Recently many of us have had to change our approach to teaching due to teaching from home. This has been enjoyable for some, and stressful for others. In this article I’ll look at one lesson and see how it can be taught in both face-to-face and online classes. Hopefully, this example will give you more confidence in taking on online classes.

For this article I’m going to look at a possible lesson for intermediate students connected to the topic of food – a topic I think we all teach from time to time.

Step 1 Warmer: As a warmer I would ask students to talk about what they had eaten that day or the previous day. This immediately gets them into the topic, and activates the topic in their minds.

Step 2: Contextualise

Now I want students to be exposed to a range of key words, so I will get them to read about someone’s reading habits, with a couple of comprehension questions. Here’s an example sentence form the text.

‘I was starving, so I looked in the fridge for something to eat.  There were some onions and tomatoes, but it would take too long to make them into something and I was a bit lazy. Luckily, there was a pizza and some chips in the freezer, so I heated them up in the oven.’

Step 3 Focus on Vocabulary:

Now I want students to focus on the vocabulary, so as a first step they could underline all the words in the text that are related to food, and then as a follow up classify them, e.g. vegetables (onions, tomatoes), preparation words (heat up), and tools (oven).

Having found the ones in the text, students could work together to brainstorm add more, including more categories, types of meat, cooking utensils and so on.

Step 4: Practice

Now we have lots of words, we need some practice. Perhaps first we want to be sure students understanding our key words, so we can display pictures and students write all the relevant words. For a picture of someone cooking pasta, that could be pasta, pan, cooker, water and wooden spoon, depending on what is in the picture.

We could also asks students to write example sentences about some food and have other students guess what is being described.

Step 5 Putting it All Together

 Finally, we could return to the initial tasks of students describing the food they have eaten recently, but this time we can expect more detail.

For reinforcement at home, students can keep a diary of the food they have been preparing and eating.

Now let’s look at how we could teach this lesson, according to our circumstances.

Table: How to Implement the Lesson in both Face-to-Face and Online Classes

Face-to-Face	Online
Step 1 Warmer Could be done orally with the Teacher asking individual students. Or teacher asks one student (as an example) and then students continue in pairs or groups.	Step 1 Warmer Could be done orally with the Teacher asking individual students. Or teacher asks one student (as an example) and then students continue in pairs or groups using break out rooms.
Step 2: Contextualise Hand out text to students, who read and do the comprehension exercises.	Step 2: Contextualise Share text with students, through a link, chat function, etc (exact method will depend on how your classes are organised. If you use a service like Zoom, then via the chat is probably easiest, if you have Edmodo or Google Classroom, then via the group there), who read and do the comprehension exercises.
Step 3 Focus on Vocabulary I’d do this as individual work at first, then in pairs of groups to check answers and to brainstorm. If students work in groups, they can all keep records in their notebooks and then change teams and share their ideas. Additionally, students could be adding words to a class Padlet or even just a shared document. This way they wouldn’t miss any ideas and have something to go back to after the lesson.	Step 3 Focus on Vocabulary I’d do this as individual work at first, then in pairs of groups to check answers and to brainstorm – using break out rooms If students work in groups, they can all keep records in their notebooks and then change teams and share their ideas. Most online classrooms will allow you to move students to different break out rooms, check you know how to do this. Additionally, students could be adding words to a class Padlet or even just a shared document. This way they wouldn’t miss any ideas and have something to go back to after the lesson.
Step 4: Practice Teacher can display different food related pictures on the board and students write down the words they see. This could be gamified. Using mini-whiteboards, students write down the words they see and display, points for each correct word. If using a handout with some gap fill exercises, this can be handed out. To make a gap fill more fun, turn it into an online quiz with Kahoot or similar app.	Step 4: Practice Teacher can display different food related pictures on the board and students write down the words they see. This could be gamified. Students could write the words they see in the chat, or on a piece of paper that they hold up to the screen. If using a handout with some gap fill exercises, this can be sent in the chat. To make a gap fill more fun, turn it into an online quiz with Kahoot or similar app.
Step 5 Putting it All Together This is a repeat of the warmer. After the input of the lesson students should now be able to talk at greater length, more detail and more accurately about the topic. Ideally students would work with a student they haven’t previously talked to so there is more reason to communicate.	Step 5 Putting it All Together This is a repeat of the warmer. After the input of the lesson students should now be able to talk at greater length, more detail and more accurately about the topic. Ideally students would work with a student they haven’t previously talked to so there is more reason to communicate. Students can talk in break out room.

Now I’m sure there are different ways to teach this. The reading could be replaced with a video, for example, the teacher could start with a presentation that would act as a model for the students to follow later, and there are many different ways that students could record the vocabulary, to give just a few examples .

Do you have other thoughts on how to teach such a lesson? Please reply in the comments.