Lauren Kelly

TE 407

12 November 2008

Grammar Lab Activity Plan

Theme: Forming “Usted” commands from –ar verbs to be used in real life contexts.

Content Objectives: Students will use their previous knowledge of weather vocabulary and apply it to learning how to construct complete sentences for describing the weather in real life situations.

Language Objectives: Students will work on both their listening and speaking skills by describing various pictures to their partners in the first activity. They will also work on their writing by writing down a weather report in the second activity.

Context: This comes as an adaption from the middle of a Spanish 2 book. 1-Students are practicing using complete sentences to describe weather using previously learned vocabulary. 2-Students will use their new conversational skills to describe the weather in various Latin American countries. 3- Students will also use their new skills in order to write the television weather report for today in East Lansing.

Procedure:

  1. Using PowerPoint slides, I will emphasize that we learned the weather vocabulary in a previous lesson.
  2. I will then teach how to use this previously learned vocabulary to create complete sentences when describing the weather to someone.
  3. After viewing some examples, I will pass out the worksheet and the sets of flash cards. The students will need to get in pairs, with one student taking a set of flashcards with a blue paperclip and the other student taking a set of flashcards with an orange paperclip.
  4. The students will then begin Activity A listed on the worksheet, in which they will show each other the pictures on the flashcards, and their partner will need to orally describe the weather conditions of each country shown using two different sentences. The pairs will go through all their flashcards dong this (each pair will have a total of 8) and multiple correct responses will be included on the back of each flashcard.
  5. The students will then be instructed to complete Activity B, on the opposite side of the worksheet. This activity is an individual, written assignment. In activity B, the students are asked to write three sentences, on top of the picture of the TV, that describe the current weather conditions for the day here in East Lansing.
  6. As a wrap-up, I will ask for volunteers to come to the front of the room, pretend to be a meteorologist, and place pictures of various weather conditions onto a map of Michigan, while giving a brief, three sentence oral report of the weather in East Lansing.

How This Activity Supports My Objectives:This activity supports my both my content and language objectives for this lesson. By using the sentence structure for describing weather conditions multiple times in different situations, like giving a weather report or describing the current weather, the students will learn an everyday, real life skill that they can use. The activity also supports my language objects because in doing both activities A and B, the students will be practicing and therefore improving their listening, speaking, and writing skills in the TL.

Use of English:In my activity I do not intend to use much English at all, as I intend to provide instruction completely in the TL, using the board to write out the concepts in the TL. One place where I have used some English is in the worksheet that I will be handing out. On this worksheet, I have an English translation of the directions and also a sort of “cheat sheet” with the phrases necessary for the activities and their English translations, since there are students in this class who have no knowledge of Spanish. In an actual classroom where we would have already learned the many of the verbs and vocabulary, I think that I would adapt this worksheet slightly by removing the English translations. Finally, I will also use a little bit of English if it seems the students are confused or need some clarification.

Visuals/Learning Aids: In this lab I will be using multiple learning aids in order to help the students learn through visuals and to keep their interest. I will be using the board to present the context of the activity and go over the instructions for the day. I also will be handing out a worksheet for students to follow along with, in which I provide a cheat sheet of necessary phrases, and the students will need for the activity B- the written part. I also will be handing sets of flashcards, for students to view a visual representation of different weather conditions that will be describing orally. When passing out the worksheet and the sets of flashcards, I will instruct the students to get in pairs, with one student in each pair taking a set of flashcards with a blue paperclip and one student in each pair taking a set of flashcards with an orange paperclip, as well as each student taking a worksheet. Pre-paper clipped, color-coded packet will provide for efficient pass out of the materials. Finally, I will have a map of Michigan on the PowerPoint at the end of the activity. This will be used by students who volunteer to come up and be the weatherman, by sticking pictures of different weather conditions on to the map, to supplement the short oral report they will give to the class. I will try to also use the space by having students come to the front of the room to give their weather reports and also by walking around the classroom while the students are doing partner work, in order to monitor how the activity is going, if students are having problems, and finally to monitor the time and when they will finish.