Little Red Riding Hood

Level: elementary
Group: 22 Ss
Age: 11 years old, class 5
Time: 45 min
Objectives:
• to teach collocations through the story
• to improve reading skills
Assumed knowledge:
• Ss understand the text
• Ss know some words connected with the topic
Anticipated problems:
• Ss can have problems with correct pronunciation
• Ss can be embarrassed about reading aloud
• Ss who do not participate may cause some discipline problems
Solutions:
• T repeats difficult vocabulary several times together with Ss
• T introduces backward build up drills
• T can encourage Ss to read by giving them only good marks
Materials:
sets of pictures from the story (one set for a pair, or few learners), puppet of Little Red Riding Hood, a picture of a wolf, a cottage, a basket (realia), flowers (realia), a forest (on the blackboard), pieces of paper with collocations used in story: a basket with food, be careful, pick flowers, knock on the door (Appendix no. 5).
1. Warm – up activity:
Aims: - to prepare Ss for listening to the story
- to introduce Ss to the topic of the lesson
- to pre – teach vocabulary
- to capture Ss attention
- to revise the plot of the story
Interaction pattern: T – Ss
Time: 10 min
Procedure
T puts on the blackboard the pictures of a cottage, a wolf, a forest, a basket with food, flowers and shows pictures of Little Red Riding Hood and Grandmother. T asks the Ss if they know the story. T writes the English title on the board. T asks Ss to name objects on the board. If they do not know T names the objects. T gives Ss sets of pictures prepared earlier and asks them to put the pictures in the correct order. Ss check their choice with the others.
2. Listening activity:
Aims: - to improve listening skill
- to introduce collocations
- to give the correct model of pronunciation
Interaction pattern: T – Ss
Time: 7 min
Procedure
T tells the story entitled ”Little Red Riding Hood”. While telling the story T attaches to the wall the pictures of characters from the story such as: Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, the Mother, the Grandmother. T also puts on the board pictures of cottage, forest, flowers, basket. T changes the pitch of voice in case of different characters. (Appendix no. 7).
3. Post – reading activity
Aims: - to teach vocabulary connected with the story: on the door, I want to see you, jump out of the wolf, come in, be hungry look at, jump out of the bed, come from the forest (Appendix no. 6)
- to check understanding of new collocations
Interaction pattern: T – Ss, Ss – T
Time: 10 min
Procedure
T gives handouts with pictures to the Ss. T writes collocations on the blackboard one by one: knock on the door, I want to see you, jump out of the bed, come from the forest. T mimes them again and asks Ss to explain the meaning. T asks Ss to match the collocations with the proper picture (Appendix no. 8).
4. Reading and miming:
Aims: - to improve reading aloud
- to have fun
- to encourage Ss to participate in the lesson
Interaction pattern: T – Ss
Time: 8 min
Procedure
T asks five Ss to read the roles of the Grandmother, the mother, the wolf, Little Red Riding Hood and the narrator. T asks them to mime the roles of the wolf, Little Red Riding Hood and the Grandma.
5. Writing activity:
Time: 5 min
Interaction pattern: T – Ss
Procedure
T gives Ss handouts with the exercise and asks them to fill the gaps with prepositions. T helps Ss if it is needed. (Appendix, no. 18).
6. Reading activity:
Time: 5 min
Interaction pattern: T – Ss
Procedure
T divides Ss into five groups: the group of wolves, the group mothers, the group of grandmothers, the group of Little Red Riding Hood and the group of narrators. T asks Ss to read the roles chorally. For example, the wolves read their roles, the mothers etc. T asks Ss to learn roles of particular characters as homework.
Evaluation 2
Little Red Riding Hood
The beginning of the lesson went according to the plan. The children could name almost all pictures besides the forest and the basket of food, so I wrote the words on the blackboard. The students used the word “house” to describe grandmothers cottage. So I introduced this new word. The children were also able to put the pictures from the story into correct order.
The listening activity did not cause any problems for the students. They seemed to understand everything and they listened to the story with pleasure.
Post–reading activity was easy for the students. They understood almost all of the collocations and were able to choose the proper pictures. The only problem was with the collocation: the wolf jumps out of bed, because the pictures were not clear enough for them to recognise the action. I should have prepared better illustrations. In this situation I explained the meaning of collocations in Polish.
Reading turned out to be the most difficult task for the students. The children were not very eager to read the roles so I had to encourage them by promising to give good marks for bravery. The children had problems with correct pronunciation. The most difficult words were: dangerous, beautiful and Little Red Riding Hood. I practised pronunciation with the students using “backward build up” drill. Students repeat sentences chorally to improve fluency. It would be useful to have an audio version of the story to give the children as good model of pronunciation as possible.
The collocation activity did not cause any problems to students. The main goal of the activity was achieved. I had no difficulty in getting the students complete their tasks and consequence, I made the students familiar with some collocational pairs.
The lesson was successful. The children managed to understand the text and to do almost all the tasks without teacher’s help. They were interested in the topic and involved in tasks. The conclusion is that the teacher should devote more time to practise reading in future to improve this skill.