Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Lesson/Review 5: Evaluating Authoring Programs, Learning Objects and Educational Software


Lesson for students: Ordering food at a restaurant - word search exercise

1). Listen to the story.
2). Read the story on your own.
3). Find the words from the list below and circle them on the word find exercise.
The words are from the text you just read.

Words:
restaurant, fork, order, napkin, plate, spicy, mild, meal, menu, waiter



Students: Adult students who are Hispanic and Asian in an Intermediate English as a Second Language class.
Lesson: This is an activity which they will have 30 minutes to spend on doing.
Classroom environment: This activity which I created on the computer for them will be part of their lesson on ordering food and it will follow a short text and comprehension questions. It should not require longer than 30 minutes to complete.

A short story has been given to the students to read in the first part of the class along with a few comprehension questions to check their understanding of the text.
As a part of their exercises is this word find which I created by using toolsforeducators.com
website and will hand out to my students to complete.

How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your instructional purposes?
The instructional purpose of this activity is to help students enhance their English, improve their spelling, vocabulary, and reading; word finds accomplish that because they promote all these skills to ESL students. This activity is also a bridge to the next part of the class which is a discussion of what is your favorite restaurant and what kind of food it serves.

Why is this topic, information or content appropriate for the lesson you plan to create (e.g., level of authenticity, relevance to target language, register, accuracy, interest level, and motivation)?
This activity I created is one of a few that my students will do for this lesson on ordering food at a restaurant. All my adult students will be in a situation in which they have to order at a restaurant and since survival English is what I need to teach them now, this is a good activity. The words are from the text they will have read at the beginning of the class. They will be able to practice spelling and reading by completing this word find with words all relevant to the text and to ordering food at a restaurant.

Are the format, organization, design and language level of this resource approriate for your instructional needs?
I think this activity is appropriate for the lesson I am teaching because it uses the words they just learned in the text and will need to know and use when they find themselves in a situation like this. The format is easy to understand and challenging to complete.

What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning and adapt this resource for your instructional recources?
I will provide students with a handout that includes the word find and the words they need to use along with the directions on how to find the words (e.g. Look horizontally, vertically, and diagonally).
I will have to demonstrate this on the handout so they know how to look for the words. The handout will have the directions they will have to take to find the words. A good idea is to provide them with a ruler to use in order to keep searching in straight lines.

2 comments:

  1. Nice Lesson! I've never really thought about using a word find for spelling but I can see how in looking for the word you have to keep saying the letters over and over. I like that. You could even make it more communicative if they did it with a partner and one person had the list of words and the other had clues and they had to match them in order to find them.

    I also like the bridge to having a discussion about favorite restaurants and the kinds of food that is served there. It seems like the kind of discussion that nearly everyone can jump in and contribute to.

    There are all kinds of possibilities for extension. Students could create a restaurant skit that has to use all of the words or after your group discussion on favorite restaurants you could plot the locations on a map or pull up images of the different places using Google.

    Thanks for sharing the word find resource!
    Erica

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  2. This is a fantastic lesson and so practical. Two summers ago, I taught an oral communications class. I learned that everyone one of my students avoided going out to a restaurant here in America because they were afraid. Mostly they were afraid of the waiters because they couldn’t understand them because they spoke so extremely fast. After explaining that sometimes I, even, had trouble with their fast speech, I explained some things about how our restaurant system sort of works.
    After that, we decided to have class at a restaurant of their choosing. I set it all up with the restaurant manager. Then, I knew we needed to practice. So, I created an entire lesson surrounding a meal at a restaurant. I copied menus, had conversation starters – then assigned the students to various tasks. Some were patrons, some were waiters, some were hosts, etc.
    I set up four tables – and we role played for the entire class time. They not only had a lot of fun, but they got to practice (fairly close to reality) how things could go in a restaurant.
    Then, the night came for class in the restaurant. I made up conversation starters for each person so that the conversation wouldn’t lull between them – and I made sure that the table I was at was within ear shot of the other tables we needed.
    I even told the wait staff not to treat us any differently – not to slow their speech or anything. So, my students had to ask for a repeat when they didn’t understand, and if they didn’t know what something was, they had to speak up as well. Some were even brave enough to substitute (since the idea of substitution to most of them is unheard of).
    It was a wonderful experience, and since I only helped minimally with their interaction with the wait staff – I think they really learned a valuable lesson.

    I think to finish up my lesson (the next night in class) I would have liked something like this exercise to reemphasize what we had been doing the previous two nights. I don’t think that there is such a thing as too much exposure, especially since it is something that we do every day and something that they will actually miss out on if they avoid it.
    I like the lesson – it helps with listening and vocabulary skills as well as with a practical applicable skill.

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