Language Resident Name: Aleksandra Bystrova

Date: 04/26/2022

Class theme/topics discussed: Fears

Goal of the class:

  • Talk about names of fears in Russian
  • Storytelling
  • Learn how to react on scary situations

How did you structure the class?

  1. Warm up (10 mins): Discussion
    I ask my students to discuss the following questions in pairs:
    1) What is the nature of fear? Why do people feel it?
    Какова природа страха: почему люди испытывают страх?
    2) What is your biggest fear?
    Чего вы боитесь больше всего?
    3) Describe the last time you were scared.
    Опишите последний раз, когда вы испытали страх.

2. Activity 1. List of fears (10 minutes)
Students go to the board and write words for objects or situations that people can be afraid of. Then, we discuss whether or not those fears are phobias and if they have scientific names.

3. Activity 2. Cards of fear (20 minutes)
One group of students come up with scary situations. The second group should react to those situations, describing what was scary about them.

4. Activity 3. Game: Create a Monster (20 mins).
Students are divided in pairs. Each pair should come up with a picture of a monster that does not exist. While thinking about their monster, they can consider the following questions:
1) What is the name?
2) Why people are afraid of it?
3) What is its purpose?
4) How does it look like?

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

The class went well. Students really enjoyed talking about fears of each other. Initially, I planned the discussion in pairs, but they wanted to know opinions of everyone, so we decided to discuss it together. Students also came up with funny stories for their monsters.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

Maybe I would add one more activity to this class, because students did not spend much time creating scary stories. Also, I would change places between Activity 2 and Activity 3, so students could create a story and include it in their story. That would be more fun!