Language Residents

an archive of lesson plans

Tag: Family Life

JP F20 INT: Hometown with Google Map

December 1, 2020 /

Language Resident/Assistant Name:  

Kozue Matsumoto 

Day and Date:  

Wednesday September 2nd, 2020   

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):  

Intermediate 

Class theme/topics discussed:  

  • Your Hometown 

Goal of the class:  

  • Introduce hometown using Google Map

How did you structure the class?  

  1. Sara introduces language table, language partners, and tutors (5min) 
  1. About Labor Day (3 min) 
  1. Good news (5 min)  *We share positive stories at the beginning of each class.
  1. Introduce the topic: Hometown (5 min)  
    1. Where is it? What’s there? 
    2. Anything special about the town 
    3. What did you do? What do you remember? 
  1. Breakout rooms: 3-4 people (30 min)  
    1. Share stories each other using Google Map
  1. Back to main room. Share briefly each other’s stories (12 min)  

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

Zoom, Beakout room, google maps, share screens. 

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

  • Hometown stories developed to family stories and high school stories.  
  • Students enjoyed showing their homes, hometowns and the places they know using google maps and episodes related to such places
  • Internet became a little slow when zoom and google maps were used at the same time. But students were handling it with no problems 
  • This time each student spoke for a long time when they were sharing stories. Rather than exchanges of a couple of short sentences, this time it was more like a speech.  
  • I didn’t get to hear everyone’s stories as I was moving around among breakout rooms, but apparently, they were sharing some funny stories when I wasn’t there and laughing. 
  • It was good to see that one student talks about another student’s story when I ask what’s been happening. It means they were engaging conversations and finding something interesting in stories. 
  • One dog joined at the beginning. That was cute. 
  • Students liked this, and one of them used this activity for another class/session.

How could this class be improved/ modified? 

  • Today’s class was more like each one’s story sharing with a few questions from others (as far as I saw). Next class probably I will try to do a more interview-oriented topic.  

JP F18 INT Family Tree

December 14, 2018 /

Language Resident Name: Ayaka Matsuo

Day and Date: Monday, September 24th

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

Class theme/topics discussed: Family 

Goal of the class: To be able to use vocabs and expression related to family. 

How did you structure the class?

Activity1 (10 min): Warm-up

Students are divided into 2 groups and each group dice-talk about their weekend. Each dimension of the dices has an adjective that could relate to family or family life. 

Activity2 (5 min): Review 

We review all together Japanese words of family members. Students freely shout it out and I type it, showing on the screen.

Activity3 (10 min): Brainstorming 

Students are divided into 4 groups and each group has to come up with one of the names of Japanese girl, Japanese boys, American girls or American boys. While they’re brainstorming in a few minutes, I divided the white board into 4 sections. Then, after a few minutes, each group come and write what they came up with on the white board in Japanese. This is a competition. The group with the largest number of names they came up with and wrote them on in correct spelling won. 

Acitivty4 (20 min): Family Tree

Students stay in the group and I give each group a piece of paper. They create an imaginary family tree as they want, making it complicated. After they’re done with that, I combine 2 groups into a bigger group so the whole class is now 2 bigger groups. One group presents their family tree, not showing the tree to the other group, and the other group tries to draw a tree as exactly as they can on a paper. Then, they switch over drawing. 

Activity5 (10 min): Class Family Tree 

We pretend that we’re all one family and create a class family tree. 

Activity6 (5 min): Wrap-up

I briefly announce the upcoming cultural activity. 

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

It worked well. I’m glad students liked the activities. 

How could this class be improved/ modified?It could be fun to make them a skit on family, suppose the whole class is a family. This way would let students to practice to whom to use formal and informal forms.

DE F17 INT Thanksgiving

December 8, 2017 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name: Ines Fister

 Day and Date: Monday, Nov 20, 2017

 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.

DE S17 ADV Personalities and personal experiences

May 5, 2017 /

Conversation Class Lesson Summary

 

Language Resident Name: Martin Siebert

  

Day and Date: Thursday, February 2, 2017

 

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): German Advanced Conversation

 

Class theme/topics discussed:

 

Personalities and personal experiences.

 

Goal of the class:

Students reveal more things about themselves and talk about personal experiences.

 

How did you structure the class?

 

10-20 minutes: Definitions. One of the students leaves the room. The remaining students choose an unknown word from a German dictionary, write it on the board and make up definitions for it. Only one student memorizes the correct definition. The students that was sent out gets called back in, listens to the definitions and tries to determine the correct one. He is allowed to ask additional questions in order to succeed.

 

10-30 minutes: Personalities. The students are asked to think about their lives and the people they know/have known. Each student should find at least two people who have influenced him/her in his/her life (parents, friends, personalities from history or literature) and take some notes on how these persons influenced them. The students then tell in turns how/why they were influenced, the other students can ask questions.

 

10-15 minutes: Same or different? Students get in pairs. Every pair receives two different handouts with drawings that differ a little or that are exactly the same. Through a lot of description, they try to determine which of these is the case. In the end, the LR presents them with solutions.

 

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

 

Same or different sheet, dictionary for the definitions-game.

 

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

 

The definitions game was not that much fun or worked in a different way than expected. The task where students revealed a lot about themselves and persons that influenced them was very interesting for all the students. The “Same or different” game worked well as students talked a lot.

 

How could this class be improved/ modified?

Keep it as it is.

20170202_Same_Different

20170202_Vokabeln

FR S14 INT Family & Marriage

May 9, 2014 /

Language and Section: FR 11

Date: 04/15

Class theme/topics discussed:

Family and marriage

Goal of the class:

Review the family members

Talking about one’s family and one’s own ideas about marriage

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

1 General discussion

How is their family? Are they close? Do they see them often?

2 Taboo

Pairs. A student draws a card with the name of a family member. He has to make his partner guess who is it without saying it.

3 Brainstorming

I give them a handout with 12 questions about the family. They pick up one and answer it in front of the rest of the class.

4 Same-sex marriage

I tell them about the law that was adopted last year. I show them a video with the negative comments about it and then ask their opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcb7hHKc5a4

 

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

 

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

As I had only three students, I had to modify it a little bit. Actually, we took a lot of time just talking about our families. I think now they are comfortable enough with the language to have more debates and general conversations about a topic, which is really interesting. We also talked more generally about marriage if they would like to get married, when, why

 

How could this class be improved/ modified?

 

 

LA FAMILLE

 

 

  1. Quelles sont les différences entre les familles américaines et les familles françaises si vous en connaissez ?

 

  1. Qui devrait prendre soin des personnes âgées ?

 

  1. Quels sont les modèles de famille en dehors de la conception traditionnelle de la famille ? (par exemple : les familles monoparentales, les familles recomposées, le mariage homosexuel…)

 

  1. Depuis que vous êtes à l’université, votre relation avec vos parents a-t-elle changé ?

 

  1. Le mariage est-il essentiel pour le bon fonctionnement de la famille ou de la société ?

 

  1. Pouvez-vous comparer la vie d’un jeune Américain à l’université et celle d’un jeune Français ?

 

  1. Mariage religieux ou mariage civil : lequel est le plus important pour vous ?

 

  1. Quelles valeurs pensez-vous devoir enseigner à un enfant ?

 

  1. Les droits des parents séparés sur la garde des enfants : que pensez-vous de la situation des pères ?

 

  1. Quels sont les avantages et/ou les inconvénients des familles multiculturelles ?

 

  1. Pensez-vous que les enfants d’aujourd’hui sont négligés en raison des longues heures de travail des parents ?

 

  1. Que pensez-vous du droit des homosexuels d’adopter des enfants ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MON PERE

MON COUSIN GERMAIN

MA GRAND-MÈRE PATERNELLE

MON GENDRE

MA NIECE

MA BELLE-MÈRE

MA DEMI-SOEUR

MON JUMEAU

MA TANTE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FR S12 INT Pets

May 4, 2012 /

Conversation Class
Lesson Summary

Language and Section: French 11/ SP 12

Date: 03/27/12

Class theme/topics discussed: Pets and animals

Goal of the class: learn the extended vocabulary of animals and create a debate about it

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

-Conversation about the animals possessed by the students (10 minutes)

-Reading and commenting the vocabulary of animals in the handout (20 minutes). What are the symbolic animals you know?

-First debate between the “cat” team and the “dog” team. What animals do you prefer and why (15 minutes)

-Second debate, who is the strongest? The elephant or the rhinoceros? (15 minutes)

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

-Animal vocabulary handout.

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

-Some students really own crazy animals. They loved the class. But commenting the vocabulary paper was a bit “dry”.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

-Maybe using a video including animals (the jungle book?) would have been stimulating.

DE S11 INT Family

February 10, 2011 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Intermediate Conversation
Date: 10th Feb 2011

Class theme/topics discussed:
My students family and plans for the future.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
I just had 1 student this class, so I took her out for a coffee and we just talked.

How did students react?
Liked it.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes

Would you recommend this activity for a future class?
Yes

Why or why not?
Great if there is just 1 student.

DE S11 ADV TV Show Lindenstraße

February 1, 2011 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Concersation
Date: 1st Feb 2011

Class theme/topics discussed:
German TV series “Lindenstrasse”

How did you pick this theme or topic?
Found an article in a magazine, because of the 25th anniversary of “Lindenstrasse”

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
Reading the article and discussing it.

How did students react?
Liked it, tried to compare it to American TV series.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Article + website

Would you recommend this activity for a future class?
Yes

Why or why not?
The “Lindenstrasse” has been a popular German TV series for a long time.

Lindenstraße Folge 1312

DE S11 INT Pets

February 1, 2011 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Intermediate Conversation
Date: 1st Feb 2011

Class theme/topics discussed:
Tiere (Animals)

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
I played a memory game with my students. I first put all the cards on the table and they had to match the pictures with the names. After that we started to play memory, but did not finish. Also we discussed some sounds that animals make.

How did students react?
Liked it

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Memory game cards.

Would you recommend this activity for a future class?
Yes

Why or why not?
Students learned the words while enjoying the game.

ES F09 INT Familia

November 6, 2009 /

Conversation Class
Lesson Plan

Section: INTERMEDIATE SPANISH
Date: 11/06/2009

Class theme/topics discussed:
DIFFERENT KINDS OF FAMILIES.

How did you pick this theme or topic?
All of them can talk about it and give their opinion
\
How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
I gave students a sheet with 15 different questions about the topic to help them talk about it. In turns they chose a question each and answered aloud. The others could intervene as well in each turn. In this way we had an assisted free conversation about the topic.

How did students react?
They all spoke and liked it

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes. All of them participated and talked in Spanish.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
A sheet with different questions on the topic

Please attach a copy.
–

Would you recommend this activity for a future class?
Yes. It works.

Why or why not?
Students like this activity. However because they speak in turns they speak less than if they spoke in groups first and then aloud. Therefore, I would suggest introducing a peer-learning activity first. I would ask students to talk in small groups for 15 minutes about the topic, with the help of some materials.

Familia

ES F09 INT/ADV Personal Relations Pets

September 10, 2009 /

Conversation Class
Lesson Plan

Section: INTERMEDIATE SPANISH, SPAN011

Date: 09/10/2009

Class theme/topics discussed:
Relation between animals and people.

How did you pick this theme or topic?
Since I decided to put two short movies this week, I thought that this activity from the previous LR would be great for today, of course, with some changes to adjust it to this particular class.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
Making use of a powerpoint I introduced the topic and made them answer some questions about their pets and the relation with animals. We talked about the use of the past in stories.
Later, they needed to write a story in little groups about what they thought was happening in the images and compare it with the original.

How did students react?
They liked the audiovisual material and really liked the idea of making a story out of that. Some of them were really shy but they liked working in groups. They made great stories and with only a few mistakes.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they did. They feel more comfortable when working in small groups.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Powerpoint, list of vocabulary and short movie (Ana y Manuel).

Please attach a copy.
See next page.

Would you recommend this activity for a future class?
Yes, definitively.

Why or why not?
They enjoyed the topic. Also, everybody has or had a pet and they liked talking about them. They participated a lot.

4th Class INT
4th Class voc
4th Class

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