In the last couple of years an amazing blog called HONY (Humans of New York) took the internet by storm. The blog (http://www.humansofnewyork.com/) documents the real life stories of the diverse and beautiful people of New York. Some of the stories will make you cry, some will make you laugh, others will inspire, and some will take you on an adventure. Young and old we all love stories, and stories are a fantastic way to learn and connect with students. These lessons focus on reading, and use it to teach grammar, receptive skills, and provide authentic communication practice.
Below are 5 lessons you can use.
1 Reported speech
Level: Intermediate
Story:
Boy vs mafia
Materials: the link above, word cloud generator (https://www.wordclouds.com/)
Pre-class: Put an assortment of text into the word cloud generator and show this on the board.
1 Lead in: Show the word cloud on the board and tell students they are going to read a story and they should predict what they will read about.
2 Gist reading: Ask students to read the story for 1 minute and say what it is about.
-Let students talk to their partner after reading for 30 seconds before calling on them to share with the class.
3 Scan reading: Students should now read again and answer the following questions:
-Why did Uptal scream?
-What did the newspaper say?
-What happened to the criminal?
4 Grammar: Now get students to walk around the room in pairs and look at the quotes from the article and other sentences translated between direct and reported speech. Ask students to think about what has changed in each sentence.
Now put students into new groups of 3 and get them to tell their new group.
Next Elicit the changes and write them on the board e.g.
present simple - past simple
past simple - past perfect simple
present continuous - past continuous
present perfect - past perfect
will - would
can - could
Explain that we use reported speech in writing to say what happened.
Now draw a circle on the floor or board and get students to write down all the reporting verbs they can find in the article and any others that they can think of.
5 Communication: Get students to work in pairs and give them either letter A or B. Student A should describe an something that they achieved and talk about how their family reacted. Student B should ask follow up questions and listen and write down what their partner said and what happened in reported speech.
Then get students to change roles.
2 past tense review
Level: upper-intermediate
Story:
I was studying literature and french when.../
part 2/
part 3
Materials: the link above
1 Lead in: conversation - ask students past tense questions about a memory? Then ask follow up questions using the past perfect.
2 storybuilder: Write the title on the board and elicit the next clause from students. Students keep building this story.
3 Gist reading: Students read and say what the story is about?
4 Reading for prediction: Students try to predict the next part of the reading.
5 Scanning: Students read again and answer the following questions.
what happened to his house?
Was his house destroyed before or after his mum told him?
How did he meet his wife?
how often was he calling her?
Did he call her once?
Where would she sit and wait?
Did she sit and wait once or many times?
6 Reading for detail: Students read the final part of the story and take notes. They will retell the story later.
7 Communication: Students retell the story in groups.
3 first conditional
Level: Preintermediate
Story:
A piece of advice
Materials: The story above, questions and facts about the first conditional.
Pre-class: Set up information about the first conditional around the room and prepare questions.
1 Lead in: Students are presented with a series of scenarios. If you have 1million usd, you will?, If you speak English, you will... Students discuss with their partner.
2 Grammar: Students complete a jigsaw with facts and questions about the first conditional.
3 Reading: What does the author mean?
4 Communication: Students discuss: Whats the best piece of advice you could give yourself, your family, your friends, your teacher, your community, your country, the world?
4 Vocabulary to describe peoples appearance
Level: Elementary
Materials: pictures from different countries, A3 paper, markers, tablets,
HONY.
Vocabulary: Fabulous, quirky, curly, straight, moustache, beard, dark skin, light skin, handsome, colourful
1 Lead in: Ask students to draw the outline of a person on a piece of paper. Inside they should write adjectives about their personality, and outside adjectives about appearance.
2 Teach vocabulary: Give students some new vocabulary by showing corresponding pictures.
3 Prediction: Ask students to look at the pictures and write around the picture adjectives about that person.
4 Read and check: In pairs students use their tablets and find and read a story about one of the people. They then see if anything surprised them, and compare how they would describe the person now.
5 Communication: Students describe a celebrity to their partner and their partner listens and draws. Their partner can ask questions and must try to guess the name of the celebrity.
5 Mini project - After using these lesson plans you could get students to make their own HONY page for their hometown or city. Students can interview family, friends, community figures, or even strangers (within reason) and so on. This can then be used for a blog project.
Students can be assessed on the use of certain language points, digital literacy, creativity, team work, and communication.
