Teachers!!! New Year is coming. In Poland that means roughly 120 days of teaching till the end of semester. Obviously, it’s the time for mid term , tests and intensive grading, but…it’s an amazing opportunity to make our students reflect and plan!
Why don’t we take advantage of the fact and bring some deeper thoughts into the classroom. Students planning the future will not only focus on future expressions, but also spend valuable time considering priorities, goals and ways to achieve them.
The Internet is full of ideas, activities and ready-made lesson plans. Here are some of activities I do about New Year’s Resolutions:
- Familiarise students with some of the most popular ones:
Lose weight
Get rid of a bad habit
Become more organized
Maintain a diary
- Have your students come up with 3-6 potential resolutions. Or make them think of their own goals. A list of structures for expressing future may come handy:http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Counihan-Activities/Resolutions.html
- Students may later listen to a snippet of Bob Dylan summarising 10 most popular resolutions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nluiApeNWKI
- Watch Friends’ episode – The one about resolutions.This episode starts with the New Year’s Party of 1999 – the Millennium is near. The friends are doing the countdown and wishing each other 'Happy New Year’. Soon all of them are beginning to make New Year’s resolutions, therefore a good listening/watching task for learners would be to note who makes what kind of resolution. You may find a neat handout on this episode here: https://en.islcollective.com/resources/printables/worksheets_doc_docx/friends_the_one_with_all_the_new_years_resolutions/preintermediate-a2-how/4534 or here: http://www.eslprintables.com/cinema_and_television/tv_programmes/friends_series/NEW_YEAR_RESOLUTIONS_FROM_TV_348778/
- You can check the understanding of th vocabulary used here: http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/vocabulary/holidays_newyears1.html
- Discus with students SMART goals setting procedure and tell them to use future perfect to set their own goals.
- Developingteachers.com provides with good quality activities: http://www.developingteachers.com/plans/nyrlp.htm
- breakingnewsenglish.com present rather dull activities but the listening activity seems to be good enough for intermediate students.
- As for listening, English Baby! offers useful materials, easily adapted to various levels: http://www.englishbaby.com/lessons/6788/real_life/new_year_s_resolutions
- Short listening comprehension: http://www.dailyesl.com/new-years.htm
- https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/New%20Years%20Resolutions%20lesson%20plan.pdf
- Another quite extensive lesson plan to be found here:http://absolutenglish-972.pagesperso-orange.fr/notes/resolutions/essay_resolutions.doc
- Some interesting content: http://americanenglish.state.gov/content-spotlight-new-year
- Onestopenglish has a well-prepared lesson plan:http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/listening/live-from-authentic-interviews/pdf-content/live-from-london-new-year-listening-activities-and-transcript/155660.article
- And finally, the biggest database of resources:http://www.henry4school.fr/Celebrations/new_year/nyear-resolutions.htm