Lesson Plan
Grade level(s) College Freshman
Level: Lower Intermediate
Subject(s): EFL
Student Number: 36 Students
Facilities: Standard Classroom: movable desks, white board, air conditioning, heating
Materials: A4 paper, pencils, domino story handouts, role play cards, audiotape, and tape player white board.
Collaborative learning, empathy, and dialogical Reasoning
Lesson Focus:
This two part lesson utilizes collaborative learning, empathy, and dialogical reasoning. The first part of the lesson uses collaborative methods in an oral fluency and grammatical accuracy activity where students use deductive reasoning to discover the rules associated with past simple construction. The second part of the lesson is an oral fluency exercise which utilizes the past simple tense and apologies to focus on empathy and dialogical reasoning.
Lesson Summary:
In the first part of the lesson, the instructor begins the Monday morning class with a discussion of the weekend's activities using the past simple form. The discussion shifts to drinking and its pros and cons in Korean society. The students perform a collaborative writing activity to brainstorm the pros and cons of alcohol consumption. Afterwards, the students work collaboratively to perform a past simple jigsaw domino story about Peter, a student who behaved badly after drinking too much. The second part of the lesson is a fluency role play that focuses on empathy and dialogical thinking by having the students explore how alcohol abuse effects those around them. Finally, there is a closing discussion about alcohol abuse.
Part 1:
Grammar Focus: Past Simple Tense Accuracy
Activity: Domino Picture Story
Skills Focus: Multi Skills - Reading, Speaking, Listening, and Writing
Step 1:
The instructor begins the Monday morning class with a discussion of the weekend's activities using the past simple form.
Step 2:
The discussion shifts to drinking and its pros and cons in society. The students perform a collaborative writing activity to brainstorm the pros and cons of alcohol consumption. The teacher puts A4 pieces of paper in the front of the room. One for each group and a few extra so that nobody has to wait. Each piece a paper has a different question on it (fig. 1). The students are placed groups of three, each with a secretary and a runner. Working collaboratively, the runner walks to the front of the classroom, picks up one piece of paper, and returns to the group; the group discusses it; the secretary writes it down; and the runner replaces the piece of paper and takes another. This procedure is repeated until every group has seen and responded to every piece of paper at least once.
fig. 1
Questions: One on each page.
What are some good things about drinking?
What are some bad things about drinking?
Why do people drink?
Why do people drink too much?
What bad things can happen when someone drinks too much?
How would you feel if a friend said he/she didn't want to drink with you?
What would you do if a friend said he didn't want to drink with you?
How would your parents feel if you came home drunk?
What would your parents do if you come home drunk?
How do you feel when you see someone sleeping in the street because they drank too much?
How do you feel about someone who vomits in the street?
How do you feel when you see a drunk person fighting?
What would you do if your boyfriend/girlfriend got drunk while you were on a date?
Step 3:
The students work collaboratively to complete a domino story. The students are broken up into three teams of two, a, b, and c. Each team is given a different task sheet (fig. 2). The teams are further separated into pairs. The pairs, working collaboratively, read the task sheet and draw pictures representing the story line on their sheet.
fig. 2
Task Sheet for group a
Sonny invited Peter, Karen, and Paul to dinner.
They went to a restaurant.
They ate pasta.
They drank 4 bottles of wine.
Peter fell asleep at the table.
Sonny paid the check.
Peter's friends carried him outside.
Task Sheet for group b
Peter fell down on the sidewalk.
He vomited on Karen's shoes.
He fell asleep on the sidewalk.
Paul tried to help Peter.
Peter hit Paul.
Sonny and Peter's friends put Peter in a taxi.
Sonny vomited in the taxi.
They arrived at Peter's house.
Sonny paid the taxi fare.
Task Sheet for group c
Sonny knocked on the front door of Peter's house.
Peter's father opened the door.
Peter's father yelled at Peter.
Peter's mother hit Peter.
Sonny apologized to Peter's parents.
Sonny went home.
Peter called Sonny and apologized.
Sonny hung up on Peter.
Step 5:
The students, collaboratively working in pairs, look at the pictures they have drawn and prepare to tell their story to the new partners they will soon have using the aid of the pictures they have drawn.
Step 6:
Students regroup into new teams, which consist of one a, one b, and one c. Each member shows the other members his/her drawing and tells them the story. The other team members listen and write down the details in grammatically correct sentences. Collaboratively, they help each other record the story.
Step 7:
Students return to their original pairs, a's join a's, b' join b's, and c's join c's. They turn to the pair behind them to create a group of four. Together, they check for accuracy.
Step 8:
Members of the group who have finished more quickly than the others go to the board and write the story on the whiteboard. The class works together to note and make error corrections.
Part II
Focus: Past Simple Tense and Apologizing Fluency
Activity: Fluency Role Play
Focus: Multi Skills - Speaking and Listening
The students conduct a role play focusing on empathy and dialogical reasoning where Peter meets those he interacted with the night before and those who would be concerned about his behavior: Sonny, Sonny's mother, Sonny's father, Peter's mother, Peter's father, Karen, Paul, and the taxi driver. He has to apologize, attempt to explain his behavior, and ask them for forgiveness. Each member of the group tells them how they feel and has to decide whether to forgive him.
Step 1:
The inner circle is composed of, half of the students who receive a Peter role card. The outer circle is composed of the other half who receives role cards for the other members of the story: Sonny, Sonny's mother, Sonny's father, Peter's mother, Peter's father, the taxi driver, Karen and Paul. The students get form two circles, a large outer one and a small inner one. Those playing Peter approach, try to justify their behavior, and ask for an apology. This continues for 1-2 minutes until the teacher plays music from the audio player. Then they begin walking in a circular pattern. When the teacher stops the music stops, they move to a new partner and continue. This is repeated until each Peter has had a chance to interact with those representing the other people, Sonny, Sonny's mother, Sonny's father, Peter's mother, Peter's father, the taxi driver, Karen, and Paul.
Step 2:
Afterwards, the groups switch roles, the inner circle becomes the outer and the outer becomes the inner, and the activity is repeated.
Closing Discussion:
The instructor leads a closing discussion about alcohol abuse, Peter's behavior, the people it effected, and their feelings
Step 1:
The students are assessed on how well they participated collaboratively in each step. The final product is reviewed for grammatical accuracy of the past simple tense, but it is not formally assessed. Instead, it is used to evaluate the class' needs for future work.
Step 2:
The students are only assessed on how well they participated in the role play activity. This is a fluency exercise which utilizes empathy and dialogical reasoning; so, while some errors are noted for future work, no assessment is done.
