Smith’s School of English Lesson for One Student at Kyobashi, 5-19-07 Gideon

It was the first time for me to meet this student. She is a green level. Prior to this lesson to she had just taken a class with another teacher.

ET – You don’t even lift a finger
From the Smith’s School of English One Point Series

I asked the student whether she lived with her family and she said that she did so I asked her whether she helped around the house. She said that she didn’t so I reminded her of her one point from the previous lesson and she said that she didn’t lift a finger around the house.

ROUTINE 13
From the Smith’s School of English Routine Series

The student had just done the L&R 15 minutes ago so I said that I would ask her some questions regarding the story that she had just heard. I asked her the questions and she answered competently. I then referred her to her answer to the last question ( What did you ask her? ) and wrote down her answer, which she had given in direct speech.

♣For the next section on how I taught reported speech/questions please refer to my previous lesson report.♣

ITEM – GIVING ADVICE
From the Smith’s School of English Item Series

I wrote up on the board ` Giving advice ` and asked the student to give the phrase that she would use to give advice to someone who had a problem. She gave the standard ` You should `. As this student is a green level I felt that she could benefit from more than the phrases that are offered in the curriculum so I half elicited and half gave the following phrases;

You should
You ought to
If I were you, I’d
You need to
You have to
You had better
You must
You’ve got to

I then asked her which she believed were strong and she picked need to/you’ve got to/you have to/you must. I then told her that she had forgotten `had better`. ♥The reason for this is that in Japanese when giving adviceなになにしたほうが良い( nani nani shita hou ga ii)is used, which roughly translates as `had better` in English♥ I explained this to her and that `had better` is only really used when we wish to give serious advice or if we are intending it as an order.

Having got the phrases up and explained I then asked her to match the cards and we role played a few of the situations together before I moved the conversation more towards her. I asked her whether she had any real problems in her life and she told me that she had a pair of shoes that were rubbing. I then gave her a problem that I had and she was able to give me some advice. Mission achieved!!!!

ONE POINT – I`M BROKE
From the Smith’s School of English One Point Series

I told her that she must be rich if she could afford a pair of new shoes and live by herself and go out drinking. She gave me a ` No no no no no ` answer and I wrote on the board the one point and explained the meaning to her which she looked very pleased to have learnt. また来週ね！