Martha Abdelmasseh Martha Abdelmasseh

descriptive writing in the context of describing your favorite relative in the family
Intermediate level

Description

In this lesson, ss will learn how to describe people's physical appearance, characteristics, and voice their opinions about the person being described. First, to set the context I will share with the ss a brief description of my favorite relative who happens to be my cousin Mokhtar. Then, I will ask the ss to discuss in pairs who is their favorite relative and why. Next, I will give ss the handouts which include an authentic piece of descriptive writing titled, "My aunt Emily", that's to familiarize them with this type of writing. The ss will be asked to work on task 4 which requires scanning for information about her physical appearance, characteristics, and habits. Then, I will provide a written modal on the whiteboard by eliciting from the ss the useful language needed for descriptive writing. Finally, I will ask the ss to think of a relative whom they like and want to describe. I will monitor the ss while they are on the task to make sure that they're not facing any problems. in the end, I will provide the ss with content and linguistic feedback.

Materials

Abc Handouts
Abc New Headway, Student's Book, Intermediate Level
Abc the whiteboard

Main Aims

  • By the end of this lesson, students will be better able to write a descriptive piece of writing about people.

Subsidiary Aims

  • By the end of this lesson, students will be introduced to some adjectives in the context of describing people.

Procedure

Warmer/Lead-in (3-5 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students

I will get ss attention by telling them about my favorite cousin briefly. Then, I will ask them to tell each other in pairs about their favorite relative and why he/she is their favorite. Finally, I will get their feedback by asking two students about who is partner's favorite relative.

Exposure (3-6 minutes) • To provide a model of production expected in the coming task through scanning a reading text.

I will provide the ss with handouts that contain a piece of descriptive writing titled, "My aunt Emily" with the task of scanning to look for any language or words that are used to describe her physical appearance, characteristics, and habits and underline them. Working on this task would help the students to get familiar with the organization and information needed for describing someone they know well. Next, I will ask them to compare their answer in pairs. Finally, will get quick feedback that would a good transition to the next stage.

Useful Language (10-12 minutes) • To highlight and clarify useful language for coming productive task

I will draw a table with five columns to introduce the useful language that would mostly be adjectives and fixed sentences used for describing people. I will elicit as much information as I can from the ss. The table would be organized as follows: 1) General information: name, in what way he/she is related to you, age, where does he/she live? and his/her marital status ( single, married, divorced, widow). 2) Physical appearance: building, height, colors for hair and eyes, and skin complexion. 3) Characteristics: careful, friendly, enthusiastic ....etc. 4) Habits: mainly likes and dislikes. 5) Opinion of the person: Ex: I hope I'll be as.........as her/him. I wish I was as -------as him/her/my......

Productive Task (a piece of descriptive writing of your favorite relative) (10-15 minutes) • To provide an opportunity to practice target productive skill (descriptive writing)

I will ask the students to think of a favorite relative whom they want to describe in writing. I will provide them with blank paper and a printed out copy of the useful language they would need in case they needed extra examples than the ones provided on the whiteboard. I will monitor them while writing to make sure that they are on task and to provide extra help and correction for the weak learners if needed. Also, I will write down some of the good and bad examples to refer to later in the linguistic feedback.

Feedback and Error Correction (5-7 minutes) • To provide content and linguistic feedback on students' production and use of language

For this stage, I will change the pairs. I will ask the ss to share with their partners some of the things they wrote about their favorite relative. I will use this time to write some of the good and bad examples on the whiteboard. Then, I will ask one or two ss to share with the whole class who was their partner's favorite relative. Next, I will move to linguistic feedback. I will praise the good examples, and then highlight the errors in the wrong ones; ask the ss to suggest a correction.

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