A phone call

Objective & content

A two-page pack for one everyday situation: inviting a friend on the phone and finding a day that works. Pupils learn the words (mobile phone, calendar, camera, coat, zoo, lion) and the phrases to start a call (Hi, it's Jack.), invite and ask (Do you want to come? What time? What's your address?) and understand the answers (Yes, please! Sorry, I can't. I have a swimming lesson. What about Sunday?). Then they hear the same language in a real conversation, the Listen Up! episode "A phone call", and use it themselves in a role-play. By the end, they can invite a friend on the phone, find a day and a time, and ask for an address.

Pedagogical guide

Page 1 is the language of the situation. Pupils talk about a picture of a boy on the sofa at home, talking to a friend on his phone, write six words under new drawings (the first is done), read a box of useful phrases (what you say or ask, and what you hear), and match five questions to their answers. Page 2 puts the language to work. Pupils complete a short dialogue with words from a box (Jack, who phones Mia to invite her to the beach), then listen to the episode: Chloe invites Sami to the zoo for her birthday, but he has a football match on Saturday, so they go on Sunday. A QR code on the sheet plays the recording on a phone or a tablet, with no app and no login. Pupils tick true or false, listen again for four short answers, then do a role-play with A and B cards: a pupil phones a friend to invite them to the swimming pool. Card B holds the information card A needs, so pupils have to ask. Every task opens with an example. Page 1 and the dialogue use other names, places and prices, so they never give away a listening answer. Page 3 is the answer key with the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Pupils look at the picture on page 1 and say where the people are and what they are doing.
2. (5 min) Pupils write the words under the pictures; check together.
3. (5 min) Pupils read the useful phrases aloud in pairs, one asking and one answering.
4. (5 min) Pupils match the questions to the answers.
5. (5 min) Page 2: pupils complete the dialogue with the words in the box.
6. (10 min) Play the episode once for true or false, then again for the short answers.
7. (10 min) Role-play in pairs with card A and card B, then pupils swap cards.
8. (5 min) Check the answers with page 3.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils read the useful phrases aloud in pairs before the role-play, and keep page 1 in front of them while they play it. [A] Pupils invent their own problem in the same place and act it out without the cards.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of pages 1 and 2 per pupil; cut out the role cards on page 2. Page 3 is the answer key: keep it. To play the episode, pupils scan the QR code with a phone or a tablet, or you play it to the class from the app (Listen Up!, "A phone call"). Pupils need days of the week, telling the time, and numbers for an address.