ADVANCED BEGINNERS – LOW INTERMEDIATES

A FAIRY TALE

Lesson: Little Red Riding Hood, by Charles Perrault

Strategy: Dyads (pairs) for jazz chant, and working in small groups of 5 for skit

Objectives:

1. The students will learn a famous Western fairy tale. 2. The students will learn new vocabulary. 3. The students will practice using their listening skills as the Teacher tells the story. 4. The jazz chant will teach the students the sound pattern of phrases and sentences – intonation. 5. The students will learn correct pronunciation. 6. The students will develop poise and confidence by acting out the story before the class. By improvising they will increase their diction. 7. The students will gain in fluency.

ESL Objectives:

Pronunciation - result of producing the sounds of speech, including articulation, stress, and intonation, often with reference to the English standard of correctness or acceptability. Pronunciation drills on the following sounds are included: /th/ /l/ /v/ /w/ /short e/

Diction - usually implies a high level of usage; it refers chiefly to the choice of words and their arrangement. This is encouraged when the students make substitutions, vary their tales, or create their own skits. We want to encourage the students to use their English!

Vocabulary - learning new words of a foreign language. This includes idiomatic expressions.

Fluency - able to speak smoothly, easily, gracefully, and readily. All ESL methods seek to increase fluency.

Intonation - the sound pattern of phrases and sentences produced by pitch variation in the voice which distinguishes kinds of sentences of different language cultures. Jazz chants are for the purpose of working on intonation.

Confidence – levels increase the more students speak in front of their classmates, when the students are encouraged to vary their stories and make substitutions, through stating their own arguments and opinions, and through skits.

FIRST SESSION: 45 minutes

Pass out Student Workbooks, Pencils, and name tags for the day.

I. Review previous day’s vocabulary – point to a word on your Word Wall and call on individual students for definitions as the Chinese student typically does not volunteer. Review previous lesson’s idiom as well.

II. Have the students stand and rehearse a song learned in a previous lesson, or a jazz chant. This for is “warm up” as well as getting the brain “ready” to learn new vocabulary. Standing and changing position, moving around, is good TPR.

III. Introduce new vocabulary. Use as many prepared pictures as possible as pictures are the universal language. You can copy free pictures from google images.com. OR, pick up a cheap copy with good pictures of “Little Red Riding Hood” and break spine, remove pictures, laminate so that they stand on the chalk board shelf. Use to teach sequencing as well.

Other props for skits: a red cape with hood, wolf mask, basket with fake bread/cookies (or food from the cafeteria), grandmother’s night cap, toy ax

Review several times in various ways. Use pictures. Check pronunciation.

Vocabulary: grandmother wicked pounce fairy tale wolf woodcutters basket knock forest goodies enter rescued strangers closet red riding hood skipped growl

. IV. Pronunciation Exercises:

A. Have the students watch your mouth as you demonstrate the movement of the tongue and lips in pronouncing the following words:

grandmother – [th] – tongue between teeth, no breath wicked – [w] - not the [v] position that they use for [w] wolf – [w] – not the [v] position woodcutters - [w] – not the [v] position

SECOND SESSION: 45 minutes

I. Review Vocabulary of Story from previous session

II. Tell the Story - Tell it 2 times, very slowly, using pictures that go along with this story. (We suggest you laminate the pictures.) Ask the students to keep their workbooks closed for the story, as this becomes a listening exercise as well. The third time you tell the story have your teaching assistants act it out as you read the story. Depending on the ages of your beginners you may want to have your assistants act it out the 4th time. (For the teacher – this is a French story written in the late 17th c.)

Little Red Riding Hood One day, Little Red Riding Hood’s mother said to her, “Take this basket of goodies to your grandmother’s house, but don’t talk to strangers on the way!” Promising not to, Little Red Riding Hood skipped off. On her way she met the Big Bad Wolf who asked, “Where are you going, little girl?” “To my grandmother’s, Mr. Wolf!” she answered. The Big Bad Wolf then ran to her grandmother’s house much before Little Red Riding Hood, and knocked on the door. When Grandmother opened the door, he locked her up in the closet. The wicked wolf then wore Grandmother’s clothes and lay on her bed, waiting for Little Red Riding Hood. When Little Red Riding Hood reached the house, she entered and went to grandmother’s bedside. “My! What big eyes you have, Grandmother!” she said in surprise. “All the better to see you with, my dear!” replied the wolf. “My! What big ears you have, Grandmother!” said Little Red Riding Hood. “All the better to hear you with, my dear!” said the wolf. “What big teeth you have, Grandmother!” said Little Red Riding Hood. “All the better to eat you with!” growled the wolf pouncing on her. Little Red Riding Hood screamed and the woodcutters in the forest came running to the house. They beat the Big Bad Wolf and rescued Grandmother from the closet. Grandmother hugged Little Red Riding Hood with joy. The Big Bad Wolf ran away never to be seen again. Little Red Riding Hood had learned her lesson and never spoke to strangers ever again. Put the pictures, in order, on her chalk board tray when finished.

III. For more advance students ask Who, What, Where, When, Why questions to ascertain how much the students understand the story. You will need to call on the students because typically the Chinese students will not volunteer to answer questions. Another option is to start the story, then ask a student “What happened next?” and continue on until the story is done.

IV. Pair Work:

Work in pairs. One option is for the student to select his partner. However, this is not always a good idea.

An excellent option is to give half the class numbers (1-12), and the other half the same numbers (1-12). The student must find the person with the same number and partners are formed. (If you work in pairs a lot, this will ensure the students working with a different student every day as they get new numbers every day.)

Another option for selecting pairs is to have the teacher pair up a strong student with a weaker student. You will need to have the students several days before you can make this assessment. This is an excellent option for use during the second week of camp for lessons requiring working in pairs.

The students now practice telling the story to each other. They may use their workbooks. Encourage students to help each other with vocabulary, pronunciation, and the order of the story. In addition, all Teaching Assistants will be going from pair to pair, listening, encouraging, and correcting where needed. “Repetition is the mother of all learning.” The students need to practice this over and over and get to the point where they can “read and look up,” where they can have “chunks of language” in their minds, and where there is general fluency and principles of elocution.

This should take the entire session two. If you have time, and if some are able, ask the students to come up with a different ending to the story.

Third Session: 45 minutes

I. Groups of Five: Act out the story with each actor speaking lines.

Props: Red cape with hood, basket, wolf mask, grandmother’s night cap, toy ax Actors: Mother Little Red Riding Hood Grandma The wolf Woodcutters Encourage improvisation. They will want to copy what the teaching assistants did. Encourage them to think of different ways to act it out.

II. End the day teaching the following short jazz chant. BTW wants jazz chants incorporated in most lessons because jazz chants are an excellent ESL method to teach the rhythm of our language.

Goodies in the basket Off to Grandma’s house. Don’t talk to strangers Be quiet as a mouse!

Repeat several times. Then add clapping with a partner as follows:

clap lap twice clap hands twice clap partners two hands twice clap own hands once

III. According to the ability of the students you may want to discuss the point of this story – “Don’t talk to strangers!”

If your students are able there is a longer jazz chant that you could use (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaPRPZp-CFo) which would also be good for your final program.