This week, the CAN8 team has – at long last – put down some concrete ideas for lesson plan layouts in the CAN8 program. Each lesson would take about a week to complete, and would have the following three types of exercises:

Dialogues (two exercises per lesson):

• First, the learner listens to the dialogue without text and answers some simple, multiple-choice comprehension questions about it.
• Then, the learner listens to the dialogue again with text and answers some more in-depth questions.
• One of the dialogue partners will always be someone in the role of the language learner – that way, learners using the program will be able to identify with the speakers and hopefully understand that it isn’t the end of the world if they aren’t perfect speakers just yet.

Vocabulary (two exercises per lesson):

• These exercises will go over some vocabulary mentioned in the previous dialogue using pictures.
• The pictures will be in a “repeat after me” format, so learners can get some practice with pronunciation.
• At the end there will be a short vocabulary quiz, where a word is played back and the learner has to match a picture to the spoken word.

Grammar (two exercises per lesson):

• The focus here will be on pointing out patterns to the learners and having learners make up their own rules for these patterns, not on teaching rules.
• The exercise will end with a “dialogue” that the learner will participate in. The dialogue will be with a recording of another person, playing the part of another language learner, who will ask for feedback about some of their sentences. For example, the other learner could end a sentence with something along the lines of: “That didn’t sound quite right. What would you say instead?” The learner would then have an opportunity to either say “No, that sounded alright!” or “Yes, that did sound funny. I would say…”

Our current goal is to have a proto-lesson up and running by the time we visit Listuguj later this month. The proto-lesson would be a sort of proposed first lesson. So far, topics include:

• One dialogue between a learner and their grandparent, discussing what they did that day/what their plans are for the day
• One classroom-type dialogue between a teacher and a few learners, teaching basic learning vocabulary (phrases like, “Could you please repeat that?” or “How do you say…?”) and how to introduce yourself
• A grammar section on word (or just verb) structure: what is an initial? What is a medial? What is a final? We may not use this exact vocabulary, but the differences would be pointed out
• A grammar section on first and second person verb endings

These are our ideas so far. Let us know what you think! Should we add anything else? Does anything need improving? We’d love your input.

– Erin, Elise, & Jacob (Team CAN8)