Although it might seem like I was a quite harsh on the “Eigo Notebook” the other day (and I’ve been told that the latest version is quite different from the one they published on Friday), there are actually some really good ideas in there.

One of them is to combine Days of the Week with School Subjects into a great exchange lesson. I’ve written many times that Days of the Week is not the most useful English for younger kids, but in this case for 5th or 6th graders it probably fits quite well. The idea is that they use the two themes to compare school timetables with kids in different countries. I’m not sure exactly how they plan to do this in the “Eigo Notebook“, but here’s a lesson you could do straight away:

1. Teach Days of the Week with School Subjects (this may take a couple of lessons).
2. Put the kids into 5 groups.
3. They prepare and read out “On Monday we have maths, then English then…”
4. The next group do Tuesday.
5. Then take photos, or even better video, of those lessons in action.
6. Edit up the recorded speech with the images and make a video file to put on YouTube. (Easy to do with a Mac or modern PC, or ask the computer teacher as the kids can maybe do it themselves in ICT class!)
7. Head over to epals.com and find a like minded teacher in another country. (The hit rate is usually 1 in 10 i.e. you write off to 10 teachers and you’ll probably find one who can do the exchange)
8. Get them to make a similar video for their school.
9. Show this video to your class and discuss.
10. Rinse and repeat with another class in another country.

These types of lesson work wonders with the kids, they were always my students’ favourite lessons. Some of the technical stuff and issues I have written up on my Projects page.

And be sure to let me know how you get on!