Expressing Opinions- ESL Lesson

This lesson focuses on the representative speech act of expressing opinions. Children often bring to the classroom rules of speaking based on the norms of their home culture and language. The intention of this lesson was to help the students become more aware of their word choices and the effects their words can have on others. The lesson focused on expressing likes and dislikes in regards to habitats. The students had been learning about different habitats including swamps, deserts, oceans and forests while preparing to read a fantasy story about an alligator that is forced to leave his home because of a drought.


OBJECTIVE(S):
To understand how to express opinions about habitats.
To able to make positive and negative statements using contractions.

MATERIALS:
Harcourt’s Moving Into English (MIE) Big Book p. 9
MIE Practice Book worksheet p.33
Drawing paper and crayons
Sentence strips and clothes pins

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE LESSON:
Whole group lesson for the introduction and main part of the lesson.
Small group work included using Practice Book worksheet to create dialogue to practice the skill.
Independent work included drawing and writing.
Individual instruction was provided as needed.

MOTIVATION FOR LESSON:
Explain that it is very important to be able to communicate their opinions about different topics or situations to other people. Explain that a misunderstanding can arise if the correct words are not used and that they would be learning how to express themselves in negative and positive ways. Also explain that there are different word choices they can make in order to express themselves in polite ways in different social situations.

PROCEDURES:

Introduction: (Note: This lesson built upon the previous day’s lesson about habitats.) As a whole group, reread the big book. Point to the alligator and say “The alligator likes the river”, and “The alligator does not like the desert.” Repeat the sentences and have the students echo you.

Next, use the same sentence frame of “The ________ likes the ______.” and substitute different animals from the Big Book pictures. Do the same for the does not like sentence frame. Ask for a few volunteers to talk about what other animals in the pictures they like and dislike using the same sentence frames.

Whole Group:
Model your own negative and positive opinions about the ocean by saying “My favorite place is the ocean. I like the colorful fish. I don’t like it when people throw trash in the ocean.”
Write the sentences on the overhead projector.

Focus on the contraction don’t and tell the students that it is a negative word.

Model how the contraction is formed from do and not by writing donot below do not. Erase the second o and insert an apostrophe to form don’t. Model writing other negative contractions such as isn’t and doesn’t. You can also provide a visual of the formation of the contraction using a sentence strip and clothes pin.

For example, the words do not are written on the sentence strip. Fold the strip over the o in not to make don’t. A clothes pin can be a substitute for the apostrophe. Open and close the strip to make the contraction.

Write on the board sentence frames to help students express their likes and dislikes, such as ____________ is my favorite place. I like _______. I don’t like _______. Ask a few students to volunteer verbally use the sentences to express their opinions about habitats.

Group Work:
Students work in pairs expressing their opinions about things relating to habitats using the worksheet in the Practice Book.
They first cut out pictures of habitats from the worksheet and pasted them into the appropriate columns labeled I like________. And I don’t like___________.
They discuss with their partner what their likes and dislikes are using the sentence frames.
On the back of the worksheet have them record what their partner likes and doesn’t like using the sentence frames written on the page: He/she likes _________. He/She doesn’t like ______________.
Regroup as a whole class and let students share with the class the likes and dislikes of their partners using the appropriate sentence frames.

Independent:
Students copy the list of contractions and sentence frames into their journals.
Students draw a picture of a habitats and added captions to express their likes or dislikes using the sentence frame models we are working with.

SUMMARY/CLOSURE:
Ask several students to share their likes or dislikes using their Practice Book worksheet and/or drawing.