Christmas with Bear teaching unplugged Lesson 1

1. Introduction of the situation Creating the NEED: Bear is English and he is a Bear. Ask children: Does he know about Christmas? Does he know about Hungarian Christmas? Is English Christmas different from Hungarian Christmas? 2. Bear's request letter: Tell children that Bear's sent a letter to them unfortunately, he's cut them up by accident as he was making snowflakes find the rest of the letter and put the pieces together. (Ask them to try and work out what he has asked for if they had already done some reading before grade 3+) 3. Listen and work out Bear's request: Read the letter to them, children listen to what he wrote and guess what his question is. 4. Pre-teaching vocabulary: Show photos on ppt. Ask them to look at the pictures taken about our Christmas preparations. (You can download these photos and put them into a ppt from the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/56808437@N02/sets/72157628202316091/ Children guess what they are. Are they a present or a decoration? Christmas card? Reformulate their language into L2 as they are guessing. 5. Preparing THEIR content: Elicit ways in which they prepare for Christmas at home. Each child should come up with one idea. (in groups of max 8 kids) write it down in Hungarian. Compare and come up with a common list. Aim for minimum 5, maximum 8 phrases. 6. Focusing on THEIR Christmas expression. Each child should choose the one they will draw for Bear meanwhile the teacher writes the expressions on big cards in English. Checking understanding: call out the phrase who is going to draw : Buy the present kids put their hands up (and pair up). It is very important that they choose one THEY would like to draw for Bear the more personal it is the more memorable it will be, including the language. 7. Drawing ask them to make their drawings big so that it is clear from distance too. Draw with pencils only. Warn them not to colour them in yet. As they are drawing praise them on their drawing using the expressions that describe their pictures. E.g. Lovely presents! Who is making the presents here? Where are you going to buy the presents? Wow, in a toyshop. That's great!

Lesson 2, 3, ...
Preparation: Scan and make a worksheet from their drawings: drawing and the expressions at the bottom of the page. (NB. No production, only recognition of the phrases for at least another lesson!) 1. Recycling recognition1: Checking understanding through a version of Run and touchgame, where the run action keeps changing. E.g. Hop and touch: Bake gingerbread cookies., tip-toe and touch make presents, jump and touch etc. 2. Recycling recognition2: Play musical chairs when the music stops, Bear calls out the key phrases. Kids who recognise their phrases, hold up their pictures. Encourage children to help each other. (in groups of max 8) 3. Flash-reading practice: Flash the expressions and they have to hold up the correct picture. Erika Osvth, teacher and teacher trainer; erikaosvath@gmail.com; http://angoltanaroknak.blogspot.com/

4. Making their own story-content: Each child holds their drawing. Stand in order how you think it happens. Tell them that there are more versions possible, and they should try to make an order of the activities for Bear to understand what we do. (There is going to be some negotiation here in L1.) Help a little at the beginning, but let them sort out their own order at this stage. They will have the chance to make the necessary corrections later. 5. Listen and check: Tell our Christmas story to Bear children listen and check if order in which they stand is correct. Make necessary corrections. Bear thanks them for the story, and that now he knows what Christmas is like in their homes. Bear says good-bye and goes back to his box. 6. Settling time: Give them the worksheet (their drawings in small randomly on the page and the key phrases at the bottom of the page). First children cut them up. 7. (IF you feel that they still need a lot more practice, you can play memory game with them, or a versions of it with only one set of cards turned down per group. The teacher calls out one of the phrases, and the first child picks one up. If it's correct the card stays turned up, if not, they have to turn it back down again. The teacher calls out the next phrase, second child picks up a card, etc.) 8. Listening and ordering: Listen to the story again and paste the pictures in the correct order. If they are readers-writers, warn them to leave an empty space for the word-cards at the bottom of each picture card on the sheet. They will have to match and stick them at the next stage. Tell the story more times, if necessary. It's good if they hear it as many times as possible. Alternatively, you could also record yourself telling the story for the first time using a programme called audacity, for example, and play it back/pause the recording as many times as necessary. 9. Reading practice: Ask children to match the word-cards to the picture cards. After pair and open class check, ask children to stick them under the pictures. They can also colour their picture-story at this stage. 10. Preparation for story-telling (Using cohesive devices): Put on the board the following words following the order and the shape of the pictures they had stuck on the paper: First we/I ... Then we/I ... After that we/I Then we/I ... After that we/I Then we/I On Christmas day Then tell the story using these cohesive devices and ask children to follow the pictures of the story on their worksheet with their finger as they listen to it. Here make sure children can follow the story exactly. 11. Story-telling practice: Tell them that they will have to practice telling the story, because Bear would like to listen to it next lesson from them, not from me anymore. Put them in groups of 4, and in each group nominate the stronger child to start telling the story to the other kids. The rest of the children in the group will have the task of following with the pictures with their fingers again, AND making sure that the person telling the story uses the correct cohesive devices. They take turns in telling the story and helping each other use the correct cohesive devices. 12. Next lesson after revision of recognition, further drilling and activities that give them practice of the phrases in speaking, children can attempt telling the story to Bear using their worksheet, with Bear sitting on their lap and showing him the pictures. As a mummy or a daddy would tell a story to their child. ENJOY THE STORYTELLING WITH YOUR CHILDREN! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Erika Osvth, teacher and teacher trainer; erikaosvath@gmail.com; http://angoltanaroknak.blogspot.com/