TSU English 1 SBP

ENGLISH
TEACHER SUPPORT UNIT 1
Friends, Family and Sambalpur

English Teacher Support Unit 1

1
FRIENDS, FAMILY AND SAMBALPUR
BEFORE WE START...
The First TSU
The first TSU focuses on listening and speaking because these form the basis for students to understand
what they read and write. To begin with, students do not have grade level language skills – but by the end
of the first two-three months they will be able to understand English better. This will be achieved through
a number of simple, doable activities contained in the TSU, in which students will listen and understand
English while engaged in an interesting, fun and meaningful process.
This TSU contains listening and speaking activities that you can do over two weeks to a month. They start
with word-level activities where students respond through gestures and words. They progress to activities
in which you can expect students to use simple sentences. After you do an activity in class, record next to
it whether it worked for you, the modifications you had to make and whether students responded in the
way you expected.
The later TSUs that follow will focus on reading and writing with meaning, and on how to use the textbook
more effectively so that students are able to approach their exams with confidence.
The starting point
Based on our field-work and the diagnostic tests conducted, we assume that our students can perform the
following at this point:
• Can give short responses like yes, no, come, go, take it, please etc.
• Can identify sound units (Ex. nation, ration, lotion, motion etc.)
• Can copy words and sentences in meaningful contexts
• Can describe pictures in a simple way
Do you agree with these as the starting level? Are your students able to do much more than this? Or less
than this? How will you align the suggestions here with the level at which your students are?
So here’s the first TSU. Our best wishes to you in your efforts to ensure your students learn English as
well as they can!
Family And Friends - the theme
Since the objective in these first units is to encourage speaking and listening, it’s important to have themes
that students feel like talking about. One such them is that of ‘Family and Friends’ – it’s something every
student has had all kinds of experience of. It’s a theme on which they will have views, interesting events to
share and an interest in talking about.


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The activities included here will help our students to:
• Comprehend short statements (even short talks) and presentations
• Respond in short answers
• Use words known to them, in meaningful contexts
• Read and understand words and phrases on the basis of clues and contexts
• Copy words, phrases and sentences for a meaningful purpose.
• Make simple sentences and frame questions.
At many place, we’ve asked you to speak in English or give instructions in English. At such times, do speak
slowly and clearly, and use your voice, expressions and gestures/actions to help students understand
better.
Begin by collecting the words students already know
How can we use students’ experiences for English language learning? Start with the English words they
have already know, related to this theme. Words such as:
Family, friend, father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandmother,
grandfather, young, old, baby, boy, girl, son, daughter, close friend, best friend…
Write a few (perhaps 4-5) of these words on the board and ask them how many more such they can
mention. After getting 10 or more such words, ask them if they can write them down. If they find it
difficult to write in English, ask them to do so in Odia. Let them present those words before the class. As
they present, you can provide the English words for what they have written.
Now you have a list of English words known to students. How can we use these? Here are some
suggestions.
Activity 1: Guess who?
Ask a student “What are the names of your family members?”
Write those names on the board. Select a name and make a guess about who it is. E.g., ask “Is X your father?”
Students may say “Yes or No”
If a student says no, say “Oh. X is not your father, then is he your brother?” Go on asking till you get it right.
Do the same with 2-3 more names.
The students get to listen to you, in a situation where they can understand what you are saying in English.
What other statements/questions can you make that students will understand ? (E.g., is she older than you ?
Or, did he study in the same school ?’)
Ask “Who is ready to say the names of your family members?” If many students raise their hands, it means
like the activity.


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Do the activity with two or three more students now, with you playing the role of the ‘guesser’. In some
cases, if you already know the relationships of the family member make a wrong guess deliberately. It will
make the student respond!
At this stage only a few students have participated in this activity. How can we involve all the students?
That’s right, instead of doing it on the blackboard, we can move it to pair-work.
• Ask the students to select a partner
• Each one writes the names of her/his family members in their note book
• The decide who is going to guess and ask questions first
• For each right guess, a tick mark is made
Should you discuss the processes before they sit in pairs or after?
When students are involving in the pair work what should you do?
• Move around the class and observe the students
• Help them to ask questions
•
•
If you hear some laughter here and there, that’s a good sign. Students are enjoying the activity and you’ve
done a great job.
Did it work?
interesting difficult boring

Activity 2: Letters in a name
This activity helps students:
• Comprehend simple questions
• Respond with short answers and simple sentences
• Write names in English keeping the sound units
Write a letter on the board. (E.g. D) and ask “Who has a family member whose name starts with the letter D?”
What is the focus of this activity?.................................................................
Did you make any modifications or try out
variations?.............................................................................................................
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Write the names said by a student. Guess the relationship of the family member and check it by asking a question
to the student.
• How can we make this activity more interesting? Ask questions like:
o Who has a family member whose name starts with letter S? Or J? Or ____?
o Who has a family member whose name has both the letters D and I (or other combination)
• Can you add more such questions?
•
•
If many students raise their hands, how will you select the one who should answer? Make this into an
active listening exercise too. Say:
• Those who wear specs (spectacles/glasses) can speak first, or
• Those who come to school by cycle, or
• Those names start with letter B, and so on
•
•
Can you add more to this activity?
Can we handover the activity to students ? Pair work or group work – which will be more practical to do
at this time?
You may also see students writing the names and checking the spellings.
Did it work?

Activity 3: Relationships
Write “Father, mother, brother…” on the board and ask: “Can you extend the list? You have only three minutes!”
Let some of the students present their list. (You can use some of the strategies mentioned in the earlier activitie.)
Write those words on the blackboard.
variations?.............................................................................................................
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Here you can deliberately make one or two mistakes writing words and see if students correct you. It will be good if
they do!
Then make the following statements (in English) and ask students to guess who you are talking about.
• He is older than me. He calls me “son” but he is not my father. Who is he? Can you find out the right word
for him from the list?
• He is the father of my father. Who is he?
• What is the right word for the brother of my mother?
Stop after asking these three questions and divide students into group of four. Ask them to develop questions of
these kinds. Ask a group to read out a question from their list. Let other members find out the answer.
How to do this activity in groups
To plan any activity, you need to think about it first and ask about the students’ level.
So what is your view on this activity (is it worth doing? will it help? what should you keep in mind as you
do it?)? Write it down here.
What do your students know:
• Can your students frame simple sentences?
• Can they frame questions with the question word “Who?”
• Are they using their stock of words in the proper contexts?
• What else can you do with what they are already able to do?
Use your answers above to make this activity more possible and engaging for your students.

Forming groups
What strategies do you use to divide them into groups of four?
• If you have forty students ask them to count one-two-three... up to ten. All the students who counted
‘one’ will make a group, all the ‘twos’ will make another group respectively.
• A variation on this: You may write ten words on the board, denoting relationships. Ask them to read
these aloud one after another. Those who read out the same word will make a group.
•
Try to think of more grouping strategies.
How to do group work
• Ask students to form groups with their friends to discuss these questions.
• If some students are left out, you can form them into groups.
• If forming groups is difficult in the class, tell the students on each bench that they are a group.
• Write the sentences on the board one at a time and ask the students to discuss them. Tell them to
make a note of what their friends are saying because you will ask them some questions.
• When you feel students have discussed a question enough, you can put up the next question.
• Walk around the class and spend a little time with each group, listening to them, commenting on
what they say, rephrasing in English some of their sentences, etc.


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In this activity you may come across a difficult situation. Students may not know how to make questions or
they may struggle to find proper words. What should we do? Can we ask them to express their ideas in
Odia? Yes, it is better to make them feel comfortable at this initial stage. When they present the Odia
version of the questions don’t forget to rephrase them to English. This is not translation in the usual sense.
‘Translation’ is when you say something in English (which is not understood) and then repeat the same in Odia.
Instead, here the student is unable to say it in English and so uses Odia. When you put it in English, the student
already knows the meaning – therefore is able to understand the English version and also absorb the words to be
used in future.
As you do this, ask yourself: is there any visible change happened among students? Here are some
indicators for you to assess your class.
• More and more students come forward and participate in the activities.
• Students express their views and ideas without fear.
• Students use their known words in the interactions.
• When they run out of proper words they substitute with Odia words – but they continue
communicating and thinking.
Use the insights and experience of this activity in the ones that follow
.
Did it work?

Activity 4: Textbook activity
Ask students to take a page in the textbook. Ask them to select a particular part – a longish paragraph will do. (If
you have seen this paragraph and thought about it beforehand, it will help!) Ask questions such as the following:
• In this part, more words start with letter D. Is this correct?
• The longest word is………….. isn’t it?
• There are three names of objects/persons in the part. Do you agree?
• There are three sentences having five words in them. Can you find out which ones?
•
•
variations?.............................................................................................................
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You can change the questions according to the content of the paragraph. You can use this strategy for
some other lessons in the textbook. You can also use this strategy to draw students’ attention to an
important paragraph in the lesson.
Don’t forget to stop/change the activity when you feel the interest level of students goes down. If they like
this activity you might find students involved in it when they are free.
Did it work?

Activity 5: Which is the wrong sentence ?
Ask a student to come to the front of the class. Say “I am going to say five sentences about him/ her. But one
sentence will be a wrong sentence. When I say a wrong sentence you have to say “It is wrong.” (Or clap your
hands.) You can call out sentences such as:
1. She is .......................... (say her name)
2. She is studying in ninth/tenth standard.
3. She loves music very much.
4. Amir Khan is her favourite actor.
5. She comes to school by car.
Do this with two or more students. Use these sentences only as examples – you can change them
according to the student. But one of the sentences has to be incorrect (factually incorrect, not
gramatically incorrect!). Observe whether students say “It is wrong” when they hear the wrong sentence.
Speak out the sentences slowly first and then a little faster. Sometimes you may say all ‘correct’ sentences.
This may create confusion but it is a good strategy to draw students’ attention. They will have to say, ‘All
sentences were correct.’
Then ask two students to come to the front of the class. One has to say five sentences but with one
wrong sentence. If students find it difficult to frame sentences, ask them to use Odia words. You can help
them by supplying the particular word.
variations?.............................................................................................................
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After students’ presentation the same activity can be conducted as a pair work. Refer to Activity 1 to know
how to conduct a pair activity. What are the changes will you make for this activity?
How will you decide how many times to do it?
• When you feel you have given enough experiences to frame such sentences…
• If you feel that your students can grasp quickly you can stop after one or two times.
• If you want to make your students try it out themselves first, stop quickly and model the activity
after their presentation. Then give them another chance.
•
Observe students based on the following points.
• Are they involved and interested?
• Can they frame simple sentences?
• Can they comprehend simple sentences?
You’ll know if it worked or not!
Did it work?

Activity 6: Class quiz
This activity helps students to observe their classmates closely. It also helps them comprehend questions and
answer them.
Say: “Students, take your notebook and pen. I am going to ask you ten questions. All questions are about our
classmates. You can guess the answers and write the names. Are you ready?” Then ask theses questions one after
the other.
1) Who is the tallest student in our class?
2) Who is the youngest student?
3) Whose home very far away?
4) Who is very active in our class?
5) Whose home is very near from here?
6) Who talks more in the class?
7) Who is very calm and quiet?
8) Who smiles a lot?
9) Who draws beautiful pictures?
10) Who helps other students in our class?
variations?.............................................................................................................
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These are only sample questions – you can change, remove or add some questions.
Do students look around the class after hearing each question? If so, that’s a good sign – they
comprehended your questions.
After asking each question, give students some time to write the answer. At the end, ask the first question
and let a few students present their answers. If different students have different answers, don’t correct it at
this point – instead, treat it as a good situation for a meaningful interaction. Here is an example.
Say: “Oh, we have three answers for the first question. What should we do? What do you
think?” and discuss with the students. (Again, let them speak in Odia, if that makes them
comfortable – but do repeat what they have said in English.)
Whenever multiple answers come treat it as a good opportunity to develop a discussion and invite their
opinions.
Did it work?

Activity 7: Who is he / she ?
Say: “We have 50 (change the number according to the strength of your class) students in our class. I am going to
tell something about one of you. But I won’t his/her name. Can you identify who it is?” Here is an example of a
description.
“She is sitting in the second row. She has a round face. She is very active. She was absent yesterday. Who is she?”
Ask this question and wait for a few seconds (this is important – you must give students time). If students do not
come up with an answer, give the next clue, such as: “Her name starts with letter S.”
If you feel students are not able to comprehend this description, give the descriptions using phrases. It is better to
write them on the board.
variations?.............................................................................................................
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“Second row – round face – active – absent yesterday.”
Describe three more students using phrases. If you find that students understand the activity and have
been introduced to enough vocabulary, you can hand this activity over to students.
What are the steps involved in this?
• Ask each students to write (or think of) descriptions of two or three friends
• Divide the class into groups of four/ five
• One member should read / speak out his/her description
• Others have to write the answer in their notebooks
• Let them read out the answers and check with the friend who asked the question.
Can this activity be changed into a game? Can it be done with celebrities? Think about this and make other
interesting ways of doing it.
Did it work?

Activity 8: One word description of your friend
Write ‘laugh’ on the board. Say “This word ‘laugh’ makes me remember one of my friends. His name is
........................ He’s always telling jokes. His jokes make us laugh.”
Then write ‘Interesting’ and say: “This word reminds me ................................. She always has something interesting
events / stories to share.”
“Now think about one of your close friends and select a suitable word to describe his/her character. If you cannot
think of a suitable English word, you can choose an Odia word. How does the word describe your friend? Think
about it.”
Give enough time for students to think and write. Call as many students as possible to present their one-
word description of their friends.
variations?.............................................................................................................
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Is everyone eager to present and listen to the descriptions? Are there any interesting/funny words and
events? Do students laugh while doing the activity? If you observe anything special don’t forget to note it
down.
Can you think of any variation of this activity? Here is one suggestion.
Write “Nice, punctual, helpful, honest, sincere, naughty...” on the board.
Then ask: “Can you think of an event that describes how one of these words describes/fits your friend?”
Give some time for them to think of such an event. Let a few students to present. What happened?
Did it work?

Activity 9: Half correct; half incorrect
(You may have to extend more help to students to succeed in this activity.)
Ask a student to come to the front of the class.
Say:“I am going to speak three sentences about him/her. Listen to the sentences closely. These sentences are
different. Try to find out what is special about them.”
Then say the following three sentences:
1. He is a student but studies in Class V.
2. He comes to school but without a bag.
3. He is standing here and is holding a science book.
After presenting these sentences, ask: “What is different or special about these sentences?” Give students a minute
to figure it out. If they can’t, repeat the activity with two or three more students. Try to use different sentences each
time.
If they can’t find out even now, repeat a sentence and ask “Is this sentence correct?” If they say yes or no, ask: “Is it
true? One part of the sentence is correct, the other is not. Yes, It is a half-correct and half-incorrect sentence! Can
you write (or think of) three or four sentences of this kind about yourself? Take five minutes.”
variations?.............................................................................................................
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Move around the class and observe what students write. Ask a few students to present their sentences.
Let others check whether the sentences are the half-correct and half-incorrect kind.
Say: “Now, two of you can come to the front of the class. Each one has to say three or four sentences
about the other. Don’t forget, those sentences should be half correct and half incorrect in their meaning.”
Are the students enjoying the activity? How will you know? Observe the students and note down the
responses.

Can you think some variations of this activity?
Will students be interested in making half correct and half incorrect sentences about celebrities like
“Sachin Tendulkar, Shahrukh Khan... etc?” If you feel they are interested in this activity, you can take
another period and extend it.
What will our students learn from this activity? Are they able to comprehend your instructions? Can they
make simple sentences and connect with the word “but?” Can our students write simple sentences?
Did it work?

Activity 10: My close friend
Write the following sentences on the board. Write them silently.
Mukesh is my close friend.
I met him at Sambalpur for the first time.
He is a good football player.
variations?.............................................................................................................
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Once he put five goals and his photo came in the next day’s newspapers.
I helped him in his studies.
We are very good friends.
Look at your students. Are they reading the sentences silently?
Can you make out who is able to read these sentences?
You can ask questions such as the following to assess their reading comprehension:
• Who is my close friend?
• Where did I meet him for the first time?
• What is he good at?
Then ask “Can you a write some sentences about your close friend? Here are some questions to help you
write the sentences.” Write the following questions on the board:
1. Who is your close friend?
2. Where did you meet him/ her for the first time?
3. What do you like the most about your friend?
4. Did any interesting event take place between you and your friend?
5. What qualities of yours does your friend like the most?
All the students may not understand these questions. Encourage those who can understand to help others.
Give enough time for students to write the answers/sentences. Ask a few students to present what they
have written. (Let them use Odia words/phrases where they need to – but they will need to find out the
English, from you or their friends.)

When asking students to present their views or what they have written, a real danger is that only
some of them will get a chance again and again. How can we ensure that more and more students get
this opportunity? Here are some suggestions.
1. Use the roll number and tell the students:“This time multiples of three/four.” Or between the
numbers _____ and _____. And so on.
2. Prepare paper chits with students names written on it and put them in a box. Whenever you
want students present ask a student to take one chit and read out the name.
3. Ask those students whose names start with letter “S / B / D... etc.”
4.
5.
Can you think of more strategies? Don’t forget to note them down.


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Did it work?

Activity 11: Qualities of good friend (Textbook activity – Class IX)
Ask “What are the qualities of a good friend?” Let students share their ideas. Write those ideas on the
board. (Again, let students use Odia but write them up in English.)
Then say: “Ok, now take your textbook. Open the lesson “Home and Love” from the poetry section. How
many of our ideas are in the poem? Try to read and find out.”
Give students some time to read the poem. They may not everything in the poem, but we have created a
need for reading the poem. (This is what we need to do with all lessons – create a need for students to engage
with them.)
Say: “Read the third paragraph. What are the three important words which convey the poet ideas? Does
he find Home better than the Love? If there are some hard words refer the glossary.”
Don’t expect all students to read and understand. But they will love looking for the answers. If a few
students are able to find answers, ask them to share with the rest of the class. Don’t forget to appreciate
them!
At this point you can read out the poem and implement the textbook activities.
variations?.............................................................................................................
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Did it work?

Some more activity ideas
Here are some more activity ideas based on the theme ‘Family And Friends’. If you think your students will
enjoy some of these activities you can do them in your class.
• Conduct a ‘Family Quiz’ by asking questions such as:“Who is the oldest/youngest member in your
family? Who loves having sweets? Who encourages you the most?”
• Present some interesting events/stories about one of your family members and ask students to
present some interesting events/stories about their family members.
• Ask a student to give names of places where his/her relatives live. Write them on the board. Then
ask: “Does your uncle lives in ............................?”
In TSU 1
• Which activity did your students like the most?
• Did you try out the variations some of the activities? How did you modify or adapt them?
variations?.............................................................................................................
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• Have most of the students started participating in the activities?
• Were you able to organize group-work and pair-work effectively? Any difficulties?
• Was the textbook activity interesting to your students?
Don’t forget to write down your views about the activities. It will help us to improve the forthcoming
TSUs.
You can assess your own class
1. Are your students able to give short responses as “yes, no, thank you, please etc?”
2. Are they able to guess the meanings of words with the help of contextual clues?
3. Can they frame simple questions and simple sentences?
4. Are they able to write names of friends, words related to the theme Family And Friends, and simple
sentences ?

TSU English 1 SBP

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