The topic for this week was 'Martial Arts'. I started the lesson with a brief greeting and open conversation about the fact that from Thursday to Sunday the 2nd graders will be on Jeju Island. I asked a few students if they've ever been to Jeju and if they've ever been on a plane.
Then I introduced the topic. I wrote the topic on the WB and explained what would happen in the lesson:
1. Martial Arts Q and A warmup
2. Video clip
3. Q and A PPT
4. Handout and Q and A production
Then I asked an open display question: 'What is martial arts?'
The students responded with 'Fighting', 'performance', 'dance' etc
I wrote them on the board.
Then I drew a crude table on the WB with three headings. 'MA' 'Where?' 'Why unique?'
After clarifying the meaning of 'unique' I wrote 'tae kwon do' under 'MA' and started a Q and A session by choosing a S in group 1 and asking 'Where is tae kwon do from?'
The student would say 'Korea'. Then I would ask for a complete sentence and he would say 'Tae Kwon do is from Korea'. I would write 'Korea' under 'Where' and instruct the S to ask 'Why is it unique?' to a S in group 2. That S would reply something like 'strong kicks' and I would encourage a full sentence.
We did this kind of S to S Q and A for 2 more martial arts.
After that, as a way to relax the Ss and activate schema, I showed a 3.5min video clip of a Kung Fu master fighting a Karate master. I set up the clip by asking the Ss where each martial art comes from.
I felt good about this lesson. The Ss really enjoyed the topic and the video and when it came time to describe why each martial art is unique, they gave me some interesting answers.
Tom, this week I used the strategy you suggested about having the Ss turn their paper over when it came time for language production and it went well. I did have to do a lot of cueing but it was a good start. I think the more they practice this kind of non-reading L2 production, the better they will get.
I realize now that in the past I was more concerned with information than practice. I bombarded the Ss with vocab and simply checked their comprehension. This week I significantly scaled back the vocab and info and focused more on speaking practice of only one or two sentences.
Interesting, Mike. I note you describe the warm-up as a thrice-repeated Q and A session, AFTER which you let the Ss relax... ??? It does sound like the lesson went well and engaged your Ss, but are you sure you actually warmed them up? If you personalized a bit or let them use their bodies or who know what else, would they already hve been relaxed for the Q and A and maybe been able to do some interesting stuff with that video? Like I said -- sounds like it went well, but with a different style warm-up could it have gone better?
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