My first lesson of Saturday was with 3 students. Two of these were red level regulars, paired with an orange student who has been very busy for the last two months.
E.T.
This meant that the orange students had their one-points fresh in their minds, and gave thanks to a friend and sister for being helpful during the week. The orange student certainly didn’t remember his one-point, nor did he have it written down. I wrote I prefer (a) to (b) because (c), partly because it was a good phrase to return to English classes with to jog his memory, and partly to encourage him to speak when he was obviously shy around the two boisterous regular students.
Routine
Routine 8 – Shopping
I asked the students to write down ten questions, then take it in turns to ask the questions to me so I could demonstrate answers. I noticed that the orange student missed a few words here and there in the questions, so I made sure to let him listen to those questions so he could fill them in. Then I asked who wanted to tell their story first – which unsurprisingly one of the regulars volunteered for. She gave really good examples, but I let the other regular student give his example answers before they both asked the shy orange student questions. He had some difficulty still, and I gave him a few prompts by writing hints on the board. The regulars also seemed very patient and were very careful when asking the questions, choosing to repeat it themselves if they thought necessary. As this all had eaten up quite a lot of time, I think we were all happy when the orange student, having struggled bravely through what he bought and why he didn’t like it, gave a thought-out answer that cut the needed for the remaining questions – “I decided to like the colours.”
Item
Intermediate – Ability 2
This section was a bit more straightforward with set dialogue. I often let the students practice inviting one another to things, declining or accepting as they choose before asking them to practice without reading it word for word. I didn’t make this demand this time as they’d had less time, and also because the orange student was relying heavily for his confidence of interacting with the other two students by glancing at his notes to reassure himself he was using the correct words.
One-point
B40
Last night I watched a program on TV about (A). Last night I read an article in the newspaper about (a). I wrote these two sentences on the board, and everyone picked one to give an example of. . I finished the lesson by inviting them all to our upcoming English school cheese and wine night. One student doesn’t drink wine, but decided to come anyway. Another student doesn’t like cheese, or the smell of it, so he decided not to come. The other two promptly signed immediately after the lesson!
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