LESSON PLAN: APPLYING ECRIF APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOM

TEACHERS: Daniel Peñaloza – Marcela Espert

TOPIC: Plans for the weekend

STUDENTS: The lesson is planned for a group of 25 students of 4th year 6th division of Escuela de Comercio
República de Panamá. They are in level A1, they have had eighty minutes of English in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year.
There are seven boys and eighteen girls, most of them are visual learners. Two of them study English in a
private academy, five of them are very talkative and like to participate a lot, and there are five of them who are
very quiet and shy and find English very difficult. The rest of the group usually respond positively to the
activities proposed, particularly when they are interested in them.

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE: They studied the verb To Be and Present Continuous in the previous years, and
worked with the Simple Present in the first part of the current year, especially with verbs related to daily
activities.

OBJECTIVE: By the end of the lesson students will be able to use “going to” affirmative to express
plans for the weekend in a game.

DEVELOPMENT

The learners’ schema will activate when they answer the following questions orally as a whole group
” What day is it today? Do you remember the days of the week? What days are considered the weekend?
What do you usually do at the weekends? Let’s make a list on the board.”
The idea is to brainstorm and elicit some verbs like meet friends, go dancing, go shopping, have a party, visit
somebody, do sports, relax, and others that can come up.

ENCOUNTER STAGE

The encounter phase is the first time a learner encounters new information.
Students will be asked to read a text and replace some pictures with the corresponding words. Then they will
listen to the teacher’s reading to check. The text contains both vocabulary that students have activated before
and the expression “going to” which they still don’t know.

“I’m Sophie. I’m fourteen years old. Next weekend I´m going to celebrate my fifteenth birthday. On Saturday

morning I’m going to and we are going to . Then I’m going to for lunch.

In the evening I’m going to with friends and family. On Sunday… I’m going to ,of
course!”

They will probably ask about the “going to” expression in the text, so some explanation will be necessary.

CLARIFY STAGE

This is the stage when the learner is asking questions about what is right or what something means.
Students will complete a True/False exercise

Sophie is fifteen years old (False)

She is going to have a party on Sunday (False)
She is going to go shopping on Saturday morning (True)
She is going to celebrate her birthday next weekend. (True)

After checking the exercise, students will answer some concept checking questions:

 Is Sophie celebrating her birthday now? (No)

 Are these activities a routine for Sophie or are they plans for the future? (They are plans)
 How can we express plans? (By using “going to” after the verb to Be)
 Can you give an example from the text?

REMEMBER STAGE

This stage is characterized by repetition, drilling, and referring back to support materials such as models or
prompts. First students will match pictures and sentences that will help them practise and remember.

Read the sentences and look at the pictures. What are their plans for the weekend? Match!

1- They are going to play tennis

2- She is going to watch TV
3- We are going to study for an exam
4- He is going to paint the house
5- I am going to play videogames

Then they will practise with a different exercise:

Write the following sentences in the correct order:

1- celebrate her birthday / Sophie / going to / is

2- are / have a party / going to / We
3- going to / am / chat / I / with my friends
4- on Sunday / going to / He / relax / is

INTERNALIZE STAGE

To internalize the new language, students will practise with a less controlled activity.
They will write sentences according to the pictures.

Write their plans according to the pictures:

_________________

__________________

FLUENTLY USE STAGE

In this stage students are expected to use the target language in a game. Every student receives a card with a
verb on it which indicates his/her plan for next weekend. After the instructions and demonstration, he/she must
find other four students with the same plans, by means of a simple dialogue:

A- What are your plans for next weekend?

B- I´m going to play football with Messi. And you?
A- I’m going to play football with Messi, too. / I´m going to relax in Dubai

The team that gets together first is the winner. During this activity students should demonstrate their ability to
reach the learning objective through their interaction with partners
 STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES

Read the text. Write the verbs under the pictures

“I’m Sophie. I’m fourteen years old. Next weekend I´m going to celebrate my fifteenth birthday. On Saturday

morning I’m going to and we are going to . Then I’m going to for lunch.

In the evening I’m going to with friends and family. On Sunday… I’m going to ,of
course!”

True or False?

Sophie is fifteen years old

She is going to have a party on Sunday
She is going to go shopping on Saturday morning
She is going to celebrate her birthday next weekend.

Read the sentences and look at the pictures. What are their plans for the weekend? Match!

1- They are going to play tennis

2- She is going to watch TV
3- We are going to study for an exam
4- He is going to paint the house
5- I am going to play videogames

Write the following sentences in the correct order:

1- celebrate her birthday / Sophie / going to / is

2- are / have a party / going to / We
3- going to / am / chat / I / with my friends
4- on Sunday / going to / He / relax / is

Write their plans according to the pictures:

_________________

__________________

GAME CARDS

PLAY FOOTBALL WITH RELAX IN DUBAI SEE ONE DIRECTION IN

MESSI CONCERT

MEET BRAD PITT FOR TEA DANCE IN

SHOWMATCH
Extra activities (to be used with fast finishers or as time fillers)

 Imagine you are a famous person. Tell the class about your plans, e.g. “I’m Katy Perry, I’m going to
sing in Argentina next Saturday.” “I’m President Obama, I’m going to…”
 Never ending sentence: In turns, students must modify all the elements of a given sentence (subject,
verb, place, time). For example:
Andy is going to buy a bike next Monday
Andy is going to buy a skate next Monday
Andy is going to buy a skate next Friday
Jerry is going to buy a skate next Friday… and so on.