LESSON 3: PRACTICING ENGLISH IRREGULAR VERBS

GOAL: Get my children to be more aware of 'past tense' verbs. Sometimes I find
that they know "see/saw" or "do/did" but still don't use it because in
Korean & Mandarin past tenses are not constructed in the same way. So this
Lesson Plan is designed with that in mind. Also, the ultimate goal of this
Lesson Plan is to help them with their journal writings, which they have
to complete 20 journal writings of 200 words each over the next 10 weeks.

CLASS: Mixture of Korean & Chinese children
LEVEL: 8~11 years old who attend Shanghai International School. Low Intermediate
with a fair ability to express themselves. However, this group still
confuses tenses and has a lot of trouble with rregular verbs, yet they can
read nicely and understand with problems.

CLASS
TIME: 60 mns.

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TIME: 15 mns.

This week we started writing stories in our journals. However, many of us are having problems with verbs, specially irregular verbs.

I would like to invite you to the following site where we can memorize troublesome words through chanting. The verbs we will be practicing are the following:

IRREGULAR VERBS

have has had had
say says said said
do does did done

see saw seen
make made made
find found found
know knew known
get got gotten
go went gone
write wrote written
think thought thought
come came come

TIME: 20 mns.

STEP 1. Go to: http://www.manythings.org/repeat/

STEP 2. Listen to this section a couple of times.
Read and sing at the same time.

STEP 3. Now try doing it one more time without looking.
This time ONLY sing along.

STEP 4. Now...with your partner complete HANDOUT "A" without referring
back to your notes or the song. HANDOUT "A" can be found at:
http://themusketeer.pbworks.com/FrontPage
See if you can. Please try!

Now...if you have done well...don't stop - at home you can go down to the next section and start with the next set of verbs. Go all the way through to the bottom until you have finished all the verbs. Try this over the next month, a little at a time until you have memorized all the irregular verbs.
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Follow instructions:

TIME: 20 mns.

STEP 1. Go to my Wiki at: http://themusketeer.pbworks.com/FrontPage

STEP 2. Download my HANDOUT "B"

STEP 3. Partner up with another student. Go immediately to STEP 4.

STEP 4. Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4QEzJe6_ok&feature=related
Listen to this song 3 or 4 times. ONLY LISTEN.

STEP 5. Now work with your partner to fill out Handout "B".


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WRITING: (to be done at home)

Please write your two stories for the upcoming week
"Something I Never Told Anyone!"
"My most Memorable Summer." (200 words each)


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ATTENTION: (2 mns.)

Teacher Aramis is not satisfied with the quality of penmanship.
The journals are not neat & clean. Please download the PowerPoint
which I created for you. The name of the PowerPoint is
WRITING RULES. You will find it in my WIKI at:

http://themusketeer.pbworks.com/FrontPage

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1. How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your instructional purposes?

What I hope to do is to work individually with the children this upcoming week.
I have designed this blog so that a child can almost work by herself. This can
free me up to move around the room and work with different students according
to their needs. My classes are a bit lopsided. Some students are quite advanced.
Others are not. Some have perfect American accents but have 'lacunae' in their
knowledge of everything from verbs to how sentences come together. Yet others
are very sharp and know what they are doing. This venue gives them the possibility
of working at their own pace.

2. Why is this application and format appropriate for the lesson you plan to create
(e.g., level of authenticity, relevance to target language, register, accuracy,
interest level, and motivation?

It is relevant because it's what they need ~ for starters! They also know that
because they will often ask me how to say a particular verb in the past tense.
Also, the song I chose from YOUTUBE is quite authentic English. The songwriters
did not water-down this song. It is a normal song as would be heard by a native
speaker. As far as interest, I think the children would like it because it has
a modern rock beat which moves fast. Kids today like that; specially if they are
older. They don't want to hear baby songs or songs that remind them of kinder-
garten. Will they be motivated? I won't know until I try but I believe they
will. That's why I am enhacing the song with HANDOUT "B" so they can work with
a partner and have a sense of accomplishment. Korean kids are very competitive
so they will appreciate the challenge of the HANDOUT.

3. What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning and
adapt this resource for your instructional purposes?

I created two handouts: HANDOUT "A" and HANDOUT "B" which the children will be
able to access by going into my WIKI: http://themusketeer.pbworks.com/FrontPage

4. Are the format, organization, design and language level of this resource
appropriate for your instructional goals?

Yes, it is neither too difficult nor too easy. However, it may be easy for the
more advanced students, in which case, I can always encourage them to listen only,
thus making it a bit more challenging. I can also pair up the more advanced kids
with the slower ones. The advantage of my classes is that I have no more than
8 children in a class so I can give them a lot of personal attention. I believe
that the way I designed this particular LESSON PLAN will meet all of their needs
without frustrating them. Also, they are not entirely ignorant of irregular
verbs. This is merely a tool I am using to refresh their recollection.

5. What are the potential problems, either language based or technical that you
may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?

The goal of this class is to write. Therefore, the one problem I can have is that
they finish too quickly. The lesson may prove to be too easy for some. If that
happens, I can ask them to immediately start writing in their journals. They have
two assignments that are due next week. Each one is 200 words and that is not
easy even for the more advanced children. So I am prepared for those who may say:
"Teacher Aramis, we are finished!" Fine! In that case, get busy with your
journal writing. So I believe I have covered all my bases.