Smart Choice 2 Sample Lesson Plan

One of my readers has requested some sample lesson plans from the "Smart Choice" series.  She teaches the book in her Uni English classes and has been having a hard time making interesting lessons. 

I've been teaching Smart Choice for the past 3 years in one of the extra programs I teach in at my school, so have plenty of experience with making this book work in the real world.  And actually, I really like this book, even more so when I compare it to what else is out there.  In this program that uses this book, it replaced the terrible "Touchstone" series, which was a nightmare to teach. 

So, last week in class, I was given pages 59 (listening) and 61 (enjoying English) in Smart Choice 2.  My classes are 50 minutes long.  This was my lesson plan:

1. I always start each class with a review.  So, I reviewed the vocab on page 56.  I had the students close the books and gave hints such as, "This can happen if I fall off my bike." Answer=you broke your arm or sprained your ankle.  This takes about 5 minutes.

2. Then I reviewed some of the grammar from page 58.  I got the students to give me 3 examples of "I_________while I was______ing________."  And then 3 examples of "While I was _____ing, I __________."  This took about 5 minutes.

3. Then I did the listening on page 59.  After part 1, I got the students to have a conversation with each other, after I got them to ask me the questions by way of example.  Then, I got each group to tell me quickly what they talked about with their partner.  Then, I did part 2.  This took 15 minutes or so. 

4.  Then, I covered page 61.  I gave the students 4 minutes to choose A/B/C/D and think of a story that they could tell the class.  The had to put their pencils down and not write anything, but just speak, instead of reading off their paper.  For under 10 students, we went around the class and everyone listened to their stories.  I would ask a few more questions to each student.  For bigger classes, I put them in groups of 4 or 5 and they told their group.  Then, they picked the best story in their group and they told the whole class.  This took 20-25 minutes.