Prepositions of Time

Prepositions of Time

Warm-Up/Review:

Begin by reviewing the following prepositions with the students (here they are shown in Ukrainian).

Then, have students translate them into English:

 

Presentation of New Material:

Have students copy the following chart into their exercise books, or onto a sheet of paper.

 

Fill in the Ukrainian rules of use….

 

…and then have the students help you to translate them into English.

 

Finally, give them examples for each rule of use.

 

Practice:

Students will recreate the chart by pairing the correct preposition with its rules of use, both in Ukrainian and in English.

 

Application:

Students will be given cards, or squares of paper, with examples on them. Students must then A) choose the correct preposition for this example, and then B) create a full sentence communicating an event in this time example.

 

For example:

1.       The evening à  In the evening à I eat dinner in the evening.

2.       Tuesday à On Tuesday à I have geography class on Tuesday.

3.       Lunch à At lunch à I see my friends at lunch.

4.       …Monday…Friday à From Monday to Friday à I go to school from Monday to Friday each week.

Check for Understanding:

Students will read their sentences aloud to the class; the other students will agree or disagree and help to correct any errors.

Basic Modal Verb: To Have To

Basic Modal Verb: To Have To

Communicating Obligation

	Teacher Guide
Objectives (to be written on board of delivered orally)	The student will be able to: Communicate, orally and written, ‘obligation’ using the modal verb ‘to have’
Warm-Up or Review 5 minutes	Review the verb мати, and have students conjugate the verb.
Presentation of New Material (New vocabulary and concepts) 10 minutes	Have students create this new table in their notes, or on a sheet of paper:                       Now, fill in the ‘main verb’ or predicate section of the chart and have students orally translate. For example, “I eat breakfast’ is ‘Я їм сніданок.’ But, if it is an obligation, we must add ‘have to’ and then it becomes ‘Я маю їсти сніданок.’ (or “Я повинен їсти сніданок”)                         Fill in the verb “to have” to communicate obligation.                         Fill in the negative column to communicate when something is NOT an obligation; note that the verb ‘to have’ changes in the negative form with he, she, and it.
Activity (Practice and Application) 20 minutes	Practice: Practice together as a class with the following examples (write in both the positive and the negative): (He) buy eggs (She) sew a dress (They) listen to music   Application: Give students the following ‘to do’ list. They must write sentences about themselves and what they have to, or do not have to, do.
Summary (Check for Understanding) 5 minutes	Check for Understanding: Once you have collected the sentences about the ‘to do’ list, have students orally tell you about the tasks on the list, varying the subjects. For example, ‘They have to do homework,’ or ‘He doesn’t have to call a friend.’

Introduction to Basic Modal Verbs

Modals help us to communicate about a request, an ability, a (future)possibility, or need.

Start with the three most basic modal verbs: can, will, must.

Can—A request (Can you hand me the book?) or an ability (She can walk to school.)

Will—A future possibility (I will eat dinner. /Will he finish in time?)

Must—A need (We must buy some food at the shop!)

 

Have students copy this basic table into their exercise books, or onto a sheet of paper. Today is a very basic introduction to these types of verbs.

 

A positive statement contains a subject (who or what the sentence is about) and a main verb (what the subject is doing).

·         She sits on the bench.

To create a positive sentence with a modal verb, you must put the modal in between the subject and the main verb.

·         She can sit on the bench. (Note: here the main verb is in its infinitive without ‘to’.)

 

 

A negative statement has the same formula as a positive statement, but the modal verb is followed by ‘not’ or the contraction n’t.

·         She mustn’t sit on the bench.

·         She will not sit on the bench.

 

Unlike Ukrainian and Russian where there is not always a specified word order, in English, we adhere to specific word order when asking a question. With modal verbs it becomes very easy. The modal simply goes to the front of the sentence.

 

Further example:  (Practice)

·         We must answer all the questions.

·         (-) We must not answer all the questions.

·         (?) Must we answer all the questions?

 

Student Work: (Application)

Students must write the following 5 sentences, and then write them again in (A) negative and then in (B) question format, like the above example.

1.       I must go to the bank today.

2.       They will finish the test in time.

3.       Janet can play the piano.

4.       We will walk to school.

5.       You can call your teacher tonight.

"Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary" Presentation

Welcome, Berezanka District Teachers of English! Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope you enjoyed the seminar on October 30^th, 2012.

Please see the presentation entitled “Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary” here, and also search my blogs for other ideas for your classroom. Please feel free to use any ideas, resources, pictures or games you see here.

Happy Teaching!

Further Thoughts on Reusing and Stock Supplies

Further Thoughts on Reusing and Stock Supplies

Even if students have seen the same flashcards or visuals in the past, there are multiple ways to use them again and keep visuals interesting.

For example, I have a stock set of people that I use for many different things:

1.       They are used to describe the family and relationships within the family.

They work well with a Family Tree activity:

 

Blank Family Tree (Template)

Family Tree with members put in place

 



2.       I use them to study location and prepositions, too. For example:

Where is he?
He is at the sports-ground.


 

Where is she?
She is at school.

 

Where are they?
The are at the cafe.

 

 3.       I use them to have students describe physical attributes when they are learning adjectives.

 

 

With proper care and storage, you can preserve your work to use many times over in many different activities; this works well for other types of supplies, too, like board games, card games, quizzes, grouping strategies and dialogues.

Happy Teaching!

Reusing—Not just for the environment anymore!

Keep a binder of materials that you can keep and use in many different situations. For example,

Stock Supply of Flash Cards	Some themes will reappear over and over again; make sure that you create a solid set of cards for them and then you can use them in lessons, as review, as warm-up or emergency activities.   Some topics include: family, vegetables, fruits, zoo animals, farm animals, clothing, basic verbs, flowers, school-related words, greetings, weather       There are many ways to use such a supply of cards: 1.       Matching game (ask a student or group of students to match the appropriate English word to its illustration or equivalent) 2.       Drills (show the cards to the students until they are able to say the word in English immediately) 3.       Interesting visuals (create a chart on the board and have students create the same chart in their exercise books; this is especially useful for introducing these words for the first time.) 4.       Model sentences (Have students write sentences about the topic, using the illustrations in the blank spaces to prompt their memories). 5.       Use the cards as models for students to create their own set of flash cards to use at home.   A matching activity to remember parts of the face A matching activity to remember the order and names of the months
Stock Supply of Board Games	I have found that, at almost any level, students benefit from refreshers of previously learned topics. That is why it is helpful, even with more advanced students, to have a stock supply of board games on hand for days when the unexpected occurs…for example, several students are sick, and you have only 3 or 4 kids in class; a board game is a fun way to review, refresh and spend quality time with students when a lesson may be fruitless.   Basic Review Board Game: reviewing basic level questions and answers, vocabulary (colors, months, fruits, etc.) and introductions
Stock Supply of Dialogues	Dialogues can be fun when used in different ways. Try pairing a stock dialogue or set of model sentences with the flash cards that you have above to create new stories that the students can copy, revise, or complete on their own.   Another basic review activity: using simple adjectives to describe yourself, a friend, family member, etc. Also a good review of the verb "To Be"