This EFL lesson plan is designed around a beautiful short film titled Missing U by Brooke Wagstaff. Students practise pronunciation of letters, read text messages, watch a short film, read a poem, speak and write a short poem.
Language level: Intermediate (B1) – Upper Intermediate (B2)
Learner type: Teens and adults
Time: 90 minutes
Activity: Pronunciation of letters, watching a short film, reading a poem, speaking and writing
Topic: Pronunciation and love
Language: Text message abbreviations
Materials: Short film and poem
Downloadable materials: missing U lesson instructions missing U poem
Overview
This EFL lesson plan is designed around a beautiful short film titled Missing U by Brooke Wagstaff. Students practise pronunciation of letters, read text messages, watch a short film, read a poem, speak and write a short poem.
Step 1
Ask your students to write the alphabet horizontally on a piece of paper.
Step 2
Say each letter and ask students to repeat.
Step 3
Pair students and tell them you would like them to think of words which have exactly the same pronunciation as a letter. Give an example such as the noun bee which has the same pronunciation as the letter b.
Step 4
When students are ready ask them to say their words and explain the part of speech. Write up the words and ask the other students if they agree that the word has the same pronunciation as the letter.
Step 5
Write the following letters, words and parts of speech on the board:
a – a article
b – be verb, bee noun
c – see verb, sea noun
i – I personal pronoun, eye noun
j – jay (a type of bird) noun
o – oh interjection, owe verb
p – pea noun, pee verb
q – queue noun and verb
r – are verb
t – tea noun, tee noun and verb often used with up
u – you personal pronoun, ewe noun
x – ex noun especially used to refer to a previous spouse
y – why adverb and exclamation
Step 6
Write missing u on the board and ask students what it means. Ask them if they use letters to represent words or parts of words when they write text messages in their language. Ask for some examples.
Step 7
Give some examples of text messages in English which use letters or numbers to represent words or parts of words.
CU – See you
CU L8R – see you later
RU SAD? – Are you sad?
Step 8
Put students in pairs, write up some examples of text speech and ask students to read the messages and write them out in “correct” English.
B4 – Before
RUOK? – Are you OK?
EZ – Easy
W8 4 ME, I’m L8 – Wait for me I’m late
DID U C? – Did you see?
PLZ – Please
OIC – Oh, I see
GR8 – Great
NE – Any
NE1 – Anyone
Step 9
Write the letter i on the board, say it and ask students to repeat. Give them some examples of one-syllable words which have the same sound as the letter I, such as fly, high, buy. Put them in pairs and ask them to come up with as many one-syllable words which have this sound. When students are ready get feedback and write up words which have different spellings of this sound.
Step 10
Write the letter U on the board, say it and ask students to repeat. Give them some examples of one-syllable words which have the same sound as the letter u, such as you, true, new. Put them in pairs and ask them to come up with as many one-syllable words which have this sound. When students are ready get feedback and write up words which have different spellings of this sound.
Step 11
Tell students that they are going to watch a short film titled Missing U which is about a character called i and another character called u. Ask students what they think the film will be about and what story it will tell.
Step 12
Now show the film and ask students to compare their predictions with what they see in the film.
Missing U from Brooke Wagstaff on Vimeo.
Step 13
Tell students they are going to watch the film again and that they should note down any words in the poem which rhyme.
Step 14
Now give students the poem and ask them to read it. Show the film for a third time and ask students to notice the rhythm of the poem.
View this document on Scribd
Step 15
In pairs ask students to read the poem to each other.
Homework
Ask students to write a short poem in which they use some of the words which have the same pronunciation as letters.
I hope you enjoy this English language lesson.
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