Case 1: Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Name: Alexis Griswold, Ryan Stouder, Lia DelPrete
Overview of
Lesson:
Teaching different verb tenses of the English language, and conveying how to
translate words and sentences properly from Spanish to English both orally and
written.
Description of
Learners
The learners are in 6th and 7th grade, and are about 12-14 years old. They are
moderately low English speakers with only 2-3 years of class work experience.
Their classroom is located in Bogota, Colombia. There are 25 students in the
class, an even distribution of boys and girls. Their teacher is fluent in English,
and is able to assist them.
Intended
Learning Goals
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Write sentences with correct subject and verb agreement as well as
correct verb tenses
Use correct grammar when constructing sentences in English
Listen to sentences in English and translate into Spanish sentences
Answer questions in English sentences in letter form
Learning
Objectives:
At the end of this lessons, the students will be able to
● Explain when to appropriately use the correct tense of the verb without
any error when writing a sentence in a formal letter to a pen pal. (1.7)
(1.11)
● Describe how to conjugate the verbs in the present, past and future
tense by using the correct spelling and form of the verb while working on
the whiteboard.
● Accurately translate the sentences orally into the proper Spanish
translations after the other student speaks the sentence in English.
(1.13)
● Correct the English translation errors written on the projector in their
notebooks. (1.11)
Standards:
New York ESL Standards
Intermediate Grades 5-8
1.7- Present information clearly in a variety of oral and written forms for
different audiences and purposes related to all academic content areas.
1.11- . Use the process of prewriting, drafting, revising, peer editing, and
proofreading (the “writing process”) to produce well-constructed
informational texts
1.13- . Engage in collaborative activities through a variety of student
groupings to read, gather, share, discuss, interpret, organize, analyze,
and present information.
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Lesson
Content
Materials
Procedures
This lesson includes activities that encourage students to write and speak in
English. The lesson allows students to translate from English to Spanish and
correct English errors. They will gain knowledge on how to conjugate verbs,
speak in English and practice translating.
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Paper
Pencil
Projector
Whiteboard
Dry-Erase markers
English Composition Journal
English error sentences
1. Begin by addressing the class on how to conjugate the verb endings of
the present, past and future tenses. Have the students, by raising their
hand, volunteer answers of which endings are for the given tenses. This
material was presented in the previous lesson so students should
already have the ideas and concepts, but will work on mastering these
concepts in this current lesson. The endings should be written on the
whiteboard to serve as a visual aid. Once all the endings for all the
tenses have been collected, the lesson can proceed with learning
activities. Allot five minutes or so to complete this task.
2. Write any regular verbs on the whiteboard, and have the students
conjugate them into the past, present and future tenses using the
appropriate verb endings. Each student should conjugate one tense of
one given verb. The next student will conjugate the same verb in a
different tense. There should be enough verbs so that every students
gets a few chances to conjugate the verbs on the whiteboard. After this
is completed, move on to the next activity. Allot 15 minutes to complete
this activity.
3. Split the class into pairs. If possible, try and match students by their
capabilities and fluency in English to better the learning experience for
each student. The students will work with each other by speaking in
English and translating in Spanish. Student one will create and speak a
sentence in English to their partner. The partner will actively listen to the
English sentence and then translate it back orally in Spanish. The
student that created the English sentence should confirm that the
translation is correct. Once the sentence is correctly translated, the
students will switch roles and repeat the activity. Once the process has
caught on, encourage the students to create sentences that go with the
previous sentence to make the sentences more of a conversation. After
a while, ask the pairings to present an example of an English sentence
they created out loud to the class by speaking and translating the
sentence. Call on pairs randomly to ensure that the activity was actually
being performed. This whole process should last ten minutes in length.
4. The final activity will consist of correcting errored sentences from the
projector into the students’ English Composition Notebook. Write
sentences on the projector that have English errors within the sentence.
Errors should include spelling, gramatical, conjugating and subject/verb
agreement errors. Have the students copy the error sentence into their
journal, and then rewrite the sentence without any error. Do numerous
sentences so that students get practice with different kinds of errors.
This should last about 12 minutes.
5. Now that the lesson has been taught, explain to the students what their
assignment is. They are to write a letter to their pen pal using proper
English; this includes proper verb tense, correct spelling and
punctuation, and overall proper grammar. Topics that students should
focus on in their letter are where the student is from, how old your
student is, what their interest and hobbies are, and have them ask their
pen pal a question about their life. This assignment needs to be written
by hand, and after you grade it then they can rewrite it to send to their
pen pal.
Assessment
6. Students will compose a letter to their pen pal using proper English in
their sentences.This letter should cover the topics of: where the student
is from, how old your student is, what their interest and hobbies are, and
have them ask their pen pal a question about their life. When grading
look for accuracy in proper verb tense. Since we are reviewing verb
tense in this lesson, this should be done without any error. Also, pay
attention to subject verb agreement, proper punctuation, correct
spelling, and overall correct grammar. Make sure that all topics listed
above are covered in their letter. This assignment needs to be written by
hand first, and after you grade it then they can rewrite it to send to their
pen pal.
References
Journal Articles:
Sherafat, Z., Vahdany, F., & Arjmandi, M. (2014). THE STUDY OF DIFFERENT LANGUAGE
VIEWS PREVALENT IN TEACHING A SECOND LANGUAGE: EVIDENCE FROM IRANIAN EFL
LEARNERS. Modern Journal Of Language Teaching Methods, 4(2), 227-236
Gholami, V., Moghaddam, M., & Attaran, A. (2014). TOWARDS AN INTERACTIVE EFL CLASS:
USING ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES. Modern Journal Of Language Teaching Methods,
4(2), 124-136.
Standards derived from:
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/biling/resource/ESL/04Inter.pdf
Reference
Materials
(Annotations)
(Sherafat) This article compares two main English concepts; language
as a system and language as a discourse. The study had the goal of
determining which method was used more frequently in the elementary
grade levels. English classes were surveyed and out of those surveyed,
15 teachers were chosen to complete this study. Those teachers’
teaching methods were studied to determine which English concept was
used more frequently in their classroom. The results displayed that
language as a system was used more frequently in the classroom by
teachers.
(Gholami) This article focuses on active learning strategies and their
benefits in creating a more interactive learning environment for the
students. Language is being viewed as “interactive nature” and is being
compared in English as a Foreign Language classrooms. The intent of
this article is to help teachers create an active learning environment for
their students through active learning strategies and guidelines for good
practice.
Weebly links
http://grizz270.weebly.com/
http://Liadelprete.weebly.com/
http://ryanstouder.weebly.com/