Lesson: Describing People Using Adjectives

Time: 30-40 minutes

Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, the students will be able to use English vocabulary adjectives
related to descriptions of others using the Quizlet flashcards we provided them with.
They will be able to form basic sentences in English relating to describing their peers
and themselves.
They will be able to describe other students in English using the new vocabulary words
and worksheet.

Structures: "What does s/he look like?", "Tell me all about him/her", "She/she is/has"

Target Vocab: tall, short, long hair, short hair, brown eyes, blue eyes, blonde hair, black hair,
blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes, pretty, funny, bored, smart, skinny, introverted, extroverted,
nice, mean, happy, sad, tired.

You will need to download:
Printables: "Describe your Friend Worksheet 1" or "Describe your Friend Worksheet 2"
Describe Your Friend Class Survey worksheet

These can be downloaded at http://www.eslkidstuff.com/esl-kids-lesson-plans.html

You will also need:
a pre-made PowerPoint presentation
a computer
projector
premade quizlet flashcards
White board or Blackboard with colored markers/chalk
paper to hand out to the kids
the class survey worksheet




Lesson Overview:
1. Introduce the descriptions vocab
2. Do "Funny Body" drawings
3. Do the "Describe Your Friend Class Survey"
4. Practice vocabulary with Quizlet flashcards
5. Play Guess Who?


Lesson Plan:

1. Describing People (Adjectives) (10 minutes)

1. Elicit "eyes". Ask "What color are they?" and give the students the options of the colors
of markers / chalk you have. Then draw the eyes in the chosen colors with different
colors for each set of eyes (NB: its ok to have strange colors, such as yellow, for the
eyes this will just make it more fun).
2. Elicit "hair" and again ask "What color is it?". On one head draw long hair in one
color (for the girl) and on the other draw short hair (for the boy) in a different color.
3. Teach / Elicit "long / short hair".
4. Finally, you'll need to draw 2 bodies. But rather than you draw them you are
going to ask for 2 volunteers to do the drawings. For the girl, draw some shoes
quite near the head (so that she will be short) and for the boy draw some shoes
right down at the bottom of the board (so he will be tall). Have the students draw
the bodies so that they join the heads with the shoes. Now teach / elicit "tall /
short".

It should end up looking something like this:

Now that the completed pictures are on the board, chorus 3 times the following
sentences and point to the pictures as you do:
- He is tall.
- He has short hair.
- He has (blue) eyes.
- He has (orange) hair.
- She is short.
- She has long hair.
- She has (green) eyes.
- She has (brown) hair.


2. Do "Funny Body" drawings: (10 minutes)

Give a piece of paper to each student and yourself.

On your piece of paper, model drawing a head with eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth
and hair. Make it a really funny picture. Then tell everyone to draw their funny head.
Make sure they use colors for the eyes and hair.

Next show them how to fold the paper so only the neck shows (so the top is folded
behind). Then get everyone to pass their paper to a different student.
Now model drawing the body starting from the neck and going down to ankles
make it either a really short or long body and make it as funny as you can. Now have
your students draw their bodies.

Again, show everyone how to fold the paper so only the ankles are showing and
have everyone pass their paper to another student.
Finally, model drawing funny feet and get everyone to draw feet on their pictures.
Then get everyone to fold up their papers and return each piece to the person who
drew the head.

Let everyone open up their paper and have a good laugh at the pictures. Now ask
everyone to "present" their person in the drawing to the rest of the class you
model first (e.g. "This is Tom. He is short. He has pink hair, etc.").



3. Do the "Describe Your Friend Class Survey" (10 minutes)

This will give your students the chance to use the lesson structures. Give out the class
survey worksheet. Each student should work on their own for a few minutes looking at their
classmates and filling in the table about 6 of their friends in the class. Whilst they are doing this,
circulate and check and ask questions.

Finally, once everyone has finished, ask each student to describe some of their friends: Ask,
"Tell me about your friend", "What does he / she look like? Then put students in pairs to
practice asking about their classmates.


4. Introduce the Quizlet flash cards for the vocabulary words. (5 minutes)

We will have printed out sets of the vocabulary cards for each student to use. They can work
individually or with a partner to quiz each other for five minutes. The quizlet cards will have a
picture that goes along with the word on the English side. This way, students are able to jog
their memories using visuals. This makes it easier to remember what the word stands for
because then they have an idea of what it is.

Tell them that they can and should take these cards home to practice.


5. Play "Guess Who?" (10 minutes)

For this activity, youll need to create a PowerPoint with pictures of many recognisable
celebrities and public figures. Try to get pictures of lots of different types of people with different
color eyes and hair. Try to put 5 or so pictures on each slide so they have to think about the
answer.

Pull up the PowerPoint and start by saying "My friend has (short, brown) hair, he is (tall) and he
has (green) eyes". Everyone should try and guess which picture you are describing. You can
also give additional clues (clothes, etc.).

The student who guesses correctly can then have a go describing someone.




Lesson Plan modified from:
http://www.eslkidstuff.com/lesson-plans/pdf/describing-people-lesson-plan.pdf





References
Belchamber, R. (2007). The Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching. The
Internet TESL Journal, XIII(2). Retrieved October 7, 2014, from
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Belchamber-CLT.html

This article was also interesting because it tells teachers of English as a second language what
not to do. Usually articles that are prohibiting certain things do not inform very well, but this
article was different. The author went over why teachers should stop introducing so many new
activities and ways of learning to students who are learning English as a second language. I
found this counterintuitive because throughout school, I was bored by teachers who had the same
type of class routine every day. Delving into this article further, I understood why this can be
harmful. Since it is their second language and they cannot understand even what the teacher is
saying sometimes, they are already overwhelmed. Bringing out too many activities will fluster
and confuse the children. I never really thought about this tactic before, but it makes sense.
Through my experiences with Spanish, I too was overwhelmed when we had multiple brand new
activities thrown at us. Although it is a strange though to many a monotonous class routine
every day, this article thoroughly explains why that is the best way to teach it.


Cabrera, M. P., & Bazo, P. (2002). Teaching the Four Skills in the Primary EFL
Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, VIII(12). Retrieved October 7, 2014, from
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Bazo-FourSkills.html

I found this article intriguing because it helped me see the skills that I would need to have as
teacher of English to children who do not speak the language. The four skills covered in the
article were listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These skills seem common sense to us
because we know the language, but they are in fact the most important aspects of learning any
language. Even in Spanish classes, those four components are used daily. This helped me
realize that we have to deliver that same experience to our students. It will be challenging to
have a language barrier between us, but that only means that we must work harder with these
skills so that there is not. I liked the way they categorized the skills and separated them.
Sometimes in a classroom, it can be overwhelming to do watch a movie while answering
questions about it. These skills need to be individually introduced so that all of the students
attention can be on that sole activity. This article was enlightening because it showed me what
my part is as a teacher of English as a second language.