Health, habits, Michelle Obama... this chapter lent itself to some authentic speaking practice and fun projects. Here's what we worked on.
Lesson 1:
We watched this video on my made-up friend "Ryan Teacher" who has many bad habits. Though a very "low budget" production, my kids thought it was hilarious.
Then we played a dice game where students had to roll dice and tell each other they did an activity that number of times a week. This was good for engaging students in repetitious speaking practice.
Lesson 2:
This class focused on reading and writing but I like to make sure students' had some authentic practice/ practical application of the content we're learning. So after reviewing with a quick discussion of Ryan Teacher and his horrible habits (one that built some community in the class), we analyzed a graph comparing the difference between Spongebob and Patrick's health habits. Students were engaged and I was happy about the cross curricular component.
After these relatively quick checks for understanding, we spent the majority of the class conducting health surveys! I was pretty proud of this exercise- my co-teacher said I "tricked" my students into learning, and I have to agree, the best learning happens when students are so interested that they don't realize how hard they're working. In this exercise, students completed questionnaires about what their seat partner does by asking "How often do you ____" and then completing a graph. Then they got to give their peers healthy recommendations. "You should ____ more often!" The second time, students mingled around the classroom to survey which was especially fun. At the end we shared recommendations with the class. Get the worksheet here.
Lesson 3:
This lesson was centered on reading and writing, but again, I wanted students to have some authentic practice. Thus, in lieu of the textbook material which was very repetitive and a little dull, I created an article about Michelle Obama's child health initiative. Very simply written, it uses all of the text language with a little bit extra to stretch my students' learning. First, I taught students who Michelle Obama was and used a Sesame street video which they loved (a little surprising for 6th grade!) to explain her focus on healthy habits. Then, they read the article with a partner and answered questions about Michelle's recommendations for their health. Finally, they were asked to give themselves a recommendation for improving their health i.e. "I should exercise more often!" The lesson premise was exciting for me, but in the future, I'd like to do something a little more interactive at first to get students more excited for the article. You can get the article and power points here!
Lesson 4:
In the final lesson of the class, my students and I were both feeling pretty confident in their ability to use the target phrases comfortably. So after reviewing with a class discussion of our health habits, and a "clue game" where students tried to interpret my picture clues in order to guess one of the key phrases, we got to work on group projects! Students had to survey each other on an assigned question, "how often do you eat breakfast," etc. and then they assembled in groups to calculate totals and then display the information on pie charts. This was a great opportunity to practice speaking for a purpose and then presentations asked students to perfect their phrasing. I was so impressed with the graphs they came up with and I'm hoping that it gave those students who are stronger in subjects other than English a chance to shine, too!
Get my worksheets for Lesson 2 and 4 here and feel free to ask me any questions!
Happy learning!
