Lesson Plan Week 7

Teacher/s: Soo Hyoung Joo, Melinda (Chenya) Zhang

Level: TOEFL Prep Date/Time: April 3th, 2015, 3-6pm

Goal: Integrating different skills (reading/listening/speaking) by Comparing and

Contrasting materials
Objectives (SWBAT):
Students Will Be Able To
1. learn and practice three other very important TOEFL reading question formats
2. brainstorm expressions that can be used in comparing and contrasting opinions
3. summarize what they have either listened or read
4. visualize the link between the materials with a graphic organizer
5. compare and contrast the listening and reading material
6. feedback from mid-term writing wrap up TOEFL independent writing
Theme: integrated speaking listen/read/speak
Extensions: summarizing and paraphrasing
Aim/Skill/Microskill

Activity/Procedure/Stage

Interaction

Tim
e

Review or Preview
(if applicable)

Linking & Transitioning to rest of lesson:

Last class, we had our very first midterm. I
received your homework, and I was very
impressed by your ability to talk about
independent topics. However, I noticed
many of you had difficulty identifying the
connection of the materials. Not only in
TOEFL speaking and writing integrated
tasks, but also in TOEFL listening and
reading tasks, you are often asked to
compare and contrast different materials, so
we will talk more about that through todays
lesson these are the lesson objectives

SS-T

Activity 1: Reading

1.1 Pre-Stage:
[TOEFL Reading Challenges Brainstorm]
Do you still remember the reading
strategies we share during the class? Have
you ever tried any in your homework? What
are some of the challenges you
encountered?
1.2. During Stage:
Learn TOEFL Reading Question Formats 79
3 Question Formats
T Q&A (lecture key points and
answer questions)
Ss Practice (finish within a limited
time)

Ss-Ss

40
10

T-Ss

25

Ss-Ss

Ss & T Discussion (explanation &

further extension)

Transition to #2:
Since we have
learned about
academic reading,
lets see how
academic
conversation can be
presented in the
listening material.

Activity 2:

Listening to
connect ideas

1.3 Post-Stage:
{TOEFL Reading Strategies Brainstorm}
1) Ss discuss about the general reading
strategies they know in small groups
2) Ss share their strategies on the
whiteboard and explain to the whole class
3) T share reading strategies with Ss and
make comparisons
Tangible Outcome & T. feedback/peer
feedback:
T give Ss handout to take notes and answer
more questions

2.1 Schema Building: Independant Speaking T-Ss

T reminds the Ss of the independent
speaking task:
After the midterm, I sent out the feedback
for the you. Do you remember what score
you got for topic development? What was
topic development and what was important?

3: 45

20
5

Ss discuss the structure of the independent

speaking task. Ss prepare the answer for 15
seconds and record themselves on
vocaroo.com speaking about the following
topic:
Is water important to you? Why or why not?
Ss upload the links to their recordings on the
class blog.

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Transition to #3: One

of the great ways to
figure out the
structure of the
lecture is to create an
outline of the
information discussed
while listening or after
listening.

2.2 Comprehension Questions

T introduces the questions TED talk related
to water. Ss clarify their understanding about
the Qs. Ss listen to the talk and answer the
following open ended questions.
What does the electrical charge from the
bacteria do?
Why does he mention the bacteria footage?
Why does he mention the seawater reverse
osmosis?
Fill in the blanks in the diagram of Seawater
Reverse Osmosis
What does he imply when he says this?
And this is where my collaboration with
bacteria comes into play.
Ss compare their answers with their partner.
T monitors and answers any unanswered
questions.

Ss-Ss

2.3 Connecting Information Questions

T asks Ss about the different Q types. Ss fill
in the parenthesis with the Q types:
Understanding Organization, Connecting
Content and Making Inferences. Ss compare
their answers in groups. T asks one person
Ss-Ss
from each pair to come up to the board and
write the strategies we can use to tackle
these Qs.

10

4: 05
20
Activity 3:
Create an Outline of
the Listening

3.1 Key Words

Ss come up to the board and write down the
keyboards that they have heard from the

Ss-Ss

talk. T reminds the Ss that this can be a

potential heading for the outline.
3.2 Outline
Ss talk about the basic structure of the
outline. T asks what the two main ideas of
the body should be. Ss take notes on the
outline structure.

Transition to #4: Now

using this skills of
listening, well try
integrated speaking

3.3 Retelling the talk using the outline.

Ss practice summarizing the talk using the
outline. T divides the talk into half, and asks
one S to summarize the first half, and the
other student to do the other half.

Ss-Ss

10

Ss-Ss

4: 25

40
Activity 4: Compare
and Contrast

4.1 Pre-Stage: brainstorm expressions for

compare and contrast
T asks Ss of the opinion on group work, by
saying Do you prefer working in groups or
working individually? Why? T asks Ss to
talk in pairs for a minute. T asks pairs with
the same opinion to raise hands, and have
one S to express how similar their opinions
are by asking Can you please compare
your opinion with your partners? What was
similar about your opinions? T writes down
the expression that the S used for contrast
on the board. Then T asks pairs with the
different opinion to raise hands, and have
one S to express how different their opinions
are by asking Can you please contrast your
opinion with your partners? What was
different about your opinions? T writes
down the expression that the S used for
comparison on the board.
T asks a few Ss to come up to the board
and brainstorm the expressions that can be
used for comparing and contrasting. T
introduces that the comprehensive list is
going to be uploaded on the class blog and
could be consulted for homework.
4.2. During Stage: Jigsaw listening &
speaking
Ss count off by 2. All the1s go to the hallway

Ss-T

Ss-Ss

10

15

and read the campus announcement printed

on the wall. All the 2s listen to the
conversation about the opinion on group
work. Ss are encouraged to take notes on
the provided circle (a part of the venn
diagram graphic organizer) while either
listening or reading.

Ss-Ss

Ss pair up to report on what they read or

listened to in 1 minute. Ss attach the two
notes and create a graphic organizer. Ss
compare the two materials and fill in the
overlapping area of the venn diagram
together.
4.3 Post-Stage: Integrated Speaking task
Ss uses the venn diagram and the list of
expressions for compare and contrast to
conduct the integrated TOEFL speaking
task.
- Question: State and explain the male
students opinion of group work. Compare
his opinion with the opinion of the geology
faculty.
Ss are given 30 seconds preparation time
and 60 seconds speaking time. Ss record
the speaking task through Google voice. T
provides chances for feedback on the
following class using the error correction
worksheet.

Transition to #5: Lets

use this list of
compare and
contrast for our
integrated writing
task.

Activity 5: Writing
Test

10
Ss

Tangible Outcome & T. feedback/peer

feedback:
List of expressions for compare and
contrast, Venn diagram, Google voicemail
on the speaking task

5.1 Pre-Stage:
[TOEFL Writing Midterm Exam Feedback]
TOEFL Independent Writing
Peer evaluation of homework assignment
Class discussion of common problems

5:05

Ss-Ss

40
20

5.2. During Stage:

TOEFL Independent Writing Strategies &
Practice
T Q&A (lecture key points and
answer questions)
Ss Practice (finish within a limited
time)
Ss & T Discussion (explanation &
further extension)

Transition to warm up:

You all did such a
good job in the exams
today! Thank you for
your active preparation
and participation.
Wrap up, Homework

5.3 Post-Stage:
{TOEFL Writing Strategies Brainstorm}
1) Ss discuss about the general writing
strategies they know in small groups
2) Ss share their strategies on the
whiteboard and explain to the whole class
3) T share writing strategies with Ss and
make comparisons

T-Ss

15

Ss-Ss

Tangible Outcome & T. feedback/peer

feedback:
T give Ss handout to take notes and answer
more questions

5:45

Lesson Evaluation Procedures:

Ss write exit ticket answering the following
Qs.
-2 things you learned from the class
-1 thing you still want to learn more about

Ss-Ss

10

HW for the following week

T-Ss

Listening: Exam English sample test

lecture 3 and conversation 2

Speaking: Watch the lecture and answer

the following questions

1) How are Integrated Speaking tasks scored?

2) What is the difference between academic
vocabulary and technical vocabulary?
3) What are the examples of signal words
mentioned in this lecture?
4) What are the qualities of a good

Integrated Speaking Response?

5) Are you allowed to give your opinion on
the topic? Why or why not?
3. VOCABULARY: Go to the AWL website.
Conduct Exercise 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, and 2e.
Send the screenshot of the results to
shj2118@tc.columbia.edu. Make sentences
with the words that you don't know, comment
at the blog post by Friday morning 11AM.
4. SOUNDCLOUD Please make an account
to soundcloud.com and do the following.
1) Please sign up for the website
soundcloud.com
2) Upload a 1 minute recording, with the
topic: "Do you prefer sitting or standing in
subways or buses? Why or why not?"
3) Please reply to shj2118@tc.columbia.edu
with the link of the recording. Also, let me
know if there are any problems using this
website.
This 3-step homework is due Thursday night
11PM.

6:00

Materials: Computer, PPT, recording file on the listening material, reading material,
whiteboard, markers, cellphones for google voicemail, venn diagram
Anticipated Problems & Suggested Solutions:
Ss cannot come up with a comprehensive list of compare and contrast T uploads
the referable list on the class blog.
Ss are confused with how to use the venn diagram T labels the venn diagram,
and models the use through the doc cam.
Ss cannot use the google voicemail have Ss record using vocaroo.com or
simply send the recorded material through email.

Contingency Plans (what you will do if you finish early, etc.):

Conduct the error correction workshop on salient errors that are related to compare and
contrast.
Post-Lesson Reflections: In order to prepare for connecting information items, I thought
it would be a good practice the map the outline of the talk. However, the students found it
very challenging to complete the outline of the talk. I think the challenges were twofolded. First, the students found the talk, which I considered not to be very difficult,
highly challenging to comprehend, due to the unfamiliar accent of the speaker. Since they
were struggling with the details of the talk, seeing the big structure of the talk was a
bigger challenge. Secondly, the technical terms related to biology and science
overwhelmed the students. Although I told them that those terms are not crucial in getting
the gist of the talk or comprehending the main ideas, students were simply overwhelmed.
Due to these unpredicted challenges, I ended up with a lot of teacher talk, explaining and
paraphrasing the details of the talk for them. If I could conduct this task again, I would
prepare a pre-listening vocabulary worksheet. I would also have them fill in the headings
of the outline, not the details. I might even want to give them a set of potential answers to
choose from.