English Conversation: Week 3

I am posting all of my lesson plans from the English Conversation course I am teaching each week to adults in Vilsbiburg. The class lasts ninety minutes and will run for ten weeks. Each week will have a theme to focus the discussion, and the students' "homework" will be to bring a related item or topic to the class the next week. I will also review my plans to let you know what worked and what didn't. I hope it will help you with your own teaching plans or even help you with your own English skills!

Lesson Plan

Week 3: 7 students

Objective: Interact in smaller groups and present in front of class.

Theme: Movies/Television

Show & Tell: Favorite movies and/or television shows.

Phrasal Verbs: Each student receives one phrasal verb to define and use in a dialogue with partners.

Skits: Students work in groups of two or three to prepare a short skit for the class. Students draw the setting of their skit for their group, and each student also draws a slip with three random words (plus their phrasal verb) they must use in their dialogue.
New York Freeze: Students act out impromptu skits in pairs. After a minute or two of one scene, teacher says "Freeze" and replaces one student with another to start a new scene. Students draw random props out of a bag to aid in the creative process.

Review

I was a little bit bummed that the class was not full today because I was really excited for the skits, but it was still a ton of fun with the seven students who were there. We had a good discussion about our favorite movies and television shows, and the students started talking to each other instead of just me pushing the discussion along.

The phrasal verbs were interesting to compare with the idioms from the previous weeks. The students were more familiar with the phrasal verbs and able to guess what they meant faster. I think it will be good to combine the unfamiliar idioms with familiar phrasal verbs to use each week.

The skits and New York Freeze were absolutely hilarious. I am always a little bit leery of the skits totally bombing, but 99% of the time the students get very into it and it all works out. Happy to say this was another one of those fun times! The students were actually better at the impromptu New York Freeze than when they took time to plan the skits.

My favorite scene from the evening was when one man put on sunglasses and jumped into the scene with another man who was holding a book. The man with the sunglasses said, "Hasta la vista, baby. I'm from the future where we wear dark sunglasses." The man with the book replied, "Well, I'm from the past, and we read books. Somewhere in between, people will all have smartphones."

Now I just have to figure out how to top today!