Elvira Maia

This set of lesson plans was made to celebrate the agriculture based culture in the school I teach. By working with contents that are part of their daily lives, the intended plan is to be able to engage students in learning the content because of their affinity with the theme.  The lessons start with an introduction to starter vocabulary about farm elements, like tools and crops. The students will have the chance to learn more about how to properly use and care for the tools and how to select and cultivate crops for each season. In the final lessons, the students will read and talk about the cultivation of tobacco in the US. and compare it to how it works in their community. Besides that, they will read and discuss texts about important topics, like child labor and mono-culture, and present their opinions on it at the end of each activity. The plans also include a partnership with the school's Agricultural Instructor, providing even more detailed facts about the addressed contents.

The lessons have a moderate use of technology and this use is mainly based in the use of the student's smartphones, which is the only option given the school's poor conditions regarding to this area. These lessons focus primarily on World-Readiness Standards for Language Learning in "Cultures" and "Communities" and TESOL Principles 1, 2, 3  and 6 are emphasized.

These lessons were developed for middle school (grades 6-9/ages 11-15 years old) performing at a beginners level  or A1  English proficiency level, considering the level of my current students. My current school in the state of Santa Catarina  is a Rural School (Escola do Campo, as known in Brazil) and the main economic activity developed by the student's families is tobacco production. EFL classes meet two to three times a week, depending on the calss for 38 or 45 minutes at a time (depending on the number of classes that day) and class sizes are approximately 15 - 25 students.