Unit 3

More About Me

General Goals for Unit 3

The prime objective of the Grade 4 Learning English program is to introduce students to
English language words, phrases and expressions.
This unit aims to introduce students to basic vocabulary and expressions about Personal
Information.
Unit 3 has six lessons and one review lesson. But you should consider using more than six
classes to teach the unit. For example, you may want to include a lesson at the beginning of
the unit to review what was learned in the previous class. Or, you may want to add a lesson at
the end of the unit to review the material from all the lessons. You should allow the pace and
content of your teaching to fit the needs and interests of your students.

Specific Goals for Unit 3

Knowledge and Skills
1. Students will be able to do the following:
• Ask and answer How old are you?
• Ask and answer When is your birthday?
• Ask and answer How tall are you?
• Explain where they live (location) and in what type of dwelling.
• Ask and answer How do you get there?
• Explain how they get to their home or school by different modes of transportation.
• Ask and answer What do you like to do? (during spare time).
• Read a story about a journey to and from home.
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
year, class, house, bike, car, park, taxi, home, film
know, stand, come, do

86 Unit 3 More About Me

 near, old, not
by, a, an, the
3. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expressions:
• How old are you?
• I am nineteen years old.
• How tall are you?
• I’m 1.43 metres tall.
• She/He is … metres tall.
• I live in a house.
• I live on the second floor.
• I live on Ninth Street.
• I live in an apartment on Zhonghua Street.
• How do you go to school?
• I go to school by bus.
• I live near/far from the school.
• What do you like to do?
• I like to see films at the cinema.

Learning Strategies
Students will be taught the following basic learning strategies:
• To observe simple English conversations in everyday situations.
• To develop the habit of listening to the audiotape and repeating the sentences.
• To concentrate when learning.
• To take the initiative to ask questions of the teachers or of other classmates.
• To listen to and learn songs that will help them remember English expressions.

Affect and Attitude

Students are expected to do the following:
• To develop an interest and curiosity for learning English and find opportunities to
practice their listening.
• To try to interact in and imitate English in everyday life.

Teaching Tip
Unit Plan
Take some time to prepare for the whole unit. A long range plan will keep you on
target to make sure you are covering all of the required work. Decorate your class with
colourful pictures of families including members, their jobs and things they like to do. This
will motivate your students as they progress through the unit.

Unit 3 More About Me 87

Lesson 13 How Old Are You?

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
old, year, not
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expressions:
How old are you?
I am nineteen years old.

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 13
• Chart paper

88 Unit 3 More About Me

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Welcome the students back to class with: Hello students! We are half way through our
Learning English Book! You are excellent students! Give yourselves two big claps!
Ask the students one by one to share concepts from Unit 2 with you. Do you remember
what last unit was about?

Lesson Hook
Tell the students to open their Student Book to Unit 3.
Say: What do you think this unit is going to be about? Can you guess?
This unit is all about you!
Teacher: Turn to page 34. Look at the picture in part 1. What do you think this part
of the lesson is about? Can you guess what Jenny and Danny are talking about with
their classmate?

NEW CONCEPTS
1. I’m eleven!
Ask the students to look at the picture in part 1. They will see the following terms in the
dialogue:
old, year, not
How old are you?
I am nineteen years old.
Point to each word and read it aloud. Have the students repeat each of the words and
expressions as you point to them.
Play the audiotape as the students read along. Walk around the class listening to the
students and to offer assistance as necessary.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Make a birthday chart for the class.

Class Birthday Chart

Student name Age Birthday
Shaolin 12 May 27
Xiaoxia 11 January 10
Flower 12 April 1

●PRACTICE●
Class Work
Read the birthday chart with the class.

Unit 3 More About Me 89

 Pair Work
Ask the students to work in pairs to practice reading the story in Part 1 together.

2. Let’s do it!
Ask and answer. Then write.
In Part 2 there is a graph that the students should fill out by walking around and asking
their friends for information. A sample has been completed for Tom. Remember to take down
the Class Birthday Chart before beginning this activity so that students do not simply copy
from it.
The teacher can ask several students to share what they have written in their graph with
the rest of the class.

Optional
Making a Rhyming Couplet
Ask the students to write a rhyming couplet to finish the following lines of poetry by
changing the age of the student. Below are some examples:
Look at her; she is three.
She would like to climb a tree!

Look at him; he is nine.

In school work, he is fine!

Look at Jack; he is ten.

Say this verse then start again!

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Say: All students who are nine years old can leave the class! Goodbye nine year olds!
Do this for each of the age groups in the class.

After-Class Activities
Students can tell their parents how old they are in English.
They can also ask their parents how old they are in English.

90 Unit 3 More About Me

Lesson 14 How Tall Are You?

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
class, know, stand
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expressions:
How tall are you?
I’m 1.43 metres tall.
She/He is … metres tall.

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 14
• Flash cards and pictures for vocabulary from Lesson 14
• A measuring tape
• Chart paper

Unit 3 More About Me 91

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Teacher: Classity class!
Students should respond with: Yessity Yes!
Say: What did we learn in the last class? Can you tell me?

Lesson Hook
Tell the students to open their Student Book to Lesson 14, page 36.
Say: Today we will learn to say how tall we are in English!

NEW CONCEPTS
1. How tall are you?
Say: What is happening in Part 1? How do you know? Discuss the pictures on page
36 with the students.
Point out the new words and expressions in this part of the lesson.
metre, class, know
How tall are you?
I’m 1.43 metres tall.
She/He is … metres tall.
Ask the students to repeat each word or line after you.
Ask the students to listen to the audiotape and read along with the tape.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Look at Part 3 in this lesson. With the students, make a chart that includes their
name and how tall each of them is.
Measure and write
Name How Tall Are You?
Shaolin 1.38 metres tall
Xiaoxia 1.4 metres tall
Flower 1.22 metres tall

●PRACTICE●
Go through the chart with the students.
Ask the students to turn to both of their shoulder partners one at a time and ask and answer:
How tall are you?
2. How tall is Danny?
DRTA – Directed Reading and Thinking Activity:
Say: What are Danny and Mr. Wood doing in this part of Lesson 14?

92 Unit 3 More About Me

 Look at Picture 1. What do you think Mr. Wood is asking?
What do you think Mr. Wood is saying to Danny in Picture 2? Why?
In Picture 3?
In Picture 4?
Play the audiotape for this part of the story.
Students can follow along in their books.
Play the audiotape for Part 2 again. Ask the students to choral read the dialogue together.

Teaching Tip
Choral Reading
Choral reading is reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students.
Choral reading helps build students’ fluency, self-confidence, and motivation. Because
students are reading aloud together, students who may ordinarily feel self-conscious or
nervous about reading aloud have built-in support.

3. Let’s do it!
Measure and write.
Included in Part 1 above.

Optional
On one side of the doorway of your classroom, mark with masking tape how tall each
student is. Put each student’s name on the tape along with their height. At the end of the year,
have the students measure to see how much each student has grown.

Teaching Tip
EFL Classrooms and Assigning Wall Space
Many/most EFL teachers have more than one class to teach. When doing an activity
like the optional measuring activity above, simply find a different space in your classroom
for each class you are teaching. Assign that space or wall to a particular class. This means
that this wall or space should also include a Sharing Place or Wall for that particular class
so they know this is where their special pictures are shown off!

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

Unit 3 More About Me 93

CLASS CLOSING
Ask the students to leave the class depending upon their height, either from tallest to
shortest or vice versa!

After-Class Activities
Students can measure how tall each of their parents is and share that information in the
next English class.

94 Unit 3 More About Me

Lesson 15 Where Do You Live?

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
a, house, an, the, come, near
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expression:
I live in an apartment on Zhonghua Street.

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 15
• Word and picture flashcards for Lesson 15
• Butcher block paper for mapping

Unit 3 More About Me 95

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Teacher: Good morning/afternoon students! How tall are you? How old are you?
When is your birthday?
Ask the three new questions from the last two lessons to a variety of students. Scaffold
them to the correct responses.
Say: Did anyone bring the measurements for how tall their parents are to class
today? Who can share with us?
Ask five or six students to share using full sentences:
My mother is … metres tall.
My father is … metres tall.
Lesson Hook
Tell the students to open their books to Lesson 15.
Teacher: In this lesson, we will learn about where you live.

NEW CONCEPTS
1. A house and an apartment
Tell the students to look at the three pictures in Part 1.
Say: Where does Jenny live? And Li Ming?
As the students give you their responses in Chinese, put the English words and
expressions on the board:
a, house, an, apartment, the, floor
I live in a house.
I live on the second floor.
I live on Ninth Street.
Say each word and have the students repeat them after you.
Then say: What is Danny pointing to in the third picture? Yes, he is pointing to the
street where he lives.
Play the audiotape and ask the students to read along. Do this several times.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Mapping Activity

Teaching Tip
Where we live – Mapping
Mapping a city or town is a good way for students to share where they live and the
English street names in their city, town or village.
Ask the students to stand around a long piece of wall paper (about 2—3 metres long).
Tell the students that you will draw the main street that runs through the city or town on

96 Unit 3 More About Me

 the map from one end of the paper to the other. Label the name of the street in English.
As you “walk” down the major street in the centre of the city or town, students can tell
you what streets intersect the main street and you can label these streets on the map as
well.
Tell the students to sit close to where their home is located. They will be drawing the
building where they live on the map.
It may be that many students live in the same apartment building. In this case, students
must cluster together and one student will draw for the group.
Students who do not get to draw their specific apartment building can add other
details onto the map such as: restaurants, corner shops like bakeries and laundromats,
shopping centres, schools, parks, hospitals and other public buildings of importance.
Post the large class mapping activity on the wall so that the students can enjoy it AND
so you can refer to it in the future or add additional information as required.

●PRACTICE●
Ask a variety of students to share where they live on the map at the end of the activity.

2. Where do you live?

Ask the students to look at the pictures on page 39 in Part 2.
Ask them to tell you what Li Ming and the other boy are talking about in each of the pictures.
Point out the new words: come, after, near.
Ask the students to listen to the audiotape and read along.
Walk around the classroom and listen to the students, helping where necessary.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Demonstrate the following dialogue with a student:
Say to the student: I live in an apartment on … (whatever the name of your street is) It
is near the school.
Put your explanation for where you live on the board.
Then ask several students: Where do you live?
Help the students to model their responses after your explanation on the board.
●PRACTICE●
Pair Work
Students can use the dialogue modelled by the teacher and their classmates in
DEMONSTRATE to practice the new concepts in Part 2, Lesson 15.

3. Let’s do it!
Look and talk.
Tell the students to look at the map in Part 3 of their textbook on page 39. Ask each
student to put a mark on their own map for where they might live if they lived in this village.
Then ask the students to describe to their partner where they live when asked: Where do
you live?
For example:
Student 1 places an X by the supermarket on Tiyu Street.

Unit 3 More About Me 97

 Student 2 asks: Where do you live?
Student 1 says: I live on Tiyu Street. I live in an apartment near the supermarket.

Optional
More places? How about me?
The map is displayed on the wall of the classroom.
The teacher can take all of the students over to the map and ask the students to point out
where they live on the map by asking: Where do you live?
Students can describe where they live by naming the street they live on and various
nearby buildings.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Teacher says: That was a great class, students! As we head out of the classroom,
let’s do a Gallery Walk one more time of the map we made today! Don’t forget to say
goodbye as you leave the classroom. Let the students go by group, according to the street
where they live.

After-Class Activities
Tell the students to share the new English phrases with their parents.

98 Unit 3 More About Me

Lesson 16 How Do You Go to School?

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
by, bike, car, park, taxi, home
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expressions:
How do you go to school?
I go to school by bus.
I live near/far from the school.

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 16
• Flashcards for the four words in Lesson 16: bike, taxi, car, bus

Unit 3 More About Me 99

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Teacher: Good morning/afternoon students! Everyone from … Street, please stand
up and say Good morning/afternoon.
Do this with all of the students.

Lesson Hook
Tell the students to open their books to Lesson 16.
Teacher: In this lesson, we will learn the English words for how we get to different
places in our community.

NEW CONCEPTS
1. By bike or by car?
Tell the students to look at the pictures on page 40, Lesson 16.
There are four pictures with new English phrases below each.
by bike
by taxi
by car
by bus
Ask the students to repeat each new phrase after you say it.
Play the audiotape and ask the students to read along.
In the bottom section of Part 1, Jenny is talking to another girl about being far from the zoo.
Play the audiotape and ask the students to read along with this section of Part 1.
●DEMONSTRATE●
1. Ask four students to read each of the storyboards to the class in Part 1.
2. Then ask the whole class to choral read the bottom section of Part 1 together.
●PRACTICE●
Make a chart about the forms of transportation used by all of the students in the class.
Put the four forms of transportation in this lesson in the chart in the left column. Add any
other forms of transportation the students use such as walking.
In the middle column, put an X mark beside each category for each student who uses this
form of transportation.
The right column is for the total number of students using a particular form of
transportation.
Transportation to School
Form of Students who use the form of Total number of students for
Transportation transportation marked by X’s each form
By bus xxxxxx 6
By car xxxx 4

100 Unit 3 More About Me

 By bike xxxxxxxxxx 10
By taxi x 1
By walking xxxxxxxxxx 10
By pedicab xxxx 4
Total students 35

Go through the chart with the students in English.

2. How do you go to school?

Ask the students to look at the pictures of Jenny, Danny, Steven and Kim in Part 2.
Ask the students what they think the children are talking about.
Go through each of the four pictures with the students using DRTA.
Read the real dialogue for each picture after you have asked the pertinent question/s for each.
For example:
Picture 1: What do you think Danny is asking Kim in this picture? (Read this picture)
Picture 2: What are Jenny and Danny saying to each other in this picture? (Read this
picture)
Picture 3: What is Danny asking Steven? (Read this picture)
Picture 4: What do you think Steven is asking Danny? (Read this picture)
Play the audiotape for Part 2.
Ask the students to follow along in their books, choral reading the dialogue together.
Walk around and listen to see if any students need help.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Ask four students to read each of the storyboards to the class by playing the parts of
Jenny, Danny, Steven and the girl in Picture 1.
●PRACTICE●
Pair Work
Ask the students to work with a partner to make a dialogue about how they go to school.
The dialogue should be four sentences long, two for each student.
Tell the students to practice their dialogues.
Share several with the class.

Teaching Tip
Making dialogues
For a change, ask the students to make their own dialogues. You will be surprised and
pleased to see what the students can do! The students will find this activity even more
challenging than practicing a pre-planned dialogue because they have to use their brain
power to create something new!

3. Let’s chant!
Chant: How do you go to school?
Play the chant so the students can hear the beat.

Unit 3 More About Me 101

 Tell the students there are four verses in this chant.
The verses repeat themselves so the chant is very easy!
Line 1 of each verse is the same: How do you go to school?
Line 2 of each verse only has two words to remember and these words repeat themselves!
Verse 1: By bus, by bus.
Verse 2: By bike, by bike.
Verse 3: By car, by car.
Verse 4: On foot, on foot.
Play the chant. Ask the students to stand up and chant along.

Optional
Moving right
Students make two lines facing each other.
The students on the right say: How do you go to school?
The students on the left reply by saying: By bus/car/taxi/bike or on foot.
The students reverse their dialogue roles and ask/answer the question again.
The teacher claps her hands and the students move to the right to practice the dialogue
with a new partner.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Teacher: Students who walk to school can leave the class. Students who ride their
bikes can go next. Students who take the bus can go next. Students who go by car or
taxi can go last. Goodbye students! See you next class!

After-Class Activities
Students can say the new chant to their parents.

102 Unit 3 More About Me

Lesson 17 What Do You Like to Do?

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
do, film
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expressions:
What do you like to do?
I like to see films at the cinema.

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 17
• Flash and picture cards for the new vocabulary
• Butcher block paper for brainstorming

Unit 3 More About Me 103

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Say: All the students who walked to school today, good morning/afternoon! How are you?
All the students who rode their bike to school today, good morning/afternoon!
How are you?
All of the other students, good morning/afternoon! How are you?
Students should respond: Fine, thanks when their form of transportation to school is called.

Lesson Hook
Tell the students to open their books to Lesson 17.
Teacher: In this class, you will learn how to ask and answer what you like to do after
school.

NEW CONCEPTS
1. I like to see films
Teacher: These are the new words and expressions we will learn today in Part 1:
do, film, computer, grandparent
What do you like to do?
I like to …
Write the words and expressions on the board.
Go through each question or word with the students.
Tell the students to look at their Student Book on page 42.
Read Aloud – no questions
Play the audiotape for the students. Ask them to listen to the tape as they follow along in
their books.
Play the audiotape again. Ask the students to choral read each picture’s dialogue aloud together.

Teaching Tip
Benefits of Read-Alouds
The read-aloud process has enormous benefits to literacy learning. Read-aloud is an
instructional practice where teachers read texts aloud to children. The reader incorporates
variations in pitch, tone, pace, volume, pauses, eye contact, questions, and comments to
produce a fluent and enjoyable delivery. Reading texts aloud is the single most important
activity for building the knowledge required for successful reading.
The read-aloud experience increases students’ vocabulary development and
comprehension growth and has the potential to increase motivation to want to read. It
also builds the knowledge necessary for the successful acquisition of reading and writing.
Reading aloud to children also builds and supports their listening and speaking abilities
and enhances their overall language.

104 Unit 3 More About Me

 ●DEMONSTRATE●
Brainstorm a What do You Like to Do? Web.

How to do Brainstorm a Web

• Put the theme of the brainstormed web in a centre circle.
The theme of this web is What do you like to do?
• Ask the students to tell you things they like to do. Draw
lines out from the centre circle to other circles where you will
write the things that students like to do.
• Draw as many lines and secondary circles as you like –
you can even do one for each student!
• Or you can make stars inside the things students like to do
to show how many students like to do the same thing!
The possibilities are endless for creating a useful web when brainstorming with your
students!

●PRACTICE●
Pair Work
Ask the students to turn to their shoulder partner and practice taking turns asking and
answering the following question in English:
Student 1: What do you like to do?
Student 2: I like to see films at the cinema (for example).

2. Let’s do it!
Talk, draw and write.
Tell the students to look at Part 2.
In this part, students work with a partner to ask and answer the question three times:
What do you like to do?
Students write their responses and their partner’s responses in the three spaces provided
for each partner in the Student Book.
Students then draw a small picture in each of the yellow clouds beside the sentences to
show what it is they have written.
For example: I like to watch TV. There is a picture of a TV in the yellow bubble beside
that sentence.

3. Letters and sounds

Tell the students to look at the section on page 43 called letters and sounds.
In this section they will learn about the letters and sounds: or, ou and x.
Go through the chart in Part 3 with the students.
Tongue Twisters
Read the tongue twisters for the students. Ask the students to try saying them together.
Then ask some students to demonstrate saying the tongue twisters themselves.

Unit 3 More About Me 105

Optional
More Tongue Twisters
Here is another tongue twister for x for students to try!
The fox in the box ate a mix of lox.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Say: Classity class!
Expect the students to say: Yessity yes!
Say: Well done! Bravo! Everyone say hip hip hooray! See you next class!

After-Class Activities
Students can share one of their tongue twisters with their parents that evening.

106 Unit 3 More About Me

Lesson 18 A Little Horse Crosses the River

TEACHING GOALS
Students will be able to understand and use the following vocabulary:
cross, deep, squirrel, drown

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 18
• Picture and flashcards for Lesson 18
• Storyboard paper for the students
• Premade teacher storyboard

Unit 3 More About Me 107

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Say: Welcome class! Congratulations! You have learned to talk about ways to travel
to different places in your community in English! Have fun going from place to place!

Lesson Hook
Tell the students to open their books to Lesson 18.
Teacher: In this lesson, we will be reading a story! I will read it to you and as I read
it, I will ask you questions. This is called DRTA and we have done this before. Who
remembers? Very good. Let’s begin!

Teaching Tip
Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA)
The Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) is a comprehension strategy that
guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions, and then reading to
confirm or refute their predictions. The DRTA process encourages students to be active and
thoughtful readers, enhancing their comprehension.
Why use directed reading thinking activity?
• It encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers.
• It activates students’ prior knowledge.
• It teaches students to monitor their understanding of the text as they’re reading.
• It helps strengthen reading and critical thinking skills.
When to use: Before reading During reading After reading
How to use: Individually With small groups Whole class setting
How to use directed reading thinking activity?
Teachers should follow the steps below when creating a DRTA.
• Determine the text to be used and pre-select points for students to pause during the
reading process.
• Introduce the text, the purpose of the DRTA, and provide examples of how to make
predictions. Note: Be aware of the reading levels of each student and be prepared to
provide appropriate questions, prompts, and support as needed.
• Use the following outline to guide the procedure: D = DIRECT. Teachers direct
and activate students’ thinking prior to reading a passage by scanning the title, chapter
headings, illustrations, and other materials. Teachers should use open-ended questions to
direct students as they make predictions about the content or perspective of the text (e.g.,
“Given this title, what do you think the passage will be about?”). R = READING. Students
read up to the first pre-selected stopping point. The teacher then prompts the students with
questions about specific information and asks them to evaluate their predictions and refine
them if necessary. This process should be continued until students have read each section

108 Unit 3 More About Me

 of the passage. T = THINKING. At the end of each section, students go back through the
text and think about their predictions. Students should verify or modify their predictions by
finding supporting statements in the text. The teacher asks questions such as:
• What do you think about your predictions now?
• What did you find in the text to prove your predictions?
• What did you we read in the text that made you change your predictions?

NEW CONCEPTS
Story time
Teacher: Today we have a new story. Here are the new words in this story:
cross, deep, squirrel, drown
Write the words on the board and go over them with the students.
Teacher: I want you to listen to this story! As I read it to you, I’ll ask you some
questions to think about. Are you ready?
Possible DRTA Questions for the story:
Before the story: Look at the title of the story. Does anyone know what it says? Look at
the other pictures on this page. Who do you think this story is about? Shall we find out?

Teaching Tip
Use a variety of HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) questions
Be sure to give students a variety of questions to enhance their thinking skills. DRTA is not
just about Learning English words and phrases. It’s also about interpreting the language. Use
Bloom’s Taxonomy to help you create questions that challenge students at all levels.
Applying Blooms Taxonomy to Language (EFL) Teaching
Language teachers should consider Bloom’s Taxonomy during multiple stages of the
B-SLIM model. Teachers need to consider how material can be scaffolded in a way that
reflects Bloom’s Taxonomy. In the second language learning context, learners must engage
in a lot of knowledge and comprehension in their beginning stages of SL learning. As
learners become more competent, activities should focus more on higher levels of thinking
which are always more interesting to learners!
This following chart showing the six levels of Blooms Taxonomy with examples of outcomes:
Level Example of outcome
Knowledge Students can name specific terminology or specific facts.
Students can interpret information by rearranging the material by
Comprehension
order of significance.
Students can apply what has been learned to other situations and
Application
learning tasks.
Students can break down material into parts and determine
Analysis
connection and interaction between parts.

Unit 3 More About Me 109

 Students can produce a plan or solution to a particular situation and
Synthesis
originate a product that follows their original thoughts or ideas.
Students can apply known criteria to judge situations or conditions
Evaluation
that they encounter.

Teachers should remember to ask students questions that will tap into the higher levels
of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Too often EFL teacher only ask knowledge questions such as what
and who and forget to ask higher order thinking questions such as how or why.

After the DRTA discussion in each of the pictures, read that part of the story so that
the students can better predict the correct responses to the questions you will have in the
following pictures.
Picture 1: In this picture, there is a big horse and a little horse. How do they know
each other? What makes you think so? (Application and Synthesis)
Picture 2: Who does the little horse meet first? (Knowledge) What do you think the
little horse is asking the cow? (Synthesis)
Picture 3: What do you think the squirrel is saying to the little horse? (Analysis) How
do you know? (Synthesis) Look at the little horse. How does he feel? (Evaluation and
Synthesis)
Picture 4: The little horse is talking to his mother in this picture. What is the little
horse saying? (Synthesis)
Picture 5: Where is the little horse going? (Knowledge) Is he happy or sad? (Evaluation)
How do you know? (Analysis) Why is he happy now? (Synthesis)
Now say: Let’s listen to the story on the audiotape.
Play the audiotape for the students. Ask the students to listen to the story.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Play the audiotape again and ask the students to choral read along.
●PRACTICE●
Class Work
Assign students to read the story in parts: narrator, the little horse, the mother horse, Ms.
Cow, squirrel.
Make sure to go through the story and have each of the characters note which parts belong
to them. This will be particularly helpful for the narrator and for sections where the character
reading is not named.
Remind the students to enunciate clearly and add expression to their reading.
Group Work
Ask the students to work in groups of six to make a storyboard of the story.
Remind the students about the importance of storyboards.

Teaching Tip
What Are Storyboards?
Storyboarding, or picture writing, is the origin of all written language, and was used

110 Unit 3 More About Me

 by ancient cultures before text evolved. Storyboarding is as a natural bridge to text.
The Chinese language was built using pictographs. Egyptians used storyboards, or
hieroglyphics, first etched in stone and later written on papyrus, to organize a complex
society and to rule the ancient world.
Look at any comic strip and you’ll see picture writing in action.
A storyboard is a writing format, generally a set of boxes (or rectangles, circles, or
other shapes) placed in a logically sequenced order. Each box or frame is a place for
the writer to put information, pictures, symbols, or text. Storyboards appear in many
forms, including emerging literacy books. Storyboards are widely used because we
know pictures combined with text offer a rich synthesis of information that can entertain
and inform. The pictures in picture writing can be simple cartoons, photographs, or
sophisticated technical diagrams.
Simple stick pictures combined with minimal text is an essential writing style for
storyboarding. Offering students hands-on drawing has many advantages over using
premade images or clip art. Central benefits of stick pictures is that kids can do them
themselves and that they like to draw. As we explore drawing, it is important to recognize
that the act of drawing, like the act of writing text, is satisfying and informative. Putting
pencil to paper, making symbols in pictures or text, helps our ideas to grow.
It is the logical sequencing power of storyboards, combined with the hands-on
engagement of drawing, that makes this an excellent tool for young learners. A storyboard
can be any length — from two to many boxes — and it can be simple or elaborate.
Storyboards can also be adapted to fit many tasks from maps to time lines. Storyboards
help students learn to sequence the events in a story in a simple way that makes it easy for
the children to recall and retell what has happened!
For EFL students, this simple way of communicating content is a must technique for
teachers to learn!

Explain how to make an according storyboard to the class.

Make sure you have a teacher-made storyboard ready as an example to show them.

Storyboard Instructions
Students in the group can decide which part of the story each of them will focus on.
Tell the students to fold three 8 x 11 papers in half from top to bottom and cut them. This
will give them six pieces of paper for their storyboard.
Number the papers one through six to ensure that the pictures are in sequence.
Paper 1 is the title of the story.
Papers 1–5 are the parts of the story that go with the pictures.
Assign each group member one part of the story, title or picture.
Each student will draw a picture and then write one sentence about the part of the story
they are responsible for (except for the student who is doing the title page). That person will
put a picture, the title of the story and the names of the members of the group on the paper.
Students should colour their pictures and decorate their parts of the storyboard.
Before joining the storyboard together, the group can check each page for errors and
quality.

Unit 3 More About Me 111

 Students place the pages 1–6 side by side in a line. Students then tape the six papers
together to make a long line.
There are many ways to layout a storyboard. This storyboard will resemble a cartoon
layout.
Students then fold the storyboard back and forth so the title page is on top and all of the
other pages are accordingly beneath it.

Share the storyboards with the class during a Gallery Walk, where one member of
each group stays with the storyboard and the rest of the group rotates through the other
storyboards on the bell.
Think About It
Ask the students to turn to their shoulder partners and talk about the following question:
What can you learn from the story? (The moral)
The other question has already been covered during DRTA.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Ask the students if they liked this story. Ask what they liked best about the story. Tell the
students that they have done a fine job in this unit. Next class will be their Unit 3 Review.

After-Class Activities
Students should prepare for the upcoming unit review.
Students can retell the story to their parents or read it from their Student Book to their
family.

112 Unit 3 More About Me

Unit 3 Review

CLASS OPENING
Greeting
Greet the class.
Teacher: Good morning/afternoon, class.
Today is our unit review!
Use the flashcards to review the words and
structures from this unit with the following
question: What does this say? And this?
With the students, say the chant How do you
get to school? from Lesson 16.
Have the students open their books to page
46 and lead them through the review.

Unit 3 More About Me 113

 Teaching Tip
Keeping a daily record
Keep a record of which students answered your questions and participated by having
a clip board with a class checklist on it. If a student participates, put a checkmark beside
his or her name. If a student is having difficulty, put a star beside his or her name.
Use your checklist to keep track of who has answered questions and who has
not. Some students will “hide” in your English class. If you keep a record of who has
participated, these students can no longer “hide”.

REVIEW
1. Listen and circle
Students should listen to the audiotape and circle the correct answer of the three in each
of the four questions in Part 1. Check as a class.
The audiotape says:
1. How old are you? I’m thirteen years old.
2. How tall is Kelly? She is 1.61 metres tall.
3. How do you go to the library? I go to the library by bike.
4. I live in an apartment. I live on the third floor.

2. Read and match

Tell the students to look at the sentences and pictures in Part 2. Students should draw a
line between each sentence and the picture that goes with it. Check as a class.

3. Read and talk

Students should read the dialogue in Part 3 with a partner then have a discussion for two
minutes about it. Then do an ask and answer activity in pairs.

4. Read and write

Say: Look at the example in the left picture and the left story below the picture. Read
the example. Fill in the right picture with information. Draw your own picture in the
picture frame and then model the sentences below using your own information. Check
as a class.

5. Key words and sentences

Go through the key words and sentences in Part 5 with the students.

6. How am I doing?
Ask the students to fill in the self-evaluation chart in Part 6. Discuss with each student (as
you walk around the room) how the student sees their progression.

114 Unit 3 More About Me

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Say: Well done students! You have done a great job on this unit! Can you turn to
your shoulder partner and shake his/her hand? Very good! Now everyone stand up.
Walk straight ahead until you get to the blackboard. Then turn right and form a single
line! As you leave the class today, I want each of you to gently give me a High 5!

Teaching Tip
High Five
A high five occurs when two people hold up their right or their left hands and clap
them together. A high five is a Western way of saying “Job well done!” to another person.

Unit 3 More About Me 115

Unit 4
Countries We
Know

General Goals for Unit 4

This unit aims to engage children in English conversation about countries in the world (that
they have been introduced to in earlier books or that they are being introduced to for the first
time) where English is spoken.
Unit 4 has six lessons, but you should consider using more than six classes to teach the
unit. For example, you may want to include a lesson at the beginning of the unit to review
what was learned in the previous class. Or, you may want to add a lesson at the end of the
unit to review the material from all the lessons. You should allow the pace and content of
your teaching to fit the needs and interests of your students.

Specific Goals for Unit 4

Knowledge and Skills
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
map, star, Chinese, English, Miss
speak
yellow, easy
there, here, many, of
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expressions:
• Where are you from?
• I’m from the U.K.
• We live in China.
• We speak Chinese.
• What is the capital city of China?
• People speak English and French in Canada.
• This is a flag of the U.S. It is red, white and blue.
• The capital city of Australia is Canberra.

116 Unit 4 Countries We Know

Learning Strategies
Students will be taught the following basic learning strategies:
• To observe simple English conversations in everyday situations.
• To develop the habit of listening to the audiotape and repeating the sentences.
• To concentrate when learning.
• To take the initiative to ask questions of the teachers or of other classmates.
• To listen to and learn songs that will help them remember English expressions.

Affect and Attitude

Students are expected to do the following:
• Develop an interest in and curiosity for learning English and find opportunities to
practise their listening.
• Try to imitate and use English in everyday life.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 117

Lesson 19 A Map of the World

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
map, of, there
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expressions:
Where are you from?
I’m from the U.K.

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 19
• Flashcards and pictures for the words in this lesson
• Map of the world – large
• Map of the world – small for each student

118 Unit 4 Countries We Know

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Greet the class with “Classity Class!” and one clap.
Students should respond with “Yessity yes!”

Teaching Tip
Reminder about oral cueing
You can use oral cueing to get the students’ attention by saying phrases like:
Classity Class! With one clap.
The students should respond with:
Yessity Yes! to show they are all ready to listen.
This oral cueing can also be a greeting at the beginning of a class.
Teacher: Classity Class! (clap)
Students: Yessity Yes!

Ask the students what they remember from the last unit.
Teacher: Can you remember what the last unit was about? Very good!

Lesson Hook
Tell the students to open their books to Lesson 19.
Teacher: Look at picture 1 in this lesson. What are Jenny, Danny and Li Ming doing?
What do you think this lesson is about? Yes! It’s about countries in the world!

NEW CONCEPTS
1. A map of the world
Say: These are the new words you will learn today in this part of the lesson:
map, of, world, there, Canada
Write the new words on the blackboard. As you say the words aloud, make sure to point
to them so that the students can follow along.
Say each word one by one and have the students repeat the words after you.
Play the audiotape as the students follow along in their Student Book. Play it two or three
times, listening to each student try to pronounce the words and helping them as needed.

2. Where are you from?

Say: These are the new word and expressions you will learn today in this part of the lesson:
U.S.
Where are you from?
I’m from …
Write the new word and expressions on the blackboard. As you say the words aloud, make
sure to point to them so that the students can follow along.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 119

 Say each word and expression one by one and have the students repeat the words after
you.
Play the audiotape as the students follow along in their Student Book. Play it two or three
times, listening to each student try to pronounce the words and helping them as needed.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Pass out the student maps.

Teaching Tip
Finding a good world map
There are lots of places on the internet where you can print off free world maps for
your students to use during this unit.

Students can colour in the new countries they learn during this unit onto this map.

Teaching Tip
Doing not just seeing!
It is better for students to do an action than just read the text! Anytime you can involve
students in physical activity, this will tap into the KT of VAKT to ensure that more of their
senses are involved — this will help them during memory recollection!

●PRACTICE●
1. Students can colour and label the following countries on their map:
China, Canada, U.S., U.K., Australia
Students can turn to their shoulder partner and share their maps when they are done.
Say: SHARE to take the students into Whole Brain Learning.
Students will know that they need to talk for two minutes with a partner in English about
their map.
Ask one or two students to share with the whole class afterwards.
2. Play: Where am I from?
Assign different student rows in your classroom as a country where they will “live”:
China, Canada, U.S., U.K., or Australia
Tell the students to stand up and walk around the room.
When you clap your hands once, students should turn to another person and take turns
asking and answering: Where do you live?
Clap your hands two times and students walk again.
Clap one time and they turn to a new partner and ask and answer the question.
You can do this many times.

120 Unit 4 Countries We Know

3. Let’s sing!
Song: Round and Round the Earth Goes
Ask the students to look at page 51 of their books.
Play the audiotape. Let the students listen to the song.
Ask the students how many verses are there in this song: Two.
Point out the new words in this song.
Three more words are capital cities – they will learn about these cities later on in this unit:
Beijing, London, Washington, D.C
Put the new words on the board. Ask the students to read them after you as you point to
each word.
Say each line in Verse 1 line by line. Have the students repeat each line after you.
Then ask them to say all four lines with you.
Say each line in Verse 2 line by line. Have the students repeat each line after you.
Then ask them to say all four lines with you.
Play the song again. Ask the students to finger track the words in the song as it is played.
They can also listen to the rhythm of the song. The rhythm will help them remember the
words.
Play the song again and ask the students to sing along.
Ask the students to stand up and sing along as you play the audiotape.

Optional
Play: Where am I from?
Play Where am I from? again but change where each of the rows of students come from
for variety!

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Ask the students to leave the classroom as you call out the country that their row was
assigned.
Students can sing the song as they walk to the door today.

After-Class Activities
Students can share the new song with their families.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 121

Lesson 20 China

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
speak, Chinese, yellow, star
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expressions:
We live in China.
We speak Chinese.
What is the capital city of China?

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 20
• Flashcards and/or pictures for new words in Lesson 20
• Student world map
• Class world map

122 Unit 4 Countries We Know

 • Map of China
• Teacher travel brochure
• Student paper for a travel brochure

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Greet the students with the song Round and Round the Earth Goes playing on the
audiotape as they come into the classroom. With gestures, show the students that you want
them to sing the song along with you.
Then say: Classity class. And clap your hands once.
Expect the students to say: Yessity, yes! This shows that they are ready to learn!

Lesson Hook
Tell the students to open their Student Book to Lesson 20.
Teacher: What do you think we are going to learn about in this lesson? It is a very
special lesson to all of us! Yes! In this lesson you will learn how to tell an English person
all about China!

NEW CONCEPTS
1. A map of China
Ask the students to take out their world maps and colour in China and label it.
Put a map of China on the blackboard.
Say: This is a map of our country. We live in China. We speak Chinese.
Ask the students to repeat these phrases after you.
Tell the students to look at picture 1.
Say: In picture 1, the girl is asking Li Ming what the capital city of China is. (Explain
the term capital city in Chinese.)
Ask: What is the capital city of China?
Wait for a student to respond. If no one can give you the answer, say: It’s Beijing. Beijing
is a new word in this picture.
Ask the students to repeat these two lines after you.
Ask the students to take out their world maps and label Beijing on it. Show them where
Beijing goes on your map.
Say: Look at picture 2. What is Li Ming talking with the girl about here?
Say the new words in this picture are flag, yellow and star.
Read the dialogue in picture 2 for the students.
Play the audiotape. Ask the students to read along. Play it 2–3 times as necessary. Walk
around the class and help students who need assistance.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Ask the students to mark the capital city of China – Beijing on their world maps.
Ask several students the following:

Unit 4 Countries We Know 123

 What is the capital city of China?
Tell me about the flag of China. (Expect students to describe the flag in English as red
with five yellow stars.)
●PRACTICE●
Tell the students to turn to their shoulder partner and take turns talking about the capital
city and the flag of China in English.
Say: SHARE.

2. In China
Say: Turn to page 53 in your books. There are two pictures in Part 2. What is the
first picture?
When a student gives you the correct response, put the English word Tian’anmen Square
on the board.
Say: This is Tian’anmen Square in Beijing. Ask the students to repeat after you.
Say: Look at picture 2. What is this?
When a student gives you the correct response, put the English word for Great Wall on
the board.
Say: This is the Great Wall. Ask the students to repeat after you.
Play the audiotape. Ask the students to read along. Play it 2–3 times as necessary. Walk
around the class and help the students who need assistance.
●PRACTICE●
Tell the students that they are each going to make a travel brochure for China.

Travel Brochure Instructions

1. Fold your piece of paper in half horizontally.
2. The front page is the cover page for the brochure. This page should have China and a
picture of China drawn on it. Also put your name on cover page.
3. The left inside page will have information about China’s capital city and flag on it.
Make sure to colour the flag and write a sentence about both the capital city and the flag on
your brochure.
4. The left inside page will have a picture of the Great Wall or Tian’anmen Square on it.
Put a sentence in English about this place on this page.
5. The back page is where you tell people why China is so great! You can say: China is
beautiful! You can say: The food in China is great! or I love my country! Draw a picture to
go with your sentence.
6. Do a good job! This travel brochure could be used to invite people from around the
world to China!

Ask the students to stand up and walk around the class. When you clap your hands,
students should take turns sharing their brochure with a classmate by reading each page and
talking about China in English!

3. Let’s do it!
Look and write.

124 Unit 4 Countries We Know

 Tell the students to look at the sentences that go with the two pictures in Part 3.
Students should decide how they will complete each of the sentences by looking at their
Student Book in this lesson for phrases and writing them on the spaces provided.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Exit ticket: Tell the students that they must whisper their favourite thing about China to
you as they leave class today!

After-Class Activities
Students can take their brochures home to read to their parents but must bring them back
to post on the Sharing Wall the next day.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 125

Lesson 21 Canada

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
English
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expression:
People speak English and French in Canada.

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 21
• Chart paper
• Construction paper

126 Unit 4 Countries We Know

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Play the national anthem of Canada on the audiotape or on your computer as the students
enter the class.

Lesson Hook
Say: Today we are going to learn about the place where Jenny and Danny come
from! Do you know where that is? Yes, it is Canada! Very good!

NEW CONCEPTS
1. A map of Canada
Ask the students to take out their world maps and colour in Canada and label it.
Put a map of Canada on the blackboard.
Say: This is Canada. I know about Canada.
Ask the students to repeat these phrases after you.
Also say: What do you know? And expect the students to repeat this question after you.
Read the story in the blue square (page 54) to the students.
Write the words Ottawa, English, French, maple and leaf on the board. Tell the students
these are the new words in this part of the lesson. Ask them to repeat the words after you.
Ask the students to take out their world maps and label Ottawa on it. Show them where
Ottawa goes on your map.
Tell the students to look at the flag of Canada at the bottom of the page.
Say: Li Ming is pointing to the flag of Canada. The flag of Canada is red and white.
In the middle is a picture of a maple leaf. The maple leaf comes from a tree that is very
famous in Canada.
Ask the students to repeat: maple leaf.

Teaching Tip
Some information about the Maple Leaf of Canada
Well before the coming of the first European settlers, Canada’s aboriginal peoples
had discovered the food properties of maple sap, which they gathered every spring.
According to many historians, the maple leaf began to serve as a Canadian symbol as
early as 1700.
•In 1834, the St. Jean Baptiste Society made the maple leaf its emblem.
•In 1836, Le Canadien , a newspaper published in Lower Canada, referred to it as a
suitable emblem for Canada.
•In 1848, the Toronto literary annual, The Maple Leaf, referred to it as the chosen
emblem of Canada.
•By 1860, the maple leaf was incorporated into the badge of the 100th Regiment

Unit 4 Countries We Know 127

 (Royal Canadians) and was used extensively in decorations for the visit of the Prince of
Wales that year.
•Alexander Muir wrote The Maple Leaf Forever as Canada’s confederation song
in 1867; it was regarded as the national song for several decades. The coats of arms
created the next year for Ontario and Quebec both included the maple leaf.
•The maple leaf today appears on the penny. However, between 1876 and 1901, it
appeared on all Canadian coins. The modern one-cent piece has two maple leaves on a
common twig, a design that has gone almost unchanged since 1937.
•During the First World War, the maple leaf was included in the badge of the
Canadian Expeditionary Force. Since 1921, the Royal Arms of Canada have included
three maple leaves as a distinctive Canadian emblem. With the proclamation of Canada’s
new flag in 1965, the maple leaf has become the most-prominent Canadian symbol.
•In 1939, at the time of World War II, many Canadian troops used the maple leaf as a
distinctive sign, displaying it on regimental badges and Canadian army and naval equipment.
•In 1957, the colour of the maple leaves on the arms of Canada was changed from
green to red, one of Canada’s official colours.
•On February 15, 1965, the red maple leaf flag was inaugurated as the National
Flag of Canada.

Play the audiotape. Ask the students to read along. Play it 2–3 times as necessary. Walk
around the class and help students who need assistance.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Walk around the classroom asking:
What do you know about Canada?
Expect the students to tell you one thing.
●PRACTICE●
Pair Work
Tell the students to turn to their shoulder partner and talk, for two minutes, about what
they have learned about Canada.
Say SHARE!
Ask several students to share with the whole class.

2. In Canada
Ask the students to look at the pictures in part 2 of lesson 21.
Say: There are two pictures in part 2 of very famous places in Canada.
Put the new words on the board: Niagara Falls, famous, waterfall, CN Tower.
Ask the students to repeat the words after you.
Tell the students that in picture 1, they are looking at Niagara Falls.
Say: This is Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls is a famous waterfall in Canada.
Ask the students to repeat this line after you.
Tell the students that in picture 2, they are looking at the CN Tower.
Say: This is the CN Tower. The CN Tower is a famous tower in Canada. Ask the
students to repeat this line after you.

128 Unit 4 Countries We Know

 Play the audiotape as the students follow along in their Student Book. Play it two or three
times, listening to each student and helping them as needed.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Walk around the classroom asking the students What do you know about Canada?
Continue asking until the students have told you all of the details in Parts 1 and 2.
●PRACTICE●
Pair Work
Students can work together to make a brochure of Canada. (They know how to do this
already.)
This time they can choose to fold their paper any way they want to make their brochure.
The information the students should include on their brochure is found in Lesson 21.
Ask several pairs to share their brochure with the class.
Post the brochures on the Sharing Wall and do a Gallery Walk.

3. Let’s sing!
Song: I live in Canada
Tell the students that this song has only one verse that has two rhyming couplets.
Play the song for the students.
Point out the new words to the students.
Say them as the students point to them and ask the students to repeat each word after you.
Go through the song line by line, asking students to repeat after you.
Clap out the rhythm of the song with the students as they listen to the song for the first
time.
Play the song again. Ask the students to join in singing.
Ask the students to stand up and sing.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Ask the students to sing the song as they leave class today.

After-Class Activities
Students can tell their parents all about Canada.
They can also sing the new song to their families.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 129

Lesson 22 The U.S. and the U.K.

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
here, easy
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expressions:
This is a flag of the U.S. It is red, white and blue.

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 22
• Students and teacher world maps
• Peer assessment forms

130 Unit 4 Countries We Know

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Greet the students: Good morning. Classity Class! (Clap!)
The students should say: Good morning! Yessity Yes!
Sing along with the students the song I live in Canada.

Lesson Hook
Teacher: In this lesson, we are going to learn about two new English speaking
countries. Can you guess what they are?

NEW CONCEPTS
1. The U.S.
Teacher: Turn to page 56. Which country is this part of the lesson about? Yes! It’s
about the U.S.
Ask the students to take out their world maps and colour the U.S. and label it.
Say: Here are the new words you will learn in Part 1 of lesson 22:
here, Washington, D.C., the White House, the Statue of Liberty
Write the new words and phrases on the board.
Go over them one by one with the students.
Say: Let’s sing Round and Round the Earth Goes from Lesson 19 with the audiotape.
See! You have already heard about Washington, D.C. in this song!
Ask the students to take out their world maps and label Washington, D.C. on it. Show
them where this city is on your map.
Say: In picture 2, Li Ming is showing us the flag of the U.S. What is in picture 3? Do
you recognize this building? Yes, it is the White House.
Ask the students to repeat the White House after you.
Say: Picture 4 shows the picture of the Statue of Liberty.
Say: How do you know about this building? Have a brief class discussion.
Play the audiotape for the students. Have the students follow in their Student Book,
pointing to each word as it is said.
Play the audiotape again and ask the students to choral read the words together.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Ask some students to read the story for each picture in Part 1.
Ask the class to choral read the whole story together.

2. The U.K.
Ask the students to look at the pictures on 57 that go with the story in Part 2.
Say: Do you know what this country is? Yes, it is the U.K.
Ask the students to take out their world maps and colour the U.K. and label it.
Say: In picture 2, Li Ming is telling us that the capital of the U.K. is London.
Write the word London on the board. Say it and ask the students to repeat after you.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 131

 Ask the students to take out their world maps and label London on it. Show them where
this city is on your map.
Say: Picture 3 shows the flag of the U.K.
Ask: Do you know what the building is in picture 4? It is Big Ben, the clock tower in London.
Put the word Big Ben on the board, say it and ask the students to repeat after you.
Play the audiotape and ask the students to follow along.
Play the audiotape again and ask the students to choral read each part.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Ask some students to read the story for each picture in Part 2.
Ask the class to choral read the whole story together.
●PRACTICE●
Group Work

News Report Instructions

Students are divided into newspaper teams of four members.
Students will pick a paper from a basket. On that paper will be written the name of the
country they are reporting about.
Students will be reporting on either the U.K., the U.S., China or Canada.
Students need to look in their Student Book to help them collect information to make up
their news report.
The news report for each country must be at least four to six sentences in length.
If they know more information in English than is in their books, they can also add that
information.
Groups must use all of their group members.
• A main reporter can interview the other group members to find out information about
their country.
• Group members can take turns being the reporter and each say something about their country.
• Groups can choose a different way to report their information.
Their peers will evaluate their reporting.

Groups present their news report to their classmates.

Classmates use a basic peer assessment form to score the other groups.
The teacher can include the following information on the form:

Class ________
Group members ________
Date ________
Country ________
Yes No
Looks at me
Speaks well
Knows information
Is confident
Is interesting

132 Unit 4 Countries We Know

 Teaching Tip
Assessment for Learning (AFL)
Evaluation is an important academic and life skill. The ability to reflect upon work and
achievements can help establish, through individual assessment targets, where children are
in their learning process, where they need to go and how best to get there. FL supports
students becoming in their own and others’ assessments so that they have firsthand
knowledge about the standards they should be striving for.
Peer and self assessment
Peer and self assessment are two elements that make up AFL.
•Peer assessment enables children to provide each other with valuable feedback
on work so that they can learn from and support each other. The opportunity to discuss,
explain and challenge each other adds a valuable dimension to learning overall.
•Self assessment provides the opportunity to promote independent learning to
children; thereby, helping them to take increasing responsibility for their own progress as
they form judgments about their own work.

Peer group assessments are given to each of the groups.

The teacher can either assign each group one other group to peer assess, or she/he can
have the groups assess all of the other groups.
Groups review how the classmates have assessed them. Forms are then returned to the
teacher.

Optional
Draw: What is it?

Draw: What is it? Rules

The teacher writes down items the students should know (as they have already been
introduced to them) from the four countries on various pieces of paper. Examples:
Big Ben, the White House, U.S. flag, Canadian flag, Tian’anmen Square, the Great
Wall, Chinese flag, Niagara Falls, maple leaf, U.K. flag.
A student comes to the front of the room and picks one of the words from a box.
The student must draw the item on the board.
The other students must guess what the drawing is of.
If a student gets the answer correct, he or she draws next.
If not, the teacher picks a new drawer.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 133

CLASS CLOSING
Say to the students: Great job today! Goodbye Classity Class!
Students respond with: Goodbye teacher! (or Coachity Coach)

Teaching Tip
Whole Brain Teaching Review
The Whole Brain Teaching approach is fun and extremely successful. It just makes
sense to teach this way.
Teaching Classity Class
First you say, “Class” and the students respond, “Yes”. You will need to explain to
them that when you say “class” you want them to respond “yes”. It’s a good idea to
practice these expressions a few times and praise them for their efforts. Tell the students
that they must also look at you when they say “yes”.
Raising the bar a little
Tell the students that they are so clever that they can now try the advanced level of
“Class — Yes”. This motivates them even further. You can vary your class delivery. Try a
high voice/low voice variation.
Next try saying “Classity class” and the students should copy you by responding
“Yessity Yes!”
You can use the whole brain approach with most instructions you want to give such as:
Share! Yes! Walk! Sit! Yes! etc.

After-Class Activities
Students teach their family the English words for the different subjects they take in
school.

134 Unit 4 Countries We Know

Lesson 23 Australia

TEACHING GOALS
1. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following vocabulary:
Miss, many
2. Students will be able to recognize, understand and use the following expression:
The capital city of Australia is Canberra.

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 23
• Pictures and flashcards for new vocabulary
• Students world maps
• Teacher world map

Unit 4 Countries We Know 135

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Say: Good morning classity class!
Students reply with: Good morning coachity coach.
Ask several of the students what they remember about the four country news reports from
last day.

Lesson Hook
Teacher: In this lesson, we will learn about another English speaking country. This
country is in the Southern Hemisphere. (Explain what this means in Chinese.)
Say: Can you guess the name of this country?

NEW CONCEPTS
1. A map of Australia
Say: Look on page 58. This part of the lesson is about Australia.
Tell the students to take out their world maps and colour in Australia.
Tell them to also mark the capital of Australia (Canberra) on their maps.
Show them where the city is on your map.
Say: Here are the new words and expression in this part:
Miss, Canberra
The capital city of Australia is Canberra.
Print them on the board.
Help the students find them in their books.
Play the audiotape for Part 1.
Play it again and ask them to read along as you walk around the class listening to them.

2. In Australia
Say: Look on page 58. There are two pictures in Part 2.
Ask: Who knows what the animal is in the first picture? Yes. It is a kangaroo.
Say: Kangaroos live in Australia. Ask the students to repeat this line after you.
Ask: What is in the second picture?
Say: It is a beautiful beach. Ask the students to repeat this line after you.
Print the new words on the board.
kangaroo, many, beautiful, beach
Help the students find them in their books.
Play the audiotape for Part 2.
Play it again and ask them to read along as you walk around the class listening to
them.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Point to Australia on the big class map and ask: What country is it?
Ask: What is the capital city of Australia?

136 Unit 4 Countries We Know

 What is the flag of Australia like?
What animal lives in Australia?
Where do people go to have fun in Australia?
Ask these questions several times to many students.
●PRACTICE●
Write an LEA story with the students about the countries they now know about: China,
Canada, U.S., U.K., Australia.
Remind students that they need an opening and closing sentence in their story.
Authors of sentences should also be noted.
Help students with the English words for their sentences.

Sample LEA Story

Countries We Know About
We know about many countries. (opening sentence) (Janet)
I live in China. (Jim)
The capital of China is Beijing. (Jan)
I like the Great Wall. (Xiaoxia)
Canada is far from China. (Sally)
Niagara Falls is a famous waterfall in Canada. (Barby)
The U.S. flag has stars and stripes. (Jim)
I want to go to Washington, D.C. (Lily)
The capital of Australia is Canberra. (Flower)
I like the kangaroos best! (Tingting)
In Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia the people speak English. (Joe)
We like learning about countries! (Tammy)

Ask the students who are authors of the sentences to read their own sentence first from
top to bottom.
Then ask the class to choral read the whole story together.
Praise the class: Tell the class to give themselves three big claps for a job well done!

3. Let’s chant!
Chant: I want to go!
Play the chant for the students. Ask them to clap along with the beat of the chant.
Ask how many verses there are: Five.
Point out the new words in this chant and have the students repeat each new word after you.
Say each line. Ask the students to repeat each line after you.
Then say each verse and ask the students to repeat each verse after you.
Play the chant and ask the students to clap and chant along. They can follow along in their
books.

4. Letters and sounds

Look at the letters and sounds in Part 4.
Read the sounds to the students then say the words for each sound.
Ask the students to repeat the sounds and words after you as you say them.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 137

 Teaching Tip
Unusual sounds
Al: when you find al in the middle of a word, the l is often doubled.
Ch: ch is a digraph. A digraph is two letters that make one sound. Other digraphs are:
wh, sh, th.
Kn: when kn are together, the k is a ghost letter, it is silent.

Tongue Twisters
Go through the tongue twisters with the students.

Optional
More Tongue Twisters
Say them slowly and then speed up to make them harder. Repeat them over and over. See
how many students can continue to say the new tongue twisters without mistakes!
Chuck chopped chocolate chips.
“Night, night,” said the knight to the knight with a knife.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Ask the students to all say the Knight night tongue twister together before they say
goodbye for the day.

After-Class Activities
Students can share the information about Australia with their parents.
Students can share one of the tongue twisters with their parents.

138 Unit 4 Countries We Know

Lesson 24 Maddy’s Family Photos

TEACHING GOALS
Students will be able to understand and use the following vocabulary:
photo, queen

TEACHING PREPARATION
• Audiotape/Multimedia CD for Lesson 24
• Pictures and flashcards of important places or things in the story: Niagara Falls, the
Great Wall, the Statue of Liberty, Queen of England, kangaroo, beach
• Paper for storyboards

Unit 4 Countries We Know 139

CLASS OPENING
Greeting and Review
Greet the students. Say: Hello everybody! You are a great class! Give yourselves three
claps! You make me very happy!

Lesson Hook
Tell the students to open their books to Lesson 24.
Teacher: In this lesson, we are going to read a new story. I’m going to ask you lots of
questions so let’s get started! (The teacher has chosen to use DRTA with this story.)

NEW CONCEPTS
Story time
Say: Here are the new words for this story:
photo, queen
Put the new words on the board. Go over them with the students.
Explain that Maddy the Monster is the name of the character in the story.

Teaching Tip
Make Believe Characters
Including make believe characters in children’s stories helps them to let their
imagination run wild. Not everything in English is about facts. Sometimes teachers
should share literature with make-believe characters in it so the children can just read for
enjoyment.

Teaching Tip
Teacher Talk and Planned Questions for DRTA
DRTA includes a series of planned questions that encourage students to think about a
story as they go through it together. The following is a sample of pre-planned Teacher Talk
with planned questions that can be used for this story.

Introduce the class to the story by telling them that Maddy the Monster is telling a story
about all of the countries they have already learned about.
DRTA Teacher Talk: Page 60 – pictures 1 – 4
Say: Let’s look at the pictures on page 60.
Picture 1: Look at picture 1. Who do you think that character is? Yes, it’s Maddy. Is
Maddy a boy or a girl? Why do you think so?
Picture 2: Where do you think Maddy lives? How do you know?

140 Unit 4 Countries We Know

 Picture 3: Where is Maddy in picture 3? How do you know that?
Picture 4: Who do you think the monster is in Picture 4? Is it Maddy or someone
else? Where is the character? How do you know?
Say: Let’s listen to the first part of this story on the audiotape. Just listen this time. See
if we guessed the right answers in each of the four pictures. We’ll read together next time.
DRTA Teacher Talk: Page 61 – pictures 5 – 7
Picture 5: Where is the monster in picture 5? How do you know? Is this monster old
or young? Why do you think that?
Picture 6: Where do you think the monster is in picture 6? Is this Maddy?
Picture 7: What is happening in picture 7? Do you think that is Maddy? Where is this
monster?
After the planned DRTA Teacher Talk introduction to the story, play the audiotape for the
students. Ask them to read along. Walk around the class listening to see who needs help.
●DEMONSTRATE●
Read Aloud
Read the story to the students without interruption, adding lots of expression as you read.
●PRACTICE●
This story is set up like a storyboard. There are seven pictures with some dialogue in each
one.
Below is an explanation for storyboarding:

Teaching Tip
What are Storyboards?
Storyboarding, or picture writing, is the origin of all written language, and was used by
ancient cultures before text evolved. Storyboarding is a natural bridge to text. The Chinese
language was built using pictographs. Egyptians used storyboards, or hieroglyphics, first
etched in stone and later written on papyrus, to organize a complex society and to rule
the ancient world.
Look at any comic strip and you’ll see picture writing in action.
A storyboard is a writing format, generally a set of boxes (or rectangles, circles, or
other shapes) placed in a logically sequenced order. Each box or frame is a place for
the writer to put information, pictures, symbols, or text. Storyboards appear in many
forms, including emerging literacy books. Storyboards are widely used because we
know pictures combined with text offer a rich synthesis of information that can entertain
and inform. The pictures in picture writing can be simple cartoons, photographs, or
sophisticated technical diagrams.
Simple stick pictures combined with minimal text is an essential writing style for
storyboarding. Offering students hands-on drawing has many advantages over using
premade images or clip art. A central benefit of stick pictures is that kids can do them
themselves and they like to draw. As we explore drawing, it is important to recognize that
the act of drawing, like the act of writing text, is satisfying and informative. Putting pencil
to paper, making symbols in pictures or text, helps our ideas to grow.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 141

 It is the logical sequencing power of storyboards, combined with the hands-
on engagement of drawing, that makes this an excellent tool for young learners. A
storyboard can be any length from two to many boxes, and it can be simple or elaborate.
Storyboards can also be adapted to fit many tasks from maps to time lines. Storyboards
help students learn to sequence events in a story in a simple way that makes it easy for
them to recall and retell what has happened.
For teaching EFL students, this simple way of communicating content is an essential
technique for teachers to learn.

Individual Work
Ask the students to divide their papers into four boxes. They can do this easily by folding
the paper in half and then in half again.
Ask the students to retell the story using only four boxes. They do not have to write words
in the boxes. They only have to draw the pictures to show what happened in each picture of
their storyboard.
Tell the students to colour their pictures. They can print the name of the story in the top
right corner of their paper. They should also put their name in the top right hand corner of the
paper to take ownership for their work.

Maddy’s Family Photos

By: Shaolin

Pair Share
Students can find a partner when they are done and “retell” the story in English using their
storyboard to help them.
Think About It
Say: Check the correct response for each of the three questions in this section.
Check as a class.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

142 Unit 4 Countries We Know

CLASS CLOSING
Say: Goodbye little monsters!
Students should respond with: Goodbye Teacher!
Then ask the students to stomp like monsters to the door row by row as they leave the class.

After-Class Activities
Have the students take their storyboards home so they can retell the story to their parents.
Remind the students that they will do the Unit 4 Review next class.

Teaching Tip
Retelling a story
Retelling a story is an active procedure that may help students in comprehension,
concept of story structure and oral language. Retelling also helps children play an active
role in reconstructing a story for an audience. This provides for interaction between the
child and the person listening.

Unit 4 Countries We Know 143

Unit 4 Review

CLASS OPENING
Greeting
Greet the students. Tell the class that today is
the review day so they should try their very best!
Say one of the chants from this unit together.

REVIEW
1. Listen and tick
Tell the students to look at the four rows
of pictures in Part 1. They should listen to the
audiotape and tick the picture that is correct in
each of the four rows. Check as a class.
The audiotape says:
1. This is a map of Canada.

144 Unit 4 Countries We Know

 2. Do you know the flag of China? Yes, I know. It’s red. It has five yellow stars.
3. Kangaroos live in Australia.
4. This is Big Ben in London. It’s famous.

2. Read and write

Tell the students to read the dialogues between Wang Nan and Lily. They should fill in
one of the answers below, a, b, c or d to complete each sentence. Check as a class.

3. Look, write and say

Tell the students to look at Part 3 then complete the chart with information for each
picture with: country, capital city and language. Tell the students that all of the answers they
need to fill in the chart are in the yellow box at the bottom of the page. Check as a class.

4. Key words and sentences

Go through the key words and sentences in the house in Part 4 with the students. You can
read them together or ask students to read them one at a time so you can check to see who is
able to do so.

5. How am I doing?
Ask the students to fill in the self-evaluation chart in Part 5. As they do so, walk around
the class discussing how students understand their knowledge in each of the categories.

ACTIVITY BOOK
Help the students find the page they need to work on. Hold up your activity book with
that page open. Say Let’s open our activity books.
Point to the page and walk around the class so that everyone can see.

CLASS CLOSING
Congratulate the students for their hard work and for having completed the Learning
English Book 8! They are now done Grade 4 so have a class celebration!
Ask each person in the class to tell you the thing they most liked learning in this book.
Encourage the students to say something different from the students who responded before
them.
Tell the students they did a great job! Then wave and say Goodbye class! See you in
Grade 5!
Students should respond with: Goodbye teacher! See you next year!

Unit 4 Countries We Know 145