Sharing lessons

[Noego]

Most of my lessons are custom made. I make everything myself from the ground up.

This might sound pretentious, but I think my lessons are interesting and so far, the students really enjoy what I've planned.

This is based on feedback from both my peers and the students.

I do spend a LOT of time preparing everything so that I provide something of quality to the students.

I would like to provide what I've done so far to the other teachers here, on this forum. This would be a gift of some sort for all the help I've received, and, in a way, it's long overdue.

I would rather not put them here, in this topic, as the topic would eventually disappear.

Is there anywhere on the website where I could put my things so that they're visible and easily accessible to all the teachers?

I think it would be really awesome if we how somehow shared our own ideas to the world. Make a database of some sort.

What do you think?

Here's the first lesson I'd like to share:

Riddle contest

Tested with: English Major students
Class size: 22-45 students (depending on the class)
Procedure:
#1. Separate the class in teams. (Do it yourself, otherwise you'll be wasting a lot of time if you let the students do it by themselves).
#2. Select an assistant who will help you determine who raises his or her hand first in answering the question.
#3. Explain the rules:

1. The teacher will read a riddle to the students.
2. The students MUST raise their hand to answer a question. If the students shout the answer without raising their hand, they lose one point (This is tried, tested and true. Otherwise students will be shouting the answers all across the classroom).
3. Depending on how many hints are given, the amount of point for a good answer varies. First, read the riddle (6 points), then write it on the board (5 points), then write how many letters there are (_ _ _ _) (4 points), then the first letter (F _ _ _) (3 points), then the second letter (F I _ _) (2 points) and so on. Do not go under 1 point for a good answer.
4. Giving out a WRONG answer reduces the total of point by 1.
5. Team totals may go under 0.

That's about it. I've tested this with my students and they loved it. This is for advanced students however.

Resource:
This is the list of riddles. This is the result of hours on the net spent harvesting for interesting riddles. Enjoy!

Riddle contest.doc

(39 Kb)

[Noego]

2nd lesson: The real princess.

Tested with: English major students
Class size: 22-45

Procedure:
#1. Print the following material.

• Student sheet:Real princess-student.doc
• Teacher sheet:Real princess teacher.doc

#2. Download the following fairy tale: ''The real princess''. This is an mp3 available from LibriVox.(You may find hundreds of FREE and LEGAL audio books over there, definitely worth your time).

I uploaded it for you HERE.

#3. Distribute one sheet to each student (student sheet). Print out the teacher sheet for yourself.

#4. Let the student listen to the short fairy tale three times and ask them to fill in the blanks.

#5. Give out the answers to the students (fill in the blanks)

#6. Give the students some time to complete the crossword.

__________________________________________________ ___________

This activity is suitable if you're especially tired one day as it doesn't require a lot of effort, teaching wise.

Some time may be spent to explain the new words of the first part.

Enjoy!

[Noego]

3rd lesson:

The idiom game

Procedure:
#1. Download the following document HERE (487 Kb). It contains a selection of idioms provided by this website:

GoEnglish.com Idioms = "Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag" = Today's English Idioms

#2. Download, if necessary, an explanation of each one of those idioms HERE. (38 Kb)

#3. Print the pictures of the idioms and stick the 8 sheets across the classroom. Write each idiom on the black board.

#4. Ask the students to match the correct idiom with the correct picture.

#5. Ask the students to guess the meaning of the idioms based on the picture and the idiom itself.

#6. Teach the idioms one by one.

__________________________________________________ ________________________

More coming up soon. I hope other members will be so kind and generous as to their own activities with the rest of the forum.

[Tdol]

There are some on the site here: http://www.usingenglish.com/lesson-plans.html

[syntactix]

I didn't read the whole of 'real princess', but when I came to the point in the teacher -sheet, where it said 'it thundered and lightened', I thought I'd pose a 'quick' question. Was the expression 'thundered and lightened' meant to trip students up?

[Noego]

''The real Princess'' is fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

After browsing ''Librivox'' for hours, it was the only short one I could find where the reader had a clear, audible voice.

Was ''thundered and lightened'' meant to trip the students up? No, not really. It's more like a difficult part of a otherwise relatively accessible text.

It does provide a good opportunity to differentiate between verb and noun however.

I hope this answers your question.

[blouen]

Nice work, Noego!

[Veron1]

Thank you Noego

I.A

[Noego]

I'm glad if it can help some of you.

I just to say, however, this isn't my thread.

I mean the whole purpose of this thread is that we can all share our teaching plans together.

Present them in a way which is simple for other teachers to use them.

Wouldn't it be awesome if we all shared what we've discovered/done, what we've tested in our classrooms and what turned out to be great material?

I hope some of you, who are reading this, will participate in this little project!:)

[ddeubel]

Great idea to share lesson plans.

I have been doing it for awhile and call it Lesson in a Can. Take a look.

I liked the lessons but really don't like teaching idioms unless they are the handful that are the most basic. For obvious reasons that it isn't the most efficient use of time because students won't retain them unless there is a very specific and concrete context.

But thanks, come join the conversation.

David