Search lesson plans:

#2970. Quick Way One - Units Transition

Language, level: Middle
Posted Fri Nov 7 11:50:32 PST 2003 by Mubarak Abdessalami (abdessalami2001@yahoo.com).

Lycee Hassan II, Tinejdad, Morocco
Concepts Taught: Shifting from Unit Two to three

Quick Way One

Transition from Unit 2 to Unit 3

This is an example from the Moroccan secondary school first year syllabus "Quick Way One". With this new curriculum, the shifting from a unit to another seems a bit challenging for novice teachers. I'll present a sample of how the switch from unit two to Unit three in "Quick Way One" could be dealt with. And teachers may well modify it to fit other units, activities, classes, tests and so on.

By the end of unit two students should have learned how to:

• Greet people
  
• Introduce themselves and introduce people to each other
  
• Recognize and use:
  
  1. The English alphabet (spelling)
     
  2. Numbers from 1 (one) to 30 (thirty)
     
  
  
• Ask for and give information about themselves and their families.
  
• Know what people of different jobs do and where they work.
  
• Ask for and give information about:
  
  • school
  • school subjects
  • months of the year
  • days of the week
  • Ask and give the time
    
  
  
• Ask and give information about their daily routines and hobbies.
  

Whereas in Unit three, students should be introduced to:

• Give information about their:
  
  • Nationality
    
  • home town
    
  • Language
  
  
• Give directions
  
• Talk about habitual activities using adverbs of frequency.
  

Now what interests us in all this is to go from Unit Two to the next Unit without the students even feel that a gap has been bridged until they discover later when they opened their textbooks that a leap has occurred.

Let's see how we can implement this:
First of all the unit covered should be reviewed so as to check for the shakily learnt lessons and to intensify students' full understanding of the whole range of sets done formerly. In this context the unit should close up with a concocted assignment the teacher uses chiefly to see what the students have achieved so far through a follow up or a wrap up activity. We can do this in terms of:

1. Matching exercise
   
2. What is the question exercise [with good classes]
   

The students are given enough time to assimilate and use their own learning strategies.

*/ Match the numbers with the letters.
1. What's your name?	a. I'm Moroccan.
2. What time is it?	b. I'm sixteen.
3. What do you do?	c. I'm from Rabat.
4. Where are you from?	d. It's three O'clock.
5. What nationality are you?	e. I'm a student.
6. How old are you?	f. I'm Ahmed.

For most students questions (1, 2, 3, and 6) have already been done and it won't take time to do them. As for questions (4 and 5) they meet them for the first time and they have to make an effort as to find which of answers (a and c) match with which questions. Smart students are supposed to do some thinking and see that the word from is repeated in question (4) as well as in answer (c). What remains is question (5) which will transitively match with answer (a). Therefore more than a bird are killed by the same stone.

Alternatively the exercise could be done (with good classes) in terms of :

*/ What is the question to which the underlined words are the answer?

1. I'm sixteen.
   
2. I'm Moroccan.
   
3. It's half past nine.
   
4. I'm a student.
   
5. I've got three brothers and one sister.
   
6. I'm from Rabat.
   
7. My mother is a housewife.
   

This review exercise is much more interesting because it works as a wrap up for previous lessons and a warm up for the following Unit. In general, it is somehow very difficult for students, the most excellent ones included, to write the questions for numbers (2 and 6) respectively. They have never been taught them though they may create some brainstorming atmosphere among them and try to get the question by trying all the techniques of learning they acquired. After a relatively longer time, the teacher do the correction by asking students to write their questions on the chalkboard for all the class to compare, object, give alternative questions or eventually correct themselves. When the task is done the two "horrible" challenging questions (2 and 6) will be the teacher's transitional playground. When she corrects the students mistakes and adventurous proposals for the two new questions, she may take them for drilling to force the creaking door of unit three open.

STUDENT 1 : What nationality are you?	STUDENT 2 : I'm Moroccan.
STUDENT 1 : Where are you from?	STUDENT 2 : I'm from Rabat.

While the students practice this in pairs through drilling, the teacher may like to introduce new "Nationalities" and by the way cities belonging to the countries in question.

STUDENT 1 : What nationality are you?	STUDENT 2 : I'm ____________.
STUDENT 1 : Where are you from?	STUDENT 2 : I'm from _________.

Thus the activity expands to include:

What nationality are you?	Where are you from?
British	London
French	Paris
Spanish	Madrid
Italian	Rome
Egyptian	Cairo
British	London
American	Washington
Chinese	Beijing
Australian	Canberra
Scottish	Edinburgh

Which the students see later on across the following sets of the Unit. And gradually the other items are introduced notably the languages people from different nationalities speak.

STUDENT 1 : What nationality are you?	STUDENT 2 : I'm ____________.
STUDENT 1 : Where are you from?	STUDENT 2 : I'm from _________.
STUDENT 1 : What language do you speak?	STUDENT 2 : I speak _________.

What language do you speak?

- French

- Spanish

- Italian

- Arabic

- English

- Chinese

- etc