Getting to Know You
Upper-Intermediate to Advanced level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide Ss with the opportunity to practice asking and answering interview-style questions on a range of personal topics.
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide Ss with the opportunity to practice their gist and detailed listening skills during the T Q-and-A portion of the lesson.
Procedure (71-85 minutes)
Write on the WB "Getting to Know You." Try to elicit from the WC the meaning of this phrase. "What do I mean when I say that I am 'getting to know' Arif Bey? What are some of the things that I can do to 'get to know' Arif Bey?" Elicit from the Ss how many of their peers (in the course) they think that they really 'know.' Encourage the Ss to provide reasons for why they think they 'know' that person (or people). Inform the WC that today's lesson will focus on each Ss 'getting to know' their fellow peers better. Provide the WC with a questionnaire ('About Me This Year'), for each Ss to complete on their own.
Write on the WB "What do you want to know about your teacher?" Remind the WC of the pre-lesson email, detailing the opportunity for Ss to ask anything of interest to their T. Provide slips of paper for the WC and instruct the Ss to write down two Q's only for their T to answer. Provide the Ss time to brainstorm and write their Q's. Upon completion of the activity, have the Ss place their Q's in a bowl/hat for the second half of the activity.
Instruct the Ss to take the questionnaire that they completed and find someone, in the classroom, that answered similarly to one of their Q's. Once the WC has paired off, provide each group with a series of interview Q's. Instruct Student A to ask 6 of the questions on their interview card and take notes on their peer's answers. After Student A has completed their interview, Student B will ask 6 of the questions on their interview card, taking notes as well of their peer's answers. Inform the WC that each Ss is going to share something interesting that they learned about their fellow peer. Emphasize that both Student A and Student B should ask 'why' follow-up Q's to the 6 interviews Q's that they select. Provide the Ss plenty of time to discuss, answer, and take notes for each question. During this activity, browse the T Q's to prepare for the T Q-and-A session and to censor any inappropriate material.
Once energy for the productive activity has died down, answer a handful of the T Q's (from the 'Exposure' stage). Spend a maximum of 12-15 minutes on this activity. If there are a significant amount of grammatical errors present in the Q's, write the Ss Q's on the WB and use this activity to also provide FB and EC. After answering a decent amount of the T Q's, elicit from each group one (or two) interesting thing(s) that they learned about their fellow peer from the Ss Q-and-A session.
Wrap up the lesson by distributing and explaining the course syllabus in detail. Focus on the schedule, the course projects, the grading procedure, and the planned discussion topics for the semester. Also provide time for each Ss to create an 'Appointments List' for future PW activities.