SAMPLE LESSONS

Skill: Asking wh- questions; using simple past tense
Objective: To encourage students to ask and answer wh- questions in English by utilizing high-interest, authentic materials
Materials used: 19th and 206th century census reports from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York, NY USA

Background: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York is a tenement building that has been restored to reflect different eras in US immigration history. The museum’s website offers a variety of educational materials including copies of census reports from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Classroom Activities: After hearing a brief introduction to the topic of US immigration and a description of the museum, students review the 1980 and 1900 census reports to identify the types of information included. Then they brainstorm the wh- questions the census takers had to ask in order to obtain the information  — for example, Where were you born? How many people live here? What are your children’s names? Students then work in pairs taking turns role-playing census taker and building resident.

When all students have had an opportunity to ask wh- questions and and answer them using the past tense, students talk about what changes in immigration they can identify based on the census reports. For example, where did most immigrants in 1870 come from, compared to those listed in the 1900 census?

PAST LESSONS PLANS

The lesson plans below were developed and presented at IMAC Ingles Total in Guadalajara, Mexico. They are based on the OpenMind series of EFL textbooks. IMAC requires that, for their first five teaching practices, trainees follow the book exactly.  Beginning with the sixth teaching practice, however, trainees are required to design original lessons that meet the learning objectives set out in the textbook.

Using language to describe live performances (February 10, 2015)
An intermediate-level lesson focusing on language related to entertainment, including types of performers and venue-related words

Greetings at different times of day (February 12, 2015)
Beginning students were introduced to greetings appropriate for different times of day, and practiced pronouncing the English alphabet

Improving reading skills through prediction (February 13, 2015)
Students learned to look for clues in the text to help them predict what might happen next. They also used adjectives to describe objects, and wrote a simple recipe.

Introducing object pronouns (February 20, 2015)
In this introductory lesson,  lower intermediate students completed a number of different activities related to the use of object pronouns

Discussing social identities (February 23, 2015)
In this advanced-level course, students identified the various social groups to which they belong, and talked about what they have in common with other members of the group

Politely asking for and giving personal details; learning about ordinal numbers  (February 24, 2015)
Lower-intermediate students used role-playing and other means to practice using polite language when requesting personal information. They also learned and practiced using ordinal numbers, with emphasis on making the “th” sound.