Class Level: 1 / Topic: Housing / Estimated Class Length: 3 hrs / Date:
Lesson Objectives:
  • Identify/describe housing problems (leaking; The ceiling is leaking. etc.)
  • Tell the landlord about the housing problem
  • Ask for help/make a polite request

Language Skill Proficiency:
  • Speaking
  • Listening
  • Reading
  • Writing
/ Materials and Equipment:
  • Worksheet: Calling the Landlord (Basic OPD LitS p. 83)
  • Worksheet: Can You Come to Apartment 10? (Basic OPD Teacher’s Resource Book p. 70)
  • Computer/LCD projector
  • Scanned copy of Can You Come to Apartment 10?–to project on the board
  • Large pictures: toilet, tub, stove, refrigerator, sink, broken toilet, leaking tub, leaking ceiling, broken stove, clogged sink, broken window, broken refrigerator (find images)
  • Word flashcards to label pictures on p. 70: man, manager, water, floor, broken refrigerator, cracked wall, leaking ceiling, kitchen, broken window, clogged sink, bugs
  • Flash cards: s, b, w, f, c, m, r, k
  • Optional Worksheet:Personal Information Questions
  • Optional Worksheet: Word Families with –all and –ell

Activity Plan
Prerequisite: rooms in a house; wall, window, ceiling; basic furniture including toilet, sink, tub, refrigerator, stove. Students can state their name and address.Students understand the words “problem” and “broken.”
Warm Up: I live in a house. Do you live in a house or an apartment? Elicit answers from Ss. Optional: Make a simple chart on the board of how many live in a house or an apartment.
Introduction: Today we will talk about some problems we have in our houses or apartments. Sometimes, we have a problem. We need help to fix it. You will learn how to talk about the problem in English, and you will learn how to ask for help with your problem.
Presentation: T. points to wall, ceiling, floor, window, door and elicits words from students. T. holds up pictures of (not broken) toilet, sink, stove, refrigerator, tub and elicits words from ss.
T. holds up a picture of a broken window, and says, “My window is broken.” Ss repeat. T. continues with broken toilet, stove and refrigerator; clogged sink and toilet; leaking tub or leaking ceiling. Ss repeat sentences: My sink is clogged. My ceiling is leaking, etc.
T. puts pictures of broken things on front board. Number them 1-8. T. says, “My refrigerator is broken. What number is that?” Ss respond with correct number. Continue with all. Do this 2x in random order.
T. points to pictures in order and asks Ss, “Tell me about the picture.” Ss respond, “My window broken/window broken” T. models and reinforces answers in this form: My ____ is _____. Do this 2x if more practice is needed.
Practice:Speaking practice-Worksheet, Calling the Landlord (Basic OPD Lit p.83). Give one copy to each pair of Ss. T. models the language: “Listen. My sink is clogged. Can you help me? My toilet is clogged/broken. Can you help me? My refrigerator is broken. Can you help me? My stove is broken. Can you help me?”
Ss repeat after T. several times, “Can you help me?” Ss practice in pairs, pointing to pictures and saying, “My ____ is _____. Can you help me?” If more practice is needed, ask Ss to find a new partner and practice again.
If a few Ssdid a particularly nice job with this, invite them to come to the front and do it for the class.
Practice:Worksheet-Can You Come to Apartment 10? (Basic OPD T. Book p. 70). Give one copy per S. Project on front board if possible. T. says, “What room is this?” Ss: “kitchen.” “What is the man doing?” Ss: “Calling.” T: “Why is he calling?” Ss: “Problems.” T: “Yes, I see some problems in this kitchen. What problems do you see?” Elicit froSss and make a list on the side of the board. List should include: broken/clogged sink, broken window, broken refrigerator, leaking ceiling, cracked wall, water on the floor, bugs (add to the list any of these items that ss didn’t mention).
Initial consonant sounds:s, b, w, f, c, m, r, k
Ask ss to look at the picture. Hold up a flash card for /s/. Ask ss to produce the sound, then say, “what do you see in the picture that starts with the sound /s/?” Ss: sink, ceiling. T continues with flash cards, eliciting words from ss for each sound: /b/ (broken, bugs), /w/ (window, water, wall), /f /(floor), /c/ (clogged, cracked, call), /m/ (man, manager), /r/ (refrigerator), /k/ (kitchen).
Word cards: If you can project the picture, hand out word cards and ask ss to tape them to the right place on the picture. If you can’t project it, give word cards to ss. Call out the words in a certain order; ss step up to put the words on the board in the order you call out.
Or, make fill ins on the board. Ex. My ____ is _____. (sink/clogged). ____ is on the _____. (water/floor). I need to _____ the _____. (call/manager). Point to the spaces; ss tape words into the correct spots.
Ss label their copy of the picture. Early finishers: Write sentences on the bottom half of the page.
Listening:T. models talking about all of the problems again, in first person. Point to the man, and say, “My name is ____. My address is ______. Can you help me? My sink is clogged. My wall is cracked. My refrigerator is broken.” Continue with all problems. Model this 2x if needed.
Listen and repeat: T. models the dialogue again, pausing to ask ss to repeat each sentence. Do this 2-3x if needed.
Speaking practice in pairs: One S is the manager, the other the man. Give Ssa few minutes to role play, making sure they switch roles.
Model the dialogue again if you need to based on how Ss did during pair work.
Ask Ss who did well during pair work to come to the front and do their role play for the class.
Practice. Role play: Landlord and groups of tenants - Choose 4 strong Ss to be the landlords/apt. managers. Give them an index card with the questions: What is your name? What is your address? What is the problem? Send them to a corner of the room with 1-2 of the pictures from your intro of a housing problem.
Put other Ss in groups of equal number. They are the tenants. Groups of tenants stay together and rotate to each manager. Each tenant in the group does the role play with the manager. By the end of the rotation, each S will have practiced the conversation 4 times, and listened to it 12-15 times. A great advantage of this activity is that Ss can help each other in English, and can help with L1 translation if needed.
Evaluation:Ask tenant/manager pairs to come to the front and do the dialogue for the class. For Ss who are not ready to do it in front, T. can play the landlord’s part off to the side as an exit ticket.
Extension Activities:
  • Teach a lesson on household pests and common treatments you can buy at the drugstore or hardware store. Watch video, “Building Literacy with Adult Emergent Readers” at for great ideas on this.
  • Review/expansion of household problems and pests: Black OPD p. 62-63.
  • Jobs related to household problems: Black OPD p. 62-63.
  • Review numbers 0-9 and phone numbers. Do a dictation where T. says, “My sink is clogged. I need a plumber. I’ll call him at 919 833 6775. My window is broken. I’ll call the landlord. Her number is 919 766 5285.” Ss write the phone numbers on small white boards or on paper. Continue with 7-8 numbers.
  • Practice personal information questions using questionnaire(attached). Ss mingle, ask and answer questions in pairs. Or, cut up the questions. Each student walks around with one question to ask.
  • Word family exercise with –all(call the landlord, cracked wall) and –ell(tell the landlord about the problem). Worksheet attached.