Learning at home

Use this lesson with older primary learners at CEFR A2 level and above who learn or have experience of learning at home.

Author

Rachael Ro and Katherine Bilsborough

Introduction

This lesson is suitable for older primary-aged children who learn at home or have experience of learning at home. There are lesson plans for both online and face-to-face teaching. The face-to-face lesson plan provides instructions for either printed reading texts or a presentation (for a no-printing option).

Learners begin the lesson by thinking of situations where children learn at home. They then read texts about several different children learning at home and answer some questions. Learners identify what the children like about learning at home, and the problems that they have. They consider solutions that could help the children, as well as reflect upon their own experiences. Finally, they have the option of working together in groups to review and collate their ideas and produce a poster.

Learning outcomes

Depending on the lesson version, learners may:

Use vocabulary related to learning at home
Read and understand details of short texts describing experiences of learning at home
Participate in a role play and describe an experience of learning at home
Develop problem solving and critical thinking skills
Make a poster about learning at home

Age and level

9-12 (A2+)

Time

70–90 minutes (face-to-face) or 80-100 minutes (online) (or two shorter lessons)

Materials

The lesson plans and materials can be downloaded below.

Lesson plan for face-to-face teaching
Lesson plan for online teaching
Presentation
Reading texts for face-to-face lesson
Reading texts for online lesson

Lesson plan for face-to-face teaching

Before the lesson

There are two versions of this face-to-face lesson.
1. With a presentation: With this version, you do not need to print texts. Learners do not do a role play.
2. Without a presentation: With this version, you need to print texts. Learners do a role-play.
Decide which version to use and have the presentation open and ready OR print the texts you need.
Decide which of the six texts you are going to use with your learners. The lesson will work with two texts, but you can use four or six.

1. Lead-in (5 minutes)

Ask learners to say when schoolchildren might have to learn at home. Give some ideas if they are not sure. Possible suggestions: for medical reasons (e.g. had an operation); the school is closed (e.g. for bad weather); there is a pandemic / a war; they live far from a school.
Ask learners to say how schoolchildren might learn at home. Examples include: attending online lessons on a laptop / computer / tablet; doing activities on a website; completing worksheets / activity books; watching TV lessons; listening to lessons on the radio; talking to a teacher on the phone / online; learning with a family member etc.

2. Reviewing vocabulary (10 minutes)

If you are using the presentation, show slide 2. Alternatively, write this question the board: How many words can you think of connected to learning at home?
Put learners into pairs or small groups and give them a time limit to note as many words as possible.
After a few minutes, ask pairs / groups to say how many words they’ve written.
Choose the pair / group with the most words to read their list. Pairs / groups listen and tick any words that are the same in their lists. Ask if any pairs / groups have different words.
Check that learners understand the following words which appear in the reading texts: online lesson, screen, internet connection, computer, laptop, tablet, chat, printer.

3. Reading (15-20 minutes)

Version 1 (with presentation)

Tell learners that they are going to read about different children’s experiences of learning at home.
Show them the first text that you have chosen (e.g. Ali’s text on slide 4). Give them some time to read the text, then tell them to discuss the following questions (display the questions on a board / flipchart). They could do this in pairs or together as a whole class:
o    Does [Ali] like learning at home?
o    How is [Ali] learning?
o    What are the good things about learning at home?
o    What problems does [Ali] have?
Repeat with the remaining chosen texts. The texts are on slides 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14.

Version 2 (without presentation / with printed copies of the texts)

According to how many texts you are using, divide the class into groups (e.g. if you are using 4 texts, divide the class into 4 groups). Give the same text to everyone in each group. For example, give Ali’s text to everyone in Group 1, Nina’s text to everyone in Group 2 etc.
If the groups have more than 2 or 3 learners, subdivide each groups into pairs or groups of three.
Tell learners they are going to read about different children’s experiences of learning at home. Tell them to read their texts carefully and if there is something they don’t understand, ask their partners. Then they should answer the questions together.
Monitor to check that all the learners have understood the main points of their text.

4. Role play (15 minutes)

If you are following version 1 (with presentation), skip this stage. Move directly to stage 5.

If you are following version 2 (without presentation / with printed copies of the texts), follow the steps below.

Tell the learners that they are going to do a role play. They are going to:
o    pretend to be the child that they read about in the text (ie you are Ali, Nina etc)
o    pretend to be at home because their country is in lockdown and their school is closed
o    speak to a child from a different country on the phone/online.
Explain that in the role play, they should ask each other the four questions written under the texts, i.e.
1.    Do you like learning at home?
2.    How are you learning?
3.    What are the good things about learning at home?
4.    What problems do you have?
Option: With more confident groups, you could ask them what other questions they could ask: For example: What’s your name? Where do you live? How old are you? Have you got any brothers and sisters? Write the questions on the board and if you wish, ask the learners to write them at the bottom the worksheet. Learners will use their imaginations to answer these extra questions.
Demonstrate the role play with one of the more confident learners.
Put each learner with a different partner – someone who has read a different text to their own. Tell them not to show the other person their text.
Remind learners that during the role play they must only speak in English, give as much information and ask as many questions as possible.
Monitor while they are having the conversations and give them a one-minute warning before ending the activity.
Ask the learners to report back to the class about what they found out about each child from their partner. For example:
o    Who spoke to Ali?
o    What does Ali like about working from home?
o    What problems does Ali have?
Write the problems for each child on the board. You will need these for the next stage of the lesson.
Answers:
Ali – his internet connection is bad, has problems speaking and hearing in lessons; his eyes feel tired
Nina – doesn’t have enough space, shares a desk, can’t concentrate
Petra – can’t see the video very well, fights with brother and sister
David – misses school and friends, too many worksheets and activities, doesn’t understand what to do
Alex – mum doesn’t always have time to collect worksheets, worksheets are sometimes really difficult
Salma – parents don’t know what to teach and get interrupted, gets bored

5. Problem solving and critical thinking (10-15 minutes)

Remind learners that each child has some difficulties with learning at home. Tell the class that they’re going to think about what could help each child.
If you are using the presentation, display each chosen text again in turn. Ask learners to say what the problems are. If you are not using the presentation, refer to the problems of each child noted on the board after the role play.
Encourage learners to suggest what could help each child. For example, with Ali:
o    His internet connection is bad > Close other things using the internet
o    He sometimes has problems speaking and hearing in online lessons > Write in the chat or use headphones
o    His eyes feel tired > Don’t stay at the computer during break times, don’t use a screen after lessons
Where appropriate, ask learners why or how their suggestion will help to encourage critical thinking. For example, for Ali:
o    Closing other programs might help the connection be more stable.
o    Using headphones will help them hear each other better.
o    Not staying at the computer during break times gives your eyes a rest.
Repeat with the other texts that you have used.

Possible answers:
Nina – doesn’t have enough space, shares a desk, can’t concentrate
o    put things away when you’re finished with them
o    divide the desk into two areas
o    use headphones so you can’t hear other people in the house
Petra – can’t see the video very well, fights with brother and sister
o    ask the teacher to show things as big as possible in the videos
o    make a schedule of when everyone will use the smartphone
David – misses school and friends, too many worksheets and activities, doesn’t understand what to do
o    message, call or video chat with his friends more
o    ask his dad to help him with the worksheets and activities
o    ask his teacher to tell his dad which ones are the most important
Alex – mum doesn’t always have time to collect worksheets, worksheets are sometimes really difficult
o    ask the teacher to email the worksheets then copy them on paper
o    ask a family member to help explain the worksheets
Salma – parents don’t know what to teach and get interrupted, gets bored
o    tell her parents about what other things they were learning at school
o    try to teach her little brother something instead of playing
o    write a list of different ideas of things

6. Personalisation (5-10 minutes)

Agree some physical actions with your learners to represent ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘maybe’, e.g. standing up, turning around, moving left or right, shrugging shoulders, etc.
Tell the learners that you are going to say some sentences and they need to do the relevant action depending on whether:
o    they agree / it’s the same for them,
o    they partly agree / it’s partly the same for them,
o    they disagree / it’s different for them.
If you are using the presentation, you can show the instructions on slide 15.
Choose some sentences from each text, e.g. from Ali’s text, ‘I like learning at home’ and ‘my eyes feel really tired at the end of the day’.
Read the sentences out.
After each sentence, learners react with the appropriate action depending how they feel about it.
If appropriate, ask learners a follow-up question, e.g. ‘Why do/don’t you like it?’ or ‘How do you rest your eyes?’ etc.

7. Optional: Reviewing and collating ideas (20-25 minutes)

Tell learners that they are going to work together in groups to make a poster about learning at home. The poster could include:
o    good things about learning at home
o    what’s difficult about learning at home
o    tips for learning at home
o    things which are different about learning at home compared to school
If you are using the presentation, show slide 16.
Brainstorm ideas with the learners and encourage them to include some of the things that have been read about and discussed in the lesson so far. Get them to decide the format of the poster, e.g. a mind map, speech bubbles, lists, etc.
Put learners into groups. Give them the materials they need to make a poster. Alternatively, they could use an online tool. Monitor groups as they work. Give them a time limit and let them know when the end of the time limit is approaching.
Ask learners to share their posters. They should say what they like about the other groups’ posters and identify an idea which is not on their own poster.

8. Vocabulary review (5-10 minutes)

Review new vocabulary from the lesson with an anagrams game.
Put the learners in teams. Write a word from the lesson with the letters mixed up on the board (e.g. retnrip). The first team to say the word wins a point (printer).
Repeat with more words from the lesson.

9. Setting homework (5 minutes)

For homework, ask learners to write a short text about themselves. If you are using the presentation, show slide 17.
If learners need support, you could provide them with a skeleton text to complete, such as:
My name is __________ and I’m __________ years old. I sometimes learn at home with __________ (how – online lessons, video lessons, etc.). My teacher is __________ (name). My favourite lesson is __________ (subject). One thing that’s difficult is __________. One thing I like about learning at home is __________.
Change the skeleton text according to the situation of your learners, for example, the text could be about past experience.

Lesson plan for online teaching

Before the lesson

Decide which of the six texts you are going to use with your learners. The activity will work with two texts, but you can use four or six.
Divide the learners into groups. Send one text to all the learners in each group, e.g. send Ali’s text to all learners in group 1, Nina’s text to the learners in group 2, etc.
o Tell them to read the child’s text and answer the accompanying questions, then to write one more question about the child.
o If you prefer, you can ask the learners to send you their work before the lesson for you to give feedback on.
Before you start the lesson:
o Test your microphone and camera to make sure they work.
o Make sure that you have the accompanying presentation open and shared.

At the start of the lesson

Welcome the learners as they arrive:

Check that you can all hear and see each other.
Check that they can see the first slide.
If they can’t, ask them (or ideally an adult they have present) to check their settings or troubleshoot in the way you have shown them previously. You may need to write this in the chat facility if they cannot hear you.

1. Lead-in (5 minutes)

Ask learners to say when schoolchildren might have to learn at home. Give some ideas if they are not sure. Possible suggestions: for medical reasons (e.g. had an operation); the school is closed (e.g. for bad weather); there is a pandemic / a war; they live far from a school.
Ask learners to say how schoolchildren might learn at home. Examples include: attending online lessons on a laptop / computer / tablet; doing activities on a website; completing worksheets / activity books; watching TV lessons; listening to lessons on the radio; talking to a teacher on the phone / online; learning with a family member etc.

2. Reviewing vocabulary (10 minutes)

Show slide 2 of the presentation. Challenge the learners to think of as many words connected to learning at home as they can.
If your platform has an annotate function, ask them to write on the screen. Otherwise ask them to write in the chat, or on paper to show the camera.
After a few minutes, review the words and ask the learners to identify the longest word, the shortest word, the most common word, any unique words that only one person thought of, etc.
Check that learners understand the following words which appear in the reading texts: online lesson, screen, internet connection, computer, laptop, tablet, chat, printer.

3. Reading (10-15 minutes)

Use only the slides from the presentation which refer to the texts you are using with your learners (slides 3 – 14).
Ask all the learners who read the first text to tell the class what they remember about him or her, without looking at the text.
Explain that the learners who read this text are going to ask the rest of the class the extra question they wrote before the lesson, and the rest of the class needs to read the text to find the answers.
Display the text. The first learner with a question asks the class.
o    The rest of the class reads the text to find the answer then writes it on a piece of paper or in their notebook and shows the camera.
o    The learner who asked the question confirms the answer.
o    The next learner with a question about this text asks the class, and so on.
Repeat with the other texts.

Variation:

Before the lesson, specify that the learners write a true or false question about the text they have.
When learners are answering each other’s questions, they hold up ‘true’ or ‘false’ written on different pieces of paper or pages of their notebook (or ‘stamp’ true or false on the screen if your platform has a stamp function).

Additional vocabulary activity:

Display each text in turn with some of the words covered up.
Ask the learners to remember the missing words.

4. Problem solving and critical thinking (10-15 minutes)

Again, use only the slides which refer to the texts you are using with your learners.
Display each text in turn. Ask the learners what each child likes about learning at home and what’s difficult about it.
Tell the learners that they’re going to think about what could help each child and why/how. Display the first text again.
Encourage learners to suggest what could help him or her. For example, for Ali:
o    His internet connection is bad > Close other things using the internet
o    He sometimes has problems speaking and hearing in online lessons > Write in the chat or use headphones
o    His eyes feel tired > Don’t stay at the computer during break times, don’t use a screen after lessons
Where appropriate, ask learners why or how their suggestion will help to encourage critical thinking. For example, for Ali:
o    Closing other programs might help the connection be more stable.
o    Using headphones will help them hear each other better.
o    Not staying at the computer during break times gives your eyes a rest.
Repeat with the other texts.
Possible answers:
Nina – doesn’t have enough space, shares a desk, can’t concentrate
o    put things away when you’re finished with them
o    divide the desk into two areas
o    use headphones so you can’t hear other people in the house
Petra – can’t see the video very well, fights with brother and sister
o    ask the teacher to show things as big as possible in the videos
o    make a schedule of when everyone will use the smartphone
David – misses school and friends, too many worksheets and activities, doesn’t understand what to do
o    message, call or video chat with his friends more
o    ask his dad to help him with the worksheets and activities
o    ask his teacher to tell his dad which ones are the most important
Alex – mum doesn’t always have time to collect worksheets, worksheets are sometimes really difficult
o    ask the teacher to email the worksheets then copy them on paper
o    ask a family member to help explain the worksheets
Salma – parents don’t know what to teach and get interrupted, gets bored
o    tell her parents about what other things they were learning at school
o    try to teach her little brother something instead of playing
o    write a list of different ideas of things

5. Personalisation (5-10 minutes)

Show slide 15 of the presentation. Tell the learners that you are going to say some sentences and they need to do an action depending on whether:
o    they agree / it’s the same for them,
o    they partly agree / it’s partly the same for them,
o    they disagree / it’s different for them.
Agree some physical actions with your learners to represent ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘maybe’, e.g. standing up, turning around, moving left or right, shrugging shoulders, etc.
Choose some sentences from each text, e.g. from Ali’s text, ‘I like learning from home ‘and ‘my eyes feel really tired at the end of the day’.
Read the sentences out.
After each sentence, learners react with the appropriate action depending how they feel about it.
If appropriate, ask learners a follow-up question, e.g. ‘Why do/don’t you like it?’ or ‘How do you rest your eyes?’ etc.

6. Reviewing and collating ideas (30 minutes)

For the next activity the learners will ideally work in breakout rooms, if the platform you’re using has this function, and your learners are comfortable and responsible when working in breakout rooms. However, it could also be done as a whole class activity or an activity that learners do individually outside of class time.
Show slide 16 of the presentation. Tell the learners that they are going to work together in a group to make an online poster about learning at home. The poster could include:
o    good things about learning at home
o    what’s difficult about learning at home
o    tips/advice for learning at home
o    things which are different about learning at home compared to school
Brainstorm ideas with the learners and encourage them to include some of the things that have been read about and discussed in the lesson so far. Get them to decide the format of the poster, e.g. a mind map, speech bubbles, lists, etc.
o There are lots of online tools you could use, but it could be as simple as a Google Drawing, which has limited functions and is therefore easy to use.
o If you create blank ones in advance and change the sharing settings, you can simply give the learners the link in the lesson.
Demonstrate the activity first by opening a new file in the tool you are going to use, e.g. a new Google Drawing.
o Show them how to write text and how to draw a shape, line and picture, and how they can arrange these on the canvas to make their poster.
o Explain that they will need to discuss with each other in the breakout room to agree who is going to write and draw what parts.
Put the learners in their groups in the breakout rooms and give each group the link to the place where they are going to make their poster by putting it in the chat.
You may wish to remind the learners of the ‘breakout room rules’ before you move them there, for example speaking English only, staying on task, etc.
Visit each breakout room as soon as possible to make sure the learners in each group have been able to open the link and are working together on the poster.
Monitor the learners during the activity by regularly moving between breakout rooms. If your platform has the function, turn your camera off while you monitor so as to disturb the learners less when you enter a room.
Before you bring learners back to the main room, visit each breakout room briefly and announce that they have two more minutes to finish their poster before you will bring them back.
After two minutes, bring all the learners back.
Screen share each poster. Ask learners to say what they like about the other groups’ posters and identify an idea which is not on their own poster.

7. Vocabulary review (5-10 minutes)

Review new vocabulary from the lesson with an anagrams game.
Put the learners in teams. For reference write the names of who is in each team on the whiteboard (if the platform has one) or on a blank document that you screen share.
Write a word with the letters mixed up on the whiteboard/document (e.g. retnrip) and ask the learners to say or write in the chat what they think the word is (printer). The first team to give the word wins a point (printer).
Repeat with more words from the lesson.

8. Setting homework (5 minutes)

For homework show slide 17 of the presentation. Ask learners to write a short text about themselves. If learners need support, you could provide them with a skeleton text to complete, such as:
My name is __________ and I’m __________ years old. I learn at home with __________ (how – online lessons, video lessons, etc.). My teacher is __________ (name). My favourite lesson is __________ (subject). Sometimes __________ (person) helps me. One thing I miss about school is __________. One thing I like about learning at home is __________.
Change the skeleton text according to the situation of your learners.

At the end of the lesson

Praise the learners for their participation and work and tell them you’re looking forward to seeing them again in the next lesson.
Make sure they know how to exit the platform and wait until they all leave before leaving yourself.