Short Story Lesson

April 15, 2011 by Leave a comment

I recently finished up a small unit that was way more fun than I anticipated. As a class we popcorn read “Lamb To The Slaughter,” a short story by Roald Dahl about a loving wife who kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb. After we finished it, as a review for the incidental vocab that we learned in the story, groups of 6 had to put on small skits using 7 vocab words with the prompt: SOMEONE IS MURDERED! How? Why? By whom? For what motive?

It was pretty macabre but the kids had a lot of fun. Stories ranged from typical lovers’ spats to time traveling Buddhist nun impersonators – the students killed off their classmates in really creative and fun ways.

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English Experts

January 15, 2011 by Leave a comment

   by Aaron Reiss
I’ve been doing a weekly activity I call English Experts which has been working out really well. Each Friday 2 new students are assigned two new words, they have the weekend to find the definition, pronunciation, part of speech, and two example sentences. Then they present first thing Monday and play teacher (“repeat after me” “are there any questions?” deng, deng). Then, the other two days, they have to bring their book and any other materials from their other English class and come early to tell me and show me what they’re learning there. It gives me one on one time and clues me into what else they are learning so I can use and reference it. They’re like little spies.

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Calvin and Hobbes Dialogs

October 15, 2010 by Leave a comment

by Chris Young and Annie Lin
Good for a fun 1- or 2-day lesson.

A fun way to introduce American comic strips is using Calvin and Hobbes. Chris and I both taught Calvin and Hobbes using this lesson, where students get to write their own dialogue for a Calvin and Hobbes strip. It is be a useful and meaningful for students of any English level.

Introduction: We introduced comic strips, the themes of imagination and day dreaming, and gave students a sample Calvin and Hobbes comic.

Preparation for Activity: We gave students vocabulary that might help them write appropriate dialogue for the comic strips. The comic strips we chose for this activity all took place in space and involved space travel. So, we provided vocabulary such as “Mayday!”, “to zoom,” “to plummet,” and “We’re going down!”

Activity: Students paired up and received one of three blank Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. Students had 15-20 minutes to discuss and fill in the dialogue/thought bubbles.

Wrap-up: Students shared their comics strips, and we explained the original comic strips.

Obstacles: It was difficult to explain American humor in the first 10 intro minutes. Students (particularly at Xiuzhong) had a little trouble coming up with a punch line. Each class had its share of original laughs, though, and it was a great way to share a popular and fun part of American culture.

Click to enlarge:


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“Dude,” the Universal Pronoun (Colloquial Language and Intonation)

October 15, 2010 by Leave a comment

 by Doug Endrizzi
I would like to quickly share with you a recent successful lesson that ended up blossoming into more. Originally, I was hoping to familiarize my students with key words in my vocabulary, Babe and Dude, so that they wouldn’t be so baffled by my 口语. After discovering this video, I hoped this would be a good chance to have my students practice inflecting their speech, and to help them use English more creatively. The lesson centers around a 50 second long Bud Light commercial and features “some dude” in various situations using the word “dude” with all sorts of different intonations.

Here’s how I suggest the lesson go:

Prep students by explaining that “Dude” is a universal pronoun: it can mean “some person you don’t know,” or it can express a host of different emotions (shock, frustration, anger, disgust [高一学生 don’t know this word], excitement) [urbandictionary.com is actually helpful to organize your own thoughts on this word]. Continue explaining that this video will show “some dude” using the word “dude” many different ways, and just like 中文, different intonations carry different meanings, so pay close attention to the “way” the dude says “dude.” [Repeated usage of “dude” helps]

Watch the movie once through.

Dude Movie
[Movie Link]

Begin the movie again, but stop at the end of the first scene. Ask students the following questions:

Where is this dude?
What is this dude doing? [Emphasize that you don’t know what exactly is happening, and that students should hypothesize]
What does this dude say? [Then, if their intonation is off, re-ask the next question]
How does he say it?
And what does he mean?
What emotion is that?

You can add/subtract questions, but be consistent in what and how you ask it: if you ask the same questions, your participation will skyrocket.

Once finished, watch the movie once the whole way through again.

Then, count students off into groups of four. Have them prepare skits, the only requirement being that each person in each group must say the word “dude,” and must say it differently.

If you are quick, you can fit this into 45 minutes. If you’re pressed for time, I suggest letting the students present in the next period; don’t rush their creative process.

Exaggerating your own pronunciation will help a lot. Have fun with this. If you’re having fun, the kids certainly will be, too.

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