Individual Learning Plan

Student: S.
Teacher: David Humffray
Course: Senior 2 English Writing Course
STUDENT INFORMATION
Name:

S.

Date of Birth:

30th September 1998

Native Language: Japanese

S. is a Senior 2 student who is undertaking the English Writing Course this year, which is an elective
subject. She lives at home with her mother and 2 siblings. She enjoys studying English and has been
doing so since elementary school when she enrolled in an extra-curricular after school private English
school (ECC Junior).
S. possesses many strengths including self confidence, a strong sense of independence, a high
motivation to learn English and an already established group of international friends with whom she
corresponds through Facebook and email. She enjoys reading, using the computer and drawing. Other
subjects in which she excels are math, art and PE.
S. sometimes displays a lack of concentration and attention to detail. She has a tendency to rush
through her assignment tasks.
There have been no disciplinary issues or behavioral problems at this school.
Her student profile can be viewed here: S.'s Learning Profile Table.docx

GOALS
The goal of this class is:

to improve students confidence and competence in their English

writing ability in a variety of styles and formats.

S.s personal goals in this class are:

to eliminate simple spelling and punctuation errors

to be able to accurately use the present perfect tense in contrast with

the simple past

to use tag questions accurately and consistently

to become proficient in the use of relative clauses to make her

writing more cohesive and coherent

to broaden her vocabulary

STRATEGIES
General strategies for attainment of S.s goals:

S. should start an English diary/journal where she writes down her thoughts, reflections and any
questions she has for me. The journal will be collected at the start of every lesson and will be
returned at the end of class. The journal will not be corrected for errors. Its purpose is to get S.
into the habit of writing in English on a regular basis and to give her an opportunity to
communicate with me if she feels the need. The journal will give me an insight into her thought
processes and give me a chance to recognize and forestall any problems, challenges, warning
signs that could impact her learning.

S. will be required to submit all assignments in a Word document rather than a handwritten one.
This should eliminate spelling errors.

Beginning each writing class with a freewriting activity. A good explanation of freewriting and its
benefits in an ESL writing course can be found here; http://iteslj.org/Techniques/DicksonFreewriting.html

S. will be provided with this coded correction guide Writing Correction guide.pdf . I will annotate
her first drafts using the codes and she is to write the second draft with reference to the guide. If
applied to this assignment her first draft annotations would look like this: S.firstdraftCguide.PDF

Specific strategies and activities:

v Relative clause practice activity.
Activity: Students (in groups of five) are to write a 5-entry mini-dictionary to help a foreign visitor
understand some aspect of Japanese culture using a Japanese syllable grouping.
On the blackboard write;
Sa
Shi
Su
Se
So
Elicit some Japanese words that start with these syllables.
Choose the most interesting or useful ones for this activity and complete the lines using relative
clauses.
e.g. Sadako is a Japanese ghost who appears in the horror movie The Ring. She is very scary.
Shiga is a prefecture in Japan that is famous for Lake Biwa. Lake Biwa is Japans biggest
lake.
Sushi is a Japanese food that is made from rice and fish. It is very delicious.
Seppuku is a Japanese word that means stomach cutting. It is how samurai killed
themselves.

Somen is a Japanese noodle dish that is eaten in summer. The noodles are cold and
dipped in soy sauce.

Assign each group a syllable grouping e.g ma, mi, mu, me, mo
ta, chi, tsu, te, to
ga, gi, gu, ge, go
Students must come up with 5 relative clauses explaining something about Japan beginning with
their five assigned syllables.

v Tag question practice activities

Activity: Students must formulate questions to ask their group members from clues and then
remember the answers. They then use tag questions to confirm the answers given.

1 Divide the class into groups of five and give one of the question prompt sheets (A, B, C, D
and E) to each student.
A
Find Out
Favourite colour?
Country / like to visit?
Where / born?
What / last film / see?
What / do last night at seven oclock?
Which languages / speak?
How long / learn English?
Afraid of flying?
Hobbies?
C
Find Out
Favourite food?
Birthday?
Best year of your life?
Nickname?
What / have for dinner last night?
How long / have these shoes?
Where / go on holiday next year?
Member of any clubs?
Like classical music?
E
Find Out
Favourite subject?
When/ last time/ karaoke?
How old/ mother?
Sisters?
Where/ want to live?
What sport/play?
What time/go to bed last night?
Drive a car?
AKB48?

B
Find Out
Favourite film?
What time / get up this morning?
Married?
Where / go on holiday last year?
Lucky number?
Mothers name?
What / do next weekend?
How long / have that hairstyle?
Ride a horse?
D
Find Out
Favourite actor?
What/ like to be?
How many/ cousins?
What/ have for lunch yesterday?
Like J pop?
Can/ cook niku jaga?
Blood type?
When/ first ate natto?
How tall?

The students will then ask each other the questions on their sheets.
Allow the students a few minutes to prepare the questions.

Elicit a few examples:

Teacher: favourite colour?
Student 1: Whats your favourite colour?
Teacher: country / like to visit?
Student 2: Which country would you like to visit?
Teacher: how long / learn English?
Student 3: How long have you been learning English?
3

The students take turns to ask and answer all the questions.

Explain that they must not write down any of the answers.
4

The students must now check how much they can remember by using tag questions.

For example:
Student A: Your favourite colour is blue, isnt it?
Student B: Yes, it is / No, it isnt. Its red.
Student A: And your favourite colour is green, isnt it?
Student C: Yes, it is / No, it isnt. Its pink.
Student B then asks his/her first question, and so on.
To review and really test the students begin the next lesson with this exercise as a warm-up to
see if they remember the information a week later.
Acknowledgement : Activity adapted from You do, don't you? by Jon Hird in Inside Out
Resource Pack by Sue Kay and Vaughan Jones, 2001. Published by Macmillan
Publishers Limited.

v Tag question activities

Activity: Role play- Game Show Students act out a game show.
1

Arrange the class into groups or teams.

Demonstrate the game by asking each team a number of tag questions. Each question
must be answered immediately and without either a yes or no. If the contestant
answers with yes or no they are eliminated and the next student plays.
E.g.

Q: Your name is Tomoko, isnt it?

A: Thats not true. Its Yuka.
Q: You live near this school, don't you?
A: Not at all.
Q: You were late for school today, werent you?
A: Im afraid I was.
Q: Youve been to Nikko, havent you?
A: Actually I have been to Nikko 3 times.
Q: Youre very good at this game arent you?
A: Yes, I am.

BUZZ BUZZ

Next contestant please

When they are familiar with the game, assign roles and have teams ask each other
questions in a similar manner.

Acknowledgement: This activity was adapted from Games for Language Learning,
Cambridge University Press.

Use theses tag question drills for warm-up Tag question drills.pdf

Use this tag question game for warm down end of lesson tag questions board game.pdf

Use this A/B pairwork worksheet for consolidation pairwork tag questions.pdf

v Present Perfect activities

Give students this worksheet Find someone who present perfect.pdf
Elicit the verbs that could be used for each picture. Make sure the students know the present
perfect form of the verb.
Students walk around the classroom and ask each other Have you ever?.
If the answer is Yes I have their name is written on the sheet. The person who completes the
worksheet the fastest is the winner.

v Give these prints for homework -

Present perfect worksheet.pdf

Present Perfect Question Formation.pdf
Pres perf word fill-in.pdf

v Preposition activities
The following worksheet should be given for an in-class activity and review of prepositions.
prepositionwordfill.PDF
followed by an A/B pair work exercise : prepositionab.PDF
As a review warm-up or warm-down the following game is a fun one for students:
PrepDominosGame1.PDF
Prep.DominosGame2.PDF