Lesson script

1st educational stage, English

Grade: 3

Content area: Using the project method in foreign language teaching

Detailed requirements: Student (8 and 5) co‑operates with peers in learning as well as asks questions and answers them using learned phrases, recites poems and nursery rhymes, sings songs, names and describes everyday objects and takes part in mini roleplays.

Topic: My home

Duration: Approx. 6‑8 weeks; 6‑8 hours in the classroom plus 4‑6 hours outside the classroom (depending on the complexity)

Detailed goals regarding the range of information

Student:

• Knows different rooms in a house;

• Knows typical furniture and equipment in different rooms.

Detailed goals regarding the range of skills

Student:

• Can name rooms and pieces of furniture using simple model sentences;

• Can group items according to their characteristics;

• Can match audio prompts with their visual representation;

• Can listen for specific information.

Detailed goals regarding attitudes

Student:

• Becomes more aware of proper room arrangement;

• Learns to co‑operate with peers;

• Learns to plan work;

• Develops perseverance in completing longer tasks.

Methods

Project work; presentation; elicitation; categorisation; active learning teaching; Total Physical Response; listening for specific information; note taking; whole class, group work, pairwork, individual work.

Forms and venue

Forms: whole class, group work, pairwork, individual work.

Classes are to be held in the classroom, but the project is to be prepared outside the classroom.

Materials and teaching aids

Chart/worksheet; audio recording; multimedia presentation; worksheet; quiz; film; computer and multimedia projector; board.

Multimedia resources

• Charts: House Plan

• Audio recording: Class environment

• Interactive exercise: What is this?

• Interactive exercise: Furnishing

• Interactive quiz: My home quiz

• Film: My Room

Project task

Note: The pupils are expected to know some basic house‑related vocabulary (e.g. chair, table, etc.) at the onset of the project. However, throughout the project the pool of vocabulary is gradually expanded in a series of tasks based on the multimedia resources.

In the project, pupils are supposed to prepare a graphical representation of a house, showing different rooms with their typical furniture. Each team should focus on a different room. As the minimum, these should include: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room. However, it is generally recommended to extend this list to include dining room and two or three bedrooms (e.g. parents’ bedroom and children’s bedroom or, separately, boy’s bedroom and girl’s bedroom). If pupils tend to be creative, other potential spaces may include garage, cellar, attic or even garden. If the number of pupils in the class is high, they may ‘design’ two different houses, each with its own set of rooms.

Once the teams are established and assigned their rooms, the first problem for pupils to solve is to determine a general house plan (e.g. divide rooms into floors; determine which rooms should be adjacent; etc.). This should be done by all teams together under teacher’s guidance. Teacher may also skip this phase by providing a ready house plan showing the location of each room.

The next problem for each team is to determine the fixed (‘constructional’) features of their room, e.g. the room shape, the number and arrangement of doors and windows, the colour of walls, etc.

Finally, pupils have to choose and arrange typical pieces of furniture.

Project deliverables

The project deliverable produced by each team should be a chart showing the particular room with its furniture. This should be a drawing, painting, printed computer image, collage, etc. (or a combination thereof). Both the room itself and individual pieces of furniture should bear English descriptions.

Teams may be given a free hand in choosing their preferred technique or teacher may choose a common technique (e.g. drawing) for all teams. In any case, he/she should pre‑determine some common features (e.g. that all rooms are to be presented as side views) and the general size and format of charts, so that at the end of the project it will be possible to easily combine all the deliverables into a single graphical representation of a house, which should be exhibited in the classroom.

Project stages

The project can be divided into three stages:

• Stage 1 – Development of a house plan (may be skipped)

• Stage 2 – Development of the fixed room layout

• Stage 3 – Development of the furniture arrangement

Teams should submit interim deliverables at the end of stage 2, so that the teacher can effectively monitor the progress of the project work.

Project teams

The teams may vary from 2 to 4 pupils, though group sizes in the lower range are recommended at this educational stage.

Assessment criteria

• Graphical/Artistic features – 40%

• Language – 60%

• Item diversity (i.e. the variety of furniture shown) – 40%

• Correctness – 20%

In‑class work

The multimedia resources for the project can be used in a number of ways. Below are some practical tips and suggestions how to introduce the materials in the classroom to help pupils develop their project deliverables.

The chart is intended for stage 1 of the project or, if it is skipped, as the general introduction. The audio recording is intended specifically for stage 2, while the film should help pupils with stage 3 (which is the most challenging). Two interactive exercises can be used repeatedly to drill and consolidate the vocabulary in both stage 2 and 3. The interactive quiz is more complex and is intended as a summary for stage 3.

Teacher can also find examples of charts, posters or animated films on the Internet to give pupils a general idea of how their deliverables should look like.

Whenever pair- or group‑work is used as a form of interaction, pupils should work with their team‑mates, if possible.

1 Chart/Worksheet – language input

Teacher displays the chart showing different rooms in a house, i.e. living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, etc. The rooms are not labelled (but only marked with numbers). He/She points to every room, names it and mimes some action associated with it (e.g. bedroom – sleeping, bathroom – brushing teeth, living room – operating a remote control, kitchen – washing the dishes). Pupils are encouraged to show the gestures along with the teacher while repeating the names of the rooms. At this stage, pupils should focus on understanding and pronunciation.

After all the rooms have been presented, teacher writes their names on the board.
Note: These should be listed alphabetically rather than in the order they are numbered on the chart.

Then, to aid memorisation, teacher starts a whole‑class drill. He/She points to a room on the chart (e.g. kitchen) and asks for its name (What is it?), eliciting the answer (It’s a kitchen or, simply, kitchen) from pupils (each response may be accompanied by the relevant gesture). Teacher can address the whole class or target individual pupils. The pace of the activity should be rather fast to stir the game‑like spirit in children and keep them focused. The procedure should cover each of the rooms shown on the chart.

Finally, ‘House Plan’ worksheets are distributed to all pupils. These show the same rooms which are on the large chart. Pupils’ task is to label the rooms. They have all the words they need on the board (to help them with the correct spelling).

Note: Pupils do not need to label individual furniture items in various rooms at this stage.

Pupils work individually. After a few minutes, teacher elicits answers in open class, e.g. What’s number 1? (It’s a kitchen or, simply, kitchen), etc.

2 Audio recording

The audio recording is intended to (i) refresh some useful vocabulary which pupils should already know, and (ii) make the lesson more entertaining. Pupils are asked to listen to the audio recording Class environment. They hear cheerful music and, in regular intervals, some words describing objects in the classroom (chair, table, wall etc.). When pupils hear the name of an object, they should find it and touch it.

The teacher might also ask pupils to write down the words from the recording.

3 Interactive quizzes – vocabulary practice

The quizzes offer more practice of the names of typical pieces of furniture found in different rooms of the house (especially kitchen and bathroom, as these tend to be the most challenging for pupils).

The quizzes can be administered towards the end of the lesson, to give students a chance to practise vocabulary in an engaging way. Alternatively, they can be used as a warm‑up task at the beginning of the next lesson to revise the previously learned vocabulary.

3.1. Interactive exercise 1

In the quiz What is this?, pupils are asked to choose one of two words that matches the picture shown. It is the simplest of the three interactive tools and is generally intended for individual work.

The words practised are: lamp, carpet, shower, chair, bed, sofa, armchair, sink, TV, desk.

3.2. Interactive exercise 2

The interactive widget Furnishing is a picture/word matching exercise. It tests specifically the kitchen and bathroom vocabulary. Pupils listen to proper pronunciation and match the word with the correct drawing. They can work individually or in pairs.

The words tested are: cooker, dishwasher, fridge, sink, bath, shower, mirror, washbasin.

3.3. Interactive quiz 3

My home quiz is the most difficult of the three interactive tools and is intended for pairwork. The teacher should closely monitor the pupils’ progress and help, if necessary.

The quiz is composed of four activities:

1. In the first one, pupils have to put the words from the box into the sentences (vocabulary in context, reading).

The words practised are: light, kitchen, carpet, picture, bed, living room, washbasin, TV.

2 & 3. The second and third task are multiple choice questions, where pupils need to understand the question and answer it choosing the correct word from the four provided.

The words practised are: wardrobe, dishwasher, toilet, armchair; chair, sofa, sink.

4. The last task is categorisation. Pupils need to sort out the words into two categories: items that can be found in the bathroom and those that can be found in the kitchen.

The words practised are: toilet, shower, cooker, sink, dishwasher, fridge, mirror, washbasin, bathtub.

Note: At this point, the pupils, having practised the target vocabulary thoroughly, will be able to label the different pieces of furniture shown on the charts House plan, which they received earlier.

4 Film – Listening for specific information / Note taking

The film is intended to introduce a little more advanced vocabulary related to typical child’s room furnishings. In the film, a young girl is showing her bedroom.

Teacher plays the film once through. Then, he/she tells pupils that the film will be played again and this time they should try to remember as many things from the girl’s room as possible.

After watching, teacher asks pupils to work in pairs and note down all the items/pieces of furniture that the children can recall.

Then teacher elicits answers in open class.

The items mentioned in the film are: bed, pillow, (night) table, lamp, mirror, wardrobe, clothes, stuffed animals, bookshelf, books, desk, magnet board, birthday cards, pictures, (dog) calendar.