Lesson plan competition
Competitor: Olga Churakova
An English teacher at Secondary school 40, Izhevsk, Russia
e-mail: totach22@mail.ru
Lesson plan around player interview “What are your favourite words in English?”
My style of teaching: making positively optimistic (and even humorous) learning atmosphere
and create the situation of success for everyone
My motto: I wish my students enjoyed learning English
Main goal: to diagnose learners’ knowledge of vocabulary at this period of school year
Subsidiary aims:
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To revise spelling
To focus on pronunciation
To recycle, to consolidate vocabulary and to give practice in using new words
To develop speaking, listening and reading skills
To get students actively involved in learning process and motivate them using English in real life
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 To develop students’ confidence in searching and using the right words in a short time period
 To test students’ memory
Personal aims: to generate students’ interest in the topic “Football” and attract their attention to the site
http://premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org, to introduce the idea “English skills are just like football skills. If you want to
improve, you have to practice”.
The psychological idea of the lesson: to concentrate on vocabulary and make students to choose needed words in a time
limited situation. Our brain works as the scanning system in a stressed moment. It starts to activate all possible words very
quickly and refresh the most memorable lexicon. The activities on the lesson supposed to recollect huge amount of words at
the short period of time.
This lesson plan could be suitable for any age group. The final chart level will depend on your students’ language level.
Time of the lesson can vary on some stages because of the amount of students in the group and the students’ skills. It is
perfect to let each student practice speaking during the lesson.
Stage
Timing
Procedure
Explanation the
lesson activity
and final
product
3’
Today we are going to make a word list. But I won’t tell you what kind of
words or even the theme:).
You need the chart for the lesson. Let’s draw it. There are 7 columns.
Brainstorm
4’
At the end of the lesson your chart will be fully completed with words.
Let’s start. Now you should follow my instruction with no thinking (as you
Teaching purpose.
Main activity.
Listening
Students work individually, not to
get neighbour’s idea from the
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Checking the
words from
brainstorming
Moving as
physical activity
Presentation of
4’
Time here
depends on
the amount
of students in
the group
7’
4’
like doing))), just write words automatically in 20 seconds, it seems like
brainstorming.
So, the 1st column – write 3 English words which come to your mind
accidentally right now (any words, from any topic, no any teacher’s
comments)
2nd column – write 3 English words which are connected with football (each
student can have his own association, no any wrong or right variants)
3rd column – write 3 English words which we use more often on our English
lessons
4th column – I give you more time to think now (about 1 minute) to write
your favourite words in English language.
other mind and strange vocabulary.
It’s extremely interesting to know the words from your chart, isn’t it?
Let’s listen to each student one by one, just read your words from the 3 rd
column. Read quickly, please, without pause.
Pronunciation
Next, to look at each other’s’ words from 1st and 2nd column, you should
move to your left neighbour’s seat. I’ll give you the signal to move further.
While looking through your classmate’s chart, you should tick 1 word that
you think is the most pleasant for you. When you back to your seat, your
chart will have a lot of ticks and you can point the favourite word for this
moment.
Keep your favourite words in secret; we will compare them at the end of the
lesson.
And now would you like to know favourite words in English of Englishspeaking people?
I’ll show you the site http://premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org, I
Movements for putting the
pressure away.
Reading
Spelling
Computing
3
the new
Internet
resource
Time here
depends on
the students’
level of
speaking
advise you to surf it at home more carefully. Now have a look at “HOME”
page, “CLUBS”, “PLAYERS”. What is the site about?
I think the site is about …………………
I’m not sure but it could be ………………….
Maybe it’s about ……………………
But look at these pages: “WORDS”, “SKILLS”. Who is the site for?
I suppose ……………………….
I see it’s great idea for ………………………..
As I can see ……………………………………
People who are interested in …………………….. could ………………………. here.
Working with the net
Predicting
Speaking
Pay attention on wisdom from this site: “English skills are just like football
skills. If you want to improve, you have to practice”.
Do you agree with it?
4 games *2
min = 8’
Let’s have fun with “GAMES” page. (we play each game once, just to show
students the opportunities of the site and make them interested in it).
Coming to computer, playing
games on the site.
4
Pre-watching
game
7’
Time here
depends on
the amount
of students in
the group
Watching
interview
without sound
3’
Watching
interview with
sound
3’
Systematizing
the word chart
7’
Time here
depends on
the students’
level of
But now it’s time for “TEACHER” page. There are player interviews. We will
watch one video and continue to fill in the charts. I click the interview and
ask students to read the title: “What are your favourite words in English?”.
So we are going to watch the interview but without any sound. It’s very
simple for you just to listen and write down the words, that’s why you will
guess the words by lips.
Is it possible to understand by lips? In fact, there is a special sign language
with no sound. Let’s try to do it before watching the video.
Each student stands in front of the class and says English word without
voice; don’t use your body language, only mouth. All the students guess and
write these words in the 5th column. There will be the words which are
“close” to favourites or floating at the top of language.
Checking the spelling of these words.
Listening
It was the rehearse before watching the interview. Now let’s watch it and
identify the favourite words in football players’ mind. Watching twice and
writing down possible words in the 6th column. Checking children’s variants,
each student reads the words aloud.
Guessing
It’s the final step. We are watching the interview with sound and filling in
the last column: favourite words of football players. Watching twice.
Writing the words which children could point out. Then I read the transcript
to find out what sportsmen really said. Checking the spelling.
Listening
So as a result, everybody has the chart with 7 columns. Look through it one
more time and choose YOUR personal favourite words in English.
My favourite words in English are ……………………
I’ve chosen ……………………… as my favourite words for today.
It is difficult to choose but I think my favourite English words are …………..
Speaking
Getting positive emotions.
Game.
Communication
Spelling
Spelling
Spelling
5
speaking
Which column was the easiest to fill in? Which was the most difficult?
As for me, the …..th column was ……………….. for me because …………………..
At the end, we should systematize all our work. Let’s find out the favourite
English words among our group. Several persons read the words from
his/her chart and all the others tell if they have this word or not. We ask
one person to write the words which are used by more than 3 students. It
will be list of our favourite words in English.
Read the final list of words.
Who would like to decorate this list as a poster? We’ll put it on the wall for
everybody to watch and analyze.
Home work
Plans for the
next activity
Optional task
for motivated
students
3’
Reading
Pronunciation
As a conclusion, we need to systematize these words for further using.
That’s why you are to rewrite the words into the other chart – as the parts of
the speech: noun, verb, adjective and others. It will be your homework. We Practicing exam form of exercises
will see which part of the speech is the most usable. And we’ll transform
these words into the other parts of the speech.
I suggest the optional project activity – to make a video with the
Project
conversation like students have seen today, with the same title “What are
your favourite words in English?”. Kids can act out the interview themselves
(as prepared speech) or film somebody. Then present video for all the class.
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