Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Make a Monster

Junior 2 lesson: Make a Monster

by Shannon


Objectives: To review parts of the body/learn some new parts of the body, to celebrate Halloween by using those body parts to draw monsters (while practicing listening). Students also learn about Halloween in America.

First, students are given copies of the following diagram (larger size). They work in groups to fill it in as best they can, and then the activity is completed as a class. Students practice pronunciation drills of the new words, with special attention paid to the “TH” sound in “thigh” and “mouth” and the long vowels of “shoulder” and “waist.”


Second, class discusses American Halloween customs and traditions. New vocabulary: ghost, witch, monster, trick or treat.


Then, teacher shows a picture of a monster, and ask students to describe the monster using body part words, eg. He has three heads, he has a blue nose, he has twelve red fingers.


Finally, teacher tapes a large sheet of butcher paper to the board and volunteers come up one at a time to draw a monster according to a given description, e.g. “draw a black mouth with six yellow teeth.”


The resulting monsters were really cute. Each class’s monster was pasted to the back board for all the classes to enjoy.

Plane Crash

Senior 1 lesson: A Plane Crash
by Shannon


Objectives: Learning new vocabulary, arguing a position on a subject.


Students are given the following information in a handout. First the passage is read aloud by the teacher and new vocabulary is elicited (pilot, crash, etc.) Students take turns reading the descriptions of the 10 people, and the teacher posts pictures from the internet on the board to accompany each description, adding visual interest.


After the descriptions are read, students work in groups or pairs to answer the 2 questions at the bottom of the handout. Then the responses are shared as a group and listed on the board.


At the end of the class, a vote is taken to see which 4 people the class chose. As a variation, students could vote first before discussion, and then vote again to see if their votes changed after the discussion.


Handout:

There has been an airplane crash in a desert where nobody lives. 10 people are still alive after the crash. No people live in the desert and they are far from a city. There is enough food and water for the 10 people to live two days. Instead, they have decided to choose 4 people who will take all of the food and water and walk for 6 days to find a city. The pilot knows that a city is about 100 kilometers away. 4 people will try to find the city, 6 people will stay behind and might die. Which 4 people should be chosen to find the city?


1. The Girl: Works in a shop (20 years-old) She is beautiful, did not finish school, is 2 months pregnant, and not married.

2. The Army Soldier: (40 years-old) Trained to survive and help others. Very healthy.

3. The Pilot: (35 years-old) Understands directions well, believes he knows where the city is.

4. The Young Mother: (25 years-old) She is a teacher; her children were not on the airplane.

5. The University Student: (21 years-old) Very smart, will have a great job in the future.

6. The Rich Businessman: (45 years-old) Owns a huge business. Many people work for him.

7. The Famous Politician: (60 years-old) He will try to become the next President or leader of a country.

8. The Nurse: (35 years-old): Knows how to help people who are sick or hurt.

9. The Boy: (8 years-old) Very young and lovely. Wants to see his mommy and daddy again.

10. Yao Ming: (27 years-old) Great NBA player. Famous.


Please Answer These Questions:

#1) Why do you think each person should live? What does each person contribute to society?

#2) Choose 4 people who will live. Why did you choose them?

Inventions

Senior 1 lesson: Inventions
by Shannon

(sorry, I don’t have a handout to share for this one; I did the descriptions of each invention on big sheets of butcher paper)


Objectives: Learning new vocabulary, using comparisons


Teacher brings pictures and descriptions of various inventions (from as simple as a vegetable peeler to as advanced as a submarine). After pre-teaching new vocabulary, students read the descriptions together. Before breaking the class into groups, go over ways to make comparisons (more than this one, better than that one, etc.)


In groups, students are given two of the inventions and asked to list 3 reasons that one is more useful than the other. Answers are shared with the class.


Finally, each student group is given 10 minutes to design their own invention. The teacher gives an example and some guiding questions (who would use this? How much would it cost?) Students share their ideas with the class. (Alternatively, this assignment could be given as homework and the lesson could be stretched over 2 class periods).

American Jokes

Re-telling Jokes

from http://waze.net/oea

1. Copy a set of jokes (found below) and then cut them into strips of paper. Copy a table with a column for the jokes' names, heard, and told. Cut these into small rectangles.

2. Give a sample American joke – pre-teach blonde and the stereotypes associated with them. Pre-teach any other vocab from your jokes and explain the columns – they will read their joke, remember it (no reading!), then re-tell it to each other. They will mark “told” in the appropriate column. After they hear another classmates joke, they should mark “heard.”

3. If they hear a joke they like, they can tell that joke instead of their original joke. Continue marking their table so they can keep track of which ones they have heard.

4. Give them a good 15 minutes or so to mingle amongst each other and hear/tell as many jokes as possible.


The joke about the tiger

Two men are walking through a forest. Suddenly, they see a tiger in the distance, running towards them. They turn and start running away. But then one of them stops, takes some running shoes from his bag, and starts putting them on.

“What are you doing?” says the other man. “Do you think you will run faster than the tiger with those?”

“I don’t have to run faster than the tiger,” he says. “I just have to run faster than you.”


The joke about the genie

An Australian is sitting at a bar, and he sees a lamp on a table. He picks up the lamp and rubs it, and out pops a genie. It says, “I will give you three wishes.”

The man thinks for a while, then he says, “I want a beer that is never empty.”

The genie waves his hand, and a bottle of beer appears on the bar. The Australian starts drinking it. When it is almost empty, it starts to refill. The man is very happy. The genie asks about his next two wishes.

The man says, “I want two more of those.”


The joke about the ugly son

There was a man who had four children, all extremely good-looking, except for the youngest one, Craig. Craig was quite ugly!

The man grew old, and just before he died he asked his wife, “Mary, I have only one question. Please tell me the truth. Am I Craig’s father?”

“Yes, my dear,” replied his wife. “I promise you, Craig is 100% yours.”

The husband smiled. “I can die a happy man. Goodbye, my love.” And he peacefully passed away.

Mary gave a big sigh and said, “Thank god he didn’t ask me about the other three.”


The joke about the smart dog

A man went to visit a friend, and was surprised to find him playing chess with his dog. He watch the game in amazement for a while.

“I can hardly believe my eyes!” he said. “That’s the smartest dog I’ve ever seen!”

“Oh, he’s not so smart,” the friend replied. “I’ve won four games so far, and he’s only won two.”


The joke about the cute dog

A man walks into a shop and sees a cute little dog. He asks the shopkeeper, "Does your dog bite?"

The shopkeeper says, "No, my dog does not bite."

The man tries to pet the dog and the dog bites him.

"Ouch!" he says. "I thought you said your dog does not bite!"

The shopkeeper replies, "That is not my dog!"


The joke about the robber

One night, Tim was walking home, and all of a sudden a robber jumped on him. Tim and the robber began to fight. They fought and fought, but finally the robber managed to pin him to the ground. He searched Tim’s pockets, but only found 25 cents. The robber was so surprised that he asked Tim, “Why did you fight so hard for just 25 cents?”

Tim said, “I thought you wanted to steal the $500 that I’ve got in my shoe!”


The joke about the pool

A beautiful woman walked into an orchard (果园) and found a lovely pool. It was a hot day, and she decided to go for a swim. She looked around, but didn’t see anybody. So she took off all her clothes. She was just about to jump into the pool, when a man suddenly appeared. He was the owner of the orchard, and he had been hiding behind a tree!

“This is my orchard, and swimming in the pool is prohibited (禁止),” he said.

“Well, you should have told me that before I undressed,” said the woman angrily.

“Swimming is prohibited,” he replied, “But undressing isn’t.”


The joke about the blonde

A blonde woman goes to work one day, crying. Her boss asks her why she’s crying, and she says that she just heard that her mother had died. The boss tells her to go home and rest, but woman wants to continue working so that she won’t think about the sad news too much.

A few hours later, the blonde receives a phone call. Afterwards, her boss hears her crying again. He goes and asks her what has happened. She says, “It’s so sad. My sister just called, and told me that her mother has died too.”


HANDOUT A SMALL TABLE TO EACH STUDENT

The joke about…

Heard

Told

the tiger



the ugly son



the smart dog



the cute dog



the robber



the genie



the pool



the blonde



Drawing Directions

Drawing Directions
by Naree (adapted from http://waze.net/oea)

  1. Introduce shapes – square, circle, oval, triangle, pentagon if you want, etc... Introduce different types of lines – straight, curved, horizontal, vertical, parallel if you want...

  2. Introduce descriptions – shaded, striped, spotted, etc...

  3. Introduce directions – top, bottom, in the middle, in the corner, left, right, top-left, northeast, etc...

  4. Choose one student to be the “artist” who will stand at the board with their back to the class.

  5. Show the rest of the class a pre-drawn drawing that uses the vocab you just taught.

  6. Have the artist's classmates shout out directions to help him draw what they are being shown. (You should probably call on people so the artist isn't confused by all the noise)

  7. Afterwards have the artist look at your drawing and see how close they were. Give them tips on how to improve their directions.

  8. Now have the class draw a picture using the shapes and words you just taught.

  9. Collect and re-distribute and pair up students. They CAN NOT show their drawing to the other person.

  10. Have one be the artist and the other give directions.

Swapping Stories

SWAPPING STORIES

by Naree (adapted from http://waze.net/oea)

  1. Tell a personal story (funny or from childhood) and give it a title.

  2. Tell them its their turn. Pass out a small piece of paper to each student so they can write the title of their story down. Give them time to think and write.

  3. Tell them the directions: They will go around and tell someone his/her story. Afterwards, each person should swap their little piece of paper and go to someone else. Now they must tell the story that is in their hand (someone else's story). This means they need to carefully listen and re-tell.

  4. After 20 minutes or so have them sit down and share some of the stories they liked/heard. Ask the original storyteller if the story just told was correct. This is usually the funny part b/c sometimes things are waay off! They usually have fun learning something new/funny about each other.

U.S. Geography: Where in the US is Carmen San Diego?

US Geography: Where in the US is Carmen San Diego?

by Naree

Used in my American Society & Culture class for Junior university students. In this class I tend to not give them as much homework as I could. If adapted, I would have students do more of the research and presentation. Be sure to hand out a map of the US to them (I forgot this – woops! And many wanted one afterwards). Chinese students really do enjoy learning about American culture and geography is a good place to start since it shows the diversity of cultures pretty quickly (visually, accents, food).


  1. Show a picture of Carmen – ask students who she is... a fictional character: she was a good detective (ACME) but then turned bad because she was bored and found it more challenging to steal famous monuments throughout the world. Kids watched the cartoon/game show to learn about world geography. Play the famous Carmen song “Where in the World is...” (I have this)

  2. Now introduce this game – Where in the US is she? They will be shown pictures (or you could describe a place?) and they need to guess what state she is in.(I also have a ppt of all the pics if you're interested)

  3. Show/draw a map of the US – colored regions of the map – to illustrate which state she is in. Be sure to introduce the region that state belongs to (the South, NE, West, Midwest)

  4. After finishing all the states and regions (be sure to give examples of accents and unique culture – southern food, hospitality, bigger people?, drawl “ya'll” ; northeast NY accent if possible and be sure to do a mini- 9/11 talk on how many Americans felt all over the country even though it only happened in one city (think Nanjing and Japan), oldest area in the US bc first colonists here ; Midwestern standard American accent b/c of TV broadcasters, best cheese, Great Lakes, “the mitten” / hand reference to MI & WI ; the West with a Cali valley girl accent, etc

  5. Show pics of a few tourist destinations in the US and give them the names (and a handout – included – with a brief description). Have them take notes on which ones they like (from your mini-presentation)

  6. Put them in groups of 4 and have them collectively decide on only 3 tourist destinations because they are stuck traveling together. They have to do a rank and debate type discussion.

  7. Afterwards get their feedback and see which places are more popular in their eyes.