Today`s student was a man to man, pink but with a hint of orange.
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The student actually started off the lesson in very good spirits saying that she had seen someone in her gym who looked like me and wondered if it had been me or not. Lo and behold we do both go to the same gym, which kicked off a conversation about what we both enjoyed doing there. At this point I was also able to pick up a sentence where she should have used the phrase from the up coming item so I made a mental note of it, ready to surprise her later.
This conversation also segued nicely into eliciting her one point from the previous lesson ( I want to A but I cant because B ). So I asked her whether she liked aerobics or not and she said that she did but that she no rhythm. After reminding her of the one point and building her confidence she produced a nice complete sentence using the desired phrase.
ITEM – USED TO
From the Smith’s School of English Item Series
I wrote up on the board;
1. I went to Umeda.
2. I used to go to Umeda.
I then drew a timeline underneath both sentences and explained that the first sentence was used for a completed action in the past whereas the second sentence was used for an action that was done frequently in the past but now is not. Of coarse by using the timeline it was easy for her to follow the explanation and I also wrote up a few more examples for her just to be sure that she understood. I also made sure that I did a comprehension check just to be double sure e.g
C: I didn`t use to like coffee.
S: Uh huh.
C: Do I like coffee now?
S: Yes.
C: That`s right.
I then reminded her of the conversation that we had had at the beginning of the lesson which had been:
S: I did boxercise.
C : Do you do boxercise often?
S: No no no! I don`t do it now. Before before!!!!!
I then asked her to correct the conversation using the new language that she had just learnt and she was able to change it quickly using the target. From these examples I was confident that she was able to fully grasp and use the language properly, so I moved on a little freer practice.
I wrote on the board;
J.H.S
Belong to
Like ( subject )
Like ( music )
Have ( hair )
After modeling I asked her to tell me about her junior high school days and I also made a point of teaching her the question forms (Did you used to……/What did you used to….? ) as it is often very easy for student to form the statement but when it comes to the question form their grammar suddenly falls apart.
I also made sure that she asked me follow up questions to each of my statements so that she was not just doing a straight forward drill, so as to expand her speaking time and also to make the conversation a little more natural.
ROUTINE – The Restaurant
She had studied this routine the previous lesson so this time I chose to pick up a few of the questions from the routine. I asked her if she had been out for dinner recently and she said that she had so I asked her what she had eaten and how the service had been in the restaurant.
ONE POINT – So far so good
C: How is your week?
S: ???????
Oh! Need to pre teach the meaning of the question first. After having done that I got the answer that her week was ok. So that allowed me to write on the board the one point and I explained it to her, once again using a handy timeline with the day of the week and smiley faces.
I asked for a final time whether she had any questions about the item that we had learnt today and she said that she was alright. Great! Then I`ll see you tomorrow in the gym? Sure!!!
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