CEP Lesson Plan 8

Teachers: Katherine Kang & Yitong Zheng

Level: I4
Date/Time: October 8, 2014
Goal: To familiarize students with modal auxiliaries through speaking and listening and increase
students awareness of the skill of listening for details
Objectives (SWBAT):
Students Will Be Able To
1. understand the meaning of vocabulary in context within mysteries and detective stories
2. use modal auxiliaries (might, may, could) to indicate different degrees of certainty
3. identify and write down detailed information in a listening passage
Theme: Whodunnit
Extensions: Use modals to fill in the blanks in the textbook
Aim/Skill/Microskill
Objectives

Activity/Procedure/Stage
Teacher presents todays objectives on ppt.

Interaction

Time

1min

3min

Linking & Transitioning to rest of lesson: Last

time we started unit 2. A crime was committed
and so far weve read the police report. Today
lets continue our investigation. Well do this by
reading the conversation on p.12 and 13.

Activity 1:
Vocabulary
(Yitong)

1.1 Pre-Stage:
- Refresh students memory on the skill of
inferring meaning from context. (Remember in
unit 1, weve learned a strategy to understand
new vocabulary. Can anyone remember what the
strategy is? When you come across a new word
in a sentence, how do you get its meaning?
You can infer from context using the words that
come before or after it to guess the meaning.
Now well use this strategy again.)

1.2. During Stage:

Give instructions. Have the Ss read out the
passage on p.12 and 13 with a partner. Ask them
to underline the following words: illegal (police
report), victim (line 2), brag (line 5) valuable
(line 5), safe (line 8), to come up with (line 16),
suspects (line 16), to check out (line 18), force
(line 20), disturb (line 21), over (line 28). Try to
give a definition in their own words using
context.
Demonstrate an example using suspect in line
16.
Ss work with a partner.
Transition to #2: It
Share with the class. Have a S read the line in
seems that some
which the new word appears, and then explain
people are more likely the meaning using the information in the context.
to be the criminal, but Ask other Ss if they agree with the explanation.
some are not. So
theres a degree of
1.3 Post-Stage:
possibility. Sometimes Check homework (workbook p. 9). Review the
we are very sure of
vocabulary from last time.
something. Sometimes
were not sure.
Tangible Outcome & T. feedback/peer feedback:
English uses different Ss talk about definitions. Sentences or examples
modal words to
written down to explain words. Ss remember the
describe them.
words by the understanding the definitions.

Activity 2:
Speaking: Modal
auxiliaries
(Yitong)

2.1 Pre-Stage:
Have these sentences written on the board:
- Penny is the person who I saw near the
house last night.
- Penny might be the person who I saw
near the house last night.
- Jason is on his way to the bank.
- Jason could be on his way to the bank.
Ask the Ss the difference between the two
sentences in pairs (one is definite, certain; the
other is uncertain)
Look at these two sentences:

2min

SS-SS
SS-SS-T

10min
10min

SS-SS-T

5min

SS-T

2min

SS-T

2min

Penny and Howard are on their way to the

bank.
- Penny and Howard could be on their way
to the bank.
Ask the Ss what the difference is (modals do not
inflect; modals do not change form for different
subjects; it doesnt matter if its 1st, 2nd, or 3rd
person singular or plural form).

Transition to #3:
So far weve learned
about modal
auxiliaries and how
they can express
differing degrees of
certainty. Now were
going to do a listening
activity that will allow
us to listen for these
modals.

Activity 3:
Listening for Modals
(Katherine)

2.2. During Stage:

Read the instructions and explain the examples
on p. 14 (the use of may, might, can, could to
speculate). Demonstrate using could, may,
and might to give advice.
Comprehension check: ask one student to give an
example.
Pair work: Ask Ss to work in pairs to talk about
the advice they want to give. Using Dont
because you could/might/may .... Ask Ss not to
write down anything, but just talk to each other
(this is to make them practicing speaking
fluently)
2.3 Post-Stage:
Come back as a whole class and ask Ss to
contribute ideas.

SS-T

5min

SS-SS

10min

SS-SS-T

10min

3min

Tangible Outcome & T. feedback/peer feedback:

Fill in the blanks using the correct modal. Ss talk
about activities they must, might, or wont do
using modals.

3.1 Pre-Stage:
-Teacher tells students to listen to a recording
and pay attention to what the people are
discussing. Students listen to the recording once.
- Teacher asks students a question: What are
these people talking about? (Answer: possible
future plans)

- Students get into pairs to discuss what they

thought the clip was about.
- Students share their answers and teacher writes
them on the board.
3.2 During Stage:
- Teacher gives students an audio script with
blanks.
- Students listen to the audio once more and try
to fill in the blanks.
- Teacher asks students to check answers in pairs.
- Teacher asks each pair to give the answer for
one blank.
- Teacher asks the students: What did the blanks
have in common? (Answer: modal auxiliaries)
- Students share their answers.

Transition to Activity
4:
Now that weve tried
to listen for modals,
lets do an activity
that will help us
develop our skill of
listening for specific
details.

Activity 4:
Listening for Details
(Katherine)

3.3 Post-Stage:
-Students turn to workbook p.13, practice 9
which has a chart that students can fill in. (The
audio was actually from this exercise.)
- Based on the script, students fill out the chart.
-Review the Words for plans part as a class.
(What words were used to discuss future plans?)
-Draw a chart on the board and fill it in with
student answers.

SS-SS

3min

T-SS

2min

SS

3min

SS-SS

2min

T-SS

2min

T-SS

2min

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5min

T-SS

3min

Tangible Outcome & T. feedback/peer feedback:

Tangible Outcomes: Filled in blanks on listening
handout, filled in chart in the workbook. T.
feedback given when students share answers as a
class. Peer feedback given during pair work.

4.1 Pre-Stage:
-Show students a picture. In pairs, students have
to brainstorm words that come to mind when
looking at the picture. (Elicit words such as
mystery, victim, suspect.)
-Share words with the class.

(25mi
n)

SS-SS

2min

T-SS

1min

4.2. During Stage:

-Teacher tells students that now we are going to
listen to an audio clip about a Midnight Mystery
Theater (on p.16 of the textbook). Tell them to
just listen and not fill in the chart yet.
-Students listen to the clip once.
-Students discuss in pairs the main idea of the
listening passage. (Guiding question: What was
the listening clip about?)
-Students share what they think the main idea is.
-Move on to listening for details by having
students discuss in pairs. (When do we need to
listen for details? Give hints.)
-Students share their opinions.
-Play the listening once more. Before playing it,
mention to students that they can look at the
textbook to identify the information they will
need (e.g., episode title, actors, air time etc.).
This time, students listen for details and try to fill
out the chart on p. 16 (excluding possible end of
story).
-Play one last time in case students were not able
to complete the chart (skip this step if most of
them got it).

Transition to WrapUp:
I hope you all feel
confident about
listening for details.
Lets move on to the

4.3 Post-Stage:
-Students get in pairs to check their answers. Go
over as a class.
-Have students fill out possible end of story
individually. Ask them to use the modal
auxiliaries they learned.
-Students get into groups of three and share their
endings.
-Some groups share with the class.
Tangible Outcome & T. feedback/peer feedback:
Tangible Outcome: Completed chart in student
book. T. feedback given when students share
answers as a class. Peer feedback given during

1min

SS
SS-SS

1min
3min

T-SS
SS-SS

2min
3min

T-SS
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2min
2min

SS

1min

SS-SS

3min

SS

3min

SS-SS

4min

T-SS

4min

(32mi

homework.

pair work.

Wrap-up

Give Homework:
Textbook p.15 fill in the blanks
Read the narrative on p.20

n)

3min

Lesson Evaluation Procedures:

Ask students if they have any questions about the
lesson today. Remind them that they can also ask
teachers after class.
Materials:
textbook, workbook, listening (modals) handout, flashcards
Anticipated Problems & Suggested Solutions:
In case the audio does not work for the listening activities, the teachers will have the audio script
ready and read it to the students if needed.
Contingency Plans (what you will do if you finish early, etc.):
If we finish early, we can do a review activity for the pronunciation lesson we had on Monday.
Post-Lesson Reflections:
The instructions for the vocabulary and modal activities were long and should have been more
concise. Reading the passage for the vocabulary activity took more time than expected. In the
future we might ask students to read the passage for homework.