Hola! que tal! Lesson Plan 1 2

I AM ... IN ... discussing ESL lesson plan. This 5 min video is presented to the M.E.N. SENA program in Bogota, Colombia (AND therefore I am keeping native Spanish speaking students in mind). GREETING is the first element of a successful class followed by asking a few questions such as "how are you?" and, taking control of the lesson - leading the group by checking for students' feedback (the students answer "I am great, I am super, I am happy"). It is the WARM-UP part of the lesson and it can last for about 6 to 10 minutes leading to a REVIEW of the already learned material. Questions asked during the WARM UP are: what's the date today? what is the weather like? what time is it? The  group, or individuals answer the questions. A game, a dance or an informal quiz are examples of warm up, it's any activity that sets the students on a good working mood of participation and responding AND helps solidify their knowledge and sharpen the attention. REPETITION is THE mother of LEARNING and I am not SHY to repeat the same thing many times over every day and creatively make the students repeat the words and the phrases in all possible contexts. A new activity is now introduced which includes the elements of friendly competition as a group on group or a few individuals up challenging some other individuals which will lead up to learning new content. When students compete for a prize, or even no prize, just the recognition, they mobilise cognitive ability and they memorize material better. An example is "magic ball" activity : students are positioned in a circle and they have to toss the ball to the next person, at random, asking him or her to translate and to correctly pronounce one of the words learned in the previous week or continue counting (1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 etc) or naming groups of words such as days of the week (so, it will be a review done in a very interactive and natural way). The group activity makes students act naturally as if they are in an English speaking environment and takes the stress of being quizzed away. It makes everyone an active participant, even those individuals who are shy. Plus, the students will move around; - it's very important to give them the oppportunity to be moving around the room. Teacher pays attention to correcting the students' mistakes (mistakes can also be corrected on the spot by students as part of the interactive game). This game and the correction activity take about 5 to 8 minutes.