Aim: How can we improve a city park for its users: people, animals, and insects?

The ‘showcase’ lesson at Shuang-Wen Junior High School. My ten-page booklet of activities was copied by the front office for the thirty-two students in the school’s ‘winter camp.’ I was paid 2500NT-$83 for the two hour class! The class was fun and the children loved it, especially the contest I ran after the reading we did. We only got half-way through the worksheets I prepared; a week of classes could be drawn from it.

 For the students, it was a class by a foreign EFL teacher, but it was a showcase to me for becoming a teacher trainer and curriculum developer in Taiwan. I hope that this is what will come of it. I heard that before me there was a British counterpart who provided that service to the school but he didn’t get paid well. Since all the public schools in Taiwan are decentralized, getting in to one school at a time is the way to do it. I hope that Leona’s cousin, who introduced me to Shuang-Wen in his capacity as school resource person for the publisher, can introduce me to other schools.

Aim: How can we improve a city park for its users: people, animals, and insects?

Instructional Objective: Reading comprehension – reported speech, composition skills- brainstorming and organizing, oral reports.

Motivation: The environment of our city parks is very important for the people it serves. We must be aware of the usages for the park, such as gardening. Consideration must also be made for the pets that use the park so humane choices can be made for them. We can see the result of our care by the insects that populate the park, butterflies and cockroaches.

Procedure:

1.     Do Now: Handout “Improve This Park.” Let the students work in teams to fill out the worksheet. Put categories on the board and have students go up to add their suggestions:

1. How does this park makes you feel?

2. What would you do to improve this park?

3. Who will your park serve?

4. What will your park include?

5. What rules will the park have for its use, maintenance, and safety?

2. Composition skills: Brainstorm and Organization for Creative Writing. Choose one of two practices. Add details from your ‘Do Now’ handout “Improve This Park.” Students can use teamwork and write at least the details to brainstorm and organize

1. A Great Day at the Park

2. A Terrible Park

3.     Reading Comprehension and Discussion: “There’s a Big Park near Shuang Wen High School.” Read aloud to students. Go over vocabulary. Have students read back. Create teams. Answer questions in a contest on the board .Go over questions together.

4.     Controlled Composition: “Gardening” Read story out loud to students. Make reported speech questions and answers. Write Steps 3b. 4b. or 7a, depending on fluency of students. Check students in their seats. Team-work is acceptable.

5.     Enrichment Activities: If Time permits, sub-topics can be added to the lesson and included in a composition at another lesson.

A. Good and Bad Park Insects

a.     Phonics – Textbook pages decode Latin butterfly names by syllable and vowel sounds.

b.     Block That Roach, The Roach Hunt – Go over vocabulary. Which situations apply to a park environment?

B.   Enrichment: Handouts:

1.     Kindness Counts – go over vocabulary and check sentence pattern usage

2.     Making Humane Choices- Form outline for a composition on the aim.