“How to put together a good party”

Lead-in: The Teacher shows students pictures about different situations ( a meeting, a
supermarket queue, a friends’ gathering, a party), and asks them to recognize which
situation represents a party. Then, she hands in different words on cardboard paper and they
have to set aside the ones related to the party topic. These words can be: job, fun, food,
time, music, instruments, study, people, friends, enemies, table, trucks. This activity stage
should take 10 min.

Set the task: For this stage, the Teacher tells students they are going to embark on an
activity in which they will have to work in groups and think about party ideas that must
include:
- Event and purpose of the event (for example: Laura’s birthday / to celebrate a
birthday party, Lucas’ retirement party, Lina’s farewell party).
- Type of food that will be included (here they can make a list of different dishes they
like or are typical from their country of origin, or that are usually eaten on special
occasions). Make sure this list is as varied as possible. The teacher can hand in
different menu samples from where the students can find ideas.
- List of beverages ( they can use the menus to find ideas on this also).
- The teacher tells the students they also have to make a list of all the items that are
necessary in order to set up the party, such as chairs, tablecloth, napkins, glasses,
etc. To help students with this part, the teacher is going to hand in each group a
supermarket catalogue that has on it all these types of things. The students
collaborate and help each other by brainstorming ideas. Here they will be working
with nouns (countable and uncountable).
- Students have to name different actions (they will use verbs here) that must be
performed before the party in order to prepare for it, such as: do the cleaning, buy
groceries, wash/ iron the clothes, cook food, arrange the furniture.
- They also have to list the actions that are related with personal care and that one
usually does before attending a special event, such as: do my nails, go to the
hairdresser’s/ go to the barber, go to the beauty salon, buy fancy clothes, take a
shower, buy a new pair of shoes.
- The teacher will hand out different pictures showing clothing items so that they can
decide what they are going to wear for the party. They have to write the items down
(ex.: a red dress, black high-heel shoes, a pair of blue pants, etc)
- Students also have to decide which music will be played during the party, here they
can discuss what groups they like, what type of music, etc.

The teacher will write on the board the areas to be covered so that the students work
on them. This stage of the activity takes 10-15 minutes.

Monitor de task: Students start working in groups and talking to each other, using the aids
they have at hand, while the Teacher monitors the class by walking among groups and being
available when needed. The Teacher can make suggestions if she sees that a group is
struggling with the activity. She will also write down what she thinks should be corrected later
on. This stage should last around 30 minutes.
Give feedback: Once the time is up, the teacher will clarify some points related to vocabulary
or grammar that she has encountered while monitoring the activity. She can use the
whiteboard for this. Also, the teacher will include the points worth praising, such as the fact
that they have included a wide range of vocabulary as regards food (maybe typical dishes
from the students’ countries, etc.)