LESSON PLAN 10
Grammar Focus: Application of simple present tense and simple past tense
Vocabulary: Occupation and employment- related words
Reading and writing: Job advertisements
Student proficiency level: Multi-level (Levels 1, 2, and 3)
Ethnographic composition: Vietnamese, Laotian, and Thai
Objectives: Students will learn employment-related vocabulary. They will apply their knowledge
of simple present tense and simple past tense to write about their educational and work
experiences. They will learn to read job advertisements and fill out a job application.
Warm-up and review: Go over occupation-related words from earlier lesson through picture
flashcards and using pg. 25 of the textbook(home-health care, counseling, veterinary assisting,
physical therapy assisting/assistant, criminal justice/police/security guard, fitness training/trainer,
dental assisting/assistant, nail care/beautician, computer technology/technician, landscape
design/designer, nursing/nurse/medical assistant, etc.). Add new ones of relevance. Write on
board and have students pronounce. Ask Ss if anyone has a job or had one before. Tell Ss that
today we will learn how to read an ‘advertisement’ (‘ad’ for short).
Presentation: Whole group: Show Ss paper-clips(numbered A,B, C, D, and E) of five(5) jobvacancy ads(nursing assistants, restaurant staff, office assistant, construction workers, and
machine operators) from newspapers. Have Ss take turns reading each one and try to guess the
skills and other requirements. Call on Ss to answer comprehension questions about these jobs
using a checklist. Example: 1. Job A/B/C/D/E is in health care. 2. Job A/B/C/D/E has night shifts
available. 3. Job A/B/C/D/E requires travel, etc.
Practice: Reading: Whole group: Give students a copy of a pre-filled job application. Go over
related vocabulary: job title, resume, current, punctual, previous experience, other
experience, special skills, full and part time, reason for leaving, shifts, flexible, rotating,
alternate weekends, hours desired/preferred/available, salary, benefits, etc. Have Ss take
turns reading and answering each section: personal information, education, employment
experience, hours desired, skills. Have them check for true and false statements related to the
application (#s 1-10). Example:1. Oscar Garcia has a high school diploma (T) 2. He studied to be
a computer programmer. (F) 3. He would rather work the second shift. (F) etc. Model the first
one as an example.
Homework: For homework, Ss will find and copy three job advertisements from newspapers
that match their experience and interests, which they would apply for. They should write down
the reasons why they would apply for those jobs. Provide pre-scaffolding: These are the three
jobs I am going to apply for (future tense). I would apply for the position of( name of
position)because (reason).
Practice: Independent work: If Ss brought their homework, which was to write down their
educational and work experiences, and then ask them to take those out. Have one S read hers.
Hand them the blank employment application/questionnaire. Go over the questions and model a
few answers. Ss fill out with their personal information. Remind them to use simple present and
simple past tense where needed.
Discussion Point: Point out relevant verbs in their simple present and past tense forms and write
on board: do-did; go-went; study-studied; help-helped; assist-assisted; work-worked;
graduate-graduated; finish-finished; start-started; take-took etc.
Reflections: Following up on homework, as usual, took up about twenty minutes of class time,
mainly because some had not done it, and some kept shuffling through their papers. The other
trend I observed was their tendency to write down every single word I said or wrote. While
taking notes is important, it can be a deterrent to active listening, since writing speed of the
student cannot usually match the speaking speed of the teacher. I had to skip the filling up of the
job application and save it for the next lesson. Most of the employment-related vocabulary was
new to them, and I had to spend extra time explaining each term, stopping in the middle of the
job ads (paper clips) to demonstrate examples. Using flashcards really helped in this process. I
did seize the opportunity to point out how to correct the verb tenses (simple present vs. simple
past tense), using the bio-data of the lone student who had done her homework (education/work
history). To the others, I stressed on working on their employment history and bringing it to class
since that was what we would use in our next class to fill up the job applications. Also, the
homework regarding looking through newspapers and selecting three suitable job ads seemed a
little challenging to them, since I was intentionally going for “pushed output.” I spent about ten
minutes writing down and explaining each step of the homework assignment on the board (since
my students seemed to be visual learners) with example sentences of how they could summarize
the job descriptions and their reasons for selecting the jobs in separate columns. This is probably
their most demanding homework so far, but with the pre-scaffolding I provided, I will keep my
hopes up that at least one of them will attempt to do it, and even a partial attempt would be
rewarded on my part.