Create own comic strips

for the class

<Lesson plan >

1. Profile of students

Age / School year : 15 / middle school (2nd year)
Gender : Girls
Number : 24
English Proficiency Level : Intermediate High

2. Skills to be emphasized

reading
writing
grammar

3. Content

Target Function: Reading or writing non-defining relative clauses

with a clear understanding

Target Language Form :

non-defining relative clause : , which + verb / , who + verb

4. Objectives

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to understand

the meaning of ‘non-defining relative clause’ and the differences between them and defining relative clauses.

5. Materials needed

Textbook, PowerPoint Slides, Worksheets(comic strip)

6. Brief descriptions of 2 activities

① Whole class activity

Have a short quiz to check students’ understanding of the language form that they learned. After explaining a specific situation, ask the students to choose one

between two options. (defining relative clause or non-defining relative clause). By giving three questions to students, students can familiarize themselves with the grammar points and understand the differences between defining relative clauses and non-defining relative clauses.

② ‘Story building’ activity

‘Story building’ activity involves collaboration with each group member to write a story that uses the target language form. After reading the comic strip that doesn’t include a detailed description, students have to add detail by only using defining/

non-defining relative clauses. What they have to do is fill in the blanks to make an appropriate sentence that can fully explain pictures in the comic strip.

The parts that each member wants to specify may different. So, they collaborate to enrich the story by combining the parts that they filled.

While doing this activity, students work together and communicate with each other. It gives students the chance to practice and review language forms and functions with each other. Also, students will more likely to use the target language in the future because they’ve seen it as a natural part of writing a story.

A more detailed explanation of the second activity (4 steps)

1) Introduce an activity and pass out worksheets to each group.

- The worksheet includes a ‘comic strip’ that is about the summary of a short book that students read last time. But it doesn’t include detailed descriptions.

2) Tell the rule of ‘Story Building’ activity

① Make a group of 4 people close by.

② Get the worksheet and read the comic strip.

③ Figure out where non-defining/defining relative clauses could be added.

④ Mark them with red numbers.

(Here is an example.)

⑤ Fill in the detailed information that students already read from the story.

- Make sure every student uses different color pens so that teacher can

know who did what.

* For the groups doing their work early, let them predict and write the lines of the character in the last scene until the other groups finish their work.

⑥ After times up, rewrite the group’s results on the blackboard.

⑦ Read and compare with other groups.

3) Before starting the activity, ensure three things again.

(1) Careful about the grammar points

(2) Do not change the main storyline.

(3) Every student uses different color pens.

4) Start the activity following the steps.

<Reflection>

Because ‘defining/non-defining relative clause’ is difficult concepts for students, I focused on encouraging them to learn grammatical functions through “active participation” to be more easily understood. Figuring out where defining / non-defining relative clauses could be added and sharing their thoughts with group members, they can naturally learn grammar points, also this process can enhance the students’ learning. I hope that the ‘Story building’ activity can lead students to become familiar with grammatical expressions.

I think the advantage of the “Pixton website”, which doesn’t require any artistic skills to work on it can make the teacher prepare their lesson more interesting and useful. Preparing for the lesson using this new tool, I could realize that comics are not just existed for fun, but they exist for helping the educational process. Also, I enjoyed being able to make one of the students' favorite comic strips on planning my English lesson.