Kathy Said:

Lesson plan for teaching present continuous?

We Answered:

charades is an easy game to play to teach this, but is much more interesting if you use an object

"what are you doing?"

student thinks of an action, mimes it, students guesss everyone takes turns. eg "I'm eating spaghetti" ,"I'm walking the dog", "I'm typing an email", ""i'm playing football", "I'm texting my boyfriend".

My students used to go a bit silly, "I'm fighting an octopus", "I'm kissing your mother" were two I remember.

Nina Said:

Lesson plan for teaching volume of a cylinder?

We Answered:

You could get some cans that they can fill up with water to test the volume. (Don't forget to bring measuring tools). Then, they can measure how big the cans are and calculate the volume and see if it matches. You could give them a few different formulas to try and they could figure out which one was the right one.

Bill Said:

What is the best lesson plan for teaching yourself a language?

We Answered:

First thing is to define what you mean by learn a language. For the purpose of this, I would suggest that you define learn a language as the ability to read a newspaper in the language and understand the majority of it. I use that as the definition since communication on a social level in a language takes a long time, but the ability to read, understand, and speak could be done in a shorter period of time.

Ok, thinking about the lesson plan, the first thing I would do is define where you are, and what language you have access to learn in social situations. For the purpose of this, I am going to assume you are in the US, which means that Spanish is probably the best language to start with. It is the 2nd most widely spoken language in the US. Then from Spanish, I would move to Italian (I am fluent in English and Spanish, and based on my spanish, I can get a pretty good idea of Italian), which should make it relatively easy to work with. From there, I would go into the 3rd of the romance languages on your list which is French. That will give you a good base of the romance languages. They have similar alphabets to the English language, which should make them easier to learn. Then, from there, it is a toss up. I am not at all familiar with Igbo, but I reviewed their alphabet, and it looks more similar to the English language which means it should be easier to grasp than Japanese. Finally, you will have your mind trained enough in learning languages that the extra challenges of Japanese alphabet, sounds, etc. should work better for you.

As for lesson plans within the language, there are 4 main language learning skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). My learning plan would be to study a new situation each week (ie: Go to the Bank, Purchase tickets for a movie, etc).
Day 1) Review the vocabulary for that lesson.
Day 2) Work on reading documents within that situation.
Day 3) Work on writing on that subject
Day 4) Try to speak on the subject
Day 5) Try to Listen on the subject

I would do it in that order since first you need the vocabulary, then reading, you can identify the vocabulary used by others, then, you need to come up with the vocabulary on your own by writing, then just focus on the speaking of what you have written to work on pronunciation, and finally listening.

I am hopeful that this is useful. You have a challenging goal in front of you. Good luck.

Charlene Said:

Any ideas/tips for a lesson plan for teaching a total beginner 10 year old piano?

We Answered:

Well they really should go to a certified teacher, but if they're just learning for fun and a bit of experience then what's the harm?

You should probably start with matching up note names, the piano keys and the written notes. This could potentially create a game: make cards with note names and another set with the note on the stave, then the child has to match these up and then place the pairs in the correct place on the piano. When learning note names on the stave you could teach them useful phrases such as 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fine Apples'.

Then help them make a good hand position on the piano. I used to be told to imagine I had a small hamster under my palm, so I had to keep it somewhat raised so as not the crush the hamster, but not too high so that the hamster will escape. Perhaps write out some simple melodies such as 'mary had a little lamb' or 'twinkle twinkle little star', and help them read the notes and then play. But things should probably be kept to right hand only for the first lesson.

Adam Said:

I need a five minute lesson plan for teaching interviews!?

We Answered:

1. Review: " If you remember, yesterday we(wrote amounts of money by using words )....
2. State your objective and tell how you will do this. "Today, we will [name the parts of a check and learn how to fill out a check correctly through discussion and worksheets]"
3.Cover the content. Check for understanding (perhaps use thumbs up responses) Review the main points.
4. Allow independent practice (worksheet) for homework is time runs out.
5 minutes is a very short time even for a mini lesson so the objective must be very limited and specific,

Erika Said:

What is successful lesson teaching plan?

We Answered:

I use a five step method

Objectives - tell the students what the goal of the lesson is

Discovery - find out what the students know already. if they know little about the objective topics then continue to teach, if they know a lot, perhaps only a review is needed. this step will help make the lesson more effective. Perhaps you can find out what the students will relate to well for examples as well.

Teaching/Learning - the bulk of the lesson, you teach, the student should learn.

Application - activities where the students must apply the knew knowledge gained from the Teaching/Learning step.

Evaluation - where the Objectives met? If so the lesson is complete, if not then going back a few steps to re-teach/learn and apply can be used to finish the lesson.