BASIC

BASIC INTRO
INTRO
BASIC INTRO
Class
Class01
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CLASS GOALS:

Personal Pronouns and Verb to be;

Affirmative / Interrogative / Negative forms;
Professions and Age (sentence level);
Personal Presentation;
Spelling – The Alphabet.

MOMENT 1 / Duration: 5-10 minutes SETTING:

OPENING THE CLASS Picture 1

Open the class in the students’ mother tongue.

Start the class by greeting students and introducing yourself. Explain to them briefly how the Wise Up
methodology works and how important the role of Basic Intro is in the whole process.

General Advice:
Find out a little bit about your students’ experience while learning a foreign language. Share some of your
experiences as well. Work with the following ideas:

- Don’t miss a class; if so, replace it;

- Practice in class – take risks; don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Language is learned through practice;
- Do your homework;
- Keep personal notes – Talk to them about the importance of having a Notebook to take notes of
grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation features. Make it clear that keeping record of these items
will make things easier for them in case they need to use/review them later on. If students do not have
a notebook, hand out sheets of paper. Tell them you’d like them to have a notebook the following class.
- Practice out of class – music, films, books, the Internet… take English to your everyday life.

Tools:
Since they are real beginners and all the classes will be run in English, provide them with some key
sentences that would help them to communicate in English avoiding the use of their mother tongue in class.

1. How do you say cadeira in English?

2. What’s the meaning of chair?
3. I don’t understand. Can you repeat the explanation, please?
4. I don’t know.
5. Can / May I go to the restroom / have some water?
6. Sorry, I’m late. Can / May I come in?

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Make sure you don’t translate but contextualize the sentences giving examples of situations in their
mother tongue where they can be used. Afterwards, check if they have any doubts or questions they
would like to ask before you switch to English.

MOMENT 2 / Duration: 10-15 minutes SETTING:

PERSONAL PRONOUNS AND VERB TO BE Picture 12

Now, it’s the students’ turn to introduce themselves. Take advantage of that to teach Personal Pronouns
and Verb To Be. Start introducing yourself and leave the following sentence on the board: “I’m your
name”. Ask the name of each one of your students; when you are through, start building up a chart on
the board with Personal Pronouns and Verb To Be while asking their classmates’ names.

E.g.: You are student’s name. And she? Who is she?

Use body language as well as stress and intonation to emphasize the difference among the Personal
Pronouns; this difference is not easily perceived by some students who tend to get confused about when
to use the second and third persons. Ask scattered questions to all your students, but for now, stick to the
singular: “Who am I / are you / is she / is he? and What is it?”
By the end of this first activity, you should have a chart similar to the one below on the board:

Singular

1st person I am (I’m) your name.

2nd person You are (You’re) name of the student you directed the question to.
3rd person She is (She’s) name of the student you asked the question about.
He is (He’s) name of the student you asked the question about.
It is (It’s) a name of the object you asked the question about.

Give them some time to copy the chart and then, together with the whole group, complete it by putting
the sentences in the plural.

Singular Plural

1st person I am your name. We are (We’re) yours and a student’s name.

2nd person You are student’s name. You are (You’re) both students’ names you directed the
question to.
3rd person She is student’s name. They are (They’re) both students’ names you asked the
question about.
He is student’s name.
It is a ... They are (They’re) objects in the plural.

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Draw their attention to the fact that you has the same form for singular and for plural; they is the plural for
he / she / it. Also emphasize that the article a is equivalent to one and because of that it’s not possible to
be used in the plural.

MOMENT 3 / Duration: 15-20 minutes SETTING:

INTERROGATIVE, AFFIRMATIVE AND NEGATIVE FORMS Picture 12

To introduce Interrogative, Affirmative and Negative sentences, follow the same model of the activity
you used to explain Personal Pronouns. The difference is that now, you are using the interrogative form to
check their names (in both singular and plural forms).

No, I’m not João.

E.g.: Are you João?
Yes, I am João.

As you move along asking them questions, use board support to keep record of all three forms (Interrogative,
Negative and Affirmative). Go for Activity 1 from the Activity Section in the students’ book (Book1, page 26).

MOMENT 4 / Duration: 10-15 minutes SETTING:

PROFESSIONS AND AGE Picture 12

In this section, you’ll move from Names to Professions and Age:

E.g.: I am a teacher. Are you a teacher?

Yes, I am a teacher. / No, I’m not a teacher.
So, what’s your profession? / What do you do (for a living)?
I am a/an...

Keep record of all your students’ professions on the board. In case they don’t know how to say their own
professions in English, encourage them to use the sentence you taught before (How do you say...). Draw their
attention to the article ‘a/an’.
A similar model will be followed to ask about their ages, but now don’t use the simple interrogative form
anymore. Go for question words and write their ages on the board beside their professions.

Eg.: I am (...) years old. And you? How old are you?

Use this activity to introduce numbers. Present numbers 1 to 10. Then, present numbers in an isolated way
according to the ages in the classroom. Explore the “Discourse Moment” of “Unit 1” (Book 1, page 24),
especially professions and nationalities.

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MOMENT 5 / Duration: 10-15 minutes SETTING:

PERSONAL PRESENTATION Picture 8

Ask students to join the following pieces of information and make a brief self-presentation.

E.g.: I’m John Doe. I’m (...) years old and I’m a teacher.

You might use your own information and leave it on the board as a model. Write all the information on
the board. Then, ask students to spell their last names. You don’t need to go through all last names. Select
some. That will serve as a link to the following moment.

MOMENT 6 / Duration: 15-20 minutes SETTING:

SPELLING / THE ALPHABET Picture 1

Once you have spelt some of their last names together, finish the class teaching them the complete Alphabet.
Give them some tips to memorize the way letters are spelt, such as: e-mail, ok, dj, i-pod...

CLOSING

Do the closing in their mother tongue. Ask for some feedback on how they felt about the class and hand
out Worksheet 1 to be done at home for next class.

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