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National & Kapodistrian University of Athens

Lesson Plan and Materials Development

Week 4: Grammar & Vocabulary Games

TASK

Study Activities 1 & 2 and complete the questions that follow

Activity 1: My day so far

Aim: For students to write a short narrative about the day’s events.

Level: Pre-intermediate and higher.

Language practiced: Past simple (plus other narrative tenses if at higher level).

Preparation
Source a number of pictures of objects from Creative Commons for display
in class, or bring in a number of different objects,
for example, pen, computer, mobile phone,
camera/CCTV camera, glass or balloon.

Procedure
■■ Display the pictures or objects.
■■ Ask students to work in pairs and choose one object.
■■ Then ask them to work individually.
They should think of all the things that
the object might have done during
one day. Give them a time limit of
around five minutes to write as many
things as they can think of, for
example:
– for a pen: lay on the desk, wrote
a love letter, drew a picture,
scribbled on the wall, ran out of
ink, ended up in the wastepaper
bin.
■■ They should compare lists in pairs
and then use the ideas to write a
short narrative of the object’s day.
■■ Pairs can read their narratives out and the others should guess the object
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Activity 1: My day so far

Questions

1. Is it a Communicative or Pre-communicative activity? Justify your answer

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2. Which of the characteristics of ‘creative activities’ (trigger, audience, interaction)

does it include”?
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3. What age group of students is it appropriate for? Justify your answer

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4. How long would you need to teach to a group of ten students?

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5. Describe a follow-up activity you would assign to the students

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Activity 2: Platform 17

Aim: For students to write a collaborative pattern poem describing people

waiting on a station platform.
Level: Elementary or higher.
Language practiced: Present continuous.

Preparation
Find an atmospheric picture of people
waiting on a station platform. You can
do this by searching Google Images
(www.google.com/imghp) or Creative
Commons
(http://creativecommons.org).
Prepare the questions and the poem
pattern in the second and third sections
of the procedure for display on the
board/screen.
Poem pattern
Line 1: Where are they?
Line 2: An (adjective)
(woman/man) with (clothes or
physical features) Line 3: What are
they doing?
Line 4: And thinking of…

Procedure
■■ Project the picture or give it out to the
students. Ask them a few questions to
familiarise them with the picture.
Example:
Can you find someone who is texting? Can you find someone who is sitting on
a bench? Can you find someone who is reading? Can you find someone who is
looking at the clock? Can you find someone who is watching out for the train?
Can you find someone near the clock/by the stairs/by the lamppost, etc.?
■■ Ask students to work in pairs and choose one of the people on the platform.
Ask them to discuss the following questions:
Who are they – what job do they do? What do they look like? Are they happy?
Where are they standing/sitting? What are they doing? Are they catching a
train or waiting for someone? Who are they going to see/who are they
waiting for? What is on their mind at the moment?
Give the students the poem pattern.
■■ Each pair should use ideas from their discussion to write the verse. Example:
– sitting on the bench
– a sad woman with a long nose
– staring into space
– thinking of wasted time.
■■ When the pairs have finished, get them to read out their verse. The other
students should try to guess who they are describing.■ Finally you can put all
the verses together to form a poem called ‘Travellers’ or ‘Platform 17’.
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Activity 2: Platform 17

Questions

1. What age group of students is the activity appropriate for? Justify your answer
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2. How long would you need to teach to a group of ten students?

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3. How would you prepare the students for the activity? Describe the teaching steps

you would take

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4. Design a back-up activity in case Platform 17 would not be working as expected

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5. Describe the homework you would assign to the students

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