Lesson Plan
Language point: Using ‘some’ and ‘any’ for positive and negative statements, questions, and offers
Level: Pre-intermediate
Context: Mixed nationality class of no more than 15 teenagers at an EFL summer school
Length of lesson: 55 minutes (approx)
Aim of lesson:
To enable students to differentiate between the usage of ‘some’ and ‘any’
Objectives of lesson:
By the end of this lesson students will be able to:
1) Use ‘some’ correctly for positive statements and offering;
2) Use ‘any’ correctly for questions and negative statements
Stage: Introduction/Warmer (5 minutes – approx)
Activity: Introducing target language through questions.
Aids: pens and board.
Int: T to S; S to T; S to S
Procedure: T enters class – and first checks that SS are all sitting next to a student of another nationality – then asks: ‘Are there any students absent?’ SS respond. T continues asking questions using ‘any’. SS respond. T asks: ‘Are there any Spanish students in the class?’ SS respond, yes or no – or ‘yes there are’ or ‘no there aren’t’ if language. T asks ‘Are there are German students in the class?’ T elicits responses of students and gets them to ask each other similar questions. T anticipates that some students may use ‘some’ for negative statements and questions – so should query by asking the class ‘any?’ whenever this mistake is made. Also, some students may use no article and no ‘some’ or ‘any’ at all (e.g. Russians, Turks) and this should be anticipated. A good level of question formation is assumed as this was practised in the previous week’s lessons.
Stage: Presentation of language point (15 minutes – approx).
Activity: Writing rules of using some and any on the board.
Aids: coloured pens and board.
Int: T to SS; SS to T; S to S
Procedure: T writes a sample sentence on the left hand side of the board – ‘Are there any Japanese students in the class’ and elicits from the SS the rule that any goes with questions. T then repeats with a negative and writes the rule under the statement in red pen. T then repeats on the right hand side a positive statement and an offer using ‘some’. T puts SS in pairs and gets them to practise this – when the students seem confident in this, T asks some students to speak examples as the rest of the SS listen. T elicits correction of some and any points. Other irrelevant language points are ignored at this stage. T drills sentences on board with SS as a whole.
Stage: Practise of language point to check learning has taken place (15 minutes – approx)
Activity: Practising deciding on which of some or any should be in a sentence – introduce again food/shop/restaurant vocabulary (this has been covered in previous lessons).
Aids: pre-prepared gap-fill exercise of 20 questions (original or from book) with typical questions based in shops and restaurants using food vocabulary. Coloured pens and board.
Int: T to S; S to S; SS to T
Procedure: T puts SS in pairs (different nationalities) and hands out a gap-fill exercise – many sentences of four types (statement, negative statement, offering, question) and the students have to firstly identify which of the four sentence types it is and then put some or any in the gaps. Students complete exercise and T monitors and helps if necessary. After most students have finished, SS feedback to T by reading out whole sentences – T asks ‘why?’ when the SS tell T ‘some’ or ‘any’.
Stage: Communicative role-play activity (15 minutes – approx)
Activity: Practising using some and any in shop role play situation.
Aids: Pictures of food and grocery items cut from magazines or laminated aids. If possible, and depending on class atmosphere and dynamic, a toy cash register and toy money – or real money (1ps and 2ps). Blu-tack.
Int: T to SS; SS to T; SS to SS
Procedure: T tells SS that T is opening a small shop : ‘ T’s Store’. T shows food pictures to SS and elicits vocabulary (introduced in a previous lesson). T writes any unfamiliar vocab on (clear) board. T elicits and writes typical shop role play sentences on the board – ‘Would you like some cheese?’; ‘Have you got any eggs?’; ‘We haven’t got any apples, but we have got some oranges’ and more if necessary. T explains that all the SS are going to go shopping today at T’s store and the T’s desk is the counter – and gives them each some money if this is being used. All SS can see lots of picture in the shop – many pictures have been blu-tacked around the board. I turn SS go up and role play. Then, when they have all had a go, SS take it in turn to man the shop and deal with queries – asking and answering questions. T makes sure only English is spoken by making sure the shop assistant is a different nationality from the customer every time. This activity should be FUN – and age appropriate (these are teenagers). Mistakes should not necessarily be corrected if it interrupts the flow of this activity.
Stage: Recap and conclusion (5 minutes – approx).
Activity: Reinforcing the language points and usage learnt and checking learning has taken place.
Aids: coloured pen and board.
Int: T to SS; SS to T.
Procedure: T winds down role play activity and SS are back at their desks. T asks: ‘So what is the rules for using some or any’ and SS reply – some for offering and statements; any for questions and negatives. If necessary, T writes more examples on the board and drills them as a class. Finally, T asks ‘Would you like some homework’ eliciting the students’ ‘No we don’t want any homework!’ The end – SS leave happily…