My+favorite+season

This EFL lesson plan is designed around the theme of seasons and lifestyles. Students compare their favorite seasons read and discuss about seasons in Australia, Thailand and Norway. They interview each other to find out what the best month/ season is for a certain activity in their country and they write a description of the seasons in their home area.

Reading articles
 * Language level **: Elementary (B) Pre Intermediate (B1) (B2)
 * Learner type **:Teens
 * Time **: 90 minutes
 * Activity **: Talking about issues related to seasons, reading three articles , writing about the seasons in their own country
 * Topic **: Take it easy
 * Language **: seasons, colors, months vocabulary, present simple, I, he/ she positive and negative
 * Materials **<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">: phone calendar, <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 1.5;">reading articles
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;">Downloadable materials: **

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">This EFL lesson plan is designed around the theme of seasons and activities nations do in the different seasons. Students compare their favorite seasons with those of their peers and the teacher, read articles about Seasons in Australia, Thailand and Norway. They interview each other to find out what the best month/ season is for a certain activity in their country.
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Overview **

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 21.81818199157715px;">Students work in pairs to answer the questions. Use calendar as a visual aid, and go through the seasons and the months. Say them first and ask students to repeat chorally and individually.
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 1 **

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Repeat the seasons and the months a few times, making it fast and fun if you can. If necessary check further by asking: <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">What's before/ after October? <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">When's your birthday? (Students give only the month of their birth and not the actual date.)
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 2 **

Ask students to answer the questions from exercise 1 again checking for accurate pronunciation.
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 3 **

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Briefly go through the answers as class feedback highlighting any specific problems you noted earlier. <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">If necessary, do further spot checks by asking similar questions to those above. <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Students read the texts. Ask them to answer the following questions: <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Which seasons are mentioned? <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">What's the speaker's favorite season?
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;">Step 4 **
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 5 **
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 6 **

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Answers: <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Daniela is Australian. Her favorite season is summer. <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Summalee is Thai. her favorite season is winter. <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Axel is Norwegian. His favorite season is spring.

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 21.81818199157715px;">Students do this exercise in groups of three. Ask each one in the group to read about a different person. Then they can share the information to answer the questions, which will gener <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 1.5;">ate more speaking. Ask someone in each group to write down their answers. <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 1.5;">Give them 5 to 10 minutes and then bring the whole class together to conduct the feedback. <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 1.5;">Encourage them to expand their answers where applicable.
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 7 **

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 1.5;">Answers: <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> 1 Danielle likes water sports ( surfing, water skiing, and sailing); Shemale doesn't play sport; Alex goes skiing. 2 Danielle likes water-skiing and Alex likes skiing down mountains. 3 In the garden. 4 In Chaing Mai. ( North of Thailand) 5 The cool season (their "winter"). 6 They have a flower festival. They sing and dance. 7 No, she doesn't. 8 Because it's the best time to go skiing. 9 In England. 10 Danielle from Australia; Shemale from Thailand and Alex from Norway.

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Students remain in their groups to find six mistakes in the summary. Point out that students will have to change and and but in some of the sentences. Get one or two students to read the corrected version of the summary to the rest of the class.
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 8 **

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Answers <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Danielle comes from Australia. In summer she goes surfing and sailing. She loves the beach, but she doesn't like sunbathing. <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Shemale comes from Thailand. Her favorite season is winter. She loves dancing. <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Alex comes from Norway. he likes spring best. He likes skiing and he skis very f <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px; line-height: 1.5;">ast.

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Students listen tape script 4.7.
 * <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Step 9 **

<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">They answer the following questions: <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Who is it? <span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Where are they? How do you know?

Students discuss their answers in pairs before checking with the whole class.

Round off the activity by playing the recording again, referring the students to the tape script on SB p 128.
 * Step 10**

This is an attempt to generate some personalized discussion and give further practice of Present Simple. Don'r worry if at this level it turns out to be quite a short activity. Ask the students to discuss the topic in small groups, before you conduct feedback with the whole class. It would be also nice to encourage students to ask you questions about your favorite season.
 * Step 11**
 * What do you think?**

Suggestions Students interview each other to find out when the best month/ season is for doing a certain activity in their country: When's the best month for (skiing, walking, sunbathing, shopping, visiting your city, etc.)?

Students write a description of how their home area changes from season to season. get them to include information on the weather, about the colors they can see, the activities people do, and the number of visitors.
 * Step 12**