The following lesson plan is the result of a collaborative activity which took place on one of the course days in Verona. Four English teachers from Romania and Malta put their teaching experience and creativity to work and came up with a flipped lesson to teach a challenging topic in a fun, new manner that combines Popular Culture with Social Studies and English Grammar for the 7th grade.
The topic of the lesson is Second Type Conditional and by the end of the class, students should be able to give advice using the Second Type Conditional, practise writing formal letters, and increase their awareness in relation to bullying.
Introducing the Topic to Students
Using AnswerGarden, students are asked to give one-word answers to the following question: If you were a new student in your school, how would you feel?
After everyone has submitted their answer, the teacher asks the students to explain their choice using the "Save the last word" method. In other words, the teacher will choose someone randomly to say why they think one of their classmates has chosen a certain word. After expressing their guesses, the author of that idea will reveal whether their classmate has guessed or not. The activity will continue for as long as the teacher thinks appropriate.
For the following stage, the teacher shares the poster of the 2017 movie "Wonder" and asks the students to say what they think this movie is about and how they would feel being the main character.
Materials to Be Used at Home
Having sparked their curiosity, the teacher can now assign the materials to be studied at home.
The first material that students are required to watch is the movie trailer. Using Edpuzzle the teacher is able to introduce safeguards within the existing YouTube video and thus make sure the students watch the entire video and engage with its content. As such, after watching the trailer and forming an idea about the aspects they should focus on, the students are asked to watch the movie and write down an answer to the following question: What actions would you take if you were the headmaster of the school (with the bullies and the little boy who gets bullied)?
To help students formulate their answers to the previous question, the teacher proposes a short explanation video about the Second Type Conditional. By choosing Edpuzzle again and introducing a few evaluation questions at key moments in the video, the teacher can measure the students' level of comprehension in an easy, accessible manner.
Back in Class
With their solutions clearly defined at home, students return to school ready to share their ideas. First discussing in pairs, then writing their solutions on the board in the form of Second Type Conditional sentences, the students finally vote for the best ones.
Starting from the following quote - "You're not born to blend in, you're born to stand out." - which they have previously heard in the movie, students are asked to write a letter to the school headmaster giving advice on ways to improve and promote inclusion and self-confidence.