Past Tense. From words to a story

This activities make use of the u12 Vocabulary Map (in the back of the text book).

Two different ways of using the vocabulary listed in the unit 12 Vocabulary Map as prompts for writing/telling a story.

File is basically Teacher’s Notes, and also includes a set of vocab cards which would need cutting-up.

Download file: Unit 12. Vocabulary Map. PDF.

Past Tense: Predicting / Listening / Drawing / Writing

This activity could be done at any time (and by any level), not just to supplement unit 12.

Stage 1: Students look at 6 pictures which illustrate a true story, and predict the correct order of the pictures, and the story itself. They then listen to the story and check their predictions.

Stage 2: Students then illustrate their own true ‘interesting’ story, and pass it to another student. The other student predicts the story.

Sounds complicated, but it’s not really! Extensive instructions, and transcript, are included in the PDF.

Download file: Unit 12. Picture Story. PDF.

 Download audio MP3 file: Unit 12. Picture Story. MP3.

Past Tense. Chain writing a story: Replacement ‘Ensemble’ activity.

This is a substitute for the Ensemble activity ~ which has poor picture prompts in the text book. This activity may be quite demanding!

Students write the first half of a short story, based on a picture prompt. They then pass their story to other students, who finish the story.

Brief Teacher’s Notes are included, but the rubrics on the worksheet itself should be clear enough.

Download file: Unit 12. Our own story. PDF

Modals. Pair Work Activity: What do the signs mean?

The pair work activity in the text book is lame. You might prefer to do this instead!

Students look at images taken from real (old..) Japanese street signs, and write down what they think the sings mean. They then hand their sentences (not the pictures) to another student, who then draws what he/she thinks the original sign looked like.

Your students should be reasonably familiar with the target modals before attempting this task. It does require a considerable amount of imagination, so please keep this in mind when deciding if it will be suitable for your class.

Teacher’s Notes are included in the PDF.

Download file: Unit 11. Signs Pair Work. PDF.

Modals. Language covered:

Card game played in small groups. Instructions are included in the PDF. There are no Teacher’s Notes.

Download file: Unit 11. Card Game. PDF.

Superlatives

Board game, played in groups. Land on a square & talk about the topic for 30 seconds, followed by Q+A from other students in the group.

Materials needed: one worksheet per group // one ¥10 per group

No teacher’s notes, as it should be clear how the game is played. You may want to blow-up the worksheet to A3 size.

Download: u8 Talk about Game

Superlatives Class Survey

Students write survey questions in order to find the ‘Most ….’, or ‘… est’ person in the class.

Teacher’s Notes (These instructions are included in the pdf)

The student worksheet has been kept as clean and simple as possible, to leave more space for writing ~ & to reduce confusion!

Suggested lesson plan

1 Ask three students these questions (Also ask follow-up questions to get a little more information.):

How often do you laugh?
Do you like to watch comedy shows on TV?
Are you worried about anything?
Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
How many friends do you have?

Write short, memo notes summarising their answers on a grid on the board.

2 Look at the answers for a short time, and decide who is the ‘happiest’ of the three students. On the board, write ‘(name)……….. is the ____est student.’
Elicit ‘happiest’.

3 Tell the students that they are going to write questions to find the ‘most ….’, or ‘… est’ student in the class. Put students into pairs, then go round to each pair and tell them the theme of their survey (Make sure other students can’t hear!).

Suggested themes (Obviously substitute with your own ideas, if you like.): laziest most serious craziest fittest

coolest most healthy most unhealthy cleanest etc etc …

4 Pair works together to write 5 questions. Explain that the theme of the survey shouldn’t be 100% obvious from the questions.

5 Divide the class in half ~ one student from the pair in each half. Students then talk to 5 students, writing short memo notes on the worksheet. Encourage follow-up questions. Explain that the theme of their survey is secret, so they shouldn’t tell anyone!

6 Students get back into original pairs, and compare the results of their surveys. They then talk together to decide who is the winner. (Each pair chooses one winner.)

7 Awards ceremony. Organise the announcing of winners in any way you consider appropriate.

Download File: u8 Class survey

Comparatives & Superlatives

Running dictation quiz, which reviews the facts and structures in unit 8. Best done as a review activity, after most of the unit has been covered.

Teacher’s notes are included in the pdf.

Download file: Unit 8. Running Quiz. PDF

This activity can be used to fill a whole 3 hours of a final class, or as a filler some time mid-term over a couple of weeks. It’s based on a couple of episodes of the US sitcom “Friends”, and the material can be adapted to suit both listening/speaking and reading/writing classes. You’ll need to download the Student sheets and the Teacher sheets below.

Friends teacher sheets Friends student sheets

The level 1 team are generating supplementary materials to augment English Firsthand Success. The aim of the materials is to:

• extend textbook activities
• covers language related to a unit, but not in the textbook
• help with speaking task prep

Use them all. Use some of them. Use none of them. - It’s up to you! Look in the header of each document for an explanation of why each activity was created.

Copies of these materials can also be found in the Level 1 binder. Materials that include listening activities are indicated with an “*“. (All files are PDF.)

• Clothes crossword
• Fashion and me *
• Getting it right
• Who is that man
• Why do people

Audio files
Audio files (in MP3 format) for the above activities can be downloaded here:
Unit 2 Supp Mats audio files (.zip archive) 9.2 MB

Another way to access the audio files is to open iTunes on the ‘Level 1′ Macintosh computer in the Part Time teachers’ area, and burn your own audio CD. Additional audio files will be added during the semester, so it will be a good idea to check iTunes on a regular basis.

The level 1 team are generating supplementary materials to augment English Firsthand Success. The aim of the materials is to:

• extend textbook activities
• covers language related to a unit, but not in the textbook
• help with speaking task prep

Use them all. Use some of them. Use none of them. - It’s up to you! Look in the header of each document for an explanation of why each activity was created.

Copies of these materials can also be found in the Level 1 binder. Materials that include listening activities are indicated with an “*“. (All files are PDF.)

• Physical appearance
• Best friend *
• Families vocab. Family tree
• Family members *
• Names *

Audio files
Audio files (in MP3 format) for the above activities can be downloaded here:
Unit 1 Supp Mats audio files (.zip archive) 19.5 MB

Another way to access the audio files is to open iTunes on the ‘Level 1′ Macintosh computer in the Part Time teachers’ area, and burn your own audio CD. Additional audio files will be added during the semester, so it will be a good idea to check iTunes on a regular basis.

As the Level 2 writing teachers will know, there are more weeks than there are units in the Totally True 3 coursebook. Therefore, for some weeks, there is the opportunity to use some of your own materials. I’ve attached some materials that I put together for a non-coursebook week. The materials essentially revolve around a gap-fill reading exercise. I adapted the text from something from a textbook. The materials are a work in progress, so any feedback or upgrading would be welcome!

Reading Exercise: Sarah Chang Violinist
Reading Exercise: Sarah Chang Violinist - Teachers’ Notes

Here is a Word document containing the text of the main readings in chapters 10 ~ 18. It may help in the generation of other supplementary materials.

Totally True 1. Autumn. Text

Here is a zip file archive of the crossword puzzles for ch 10 ~ 18. The puzzles are in PDF format.

Totally True 1. Autumn. Crossword puzzles

On the elpweb Resources site (foundation/level 1/reading) you can find:

Crossword puzzles
For example…

Cloze quizzes
For example…

‘Learn more‘ More information about the people in the reading passages.
For example…