What are you going to do?

Student Handout:

Level: Elementary

Language Aims: To use going to talk about things we are going to do at a future time. To practice asking and answering questions about future plans. To practice using and giving follow-up questions and answers. To practice listening and recording answers

Time: 20 minutes.

Preparation: Make enough copies of the handout above so that every student has a copy. Also make copies of the role card below so that each student in your class has a role card. (You can always think of a few extra role cards if you have a larger class.)

Procedure:

1. Ask students to look at the photos in 1. and answers the questions about Amy. They can do this in pairs or with you, depending on what you want. If you want to, you can quickly revise when the structure going to is used.

2. Give each student in your class one of the role cards below. Tell them that this gives them a description of what they are going to do next year. They are going to roleplay a person with an interesting future plan and walk around and tell others in their class what it is. (Most students will enjoy role-playing i.e. a person who can't dance in real life may enjoy the chance of playing someone who is going to study dance.) Stress that they are playing a role.
Students can use their own names and should understand and then learn the information on their card. Tell them to think about their role's future plans. What kind of follow-up questions might other students ask them. How will they answer?
Collect the role cards back once students have learned the information on them.

3. Students now mingle with other students (clear a space in the classroom big enough for students to walk around and talk to each other) to ask and answer the question "What are you going to do next year" When each students asks another student the question, they record the student's answer in the table in note form. If your students are able to, encourage them to ask follow-up questions. For example, what kind of dance are you going to study? Where are you going to study?

4. Give students enough time to talk to most or all of the other students in the class and fill in their tables. Then get the class together, perhaps sitting or standing in a large circle so everyone can see everyone else. Then do one of the following to review answers:

i. Ask any student to report back the answers for one name on their table. For example: Annie is going to open a restaurant next year. She is going to call it 'Annie's place'. Annie could then be the next student to report back. Everyone takes a turn and while one student reports, they can check their information for a role against what the student has said. There may be some funny followup answers students will enjoy.

ii. You could simply ask "Who is going to..open a restaurant/learn to ride a horse?" Students can chorus "Annie is..." etc. This is a much shorter way of checking answers. It gives less speaking practice but may be good if you are in a hurry.

You might like to ask students to write a short description of their own plans for next year using Amy's text in 1. as a model.

(Extension: For instruction 3. you may like to have students practice their questions structures before starting while thinking about their pronunciation, stress and intonation.)

Role Cards for Students: To Be Copied and Given To Students

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