Sample Lesson Plan: Italian 1001

This sample lesson uses Italian for its examples, but could be adapted to any language.

I. Questions and Answers Warm-Up (about 15 minutes)
A. Greet the students in Italian and have them respond appropriately
B. Ask students a series of basic questions based on the material they’ve already studied, and have them respond in Italian. Jump from student to student unpredictably, so that all must pay attention. Briefly correct the students’ mistakes by modeling proper responses, but keep the exchanges quick and positive. Encourage the students to use the Italian they know even if they make mistakes. Don’t slow down for grammatical explanations, and use only Italian.
C. Have students write four original questions to ask their classmates and four questions for you, using vocabulary they already know. Walk around the room and help them if they need it, but speak to them in Italian only and ask them to use Italian like ‘Come si dice…?’ and ‘Come si scrive?’ with you.
D. Have students practice asking and answering questions with you and each other.

II. Dialogue Practice and Presentation (about 35 minutes)
A. Choose a dialogue related to the material the students have studied for class and have them listen to you and repeat it, mimicking your pronunciation and intonation (like the one on page 56).
B. Have students practice and present the conversation in pairs
C. Model the vocabulary or grammar point presented along with the dialogue, and have students repeat
D. Have students work in pairs to write their own dialogue, using the new vocabulary or grammar point and the original dialogue as a model
E. Students present their original dialogues for the class



III. Associations and Word Find Game (about 20 minutes)
A. Say definitions for the new vocabulary in Italian, and have students call out the corresponding word. For example, you might say (in Italian) “the child of my uncle” and students would respond (in Italian) “cousin.”
B. Have students write their own definitions in Italian for five of the words
C. Write the new vocabulary words on the board in random order and divide the class into two teams. Collect the students’ definitions and have a representative from each team go to the board. Read one of the definitions of a vocabulary word out loud, or invent a definition for one of the words. The student who finds and touches the proper word on the board first wins a point for their team. Teammates can help by yelling directions in Italian (left, right, up, down). Students take turns going to the board and finding words.

IV. Free conversation / Show-and-tell (5 – 10 minutes)
Ask each student to tell the class something about themselves in Italian before leaving. Prompt students with questions in Italian if necessary. Ask follow-up questions in Italian. Then tell the students something about yourself in Italian. This is a good way to introduce a bit of culture, for you can tell them “In Italy, most families…” or “In Italian universities, …”. Check the students’ comprehension of what you’ve said with basic questions.