This weeks topic was “How do you plan. . . ?”

I noticed that my students didn’t understand what this question meant. They thought it was asking what their holiday plans were at first.

“How do you . . . ” questions are asking for a step by step procedure.

For example:

How do you make rice?

First you wash the rice with cold water. This will remove the starch. Next you let the rice soak in water. The longer it soaks the quicker it will cook. After that you should drain the rice. . . etc

The four questions were:

How do you plan your holiday?

How do you plan a special occasion?

How do you plan a work week?

How do you plan your career?

As an example, my answer to the question “How do you plan your holidays?” is:

First I  decide where I want to go. Then, my wife and I check the calendar to find out when we can go. After that we book the tickets if we need too . . .

After that we discussed various statements about planning methods.

Making lists of things to do is a waste of time.

You should plan your retirement from an early age.

If you make a plan, you should stick to it.

There are some things you can’t plan for.

We had a very interesting conversation about the statements.

For homework I set the task write a paragraph about whether or not you agree with the final statement “There are some things you can’t plan for.”

Here is a sample paragraph from one of the other statements:

 

Some people say that making lists of things to do is a waste of time. I disagree with this statement for the following reasons. First, making a list doesn’t take much time to do. It shouldn’t take longer than five minutes to make a lists of things you need to do that day. Secondly,  even if you have a great memory, it’s still easy to forget things. Making a list can help you remember. Just don’t forget you made a list. Thirdly, it can speed up the amount of work you do rather than waste it as you can easily see what needs to be done. For these reasons, I often make lists of things to do.

 

The paragraph has a topic sentence.

three supporting points

a conclusion.

Now it’s your turn.