Lesson Plan Template: Describing Food

[Pages:3]Lesson Plan Template: Describing Food

Context: What kind of teaching situation/school setting is the lesson based on? Class profile: Group of 20 adult immigrant ESL students from Washington D.C., Age: Mid 20s to 50s, Level: Intermediate, Curriculum: Open: Design authentic materials

Learner Needs: What do the learners need/want to learn? Learners want to learn to express themselves and understand English better through learning and practicing grammar, idioms, listening (accents, fast speakers, phone calls, television), reading, slang, speaking, study skills, verbs, vocabulary, and writing.

Objectives/Aims: What will your students know or be able to do as a result of this lesson? Students will be able to effectively use adjectives to describe food. Students will analyze the use of and identify descriptive language on a menu. Students will create and share their own menu items.

Assumptions: What are you assuming in terms of student background knowledge? Students have some knowledge of many of the words that are used to describe food. Students have used a menu before.

Language Analysis: What new grammar and vocabulary will this lesson target? Grammar focus is on descriptive language, primarily adjectives (specifically those used to describe food). Vocabulary focus will be on words that are used to describe food.

Anticipated Problems and Solutions: What could go wrong? What backup plans do you have? Pacing, as always, is a concern, but I feel I have built out maximum time for each part of the lesson. In the event the lesson is running long, the review of the menu will be amended (either the final review will be taken out or instead of students providing answers the teacher will review answers). Assumptions about prior knowledge may be off base and more vocabulary may have to be introduced rather than reviewed. Images have been generated for all words associated with preparation.

Materials: What materials will you use? How will you adapt them? There will be a packet given to each student. There will be a PowerPoint presentation. There will be a real menu from Greene Turtle for students to use as a text and take with them. Instead of reading the entire menu or focusing on parts of the menu, students will work as a group on one menu item. Some words on the "Describing Foods" handout have been defined with examples. If needed, images will be provided for unfamiliar words in the adjective word bank.

Timing/Sequencing: How much time will you need? Length of class is 60 minutes.

Assessment: How will you measure what your students can do? Students will be assessed through the brainstorming activity, the menu text activity, writing their description, and the menu presentation.

Stage

Aim

Warm up

Activation/ Focusing Activity

Lesson activities/assessments Vocabulary

Activity #1 Feedback

Activity #2

Feedback

Activity #3 Feedback Activity #4 Feedback

Conclusion

Wrap Up

Procedure

Mats. Focus Time

Administrative/Greetings. Students will

T-S 2

number off 1-4 and relocate accordingly.

Question of the Day on board and in

Power T-S, 5

packet: What is your favorite dish (meal, Point/ S-S

entr?e, food)? What are some of the

Packe

ingredients in your favorite dish? How is t

your favorite dish prepared (made,

cooked)? How does your favorite food

taste?

Teacher will briefly cover idiom of

Power T-S 5

`backburner' and will introduce topic for Point/

the day, describing food, along with

packe

review/introduction of some common food t

adjectives. 1. Students review list in their

group. 2. What were some shared unclear

words? 3. Teacher reads through list,

pausing for vocabulary and unclear words.

Students will brainstorm a list of words

Power S

5

describing the pictures (burger, cake). Can Point/

use word bank as well as their own words. Board

The class will review responses. 1. Groups Power T-S, 5

share number of words. 2. One group

Point/ S-T,

shares words. 3. Additional words added Board S-S

by others as needed.

Teacher transitions to food descriptions in a Power T-S, 5

menu. In groups, students will read

Point/ S-S

assigned menu item and identify

menu

ingredients and descriptive words.

The class will review responses. 1.

Power S-T 5

Assigned group shares response. 2. Slide Point

with answers revealed.

Students will write brief descriptions of

Packe S

2-3

their favorite dish.

t

Students will exchange descriptions with a Packe S-S 2-3

partner and make changes as needed.

t

Students will work in groups to write up a Hand S, S-S 5

menu and come up with a restaurant name. out

Each group will present their menu/favorite

S-S 10

dishes.

Review of objectives/activities. Announcement regarding final class/certificates.

T-S 1-2

 (Reflection: What worked well in this lesson? What should I improve upon next time?) I feel that the students met most of the objectives. The objectives they didn't meet were a result of pacing issues with the lesson or were a result of clarity issues during the course of the lesson. Overall, however, I feel that the students really enjoyed the lesson and at the end had an understanding of how adjectives and descriptive language works (and maybe even a little better understanding of marketing too). I was very happy to see students stay late to finish their group's menus and turn them in. In reviewing the menus, there were a good number of students who did a very good job at describing their favorite dishes. I am planning on typing them up and giving them back to the class.

One issue that I didn't anticipate that came up during this class is that there will be students in groups who will not want to work with or help others. I have never really had that in my classes before. I was hesitant in assigning roles in the event I assigned a role that someone wasn't as strong in and opted for natural selection instead. What happened at least in one group, however, was that one of the stronger students did the bare minimum while the weaker student, who was trying very hard, floundered. In all my previous experiences, if anything the risk you ran with stronger students was that they would run roughshod over the weaker students. For the most part, however, they usually will help or support the learning of the weaker student. In this case, she was simply not interested in the activity or the others in the group. While part of that is due to the Metro map she was studying, I think part of it was quite simply she did not care about the other student or whether or not the group would complete the task, even though she had the skills and potential leadership to get it done. I'm not saying that in a critical way, but moreso it was just eye opening to me that that might be an issue in group work.

Pacing continues to be an issue. I am not certain how much of it is in execution or in planning, but the long and short of it is that either way I am consistently running over. In my execution of the lessons, I continue to muddy the waters sometimes in passing out materials or otherwise being distracting while students are working. For the final lesson, I am definitely going to focus in on a less is more approach and really try to get the most I can out of a couple activities. I am very excited about the final lesson (though of course it will be bittersweet). I think I have been successful in creating a learning community and hopefully in encouraging education beyond the classroom as well.

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