I. Getting ready to teach Lesson 3 A. General topic of the lesson: Showing & acknowledging gratitude B.

General goal of this lesson: Ss will feel more comfortable with showing, acknowledging and discussing thanks. C. Learning outcomes: 1. Content based objectives: Ss will be able to a) differentiate between tangible and intangible gifts, and b) state and write three things they are thankful for 2. Linguistic objectives: Ss will be able to a) describe the general appearance of a thank you card, b) ask a friend what they are thankful for, and c) write a Western-style date D. Vocabulary: tangible, intangible, grief, giver E. Materials needed: whiteboard markers, worksheets (listed below), writing paper and pens. F. No formal assessment of this material is planned at this time. However, the teacher will continue to enforce the ideas presented in this lesson throughout future lessons. Specific areas to be reinforced are: short letter writing, inter-personal communication and the importance of showing gratitude II. Teaching the lesson Activity 1: Warm up: Introduction to gratitude (NMT 15 mins) 1. Narrate TY card role in my post-wedding I received many gifts 2. Explain tangible vs. intangible 3. Show authentic TY card examples 4. Show pictures of what Im thankful for 5. Explain being grateful = being thankful Activity 2: What are we grateful for? (NMT 25 mins) 1. Distribute What are we thankful for? worksheet and review directions 2. Lead Ss in writing what theyre thankful for (1st column) 3. Supervise & assist as Ss interview each other Activity 3: TY notes: To Send or Not to Send? (NMT 30 mins) 1. Pass out TY notes worksheet 2. Listen as a HIL volunteer reads aloud (entirety) 3. Read section by section aloud; Ss then read to their partners 4. Give Ss the TY notes questions worksheet & supervise 5. Review answers after Ss finish (nominate for answers) 6. Review vocab listed above & take Qs

Activity 4: Writing our own thank you notes (NMT 35 mins) 1. Model how to write a TY note (date/opening/three sentences/closing/signature) 2. Ss will copy format from the whiteboard 3. Supervise as Ss write their own TY notes Activity 5: Closing (5 mins) 1. Review the goals of the lesson with Ss 2. Ask for final Qs & comments 3. Start conversation partners III. Reflection 5 things that went well: This lesson started with a short narrative about my recent experience in showing gratitude. The students seemed to enjoy hearing about my wedding on the mainland, especially since the absence of a teacher is keenly noticed. Because the lesson began with a personal story, the students immediately had a real-world example of an individual showing gratitude/writing/sending thank-you cards. My examples of thank-you cards were authentic materials. I have been sick recently and wrote a card to my new husband saying thank you for taking care of me. I also brought in a thank-you card that I received from an Icelandic woman, who is an ELL herself. The cards were all attractive and varied in length and content. My information sheet called Thank You notes: To Send or Not to Send was based on practical advice from a very well-known source, the Emily Post Institute. Because the source was identified and easy to locate, the more advanced students can research the etiquette rules discussed on Emily Posts website or perhaps become interested in an advice column in the newspaper. The bottom line is that there is more to research on this practical topic outside of class. Also, I strove to make the materials attractive and warm for the ELLs by incorporating photos.

This lesson was the first time that I have ever tried to create a chart for the students to fill out while interviewing their classmates. I tried to replicate the one shown by the full-time teacher. Because the charts were similar enough, the students were able to follow the intent of the activity without much explanation. Finally, the Thank You notes questions sheet asked questions that couldnt just be lifted from the article. At first I thought this made the questions too hard, but many students were able to finish and others could ask questions if needed. 5 things I can improve upon: When trying to explain that individuals can be thankful for both tangible and intangible things, I used only those words in discussing the concept. Perhaps synonyms and back-up words like material/immaterial would have been helpful since so many of the students rely on dictionaries and first language translations (which I cannot provide) for assistance in class. Next, one of my examples for congratulations cards was religious milestones. I tried to give examples (Catholic confirmation, Jewish bar mitzvah, Latin America quinceanera) for these, but none of them reached the primarily Asian audience. In the future, I should work harder to tailor my examples for the students in the classroom. I also deviated slightly from two good ideas in my lesson plan. The first is that I did not bring in pictures of what I am thankful for (my cats, family, etc.), which would have been a nice touch. Also, I spent a lot of time on reading Thank You notes aloud and practicing pronunciation with the students. Therefore, we did not get to the final activity, the students writing of thankyou notes. While a lesson plan is helpful, it is important for the teachers to be able to adapt it when necessary. Perhaps I should try to plan time more accurately in the future.

Finally, though the activities were sequenced well, they could have been less teacherfocused. One example is that after the explanation of tangible/intangible, I gave examples of these items for the students. In the future, I should solicit these from the students or give them a short list of tangible/intangible items for their identification. This will prevent me from lecturing and also allow a check-on-learning for the students themselves. Overall I am happy with this lesson and would like it to develop it into a unit for later. The volunteers at Hawaii Literacy are very helpful to assist the teachers with large class sizes.