Today’s first high level student came in all excited because she had a very interesting recent news article that she wanted to discuss. After reviewing the ET: I am sick of (a) because (b), her example being; “I am sick of gossips because I am not interested in their private lives,” we moved onto the topic that she wished to converse about.
As she hastily dove into the topic, extremely eager to convey her feelings and amazement to me, I made sure to keep track of places where I could insert related questions from Routine 5 The Japan Sea. For example, she would be going on oblivious to my participation until I asked her such questions as, “What time did you meet?” and “Where did you meet him?” So, although she was able to freely work through the subject of her choice, I still managed to sneak some of the routine review into the format of this section.
Seeing as how Halloween is coming up, I chose the Let’s Talk – Ghosts section to pose as a directed conversation topic for her. She was absolutely thrilled to delve into this topic because her children are also interested in ghosts and Halloween but don’t have much information on either. So we went through the questions concerning ghosts, inventing a few new ones and elaborating on existing ones in order to adapt to her particular interests. She even shared a very intriguing ghost story with me that she’d heard from a co-worker. Along the way, I introduced a few new expressions and new vocabulary that she had fun playing with later on in the discussion. Since she was a high level student, I kept the item very challenging and fast paced so that there was not a dull moment during the lesson.
The one point of today was somewhat Halloween related – “For me, (a) is scary because (b).” She quickly came up with an example, apparently having a fear of frogs. “For me, frogs are scary because they jump up suddenly.” And that was the perfect end to today’s Halloween/Ghosty themed lesson.
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