Unit 6: Target Language (by phase)

Mark's Notes:

I teach can as it's own unit after we have finished verbs 3. Since it is so useful and such a strong part of children's conversation, I think it's good to spend a bit of time on this but it could certainly just be running content.

Phase 1: Phase 1 is always vocabulary focused. The most important thing is to learn the vocabulary and we'll practice the target language as time goes by. However, if they don't know the words, it will just become more and more difficult as time goes on. That might be discouraging and hinder progress. So, take your time and focus on the words for now.

Nature 2 is a vocabulary building set. I use it here to increase vocabulary and give us time to practice prepositions and 'Where' questions before we move on to "can". These words will also be recycled and be very useful when we cover 'There is/are ...' later in Unit 8.)

Verbs 3 is made up of longer predicates with almost all of the verbs taking obligatory direct objects. They are a little harder to learn for some of the students and contain our first plural subject. You can skip that by saying "He is fighting (with him.)" if you'd like. With these I just focus on solidifying the vocabulary and our present progressive statements and questions.

Adjectives 2 is a vocabulary building unit, giving us a buffer to practice other target language from before as well as review adjectives 1 and work with 'be'.

Can is the main content in this unit. I generally start with the word "fly" as it's very easy to understand. Children are well aware of what can or can't fly and I ask about animals, superheroes or other characters that the students are familiar with. I introduce most new structures in a question form first, asking "Can a fish fly?" for example. We work with just the question and yes/no answers for a while and we build to statements once students understand what "can" means.

Drinks are just a useful set of vocabulary and gives us time to practice and focus on "can" while still building up the students' vocabulary. I also work with "want" here and bring back the food vocabulary from Unit 2.

Phase 2: I'll come back to phase 2 and phase 3 once I get all of phase 1 posted.

Phase 3: I'll come back to phase 2 and phase 3 once I get all of phase 1 posted.

If you'd like to listen to the the curriculum explained, I discussed the curriculum and how it runs on ESL Teacher Talk.com:

The MES curriculum part 1, The MES curriculum part 2, Phonics part 1, Phonics part 2