E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | N u m b e r 4 2 0 0 8

Lesson Plan—

Meryl Siegal—

Sharing Your Vacation— Send a Postcard!

What does someone write to family during a vacation? What would a typical vacation postcard say? How can reading and writing postcards, even imaginary ones, help

your students gain valuable vocabulary and literacy skills? This lesson plan will allow you to add fun experiences to your literacy lessons. Reading the feature article about Chicago that appears in this issue will help you, the teacher, draw on new vocabulary and experi-ences to provide you with authentic material to present this lesson.—

The goal of this lesson is to help your students gain study skills and literacy strategies that are useful for becoming better readers and writers of English.—

Objectives:—• Tolearnhowtowritewellabouttravelexperiences. —• Tounderstandthatwritingtoanaudienceandwithapurposearethebasiccomponents

ofwritingwell. —• Toenhancereadingcomprehensionthroughunderstandingoftheauthor’sintention. –• Toenhancecomprehensionthroughquestioningandtolearnthataskingquestionsisa

readingstrategythatcanbeusedwithdifferentkindsoftexts. —Level: Intermediate—Materials:Bringsamplepostcardstotheclass.Trytogatherpostcardsthathaveactuallybeensent,withmessages alreadyon them.Postcardswritten inEnglish are excellent examplesofauthenticteachingmaterials.Ifyoudon’thaveanypostcards,youcancreatethembycuttingstiffpaperintothesizeofpostcardsanddrawingorpastingapictureofafamousplaceononesideofeachcardandontheothersidewritinganoteaboutavacationfromthatplace. —Group Work:—

Forthislesson,havingstudentsworkingroupstoaccomplishtasksisanimportantpartofthelearning.Manyresearchersnowagreethatthelearningthattakesplacesociallyisjustasimportantasthelearningthattakesplaceindividually.Placingstudentsintoeffectivelearninggroupscanbeanart,andjustastherearevariousstylesofart,therearevariouswaystocreategoodgroups. —

1. Youcancreatedifferentgroupsfordifferentactivities.Dependingonthetask,youwillwant tohave students ofdifferent skill levelsworking together or studentswith thesameskilllevelworkingtogether.Forexample,ahardertaskmightleadyoutomixskilllevels,However,ataskwhereoutcomeisnotanimportantgoal,theinstructionsarenotdifficult,andtheprocesseasytofollow,couldleadtohomogeneousgrouping. —

2. Youcanalsocreategroupsbyhavingstudentswhoarefriendsworkindifferentgroupsandstrategizeonwhichpersonalitiesintheclassmightworkwelltogether. —

3. Youmighttrytohavequietandtalkativestudentstogetherinonegroupwitharulethateachstudentcontributeorallytotheproductionofthetask. —

4. Youcanarrange the students randomly ingroups.Thereare severalways todothis.Onewayisifyouhaveaclassof40students,andyoudecideyouwantsmallgroupsoffive,havethestudentscountoffineightsandthengroupallthe“ones”intheclassinto

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Lesson Plan (continued)—

agroup,allthe“twos”intoagroup,andsoforthuntilyougeteightsetsoffivestudentsthathavebeenrandomlyassigned. —

Inthislessonthereareseveraltasks.Thinkaboutforwhichtasksyouwillkeepthesamegrouptogetherandwhichtaskswillnecessitatethatyoucreatedifferentgroups.Howdidyoudecidethis?Whatfactorsaboutindividualstudentsandspecifictaskswillyouneedtothinkabout?—Warm up: Bringing students into the activity (30–40 minutes)—

Remindstudentsthatallovertheworld,peoplegoonvacationandwhileonvacation,theybuy,write,andsendpostcards.Sendingpostcardsisawaythatpeoplesharenewexperienceswithotherswhenapart. —

Ontheblackboard,writethefollowingquestions,readthemaloud,andhavethestudentsanswerthem.—

• Haveyoueversentapostcard?—• Whodidyousenditto?—• Wherewereyouwhenyousentit?—• Whatdidyouwriteonit?—Asstudentsanswerthequestions,providethemwiththevocabularytheyneedtoexpress

theirthoughts.Writeanynewvocabularyitemsontheblackboardandexplainthem. —Next,takeoutyourbagofpostcardsandshowoneortwototheclassandaskthestudents:1. Whatisthepictureonthispostcard?—2. Whatdoyouthinkiswrittenonthispostcard?[Elicitfornames,date,place,activity,

opinion,etc.]—ThenreadaloudtwoorthreepostcardstothestudentsinEnglishorinyournativelan-

guage.Askthestudents:—1. Whatkindofinformationwaswrittenonthepostcard?—2. Howdoesthepictureonthecardrelatetothepostcard’swrittenmessage?—

The Lesson—Part 1 (45–50 minutes)—

Write the followingpostcardmessage on theboard.Read it aloud to the class, or ask astudenttoreaditaloud. —

DearMom,—IaminChicago.Thiscityisafabulousplace.OnSt.Patrick’sDaytheChicagoRiverwasdyedgreen!—Love,Mary—

Exercise 1: What’s missing?—TellthestudentsthatwhenMary’smothergotthatpostcard,shewasdisappointedthatthe

messagewassoshort.ShewantedtoknowmoreaboutwhatMarywasdoingandseeing.Shefeltthatalotofinformationwasmissingfromthepostcard. —

1. Divideyourstudentsintogroupsoffour,andaskthemtothinkaboutwhatkindsofquestionsMary’smotherhadwhenshereadthepostcard.TellthemtoimaginethattheyareMary’smotherandtorememberthatmothersalwayswanttoknoweverythingtheirchildrenaredoing. —

2. AskstudentstoworktogetherintheirgroupstocreatethekindsofquestionsMary’smotherwasthinking.Toenhancetheeffectivenessofgroupwork,giveeachstudentin

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thegroupatask.Forexample,onestudentcanbe“theleader”whomakessureeachstudentinthegroupspeaks;twostudentscanbe“recorders”whowritedowntheques-tionscreatedbythegroup;onestudentcanbethetimekeeper;onestudentcanbethe“reporter”whoreportsthegroup’squestionstothewholeclass(10minutes). —

3. Afterstudentshavebrainstormedintheirsmallgroups,askgroupstosharetheques-tionswiththewholeclassandwritethemontheboard(10minutes). —Samplequestionsthatcouldbegeneratedbystudents:—

• WhowasMarywith?—• WhendidMarywritethecard?—• WhyisChicagofabulous?—• WhywastheriverdyedgreenonSt.Patrick’sday?—• Howwastheriverdyedgreen?—• WhatwastheweatherlikeinChicago?—• WherewasMarystayinginChicago?—

4. Askthestudentstogobacktotheirgroupsandtrytoanswerthequestionstheclassgenerated,pretendingtheywereMary.(10minutes)—

5. Bringthewholeclasstogetheragainandlisttheanswerstothequestionsontheboard.Foranyquestionsthatarenotanswered,orneedmodification,worktogetherasaclasstoanswerthem.(10minutes)—

Pleasenote:YoumightneedtoexplainthatSt.Patrick’sDayisMarch17andthateventhough it is an Irish holiday, in the United States many non-Irish also celebrate that day.ExplainthatgreenisthecolorassociatedwithbeingIrishandthatitisatraditiontodyetheChicagoRivergreenonSt.Patrick’sDaytocommemoratetheholiday. —Final Metacognitive Discussion (5–10 minutes)—

1. Show the students that they have createdwho,what,when,where,why (and how)questions,orwhatwegenerallycall“the5W’s”(and1“H”).—

2. Tell students thatusingthisquestioningstrategywhentheywritewillallowthemtohavecompletedescriptiveanddetailedwriting. —

Exercise 2: Reading a postcard – Writing a postcard (90 minutes)—Reading (40 minutes)—

BelowisasamplepostcardthatprovidesmoredetailsaboutMary’svacation.Writethetextofthepostcardontheboardtosharewithstudents.Readitaloud.

March18,2008—DearMom,—I’mhavingafabuloustimeinChicagowalkingaroundthisbeautifulcitywithalake,interestingarchitecture,goodfood,andworld-classartandanthropologymuseums.Iamstayingwithmyfriend’sfamilyinacutehouseabout3milesfromdowntownChi-cago.Eventhoughitiscoldandwindythistimeoftheyear,Iamenjoyingbeinghere,especiallythismonthbecauseofastrangecustomtheyhaveinthiscity.YesterdaywasSt.Patrick’sDayandtheChicagoRiverwasdyedgreen!Thestreetswerefullofpeopleenjoyingtheholiday. —Iamhavingagoodtimeandwishyouwerehere.— Love,Mary

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Lesson Plan (continued)

Begintoworkon“question-answerrelationship”(QAR)readingstrategiesbytellingyourstudentsthatreadingisnotjustunderstandingthemeaningofwords;itisunderstandingatextandusingareader’sownideasandexperiencestobetterunderstandthetext. —

FourtypesofQARquestionscanbuildcomprehensionandcriticalthinking. —• “rightthere”questions—thesearealsoknownasliteralquestions,astheanswerscanbe

found“rightthereinthetext.”Forexample,a“rightthere”questionaboutthepreced-ingsentencemightbe:“Whatdoesliteralquestionmean?”—

• “thinkandsearch”questions—herethestudentisagainaskedtousethetexttofindtheanswer,but inthiscase, thestudentneedstoputtogetherseveral ideas fromthewholetexttocomeupwithananswer.Afavorite“thinkandsearch”questionis:“Whatisthemainideaofthispassage?”Herethestudentisaskedto“search”throughthetextandputtogetherdifferentpiecesoftextualinformationtocomeupwiththemeaningofthetext.

• “authorandyou”questions—thesearealsoknownasinferentialquestions,astheyrequirestudentstothinkaboutanswersusingthetext.Onesuchquestionmightbe“Whatdoestheauthorsuggestabout…?”Herethestudentneedstohavereadthetextandputtogetherideasinthetextwithideastheauthorhasaboutthetexttocomeupwithananswer. —

• “onmyown”questions—thesedonotrequirethatstudentsusethetext.Anexamplemightbe:“Whatwouldyouwriteinapostcardifyoutookavacationinafamouscityinyourcountry?”Inthiscase,studentscancreatequestionsthatarerelatedtothetextbutdonotrequiredirect informationfromthetextasananswer.Theanswercomesfromthestudent’sownideas. —

Aftergoingoverthestrategiesandreadingthetext,givethestudentssampleQARquestionstoanswer.Herearesomeexamples:—

• “rightthere”question:WhatcityisMaryin?—• “thinkandsearch”question:WhydidMarysayshewashavingagoodtime?—• “authorandyou”question:WhatdoesMaryimplybyusingtheterm“strangecustom”?• “onmyown”:Foryou,whatarethecomponentsofagoodvacation?—Oncestudentshaveansweredthequestionsyougivethem,askthemtocomeupwiththeir

ownQARquestionsforeachcategoryandtotrytoanswerthose. —Attheendofthisactivity,havestudentscopytheexpandedpostcardtouseforthenextlesson.

Activity: Writing your own postcard (50 minutes)—

Divideyourstudentsintogroupsoffour.—1. Havestudentstakeoutthepostcardthattheycopiedintheirnotebooks.Askthestudents

ifitiscomplete,oriftheywouldhaveaddedanythingmoretoMary’scard. —2. Remindstudentstolookforideastheygatheredinthislessonthatteachesthemtocreate

detaileddescriptivewritingbyconsideringtheaudienceandwritingthathasapurpose(suchasdescribingaplace,explainingacustom,describingemotionsrelatedtoexperiences).Askstudentstoreviewtheirnotesfrompreviousexercises,includingtheinformationtheygath-eredthroughthequestions(the“5W’s”)andanswerstheyworkedoningroups. —

3. Putstudentsintogroupsandhaveeachgroupdecideonacityorareathattheyhavevisitedduringavacationthattheywouldliketowriteabout.Eachgroupshouldtrytopickadif-ferentareaorcity. —

Assignment—

1. Askstudentstoworkingroupstowriteapostcardtotheirparentsoraclosefriendorrela-tiveaboutavacationtothecityorareatheychose.(Ifstudentsdonotknowenoughabout

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anothercity,youcanhavethemwriteabouttheirowncity,butremindthemtowriteasiftheyweretouristsinthatcity.)Astheyareingroups,studentscancomeupwithideastogetheraboutwhatmightbeinterestinganduniqueaspectsofthearea/citytowriteabout.Haveeachgroupwriteonepostcardtogether. —

2. Remindstudentsthattheirpostcardsneedtobedetailedenoughtoanswerallthequestionsthattheirparentsorfriendwouldhaveaboutthevacationplace. —

3. Havestudentsillustratethefrontofthepostcardwithadrawingoranimagefromamaga-zineornewspaper. —

4. Afterthepostcardsarefinished,haveeachgroupreadtheirpostcardtotheclass. 5. Asktheclassifthereareanyquestionsfortheauthorsofthepostcards. —6. Havethestudentsvoteonwhichgroupwrotethepostcardthathadthebestdescription

andthemostdetail. —Follow-on lesson: Review reading strategies (30–45 minutes)—

Studentsliketoknowwhattheteacherthinksabouteverydaylife.Readingthingsthattheteacherhasactuallywrittencanmotivatesomestudents.Inthisactivity,you,astheteacherandasawriter,gettovoiceyouropinionaboutavacationthatyoutook. —1. Bringa“postcard”thatyouhavewrittenaboutaplaceyouhavevisited. —2. Writethemessageofyourpostcardontheboard.Readthemessageandclarifyanynew

vocabularyandideas. —3. Writethenamesofthequestion-answerrelationship(QAR)readingstrategiesontheboard

andreviewthemwiththeclass. —4. Dividetheclassintogroupsandassignonestrategytoeachgroup.Askeachgrouptocreate

aquestionforitsassignedreadingstrategy. —5. Afterthestudentshavecreatedtheirquestionsandansweredthem,bringtheclasstogether

andhaveeachgroupasktheirquestionstotheclass.Youcancreateacompetitiontoseewhich group can answer the questions the quickest.The group with the most correctanswerswinsthecompetition. —

Final reflective survey (20 minutes)—

Writethefollowingontheboard:—1) Readingatextandaskingquestionsaboutareadingpassageishelpfulforcomprehension. Sometimes Allthetime Never—2) Therearedifferentlevelsofunderstandingareadingpassage.— Yes No—3) Usingdetailsresultsinbetterwriting.— Yes No—Askthestudentstotellyoutheiranswers.Tallythemupontheboard.Arethereanydis-

agreements?Askstudentswhattheycanconcludefromtheiranswers. —Last Thoughts—

• In subsequent lessons, remind students to use questioning techniques to help theircomprehensionofthetexts. —

• Displaythe“postcards”studentscreatedinthislessonaroundtheclassroomtoenhancestudentmotivationforstudyingEnglish. —

Meryl Siegal is a Regional English Language Officer who has worked in teacher training both in the United States and abroad.

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Fact Sheet: Chicago State:Illinois—

Official Website:www.cityofchicago.org—

Population (2006):2,833,321—

Area:234squaremiles(377sq.km.)—

Elevation:579feet(176m)—

Average temperatures—January:—Low30°F(-1°C)—High36°F(2°C)—July:Low67°F(19°C)—High77°F(25°C)—

Average annual rainfall:42inches(1070mm)—

Nicknames:TheWindyCity—

History and Industry—Inthelate1700s,furtraderJeanBaptisteduSableestablishedasettlementontheshoreofLake

MichiganthatwasincorporatedastheTownofChicagoin1833.Thetowngrewquickly,andin1837Chicagowasincorporatedasacity.Sincethenthepopulationhasincreasedtonearly3million(9millioninthegreatermetropolitanarea).Atpresent,ChicagoranksasthethirdlargestcityintheUnitedStates. —

Chicago’s centralized geographical position makes it a hub for transportation, commerce,distribution,andculture.Onceknownforstockyards, steelmills,andrailroads,Chicago isnowhometoabout30Fortune500companies,someofthefinestuniversitiesintheworld,andoneoftheworld’slargestandbusiestairports,O’HareInternational. —

Landmarks—Chicagoboastsoneofthetallestskylinesintheworld.At110storiestall,theSearsToweris

Chicago’stallestbuilding.Onaclearday,visitorstothisbuildingcansee40to50milesfromtheobservationdeckonthe103rdfloor. —

Visitorsareattractedbyseveralnoteworthymuseums,includingtheArtInstituteofChicago,theMuseumofScienceandIndustry,andtheSheddAquarium.—

MillenniumPark,completedin2004,isnowoneofChicago’smostpopulardestinations.The24.5-acrepark,locatedintheheartofthecity,featuresatheater,abandshellforoutdoorconcerts,alargegarden,aspaceforoutdoorartexhibits,andaniceskatingrinkinthewinter. —

Arts and Entertainment—Besides being an international hub for business and transportation, Chicago offers a wide

assortment of leisure activities.Music lovers enjoy theChicago Symphony,which is recognizedasoneofthefinestorchestrasintheworld.Chicagoalsohasseveralballetcompanies,dozensoftheaters,andmanynightclubsfeaturingdistinctivejazzandbluesmusic. —

Forsportslovers,Chicagohastwoprofessionalbaseballteams,afootballteam,ahockeyteam,and a basketball team—theChicagoBulls,made famous in the 1990swhen superstarMichaelJordanledtheteamtosixnationalchampionships.

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