LING 427 TESOL Internship

Summer 2014
Lesson Plan 12
Internship teacher: Amy Smart

Class: ESL

Number of learners: 10

Level of learners: Intermediate

Duration of class: 1 hour 15 minutes

Date and time of lesson: June 20, 9:40-10:55am

Materials:
white board and markers, English Unlimited Intermediate CD 2 and CD player, EU Intermediate coursebook, 1
copy of Practice Activity handout per student, laptop and projector

Overall aim of the lesson:

To familiarize students with the use of modal verbs for deduction and speculation, particularly when talking
about travel plans

Objectives:
By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to

Talk about unexpected travel situations

Listen to an audio recording for specific information

Correctly identify four modal verbs used for deduction and speculation
Write a short story about a Nightmare Journey using modals for deduction and speculation

Stage

Timing

10 min.

Activity
Introduction

Procedure
T. will greet Ss. T. will ask a S. to pray before starting the lesson. T. will
hand back marked homework and collect completed homework from
Wednesdays class.
T. will remind Ss. that on Wednesday they talked about cleaningwords
they can use to describe how they would make a messy room clean. T. will
ask a few Ss. to give her some examples of the multi-word verbs they used
(throw away, tidy up, etc).
T. will tell Ss. that today they will be learning about some messy situations
(difficult situations) related to travelling. T. will write the words nightmare
journey on the board. T. will ask Ss. what they think this means. T. will
allow at least a few Ss. to respond. If they do not guess correctly, T. will
tell them it means a terrible holidayit is when someone is travelling and
something goes wrong. T. will ask Ss. if they have ever had any problems
while traveling. Did they ever miss their bus/plane etc? Have they been
lost travelling to another country? Did they get off at the wrong stop? T.
will ask Ss. to suggest other things that might go wrong while travelling. T.
will write their answers on the board. T. will tell Ss. her nightmare journey
story (delayed flights while travelling home from Ecuadorhad to wait till
the next morning to fly home).

20 min.

Listening
Activity

T. will tell Ss. that they will be listening to two people talking about a
nightmare journey they had (2.21). T. will instruct Ss. to open their
coursebooks to page 64. T. will direct Ss. attention to question 2 on page

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2014 Briercrest College. Lesson plan created by David Catterick

LING 427 TESOL Internship

Summer 2014
64. While they are listening to conversations A-F, they must read the
questions and listen for the answers to them. They can take notes on the
conversations if they wish. T. will play the recording two times if
necessary.
When Ss. have finished listening to the audio recording, T. will ask Ss. to
discuss their answers to question 2 with a partner. T. will listen to make
sure they understood the audio recording.
3

15 min.

Grammar
Explanation

T. will tell Ss. that they will now learn some words they can use to talk
about unexpected travel situations. These words are modals that help us
talk about guesses and conclusions we make. T. will write the word
modals on the board.
The first word that T. will talk about is must. T. will write the word on the
board and ask Ss. to tell her the meaning of this word if they know it (you
are sure something will happen). T. will give correct answer if Ss. do not
provide it. T. will provide an example sentence: That must be Laura. Shes
coming over for coffee.
T. will tell Ss. that they can only use must in affirmative sentences. T. will
ask Ss. to tell her what an affirmative sentence is (a sentence that talks
about something that will happen).
T. will tell Ss. there is a word they can use to say that they are sure
something will not happen. This word is cant. You use cant in negative
sentences. T. will ask Ss. to tell her what a negative sentence is (a
sentence that talks about something that wont happen/is impossible).
Example sentence: I cant eat another piece of cake! I am very full.
In this case, must is the opposite of cant. Must = something will
happen. Cant = something will not happen.
T. will tell Ss. I need to work on my lesson plans this weekend. (write do
my lesson plans on the board). T. will ask Ss. What word would I use to
talk about what I am doing this weekend? Must, or cant? (Must). I must
do my lesson plans this weekend. T. will write this sentence on the board.
T. will then say I am not an athletic person. I am not good at sports. This
means that I am not able to run very fast. Which word would I use to talk
about this? Must, or cant? (Cant). T. will say this sentence and write it
on the board: I cant run very fast.
T. will say We have two more words to practice today. These words both
show that you are not sure something will happen, but it is a possibility.
These words are might and could. (T. will write these words on the
board).
T: Here is an example sentence using the word could: That could be my
cab. Its come really quickly. (T. will write this on the board)
T: Here is an example sentence for the word might: My exam results
might arrive today. Im really nervous. (T. will write this on the board).
T. will ask Ss. What does the first sentence mean? What does the second
sentence mean? and elicit answers.

10 min.

Practice
Activity

T. will give each S. a handout with two activities to help them review what
they just learned (the handout is an adaptation of activity 1a on page 65

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2014 Briercrest College. Lesson plan created by David Catterick

LING 427 TESOL Internship

Summer 2014
and the practice activity on page 140 of the coursebook). T. will briefly
explain the instructions for the activities. Then Ss. must complete the
handout individually. When finished they may compare notes with a
partner. T. will take up the answers with the entire class.
Answers: A. 1; B. 3; C. 3; D. 2
2. must, 3. cant, 4. cant, 5. might, 6. must, 7. might, 8. must
5

20 min.

Partner Work

T. will tell Ss. that she is planning to go to Cardiff this weekend. T. will
show Ss. a few pictures of the places she wants to visit in Cardiff. T. will
explain that she and Courtney are going to have to get up very early to get
on a bus that will take them to Birmingham. Then, they are going to ride
on another bus to Cardiff. T. will ask Ss. to think about what could go
wrong on this trip. How could it turn into a Nightmare Journey? T. will say
and write a few suggestions on the board such as they might get lost,
they wont find the right bus, etc. In groups of two, T. will instruct Ss. to
write about how this could become a Nightmare Journey for her and
Courtney. T. will recommend that Ss. write at least 5-6 sentences for this
activity. T. will encourage Ss. to use the modal verbs they have been
practicing in their descriptions. They can write their description like a
prediction (Amy and Courtney will get lost) or like a story, (One day,
Amy and Courtney went to Cardiff and).
If time allows, T. will allow Ss. to share their stories with the rest of the
class.
T. will dismiss Ss. for their 15-minute break.

Homework:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2014 Briercrest College. Lesson plan created by David Catterick

LING 427 TESOL Internship

Summer 2014
Internship teacher: Amy Smart

Date and time of lesson: June 20, 9:40-10:55am

Looking Back
(What went well/not so well and why? What went differently than expected? What were the challenges
you faced and how did you respond? Etc.)
Andrew had mostly positive things to say about my lesson today. For that I am greatly relieved! He said that
my timing was perfectusually the first time he observes a lesson the teacher-in-training is at least a little
bit off on their timing. I had lots of time to think through how I would pace each activity and it paid off!
Things mostly went according to plan. I had some students share their stories with another partner group at
one point because the other partner groups were not finished writing. One other positive thing Andrew
mentioned was that even though I am younger than most of my students, there does not seem to be a power
struggle in my classroom. I am still very much in charge of what happens in the class, but without having a
controlling attitude about it. I didnt even think about thisI know my students a bit outside of class and I
think we have a mutual respect for each other. I usually do not feel that I have to fight for control in the
classroom, which is good.
The challenge I faced is that when asking a student to volunteer to pray to start the class, the student started
praying in Korean, even when I asked her to pray in English. She was laughing and I dont think she was
taking it seriously. They are supposed to only use English in the classroom. So I asked if another student
would like to pray in English, and he did, and we started the lesson. Andrew said that this was very wellhandled as I did not embarrass the student who would not pray in English but still managed to have the class
open with prayer.

Looking Ahead
(What are the key learning points and how will you apply them? How might you do it differently next
time? What skills would you like to develop to teach this sort of class better? Etc.?)
While my grammar teaching has make drastic improvements, there is still more that I need to improve.
Rather than just explaining the meaning of words/phrases used in the grammatical concept I am teaching, I
also need to remember how to explain to my students how they can be used in a sentence and more
specifically, which type of words follow or come before the word, etc. For my next lesson I will be sure to
incorporate that.
I also need to make sure that students understand any new vocabulary words used in their coursebook
activities. Sometimes I just assume that they will know them already. This needs to change.
Finally, I need to make sure that each student has a chance to talk and offer answers in class. While many of
my students volunteered answers in class today, three students never spoke during whole-class discussions.
In the future I may need to nominate these students to share their opinions as they might not readily
volunteer an answer. I will do this so I can make sure every student in my class understands what they are
being taught.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2014 Briercrest College. Lesson plan created by David Catterick