Suggestions for 150 minute lessons please?

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

Summer semester coming up at my university, and the class time (length) changes from 100 minutes to 150 minutes.

Last summer I did a regular lesson (ie. 100 minutes) and threw on ‘Lie To Me’ for the last 50 minutes.

I think TV shows can be useful, but I’d like to use them more constructively this semester.

Any ideas on working those 150 minutes, in a non-air conditioned class, well?

2

Are you able/allowed to think of each 150 minute lesson as three 45 minute lessons with two short breaks?

3

Of course.

4

Then I don’t get what the problem is. It’s just like having three standard lessons, albeit with the same students so some kind of continuity needs to be maintained between the three lessons. If you don’t have enough ideas for lessons there are loads available online. Obviously they’ll all be communicative activities and therefore doing more harm than good, but they always work for me :smiley: .

Most of my lessons are 3 hours. You’ll be fine once you get into a rhythm.

5

What sort of facilities are available to you? Are you able to project material from the internet, DVD’s, PowerPoints? Is there a sound system?

Are these predominately conversation classes or are you hammering grammar points?

6

Macmillan has a great book “Films” or “Working with Film”. If yo are interested I can get you the ISBN number at my school. The book is there. Some really great ideas.

7

[quote]What sort of facilities are available to you? Are you able to project material from the internet, DVD’s, PowerPoints? Is there a sound system?

Are these predominately conversation classes or are you hammering grammar points?[/quote]

It’s Oral English, and i have a PC, screen, projector and speakers. I use PPTs in my normal (90-100 minutes) classes.

Most lesson plans (online) are roughly 90 minutes.

Anyways, I think I’ll stick to a 70-90 minute lesson and a TV show after, followed by a discussion and/or extension exercise based on the show.

BTW it get’s up to 35 Celsius in the classroom in summer - fairly brutal.

8

I can recommend a couple of places for lesson plans:

  1. Lessonstream - Over 50 lessons based on video clips, some funny, some thought-provoking. Each lesson contains a PDF file for a handout and teacher’s notes.

  2. One Stop English - Lots of lesson plans and activities on this site, including some unique role play activities and a nice mix of speaking lesson plans.

I would definitely do something about the temperature in the classroom, such as bringing in a big fan.

9

[quote=“Baas Babelaas”]
BTW it get’s up to 35 Celsius in the classroom in summer - fairly brutal.[/quote]

Ouch! I don’t think I could survive that for 3 hours.