[williejean]

I am planning on teaching English overseas and I have to write a theme on what I would teach, e.g. transportation, jobs, food, I have to pick one theme and then over the course do unit plans on how I would teach this to students. Is there a web site I could go to, to find examples on this? Thanks for any help.

[Eric]

i think you might be better off picking up a student's textbook and seeing what they do with themes. hwo do they plan lessons around themes and what activities they use.

just choose something broad, like you have done, and then think of grammar points to teach. then put the 2 together.

but, before you get too deep into this project, i wonder if there is some mis-understandings. are you taking a TEFL course or the like or is this for a job application? i would imagine if this is for a job application, they probably only want to see 1 lesson and not a entire semester's worth of lessons.

[williejean]

Thank you for replying, I am taking a TESL course in university. I have to plan what I would teach my students, whether it would be how to use transportation or how to find a job etc. My hypothetcal (sp) are in the range of 12-15 years.

[Eric]

So it sounds like you are just teaching a lesson and not planning your entire curriculum right now, is that correct?

You want to make sure youpick a topic that is appropriate for the age level of your students otherwise they will be bored. 12-15 year olds are probably not interested in finding a job. they don't really care about transportation. they are usually hungry so i'd go with food.

next thing you need to know is there level. then you will be able to pick a grammar point to teach them.

finally, you'll put your subject (food) and your grammar point together into a lesson.

Some things to make note of when making a lesson plan:

• time limits
• your goals for the lesson
• how will you present the material
• how will you practice the material
• how will you get the students to produce the material on their own (possibly in a game)

this should all be stuff your professor will have covered before they expect you to do it.

[williejean]

Thanks again Eric, yes I think you are right about the food, I mentioned the job etc just to give an idea of what I meant. I see that wasn' tnecessary as you are very knowlegeable.

[Eric]

no problem! good luck with your course! if you have any more questions, please post them here. we'll be glad to help as much as we can.

[emile]

Hi Willie Jean

As Eric said, your request sounds odd. You need to let us know whether you're planning a class (maybe 1 - 2 hr.s), a course module (3hr.s to a few days, maybe) or a whole course (1 week - 1 year).

Food is a good topic and you can talk about fast food. I just showed my class the movie 'Supersize Me' and we've been on the theme of fast food for a while. Their other teacher got them to do a drama called 'Just say no to fast food'

[mesmark]

transport is very good for this age.

A good point to focus on would be 'how do they get to various places.'

car - drive
bike - ride
rocket - fly
train - take

You could
1. introduce the vocabulary
2. elicit transport they use, parents use, they can find in their city
3. Make some fictional characters and have them go different places using the appropriate verbs for the transport
4. Have the students make sentences for how they go several places around town.

• I walk to school.
  I ride my bike to Jon's house.
  I take the bus to the mall.
  My mother drives me to the movies. (a little difficult)
  I fly to Europe on vacation.

5. work in a game or activity
6. a follow up worksheet having the students use or select the correct verbs for the transportation involved

If you have another lesson to plan you'll just need to add more to the sentences.
I ride my bike to church on Tuesdays
I walk to school with my friend.

Or practice more in the third person and getting the third person singular correct.

[williejean]

I am taking the TESL course at University and it is part of the course, I have to to what is called a unit assignment over 8-10 weeks about what I would teach my students.

Thanks for all the help.

[mesmark]

With transport you could do your units as
1.vocabulary introduction
2. sentence formation (take, ride, drive ...)
3. question formation with do
4. third person singular
5. past tense
6. question formation with wh- words
7. future
8. narrative creation

The biggest problem with these kinds of activities is you don't have any reference of where you are coming from or where you are headed to. It makes it difficult and sort of pointless. I can't imagine doing 8 weeks let alone 10 on one theme.