Lesson Skeletons: Good day/Bad day?

Thanks to Fiona Mauchline for her session at TESOL France 2011, entitled “write on, right on!”, from which the idea for this lesson plan came.

Take a sentence starter like

“I got out of the house this morning, and…”

1. Ask each learner to add the next line, taking it in turns sitting in a circle

or

Hand out a piece of paper and ask learners to pass it around in groups, completing the next sentence

or

In groups, mime the activities they did next and guess what happened (Thanks Anna Musielak for the drama inspiration)

2. Ask learners to draw a table, something like this:

A good day

A Bad day

They  fill it out to explain what makes a good day and what makes a bad day for them. Add an example of your own the act as a prompt, like “When we’ve run out of coffee in the morning”. In this stage feed in vocab to help them express what they want in the table.

3. Discuss in groups/as a class what makes a good day for them and a bad day. Encourage learners to ask each other questions in this stage. During this time, move around the room, monitor for interesting themes developing or difficulties learners are having with language for the next stages.

4. Board some interesting examples that could be extended for language or theme. How could these be extended?

e.g.

A bad day is when I miss the bus

1. Brainstorm in groups lexical sets for transport.

2. Discuss how transport services in your city could be improved (leading to a debate/letter of recommendation/language for giving recommendations).

3. Elicit what happens when you miss the bus (you arrive late) and ask learners to mime reasons for being late for work/class

A good day is when I don’t do any work

1. What are your responsibilities at work (helping with language to explain what you do at work)

2. How could you help pass the time when you’re at work with nothing to do (language for suggestions or first conditionals).

A horrible day is when it rains

1. Discuss what normal types of weather are for this time of year. This could lead to brainstorming lexis for the weather, comparatives, and past tenses (well, last year, it was nothing like this, it was much colder and rained more, I remember…)

2. If have the luxury of internet access, why not use this as a stimulus to brainstorm weather vocab and review future tenses in preparation for watching the weather forecast.

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