Money and
Expenses
Type of the
lesson: English practice
Age of students:
19-20 (2-year students)
General topic of
the unit: Money
Topic of the
class: Money care
Goals of the
class: develop listening and speaking skills, and the ability to express
personal view of the topic, discuss responsible and reasonable ways of spending
money.
Goals of the
activity: train the skills of planning own expenses, develop critical thinking
concerning the questions of incomes and expenses.
1. Pre-listening
exercise
1. What are
common monthly expenses for the students living on their own? What about living
in the family?
2. What difficulties
do students face while living on their own (concerning both earning and
spending money)?
2. Listening
exercise
Listen to the dialogue
for the first time.
During the second listening fill in the gaps in the text
below.
Text
Ron: Uh, could I borrow a few bucks until payday? I'm a
little (1)_____ for cash.
Nancy: Uh, yeah, I guess, but I'm pinching pennies myself,
and you still (2)_____ me $20 from last week. And mom and your friend Ron said
you borrowed money from them this past week. [Oh, yeah.] How ARE things going
anyway?
Ron: Well, not very well. To be honest, I'm really in the
(3)_______, and I can't seem to make ends meet these days.
Nancy: What do you mean? I thought you landed a great job
recently, so you must be loaded.
Ron: Well, I do have a job, but I've used my credit cards
to pay off a lot of things recently, but now, I can't seem to pay the money
off.
Nancy: Uh, do you have a (4)______? I mean, how do you keep
track of your income and expenses?
Ron: Well, when my money runs out, I come to you. Of
course. [Great!] No, but I guess I should have some financial plan.
Nancy: Well, let me see if I can help you. How much money
do you spend on your apartment?
Ron: Uh, I pay $890 on rent for the studio apartment
downtown . . . not including (5) ______and cable TV. But the place has an
awesome view of the city.
Nancy: Uh, $890! Why are you paying through the nose for
such a small place when you could find a cheaper one somewhere outside of the
downtown area?
Ron: Yeah, I guess.
Nancy: Okay. How much money do you spend on food a month?
Ron: Hmmm. I'm not really sure. I think I spend around
$600. [$600?!] Well, I go out to eat at least four times a week, so those
expenses add up. I just don't enjoy eating alone, and I don't have a (6)______
for cooking like you do.
Nancy: Well, I can understand that, but perhaps you ought to
buy some microwaveable meals you could prepare at home.
Ron: Well, I guess I could.
Nancy: And entertainment?
Ron: Well, I spend a few dollars here and there on
basketball and movie tickets, a concert or two, and ballroom dance lessons.
Nancy: Uh, exactly how much do you spend on all of these?
Just a "few" dollars?
Ron: Well, oh . . . about $400 or so.
Nancy: Or so? No wonder you're having money problems. You
can't just blow your money on things like that! And what about transportation?
Ron: Oh, I (7) _____to work everyday in my new sports
car, but I got a great deal, and my monthly payments are only $450. Come
outside and take a look. We can go for a spin!
Nancy: No, I've heard enough. You've got to (8)______ your
spending, or you'll end up broke. I suggest you get rid of your credit cards,
cut back on your entertainment expenses, and sell your car. Take public
transportation from now on.
Ron: Sell my car?! I can't date without a car. What am I
going to say? "Uh, could you meet me downtown at the bus stop at
7:00?" Come on!
Nancy: And you need to create a budget for yourself and
(9)________ to it, and start with paying off your bills, starting with me. You
owe me $50 dollars.
Ron: Fifty dollars! Wait, I only borrowed $20 from you
last week. How did you come up with $50?
Nancy: Financial (10) _______fees. My advice is at least worth $30!
3. Post-listening
exercise
1. What do you think about the situation
which we’ve heared in the dialogue? Who of these two people sounds more
reasonable to you?
2. Chose
one of the positions (Nancy’s or Ron’s one) and write down 5 statements of
support for them.
Home assignment:
1. Create your
own list of monthly expenses. Analyze which of them are indispensable and which
ones you can put aside.
2. Watch the
following video.
What are the main ways to save money? Put them in in
the descending order from the most effective to the less effective one.
After looking through Ruslana's plan of the lesson, I came to conclusion that it is well-structured. The pre-listening, listening and post listening activities are all present in the lesson, so, I can say that from the methodological point of view it is very correct. Students' attention will be grabbed from the very begining of the lesson and they will already know what they will be talking about during the class. I appreciate that Ruslana uses both listening, speaking, writing, reading techniques. It makes the class interesting and the students will not get bored for sure. She ends class with home assignment and again crabs students' attention while giving them a link for watching a video. I appreciate the plan of the class and put the highest mark "5".
ОтветитьУдалитьThe logical structure of the fragment doesn’t allow the irresponsible student to say it was difficult to understand what to do. There are exercises in writing, listening and speaking, which is very good from the point of “thorough development” of communicative skills. However, it is somehow difficult to understand with whom are the students supposed to talk in pre and post listening activities? Anyway, it’s great when you know how to spend money, especially if you have some. My point is “5”. You are the real teacher, like "London is the capital of Great Britain and who is on duty today” ^^
ОтветитьУдалитьRuslana gains students attention at the beginning of the lesson, asking such urgent questions that worry absolutely everyone. She provides corrective feedback appropriate to student level and lesson stage. Ruslana also relates material to students interests, that's why this lesson will be very dynamic and students surely will be able to recollect a lot from what they have been studied at this lesson.
ОтветитьУдалитьWell done! Five points gooooooes.....to Ruslana)))
If you don't mind I will copy your lesson to my collection?))
Ruslana used in listening comprehension a good approach: filling the gaps helps students to follow the audio and even if they mishear any word at the first time they can suggest it during the 2nd time. Tasks are concentrated on 1 topic and logically structured, also we can see that every task has a discussion part that can show the level of students' understanding. 5!
ОтветитьУдалитьRuslana`s blog-lesson provides clear and concise directions for students to follow. Also, we see that it encourages many kinds of language competentions- reading, listening, speaking. The vocabulary is on the appropriate level. The dialogue includes some colloquialism and wide spread usefull words. In the whole, I can say this lesson is a very good example. I put "5".
ОтветитьУдалитьListening is one of the activities which should be developed - such a deafness medicine ;)) it helps, but after prolonged sessions (personally). Rusya, excellent.
ОтветитьУдалитьI would like to mention, that Ruslana's lesson is not only well-planned, but also provides students with a great deal of critical thinking. Such questions like money savings and expenses are really essential for everyone. This lesson will give an excellent opportunity to practice new useful vocabulary and... learn how to save your money!
ОтветитьУдалитьGreat job!
Frankly speaking before creating my own blog I lood at yours in order to have an idea what is going on here. I liked how you structurized the lesson, so did I in my blog. The idea to write about money is interesting and unusual.
ОтветитьУдалитьBy the way, your idea to create the list of monthly expenses and to analyze which of them are indispensable and which ones not seemed very useful, so I created such a list and was shoked! Thank you for this awesome idea!!!!!
Hmm. Really well-structured.It is very correct from the methodological point of view .I appreciate you using nearly all possible techniques. I put the highest mark "5".
УдалитьI think that such topic fits any taste. We all are worried about money expenses and the ways how to economize. I like the ideas Ruslana suggests, as I see she offers using gap-filling listening comprehension. So as I understand the students have to create text file and copy the exercise there, because it's impossible to edit the text here. I like that it is both listening and reading comprehension. it helps student insert the words logically, if they mishear something, so each student can evaluate himself'herself by the number of the right answers. I enjoyed the lesson. 5 points.
ОтветитьУдалить