writing an email about yourself
Elementry level
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide process writing practice of an e-mail in the context of thanking someone for hosting .At the end of this lesson, students will be able to: • understand a person discussing with a friend which homestay family he would prefer to stay with • understand an email in which someone introduces him/herself
Subsidiary Aims
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to provide clarification on using functional language and the layout of personal e-mails .
Procedure (45-55 minutes)
After greeting students, Books closed. I will show them some pictures of sightseeing and ask them to imagine that they are going to travel to these places and stay for 3 days with a family living over there. Ask ss to work in pairs and write 5 sentences telling those people, who will meet for the first time, about yourself. Take 3 mins to finish this task. Icqs: Will you work in pairs or individually? (in pairs) What time will you take?(3mins) Will you write about the people you will meet or about yourself? (yourself) How many sentences are you going to write?(5 sentences) Ask students: Do you stay in other people’s houses? When? Why? and elicit some answers, e.g. at a friend’s after a night out, etc. Pre-teach: stay with a homestay family (be with a family in their house while a person does a course) and find out if any students are staying or have ever stayed with a homestay family. If they are/have, ask them to tell his neighbour on his left hand about what he most likes .take 2 mins. Icqs: Will you write or say ?(say) Will you tell me or your neighbour on your left side? (my neighbour) How much time will you take ? (2mins) Will you tell about things you like or dislike? (like) Eliciting questions: Imagine that you come back and you want to keep in touch with those people. How will you do this? Answers;(by calling them or writing to them) which is cheaper; to write or to call them?(to write)
I divide ss to 4 groups and ask them to read the example email( that they are going to imitate later) and ask them to read it secretly in 4 min and then answer the following exercise ; Icqs; will you work in pairs or in groups? (in groups) Will you read this e- mail loudly or secretly? (secretly) What time will you take ? 4mins will you answer the following questions before reading or after reading? after reading How many questions are you going to answer? 3 questions (a) Ahmed decided to stay with the Conways. Read his email to them. Tick (✓) the main reason he writes to them. 1 to ask about their house 2 to tell them about all the sports he likes 3 to tell them about himself 4 to explain how much he wants to study. (b) 1-Who sent this email? (c) 2-To whom did he send it? Dear Mr and Mrs Conway My name is Ahmed Al Mansouri and I come from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Thank you for offering to be my homestay family when I’m in Sydney. I am 23 years old and study biology at university. I live with my family in Dubai. My father is a businessman and my mother is a doctor. I’ve got one brother and one sister. They’re university students too. In my free time, I like playing football (I think you say ‘soccer’ in Australia!) and meeting my friends. I like watching different kinds of sports with them. While I’m in Sydney, I really want to study hard and improve my English because I want to become a marine biologist after I fi nish university. I’d really like to work in a country like Australia. I’m looking forward to meeting you when I arrive. Best wishes Ahmed
eliciting questions: Does this email consist of 1 paragraph or many paragraphs? many paragraphs Does this email start with or end with Ahmed's name? ends with Is Ahmed's name written on the right side or the left side? on the left side Read the email again. Work in groups and Match the following headings(subtitles) to the right paragraph of this email then number the information in the order you find it.Take 8 mins his future plans his hobbies his family’s jobs his hometown icqs; Will you work in groups or individually? in groups Will you match the headings ( subtitles) to the right paragraph? yes How much time will you take?8min Will you arrange and number the headings as they mentioned in the email? yes Expected answers (4)his future plans (3) his hobbies (2) his family’s jobs (1) his hometown then I can ask ss to work in pairs to fill the table in the submitted worksheet from the email.take 4 min icqs; Will you work in groups or in pairs ? in pairs Will you fill the table from your mind or from the email? from email Will you take 5mins or 4mins? 4 mins Functional language Sentences or words that used in the emails greeting introducing himself talk about the hometown Giving details about the family's jobs talking about hobbies talking about future plans Concluding nicely Writing his name
The teacher will divide ss into pairs who sitting in front of each other instead of sitting beside each other to ensure that no one is hiding and everyone is sharing. Then ask them in 2 mins, each pair will select a country would like to visit? and write the reasons why? The teacher tries to elicit the answer and say I’d like to go to … I like warm places. They say the people are friendly. icqs; Will you work in pairs sitting in front of each other or beside each other? in front of Will you select a country or many countries? a country Will you write the reasons why you'd like to visit that country? yes How many minutes will you take ? 2 mins During the task the teacher should make rounding to notice students' mistakes and correct them later in pacs stage
In this stage, ss will apply Round Robin strategy . ss work in groups in 8 mins to write their rough draft. Each ss is going to write a part according to the format of the email writing. For example, teacher will number ss to 1,2,3,4 in each group and each number is going to write about specific part or paragraph or idea. So, all students will participate. Ask them to Plan an email about yourself to a homestay family in that country. Make notes about: • your age • study / job • free-time interests • family • what you’d like to do in that country d Write your email. Tick (✓) each box. Start the letter with Dear Say thank you Say who you are Talk about study / work / free time Talk about your family Say what you want to do in the country Include I’m looking forward … Finish the letter with Best wishes icqs; Will you work in pairs or in groups? in groups Will you all write the same paragraph of the email? no Will each number in the group will write 1 paragraph ? yes What time will you take ? 8 mins Will you tick a list to make sure that you don't miss any item of the email layout?yes T walks around and make sure that all ss work and participate in the writing process. By this way,teacher will give ss a chance to prepare a draft email and arrange their ideas
ss Swap emails with another student and check the ideas. then,After ss finish writing their first draft , T ask ss to write their final draft and stick it to the Gallery Board . - Pairs stand in front their written work(emails) - They rotate clockwise to observe and discuss their classmates’ emails. - Use sticky notes to write feedback - Move on until they return to their written work to get feedback and reviews (carousel strategy) T hands out blank worksheets. One worksheet for each pair to write the final draft. They have 5 minutes . T goes round and helps to correct any mistakes. ICQs: - Where will u stick ur notes? Gallery board - Which strategy u will apply for giving feedback to ur friend's work? Carousel strategy - What will they do with the blank sheet after getting their work's feedback? Write the final email - How much time do u have for writing? 5 minutes