5 classes of 90 minutes each 

Proficiency Level: low to high intermediate 
 

Day 1		Introduction, Single Word Preps, Complex Preps
Day 2		Use of Prep Phrases as Modifiers of Nouns; The word 'of'
Day 3		Use of Prep Phrases as Adverbs
Day 4		Use of Preps + Verbs (Prep Verbs vs. Phrasal Verbs)
Day 5		Preparation of Dialogues; Oral Quiz; Written Quiz

The goal will be to provide the students with models and prompts so that the class time is maximized for acquistion of vocab, while homework is maximized for content applications. Students will be encouraged to listen for the use of preps in everyday speech outside the classroom, and will know that different types of preps are commonly used in speech, ads, fiction, and academic writing. 

On Day 5, there will be a 1/2 hour review game, then a written test for 1/2 hour, and then presentation of dialogues for 1/2 hour. The written tests and dialogues will be graded to each count 50% of the grade. That means there will be a fairly equal distribution of oral/ written activities during the 4 lessons. Since homework lends itself to reading/writing more than listening/speaking, class time will be more heavily weighted with oral activities in order to balance out the skills acqusition. 
 

Day 1		Brief introduction and overview of requirements  As part of their daily homework assignment, students will be asked to note down 5 sentences with different types of prep phrases that they heard or read that day or night -- these will be shared with partners as a warm-up for the first 5 minutes of each class.  Applied Grammar Book/Dictionary Presentations Students will be divided into 9 groups and assigned one of the most common preps from p. 203. They will be given 1/2 hour to prepare a presentation on their prep, using the dictionary to find examples of different types of usage. Their presentations will make use of the board, overhead, etc. to give written examples, and will include a short dialogue or monologue to give oral examples. Students will be encouraged to use visual and kinesthetic aids where possible. Each student in the group will be assigned a specific task.  After the student presentations, if there is time left, students will play a twins game from Penny Ur where each student is given a card with a question and they have to find the student with the correct prep phrase answer.  Homework 5 prep phrases; fill in blanks on Volcanoes story, pp. 210 -11; bring in 2 pictures with people or animals or both.
Day 2		Warm-up with prep sharing; go over homework.  Pictures Activity Students will be asked to write down 5 sentences describing the people/animals in their pictures, with prep phrases in every sentence describing the people or animals. Ex: The man with the mustache is holding the dog with the blue collar. The woman in the brown skirt is talking to the man in the black suit. When each student is done, they will hand in their pictures. The teacher will randomly tape the pictures to the board. Students will be divided into 2 teams. Students get up, describe their pictures, and their team has to guess which picture they're describing. Each team gets 1 point for correctly identifying the picture described.  News Reports Activity   The volcanoes focus would lead to the fabrication of news reports on natural disasters, such as: the flood of 1999, the first hurricane of the season, etc. The teacher would play a cassette tape or video tape of several different news reports, having the students write down and identify the various uses of 'of,' according to p. 208: location, source, measurement, time, etc. In this way, when they write their own reports for homework, they will have at least one example of every use of 'of.'  Homework 5 prep phrases; Students choose one of the five famous volcanoes (or another volcano in Hawaii, etc.) and write a new report on their eruptions, using 'of:' The eruption of Helgafell on the island of Heimaey was one of the biggest eruptions of the century. The noise of the explosions could be heard 100 miles away. The screams of the people mingled with the smell of sulfur...."
Day 3		Warm-up with prep-sharing The teacher announces that this is 'How, Where, or When' day. Students are divided into 2 teams; as each student presents the news report they have written for homework, students have 3 columns to keep track of prep phrases which answer those questions. After all the presentations, the teacher will tally up each team's responses and post them on the board. As the lesson progresses, students will continue to receive points for using time and space prep phrases. For example, before answering a question, the student could say, "I got this answer from the book/ a friend/the dictionary." Or before asking a question, the student could say, "On Tuesday night, I was doing my homework and thought of this question." To avoid duplication, a phrase can only be used once.  Describing Pictures This is a variation on a Penny Ur activity: The teacher puts a scene of a furnished room in a house on the overhead, and encourages the students to describe it orally: "The table is next to the couch. The lamp is on the table." Then the teacher divides the students into groups of 3, with each group receiving a different picture. One student is the reporter, and puts a check for each sentence that is orally produced by the group within 3 minutes. Then the pictures are rotated and another student keeps track of the sentences. The teacher does oral checking and students report sample sentences at the end of the exercise.  Co-operative Story-Telling As a wrap-up, the teacher can start a story and each student has to add a sentence, using prep phrases of time and location: "On June 12th, I lost my favorite CD. I looked for a half hour in the CD player, under the bed, and all around my room, but I couldn't find it...."  Homework Students write a short description of an event in their lives that occurred at a certain, time, day, place, etc, using as many prep phrases as possible (all types).
Day 4		Warm-up with prep sharing; students hand in homework.  Ads Activity The teacher selects a number of ads with small texts packed with preps and separates the pictures and texts. Each pair of stds. is given a picture and asked first to write what they think is being advertised, then 5 words/phrases and 3 preps. they would use to describe the ad. Then the pictures and words are collected and randomly redistributed back out. Each pair is asked to use the suggested idea of what is being advertised and the words to write a short text for the picture. Afterward, everyone is shown each picture and asked to guess what it is advertising and then each pair reads their text. Some of the more common/useful prepositional phrases may be noted on the board. Then, the texts that were originally separated from the pictures are displayed around the room and the stds. are asked to find which text goes with their picture. ie what is being advertised. Attention can be drawn to phrasal verbs and prep verbs that occur in the texts.  Co-operative Story The teacher assigns one of the most common preps on p. 203, to each of 9 groups of students. The teacher gives each group the 3 McKlin lists of verb +preps, phrasal verbs, and phrasal verbs +preps. Students are instructed to find all of the phrases that use their particular prep. Then they pick a theme that would include the greatest usage of their prep word. The students in the group write a co- operative story by passing the paper around from student to student. After 1/2 hour, the students read their stories to each other.  Homework Study for quizzes by reviewing all materials, especially McKlin's lists
Day 5		Preparation of Dialogues Teacher pairs students for preparation of oral quiz dialogue. Teacher instructs students to prepare a dialogue of at least 5 exchanges each, with every line using a prepositional phrase. Sample: Partner A: "Where are you going after the concert tomorrow night?" Partner B: "I'm going over to Molly's house with a few friends. Why don't you come with us?" Partner A: " I wish I could, but I promised to go over to my parents' house. I haven't seen them in a week." Partner B: "Why don't we go to a movie on Saturday afternoon instead? Students are given 1/2 hour to compose and prepare the dialogue for presentation.  Oral Quiz Students present dialogues to class, and teacher grades them on appropriate and varied usage of preps and prep phrases.  Written Quiz Teacher presents a 1/2 hour written quiz based upon Listening Comprehension -- students fill in blanks of story read outloud -- and Vocab Recall -- students answer multiple choice questions based upon McKlin's lists -- and Descriptive Usage -- students compose a description of a picture of a city street with buildings, people, cars, etc.