Here are a bunch of ideas for teaching 'At the Doctors'. Activities are organized under different headings, but some can be used at various stages of a lesson, and adapted to other lessons too. Choose the activities that you feel suit you and, most importantly, your students best. Arrange them in a lesson plan as you see fit alongside your own activities. Be sure to give students as much help with the target expressions/language as they need. Feel free to improve the example handouts as much as you like. Greeting/Introduction Ideas: ALT and JTE have a conversation (real or imaginary) about how they have been feeling lately. Perhaps the ALT and JTE have a conversation (real or imaginary) about how they have been feeling lately. Perhaps the ALT has been feeling a little 'under the weather' and the JTE has been particularly genki. Check understanding with students. Warm-ups/Vocab Activities: Charades: The ALT gestures some different kinds of illnesses while the JTE encourages the students to guess what it is. After that, students work in groups or pairs and play illness charades, perhaps with the possible answers on the blackboard. Hangman:
This well-known game can be played as a whole class on the blackboard, perhaps on a team basis, or you can have several games going on at once in different groups. One person chooses a word/expression to do with illnesses/cures/doctors/hospitals etc. and writes down blanks for the appropriate no. of letters. The other students/teams take turns calling out letters, which if they appear in the word, are filled in. Eventually a student may guess the whole word/expression, but they have to do it before they run out of lives from wrongly guessed letters/words/expressions. You may need to teach some expressions first. Match and Memory:
Give students a handout with illnesses listed down one side, and cures jumbled up and listed down the other side. Students try to match the correct cures with the illnesses, either by calling out or drawing a line. You could also write out both the illnesses and cures on large pieces of paper and, using lots of magnets, play a big, team game of memory, where teams take turns turning over 1 illness and 1 cure, getting points if they make a match. Alternatively, memory could be played on a smaller scale within teams. This kind of activity is good for having students try to work out the meaning of expressions, without having been 'taught' them yet. Pen Races I
Students make pairs and each pair receives a handout with related vocabulary. The ALT/JTE calls out illnesses in Japanese and the students race each other to circle it in English. Good rapid reading practice. Practice Activities: Are You Crazy Doctor?!:
Give students something like this example handout. After practicing the dialog with them, and ensuring that they understand key expressions, give half the students an illness and half the students a cure on a card. Using the dialog, they speak to various partners, trying to find people with corresponding cures/illnesses (1 cure could be appropriate for several illnesses and vice versa. Typically, quite a few suitable partners can be found, especially as some students have the same card anyway). If they correspond, the students complete the dialog and get each other's signature. If not, they do the 'crazy doctor' ending to the dialog and move on. Students try to get 3 signatures from either helpful doctors or cured patients. When the ALT and JTE do a demonstration, they can really ham up the acting if their students are into it. Consolidation/Filler Activities: Criss-Cross:
This well-known warm-up game can be used to review illnesses and cures. One row of students stand up and the ALT calls out an illness. The first student in the row to raise their hand and call out an appropriate cure can sit down. When there is only one student left standing, the crossing line of students who that student belongs to must stand up and it starts again. You can encourage students to help the other students in their line, so they don't have to stand up. Journals:
This need not be limited to physical problems. You could have students write in journals or on a scrap of paper, to you about a problem they are experiencing, e.g. difficulty in learning English, problems with a friend. Then you could write them back with some advice. Some students will open up to you, some will try to be funny, some will just go with one of the examples you give them. Either way, this is good communication between you and your students. Advanced Activities: Pen Races II:
Students work in pairs and receive a handout with various cures to illnesses. The ALT calls out illnesses and the students race each other to circle the appropriate cure. Don't just limit the language to medical problems. You can include problems of a personal nature too, from "my dog died" to "my girlfriend dumped me", and advice that follows it. Students will be more interested in this. The ALT can become a kind of agony aunt/uncle, especially in journals because they provide privacy/confidentiality. Skits:
Students work in pairs and use something like the 'Are you Crazy Doctor?' dialog to make their own skit, but with the freedom to change it as they see fit. Some pairs perform their skit/dialog. Alternatively, have them make a skit from scratch, though this is time-consuming. Easier Activities: Post-its:
Students make pairs/groups and receive a set of post-its with body parts written on them (use your common sense with these. Do not use potentially sensitive body parts like the chest). The pair/group must stick the post-its on one of the students in the correct places. Alternatively, give groups a handout with a simple figure drawn on it and have them label the parts. From there, you can go on to a couple of the warm-up activities and then perhaps move onto a simple dialog and pair practice, students taking the roles of doctor and patient, perhaps incorporating the 'Are you Crazy Doctor?' activity if you have time. |