Pacific Grove Adult Education Center

21 Registered students, advanced adult ESL course

Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to
1. List interesting places and explain why they are interesting.
2. Create a paragraph describing their favorite place.
3. Paraphrase a description of their favorite place.
4. Rephrase the description of their peers favorite place.
5. Compare and contrast favorite places from the present and the past.
6. Recommend their favorite place.
Time & Phase
Warm-up
5-10 min

Description
Whole Class: Place in Pacific 1
Grove
Materials:
White Board
White Board Markers
Students will list places that
are interesting to them in the
Pacific Grove / Monterey area.
One student will write a list of
places on the board for
students to examine. Students
will briefly give one or two
adjectives to describe each
place.

Pre-Lesson
10-15 minutes

Teacher will guide the

discussion. If needed, the
teacher can provide the first
place.
Individual: Favorite places
writing
Materials:
White Board
White Board Markers
Students will reflect on their
favorite place in the USA; it
does not have to be in the
immediate area. Take a few
minutes to allow students to
close their eyes and think.
Students may take notes if
they find this helpful during
their thinking process.

Objectives Met

Afterwards, students will

begin writing a short
paragraph describing their
favorite place. They will
answer four question that the
teacher will write on the
board.
Teacher will write on the
board four questions the
students must answer in their
short paragraph:
What does the place looks
like?
Where is it?
What makes it special?
How often do you visit?

Lesson
30-40 min

Teacher will monitor students

and address any questions or
concerns that arise.
Pairs: Sharing places
Materials:
White Board
White Board Markers
In pairs, students share their
favorite places with one
another. Students are
encouraged to give a brief
description of their paragraph
to their peer, while the peer
listens carefully and takes
notes, if need be. After the
first student finishes sharing,
the roles will flip and the
process repeats. 5 minutes is
allotted for each sharing
session, giving a total of 10
minutes for the pair work.
Once 10 minutes have
elapsed, pairs will share their
favorite places with the whole
class. Students will ask
questions after each pair

3, 4

before moving onto the next.

One student will keep time for
the pair: each student in the
pair has two minutes to
describe their partners
favorite place.

Post-Lesson
20-30 min

Teacher will monitor pairs,

addressing concerns and
questions as they arise.
Teacher will also help to
facilitate turn-taking with
pairs, and will assign a timekeeper if there are no
volunteers.
Individual: Past and Present
Materials:
White Board
White Board Markers
Students return to their
individual seats and think
again about their favorite
place from their childhood or
home country. They will again
take a few minutes to sit and
contemplate silently. Students
may take notes again if that
helps them in their thinking
process. After two or three
minutes of thinking has
elapsed, students will begin
writing about their favorite
place.
Students will then compare
what they have written about
their childhood or home
country with what they have
written about their favorite
American place. Students will
write down similarities and
differences between the two
places.
Students will then form three
to four larger groups. Each
person will have two to three

3, 5, 6

minutes to share about the

similarities and differences
they noticed between their
favorite places, while also
giving a brief description of
each place (if that information
is not in the similarities and
differences). Each group will
have a time keeper who will
alert the speaker when time is
up.
The teacher will monitor
student progress, addressing
any questions or concerns that
come up. Teacher will also
help form groups and monitor
time during group sharing.
*Students will think about
how they would recommend
their favorite place (American
or otherwise) to friends and
family. How would they
advertise it? How would they
make it sound appealing?
Individually or in pairs,
students will create a short
written advertisement or
recommendation for their
favorite place (as if it were
going into a travel magazine
or blog). Students will then
share their writing with the
whole class. If they are unable
to share during the class, for
homework, they will post their
recommendation on the class
blog.
*To be done if there is extra time
Notes: