Life Experience: Free-Time Activities, Demo Lesson Plan
Gary teaches by video call into a rural Vietnam classroom (his video shown on the class's one shared screen); students have no computers of their
own. A classroom assistant is physically present. First meeting with this class (demo lesson). | Framework: Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction
| Coursebook: 'Life Experience', Lesson 1 (free-time vocabulary; Wh- question review; interview and summary writing) | Focus: expressing
preferences and abilities, question formation, spoken interview, summary writing
Learning objectives
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Use vocabulary for free-time activities and expressions of preference/ability (can't stand, don't mind, good at, hopeless at,
prefer...to).
Form Wh- questions correctly to ask about someone's free time.
Interview a partner and summarise their answers in a short sentence.
Note: ESL class in Vietnam
These are ESL students, not native speakers, so every model answer and script in the appendix uses plain, everyday English. Cambridge is also new
to this school, so unfamiliar activity types (e.g. matching questions to answers) may need a spoken example first.
Note: about Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction
Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction is a set of ten research-based teaching strategies, drawn from cognitive science and studies of
effective classrooms (Barak Rosenshine, 2012). In short: review what students already know before teaching something new;
introduce new content in small steps; model your own thinking so students see how an expert does the task; give guided practice with
support before removing it; ask questions and check understanding throughout, rather than only at the end; aim for a high success rate
at every step; and move to independent practice only once students can do the task confidently alone. The “Rosenshine principle”
column in the Lesson sequence below names which of these ideas each step is built around.
Key vocabulary (extracted from the text)
Word / phrase
Where it appears
Meaning
play video games / paint / play
football / take photos / meet up with
my friends / play the piano
Word study
The six free-time activities used throughout the lesson.
can't stand (doing something)
Activity 4a
Dislike something very strongly.
don't mind (doing something)
Activity 4b
Have no strong feeling either way, it's fine.
good at (something)
Activity 4c
Able to do something well.
hopeless at (something)
Activity 4d
Very bad at doing something.
prefer X to Y
Activity 4e
Like X more than Y.
Resources needed, printed by the school before the lesson
No screen-sharing anywhere in this plan, and no audio recording available for the Listen activity (substituted with Gary reading live, see the Lesson
sequence). Everything students need to look at must already be on paper in front of them.
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life-experience-handouts.docx, printed in advance, one set per student (or per pair): page 1 (free-time phrases + the five
gapped preference/ability sentences, blank), page 2 (the four questions and four scrambled answers, for matching), page 3
(interview notes grid + summary sentence space)
A classroom assistant, physically present, to distribute the printed pages, help pair students up, and circulate during
pair/independent work
Pen for each student
Lesson sequence
Time
Rosenshine principle
Teacher does
Students do
0–4 (4 min)
Introduction (rapportbuilding)
First meeting with this class, so opens with
the Introduction script in the Appendix (not
a Rosenshine step, but essential before
anything else), spoken to camera only; no
Watch and listen from their classroom seats; react out
loud or to the assistant.
Time
Rosenshine principle
Teacher does
Students do
slides or screen-share, since Gary appears
to the room on their one shared screen but
cannot display anything himself.
Review of prior
knowledge
Asks: “What do you like doing in your free
time?” Invites volunteers (or asks the
assistant to nominate students), repeating
each answer aloud clearly.
Recall individually and volunteer an example out loud.
8–14 (6
min)
Present new material in
small steps
Introduces the six free-time phrases
through mime and personal examples (no
pictures needed): says each phrase, mimes
the action, asks “What am I doing?” Then
models the preference/ability expressions
(can't stand, don't mind, good at, hopeless
at, prefer...to) using his own free time, e.g.
“I love playing football, but I'm hopeless at
basketball!”
Watch, guess the phrase, and repeat it chorally; listen to
the modelled example sentences.
14–19 (5
min)
Guided practice
(listening)
No audio recording available, so reads the
five gapped sentences from the Appendix
aloud slowly, twice, in place of a listening
track. Pairs complete the matching gaps on
their printed handout by ear.
Listen and write the missing word/phrase in each of the
five gaps on their printed handout.
19–21 (2
min)
Check for
understanding
Takes whole-class feedback on the five
gapped sentences; confirms the answers
from the Appendix.
Check and correct their own answers against the model.
21–26 (5
min)
Present new material in
small steps
Introduces the Use of English box:
Question word + do + you + verb. Models
turning 2–3 statements into questions live,
using the walkthrough script in the
Appendix.
Listen and follow; note what changes between a
statement and a question.
26–33 (7
min)
Guided practice with
scaffold
Asks pairs to match the four questions to
the four answers on their printed handout.
The classroom assistant circulates to check
progress and flag anyone stuck.
In pairs, read the four questions and four answers and
match them, on their printed copy.
33–36 (3
min)
Check for
understanding
Brings the room back; takes whole-class
feedback on the matches; confirms the
answer key from the Appendix, with
reasons.
Check and correct their own matches against the model.
36–43 (7
min)
Guided / independent
practice
Sets the Talk task: pairs interview each
other using the four question forms, noting
answers on their printed handout; each
student then writes one summary sentence
about their partner, using the sentence
frame in the Appendix.
Interview a partner face-to-face, noting their answers;
write one summary sentence about their partner.
43–45 (2
min)
Weekly/monthly review
Cold-calls 2–3 students to read out their
summary sentence. Closes warmly,
thanking the class for their first lesson with
him and previewing that next lesson they'll
write a fuller biography.
Share their summary sentence out loud if asked.
4–8 (4 min)
Scaffolds and differentiation
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Support: sentence frame for the summary sentence, “[Partner's name] likes ___. He/she is good at ___ but hopeless at ___.
He/she prefers ___ to ___.”
Extension: ask stronger students to ask their partner one extra question beyond the four given, and include it in their summary
sentence.
Appendix: scripts and model answers for delivery
In the order they're used. Each item is labelled with its step number and time from the Lesson sequence table above.
Step 1 (0–4 min): Introduction script, first meeting, online
Read live on camera before anything else. Keep it warm, slow and simple for an ESL class; pause for laughter/reactions where marked. No slides or
photos, spoken only.
“Hello everyone! My name is Mr Gary, and it's very nice to meet you all. This is our first lesson together, and today we're going to
talk about free-time activities and life experiences, so let me start by telling you about mine.
First: I am not a young teacher. I am 65 years old. [pause] That's very old, isn't it? If I ever sit down on the floor in class, I might need
one of you to help me stand up again! Don't worry, though; I promise I won't ask you to catch me.
Second: in my free time, I love football. My father was a professional footballer! His name was Joe Hayes, and he played for
Manchester City. [pause] He scored 152 goals for the club, which makes him the 5th highest goalscorer in the whole history of
Manchester City, ever! [pause] Does anyone here support a football team? If you support Manchester United... don't worry, we can
still be friends. I will just need to re-educate you a little!
Third: I have a lot of life experience! I have taught English in many countries: South Korea, Myanmar, and Vietnam. I lived and
worked in Hanoi, and I still have good friends there. I love Vietnamese food, and I am very happy to be teaching you today.
So: old, football-mad, and full of life experience! That's me. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about today: free-time
activities, and life experiences. Let's begin!”
Step 3 (8–14 min): Modelled vocabulary and preference/ability examples
Mime each phrase as you say it, then ask “What am I doing?” before revealing the phrase.
● play video games, mime holding a controller, pressing buttons
● paint, mime holding a brush, painting on an easel
● play football, mime kicking a ball
● take photos, mime holding a camera, pressing the button
● meet up with my friends, mime waving and shaking hands
● play the piano, mime pressing piano keys
Then model the preference/ability expressions with your own examples: “I love playing football, but I'm hopeless at basketball! I'm
quite good at teaching, though. I don't mind marking homework, but I can't stand losing at football. I prefer watching football to
playing video games.”
Steps 4–5 (14–21 min): Gapped-sentence listening script and answer key
No audio recording is available for this activity, so Gary reads each sentence aloud slowly, twice, in place of the coursebook's listening track.
Item
Completed sentence (read aloud slowly, twice)
a
I like watching TV, but I can't stand playing video games.
b
I don't mind being inside.
c
I'm quite good at art.
d
I'm hopeless at basketball.
e
I prefer watching films on the big screen to watching DVDs.
Step 6 (21–26 min): Use of English, question-formation walkthrough
“Let's look at a statement: ‘You like doing something in your free time.’ To make it a question, we do two things. First, we add a
question word to the front: What. Second, we swap the order: instead of you + like, we say do + you + like. So: ‘You like doing
something’ becomes ‘What do you like doing?’ The question word comes first, then do, then you, then the main verb.”
Answer to “what happens to the order of the words”: the subject (you) and the auxiliary verb (do) swap places, and a question word is
added at the very front. Statement order is Subject + verb; question order is Question word + do + subject + verb.
Steps 7–8 (26–36 min): Reading answer key, matching questions to answers
The coursebook's original answer-letter labels were not clearly recoverable from the source text, so this key matches by content instead, the pairing
itself is what matters for teaching.
Question
Matching answer
Why
1. What do you
like doing
when you've
got some free
time?
“I love drawing and playing my guitar. My two best friends
also play the guitar quite well, but I think I'm better at playing
than them!”
Answers the general “what do you like doing” question with
named activities.
2. Do you
prefer doing
activities inside
or outside?
“Both really – it depends on what I feel like doing. But I can't
stand wet weather, so then I stay inside!”
Directly answers “inside or outside” and explains when they
choose each.
3. When you go
out, which
places do you
like going to?
“I really like being outdoors, like in parks or on the beach.
But not for sports – I'm hopeless at ball games!”
Names actual places (parks, the beach), matching “which
places”.
4. Who do you
spend your free
time with?
“I've got three or four close friends who I play basketball
with. I also like meeting up with my cousins who live
nearby.”
Names people (friends, cousins), matching “who...with”.
Step 9 (36–43 min): Model interview summary (for the Write task)
Based on the coursebook's own model opening line, extended here as a full example to read aloud before students write their own.
“Kate loves drawing and playing her guitar. She's better at playing the guitar than her two best friends. She prefers being outdoors to
staying inside, unless the weather is bad. She spends most of her free time with her three or four close friends, and with her cousins
who live nearby.”