Lesson Plan Session 7: Speaking Exam Practice (C1.1) & Extreme Weather (B2.2)

As midterm exams were coming up for all students in the following weeks, for the seventh session of classes I gave my C1.1 level some additional practice and advice on their speaking exams. At the same time, my B2.2 level worked on increasing their vocabulary and understanding for exams while learning about the theme of extreme weather.

C1.1- Monologue Oral Exam Practice

Just as I mentioned earlier, during the weeks of February 4th to 15th all of my students in the language school have midterm exams. While these exams have no effect on their standing in the school, they act as predictors for the end of year exams given by the regional administrators of Galicia. For my C1.1 classes I decided to give some extra practice--especially for the speaking portion of the exam!

For this session I found old C1 English exams from 2013. After confirming with professors that the format was the same as the exams our students might encounter at the midterm and end of year exams, I decided on discussing the topic of heath and junk food--something we had discussed the session before. In the first part of the class I began by asking my students which parts of the speaking exams they are most worried about and wrote them on the board. Once I had written all of the class' doubts on the whiteboard, we went one-by-one to discuss them and give each other advice.

After discussing our fears and concerns, I then turned to our practice exam for the rest of our class. Due to the fact that students are given 3 minutes to prepare and organize their notes for the monologues, I showed them the best format to do so and in a manner that helped them really understand what the questions were asking. First, as I was creating our outline for our notes, I had a student read the entire text out loud. Then I discussed what exactly the questions were asking of them.

1. Explain to your partner in your own words what you have just read. (SUMMARY)

2. Discuss the main issues to be addressed when dealing with healthy eating habits (OPINION)

3. Make predictions and speculate about what the situation may be like in the future (FUTURE PREDICTIONS)

I explained that the format for the questions always asked them for (1) a SUMMARY of the text, (2) their OPINION with arguments/evidence of the text's argument, and (3) their PREDICTIONS of what may occur in the future.

First and foremost, I walked my students through picking out Key Words of the text to begin to formulate our summary. Next we reviewed each sentence --breaking at natural sections-- to discuss what the text actually meant to finally formulate our final summary. The next section of our notes called for their opinion of the text's argument. Having reviewed many of the monologue sections, I found that most often the text's main argument could be found in the final sentence of the text. For example, this monologue's main argument stated that a nutrition label was not enough stop people from purchasing junk food due to the multitude of other variables in a consumer's shopping decisions. After identifying the text's argument, my students then based their opinion on whether they agreed or disagreed on the label's importance or lack thereof. I advised them during their opinion sections to discuss any personal experiences or stories to use as evidence to support their opinions. Finally, I offered up two routes to think about their predictions of what may happen in the future. I advised my students to hypothesize about (+) positive and (-) negative outlooks of the future. What would happen if people began to pay attention to nutrition labels? Would obesity rates drop? On the other hand, will people ever care enough to stop buying junk food? Will obesity rates and resulting illnesses continue to rise around the world?

While this lesson was much more technical than what I had been used to teaching, most of my students left feeling much more confident and prepared for their coming exams. I think I can speak for both my students and I when I say that a lesson such as this was much needed. I can't wait to return in a couple weeks to hear about how they did!

B2.2- Extreme Weather: Natural Disasters in the United States

For this session's theme on Extreme Weather I took the majority of our class time discussing natural disasters around the United States, sharing stories and past experiences, and talking about the types of natural disasters have effected us in recent years. I gave statistics and spoke about blizzards, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, forest fires, tornadoes, and many other extreme forms of weather. During our discussions, in multiple classes we spoke at length about the great forest fire that threatened many citizens of Vigo this last summer.

As the class wrapped up, I held our activity for the session which involved creating a Family Disaster Plan in case of another large and unpredictable fire were to once again threaten city of Vigo. In small groups they discussed and identified their "Steps to Safety":

1. Discuss the disaster: Identify 5 risks that are most-likely to occur

2. How Might You Prepare: After identifying the 5 risks of the disaster, come up with a way you could prepare and be ready for each

3. Meeting Places: Pick 2 SAFE places to meet in case of emergency

4. Communication: Brainstorm 1 other mode of communication in case family members are separated (Phone lines may be down!)

5. Create a Disaster Supply Kit: Chose 10 supplies that are small enough to be able to fit into a backpack if you become stranded or are not able to return home

I found while going around and speaking with my groups that many of them had not put much, if any, thought into these questions in the past. However, once they realized the risks behind not having a plan such as this, they all became very excited to share and bring our in-class discussion back home to their own families.