Lesson Plan 2 Festivals around the world (Listening Based)

Context:
High school student (seniors) at No.1 High school in Zhuhai City, China.
This is a first-class high school in Guangdong province, also one of the National
Model Senior High Schools of Guangdong Province
Students have received over ten years of English education and can be classified
as advanced students. (WIDA standard: Bridging )
Duration: 120 minutes
Focus: Festivals around the world
Objectives:
SWBAT (Student Will Be Able To)

SWBAT to use their L1 and L2 to share their favorite festivals and be able to explain why
they like it using phrases we learn in class.

SWBAT to give a definition of what a festival is.

SWBAT to master how to use "be used to" while describing a story happened during the
festival.

SWBAT to grasp the main idea and listening for specific information in this class.

SWBAT to master how to use problem solving techniques in discussions.

Warm-up Activities
(15 minutes)
1. Sending students name tags and have students write their names on the tags
2. The teacher will show different pictures of various festivals around the world and have
students guess what festivals it could be.
3. Watch two YouTube Clip of Okotoberfest and Cinco de mayo and let students write down one
interesting fact
1) Top 10 Facts About Oktoberfest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOzGnZ9eiqk
2)The Real Story Of Cinco De Mayo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqUDUoMh9bo
Presentation (35 minutes)
1. Ask students to give a definition of festival. Ask them to explain what is a festival, and
ask them to give an example of the most famous festival in their home country. Then give them
the teachers definition of a festival. (5 minutes)
Here is the definition:
1: a time or event of celebration <a harvest festival>
2: a program of cultural events or entertainment <a jazz festival>

2. The teacher will ask students to listen to a short introduction of 37th Annual Chicago Jazz
Festival (see the left side) and have students write down and answer among groups:
"Produced by the Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events | Programmed by the Jazz
Institute of ChicagoGrant support to the Jazz Institute of Chicago provided by The Chicago
Community Trust and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Known for its artistic creativity, the Chicago Jazz Festival is a favorite Labor Day Weekend
tradition. It promotes awareness and appreciation for all forms of jazz through free, quality live
musical performance. Since 1979, the festival's mission is to showcase Chicago's vast jazz talent
alongside national and international artists to encourage and educate a jazz audience of all
ages."
Retrieved from:
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_jazz_festival.htm
Students will need answer:
When? Where?
What is known for?
What is their mission? (10 minutes);
Students will need to respond their answers in past tense.
Students who answer correctly will be able to get a jazz CD/DVD.
3. Exercise #1 Fill in the blanks. (10 minutes)

The teacher
will say since
we learned other countries' festivals, how about filling out the information of our spring festivals
based on our memory. (Red words are the words that students need to fill out. )
After that, students will pair up and read it to their partners. Then, check again with the teacher
with the right answers.
A model conversation for the pair-up work would be:
-What do people usually do at spring festivals?

-At spring festivals, people usually ... ...

4. Discussion time. (10 minutes)
What is one important time to have festivals and celebrations?
Answer: It is important to have festivals and celebrations so we can enjoy life/ be proud of who
we are/ forget our work for a while.
Break (5 minutes)
Practice ( 35 minutes)
1. Show class the model: (15 minutes)
Be used to + verb
Didn't use to + verb
Yes and No Questions:
-Did you use to celebrate Thanksgiving?
-No, I didn't.
What Questions: Where did you use to eat your Spring festival dinner?
"Use to + verb is a regular verb and means something that happened but doesn't happen any
more. It uses -ed to show past tense. But since it always means something that happened in the
past, it should always use past tense.
For example- I used to go to school in Paris. (I went to school there before, but now I don't.) Or,
When Joshua was a child, he used to climb trees. (Now he doesn't climb trees.)"
Retrieved from grammar books: http://5minuteenglish.com/mar20.htm
2. Exercise #2 Speech Time (20 minutes)
The teacher will ask:
Now foreign festivals seem to become more and more popular among young people, while some
Chinese traditional festivals seem less important than before. Should we keep our tradition
alive? Why? How? Should we celebrate foreign festival at all?
Then, the teacher will show a chart of some traditional Chinese festivals versus western festivals
for students to brainstorming. Students will need to use "be used to," while answering the
questions.

Review (10 minutes)

1. Listen to an article and then fill in the blanks with the missing words.

Homework (10
minutes)
Based on what we learned today, what do most festivals seem to have in common? Talk with
your friends and fill out the charts below.