Lesson on the Week! Food!

Per doctor’s orders, I am currently banished to my bed due to strep throat- amigdalitis. I actually had to look it up because in Argentina it’s called anginas. So I knew that I was sick with something, but I wasn’t sure exactly what until I whipped out my online dictionary. Giving classes on strep throat probably wasn’t the best idea, so I have to take it easy this weekend. I wanted to meet some people through CouchSurfing and ‘get out there’ a little bit more, but it will have to wait!

The good news is that I have time to catch up on some reading and blogging.

I thought that it would be cool to do a Lesson of the Week segment. I personally love reading teaching blogs that help me brainstorm  ideas for lesson plans, so maybe this entry can help out some fellow volunteers and TEFL teachers. As a new volunteer, you experiment a lot with different ideas. Sometimes they go just okay and sometimes they totally bomb (I’m sure every teacher knows that moment of dread when you stare into a sea of 20 blank faces and then try to then improvise on the spot). But sometimes, lessons go really well, the kids use the language, and they actually have fun doing it! I think that every teacher relishes those awesome lessons where everything seems to just click.

 What would you like?

I did this lesson with my terceros or high school juniors. They are working on a unit with food, and one of the activities in their workbook dealt with using different measuring units (a cup of, a glass of, a bowl of, etc.). Their learning objective was to order food at a restaurant using these expressions.

Vocabulary

·        A cup of

·        A glass of

·        A slice of

·        A piece of

·        A bowl of

·        A bag of

Miscelaneous food items, such as pizza, chips/crisps, water, juice, apple tart, cake, pie, etc.

Food items. The one in the middle is an apple tart. I realized halfway through drawing that I don't know
what an apple tart looks like...

Grammatical Structures

What would you like (to eat/drink)?

I would like _______

Could I have ?

Here you are.

The Lesson

I started out the lesson by passing out nametags and asking each student what his  favorite food was. I introduced the word of the day (‘tried’) and asked the them, Have you tried ____? They responded and they also asked me if I have tried various Chilean foods.  Have you tried empanadas? Have you tried terremotos? Have you tried kababs (anticuchos?) Of course, I said yes to almost everything!

I then brought up a graphic organizer with the measurement words. I had various foods drawn on paper with sticky tack on the back. I told the kids, I would like…and then held up the paper. I would like…. Pizza? A whole pizza!? No? Ah, very good. I would like a SLICE of pizza! I then put the piece of paper under the respective category on the board. Or I let the kids stick it on the board for me. I also joked around with the students to reinforce vocabulary words. So I would like a glass of pizza? *pretend to drink a glass of pizza* No? A slice? Ahhh…

Excuse my Ipad's poor picture quality! 

After we sorted out the vocabulary items, if I had time, I did a ball toss with the students, asking them What would you like? I would like _______. Then we got into our game, which was inspired by a lesson that I saw during English Opens Doors orientation.  There were two teams, and another person who was the customer.  One person from each team stood in the back of the room, while the customer sat at a desk in the front of the room. I placed all of the food papers (I had duplicates for each team) on both sides of the customer’s desk. The waiters asked, ´´What would you like?´´  and then the customer said, ´´I would like …´´ When I said GO!, the waiters ran to the front of the room to pick up the paper of the food item. The first waiter to place the paper on the desk and say, ´´Here you are!´´ got a point for their team.

Getting Ready to Race! 

I enjoyed some of the customers’ suggestions. I would like a slice of bread and a glass of water. (Living life on the wild side, huh?). I would like a bag of chips and a slice of cake. (Class, is that healthy?). Some students put the waiters’ working memory to test by asking for five things off the menu! And some students said, ´´I would like everything off the menu, please!’’ and the waiters scrambled to pick up all the pieces of paper.

Finally, for my ticket to leave/ exit question, I asked each student, What would you like (to eat/drink)?

So if your class is working on food, this might be an interesting lesson try!