Apartment Hunting

Objectives:

• The learner will match abbreviations from apartment classified ads with their correct term with 100% accuracy.

• The learner will use superlatives and comparatives when talking about shopping for apartments. 

Duration:

    2 hours

Materials:

• Apartment classified ads from newspaper

• English Day by Day, Michael Roddy, Academic Therapy Publications; 1989, Exercise L-1, pgs.179-180 

• English Day by Day, Michael Roddy, Academic Therapy Publications; 1989, Abbreviations in Want Ads, p. 167

• Making Comparisons worksheet

• Standout 3, Standards-Based English, Staci Lyn Sabbagh and Rob Jenkins, Thomson and Heinle; 2002, pgs. 41-42

• White board

Activities:

1. Teacher distributes Standout 3 handout, and English Day by Day, "Abbreviations in Want Ads," p. 167. Learners identify unfamiliar vocabulary; teacher provides definitions. Whole class participates in exercises A and B, comparing experiences and apartment preferences. Learners discuss the content of each advertisement; teacher states importance of understanding the meanings of housing abbreviations as specialized vocabulary.

2. Teacher distributes copies apartment classified ads from newspaper. Teacher allows 5-10 minutes for independent inquiry using abbreviations and classified ads.

3. Learners complete English Day by Day, Exercise L-1, pgs.179-180. Whole class discusses responses.

4. Teacher asks class, "How do we tell someone that we like one apartment more than another? We call this comparing." Teacher writes compare on the board and conjugates the first and third person in simple past, present, future and present continuous tenses, and models the verb's usage. Selected learners conjugate compare through substitution drill (i.e., "I compared these two apartments," "She is comparing three apartment," etc.). Teacher says, "Now we will compare the apartments in these ads." 

5. Teacher directs learners to Standout 3, p. 42, Exercise E. Teacher defines count and non-count nouns; directs class to say each example out loud.

6. Learners complete Exercise F. Paired learners compare answers; discuss as class.

7. Teacher distributes Making Comparisons worksheet. Learners Complete comparative and superlative forms of "slow," "fast," and "tall." Teacher writes housing-related nouns on the board ("apartment," "house," "window," "bathroom," "porch," etc.) and conducts substitution drill with comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs. 

Assessment:

Teacher monitors verbal and written responses, assesses individual responses to English Day by Day, Exercise L-1, and Standout 3, Exercise F.