English materials for
​Secondary school in México

First Grade

Unit 3

Lesson plan

Lesson plan | Worksheets & Handouts | PowerPoint presentations
Exercises for students | ​Project Ideas | Pop Quizzes & Exams
Introduction (10 mins.)
T writes a few discussion points on the board about dictionaries:
  1. Who uses dictionaries?
  2. What kind of information can you find in an English dictionary?
  3. Can they help you learn? How?
  4. What kind of dictionaries do you know?
Ss share their ideas or have a class discussion.
Development (10 mins.)
In pairs, Ss do a matching activity to check prior knowledge about the topic. T promotes collaborative work. T emphasizes the importance of graphic and textual components in order to infer or predict what the images are about.
Consolidation (20 mins.)
T puts Ss into small teams and asks them to explore bilingual dictionaries. Ss share their bilingual dictionaries and make a list of their main components.
This could be the list of components:
  • Cover.
  • Table of contents.
  • Preface (Purpose and intended users).
  • Instructions.
  • Appendixes (Abbreviations, Symbols and Bibliography).
  • Entry list.
  • List of phonetic symbols.
  • List of verbs.
Then, T asks a volunteer of each team to share what they found.
T encourages Ss to use their dictionaries and asks Ss to look up and write on their notebooks the translation of some English and Spanish words.
Here are some lists of words:
  • List 1: abreviation, translation, word, tarea, subrayar & adjetivo.
  • List 2: find, speech, meaning, noun, sentence, definición, instrucción, escribir, traducción & pagina.
Closure (10 mins.)
T gives Ss advice in order to look up easily words in their dictionaries.
T reads aloud to the class the achievements for this unit and encourages Ss to share their ideas about the meaning of each achievement. Ss say their expectations they have of the unit.
Homework: Bring a photocopy of a page from the bilingual dictionary.
Introduction (5 mins.).
T encourages Ss to match a list of entry words with their parts (pronunciation, abbreviation/part of speech, the meaning of the word and example sentence). Ss try to infer the meaning of each part in order to do this activity.
Development (20 mins.)
T shows a new entry word and asks volunteers to label its parts. T explains each part.
Ss do a quiz about the parts of the word entry.
Consolidation (15 mins.)
T asks Ss to use their photocopy of the bilingual dictionary to identify the parts of 3 word entries. Ss have to take notes on their notebooks.
Closure (10 mins.)
T gives feedback on the parts of a bilingual dictionary entry.
Time-filler: “Parts of a bilingual dictionary entry” – Identify the parts from a dictionary extract and complete a table.
Homework: “Entry word parts” - Ss complete the parts of each entry word.
Introduction (10 mins.)
First, T shows Ss a picture and encourages them to identify 3 things (nouns) and 3 actions (verbs). Then, in pairs, Ss look up these 6 words using their dictionaries and complete a table.
Development (15 mins.)
T explains 3 strategies for putting words in alphabetical order. Ss have to write a brief list of words for each rule.  Then, Ss share their lists with others.
The strategies are:
  1. Words with a different letter, place them in ABC order according to the first letter of each word.
  2. Two or more words begin with the same first letter, look at the second letter. Then, place them according to the second letter of each same words.
  3. Two or more words have the same beginning, but one ends and the other has more letters, the shorter word come first.
Here some possible answers for each strategy:
  1. a, be, castle, elephant & fast.
  2. abroad, ache, adjust, all & another.
  3. card, cardboard, ear,  earl, earlier & early.
Consolidation (10 mins.)
First, T writes a list of words on the board and asks Ss to put them in alphabetical order. Then, T asks Ss to choose 5 words from the list and complete a table with their pronunciation, part of speech and translation.
Here are some lists of words:
  • List 1: cool, giraffe, a, never, monkey, the, from, he, bee, dark, in, enough, jelly, room, vote, wave, young, spring, too & zoo.
  • List 2: discount, about, dull, country, cooler, above, cook, dust, ability, duck, date, accept, count, do, come, after, at, daily, data & duckling.
Closure (15 mins.)
T asks Ss to sort a list of words into the correct alphabet grouping.
Ss look up some words using the guide words at the top of each page. When the Ss find the words, they write down its guide words and page number.
T gives Ss a list of guide words in order to decide if some words given would be between them on a dictionary page. 
Time-filler: “Abbreviations in a bilingual dictionary” – Ss write the most common abbreviations used in a bilingual dictionary. 
Introduction (10 mins.)
Ss match some entry words which have two or more meaning with images. ​The entry words are love (2), play (3), train (2), trip (2) and drink (2).
Development (15 mins.)
Ss complete some sentences using the words in the last activity.
Here are the sentences:
  1. Do you like to ________________ soccer?
  2. The ________________ is the best feeling in the world.
  3. Would you like to ________________ a coffee?
  4. The ________________ costs around $45 per person and takes about 4 hours.
  5. He’s going to ________________ my chest and arms with these dumbbells.
  6. You ________________ piano very well.
  7. My favorite ________________ is Coke.
  8. She said “I ________________ you and I need you”
  9. The ________________ leaves at 7 am.
  10. Romeo and Juliet is my favorite Shakespeare ________________.
  11. The kid ________________ and fell down.
Consolidation (20 mins.)
In pairs, Ss to look up other words in order to identify the different meaning of each word. The entry words are water (2), name (2), game (4) and back (4).
Closure (5 mins.)
T gives Ss advice to know the right meaning of a word in any sentence. ​
Introduction (15 mins.)
T asks Ss to define nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives. T asks Ss to come up with examples of each to clarify understanding. T write Ss’ ideas on the board.
T explains to Ss that a noun is a person, place, animal, or thing. T tells Ss that a verb is an action. T reminds them that a pronoun is a word that is used instead of a noun. T defines an adjective as a word that describes a noun.
T show Ss some pictures and encourages them to identify the part of speech of each picture.
Development (15 mins.)
T asks Ss to make a list of 5 words for the following categories: nouns, adverbs and adjectives using their dictionaries. Ss write down the entry word, pronunciation, part of speech and translation. T asks Ss to share what they found with their partner.
T writes 2 complex sentences on the board: “I play volleyball very well” and “That girl is very attractive and beautiful”. T encourages Ss’ reflection on the relevance of distinguishing the part of speech to determine the meaning through examples in sentences.
Consolidation (15 mins.)
In pairs, Ss write down 5 sentences that contain at least 3 parts of speech in each sentence. T asks volunteer to come in front of the class and share their sentences. T encourages Ss to identify the parts of speech of each sentence.
Closure (5 mins.)
T invites Ss to tell the class what they have learned today.​
Time-filler: “Nouns and verbs” & “Pronouns and adjectives” – Ss match parts of speech with images.
Homework: “Parts of speech review” -  Ss complete a table about parts of speech.
Introduction (10 mins.)
T writes on the board some instructions such as: “Choose the correct answer”, “Click here to download the app”, “Do not use elevators”, etc. T asks Ss where they can find these instructions.
T tells Ss the importance of the manuals.
Development (15 mins.)
First, T writes a list of instructions and asks Ss to underline the imperative verb in each sentence. Then, Ss classify them into affirmative and negative imperative.
Here some instructions:
  1. First, check the spelling of the word.
  2. Then, go to the English-Spanish section of the dictionary.
  3. Do not waste your time, use the guide words.
  4. Identify the meaning of the word.
  5. Do not assume that the first meaning is the correct one.
Consolidation (15 mins.)
In pairs, Ss arrange a list of instructions in a logical sequence. Ss discuss and determine the relevance of the instructions and order.
Closure (10 mins.)
T asks Ss to rewrite the instructions adding adverb of sequence or connector to the instructions (first, then, next, after that & finally).
T put Ss into teams of four. Ss discuss the parts of the bilingual dictionary that would be necessary to include for writing a manual of instructions. Ss make a first draft of the instructions.
Ss write the instructions for a dictionary (manual). Each team evaluates their manual. Ss exchange their manuals for peer correction. T asks Ss to verify that instructions are clear and logical. Ss edit and correct mistakes in order to prepare the final version of their manuals. Ss prepare the manual and illustrate the instructions.
Each team displays the manual in the classroom. Ss walk around and read each other’s manuals. T assigns turns of participation so that Ss get to explain their manual and listen and ask questions to their classmates. T explains to Ss that their manuals will remain in the classroom for future dictionary use reference.