Household Repairs

March 7, 2018

Background: This class has 12 students, all either native Spanish or Portuguese speakers, who are at the
high beginning level. They can understand simple instructions when they are repeated or supported
with visual aids, and they can use English to convey their thoughts with sympathetic listeners. The
calendar for this class is organized by topic, and this week’s topic is housing. On Monday, we focused on
vocabulary. Tuesday we introduced grammar about there is/there are/there was/there were. Today we
are learning more vocabulary about household repairs and how to talk about household problems. We
will continue practicing the grammar taught yesterday.
Terminal:
 Students will produce sentences with correct subject-verb agreement and there
is/was/are/were.
 Students will comprehend and produce basic household vocabulary relating to household
repairs.
Enabling:
 Students will create at least 5 sentences about common household repair problems using there
is/there are/there was/there were.
 Students will listen to a conversation about household repair problems and comprehend
vocabulary and sentence structures that we have learned in class.
 Students will describe personal household repair issues they have had in their past or current
homes.

Materials:
1. Home Problems Flashcards.
2. “Can I borrow your plunger” worksheet.
3. Link to listening website and printed transcript.
4. Board game for contingency plan.

10 min. Warm up: 3 truths and a false. Students will divide into groups of three and tell three truths and
one false about their homes. Use there is/there are in sentences.

10 min. Home Problem Cards

Present: Pass out home problems cards. Explain that the pictures represent some problems that happen
in homes or apartments. Write on board “What’s the matter? Or What’s the problem?”
Practice: Students work in pairs to match pictures with phrases. They read the phrases out loud to each
other.
Perform: Teacher shows big pictures of the problems and asks students to explain. Ask “What’s the
matter? Or What’s the problem?” Students should use complete sentences using “There is, There are”
as much as they can.

15 min. “Can I borrow your plunger?”

Present: Pass out worksheet. Explain that this is more vocabulary for home repairs.
Practice: Students fill out worksheet. Students read the sentences to each other in pairs.
Perform: Conversation Queue Students line up in two lines (A and B) with first two people facing each
other. One person (first person in line A) is the apartment manager and asks “What’s the problem?” The
first person in line B responds with a problem they have in their apartment. Manager replies, “Ok, I’ll fix
it.” Both go to the back of their lines and the next people are up.

20 min. Listening: Mrs. Mason’s Apartment

http://esl.bowvalleycollege.ca/listen/mp3/mason.html
Present: Introduce a few vocabulary words and give an overview of the dialogue students will hear (this
relates to the weekly topic). Play recording one time without stopping. Ask students to answer the
questions if they can. Play the recording a second time, pausing a few times for students to answer
questions on the worksheet. Play a third time while students read the transcript.
Practice: Students listen and answer questions.
Perform: Students read the questions and review their answers with a partner. Students summarize the
dialogue with a partner.

10 min. Class discussion about problems they have had in the past their homes or apartments. Practice
“There was, There were.”

Contingency plan: Board Game with review questions.