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ACE English Program Lesson Planner

Teacher:		Level:	ACE (Low – High beginner)
Skill:	Conversation, writing	Date:	Lesson 36 – September 11, 2006
Subskills:	Describing past events, comparing the past with the present	Topic:	Before the Tsunami:
Objective:	SWBAT: Strengthen their ability to talk about the past using simple past tense verbs. Narrate a series of past event using past simple  Confidently talk about their village before the tsunami and compare it with the present. Talk about their own lives before the tsunami and compare it with the present.	Lexis:	Verb forms past and present from previous lesson. Focus of this session is conversation.
Language point(s):	What happened? Before the tsunami I … Now I … Before the tsunami my village … Now my village … Before the tsunami most people in my village… Now most people in my village …	Anticipated problems:	No new lexis. They need new lexis!!! Phonology of past tense verbs (walked [t], followed [id]) not happening much

STAGE	E | S | A	TARGET LANGUAGE	TEACHER	STUDENT	MATERIALS	TIME	TEACHER’S EVALUATION
	E	Warm up and recap	Takes attendance. Greets Ss. Asks oral comprehension questions from previous lessons. Focus on recent stuff (village descriptions, past events) “What did you do this morning?” “What did you do last week?” “How did you feel last night?” “Name something you’re proud of.”	Responds	whiteboard and markers	15 min	Didn’t spend much time on recap; jumped straight onto the marrow of it.
	E	Homework	Asks Ss to locate their homework Have Ss count off. Throw whiteboard markers at them and tell them to turn to p. 6 of homework. Their number corresponds to the sentence (elicit this word!) on that page. Have Ss come to the whiteboard and write the dictionary form of the past tense verb. Do Number 1 to model.	Writes the verb on the whiteboard	whiteboard and lots of markers	5 min	Gave the first class some time to work together on the homework—the hope  was that Kae and Gee might facilitate and help the Ss who didn’t understand. Descended into a copy-fest and I aborted. This activity was ok. In the second class I had Ss read each sentence aloud several time and corrected for phonology. Second class grasped seem to
	E/S	Homework	Writes First, Next, Then, After that, Next, and Finally on the whiteboard in a column. Have Ss take turns filling in the correct answer. Check for tense and proper sequence.	Fills in the gap.	whiteboard and markers	5 min	Scrapped this idea for fear of a boardwork snoozefest. With the second class I had Ss stand up and act out some verbs and worked through the sequencing. For example, I called on Phet to act out the following: First Phet stood up. Then she took the pen. Next she carried the pen. After that she put the pen on the chair. Finally she sat down.
	E/S	Homework	Calls on Ss individually for feedback on part C, page 2. Shush the loudmouths who will try and answer everything.	Responds	homework #15	5 min	Stage 3 and 4 became one event. Used question form “What did you do?” For the next part (with Calvin) I asked “What happened?” (after modeling several actions and asking the question).
	S	Homework.	Groups Ss in threes or fours. Get a strong Ss in each group. Have them read their dairies (HW#15 p.2 part D) aloud to each other. Monitor and correct. Have strong Ss help with correction.	Reads aloud to each other. Responds to teacher and per feedback.	HW#15	10 – 15 min	This worked quite well! They practiced the dialog and those who hadn’t done it caught up quickly. They understood the task and repeated the dialog.
	A	Homework.	Collects homework. Go around the circle and have each Ss tell class two things they did last week. Teacher interferes as little as possible here. Ss can give peer feedback.	Tells class two things they did last week.	none	5 min	Didn’t collect the homework at this stage. Had them all read their entire diary.
	A	Homework	Collect homework. Get Ss to stand up and mingle.	Ss1: What did you do? Ss2: First, I …	none	10 min	Added this stage during the lesson. The mingle went especially well, even more so during the second class—practically had to force them to stop.
	A	Past events	Put Ss into groups again. Hands them five index cards with a verb written on each. Ss must come up with past tense sentences for each. Monitor and make sure each Ss is participating, or at least not falling asleep.	Works in groups. Hopefully they come up with something funny!	index cards labeled with verbs	10 min	Game was effective practice but could’ve been jazzed up a bit with some TPR. In general they haven’t had nearly enough practice with associating these verbs with actions.
	A	Past events	Have Ss turn the cards over. Label each card 1 – 5. Turn the cards over and arrange them into a story using sequencing words. Ss copy down the story on large sheet of paper	Arranges their cards into the sequence. Writes down the story.	index cards labeled with verbs, pens, notebooks, paper, whiteboard, markers	10 min	Didn’t label the actual cards; wrote the sequence on the board again and Ss in both classes figured out what to do. Used the form “First we …” The keen students were able to order the events in a logical pattern.
	A	Past events	Have Ss hang their stories on the wall. Each group presents their story to the class, taking turns speaking.		Large sheets of paper, permanent markers	10 min	This part was lame. Here’s where some TPR and a teacher who knows what the hell they’re doing would have come in handy.
	E	Past events	Draws a timeline on the whiteboard. Marks the date December 26, 2004. Elicits “before the tsunami” and “now” from Ss. (should know already.)	Responds	whiteboard, markers	5 min	Easy.
	E	Past events	Put Ss in groups according to their village. Asks Ss “ how has your village changed since the tsunami?” Get them started with: 1. population 2. location (was on an island?) 3. professions (what did people do) 4. features (what did it have) 5. Anything else … ?	Responds	pens, paper, notebooks	10 min	This stage was insanely challenging. I assumed the theme lent itself to perfectly to this type of things but Ss seemed baffled. The whole point of teaching this grammar point was to boost their verb lexis and enable them to discuss their lives before the tsunami. Second class went better. Assigned this stage as homework.
	S	Past events	Have Ss brainstorm in groups. For Ss with no partners, place them with a smaller group.	Responds	pens, paper, pencils	10 min	Did not do this or subsequent stages.
	A	Past events	mix up the class and have them do a mingle.	Ss1: how has your village changes since the tsunami? Ss2: Before the tsunami my village had 5,000 people. Now it has 4,999. It had a mangrove forest. Now it has a muddy bank.		10 min
	HW	Past events	Assign homework: Have Ss write about their life before the tsunami and now.	Grumbles.

NOTES:

Pre-Lesson:

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