Language Residents

an archive of lesson plans

Category: Online Teaching (Page 3 of 3)

F20 Online: Music

August 10, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Marie Segura

Maria Glukhova

Day and Date:

Week 3-4, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Music

How did you structure the class?/Ideas:

Activity 1 – Gathering vocabulary

Create a wordcloud for students to quickly brainstorm on music instruments/genres/etc..

Activity 2 – General questions for discussion

  1. When do you listen to music? Is it always the same? Does it depend on the day? (Quand écoutez vous de la musique + toujours la même? Ou dépend du moment?)
  2. Do you listen to music when you work? (Musique quand travaillent?)
  3. Do you play any instrument/make music? (Faites vous de la musique)
  4. If you could play any instruments, which one would you pick? What style of music would you like to play if you had a band? (Si vous pouviez jouer de n’importe quel instrument, de quoi voudriez-vous jouer? Quel type de musique si vous aviez un groupe?)
  5. Do you agree that “music soothes the heart” (La musique adoucit les moeurs)
  6. What was the last festival/concert you attended? (Dernier concert/festival)
  7. What’s your go-to song when doing a karaoke? (Quelle est votre chanson préférée pour un karaoké)
  8. Do you know any francophone artist? What’s your favorite song? (Une chanson ou un artiste français qu’ils connaissent + leur chanson préférée)

Activity 3 – Presenting francophone/X nationality artists

  • Pair students up. Ask them to look up an artist and fill in a table on a shared google doc. (nationality, music style, favorite song…)
  • Students present their artist to the other groups.

Activity 4 – The Voice

  • Brainstorming: what does a judge base their criticism on? What adjectives can they use? (maybe show an extract from the show). How do they convince people to join their team?
  • Students are the new judges for the Voice France. Students are asked to turn away from the camera. The LR plays some songs, and students have to decide whether they want to turn around or not. Then, they have to explain their choices: why did they choose this song? What do they like? What could be better (potential)? Or why didn’t they turn around? What was missing? 

Activity 5 – “Close-listening” [I usually do one class on it (Rus)]

  • Choose a song that has as much ‘material’ in it as possible: a lot of cultural references, good lyrics with maybe some philosophical aspects in it, an inspiring/controversial/simply interesting music video, etc. 
  • Give students a “free-writing” task/a discussion question that would help students to get into the topic that a song is about
  • If the lyrics are too difficult, give students a vocab list and go through it together (or they can work on it in pairs)
  • Give students the lyrics but with some blanks. Students have to fill them in while listening to a song. (There are different ways of choosing which words: the most difficult ones; related to one theme; adjectives, etc.)
  • Depending on a song, you might want to read and discuss the lyrics together after listening to the song for the first time + check if the students got the missing words right. 
  • I usually play a very philosophical contemporary song that has become extremely popular in Russia (Basta – Sansara: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiCL0-U9WxI). The main idea of it that “our children will be better than we are” and that “when we are gone, we will not disappear because we will still be singing through our children’s voices: we are the same people being replaced in an endless circle of Sansara”. After we listen to the song and go through the lyrics, I ask a lot of questions about what they think, and the conversation usually goes on until the end of the class because it is a very deep topic. It might also be a good way of starting to talk about different generations, parents-children relationships, etc. 
  • Another way of working with just one song would be to play it without a video, and then ask students to describe what they imagine would fit as a music video (they can, for example, come up with a ‘script’ in pairs). After everyone is done, students share their results. 
  • Then everyone is watching the actual music video and students discuss whether it is similar to what they expected or not.  

Activity 6 – Making a group Playlist [credits to Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez]

  • Students should do some research on different music genres. Each group randomly (or not) gets a genre of music (hip-hop, rap, indie, etc.) and looks it up in a target language.
  • After everyone is done, students and an LR create a Spotify/(Rus)VKontakte playlist with all the good songs they found.

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

Zoom, Youtube, Spotify  

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

How could this class be improved/ modified?

F2020 Online: Ice-breakers #2

August 7, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Marie Segura

Day and Date:

Week 1, second class, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Getting to know each other #2

How did you structure the class?

Warm-up

Use a very short poll to start your class, eg:

  • What’s the strangest thing you did while attending an online meeting? (Multiple choice)
    1. Ate breakfast
    2. Wore pajamas
    3. Brushed my teeth
    4. Cooked lunch/dinner
    5. Watched Netflix
    6. Other but my lips are sealed
  • What’s your best personal remote work hack? (Open text)
  • In one word, how are you feeling right now?

Activity 1 – Interviewing each other

  • Pair up participants in twos.
  • Give them a list of questions to ask each other.
  • Ask each pair to interview each other, either via email or in breakout rooms.
  • When all the participants convene together in the same virtual room, each participant will introduce the participant they interviewed.

Activity 2 – Thumbs-Up or Thumbs-Down?

  • Students should choose a view that allows the entire class to be seen at once. They can also use a voting function if one is available in the virtual tool. Students take turns stating something they like/dislike or something they’ve done. For example, “I like shrimp.” or “I’ve visited Washington, DC.” Classmates indicate their similarity or difference with the person by showing a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down (or by using the voting function).
  • To personalize the activity even more, challenge students to offer an activity or accomplishment that they think is rare or unique about themselves, and see if anyone shares it. For example, “I cleaned out my refrigerator last night.” or “I was born on February 29.”

Activity 3 – ‘One Random Object’ Virtual Training Activity

  • Ask a student to pick one random object that is in their room and not tell anyone what it is.
  • Explain that the other participants will have to guess what it is, by asking questions that require a yes or no answer.

Online tools you can use:

You could use a chat board for this, but it is not necessary. You could just run the activity by speaking and maybe use a virtual board to record the scores.

Activity 4 – ‘Take a Picture of Something’ Class Activity

  • Ask participants to take a picture of something.
  • Typically, you choose a specific theme. For example, ask participants to take a picture of their shoes, or a picture of something that is on their workstation or the view outside their window.
  • Remember to ask participants to take the picture and upload it before the training session starts, as otherwise it might take too much time out of the training session if they were to do it in real time.
  • Ask participants to share the picture on a virtual board.
  • Start a discussion. For example, you could ask why they chose that particular item on their desk, or what they like the most about the view they can see from the window etc.

Online tools you can use

Online whiteboard, chat board, or a shared google doc.

Activity 5 – Find someone who

  • To run the activity online, create a 5 by 5 table with interesting facts, one for each box of the table. For example, you could write things such as: speaks more than two languages, has been to Argentina etc. Or, it would be a good idea to tie the facts with the topic of the class.
  • Share the file with the table with your participants, either in advance or during the session. You can share by email, through the file-sharing feature of the web conferencing system or with an online sharing tool such as a Google doc. Alternatively, you could do the activity in real-time using a tool such as Padlet.
  • Depending on the size of your class, send students into breakout rooms or do it as a whole class. Ask participants to write their name under each of the statements that apply to them.
  • Ask them to share the answers and discuss.

Activity 6 – Would you rather

  • Send students into breakout rooms in groups of 3/4.
  • Send to every room a series of “would you rather question” and ask students to discuss and defend their opinion.

Resources used:

  • Shared google doc
  • Zoom chat
  • Breakout rooms

Some comments:

There are too many activities in the class, but depending on the group, some may work better than others, I think it’s always better to have a variety of activities at hand, and some can also be used to start any other class.

Potential technical difficulties: students may not be able to take a picture, so activity 4 may have to be skipped. Having too many breakout room changes can take a lot of your class time, maximum twice in one lesson should work.

F2020 Online: Ice-breakers #1

August 7, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Marie Segura

Day and Date:

Week 1, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Getting to know each other

Goal of the class:

  • Dealing with the administrative aspects of the class
  • Assessing the students’ technical capacities
  • Introducing myself
  • Getting to know the students and their needs/interests/feelings about the class

How did you structure the class?

Setting up Zoom

  • Ask students to make sure they put the name they want to use as their username or to change it accordingly (maybe add their pronouns)
  • Brief explanation that the videos should be turned on as often as possible (except if discussed before or if impossible) because it makes conversations more natural. The mic will be off to start with/during instructions but students should feel free to interact before the class starts/after instructions/in breakout rooms. If a you have a big group, maybe ask them to raise hand or signal themselves before speaking (but it truly depends on the size of the group, it may be easier to just jump in).

Activity 1 – Where are you joining us from?

  • Depending on the size of the group, it may be useful to use a word cloud
  • Ask students where they are (city, country…)
  • Start introducing yourself by explaining where you are + where you are from, then ask students to introduce themselves: name, where they join from, where they are exactly, what their workspace looks like (if they have the video on) or what their virtual background represents for them, why they chose it etc.

Activity 2 – Introducing myself, Jeopardy Style

  • In pairs, students are asked to think of two questions they would like to ask to get to know me. Pair them up orally and ask them to come up with two questions in a private chat or use the breakout rooms.
  • Then, they are shown information about the LR on a powerpoint presentation (for instance dates, colors… that are answers to questions you may ask to get to know someone). To be allowed to ask the questions they have just prepared, students must, in pairs, try to find the question that might match the answer. 
  • Eg: on the screen, write you birth date. Students should ask you “When were you born? “, “When is your birthday?” etc. If they find the right question, they can ask you an extra one that they had prepared.

Activity 3 – Speed dating

  • Split your students into groups of 3 or more and allocate them to breakout rooms.
  • Ask each group to write down as a list on an online whiteboard or virtual sticky note all the interesting things that they all have in common (ask them to avoid obvious things, such as all being students or taking a conversation class) and something unique to each participant. They will have 5-10 minutes for this task. (online tip: set a timer for your breakout rooms + send a message 2mn before the end to warn the students that their time is almost over).
  • At the end of the 5-10 minutes, ask each group to share their list to the rest of the class via an online whiteboard.

Extra-activity 1 – New Academic Year’s Resolutions

  • Share with your students a google doc with a table showing different resolutions. 
  • (If the class is big) Students are separated into groups of 3/4 and sent in breakout rooms. In turn, they randomly pick a number (can use an online tool/Siri for that or just choose randomly) and discover their new year’s resolution. Then, they have to convince their skeptical friends that they are actually going to keep their resolution this year and to explain why it is so important to them.

Advanced: Besides explaining why it’s an important resolution, students have to explained how they plan on doing it. The others, the skeptical friends or relatives, can ask questions about the resolution.

Extra-activity 2 – 2 truths 1 lie

  • Ask one participant to write three statements about themselves: 2 true and 1 false.
  • Ask the other participants to vote on which statement is true and which is false.
  • After the first person has shared their statement and the group has decided which statement is false, the first person will reveal the truth.
  • Move on until each person in the group has shared their statements.
  • The participant with the most incorrect votes wins.

Online tools you can use:

Resources used:

  • Breakout rooms
  • Online whiteboard, chat board, other collaboration tools such as Padlet or Lino.
  • Google doc to share with the class in the chat
  • Ppt presentation

F20 Online: Movies

August 2, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Maria Segura

Maria Glukhova

Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Day and Date:

Week 3-4, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Movies

How did you structure the class?

Activity 1 – Talking about a specific movie (that you’ve asked your students to watch for the class)

  • While watching a movie, students should write down (in a shared Google Document) 10 words/phrases that they did not know, and that they want to use. Students should also write down an English translation for these words.
  • Each student needs to give 3 words that come to their mind when they think about the movie
  • They then need to explain their choices
  • Give 4 reasons to go and see the movie+ 1 reason not to (or the contrary).
  • Discussion about the themes used in the movie.

Activity 2 – General discussion about movies

  • What’s your favorite movie of all time?
  • What movie could you watch 50 times?
  • What’s the worst movie you’ve ever seen?
  • What’s a movie you like even if everyone else hates it/you hate even if everyone else loves it?
  • If you could be the villain in any movie, who would you be and why?
  • If someone was to make a movie about your life, what would you like to see in it? What genre would it be? Name 3 things you’d like to be included in it?

Activity 3 – Getting to know French movies

  • Brainstorm about movie genres and characteristics
  • Show students trailers/posters of movies and ask them to guess with what synopsis and/or genre they match. Either create a poll, put students in breakout rooms or create a kahoot.
  • In pairs, the students are given the poster of a French movie and have to determine the genre and imagine the scenario of the movie. 
  • They then present the movie to the rest of the class: they first describe the poster, then  explain what they think the movie is going to be about.

Activity 4 – Jury at an Award

  • Variant #1: Students have to choose: meilleur film, meilleur acteur, meilleure actrice, meilleure musique de film, meilleurs decors, meilleurs costumes, meilleurs effets visuels/speciaux and to justify their decisions.
  • Variant #2 (cf Blanca): Students become part of the jury of the awards. After seeing part of the trailers of those films, they have to vote for the best film, best music and best animation (sharing their personal preferences and professional aspects that they can notice). 
  • Variant #3: Students watch a series of short films/animations that an LR chose for the class. All short films can be about one theme, or completely random. After watching them, students work in pairs and decide, which are their top 3 (they should come up with arguments). Then students present their choice to the class and try to prove that their top 3 was the best choice. 

Activity 5 – Creating your own movie

  • In pairs, students have to come up with a plot for a new movie. They are asked to choose random numbers that correspond to specific constraints they will have to put in their movies (genre/objects etc). They have to write on a shared google docs where they can find guidelines.
  • Potential variant (cf Blanca): Students become directors and potential leading actors and actresses. That is, each “director” interviews different potential actors in order to hire the most suitable one for a specific genre that will be randomly assigned. The directors will make questions that are important for them in order to hire an actor suitable for that film genre and the actors invent a personality that would be suitable for that genre as well. Once the interactions finish, the directors share the names of the hired actors and actresses and see if the assigned genres matched or not. 

Activity 6 – Turning it French

In pairs, ask students to choose a famous movie and imagine a French version/parody of it. When and where would it take place? Who would be the characters? Would the story change? Share a common google doc to allow them to write their thoughts and see how the others are going + give them guidelines (original movie/French version columns for instance)

Activity 7 [It was a great class about stereotypes!]

  1. Students should finish two sentences:

He was a true Russian/French/X, but he never…

She was a true Russian/French/X, but she never…

This frame helps to understand what stereotypes students have about ‘true Russians/Xs’, men and women (e.g., He was a true Russian, but he never drank vodka -> “drinking vodka” is an attribute of a stereotypical Russian person.

2. All the results from the previous activity should be written on a whiteboard. Then we talk about why and from where the students have such images of Russians/France/X.

3. In groups of 3-4, students should come up with their own movie script (maybe in a specific genre). The movie should be Hollywood-like and about a (stereo)typical Russian/X person as a protagonist. The teams should come up with an idea, a movie title, and a plot summary. If there is time, students should also draw a poster with all the information about the team and present it on a ‘festival’ to their colleagues.     

4. Conclusion and a follow-up discussion.

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

Zoom, Youtube

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

How could this class be improved/ modified?

F20 Online: Hometown

August 1, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Maria Glukhova

Day and Date:

Week 3-4, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Hometown

Goal of the class:

To talk about students’ hometowns, so they could make a virtual tour for everyone.

How did you structure the class?

0. Greetings, announcements, general questions.

Activity 1: [all together] Are you in your hometown now? Do you remember how it felt being back home in the spring? Did you notice any changes in the city you grew up in, or was it you who had changed?

Activity 2: [in groups of 3 in Break-Out Rooms] Write down a list of locations that people usually associate with their hometowns (for example, this is my school, this is my grandparents’ house, where I eat my favorite ice-cream, etc.). Does this list seem to be similar to everyone?

Activity 3: [all together]: sharing the results + the discussion. After that: the LR opens Google Maps and shows the students his/her hometown. Navigating in the city, the LR gives the students a tour using as much vocabulary as possible related to location, movement, description, etc.

Activity 4: [in pairs in Break-Out Rooms]: The students should do the same: to show their classmates around their hometown with a guide-like narration. 

Activity 5: [all together] Some of the students present their hometowns to everyone.

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

Zoom, Google Maps

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

How could this class be improved/ modified?

F20 Online: BLM, Social Movements, Discrimination

August 1, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Maria Glukhova

Marie Segura

Day and Date:

Week 2, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Black Lives Matter, Social Movements, Discrimination

Goal of the class:

To talk about racial/ethnic discrimination and about social movements that fight for people’s rights.

Useful recourses for LRs:

Books/articles & Film resources about BLM principles (different levels): https://www.dcareaeducators4socialjustice.org/black-lives-matter/resources/middle-high#books 

How did you structure the class?

0. Greetings, announcements, general questions

  1. Conversation starters:

Racism 2020: What is the first situation/context/everyday situation that comes to your mind when thinking about racism?

What kinds of discrimination exist? (age, sex, nationality, etc.)

What do you know about the history of protest in the U.S? What about X language speaking countries?

What role has social media played on the display of news? Where have you been getting all protest related info from? Do you think it has made a difference on how people have found out what’s going on in the world?

“Generation” differences = how are different generations talking about/approaching current issues?

What makes someone worthy of getting a statue/a monument with their name? How important is it to think about the ideology that these monuments represent? Do they represent a person (wow, great guy!) or an ideology? What does removing a statue involve/represent/imply?

2. “Activities”

This topic has to do a lot with the language and the way we name things. For students, to learn what vocabulary is appropriate when we talk about race/ethnicity (more problematic for Russia, for example) might be helpful to read a short text/watch a video, with as many necessary words as possible.     


— Variant 1: 

Take a Facebook/IG post where a person (an activist, for example) examines racial problems/stereotypes/… in your target language. Cover the words that are terms that you want students to learn. Then write them down in a google doc so that students could translate them into English working together. Then ask the students to fill the gaps in the original text. Read the text together and discuss what message an author is trying to convey. 

— Variant 2:  [Mostly for Russia and other countries with ethnic discrimination] 

For some countries, ethnic discrimination is way more common than racial. The everyday discrimination against migrants from the countries to the South of Russia (Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and others) is in almost every advertisement: “I will lease an apartment only to persons of Slavic appearance”, “We will only employ people of Slavic appearance”. So, you could show students these advertisements as an example of how racial and ethnic discrimination is pretty much everywhere.

— Variant 3: 

Give students a few short articles about specific issues (racism, discrimination, etc.). Students should do some research in pairs, read it together, and then present what they have learned about a problem. You may want to give an article with two different perspectives/times (have things changed?)/places. Instead of an article, you can give students an advertisement/flyer/ad from, for example, a different century, that wouldn’t be acceptable now and then discuss what why.

— Variant 4: 

Discuss Black Lives Matter’s 13 principles: Restorative Justice, empathy, loving engagement, diversity, globalism, queer affirming, trans-affirming, collective value, intergenerational, black families, black villages, unapologetically black, black women.  What do you think is the most problematic issue to address/deal with?

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

Zoom

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

How could this class be improved/ modified?

F20 Online: Pandemic

August 1, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Maria Glukhova

Marie Segura

Day and Date:

Week 2, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Pandemic

Goal of the class:

To talk about the current situation with Covid-19.

How did you structure the class?

0. Greetings, announcements, general questions.

1. Ice-Breaker I

Use a very short poll to start your class, eg:

What’s the strangest thing you did while attending an online meeting? (Multiple choice)

  • Ate breakfast
  • Wore pajamas
  • Brushed my teeth
  • Cooked lunch/dinner
  • Watched Netflix

2. Ice-Breaker II 

In pairs, students should come up with the best abbreviation meaning for “Pandemic” in the target language: 

P – pain

A- 

N – 

….

3. Main activity: 

Letter to future/past self: How would you explain COVID-19 pandemic?

—- A possible variation 1: 

Students can do this task in pairs. Imagine yourself being 30+ y.o (/or maybe themselves in September 2021/2/3..). The pandemic is already over, and everything is back to normal. Record a video message to yourself back in April 2020, when everyone was on their first quarantine and self-isolation week. From your experience now (when everything is fine again!!), what would you tell your younger self? How would you describe what happened? What pieces of advice would you give? What warnings? How would you recommend yourself to act? What new hobbies to try? Etc. 

If students could actually record themselves talking, it would be amazing to put all the videos=experiences together in one big video. 

—- A possible variation 2: 

Do the same thing, but for yourself in the future. For example, as a recommendation list. What should you do more/less when everything is back to normal? What have you learned about yourself/other people/the system/etc.? What would you have done differently if you knew the pandemic were to happen?

—- A possible variation 3:

Student 1 gets a “Survivor of the Pandemic” role, Student 2 is the interviewer. In pairs, students should record an interview “How You Survived the Pandemic of 2020” with similar questions to ask and topics to cover (what were you doing? what would you recommend? etc.) Students should record it in a talk-show format and then present to the whole group. 

4. Extra activity: 

Trivia: Make a Kahoot (or any other trivia game) with unusual things that had happened or had been said during the pandemic. Students have to 1) guess whether it’s true or false, 2) identify during what phase of the pandemic this happened, 3) identify where it happened.  For example, presidents/government representatives’ sayings, unusual/innovative gadgets, exotic animals getting into the streets, etc.

*Homework* 

(mostly for “Russians”, but every language will work!)

On Facebook, there is a group called Изоизоляция | Izoizolyacia. After pandemic hit, people were trying to entertain themselves while being stuck at home. They started copying the paintings and other works of art (at first only Russian artists, but now also international).  

Task: 

  • Try it! And upload a picture on Slack. (LRs and LAs should do the same, hehe). 
  • Students should also describe what materials, etc. they used. 
  • People like and comment.
  • There might be a prize for the funniest copy/interpretation.

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

Zoom, maybe VidGrid, Kahoot, Slack

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

How could this class be improved/ modified?

JP S20 INT Causative-Passive

May 11, 2020 /

Language Resident Name: Miki Saigo

Day and Date: May 4, 2020

Language and Level: Intermediate Japanese

Class theme/topics discussed:

  • Causative and causative-passive verbs

Goal of the class:

  • Review the grammar rules of causative and causative-passive verbs
  • Use causative-passive verbs in conversation

How did you structure the class?

  • Warm-up: Greetings
    – I ask students to participate in the course evaluation (distributed via email) after class.
  • Activity I: Quarantine Bingo
    Using the bingo sheet made by the advanced class last week, we play a bingo game in teams (two students per team); if the statement in a cell applies to either of the team member, they the cell. At the end, the team with most bingos wins.
    (To do this in the online environment, I made copies of the bingo sheet on a document on Google Doc and had students mark in the synced document.)
  • Activity II: Causative
    First, we review the usage and conjugation rules of causative verbs (-せる／させる; make someone do-). Then, to drill the conjugation, I show some pictures and have students describe them with causative verbs (e.g. “I made my child study,” “I made him eat vegetables,” “I made him go to school”). I write down the sentences on the slides as students answer. Next, we play a game that uses causative verbs; it is a rock-scissors-paper game, except students have to follow the commands, “You win/lose” or “Make the opponent win/lose”.
  • Activity III: Causative-passive
    I introduce causative-passive verbs (させられる; be made to do-) by rewriting some of the sentences from the previous activity. We review when and how to use causative-passive verbs. Then, I ask students to describe the pictures from the previous activity with causative-passive verbs (e.g. “I was made to study,” “I was made to eat vegetables,” “I was made to go to school”).
    Next, we discuss the following questions, using causative-passive verbs:
    1. Were you forced to do anything as a child? (e.g. music lessons, sports, fashion etc.) As an example, I show a picture of myself wearing a kendo uniform as a child and talk about my memories back then (e.g. “I was made to learn kendo,” “I was made to wear the uncomfortable uniform”).
    2. Have you ever been forced to buy anything by your family, friends or salesclerks?
  • Closing: briefly explain what we will be doing in the next class (Final class!)

What technology, media or props did you use?

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

  • I chose this grammar rule as the topic because it is one of the hardest in the intermediate/advanced grammar. I designed this class by setting the target grammar first, and then the activities. This way, I was able to structure the class logically and with a clear goal. (I know this was the ideal way to design a class but I often failed to follow this process this semester.)
  • Because my original lesson plan turned out too short in the advanced class, I added more drilling of the conjugations in Activity II and III. This became a good guided practice, especially to intermediate students; they find the task helpful to practice the complicated conjugations.
  • They liked seeing my childhood pictures. It is nice to use personalized materials sometimes in order to catch students’ attention.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

  • It would be better with a couple more open-ended tasks. I would add some discussion questions that make students use causative verbs after Activity II.

Materials:

RUS S20 Adv/Int: Hometown (online)

May 11, 2020 /

Language Resident Name:

MARIA GLUKHOVA

Day and Date:

Thursday, 04/09/2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

Russian, Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed:

Hometown

Goal of the class:

To talk about students’ hometowns, so they could make a virtual tour for everyone.

How did you structure the class?

  1. Greetings, announcements, general questions.

2.   Activity 1: [all together] Are you in your hometown now? How does it feel going back home? Did you notice any changes in the city you grew up in, or is it you who has changed?

3.   Activity 2: [in groups of 3 in Break-Out Rooms] Write down a list of locations that people usually associate with their hometowns (for example, this is my school, this is my grandparents’ house, where I eat my favorite ice-cream, etc.). Does this list seem to be similar to everyone?

4.   Activity 3: [all together]: sharing the results + the discussion. After that: the LR opens Google Maps and shows the students her hometown. Navigating in the city, the LR gives the students a tour using as much vocabulary as possible related to location, movement, description, etc.

5.   Activity 4: [in pairs in Break-Out Rooms]: The students should do the same: to show their classmates around their hometown with a guide-like narration. 

6.   Activity 5: [all together] Some of the students present their hometowns to everyone.

7.   Conclusion and a follow-up discussion.

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

Zoom, Google Maps

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

The class worked out great! I was very happy with the results and the atmosphere of it.  

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I would leave it as it is.

RUS S20 Adv/Int: Traveling (online)

May 11, 2020 /

Language Resident Name:

MARIA GLUKHOVA

Day and Date:

Tuesday, 04/07/2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

Russian, Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed:

Where would you go after Corona?

Goal of the class:

To talk about travel plans and about different ways of traveling (moneywise, company, etc. )

How did you structure the class?

  1. Greetings, announcements, general questions.
  2. Activity 1: [all together] What is the most exotic place you have been to? Did you go there by yourself, or with other people? Why?
  3. Activity 2: [in groups of 3 in Break-Out Rooms] Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of traveling solo. Write down as many pros and cons as you can come up with.
  4. Activity 3: [all together]: sharing the results + the discussion. After that: there is a famous Ukrainian (and Russian) TV show about traveling called ‘Орёл и Решка’. It is about traveling, and there are two people in it. Why do you think the show is called that? Make predictions.
  5. Activity 4: [in pairs in Break-Out Rooms]: Watch the first 5 minutes of the TV show (Miami episode). Were you right about the main idea? Discuss the structure and key features.
  • Activity 5: [in pairs in Break-Out Rooms] After we discussed the idea of the show together, students work in pairs. They should go to https://34travel.me/post/destinations2018 and get a random country. They flip the coin, and one student has to plan the trip to this country with $100, while the second has an unlimited amount of money.
  • Activity 5: [all together] Student present their travel plans to everyone.
  • Conclusion and a follow-up discussion.

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

Zoom, YouTube

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

The class worked out well!

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I would leave it as it is.

ES S20 INT/ADV End of Term Report

May 10, 2020 /

Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Class theme/topic discussed: End of term report

Goal of the class:

  • To look back on the year and prepare some goals for the upcoming year.
  • To practice past tenses, conditional
  • To  exchange information about the future to be able to hypothesize 

Class structure

  • Warm-up: Students discuss  whether they know or the meaning of the following words: Goals, balance, accomplishments, to achieve a goal, to be thankful.
  • Activity 1: Students discuss the following questions: What goals people usually propose for themselves? Can you think of 2 or 3 goals related to these areas of life? (Health, work, money, family, couples, studies, friendship.
  • Activity 2:  Year’s balance/ recap: in pairs students complete each other’s chart of memorable things that happened to them during whatever period of time you are talking about. Then they share. (In case the conversation his going to slowly, use the questions in the annex) 
  • Activity 3: (cred. Marie Segura & Mikiko Saigo) New Year’s Resolutions: (This activity takes place during a family dinner/dinner with friends) Students are separated in groups. In turn, they roll the dice and discover their new year’s resolution. Then, they have to convince skeptical friends/family that they are actually going to keep their resolution this year and to explain why it is so important to them and how are you going to do it.
  • Activity 4: Students become fortune tellers and predict each other’s future with the help of the story cubes and some images. They will make predictions about health, success in work and education, and love. 

Resources used

  • Resolutions sheet
  • PPT

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  • As the last class of the semester, it worked pretty well. For activity 2, if it’s an online class, it’s better to have the questions in hand.

Annex

  • Activity 1 Table: 
SaludTrabajoDineroFamiliaParejasEstudiosAmistades
Ej.: comer más sano





  • Activity 2 Chart: 

Cosas divertidas que hice: …
Algo nuevo que aprendí: …
Gente interesante que conocí: …
Lugares que visité: …
Algo que nunca olvidaré: …
Algo de lo que estoy orgulloso/a: …

  • Extra questions for Activity 2: 

¿Cuáles han sido los momentos más destacados?

¿Qué cosas nuevas has probado durante este año?

¿Cuáles han sido tus momentos más felices?

¿Qué has aprendido durante este año?

¿Cuál ha sido tu mayor éxito personal? ¿Y cuál tu mayor éxito profesional?

¿Cuál ha sido el mayor aprendizaje sobre ti mismo?

¿Qué harías de forma diferente?

¿Qué quieres mantener durante el próximo año? ¿Qué te gustaría cambiar en el año nuevo?

  • Resolutions sheet

ES S20 INT/ADV Music

May 9, 2020 /

Language Resident Name: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Class theme/topic discussed: Music taste and music genres

Goal of the class 

  • To work on music related vocabulary
  • Learn about music culture in Spanish speaking countries

Class’ structure

  • Warm-up: Introductory questions about music taste and word cloud on music instruments. 
  • Input: Small presentation on Cueca. It includes instruments usually used to play that music, exponents and dance (how is it and how the costumes look like).
  • Activity 1: Students choose between different Spanish speaking countries music styles. They have to make a small a presentation and include the same information as in the presentation the teacher gave (cumbia, ranchera, flamenco, rumba, timba, tango, salsa, merengue) 
  • Activity 2: Students describe a picture in which writing and music is related and discuss whether music should also be considered poetry. Students receive fragments of different reggaeton songs and poems and have to distinguish which are which. They listen to all of them, read as if they were poems and share their results
  • Activity 3: Each group of students works with one of the fragments which corresponded to reggaeton songs and have to invent a new fragment. We listen to the songs and I pause them right before their fragment comes, so that they sing it. 
  • Extra Activity 1: Discussing the content of some reggaeton songs and their cultural significance: Yo perreo sola – Bad Bunny
  • Extra activity 2: I play different songs linked with the styles they talked about in their presentations. Students have to guess the music genre. 

Resources used

  • Youtube: 
  • PPT

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  • Students enjoyed the discussions at the very beginning, but doing the zoom presentation was a bit hard. When talking about online classes, it’s better to avoid those “group research projects” because some students may just be on their phones or have a harder time doing group research.
  • As an extra activity we created a playlist in Spotify and I’ve heard students commenting on the songs, which is fun and engaging for them.

Annex

CN S20 ADV Travel (Zoom Class)

May 8, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name: Ruirui Zhang

Day and Date: Thursday, April 23,2020

Language and Level : Advanced Class

 Class theme/topics discussed :Travel to China(make a plan to travel to China)

Goal of the class:

Students are able to use China’s travelling website to book a airplane ticket ,hotel and tickets of tourist attractions.

 How did you structure the class? 

 1.Warm up: Review words related to travelling by playing a game: each student got two flashcards and need to describe the words while others guess the words.

2.Activity: Google search “Tóngchéng”（同程旅游）and try to book a airplane ticket/hotel/ticket of tourist attraction referring to the handout.

Teacher briefly introduces the website and  students need to book a airplane ticket/hotel/tickets of tourist attractions on this website. Then students pair up and finish the task together.

During the activity, the teacher walks around and makes sure students are on the right track (I found some students talk about tourist attractions in English instead of doing the activity). They need to show and talk to teacher about their booking. Meanwhile, reminder students to look through comments which other users leave before booking.

3.Close lesson: Share your trip with each other. These includes:

State the hotel’s name you booked and reasons why you booked this hotel.

State the tourist attraction and what it is like. 

What technology, media or props did you use?  

 PowerPoint

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

 Students had fun planning a trip with using actual website. And It’s very useful to let students do such a activity since nowadays people tend to book tickets online.      

Planning a trip was a little bit difficult for the Intermediate Class. It need to be simplified or more supports need to be provided.    

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.

 去中国旅游

Google搜索“http://ghotel.ly.com”：

1.订一张机票：

出发城市：                    到达城市：

出发日期：                     返回日期：

2.订一家酒店

酒店/宾馆名字：________________________________

选择这家酒店的原因:

___________________________________________________________________________

3.选择1-2个旅游景点

景点一:____________________________________________________

景点二:____________________________________________________

10月1日-去中国旅行

CN S20 INT Gift-giving(Zoom Class)

May 8, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name: Ruirui Zhang

Day and Date: Wednesday, April 8th,2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Intermediate

Class theme/topics discussed: Gift-giving culture in China

Goal of the class: 

  • To introduce the gift-giving culture to students.

How did you structure the class? 

  • Warm up: When you visit your friends, will you bring something to your friends or not? What will you usually bring?

Activity 1: Use break-out room to divide the class into pairs and make students talk in pairs according to the first page of PowerPoint. Student were told to download PowerPoint from Sakai in advance.

Activity 2: What gifts do Chinese bring with them when visiting friends? Please say out those items according to PowerPoint. Make comparisons between China’s gift-giving culture and America’s.

Activity 3:Take a look at the following pictures (Page 10 on the PowerPoint)and guess why these items are listed into taboo. Is there any taboo gifts which means bad luck when Americans give each other gifts.

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

  • PowerPoint Presentation
  • Zoom

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

 This topic worked very well .Comparison is a good way to better introduce Chinese culture to students. In this way, students could make easier connection between China’s and American culture. We can always find some similarities between them.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

We spent too much time in talking about “normal” gifts in China. Therefore, we didn’t have time to talk about gifts taboo and we have to move this part to next class. I should control time appropriately.

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.

Gift-giving

ES S20 INT The Bar (Virus)

May 6, 2020 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name: Blanca Barranco Lafuente

Day and Date: 15th April

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Spanish Intermediate

Class theme/topics discussed: The Bar (Film)

Goal of the class: 

  • To exchange information about the main topic of the film
  • To analyze the characters of the film and their evolution throughout the film
  • To relate the topic of the film with recent events that have taken place in our society 

How did you structure the class? 

  • Warm up: Students share general opinions about the film and their cinema preferences: What did you like most about the film? And the least? Do you like these kinds of films? What is your favorite cinema genre?  
  • Activity 1: Students discuss the significance of the title and analyze the intro of the film: Why did the director choose those images for the intro? How does the music of the intro make you feel? What are your expectations of the film after seeing that intro? Does it match the rest of the film?
  • Activity 2: Students analyze some cultural expressions and events that happen during the first part of the film, learning colloquial idiomatic expressions.  
  • Activity 3: Students focus on the characters, analyzing the first impression that they portray and possible derived prejudices, also describing their personal problems and how their behavior changes throughout the film. Who is your favorite character and why? Is there any character that you specially dislike?
  • Activity 4: Analysis of the use of humor in the film. Students talk about humor scenes. Is humor compatible with a horror movie?
  • Activity 5: Students relate the topic of the film with the current global crisis. Are there any aspects that appear in the film that also show the behavior of people these days in real life? They will also be given some speaking prompts with quotes from the film.  
  • Activity 6: Debate of a hypothetical situation. Students write down the most essential professions during the Coronavirus crisis according to their opinion. The vaccine for the virus is out, but there is not enough for everyone: Which working collectives should have priority and receive the vaccine as soon as possible and why?
  • Extra final activity: Analyzing the advertising of products throughout the film. E.g. the abundance of Coca Cola drinks in the bar. 

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

  • Netflix 
  • Handout with questions and activities

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

  • They had nice discussions with the activity of the vaccine, and they were able to answer all of the questions, however the film and the topic might be too hard for some students. 

How could this class be improved/modified? 

  • They did not have as much to say as I had expected with the first activity, about the intro of the film, so since there are lots of activities, I suggest simply skipping that one. 
Conv_Handout_The-Bar-Virus

DE S20 INT: Traveling (Zoom class)

May 6, 2020 /

Language Resident Name: Tilman Viëtor

Day and Date: Monday, 04/27/2020

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?

  1. 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.)

Google Doc, DeepL, website : https://www.auslandsjob.de/10-gruende-reisen.php,

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.

DE S20 ADV: Youth Slang (Zoom class)

May 6, 2020 /

Language Resident Name: Tilman Viëtor

Day and Date: Thursday, 04/16/2020

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?

  1. 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.)

Google Doc, Google.de, Website : https://online-lernen.levrai.de/deutsch-uebungen/jugendsprache/0_jugendsprache_regeln.htm

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.

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