- ET
A1.57 We’re behind schedule.
I always enjoy drawing out my ET in a natural conversational manner. It might be a bit non-standard, but for this particular One Point I start the lesson off with a bit of chat. I ask about the students’ days and one student tells me that it was another busy day at work. We chat about that until about 3 minutes after the hour. At this point I direct the students’ attention to the clock and say “Uh oh! What time is it?” Interestingly enough this brings out a quick point of review on the Time lesson about reading 7:03 as seven-oh-three. (I’m always happy about review.) So once we clear what time it is now, I ask “what time does the lesson start?” The student knows that at Smith’s lessons start on the hour and says “Seven O’clock”. Again I ask “what time is it now?” The student responds “Seven-oh-three.” Again I say “Uh-oh!” and the student says “We’re behind schedule!” That’s what I was looking for. We have a bit of a laugh and I say “You’re right! Let’s go!”
- Routine
Routine 7 “The Restaurant”
Today we’re going to go through the L and R portion of the Routine “the Restaurant”. I start as always by putting my L shape up on the board. The students take the L shape into their notes as I write it down. When I finish I give them the few seconds it takes to get their notes finished and start right into telling them the story. I read through the whole story once at just a bit slower than natural speech pace and indicate the hints on the board as I pass through. After I read the story I move right into listen and repeat. These students are Orange level so the restaurant is a good solid challenge for them. We build each part of the sentence, adding more sentences as we go. One student in particular is very much into being 100% perfect on the routine and I can see her wanting to correct the other student in class when he makes a mistake. We get to the end by about 35 minutes on the hour and I think that’s a good stopping point for today. I congratulate both the students on a good job and ask if I can clear the board.
- Item
Pre-Intermediate: Predicting the future
The review portion of my lesson is predicting the future which both of these students have done before. I put a quick dialog up on the board and prompt the students to ask each other questions and answer. One student had forgotten the meaning of the word “definitely” so the other student help remind her and kept moving. We basically talked about eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the likely hood that they will eat at home or out to a restaurant. After the students run through and feel comfortable I ask if I can clear the board again because it’s about 7:43. Time to do the One Point
- One Point
A1.17 Take your time.
For this One Point I have to introduce the idea of hurrying. Normally I erase my vocabulary box last but this makes for a good opportunity. I ask if the students have taken all the words into their notes and motion as though I’m going to erase the now. Predictably, one of the students say “Wait! Wait!” and starts writing hurriedly. I back off very quickly and say “Ok, no problem,” with a big smile. Now slightly more slowly and clearly enunciated I say “Take your time.” After doing so I write it up on the board. These students take it into their notes and I ask them to read it once each for practice. I ask them if they understand the meaning and one student says the meaning in Japanese. I’m satisfied that they understand so now I give them a chance to use it. I say “Uh oh! Class is over I need to clean up!” and start flying around the room collecting my books and folders. The students laugh at me a bit and both start saying “Take your time! Take your time!” until I calm down. I thank them for letting me rest and thank them for class. They say thank you as well and leave with smiles on their faces. I do like this One Point.
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