For Valentine's Day, I didn't do a whole lesson on Valentine's Day, but we did dedicate part of the lesson to it. Before class, I found a copy of the first Valentine's story and then cut/reworded so that it wasn't too difficult for intermediates. I printed it and cut the story into strips, by sentence. The students' task was to try to put the story in the correct order. After that, we read through and translated it. By the time that we finished it, it was almost time to end class, but we did ask/ answer/ discuss several questions. Here's the version I used:
Valentine was a priest who lived in ancient Rome.
He refused to obey a law by the emperor that ordered young men to remain single.
The emperor supposedly did this to grow his army.
He believed that married men did not make good soldiers.
The priest, Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men.
When the emperor found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.
On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first "valentine" himself.
It was to a young girl that he had become friends with.
This lesson is a continuation of the first part of the Christmas story. We started the lesson with a warm-up: Starburst game. The questions we used were: 1) What is your favorite holiday and why? 2) What is your favorite holiday tradition and why? 3) What is your favorite part about winter? and 4) What is your favorite holiday memory?
Next, we checked to see who could retell the first part of the Christmas story from the previous week. This is GREAT for checking comprehension and triggering active thinking. I brought candy for the student who was brave enough to tell the whole thing. Everyone was rather sad that they hadn't tried. :)
We continued with more vocabulary and the spelling game: 1. Angels 2. to appear 3. Shepherds 4. (to be) afraid 5. Flocks 6. Savior 7. Nearby 8. a sign 9. Peace 10. Company 11. Terrified 12. Glory
Some of these they knew, others they didn't. We translated all of them and created sample sentences. After going over the vocabulary, we read through the story.
There were shepherds out in the fields nearby, watching over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord was around them. They were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in Bethlehem a Savior has been born; he is the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly, a great company of angels appeared, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men."
We read, translated, discussed, etc. After going through this part of the story, we retold the first part and then added this part. They did a great job!
As a grammar section (I know, so fun!), we did a secondary activity of preposition fill-in-the-blank:
There were shepherds out ___the fields nearby, watching____their flocks___ night. An angel of the Lord appeared___them, and the glory___the Lord was around them. They were terrified. But the angel said___them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today__Bethlehem a Savior has been born; he is the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped___cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly, a great company___angels appeared, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and___earth peace to men."
To finish up, we played a rousing game of Hangman. They love it. :)
I started teaching Christmas lessons a few weeks ago, but I forgot to update about them! I've been doing the Christmas story in parts, so as not to overwhelm everyone with vocabulary. Here's the first part of the story that I used with the Intermediates:
Here's some vocabulary that we went over: 1. Census 2. to order 3. to register 4. fiancee 5. to expect a child 6. to wrap 7. cloths 8. Manger 9. inn
You can play the spelling game, have students create sentences or a role-play, play Charades, or play Pictionary. After going through the story, we discussed comprehension questions, practiced reading aloud. After discussing it for a while, I got the students to try to retell it. Based on my own language-learning experience, this is pretty effective.
Here's the story for the Beginners (you can adapt it as needed):
In those days Caesar Augustus ordered that citizens should be counted. Everyone went to his own town. Joseph went to Bethlehem. He went there with Mary, who was expecting a child. While they were there, the baby was born. It was a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger. There was no room in the inn.
Because I'm going to be out of town next week, I went ahead and did a lesson on Thanksgiving tonight. I think their favorite part was the pumpkin bread that I took, but I'm not above bribing students with pumpkin bread. :)
1. Vocabulary introduction with the spelling game: pilgrims, Indians, crops, to die/died, to bless/blessed, plenty, winter, thanksgiving, feast, to provide/providing
2. I read a story about Thanksgiving to the class, allowing them to listen and see what they could understand:
The pilgrims had a hard first year in America. The crops did not grow well, and many people died. During the second year, God blessed the crops. The Indians that lived in the area helped the pilgrims with the crops. There were fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat. They had plenty of food to save for the winter. In 1621, the pilgrims and Indians met together for a feast. They thanked God for providing for them.
3. After reading through once, I read through again and had the students take turns translating, line by line.
4. I gave each team/group a fill-in-the-blank copy of the story to work on together. After they completed their stories, we read it aloud, checking their answers and practicing pronunciation.
5. I passed out pumpkin bread to the students to snack on while I talked about different Thanksgiving traditions. In keeping with a tradition my family has, we went around the room and listed things we were thankful for.
6. I took a moment to talk about many things in my life that I'm thankful for, sharing my story.
7. We then discussed our verse for the week: “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will remember all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1 8. We read in English, translated, discussed meaning, and re-read several times.
For our Easter lesson with our English club, we tried something a little adventurous. We wanted to make the lesson fun and meaningful at the same time, so we set up a scavenger hunt. It wasn't terribly difficult to set up, considering that most every aspect of life is more difficult than I ever expect!
Supplies: 1. colored balloons- preferably, a different color for each team. Be sure to get enough for all the clues, plus a couple extras just in case. 2. Strips of paper with location clues written on them 3. A print out of the Easter story for each group. Divide the story into paragraphs/ sections and cut those into strips.
Before blowing up the balloons, fold a clue and a portion of the story up for each balloon and stick them inside the balloon. Blow up the balloons and put them in the locations. Our last balloons led the students back to our classroom where they had to put their stories in order. They really liked this part!
Then, we had an activity sheet prepared for them. We interspersed comprehension questions with "language-y" questions. Comprehension questions: why did the people want Jesus to die? What was rolled in front of the tomb? "Language-y" questions: how many times is 'Jesus' written in this story? Count how many words start with the letter 'p.' Find a word with 4 vowels.
After they finished this activity, we asked deeper questions: what did you think was the most interesting part of the story? Why did Jesus choose to die? Why was it important for him to die?
After we finished this portion of the lesson, I told my story. I focused on how the Lord proved faithful and real to me, particularly when the tornado came through during my senior year of college and destroyed everything. Things went really well.
To finish up, we played a 2 minute list game. Theme? Easter.
