#1537. Saint Valentinie's Day

Reading/Writing, level: all
Posted Thu Jan 27 08:04:48 PST 2000 by Philip Drury (philip@iol.it).
The British Institutes/Liceo Linguistico Europeo, Clatagirone Italy
Materials Required: Photocopied quiz
Activity Time: 50 minutes
Concepts Taught: Motivate discussions about feelings

Module : Customs and Traditions in the English Speaking World.

Teaching Unit: Saint Valentines Day -- 2 lessons of 50 minutes each

Lesson 1 Total time 50 minutes Homework 30 minutes

Materials needed: Blackboard and photocopied quiz

Introduction 5 Minutes
Activity : Brian storming (speaking)
Objective : To discover how many words connected with Valentine's Day and love the students already know.
Procedure. Write the words Saint Valentine's Day on the board and invite all students to say the words and phrases in English that they associate with this day.

Explanation 10 minutes
Activity: Teacher explanation. Students listen and take notes
Objective: To give some essential background information. Key words with correct pronunciation.
Procedure : The teacher explains at the students' level the history of St Valentine's Day and the traditions that surround it in the English speaking world.

Pair work Activity 30 minutes
Activity: The students take turns in reading a romance quiz
Objective: Students listen, comprehend and respond to written questions motivated by having an evaluation of their answers.
Procedure: Teacher explains the activity dividing the students into pairs. The first questions is read to the whole class as an example and the students make their personal response with a letter in their exercise book.
The teacher explains any difficult vocabulary and the need to give one single answer to each question . The students do the whole quiz together and then add up the points and read to each other the interpretation of the score.

Final activity and homework 5 minutes
Activity :The whole class exchanges their scores and comments
Objective : To give the students an opportunity to listen to results and opinions that they are personally interested in.
Procedure: Teacher invites the class to exchange points and comments on the activity.
The teacher asks the students to invent their own questionnaire questions and suggested answers for the next lesson and to collect information about the history of Valentine's day and the traditions in Italy.