Renato Ganoza for EF Zhengzhou, 2009

Lesson One – Introductions

Warm Up: Everyone introduces themselves. Ask students what a good introduction looks like. Write this on the board.

“First you tell your name. Then your age…”

Elicit the basic outline of an introduction.

Meat: Tell students that their introductions were rubbish. Everyone likes computer games and basketball and listening

to music? Draw a teacher on the board. Explain that he listens to fifty students a day. He is bored. Elicit more interesting

introduction topics from students i.e. “I scuba dive in the Pacific Ocean.”

Have students introduce themselves again. Tell students their introductions are still rubbish. Draw a small child on the

board. Explain that he can’t elaborate: he can only make statements. “I like dogs.” Adults elaborate on their statements

and opinions – “I like dogs because…”

Have students introduce themselves again. This time they give reasons i.e. “My name is Anne because…”

Homework: Write a one-hundred word personal introduction to read at the beginning of the next class.

Lesson Two – Fluency

Warm Up: Tell students that it is difficult to predict what judges will ask. Then ask students unpredictable questions –

“Are you orange?” “Why is the sky blue?” “Do you prefer coconuts or elephants? Why?”

Meat: Set a common object in the middle of the room. Ask students to describe it. Go in a circle with each student

saying one different thing about the object. They can’t repeat one another.

Set an uncommon object in the middle of the room. Write “taboo” words on the board. Students may not use any of the

taboo words when they’re describing the object.

Ask one student to come to the front of the class. Play Ten Questions or Five Whys or Two Truths, One Lie. Students all

take turns heading the class and class activities.

Homework: Write three short stories about yourself. Two are true and one is false. Fifty words each.

Lesson Three – The Spirit of Outlook

Warm Up: Ask the students if anybody knows the three key words for the 2009 Outlook competition. Elicit peace, hope,

and nature.

Meat: Write these words on the board. Ask students to come up with similar or related words – for nature “forest” or

“trees.” Students come up with as many vocabulary words as possible and define them together as a class.

Ask the students what kind of questions they could ask someone about peace. Elicit questions and answer them as a

group. Repeat for Hope and Nature.

Homework: Write five Hope, five Peace and five Nature questions.

Lesson Four – Answering Questions

Warm Up: Students read the questions they’ve prepared for homework. Other students answer.

Meat: Give students a copy of the Nature / Peace Questions handout. Select questions from the list to answer in a group.

Homework: Answer five Nature and five Peace questions.

Renato Ganoza for EF Zhengzhou, 2009

Lesson Five - Practice

Warm Up: Students read their homework answers.

Meat: Present the Cup of Questions to students. Students come one by one to shake the Cup and draw questions. They

give one-minute answers to the questions. If they fill the time limit they win a penny.

Encourage students to collect as many pennies as possible. Students may trade five or ten pennies for larger prizes – a

doll or pencils or candy.

Homework: Answer five Nature and five Peace questions.

Lesson Six – What do good answers look like?

Warm Up: Each student asks the teacher a question. The teacher does his best to ruin his answers by staring at his shoes

or at the ceiling… stuttering and mumbling… answering the wrong question or speaking Chinese.

Ask students to point out the errors. Elicit common mistakes speechmakers make.

Meat: Elicit suggestions on body language from students. Present students with common issues – “I get stage fright” and

ask students to work together to find solutions.

Explain that speeches are half content – what you say – and half presentation – how you say it. Ask students what good

content looks like. How do winning students organize their answers?

Elicit suggestions from students. Hand out the “How to Structure an Answer” worksheet and ask students to complete it.

Homework: Students finish the “How to Structure an Answer” handout.

Lesson Seven – Good answers

Warm Up: Pick a student at random and ask him to teach for five minutes.

Meat: Write a question on the board for everyone to answer. Everyone is asked to answer the same question from a

different position. Hand out the “How I would answer” handout.

Students read and critique the answers. What can we improve?

Go around the classroom. Each student interprets a speech. Other students compliment their interpretation and offer

constructive criticism.

Homework: Write everything we have learned in this class on one page. Limit of two hundred words.

Lesson Eight:

Warm Up: Bring in a plush doll of a popular character – Pikachu or Ultraman. Ask students if they know who it is. What

does he or she do?

Meat: Give students the first sentence of a story and ask them to finish it. “Pikachu woke up in Africa with no pants.”

“Ultraman woke up in his room… with a cat on his face.” Choose students to continue the story and ask them to

incorporate key words into their answers: coconut or banana or gorilla.

Hand students the “Middle School Outlook Questions” worksheet.

Homework: Finish the first page of the “Middle School Outlook Questions” worksheet.

Renato Ganoza for EF Zhengzhou, 2009

Lesson Nine: Format of the competition

Warm Up: Ask students to describe the different challenges in the Outlook competition.

Meat: Each student is asked to lead one different activity. Once every student has had a turn practice questions from the

“Middle School Outlook Questions” handout.

Homework: Complete the “Middle School Outlook Questions” handout.

Lesson Ten: Review and Looking Forward

Warm Up: Ask students what their biggest fear; drawback or disadvantage is for the Outlook competition.

Meat: Students are asked to offer each other constructive criticism and advice. Students share study tips – what to read

and what to watch or who to talk to and listen to.

Homework: Finish as many of the questions from the “Peace and Nature” and “Middle School…” worksheets as possible!

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The lesson plans above cover content: listening comprehension, language production and critical thinking skills.

The following additional activities cover presentation: pronunciation, rate of speech, use of idioms and stage presence.

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Presentation Activity A – Rate of Speech

Warm Up: Ask students to repeat what you say. Speakasfastaspossible. Ask students – is their rate of speech important?

What does a slower rate of speech communicate to listeners?

Meat: Slower rates of speech communicate clarity or emphasis. Faster rates of speech communicate urgency or emotion.

Explain that students can manipulate their rates of speech to better deliver their answers.

Have students interpret a text in a variety of situations. Challenge students to speak ten, twenty, or fifty words a minute.

Homework: Hand students a copy of The Gettysburg Address.

Presentation Activity B – Pronunciation

Warm up: Ask students what they know about accents. Does English have accents? Are the accents mutually intelligible?

Meat: Explain to students the stress-time quality of English. Certain words in English receive special emphasis – their

pronunciation is stressed. Have students read example sentences.

Hand out the “Tongue Twisters” handout.

Homework: Complete the “Tongue Twisters” handout.

Presentation Activity C – Interpreting Texts

Warm Up: Ask students what they know about using tones in English. Tones can provide subtext to language.

Meat: Have students read “What are you doing?” in different tones – inquisitive, shocked, angered or frustrated.

Homework: Students write five examples of sentences whose meaning can change with tone.