Lost Property lesson plan

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Preliminary information

Time: 70 minutes??

Level: Advanced

Lower levels could use the cut-up dialogue & the roleplay at the end. If the text is too difficult you could orally summarise it, giving some interesting teacher talk & get a discussion going along the lines of the points mentioned in stage 1.

Aims:
To give extensive & intensive reading practice
Language focus to suit
To give freer speaking practice

Assumptions:
That the stds will be interested in the content of the text.
That the language in the text should not be challenging.

Anticipated Problems and Solutions:
It's quite a long article so you might want to spend time on the analysis afterwards.

Aids:
The article from the international Herald Tribune
Objects for the roleplay
Board

Procedure

Stage 1 - Intro to the theme of lost property
10 mins tch<>stds
1. Elicit from the stds if they have recently lost anything. Are they going to attempt to get it back? Where might they go for this? How successful do they think they will be? Heard of any unusual stories about this?
Could put these questions on the board - pairwork >> class feedback.
2. Give the stds the article headline: Misplaced a wad of cash? In Japan, not to worry - ask them to predict the content of the article. Write up some of their ideas on the board.

Stage 2 - Reading - to the text
25 mins tch<>stds, std<>std, tch<>stds
1. Using their previous predictions, stds look very quickly to see if any were right. 2 mins max.
2. stds compare ideas >> class feedback.
3. More detailed comprehension - individual work - find answers to the following:

4. Stds compare answers.
5. Class feedback - ask for justification....Also getting the stds to respond to the text, elicit: Which bits did they find surprising, unusual? Would such a situation be possible in their country? Why not?

Stage 3 - Language focus
25 mins tch<>stds, std<>std, tch<>stds
The text might well lend itself to a brief look at reported speech - why is the writer using direct speech in the few instances that he does. Possibly the lexical field of losing things might be useful. There are also the discourse markers to pick up on.

Stage 4- Follow up work - roleplays - to the objects
25 mins tch<>stds, std<>std, tch<>stds
1. Give out the following dialogue, cut up into sections, & stds order together.

2. When completed, get the stds to think how the conversation could be made more sophisticated & natural - give ideas, expanding on any of the language areas you think might be useful for this particular group.
3. Class feedback.
4. Roleplays - lost property officer & client. Using the objects, set up a roleplay with have the class having lost things - give the object cut out of the page & the officer has the page of all the objects. The client describes & the officer identifies.

An alternative would be to refer to the section where one official wonders what happened to the owners, & give several objects from the article for the stds to invent stories & extensions.

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