Are Schools the same in Other Countries? B1

Are Schools the same in Other Countries? B1

Key Language:

School: social studies; technology; after school clubs; project; (not) allowed to; uniform; education system; graduation; final exams.

Superlatives: strictest; cleanest; earliest; latest; most relaxed; easiest; hardest; longest; shortest; most difficult.

Violet makes friends with a visiting Japanese student called Kana and they compare their school experiences and work on a project comparing schools around the world.
Can you answer their quiz questions? What are the differences between your school and schools in other countries?

Transcript

Are Schools the same in other countries?_Transcript

Aim of Activity

10 - 15 minutes

Follow up activity after watching Animation to check understanding.

Steps for Students

  1. Listen to the teacher and look at the images: ACTIVITY 1
  2. Are the sentences true or false?
  3. If a sentence is false, what is the correct answer?
  4. With your classmates write down 3 other facts that you remember.

Click on the link: ACTIVITY 1

Students can answer the questions by:

  • saying ‘TRUE’ or ‘FALSE’
  • standing up if it’s TRUE and sit down if it’s FALSE
  • moving left if it’s TRUE and right if it’s FALSE

For online classes the Teacher can use the emoji function to correct

Questions:

  1. Violet and Kana are in the same class.
  2. Kana comes from Tokyo.
  3. Akita is in the North of Japan.
  4. Violet has never heard of Kana’s hometown.
  5. Kana gets home at 8:30pm.
  6. Japanese students do homework when school finishes.
  7. Kana is assigned 3 hours of homework daily.
  8. Kana has to wear make up and jewellery to school.
  9. Taiwan has the longest school day.
  10. The education system on South Korea is more relaxed than in other countries.

Ask the students to work together to write down three other facts they remember.

TIP!

This activity could be done before the video is played and as a follow up activity to aid with understanding the story.

  1. TRUE – they are in the same social studies class.
  2. FALSE – she comes from Akita in the North of Japan.
  3. TRUE
  4. FALSE – she has heard of the famous dog of the same name.
  5. FALSE – she starts school at 8:30am.
  6. FALSE – Most of them attend afterschool clubs.
  7. FALSE – she is assigned 2 hours Mon- Fri and 3 on Sunday.
  8. FALSE – she is not allowed to or to dye her hair.
  9. TRUE
  10. FALSE – it’s stricter.

Activity attachment

Are Schools the same in Other Countries? B1 – Activity 1

Aim of Activity

30 minutes

To provide students with a controlled practice of key language.

Steps for Students

  1. Click on the link: ACTIVITY 2
  2. Click on the yellow ‘start icon’. (it is not necessary to log in).
  3. You two minutes to find as many of the superlatives as you can.
  4. After 2 minutes you will get a score and you can retry to improve it!
  1. Click on the link: ACTIVITY 2
  2. Click on the yellow ‘start icon’. (it is not necessary to log in).
  3. Students have two minutes to find as many of the superlatives as they can.
  4. They will get a score and can retry to improve it.
  5. After they have played this game (ideally on their own devices) ask them to work in groups of three and interview each other using the worksheet Activity 2.
  6. Ask them to report their results.

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Activity attachment

Are Schools the same in Other Countries? B1 – Activity 2

Aim of Activity

30 minutes

To provide authentic listening practise + generate discussion.

Steps for Students

Click on the link:

  • Watch the video ‘Kids Try School Lunches from Around the World’
  • Make a note of the answers to these questions:
    • What do they eat for lunch at school in China?
    • What does the girl usually drink at her school?
    • What does the small girl use instead of chopsticks?
    • In which country do kids eat a free school lunch paid by the government?
    • What is against the law in Italy?
    • How is the egg cooked?
    • Which lunch is the most delicious?
    • Which is the healthiest?
  • In your group create your ideal school lunch menu.

Think about how to balance fruit and vegetables + healthy proteins and carbohydrates. Go to Free Online Menu Maker and sign up for free to use a professional menu design that can be printed or shared:

Step 1

  • Sign up and create an account using by surfing on https://www.visme.co/ 
  • Click on sign up with email & password and fill in your personal information.
  • Once you filled in your information, click on register. 

Step 2

  • Click on create new on top left of the screen.
  • Then click on project and choose the kind of document you want to create.
  • For this tutorial, we will say that we want to create a menu for a restaurant. So, we clicked on documents.

Step 3

  • Search for the kind of template you want in the search bar on top of the screen. It might be a menu, an Instagram post, a CV, a cover letter, or anything you can imagine. Once you found the template you want to use, put your cursor on the picture and click on edit. 

Step 4

  • To customise the template, you can either just modify the text or add new elements and modify the look. To modify text boxes, double click on the text you want and write down the new one.

Step 5

  • Once you are finished with the customisation, you can either share it with your friends or your teachers. To do that, you need to open the document you want to share. Then click on top right to share it. Click on share to get the link. You will need that link to share your document. Then, click on the small icon to copy automatically the link. Now, send that link to whoever you need or want to share the document with. 

 

How to find the documents you created? 

Go to the main menu and click on my projects to see only the projects you created. If you want to see the projects which have been shared with you, click on All projects.

Steps for Ss

  • Click on the link

Watch the video ‘Kids Try School Lunches from Around the World’

  • Make a note of the answers to these questions:
  • What do they eat for lunch at school in China?
  • What does the girl usually drink at her school?
  • What does the small girl use instead of chopsticks?
  • In which country do kids eat a free school lunch paid by the government?
  • What is against the law in Italy?
  • How is the egg cooked?
  • Which lunch is the most delicious?
  • Which is the healthiest?
  • In your group create your ideal school lunch menu.

Think about how to balance fruit and vegetables + healthy proteins and carbohydrates.

  • Go to Free Online Menu Maker – Design Your Own Menus | Visme and sign up for free to use a professional menu design that can be printed or shared:
  • What do they eat for lunch at school in China?
    • Tofu
    • Rice
    • Vegetables
  • What does the girl usually drink at her school?
    • Chocolate Milk
  • What does the small girl use instead of chopsticks?
    • Her hands
  • In which country do kids eat a free school lunch paid by the government?
    • Brazil
  • What is against the law in Italy?
    • To serve students anything fried.
  • How is the egg cooked?
    • It’s boiled.
  • Which lunch is the most delicious?
    • Students’ own opinion.
  • Which is the healthiest?
    • Students’ own opinion.

Aim of Activity

30 - 40 minutes

To connect topic to authentic materials.

Steps for Students

  • Go to this site: ACTIVITY 4
  • Complete a Webquest on Japan!
  • Can you find………
    • the name of a Japanese sport you would like to watch.
    • the name of a Japanese food you would like to try.
    • a cool thing you would like to do if you visited Japan.
    • the name of a school you would like to attend.
    • the reason Japanese people love cherry blossoms.
    • what to say when you meet a Japanese person for the first time.
    • a video you would like the class to watch.

Present your results to the class.

  • Instruct students to go to this site: ACTIVITY 4
  • They have 20 minutes to complete a Webquest on Japan!
  • Can you find………
    • the name of a Japanese sport you would like to watch.
    • the name of a Japanese food you would like to try.
    • a cool thing you would like to do if you visited Japan.
    • the name of a school you would like to attend.
    • the reason Japanese people love cherry blossoms.
    • what to say when you meet a Japanese person for the first time.
    • a video you would like the class to watch.

 

TIP!

If your class enjoys this web quest , you can find more tips here on how to set one up + other ready made web quest for this age group.

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Activity attachment

Are Schools the same in Other Countries? B1 – Activity 4

Aim of Activity

30 minutes

To engage learners creatively with target language through a joint project or pair work activity.

Steps for Students

  • Go to: ACTIVITY 5
  • Follow the instructions and complete the online exercises. 
  • You are going to work with your teacher to create a Class Contract. Spend a few minutes and note down any ideas you have about problems in your class.
  • To review the topic of School Discipline go to: ACTIVITY 5
  • Once students have completed the online exercises, tell the class that you are all going to work together to create a Class Contract for English Lessons.
  • Begin by brainstorming problems that students face in class.
  • Next divide class into smaller groups to discuss solutions and possible disciplinary actions.
  • Get feedback from groups and summarise ideas.
  • Ask the students to create rules from the ideas.
  • Assign volunteers to design and print out the final contract and get all to sign.
  • Display in class.

 

TIP!

See a useful video on how Classroom contracts (also called Social Contracts) can work effectively here:

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