many people like it? Is it expensive? etc. They’re not supposed to say just “that’s sushi”. Words brainstormed during this activity are written on the white board.
Activity3 (10 min): Favorite Food
Students come up with their top 3 favorite foods and write them down on a piece of paper, keeping them secret to other students for now.
Activity4 (25 min): What is it?
Students are divided into 2 groups. In each group, one student starts “This is my best/second/third favorite food” and then, the other members of the group start asking question to reveal what it is. For the last 5 minutes, we play this game with the whole class picking one student’s favorite food whose hasn’t done yet.
Activity5 (5 min): Wrap-up
A brief announcement about the upcoming cultural activity is made.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It worked well. Students talked a lot, which was really good. One thing I should have added is that for the Activity4, one more rule should have been clarified that they cannot ask WH questions. Also, I could have prepared more expressions related to today’s topic, which could have been introduced while Activity2 and could have been a more efficient exercise for students with more words or expressions.
How could this class be improved/ modified?I would add a rule that students cannot ask WH questions during Activity4. Also, I would prepare more words in advance, which students must know but forget for the moment.
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
German, Advanced
Class theme/topics discussed:
Cooking and eating
Goal of the class:
Being able to talk about food and the ways of cooking it.
How did you structure the class?
Activity 1 (10 min): Icebreaker and introduction. Before class, I hung up some pictures of dishes. The students had to walk in pairs around the classroom and identify them first. Then, they had to think of the ingredients they needed to make the dish and the way of preparing it. We discussed the results in the big group.
Activity 2 (5 min): I told the students to write down as many terms about cooking, food and eating they possibly knew. In pairs, the students had one minute to do that. The winners would get a little surprise (cookies). We briefly discussed the terms they gathered in the big group.
Activity 3 (15 min): I showed a video of a person cooking a dish. In the same pairs, the students had to write down the ingredients they could identify and also the steps it needed to make the dish itself (which were displayed in the video). In the group, we discussed the results.
Activity 4 (30 min): I told the students to imagine being restaurant owners and therefore creating their own menus. In pairs, they had to think of one dish they would like to put there. The task was also to think of the name, price, ingredients, cooking devices, and a short description why it is the best dish. In the group, they would present their results. The winning pair would get the rest of the cookies.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Whiteboard and marker
Youtube video of a person cooking
Pictures of dishes
PowerPoint presentation (attached)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The students had a lot of fun doing the competitive task and also
creating their own dish.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
It was a great class. I would keep it as it is.
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): Advanced Plus
Class theme/topics discussed: Vegetarianism and the question of meat and sustainability
Goal of the class: Listening comprehension, expression of personal opinions and argumentation about food, vegetarianism and sustainability.
How did you structure the class?
Warm-up: What do you eat? Are you a vegetarian? What do you think of organic food/GMO?
First video with questions (student draw a question and answer it).
Second video with new set of questions and a text to fill with the missing numbers (so we practice a little bit of listening comprehension with numbers)
Role-play with one debate about vegetarianism: I’ll use the bingo of “the classic arguments for non-vegetarian diet” and the students play the vegetarian people who have to answer to those arguments. If we have time we can also have a role-play with pros and cons of organic food.
Conversation Class evaluations.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The topic is a little bit delicate because we (instructors) have to stay neutral as much as possible but it worked great! We didn’t spent much time on the fourth activity but the previous one were very interesting: students can share a lot of personal experience, the topic is political, ethical, economical, philosophical, scientific, so they can talk about anything very easily! It’s also fun to compare both French and American diets.
N.B. The next class, one student did some research and we talked about this topic again so they really have a lot to say!!
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).
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): German, intermediate, 3 students
Class theme/topics discussed: Thanksgiving
Goal of the class: Students learn basic vocabulary about Thanksgiving
How did you structure the class?
4.15-5.45 (30mins): Story telling – my funny Thanksgiving (story cubes from German LR closet). Each student gets 5 story cubes (= dice with various symbols) and has to tell a story about Thanksgiving which includes all the symbols they diced. The other students have to guess which part of the story came from the cubes. Students can ask for and look up vocabulary.
5.45-5.15 (30mins): collect all vocab on the board; students handcraft a vocabulary turkey – all the new words are written on feathers made from paper; they can color the feathers and the turkey (prepared by LR) as they want and stick all the feathers on the turkey – it’s a nice decoration for the classroom or the bulletin board.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
whiteboard, story cubes; handcrafting materials (paper, scissors, colors, glue or tape)
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
It worked very well, but we would have needed a little more time. They had troubles telling an exciting story that also has to do with thanksgiving; but as they are intermediate that is okay.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Add some basic vocab work before having them telling the story. Repeat all the vocab in the end. If you have enough time, each student could make their own turkey – for example assign them different themes like family, food and activities. The activity, including the additional proposals made, could be planned for two lessons.
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.
