CEP Lesson Plan

Teacher: Minyue Wang

Level: Upper-intermediate3

Date/Time: Nov 11 / 9:00-11:00

Theme: learning and knowledge

Goal:
1. Writing skill: make a formal request through email (the sample email is about withdrawing
from a course and ask for a refund)
2. Activation of prior knowledge: integrating prior knowledge (writing formal emails and
punctuation usages) with new knowledge
3. Speaking: talk about things you learned at school or at work
Objectives:
Students Will Be Able To
1. Learn how to make a request via email, and relate the skill to real life situation
2. Integrate students prior knowledge of writing formal emails with punctuation usages
3. Apply learning related words and grammar structures to speaking
Lesson Rationale:
The first half of the class is a formal email writing class. Students will learn how to make a
formal request via email, and the theme has been narrowed down to due to the mismatch
between your expectation and the reality. The sample email in the textbook is about withdrawing
from a course and ask for a refund, while the lesson will focus on the explicit learning of writing
structures, language use, and language pragmatics, which will be further solidified by students
analyzing a real life sample of requesting for exchanging products. Students will then be required
to apply the knowledge to a writing task, the topic of which should be chosen from their real life
experience.
The second half is a speaking class, left off from our last class. A variety of speaking prompts are
provided some that all students in the class will be able to find 2-3 prompts they feel relate to.
The following are the target language.
absorb take in acquire
connect with engaged with
inspire motivate
pick up acquire
be ignorant of not know
grasp understand

Aim/Skill/Microskill

Activity/Procedure/Stage

Interaction Time

Pre-class activity How things we

learned in the class can serve you
better in the real life.

T-S

I rephrased something one student said

in the class before with some
structures and phrases we learned in
the last class to show them how things
we learned in the class can actually
make them a more effective speaker.
The no-carbs diet I tried did not
serve me well. I did not manage to lose
weight.
1.

The writing theme is to 1.1 Pre-Stage: Warm up

make a request due to
the mismatch between
T-S
your expectation and the
A. Speaking:
reality via email.
S-S
a. Whats the most commonly made
request in peoples everyday life?
2. Writing skill: make a
b. Work in pair. Have you ever made
formal request through
a request due to the mismatch
email (the sample email
between your expectation and
is about withdrawing
the reality, OR do you want to
from a course and ask
make a request to someone asking
for a refund)
for, for example, a refund, a change
of plan, or an exchange of a
product you just bought?
3. Activation of prior
c. Share as a class
knowledge: integrating d. Follow-up question: If you were
prior knowledge
to make that request through email,
(writing formal emails
how would structure your email?
and punctuation usages)
with new knowledge
1.2 During Stage:
A. How are we going to approach
this?

T-S

15

Next we are going to learn how to

write that kind of email, using the
sample from our textbook
A good structure
Effective language
A good manner (always be polite at
first, cause you don't want to start off
on the wrong foot)
All three together will help you to
increase the possibility of a successful
request and enhance the effectiveness
of the communication between you
and other people.
15
B. Work in pair. Read the sample
S-S
email and fill in the blanks
Self- correction: After you finish
the exercise. Find the answers in
11e where you will see the original
sample email.
5

Please refer to the handout

S-S
C. structure and manner
Work in pairs. Please reread the email
and consider the following questions.
1.
What the purpose of the first
paragraph?
-- Background information
-- Explain the mismatch between your
expectation and the reality
2.
What the purpose of the second
paragraph?

-- Say something positive.

-- Signal your frustration and bring up
the problem again in a more succinct
way.
3.
What the purpose of the third
paragraph?
-- Make a formal request and remain
polite.
5
D. How were these purposes realized S-T
by effective language?
1. Despite the obvious frustration, the
person was still able to maintain
polite. What proper language was
used to express politeness in the
last paragraph?
S-S
2. link the following contrasting
ideas with the linking words in the
box
3. self-correction: find the answers in T-S
the sample email you just read.
4. Explanation
Please refer to the handout.

20

10

10

1.3 Post-Stage:

S-S

a. How can the structure we learned be

applied to requesting mails in other
situations?
-- A real-life example of requesting
email: asking for an exchange of a
product
Read the real life example Whats
the purpose of each paragraph?
b. Refer to the sample email in the
book or the above real life example
and write a requesting email yourself.

Again, you are going to make a request

due to some mismatch the expectation
and the reality. For example, you can
request to withdraw from a course and
ask for a refund. Or you can ask for an
exchange of something you purchased
online. For whichever topic you
choose, I hope that it is something
closely related to your real life.
Be sure to use the correct formal email
format and punctuate carefully. We
have learned these last week.

1.

Speaking: talk about

things you learned at
school or at work

2.1 Pre-Stage: Activation of prior

knowledge
Recap before speaking
Students who couldn't easily
___________ facts and statistics said
they were able to __________ much
more easily with the subject when
Fadiman ___________ the class to her
real life.
Learning is a reiterative process.
2.2 During Stage: vocabulary learning

absorb take in acquire

- frequently used phrases: This is a
lot for me to take in! I need some time
to process
connect with engaged with
inspire motivate
pick up acquire

T-S

be ignorant of not know

grasp understand
2.3 Post-Stage:
S-S

25

a.

speaking: talk about your learning

experience at school or at work. Be
sure to use the new structures and
words in your speaking
b. Talk with your partner
c. Share as a class
Wrap-up

Assigning homework for todays class

Speaking prompts (pick one category)

Learning at school
Learning at work
1. Who (one of your teachers or
1. Who inspired you the most at
your classmates) inspired you
work? How?
the most at school? How?
2. Which subject engaged you the 2. Did you feel engaged at work?
most at school? Why?
What helped you to engage
with your job?
Feeling engaged means that you feel like
your work really matters, that youre making
progress toward bigger goals.

3. Did you succeed in passing all

your exams?

4. What knowledge did you

manage to acquire has been
useful in later life?

3. Did you succeed in passing

annual assessment each year? Was
it hard for you? Or did you
manage to achieve sales targets
each month? Was it hard for you?
4. Tell me about one critical skills
you managed to acquire at work.

5. Was there anything that you

couldn't grasp that you wished
you did now?

5. Was there skill required at work

still needs to be developed? Or, do
you need to pick up a new skill for
your work?