Skip to main content

ESL Lesson Plan - Create Your Own Country - Intermediate



  Here's a lesson requested by Mike R. that deals with students creating and talking about a made up country using a variety of different lexis. If you want your own lesson personally made for you, just let me know, and I'm happy to do it. 


 Introduction: Just a few minutes 
 1. Have pictures or drawings of various things that are special for your home country. For example, US teachers could use the Statue of Liberty, NYC, Hollywood...etc Elicit these various things out and ask students what country you are talking about.

Lead In (around 7 minutes)
Demo these questions out and have students discuss them in groups

1. What are 3 things that you like about your country?
2. What are three things that you dislike about your country?
3. If you had to live in another country what country would it be and why?
4. What 2 things would you change with your country to make it better?

Tip:
Pull one of your students up from the class and have them draw a rough picture of the country you are in. In my case, it would be the Czech Republic. Use this rough drawing to help you elicit the target language.

Target Language (around 10 minutes)
Elicit and CCQ the following
Tip: Depending on your level you can add more complicated words if you want

1. the capital city
2. the population
3. the religion
4. the language
5. the currency
6. the exports and imports
7. the landscape
8. the political system
9. the cultural traditions

Study 1:  Strips 5 minute max
In groups students match up the word with the definition

Study 2. Sentence formation (around 5 minutes)
With your help, students form the correct questions with the words. "What's the capital city?" What are the exports...?"Students can then throw a ball to each other and ask these questions regarding known countries.. e.g. "What's the capital city of Germany?" "What's the currency of Spain?"

Tip: With all of your speaking activities, aim to get your students to sound natural. Contractions are your friends. Have your students say 'what's' instead of 'what is' along with any other contraction that they can possibly use. Doing this will make them sound much better and will increase their overall speed so correct for this.


Study 3. Asking about your own country (around 5 minutes)
Have a pre-made flip chart of an imaginary country complete with a name, capital city, various lakes, rivers...etc. Students then ask you about your country using the correct lexis and sentence structure.

Tip: At this stage, students should be able to form these questions relatively fast so push for speed and accuracy. Make sure that students are not reading the questions from their notes. They should be able to form everything at this point on their own without too many problems. Also, remember to make your own country engaging and interesting. If it's boring you're going to get boring results later on.

Activation - Country creation (20 minutes or more total)
 Set up: (around 7 minutes)  Hand out pieces of paper and tell students to create their own countries in groups or pairs using the above lexis.
 Tip: This isn't a writing activity so don't treat it as one. Have students make basic notes, but not complete sentences. We eventually want them to speaking in long turns and not simply reading out loud what they've written.

Activity: (around 13 minutes) When the students are done, have a mingle where they have to talk to each other about their different countries.  Make sure the board is erased and they are not really reading from their notes.  Monitor the activity for speed and accuracy, while making sure students are using contractions and articles. Call out switch every 5 minutes and students can mingle with a different group/country. Break the activity and have student talk about who they spoke with and what they liked/disliked about the other countries. Have them vote one which country the class liked the most.

Feedback: (just a few minutes)
Go over mistakes and any progress you heard during the activity. End the lesson with a joke and wish the students a good day.


Cheers,
Chris
The Language House - TEFL Prague Courses 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching English to Beginners with Chris Westergaard - Demo Video (A1) Seasons

I've got a new demonstration video with a group of A1 (beginner) students. This was obviously shot in Prague where I'm located. The focus of the lesson is 'Seasons' and the various different activities you can do during different seasons. Just an FYI to readers, this was a brand new class. I had never met them before and it was their first time in the classroom together. In these situations, you are really starting from scratch with your training and techniques. You'll see this in the video that things start off a bit slow and there are some bumpy sections. I had to constantly control for L1 and use a lot of behavioural techniques to get them to do what I wanted. Check out the video below. I've included a bunch of tips regarding beginner methodology in the video. I really do love this level because it requires absolutely pure teaching techniques. Take a look! Let me know your thoughts!
3 comments
Read more

ESL Lesson Plan - Passive Voice - Crime Scene

Here's a lesson for solid intermediates and up with a language focus on the passive voice and crime lexis. At the end of the lesson, students take the roles of police officers and have to give a press briefing to the media about a crime scene that they witnessed. Ideally, you will need an empty room to set up a crime scene for the activation and a language school that is ok with you trashing things around a bit. There are other ways to get around this, if this is not possible. * I create tailored lesson plans for anyone who wants them. If you want me to create you a lesson from scratch, contact me, and I'll do one for you. Please follow my blog on the right to show your support. Introduction: just a couple of min. Do any of the following. 1. Show a clip from a movie that shows a police officer giving a press briefing to the media 2. Come in and immediately address the class as if they are police officers 3. Have a picture of a police chalk outline and ask students wh...
2 comments
Read more

ESL Lesson Plan - Theme Parks - Intermediate - Lexis

  Here's a fun original lesson that you can use with intermediates and above dealing with theme/amusement parks. Depending on the level you can simplify the lexis or make it more difficult. Introduction (2-3 minutes) (Use any of the below suggestions)  a. Post some pictures of rides or amusement parks on the wall.  b. Come in dressed as Mickey Mouse or have a picture of him (elicit Disney Land).  c. Role play being on a roller coaster and have students guess where you are.  d. Show a video of a roller coaster from 1st person perspective .   The key is to try to elicit the word/idea 'amusement park'. Your students might not know what that word is in English, but they will all understand the concept. Lead in (about 5-10 minutes) Have these questions up pre written on the board or as a handout. With a 45 minute class you probably won't need 5 questions. 1. Do you like amusement parks? When was the last time you went to one? 2. Is there an a...
2 comments
Read more