Teachers always hunt for ready-made Lesson plan. There are plenty of lesson plans on the internet. Some can be used straight away without major modification and some need a bit of adjustment. Either way, it is always nice to know that I don't have to spend too much time making a new lesson plan. Isn't it nice having it ready without thinking hard what to do in class? When a teacher is packed with high hours, a ready-made lesson plan is like heaven!
I found an interesting speaking lesson plan for intermediate level and above. It is called 'Create Your Own Country', prepared by Chris Westergaard, an ESL teacher from Prague. Here it is:
Introduction: Just a few minutes
1. Have pictures or drawings of various things that are special for your home country. For example, US teachers could use the Statue of Liberty, NYC, Hollywood...etc Elicit these various things out and ask students what country you are talking about.
Lead In (around 7 minutes)
Demo these questions out and have students discuss them in groups
1. What are 3 things that you like about your country?
2. What are three things that you dislike about your country?
3. If you had to live in another country what country would it be and why?
4. What 2 things would you change with your country to make it better?
Tip:
Pull one of your students up from the class and have them draw a rough picture of the country you are in. In my case, it would be the Czech Republic. Use this rough drawing to help you elicit the target language.
Target Language (around 10 minutes)
Elicit and CCQ the following
Tip: Depending on your level you can add more complicated words if you want
1. the capital city
2. the population
3. the religion
4. the language
5. the currency
6. the exports and imports
7. the landscape
8. the political system
9. the cultural traditions
Study 1: Strips 5 minute max
In groups students match up the word with the definition
Study 2. Sentence formation (around 5 minutes)
With your help, students form the correct questions with the words. "What's the capital city?" What are the exports...?"Students can then throw a ball to each other and ask these questions regarding known countries.. e.g. "What's the capital city of Germany?" "What's the currency of Spain?"
Tip: With all of your speaking activities, aim to get your students to sound natural. Contractions are your friends. Have your students say 'what's' instead of 'what is' along with any other contraction that they can possibly use. Doing this will make them sound much better and will increase their overall speed so correct for this.
Study 3. Asking about your own country (around 5 minutes)
Have a pre-made flip chart of an imaginary country complete with a name, capital city, various lakes, rivers...etc. Students then ask you about your country using the correct lexis and sentence structure.
Tip: At this stage, students should be able to form these questions relatively fast so push for speed and accuracy. Make sure that students are not reading the questions from their notes. They should be able to form everything at this point on their own without too many problems. Also, remember to make your own country engaging and interesting. If it's boring you're going to get boring results later on.
Activation - Country creation (20 minutes or more total)
Set up: (around 7 minutes) Hand out pieces of paper and tell students to create their own countries in groups or pairs using the above lexis.
Tip: This isn't a writing activity so don't treat it as one. Have students make basic notes, but not complete sentences. We eventually want them to speaking in long turns and not simply reading out loud what they've written.
Activity: (around 13 minutes) When the students are done, have a mingle where they have to talk to each other about their different countries. Make sure the board is erased and they are not really reading from their notes. Monitor the activity for speed and accuracy, while making sure students are using contractions and articles. Call out switch every 5 minutes and students can mingle with a different group/country. Break the activity and have student talk about who they spoke with and what they liked/disliked about the other countries. Have them vote one which country the class liked the most.
Feedback: (just a few minutes)
Go over mistakes and any progress you heard during the activity. End the lesson with a joke and wish the students a good day.
As usual, a very good lesson plan from Chris Westergaard. If I want to change one thing from the lesson plan is the religion. This topic may cause heated conversation when a student asks others why you choose this religion and not that religion. If they can take it easy, no problem. However, religion is pretty sensitive topic here so I prefer not to include it.
I also want students to create a new name for the country, so this whole idea is more real to talk about.
