Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz
Level: Intermediate
Class theme/topic discussed: Animals and Pets
Goal of the class:
Students will be able to:
- Identify and categorize vocabulary related to animals and pets.
- Discuss the benefits and risks of having a pet.
- Compare, contrast and rate animals using a given criterion (danger to humans)
Class structure:
Warm up:
Juego de la Canasta: In a circle, one of the students chooses a subcategory of the main theme (example: animals of the sea, animals that have tales, activities people do with their pets, etc.) and each one will say a work without repeating what someone else said. When someone repeats a word or says something that does not belong to that category, that person loses and start another subcategory.
Students are encouraged to speak up when they think someone has said something that is not necessarily part of that category and explain the reasons for that. Whoever is alluded can either refute the other’s claim or lose and start a new subcategory
Activity:
Students talk about their current pet, a pet they had in the past or a pet that they might like to have in the future. They are encouraged to show a picture of it to the class in order to illustrate it.
In couples or groups, they discuss the benefits and risks of having a pet. They can use the chipboard to remember main points and then share with the rest of the class.
“¿Cuál te asusta más?”: Students see pictures of 6 animals that might dangerous to humans. In groups, they compare them and rate them in terms of which one would be more dangerous and which one would not be as much; creating a list. They later share it with the rest of the class and compare their rating with the other group. If their results are different from the others, they will make a little debate in order to show the others why they think it is how they are determined.
Wrap up:
Each student briefly describes an animal of their preference without saying what it is. The rest of the class asks questions to find out what that animal is.
Resources used: Powerpoint presentation.
Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?
Animals seem to be a relatively popular topic and so students will engage with it. Activities went well with no major difficulties. They went through a lot of vocabulary at the beginning of the class so that they could use it later on in the activities. Maybe one of the challenges is that students get very excited and conversations might go off topic a little bit, which i don’t think is necessarily bad. Students seemed to have fun