Aims
Seeing as this lesson is purely introductory, the aims of the lesson are simple.
1) Construct a seating plan and note down all the student’s names.
2) Sort the class into four groups relative to the Harry Potter houses.
3) Get each student to introduce themselves.
4) Introduce a points system and explain this to the students.
5) Establish the ground rules in terms of discipline.
Materials Needed
1) A ready drawn out seating plan. Learn your classroom before you teach there.
2) An A4 Harry Potter House sheet (see here) to which you will note down all the student s names.
3) An A4 Harry Potter house points chart to be used all semester long. (see attachment)
4) Teaching utensils such as chalk, board-marker, stationary, cattle-prod
Procedure
Allow the students to sit where they like. When they are seated and registered (should a register exist) ask each of them the following questions…
1) What is your name?
2) What is your surname?
3) What is your nickname? (specific question to Thai kids because they all have nicknames)
4) How old are you?
5) What town do you come from?
6) What country do you come from?
Make sure that these questions are written on the board before the lesson begins. When the questions are answered successfully, be sure to note down the student’s name on the seating plan and choose a house for the student to work with. Write down on the Harry Potter house sheet which house the student will belong to. Do not tell the students their house originally as this will both confuse and/or excite them. After the names are written down you should write the names of the houses on the board…
Gryffindor Hufflepuff Ravenclaw Slytherin
You should then appoint each student to one of these houses and then when you have finished distributing houses you should get each “house” of students to raise their hands. Explain from now on that this will be their team and they will compete for house points. The team with the most house points at the end of the term will win a really cool prize. The students that are familiar with Harry Potter (and there are many) will understand the concept and will get excited about the prospect of this way of teaching.
Then write on the board a seventh question
- Q: Which Harry Potter house do you belong to?
A: I belong to __ House
Get the students to copy down and answer each of the seven questions in their notebooks. Write down the answers to the 6 questions that were asked of the students earlier. This will reinforce their memory as it is something for them to revise at a later date. Mistakes like “I am come from Thailand” are commonplace so this is an easy way to help the students move on from these elementary errors. It also helps those students who are weak learners when it comes to auditory elements in that they are more likely to be strong in a Visio-spatial or iconic capacity.
Award a house-point to the student that finishes their work the fastest. This will help the students further understand the points system. During the lesson be sure to establish a status-quo in terms of discipline by chiding late or noisy pupils. Be sure to spend the entire lesson speaking entirely in English too so that you can get a rough idea of the students ability to comprehend you and thus establish how good at English they are.
Potential Pitfalls and Suitable Solutions
1) Discipline – with this being the first lesson with your student’s discipline may be a problem. Thus students may show up late or chatter in class. Be firm but fair and use your initiative. If a student is particularly disruptive don’t hesitate to deal out punishment by dismissal, extra-homework and so on. It is imperative that you set a good standard in terms of discipline as it is much more difficult to establish this in later lessons if it wasn’t there in the beginning!
2) Time Management – With the class only lasting 60 minutes it might prove difficult for all the students to answer all 6 questions. To remedy this the teacher may only wish to pose 2 or 3 of the questions.
Time Activity Duration
0 minutes Registration 5 minutes
5 minutes Questioning the class 35 minutes
40 minutes Housing the student 5 minutes
45 minutes Explaining the rules 5 minutes
50 minutes Class write in notebooks 10 minutes
Adjust accordingly if the class arrives late or the questioning the class becomes to difficult.
English Dialogue Thai Dialogue
Q: What is your name Q: Khun chuu arai?
A: My name is A: Chan chuu __
Q: What is your surname? Q: Khun mii naamsakurn arai?
A: My surname is A: Chan naamsakurn pen
Q: What is your nickname? Q: Khun chuu len arai?
A: My nickname is __ A: Chan chuu len pen
Q: What country do you come from? Q: Khun pen kawn pratheet arai?
A: I come from _ A: Chan pen kawn pratheet
Q: What town do you come from? Q: Khun pen kawn muang arai?
A: I come from _ A: Chan pen kawn muang
Q: How old are you? Q: Khun pen aayood thao rai?
A: I am _ years old. A: Chan pen aayood _ pii
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