Lesson Plan

[Trembly]

Hello Teachers,

On my first venture into the staff room on TV I am here to pick your brains. As a young pretender I beg your indulgences!

What is it boy?

I am to formulate a Getting to know you lesson plan for a group of uniformed government employees of low ability by the end of the week (ASAP). I will have 3 + 3 (6) hours with them in one day.

I have no experience in teaching in a classroom and no teacher training to speak of. I have never written a lesson plan in my life. However, I do flatter myself that I'm OK as a teacher; throughout my bilingual life I have tended to achieve good and lasting results when teaching someone to do or understand things that I can, be it language, computer stuff, music, anything. It just feels good when they get it.

Bit of a sink-or-swim stunt from my uniformed boss, but the rewards for success will be bang tidy! as they say in some vernacular or other. TIT.

I If my skin is saved I shall be much obliged (in beer too if you're in Bangkok)!

Fish and / or fishing rods most gratefully received.

Your grovelling supplicant,

Trembly

Edited July 10, 2011 by Trembly

[Scott]

There are different formats for a lesson plan. First separate your allocated time into allotments in which you plan on teaching a specific topic.

Set up objectives for each lesson. (example: Students will learn to ask/answer: Good morning/afternoon/evening? How are you?

I am fine, thank you. Numbers, days of week, months of the year and grammatical structures can be included.

Next set out the procedure: (Conversation will be practiced together as an entire group, then as pairs etc.)

List any resources you or the students need to have.

Evaluate the success of the lesson.

I don't know if you are asking about writing out a lesson plan or actually how to implement a plan or both. Other posters will hopefully be along to give you further guidance.

[Ijustwannateach]

As an outline for what typical beginner topics look like, try either the yellow or red beginning Interactions series books... They're not great but they do give a good menu of topics and vocabulary for the level, which is something if you're starting with nothing.

Classroom skills are another matter, and usually achieved through experience whether or not you have had formal training. I would suggest setting aside a lot of time before each lesson for making a list of what you would like to do and all kinds of 'what if' clauses and contingency plans if things go wrong or aren't working. An experienced teacher has a whole menu of these kinds of things in reserve; the beginner will sit in embarrassed silence once everyone's realised 'he's got nuttin'. Would suggest you think about learning a foreign language and its challenges yourself from the students' point of view and try to imagine how you would overcome them as a teacher.

A good general axiom to start with is, 'Show, don't tell.' After all, they won't understand most of what you say. You will need to convey most meaning through pictures, pantomime, and imitation- starting with classroom instructions, of course.

If you are a natural, this 'trial by fire' is a great way to find out. And if you aren't, the sooner you know the better.

[Trembly]

Thank you gents, I really appreciate your input.

I like the idea of progressing from Getting to know you into Getting to know you better with more detailed information, dates, times, and WH questions about the past, present and future, but I really don't have the experience to forecast how long activities are going to take.

6 hours of GTKY sounds a bit extreme so I'm thinking of dividing it into 4 x 90 mins of GTKYB :

1. 90 mins of Ice breaking games

2. 90 mins of Getting to know you better?

3. 90 mins of Getting to know you some more?

4. 90 mins of Getting to know you even more?

What do the professionals think? What sort of activities are going to go down with adults of low EL ability? How am I going to keep adults of low EL ability going without ending up being their entertainer?

It would be good to hear from those with experience in teaching uniformed adults (police, military, medical, governmental etc).

[thaicbr]

"It would be good to hear from those with experience in teaching uniformed adults (police, military, medical, governmental etc)."

Give them some paper and coloured pencils and ask them to draw their families.. Works for all ages

As for conversation if it's Police then the basics like.. That's 200b please. or You bad foreigner the fine is 1,000b but i do you favour only 500 cash.

if Army... then ' it wasn't us we didn't fire a shot'

Medical... there, there it will be ok once you've paid the bill.

Government... oi mate i can do ya a really good deal. and it will quicker than normal waiting time.

[talk2sam]

"It would be good to hear from those with experience in teaching uniformed adults (police, military, medical, governmental etc)."

Give them some paper and coloured pencils and ask them to draw their families.. Works for all ages

As for conversation if it's Police then the basics like.. That's 200b please. or You bad foreigner the fine is 1,000b but i do you favour only 500 cash.

if Army... then ' it wasn't us we didn't fire a shot'

Medical... there, there it will be ok once you've paid the bill.

Government... oi mate i can do ya a really good deal. and it will quicker than normal waiting time.

Hilarious...I come here to entertain myself

[Trembly]

My bold :

"It would be good to hear from those with experience in teaching uniformed adults (police, military, medical, governmental etc)."

Give them some paper and coloured pencils and ask them to draw their families.. Works for all ages

As for conversation if it's Police then the basics like.. That's 200b please. or You bad foreigner the fine is 1,000b but i do you favour only 500 cash. and "you, my son, are nicked!" (you nick!)

if Army... then ' it wasn't us we didn't fire a shot'

Medical... there, there it will be ok once you've paid the bill. That's quite obscene when you imagine a nurse with a welly welly Thai aksen saying it.

Government... oi mate i can do ya a really good deal. and it will quicker than normal waiting time.

Edited July 11, 2011 by Trembly

[legend23]

Thaicbr - Absolute GOLD!!!! Thanks!!!!

[kanderson]

Hey,

You can always start by knowing sounds that thai's need to practice.

zzzz zoo - ect. do minamal pairs ---- zoo you too ( go check - are they "minmal pairs" ?

rrrr - rabbit, rat

sssss snake

lots of fun too

check out the british and the american Phonemic Charts onlone (online with headphones).

give a hand out with URL's you recommend.

teach learning srtatagies

motivation

RELAXSATION

happyness

give home work

always positive feedback - individual attention

you can have fun teaching - you are the instructor.

Learning a second languqge is not easy.

I believe learners must be relaxed and somewhat guarenteed of a positive result (if they can relax and learn).

The Communicative Language Teacher (CLT) accepts some assumptions of other language learning techniqes.

For me it's as much about relaxation as doing some minamal pairs excercise.

I guess the trick is teaching motivation and outside class resourses.

If I were to do a warm up - so easy ezzzy zoo zebra ezzzy money

So easy - relax, relax, relax k sound

How do you say relax in Thai ? disscussion

Now speak only english (maybe)

I feel relaxed when:

I go to the cinima

When do you feel relaxed ?

I feel relaxed when I come to your classroom - go for it.

Kidding aside know that usually you want to teach all 4 language skills at every lesson (generally).

Those are Listening, Speaking, and Reading and Writing.

For example - one word - say relax. - I like to relax at the beach.

Write relax.

read the advert about relaxation at the spa

listen to a utube discrription

write - I feel relaxed.

over the top - play relaxing music - no kidding

OK - 10 - 15 minutes and we covered a lot very quickly.

I think at this point we can break into groups for a few minutes and answer the following questions;

How is the group working for you ? I'm kidding just a little.

Usually we teach speaking. All 4 language skills should be included in most lessons.