I’m sure that you have already talked with your students about their hometowns.
So why not give this topic a little twist and turn it into some don’ts people should be aware of when visiting other cities?
Curious about how to do it?
I’ve a lesson for advanced students for you!
Keep reading!
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Before we start, this lesson has a special component called “flipped classroom”.
Basically, the flipped classroom means that you give the students something for homework to do before the next class.
This “something” will be used as a springboard for the next class.
In our case, I gave a video about the don’ts of visiting Toronto as homework.
The students got assigned to one part (the video is 12 minutes long) and they had to
watch the video
answer the questions for their part and
analyze how the person spoke (body language, stress, intonation).
You can also use this video for a lower-level class.
You will just need to get rid of the point "analyze how the person spoke..." if you think it might be too advanced for your class.
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Let’s look at how we can do this lesson together!
I will walk you through every single step.
As always, you can grab the lesson for free here!
Please note: this lesson is about hometown. However, some students might not want to talk about their hometown.
This is perfectly fine because they can share something about cities that
they know well OR
they have been to
Let’s start!
1. Elicit the topic from the students. In our case, we’re based in Toronto. You can change the picture based on where you are.
(slide 1)
2. Have the students stand up and mingle while discussing the questions
(slide 2-5)
3. It’s time to share the notes they took about the homework.
(slide 6)
4. First, you have them come together based on their group number (for example, all Part 1 people together).
They can check what they understood and exchange their notes.
5. Now it is time to share the notes with the people from the other parts.
After each round, have the students discuss
which fact they found interesting and
which fact is a bit similar to their city
(slide 7)
6. After a couple of rounds, you have the students discuss the question:
If you had watched this video before coming here, would you still have come? OR would this video have made you change your mind?
(slide 8)
7. Now the fun part is about to begin!
Ask the students
What are other expressions we can use to say when we shouldn’t be doing something?
How would you say it in your language?
The second question is important. I think that if we allow the students’ first language(s) to come into the classroom, we can create a more inclusive atmosphere. Do you feel the same?
(slide 9)
8. Now you can feed in more language.
(slide 10)
You can have the students play some kind of snowman and have them try to guess the missing words or letters.
You will see the answers on slide 11.
Make sure to elicit some examples on the spot. You will see some of the examples on slide 11 again.
9. Task time!
This is now the part where the students can use the actual language.
(slide 12)
You can say this
“You decided to create a similar video called
“The DON’TS of visiting [your city]”.
Step 1
Come up with FOUR/FIVE things people shouldn’t do.
Create a slide deck – one slide for one picture + one key word.
For each “don’t”, you will be talking for 1 minute.
Give them 10 minutes.
Monitor and give support if needed.
It’s time for Step 2!
You can divide the step in two rounds.
(slide 13)
Say:
Step 2
Present the DON’TS (3) to your partner.
Your partner will listen to you and take notes.
At the end, they will ask you at least 2 follow-up questions.
Your goal: Convince your partner to visit your city.
At the end of each round, you will do feedback, of course!
Feedback on content and on language.
10. The last thing that is left is the reflection.
(slide 14)
It is important that the students reflect on
what they did AND
why they did it
I usually ask these questions:
How did you try to convince each other?
How did you emphasize your ideas?
What would you do differently?
Overall, how do you think the task went?
And here you have it!
Now you have a lesson about the don’ts in your hometown.
🗨️ Over to you:
What other functional language would you add to the ones you read?
Share your ideas in the comments!
Source of the picture:
Source of the speech bubble: https://emojipedia.org/left-speech-bubble
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