Days 1 and 2 – lesson plans and materials
© Elac
Day 2, lesson 1 – Getting to know you
Before the lesson:
There is nothing to prepare but your thoughts.
Stage 1 – spidergram – 10 minutes
1. Draw a picture of yourself in the middle of the
board (or use a photograph if you have one).
2. Write some personal information around it as a
spider chart. E.g., chocolate (your favourite
food), 3 (the number of brothers and sisters
you have) and 27 (your age). Choose 3 – 5
pieces of information. It will look a bit like this:
27
3

chocolate
etc
Your example will lead the whole lesson so adapt
it to the level of the class.
For A1/A2 level classes focus on simple ideas you
can express in the present tense
For B1/B2 level classes, focus on past ideas such as
dates and years.
For C1/C2 level classes focus on abstract ideas and
things like writers and political / social opinions.
3. Elicit who the picture is of (you).
4. Ask “why are these words and numbers special
for me?” Students guess the significance of the
words and numbers.
5. Write the students’ guesses next to the
number and words.
6. At the end only, tell them the correct answers.
Stage 2 – 15 minutes
Use the examples from the spidergram to elicit the
right question forms.
A1/A2 level students – Focus on Wh- questions
E.g., I have three brothers. How many brothers do
you have? My name is Melinda. What’s your
name? I’m 27. How old are you?
Carry on for the rest of the information and drill
the intonation and pronunciation.
Keep going with other prompts, such as:
He’s 16
I live in London
His name is John
He likes apples
I’m a teacher
I take the bus
B1/B2 level students – focus on past tense forms
in questions
E.g., What happened in 1989? I went to my first
school. I used to play the trumpet. Have you ever
played a musical instrument?
And so on:
He was 16
I bought an new
car
His father was a
soldier
I liked English
and maths
She learned to
drive
I broke my arm
last year
C1/C2 level students – focus on ideas and
opinions and how to ask about them.
th
E.g., Jane Austen. Who’s your favourite 19
century writer? I can’t stand jazz. What sort of
music really annoys you? And so on:
I think they are
crazy
Lying on the
beach
Because he’s a
vegetarian
Clint Eastwood
Cruelty to
animals
Happiness is
more important
Stage 3
Making a spidergram – 5 minutes
Get the class to draw a blank spidergram on an A4
piece of paper with six empty spaces, like this (but
much bigger!):
Get the students to fill in the 6 boxes with
numbers and single words and put a silly picture in
the centre. They must do this alone, must not
include their names, and should follow your
example.
Go round quickly to check they understand and
are not putting their names on the papers.
Collect all the spidergrams from the class.
Stage 4 – guessing in pairs -12-15 minutes
Put the class in pairs and give each pair 2
spidergrams which must not include their own.
The task is to try to guess what the numbers and
words mean. Give an example:
If you find the word ‘football’, what does it mean?
The person likes football.
The pairs write their guesses on the spidergrams.
Stage 5 - mingle activity – 15 minutes
The pairs now have to walk around together and
interview other people in the class to see if they
can guess whose spidergram is whose. You should
monitor to check that they are asking questions to
find out if they have the right answers. When they
find the right person, they put the name on the
paper.
At the end, put all the spidergrams up on the walls
for everyone to look at.
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