This document outlines a lesson plan for teaching English using a story about the Lao New Year as a context. The goal is for students to effectively communicate experiences of the Lao New Year using descriptive sentences with adverbs of frequency. Key points covered include understanding the traditions in the story, identifying adverbs of frequency and their proper use in sentences, performance tasks to assess understanding like describing pictures using adverbs, and learning activities like reading the story, relating personal experiences, and writing an essay using the new grammar.

1. A Sample M5 English Lesson Plan
First attempt at using UbD with Joel Ganibe’s Comments
Stage I : The outcome expectation/ desired outcome
Goal:
Students will share experiences about the Lao New Year. They will read about Somphong’s experience on Lao New Year. Next they will describe the Lao New Year by using adverbs of frequency (this is a learning activity not the bigger, more important learning goal)
You may put your bloom’s Higher Order Thinking (HOT) goals here like this:
Ex. Students will be able to effectively communicate in English using descriptive sentences that create interesting mental images.
They will do this by ANALYZING the grammatical rules, EVALUATING the best structure and sequence of sentences and then CREATING correct sentences that convey real meaning.
Analogy: think of the learning goal as a whole boat. We want to build a boat. The color of the boat, you can compare to content samples such as whatever story is used. We care less about the color of the boat than being able to build a completely working boat.
UNDERSTANDING: In this lesson students will understand
 All Lao people celebrate Pi Mai Lao in the middle of April. This is very great, fun and cooling in the hot weather.
 Somphong and his brother were very busy helping his family with the cutting, cleaning, and a preparing for a Baci ceremony.
 On the first day of Pi Mai Lao, Somphong’s family invited their friends and relatives to the Baci. They wish others good health, good luck and great happiness. They tied the white
QUESTIONS:
1. When is the Lao New Year or Pi Mai Lao celebrated?.
2. What did Somphong and his brother do to help their family?
3. On the first day of Pi Mai Lao, who did Somphong’s family invite to the Baci ceremony? (this has nothing to do with the real lesson, just the content demonstrating where, when and how adverbs of

2. cotton thread on each other’s’ wrist.—again, this is just the content, not the objective for understanding related to the bigger learning goal:
EX: To attain our learning goal, the students must remember and understand the following grammar rules:
1. We use some adverbs to describe how frequently we do an activity. These are called adverbs of frequency.
These are called adverbs of frequency: Frequency Adverb of Frequency Example Sentence 100% always I always go to bed before 11pm. 90% usually I usually watch Thai Drama on TV 80% normally / generally I normally go to the gym. 70% often* / frequently I often text(sms) my friends on my phone 50% sometimes I sometimes forget my wife's birthday. 30% occasionally I occasionally eat “ping phet” 10% seldom I seldom read the newspaper. 5% hardly ever / rarely I hardly ever drink “Lao khao” 0% never I never swim in the sea.
* Some people pronounce the 'T' in often but many others do not.
2. The Position of the Adverb in a Sentence. An adverb of frequency goes before a main verb (except with To Be). Subject + adverb + main verb I always remember to do my homework. He normally gets good marks in exams.
3. An adverb of frequency goes after the verb To Be.
frequency are used. The lessons seems to be less of “reading comprehension” but more of “proper sentence construction” or grammar)
Better one:
1. What is an adverb of frequency?
2. Where is the proper position of adverbs in a sentence? How about adverbs of frequency? What if we use auxiliary verbs—how does that affect the position of my adverbs of frequency?
3. Knowing these grammar rules, how does it increase my effectiveness in communicating in English in real life?
Analogy: So if the learning goal is the “boat”, and the big understandings are the “boat parts”; “ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS”—would be the nails or glue that put the parts together and usually answers “why?” “what for?” “Why do I need to learn this?” “What real life situation can I use it for?” “Can I use this concept in a different kind of real life situation?” (like using a math logic or operation such as simple division/fractions to solve a social situation such as what should be the fair share by the farmer, the land owner, the money lender and the tax for local government?)

3. Subject + to be + adverb They are never pleased to see me. She isn't usually bad tempered.
4. When we use an auxiliary verb (have, will, must, might, could, would, can, etc.), the adverb is placed between the auxiliary and the main verb. This is also true for to be. Subject + auxiliary + adverb + main verb She can sometimes beat me in a race. I would hardly ever be unkind to someone. They might never see each other again. They could occasionally be heard laughing.
Source: http://www.grammar.cl/Basic/Adverbs_Frequency.htm
Analogy: So if the learning goal is the “boat”, this is the “boat parts”.
knowledge : Students will know:
 the fact about Lao New Year
 how to get prepared for the Lao New Year celebration
 the importance of each day activity during the Lao New Year—again this is just the content, you can change it to Hmong New Year, Birthdays, Weddings, Public Holidays and still apply adverbs of frequency and it will not change the rules.
Analogy: this is knowing what each “boat part” is for, what can it do, when do you use it? Comparing Unit, Lesson, Topic (adverbs of frequency)—“knowledge” here applies to
Skills: Students will be able to:
 Tell others about the importance of Lao New Year
 Describe how people celebrate Lao New Year in English.
 Use adverbs of frequency effectively (what do we mean by “effectively”—we need specific indicators or evidences that demonstrate a “skill”.
Example:
They can analyze sample sentences and pick the correct structure/word order of Adverbs of Frequency.

4. “topical knowledge”. In Bloom’s revised taxonomy, usually this is “applying”
Ex. Students will also know that we can use the following adverbs at the start of a sentence:
Usually, normally, often, frequently, sometimes, occasionally
 Occasionally, I like to eat Thai food.
BUT we cannot use the following at the beginning of a sentence:
Always, seldom, rarely, hardly, ever, never.
We use hardly ever and never with positive, not negative verbs:
a. She hardly ever comes to my parties.
b. They never say 'thank you'.
We use ever in questions and negative statements:
 Have you ever been to New Zealand?
 I haven't ever been to Switzerland. (The same as 'I have never been Switzerland').
We can also use the following expressions when we want to be more specific about the frequency:
- every day - once a month - twice a year - four times a day - every other week
To make it easier, as with all language skills, make targets for
1. Speaking/Pronunciation—and this is where the teachers should make sure they are saying the terms correctly with a neutral “English accent”.
2. Vocabulary—what new words and meanings have they learned? Can they apply/use in their own sentences?
3. Reading Comprehension—create questions based on the sample text (Lao New Year, Wedding Traditions, Burial Traditions, etc.)
4. Writing skills—of course ask the students to write in English. Create a composition using SCAMPER (substitute/change/Magnify/Put to other use/Eliminate/Reverse or rearrange) technique but be clear that they need to use “adverbs of frequency”.

5. Stage II Assessment evidence
Performance tasks:
- Interaction between teachers and students by using opened- questions (eg: how did you find the Lao new Year?,)
- Have pictures shown to students and encourage them to describe. ( two or three picture of Lao New Year)
- Have student worked in pairs reading and answering the questions. (@ when is the Lao New Year celebrated? , @ what did Somphone and his brother do to help their parents?, @ what did Somphong’s family do on the first day of the Lao New Year?
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The above is a mixture of activity and content. By performance tasks, we mean that of the students to prove their full understanding of the lesson, achievement of learning goal.
Example challenge/task:
The students must be able to correctly answer the following exercise (you can prepare a rubric that includes score on a quiz; plus instant sentence constructions)
5. weekends / must / on / often / She / work
a) She often must work on weekends.
b) She must work often on weekends.
c) She must often work on weekends.
Answer: c
6. the / occasionally / We / go / movies / to
a) We go to the movies occasionally.
Other evidence:
- Oral responses
- Describing pictures
- Pair work responses/ pair work interactions to questions
- Individual work completing the sentences
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Other evidences of higher order thinking skills applied to the lesson include:
1. A Mindmap of Adverbs of Frequency
2. An descriptive essay of their own Pi Mai celebration using adverbs of frequency
3. A visualization (drawing or drama) of one of the essays to prove that essay effectively created/communicated a clear mental image
4. A stage drama/enactment/role play of a real life situation (example conversation where the student must confidently converse in English using the adverbs of frequency including proper pronunciation)

6. b) We occasionally go to the movies.
c) We go occasionally to the movies.
Answer: b
(for the rest sample questions go here: ) http://www.grammar.cl/Games/Adverbs_of_Frequency.htm Stage III Learning activities:
- Activity 1: 7 minutes reading of the story
- Activity 2: (SPEAKING SKILL) READING COMPREHENSION. Have a contest on who can answer first about details of the story
- Activity 3: Group into 3. Ask students’ to relate their own experiences about Lao New Year (period knowledge, life experience) in ENGLISH
- Activity 4: (SPEAKING SKILL) Ask each group to SHARE to class the most exciting or sad or weird experience of Lao New Year was. (member 1 talks about member 2’s experience; member 2 talks about member 3’s experience and member 3 talks about member 1’s experience –2 minutes each)
Activity 4. Lecturette on adverbs of frequency by teacher
Activity 5: Questions/Clarifications/Challenge (APPLICATION)
Activity 6: (CHECK/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Group Mindmap on USE; POSITION in sentence; rules with the verb TO BE; relation with AUXILIARY VERBS
- Activity 7: Short quiz
- Activity 8: Assignment/homework: ORIGINAL ESSAY: “what I know now and think about LAO NEW YEAR TRADITIONS from the lessons and my classmate’s sharing and my personal experience”