School holidays

Introduction

This lesson looks at the kinds of everyday activities that children do during the school holidays, using a diary-style format while practising using going to. Learners read about Emily's plans for the school holidays through a collaborative reading activity. The target language is drilled as a language chunk. Learners share ideas, then make individual posters about their holiday plans and then present and display them. 

Topic

School holidays

Learning outcomes

• Practise reading for specific information
• Use a noticing strategy to identify the use of going to
• Take part in collaborative work
• Tell a partner about their holiday plans using going to
• Write about their holiday plans using going to

Age/Level

Aged 9–12 (CEFR A2)

Time

110 minutes over two lessons

Materials 

• Lesson plan
• Presentation
• Worksheet – cut up into two parts; one part per student
• Reading cut-ups – one set per group
• Poster template – one per student

Lesson one (55–65 minutes)

Lead-in (5 minutes)
 

• Display slide 2. Tell learners that this is a photograph of Emily, and they're going to find out about her plans for the school holidays.
  Note: If you don't have access to a projector, print off the image on slide 2 to show learners.

Brainstorming (10 minutes)

• Write 'School holidays' on the board.
• Tell learners something you're going to do during the next school holidays, but keep it low-key to include learners that don't go on expensive trips. For example: I'm going to stay in bed late.
• Ask learners to tell you what they do during school holidays and support with language. Try to elicit ideas such as help mum, visit family, etc.

Scanning (15 minutes)

• Tell learners they're going to read about Emily's plans for her school holiday. 
• Give each group participant a number from 1 to 5 . In smaller groups give the stronger reader two numbers.
• Give out the reading texts. Tell number 1 they will read Monday; number 2 they will read Tuesday, etc. 
• Ask them to read silently and circle the words going to in their text. Monitor and support.
• Then tell each learner they will read their paragraph to the group in day order, starting with Monday.
• Elicit how many times going to is used in their text. (Mon 3; Tues 3; Weds 2; Thurs 2; Fri 3). Elicit if it refers to the past, present or future.
• Elicit Emily's plans. If using the presentation, display slide 3 and support learners to give you the information in the format: On Monday, Emily is going to…

Note: Circling or underlining language is a form of noticing. This prompts learners to 'notice' how the language is used in context. Explicit grammar teaching is not suitable for this age group. Language should be taught in context through chunks of language. 

Reading comprehension (10 minutes)

• Ask learners to read their text carefully and to note down ten key words that will help them remember the text. 
• Support with any new language.

Collaborative writing (15 minutes)

• Remove the texts. Put learners into groups so that all readers of text one are together, all readers of text two are together, etc.
• Ask groups to share their key words and try to rewrite their text together.
• Once they've written their texts, allow them to look at the original texts again to identify any information they missed.

Pair discussion (10 minutes) – Optional extension
 

• Re-group learners, so that they are with learners who read a different text (in pairs or small groups).
• Ask them to only look at their key words but to tell their partner about their text.

Note: The collaborative writing task provides scaffolding for this task, as the learners have discussed the reading, written it and read it again. 

Lesson two (55 minutes)

Pair work preparation (10 minutes)

• Tell learners they are going to tell you about their plans for the school holidays.
• Give out the worksheet. Ask learners to add a tick or a cross to each idea.
• Display slide 4. Drill the first question with the whole class:  Are you going to stay in bed late?
• Answer No, I'm not and point to the words on the slide. Repeat this sequence with question 2, answering Yes, I am
• Nominate a few strong learners to ask questions 3–6 as a demonstration.
• Drill Yes, I am and No, I'm not. Exaggerate the intonation slightly, so that learners hear the difference between a positive and negative response.

Note: You could make the drills more interesting by doing a fast/slow drill or a whisper/shout drill.

Pair work (15 minutes)

• Put learners into pairs. Name them A and B. Try to select the most confident learner as A.
• Tell A they must ask B questions. Remind them the first four questions are on the slide. 
• B must answer the questions. Point to the answers on the slide.
• Monitor and support. After 5 minutes say Stop! Tell B to ask the questions and A to answer.
• Ask one or two pairs to demonstrate a question and answer.
• Give feedback on the learners' English.

Poster making (15 minutes)

Note: This can also be done using an online tool or using the template. Online tools are suggested in the useful links.

• Show learners your completed template. Tell them they are going to create a school holiday poster. 
• Display slide 5. Indicate that you've written your name and one activity for each day of the week. Plus, you've added some simple drawings.
• Make sure it's clear to learners that all sentences begin with I'm going to.
• Learners write and draw pictures.

Note: The focus should be on writing rather than drawing, although the drawing will give respite to learners who find writing difficult. 

Group presentation (15 minutes)

• Put learners into small groups to share their posters and read out their sentences. 
• If you have time, encourage a few learners to present their posters to the whole group.
• Posters can be made into a wall display.

Note: If using the online version, the posters can be shared on a wall, such as Padlet. The class could give stars to their three favourite posters. The learners with the most popular posters could present them to the whole class.

Useful links and resources

• Article on noticing: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/knowing-subject/n-p/noticing
• Article on language chunks: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-chunks-very-young-learners
• Online poster makers for diary: 

1. Designcap: https://www.designcap.com/poster/kids.html
2. https://www.canva.com/posters/templates/kids/

• Tutorial for Designcap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DR1nKFtWuo
• Tutorial for making a poster in Canva https://youtu.be/2qAk9XfV8zE?si=Rz43Kjg32cId0nVU
• Padlet wall: https://padlet.com/  

Additional information

• Fast/slow drill
  Drill the words very slowly. Repeat the words four or five times, gradually getting faster until you are saying them very quickl.y
• Whisper/shout drill
  Drill the words by whispering. Repeat the words four or five times, gradually getting louder until you are shouting.