Life in Quarantine (online)

Lesson developed by Sarfaraz Farooque
(can be followed by Lockdown Effects and  Yoga Lesson 4)
Proficiency: Intermediate High           
Time: 2X75 min.
Objectives: Students will be able to:
  • describe activities which happen frequently or continuously during a specific time span
  • explain advantages and disadvantages of being stuck at home (health, psychological, social, economic and other reasons)
  • understand and tell a joke
Language Targets: Students learn to use:
  • continuous aspect + adverbial phrases (रात भर, दिन भर, महीने भर, साल भर) — e.g.  टी॰वी॰ देखते रहते हैं
  • continuous and intensifying aspect + adverbial phrases (लगातार, धीरे-धीरे) — तबियत बिगड़ती गयी 
  • frequentative aspect — + adverbial phrases (बार-बार, हर दिन, हर सुबह, अक्सर) — e.g. फ़ोन पर बात किया करते हैं 

Tech Tools: 

  • Zoom
  • Google Documents
  • VoiceThread
  • Internet resources (used directly or inspired by):

Learning Scenarios (Zoom classroom):

Step 1. Pair work: Teacher asks the students to imagine that NYU is conducting a survey to know about life in quarantine. What questions would the university include in the survey? (Write 5 individually or 10 in a small group of 2 or 3 on the google doc)
 
Step 2. Pair work: students write the answers to the questions of another pair, including things they don’t do. 
Step 3. In groups, students go through the vocabulary items and put them in different categories (students make their own categories). Instructor helps the students use a higher register use of language when possible (because of the survey context) 
 

Step 4. Students make sentences using the assigned words in the context of the lockdown. (Teacher assigns 3 words to every student for an individual activity or 3 times the number of students for group activity)

Step 5. Students log-in on voicethread.com and access the activity. They read the sentences (individually) on the pictures and then record their explanation (text, audio or video).  VoiceThread weblink – https://voicethread.com/share/14170669/ )
 

Step 6. The teacher explains the grammar targets.

Step 7. The teacher puts them back in groups. They discuss their comments what they agree or disagree with and come up with the best explanation of the picture and the text by trying to use the new language structures. The teacher supports the groups and directs their attention to the kind of issue they identify (शारीरिक या मानसिक तबियत, परिवार, समाज, अर्थ-व्यवस्था या पढ़ाई की दृष्टि से)

Homework: In pairs, students are required to: 
  • write 20-25 sentences explaining life in quarantine and its advantages and disadvantages
  • use 6 new grammar structures (twice each) 
  • use 8 new vocabulary items
  • upload project on the assigned Forum created for each pair.